6 July 2022 | by Jim Walters When I began teaching bioethics to medical students in 1980 I thought the abortion debate would soon end (as Roe was then seven years old), and we’d fully engage new right-to-die issues such as termination of treatment for patients in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). I was wrong. […]
23 June 2022 | When famous Swedish chef Niklas Peter Ekstedt, whose greatest passions are food and health, visited Loma Linda, he was very impressed by the longevity of Adventist centenarians and even with our vegetarian dishes. However, when leaving the town he said that Loma Linda as a town was “pretty boring.” All he […]
15 June 2022 | Why and how do people change their minds? Why do we forget important things and remember trivial ones? Do we remember events as accurately as we think we do? How come two people can be equally confident of different memories of the same event? And regarding prophecy, how do our minds […]
8 June 2022 | Many Adventists who identify themselves as progressive wonder if they are delusional in dreaming of a more thoughtful and open-minded church—perhaps, especially, after a week like this one when we’ve watched the top body of our church trying to chart a way forward. In this class, Dr. Charles Scriven will make […]
25 May 2022 | The Christian church is in trouble, in particular in the Western world. Many denominations see their membership decrease and experience an exodus of the younger generations. Postmoderns may still have an interest in spirituality, but they turn away from institutional Christianity. Current trends also affect the Seventh-day Adventist Church. While the […]
11 May 2022 | Please read these rabbinic parables to prepare for Dr. Johnston’s class. From a literary standpoint the parables of Jesus were like those of his contemporaries, but their purpose and effect were dramatically different. This presentation will examine the importance of the parables, the narrative technique of Jesus, and how they should […]
4 May 2022 | Please read this essay to prepare for the study by Dr. Hemmings. Much of what we say we know about Biblical interpretation is derived from what the Bible says about itself. While the Bible is right to self-identify itself as an inspired book, the problem is that several of the oft-used […]
20 April 2022 | Exclusive or Inclusive? by Raj Attiken The Christian view of human existence and of the world is largely shaped by the biblical story of a loving God who takes the initiative to put the world back into the good order for which it was designed. According to that story, the love […]
30 March 2022 | There is a lot of talk about love in the church, and about our relationship to LGBTQ+ Adventists. For their part, people who oppose same-sex marriage and transgender identity are clear that they still love LGBTQ+ people. But some feel that that it’s wrong for them to be pressured to change […]
23 March 2022 | In our last class with Dr. Fortin on ecumenism, he led us in exploring some basic questions that undergird Adventist fears of ecumenism, including preliminary points/questions that should be addressed before deciding anything about ecumenism for Adventists. These included: The meaning of salvation in Jesus. What is the Church? What is […]
16 March 2022 | In his essay entitled, “God and the Concept of Worship” James Rachels concludes: We have, then, a conflict between the role of worshiper, which by its very nature commits one to total subservience to God, and the role of moral agent, which necessarily involves autonomous decision making. The role of worshiper […]
9 March 2022 | The history of the Adventist church starts with a woman. That woman still holds the highest place of any of our church pioneers. She is quoted, used as a spiritual authority, exalted as a leader, and by some almost worshipped. But after Ellen White, our church history remembered almost none of […]