by Reinder Bruinsma | 7 November 2024 | I am often referred to as a liberal Adventist. For some this would be an unwelcome allegation, to say the least. But it does not really worry me. In fact, I tend to see it as a badge of honor, and I would be quite upset if […]
by David Geelan | 1 November 2024 | What does it mean to ‘understand’ something? If we say ‘I understand quadratic equations or ‘I understand the sanctuary doctrine’ or ‘I understand how yachts sail in directions other than downwind,’ what do we mean? One way of thinking about the answer to these questions is that […]
by Robert Crux | 31 October 2024 | Many Adventists believe that the best stance toward the controversies in the political world is neutrality: ignore grievous social injustice and religious upheaval, and remain stolidly apolitical. But do we have that privilege? Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you […]
by Jack Hoehn | 30 October 2024 | I remember the days of old. I ponder all your great works and think about what you have done. I lift my hands to you in prayer. I thirst for you as parched land thirsts for rain. Come quickly, Lord, and answer me, for my depression deepens. […]
by Milton Hook | 29 October 2024 | On October 22, 2024, one hundred and eighty years after The Great Disappointment in America, I watched the film The Hopeful in a movie theater in Australia. There was only one other person in the three-hundred-seat cinema. The intention of the director, Kyle Portbury, was to portray […]
by Fredrick A. Russell | 25 October 2024 | In M. Scott Peck’s riveting book, People of the Lie, Peck places front and center a disturbing reality: there is evil in this world. The target audience for his book was not particularly religious, although the notion of organic evil is biblical. And yet I suspect […]
by Melody Tan | 23 October 2024 | Saturday—Sabbath—mornings are often chaotic in our household. Sure, we all get to enjoy a little bit of a sleep-in because we don’t have to leave the house as early as we normally do on a weekday, but it’s all systems go, shortly after waking. After a leisurely […]
by Loren Seibold | 22 October 2024 | A friend wrote me a note today. “Happy Great Disappointment Day,” he said. “Another year of remembering that something didn’t happen.” Actually, the bearded ones told us something did happen. And who knows for sure?—though I confess I don’t find the tortured arithmetic terribly convincing. But my […]
by Alvin Masarira | 18 October 2024 | The General Conference Executive Committee (GC Excom) met this year from October 10 to 16. The GC Excom is one of the most influential bodies of the worldwide church and it meets more frequently—at least twice a year, so 10 times in five years—than the General Conference […]
by Stephen Ferguson | 17 October 2024 | I am interested in religion, especially its more philosophical aspects—but I would say I have never been a particularly spiritual person. I have always struggled to pray, meditate, or contemplate. The closest thing I have ever had to an extraordinary mystical experience had nothing to do with […]
by Reinder Bruinsma, PhD | 16 October 2024 | This lecture was originally scheduled for Loma Linda University on October 16, but was canceled on orders from General Conference president Ted Wilson. It was rescheduled for the Norte Vista High School Theater in Riverside, California. It was also the occasion of launching Dr. Bruinsma’s new […]
by Loren Seibold | 15 October 2024 | A week or so ago I received a letter from Catherine Taylor, a family therapist who is also a member of Kinship International, the organization for LGBTQ+ people from a Seventh-day Adventist background. Please be clear: everything I’m about to tell you comes from the letter Catherine […]