News
Signs of All Times: What About the Middle East? - 19 January 2022 | Should we connect prophecies and signs with specific historical events? We will look at particular on events in the Middle East, the tensions between West and East and on the question of whether the establishment of the state of Israel has any end-of-time significance. To read for this class: Excerpt from […]
Church Leaders Oppose Saturday Election Date in Ghana - Church leaders calling for amendment to constitutionally mandated date of December 7 every four years for elections. In 2024, the date falls on a Saturday. An amendment would “make it possible for all Ghanaians to exercise their franchise and discharge their civic responsibility without being made to choose between their faith and civic responsibility,” said […]
Church Awaiting News After Massive Volcanic Eruption Devastates Tonga - 2 people, so far, have been reported dead in Tonga due to tsunami waves from volcanic eruption. Main island of Tonga appears blanketed in ash, with some buildings appearing to have collapsed. No internet on Tonga as main undersea communication cable was damaged. 18 January 2022 | Seventh-day Adventists across the South Pacific are anxiously […]
With the Strength to Carry On: ‘Heroes’ Bible Trivia Game Exceeds 100K Downloads - Heroes Bible Trivia game barely makes its year-end goal of 100,000 downloads. Heroes used SEO software to determine the most searched Bible-related questions on the internet, and put them together in Bible studies. In Brazil, players can use an AI to help them with their Bible studies. 14 January 2022 | In the closing hours […]
New ADRA Center in Mauritania Made with 34,000 Plastic Bottles - Bottles filled with sand used instead of bricks or cinder blocks. Project took $117,000 to build, which was provided by ADRA International and ADRA Belgium. Center will house medical equipment for primary health care, equipment for a multimedia center, a library and rooms for language learning, sewing and embroidery. Classes in computer skills and languages […]
News Briefs for January 13, 2022 - News reports from Andrews University, Brazil, Ethiopia, the United States and Zambia. Making Peace This weekend, Adventist Peace Fellowship (APF) will hold its second annual online/virtual event, “Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Unholy Trinity: Liberating the Church from Violence,” with the “Unholy Trinity” being racism, militarism and materialism. The event takes place Saturday, Jan. […]
Signs for All Times, Part 1: How Timely Are the Signs? - 12 January 2022 | Are the “signs of the times” signs of all times? The biblical perspective on “the time of the end” is that we are in the time of the end since Jesus left this earth at his ascension. During these last 20 centuries “signs” have told believers that history is moving in […]
Sentenced to Death for Alleged Blasphemy, Adventist Man in Pakistan Freed After Nearly 10 Years in Prison - Sajjad Mashi Gill falsely accused of blasphemy in 2011. Gill spent nearly 10 years in prison before a court acquitted him due to insufficient evidence. Pakistan ranked fifth on Christian support organization Open Doors 2021 World Watch list of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. 12 January 2022 | […]
North Jamaica Conference Still Venerating Disgraced Ex-Pastor Burnett Robinson, Giving Him a Platform - NJC President Karl Archer calls Burnett Robinson an inspiration and “a man mightily, mightily, mightily used by God in the advancement of His cause.” During an NJC interview, Robinson blames some women in his church for posting the video clip of him advocating for marital rape. Robinson said Greater New York Conference administrators “panicked and […]
Church Building Collapses and Kills 5, Including Child, in Zambia - 5 dead, 4 injured, when church building collapses on members during downpour. Collapse of building attributed to poor building materials used during construction. Tragedy comes just one week after six Adventist young adults drowned in Lake Kariba during an Adventist Youth camp meeting. 10 January 2022 | Five members of the Bethsaida Seventh-day Adventist Church in […]
Omicron Surge Has Adventist Hospitals Breaking Records: ‘This Wave Is Unlike Previous Waves’ - Unvaccinated people have been found to be 23 times more likely to become infected with Omicron, and 25 times more likely to require hospitalization than those who are fully vaccinated. Without a booster, the chance of becoming infected with Omicron is 70 percent. With the booster, the chance of contracting Omicron drops to 25 percent. […]
News Briefs for January 7, 2022 - News reports from Andrews University, Germany, Oakwood University, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, United States Adventist Theological Schools Receive Pharmaceutical Money Andrews University and Oakwood University received substantial grants to develop pastoral resources and support ministerial training from the Lilly Endowment Inc. Andrews University (AU), located in Berrien Springs, Michigan, United States, received $997,444 (USD) […]
Commentary
Human Mess—Divine Cleanup - by Richard W. Coffen | 19 January 2022 | His name was Ibex (a.k.a. Terah), and he lived in Mesopotamia. His occupation involved creating images of deities to sell. When he was 70 years old (Genesis 11:26), Terah became the father of triplets: Sire-of-A-Crowd (a.k.a. Abram; Abraham), Sanctuary (a.k.a. Haran), and Snorting (a.k.a. Nahor). According […]
Death Wish - by Tyler Kraft | 14 January 2022 | Can I let you in on a secret? Pastors get angry at times. Well, maybe not all pastors. Perhaps there are some who are thoroughly spiritually enlightened. But I confess that I get angry on occasion. So do some of my pastor friends. That’s probably not too […]
Is Mary the New Eve and Mediatrix? The Case for a Protestant Mariology - by Stephen Ferguson | 13 January 2022 | Is Christmas more about Mary than Jesus? This Christmas, I had an interesting discussion with a Roman Catholic friend about the role of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. It occurred to me that as Christmas is the time of year when secular people seem open to discussing […]
Confessions of a Feminist Mother - by Hannele Ottschofski | 11 January 2022 | I attended a seminar at church once where the pastor was speaking about parenting. He quoted something that reminded me of what I had learned as a young girl: The king upon his throne has no higher work than has the mother. The mother is queen of […]
No More Female Leaders. Just Leaders. - by Thandazani Mhlanga | 7 January 2022 | We in the western world have been greatly influenced by the ancient Greeks. Aristotle had strong opinions on gender, for example—women, in particular. He assigned them second-class status, and thought of females as “deformed males.” So the gender issues at the forefront of modern civil and religious […]
But God Said It—Didn’t He? - by Russ Spangler | 6 January 2022 Seventh-day Adventists believe that if we can just get people to read the Bible, they would see that God is real, and that God loves them. That hasn’t worked for everyone. A.A. Milne, the author of Winnie the Pooh, wrote: The Old Testament is responsible for more atheism, […]
Of Braided Hair, Gold, Pearls, & Costly Array - by Loren Seibold | 4 January 2022 | I have a vivid memory, from when I was about five, of going with my father to the auto parts store in Jamestown. While I waited I looked down (I was close to the floor in those days) and saw rolling around near my shoe a little […]
The Hidden Sin of Nostalgia - by Vinnie MacIsaac This time of year, everyone says they want to start new. Everyone says they want to start over. Everyone talks about the start of the year being a time for change. The problem is, most people are lying to themselves about all three of these statements. The truth is more like this: […]
Prayer for the New Year - by John McLarty | 30 December 2021 | “You are the light of the world.” Matthew 5:14 I woke late, well after dawn. Still, I walked up the hill to the park above our house and sat for a while in prayer and meditation. It was a turning point on the calendar, the first day […]
Is Sin a Wave or a Particle? - by David Geelan | 28 December 2021 | What is the ‘nature of sin’? Is sin something we do, or is sinners something we are? Is sin the transgression of the law, or is it a state of separation from God? These are questions guaranteed to spark furious (and often circular) debates among believers, and […]
The Contamination of Christmas - by Loren Seibold | 25 December 2017 | I had a colleague (this was years ago) who was assigned to a small town church whose members opposed any celebration of Christmas. When December came, the church members would drive past and peer in the parsonage windows, to check whether the new pastor’s family had Christmas […]
Lop-sided Ethics at Life’s Edges - by Jim Walters | 24 December 2021 | This op-ed, written by Adventist Today founder and professor emeritus of the LLU School of Religion Jim Walters, was originally printed on December 5 in the San Bernardino (CA) Sun. The Supreme Court’s likely ruling on Mississippi’s abortion law will surely exacerbate the growing gap between the […]
Features
My pastor is preaching someone else’s sermon, Aunty! - 17 January 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, A couple of weeks ago I was listening to my pastor preaching, and it began to dawn on me that the sermon was almost identical to one I had just listened to on YouTube by a well-known evangelist. It was a good sermon, but he preached it like […]
Do I need to be legally married to be welcome in the church? - 10 January 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, This is a real situation. I am a 3rd-generation Adventist (not recently active) with 16 years in the Adventist education system, and a widower after 40+ years of marriage to one Adventist wife. About four years after her death, I began a monogamous long-term relationship with a Christian […]
Aunty, why doesn’t our church strongly oppose abortion? - 3 January 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, I am grappling with the church’s stance on abortion. Adventist.org offers little more than the vague suggestion to use your own conviction to make a decision. While they “do not condone” abortion outright, they take no stand in condemning the termination of life. On the flip side, they […]
Aunty, how come New Year resolutions don’t work for me? - 29 December 2021 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, At the beginning of every new year I hear people talk about making resolutions. I’ve made many, and mostly, it’s been discouraging. I’m still overweight, though I’ve “resolved” many times to work on that. I’m still not on a steady exercise program—another resolution. I’ve also resolved to be […]- A Lockdown Carol: Aunty shares a story from a reader - 20 December 2022 | Dear readers: Another busy week, and this time Aunty is baking cookies to share with friends. So I thought I’d let Kris Widmer, an Adventist chaplain from Oroville, California, share some cheer with you. As you read this story, remember the context: that right now, during what is supposed to be […]
- What do I say to my anti-Christmas relatives? - 13 December 2021 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, I’ve got my Christmas decorations up, I’ve got presents under the tree, the house decorated, and right in the tall corner of my living room a gorgeous tree that I spent a whole day decorating. I love it! Now I learn that an elderly uncle and aunt want […]
- Aunty, Can I Watch “The Sound of Music” on Sabbath? - 6 December 2021 | Dear Aunt Sevvy: Does The Sound of Music count as a Sabbath movie? It has a good moral story. And innocent music. And nuns. Signed, The Hills Are Alive Dear Hills, These types of questions amuse Aunt Sevvy. Who has the authority to decide what is and is not a Sabbath […]
- I joined my husband in the Adventist church—but I’m uncomfortable here - 29 November 2021 | Dear Aunt Sevvy. I really enjoy your column and I would like your advice on my dilemma. I am a non-denominational Christian who married an Adventist. Because I wanted my family to worship together, and my husband is convinced that the Adventist church is the only true church, I also joined […]
- What Aunt Sevvy wishes she’d said about thankfulness - 22 November 2021 Dear Readers: Aunt Sevvy is busy this week getting ready to gather loved ones around her—as are many of you. Though she’s running in circles, she’s grateful she gets to do nice things for these people she loves. Not every November has been so happy for Aunty. There have been years when […]
- Our hostess added wine to a recipe—and I don’t use alcohol - 15 November 2021 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, Recently we went to the house of some Adventist friends from church for dinner. As I was with her in the kitchen, I saw her open a cupboard. She was standing so her body partially blocked it, but I saw her take out a bottle, and pour some […]
- Is all the LGBTQ+ talk influencing my children? - 9 November 2021 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, I am feeling woefully unprepared to parent teenagers in 2021. Right now I am struggling to know what to say on the subjects of sexual orientation and gender identity. The terminology has changed so drastically from what I had expected as I raised my kids—e.g., “gender assigned at […]
Seasons of the Soul in the Psalms - 10 November 2021 | Our Adventist Today Sabbath Seminar concerns an aspect of Christian spirituality and worship and its implications for Adventism. Our focus will be on the Psalms, the Old Testament book of worship and praise par excellence. These psalms also permeate the New Testament, which quotes and alludes to them more than one […]
All
- Signs of All Times: What About the Middle East? - 19 January 2022 | Should we connect prophecies and signs with specific historical events? We will look at particular on events in the Middle East, the tensions between West and East and on the question of whether the establishment of the state of Israel has any end-of-time significance. To read for this class: Excerpt from […]
- Human Mess—Divine Cleanup - by Richard W. Coffen | 19 January 2022 | His name was Ibex (a.k.a. Terah), and he lived in Mesopotamia. His occupation involved creating images of deities to sell. When he was 70 years old (Genesis 11:26), Terah became the father of triplets: Sire-of-A-Crowd (a.k.a. Abram; Abraham), Sanctuary (a.k.a. Haran), and Snorting (a.k.a. Nahor). According […]
- Church Leaders Oppose Saturday Election Date in Ghana - Church leaders calling for amendment to constitutionally mandated date of December 7 every four years for elections. In 2024, the date falls on a Saturday. An amendment would “make it possible for all Ghanaians to exercise their franchise and discharge their civic responsibility without being made to choose between their faith and civic responsibility,” said […]
- Church Awaiting News After Massive Volcanic Eruption Devastates Tonga - 2 people, so far, have been reported dead in Tonga due to tsunami waves from volcanic eruption. Main island of Tonga appears blanketed in ash, with some buildings appearing to have collapsed. No internet on Tonga as main undersea communication cable was damaged. 18 January 2022 | Seventh-day Adventists across the South Pacific are anxiously […]
- With the Strength to Carry On: ‘Heroes’ Bible Trivia Game Exceeds 100K Downloads - Heroes Bible Trivia game barely makes its year-end goal of 100,000 downloads. Heroes used SEO software to determine the most searched Bible-related questions on the internet, and put them together in Bible studies. In Brazil, players can use an AI to help them with their Bible studies. 14 January 2022 | In the closing hours […]
- My pastor is preaching someone else’s sermon, Aunty! - 17 January 2022 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, A couple of weeks ago I was listening to my pastor preaching, and it began to dawn on me that the sermon was almost identical to one I had just listened to on YouTube by a well-known evangelist. It was a good sermon, but he preached it like […]
- Death Wish - by Tyler Kraft | 14 January 2022 | Can I let you in on a secret? Pastors get angry at times. Well, maybe not all pastors. Perhaps there are some who are thoroughly spiritually enlightened. But I confess that I get angry on occasion. So do some of my pastor friends. That’s probably not too […]
- New ADRA Center in Mauritania Made with 34,000 Plastic Bottles - Bottles filled with sand used instead of bricks or cinder blocks. Project took $117,000 to build, which was provided by ADRA International and ADRA Belgium. Center will house medical equipment for primary health care, equipment for a multimedia center, a library and rooms for language learning, sewing and embroidery. Classes in computer skills and languages […]
- Is Mary the New Eve and Mediatrix? The Case for a Protestant Mariology - by Stephen Ferguson | 13 January 2022 | Is Christmas more about Mary than Jesus? This Christmas, I had an interesting discussion with a Roman Catholic friend about the role of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. It occurred to me that as Christmas is the time of year when secular people seem open to discussing […]
- News Briefs for January 13, 2022 - News reports from Andrews University, Brazil, Ethiopia, the United States and Zambia. Making Peace This weekend, Adventist Peace Fellowship (APF) will hold its second annual online/virtual event, “Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Unholy Trinity: Liberating the Church from Violence,” with the “Unholy Trinity” being racism, militarism and materialism. The event takes place Saturday, Jan. […]
- Signs for All Times, Part 1: How Timely Are the Signs? - 12 January 2022 | Are the “signs of the times” signs of all times? The biblical perspective on “the time of the end” is that we are in the time of the end since Jesus left this earth at his ascension. During these last 20 centuries “signs” have told believers that history is moving in […]
- Sentenced to Death for Alleged Blasphemy, Adventist Man in Pakistan Freed After Nearly 10 Years in Prison - Sajjad Mashi Gill falsely accused of blasphemy in 2011. Gill spent nearly 10 years in prison before a court acquitted him due to insufficient evidence. Pakistan ranked fifth on Christian support organization Open Doors 2021 World Watch list of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. 12 January 2022 | […]