I understand why ancient societies in the Northern Hemisphere celebrated the winter solstice. When life and livelihood depended on the sun, noting when daylight began to incrementally conquer darkness was something to be celebrated. Sure, the ancients knew they still had to endure months of cold and darkness before they could shed their heavy clothes and the […]
21 December 2023 | What does the incarnation mean? The gospels give us four different answers. Join the conversation about this and the different meaning it has for each of us. Jim Wibberding Department Chair Professor of Applied Theology and Biblical Studies Pacific Union College Theology Department You may have heard about a new term […]
Build a wall! That three-word slogan helped secure a presidential candidate millions of votes in the 2016 election. If you don’t look (and think) like me, stay away. And if you’re already here, get out! We want our country pure. Ignore the famous poem on the Statue of Liberty. Many people fear immigrants—newcomers—especially if they […]
13 December 2023 | We usually state it in the negative: “Why don’t people go to church?” or “Why have people stopped coming to church?” We can view the other side of the coin by stating it in the positive: “Why do people go to church?” Those who have experienced the hemorrhaging of young people […]
11 December 2023 | Dear Aunt Sevvy Is it appropriate for Christians to display a menorah in their home, to light the candles as Jews do, and say a prayer? Perhaps some Adventists would frown on this, but our family finds meaning in this ritual. Signed, Holiday Seeker Dear Seeker, Hanukkah, as you no doubt […]
It’s the most neglected of parables—perhaps because we Adventists don’t like the questions it raises. I’m referring to Jesus’ saying, “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins” (Mark […]
4 December 2023 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, The prophets said that the Messiah would be the son of David, from the tribe of Judah. The book of Matthew traces the genealogy from Abraham, and in Luke from Adam. But all of them lead to Joseph—and Joseph was not Jesus‘ father, he was Jesus‘ adoptive father! […]
Adventism has a PR problem, it seems to me. We tend to be insular, sticking to our own kind. Many of us enjoy living in one of the Adventist bubbles—be it Berrien Springs, Silver Spring, Loma Linda, or in my case, Binfield, England, the home of Newbold College. While we like to think of ourselves […]
27 November 2023 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, Is God more likely to answer prayer if hundreds or thousands of people are praying for the same thing? Signed, Needing answers Dear Needing Answers, There is a persistent view—probably because of passages such as John 14:13—that prayer is a way to get things done: that if we […]
American Thanksgiving is a confusing holiday for me. The older I get, the more I learn about why we celebrate Thanksgiving and the real story about what happened between the Pilgrims and Native Americans. I learned that the Thanksgiving holiday the United States celebrates today was created during the American Civil War to help foster […]
23 November 2023 | Change is a biblical concept. Change happened in Bible times. The world around us is changing. It seems to many of us that the church must change if it wants to remain relevant and to be successful in its mission. Not everyone agrees. Some imagine a church of the past—the church […]
20 November 2023 | Dear Aunt Sevvy, I recently heard an Adventist pastor say that the rise of the Adventist church is prophesied in the Bible. Is this true? Signed, Curious Bible Student Dear Curious, The “proof” that the Seventh-day Adventist church is God’s only true church is based on two texts read together. The […]