By Jack Hoehn: Preface: Seventh-day Adventists throughout the world are presented in 2016 a series of lessons on sin and salvation, or as the official Sabbath School lessons are titled, “Rebellion and Redemption” by David Tasker edited as usual by Clifford Goldstein (uninterrupted editor for the last 17 years). What follows comes from a Sabbath School Class I […]
by Nathan Nelson, January 12, 2016: Someone asked me the other day what my perspective was on the differences between the younger and older generations in our church. It was an awkward moment as I struggled to find a graceful way to avoid the question without seeming rude or evasive. “It’s a longer answer than […]
By Juleun A. Johnson, December 29, 2015: This morning I write from a position of joy mixed with pain. In total self-disclosure, I am a die-hard, Jesus-loving Adventist Christian. I have been to GC Sessions since I was a baby, camp meetings, Adventist academy, Adventist college and university. I worked on nearly every level of […]
By Pastor Mark A. McCleary, December 29, 2015: Webster defines peculiar as “odd or strange; queer; distinguishing trait” (The New International Webster’s Pocket Dictionary, rev., 1997). Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable describes peculiar as “The chosen people” (Jews); a London sect (Plumsteaders) who refused medical treatment by relying on the efficacy of prayer and […]
by Harry Banks, December 28, 2015: This past year I’ve been reflecting on the contrast of John 17’s record of Christ’s appeal to His Father to preserve unity among “those that have been given to me” with the hubbub our various judicatory entities are going through since San Antonio. INGREDIENTS Maybe it’s my imagination but […]
It was the Summer of 1970, not a Classic summer, as Baby Boomer summers went, but still very groovy. With millions of other young Americans that year I would turn 18 and register for the draft and maybe end up in Vietnam. And with that Coming of Age, would come (if not Vietnam) college, travel, […]
by Ervin Taylor, December 14, 2015: Back in November 2013, the “The General Conference Executive Officers” issued a kind of Adventist version of a Papal Encyclical. Perhaps more accurately, we should characterize it as an Adventist version of a Papal Bull. That term “Bull” comes from the Latin “Bulla,” or seal that was placed on […]
By Monte Sahlin, December 8, 2015: Throughout my life it has been difficult for me to see how the crisis envisioned in the classic Adventist interpretation of Revelation 13 could possibly be connected with contemporary realities. I would listen to wild statements by those who saw such possibilities in all kinds of headlines and even […]
A Christmas meditation on creation. Does the Intelligent Designer use magic or miracle when He creates? Was Jesus brought to us by a stork? What about Adam? By Jack Hoehn ([1]) Where does the Son of God incarnate in Bethlehem come from? Do fat little cherubs deliver him from Heaven lowering him in a silken […]
by Ervin Taylor, November 22, 2015: Traditional Adventism argues that it is necessary to believe in “recent” Creation in seven literal days because they allege such a belief is the only one that preserves a belief in the veracity of Scripture. Any other view, they insist, would fatally compromise the truths of the Adventist faith. […]
by Ervin Taylor, November 15, 2015: When the “flagship journal” of institutional Adventism, the Adventist Review (AR), publishes an article with the title, “What Do You Mean: Seventh-day Adventist?,” the average Adventist reader can reasonably conclude that the Adventist Church in parts of North America in the early 21st century is no longer the Adventist […]
by Loren Seibold, November 13, 2015. I told you in a previous column that the most interesting item on the NAD Year-end Meeting agenda was the report of the Church Governance Committee. Within the document were some exciting and courageous proposals—but presenters dropped cautionary warnings. NAD president Dan Jackson said repeatedly that this is just a study document, […]