Seventh-day Adventist Polity: Its Historical Development
When the 20 delegates from six conferences assembled in Battle Creek, Michigan, for the first General Conference Session of Seventh-day Adventists on May 20, 1863, they represented 3,500 members. Virtually all of them lived in the northeastern or midwestern United States.
Read MoreThe Church and Society
“Justice” in Micah 6:8 means more than general faithfulness in human relations. It intends strict equity, absolute fairness, and even redress with regard to the rights of all.
Read MoreThe Church and Worship
James F. White observes: "Take away Christian worship, and it is hard to conceive of Christianity as long enduring." If this be true Christianity in general, it is certainly true of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in particular.
Read MoreThe Church in Descriptive Figures
New Testament writers use numerous and varied figures, symbols, and pictures to depict the church. Paul Minear numbers these images at more than 80, but he suggests that the list swells to over 100 if each Greek word is counted separately
Read MoreThe Spirit and the Church
Seventh-day Adventists espouse a biblical view of the Godhead or Trinity. Paragraph 2 of the Fundamental Beliefs of the church reads in part, "There is one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a unity of three co-eternal Persons."
Read MoreThe Origin and Nature of the Church
The church is a paradox. It appears enfeebled and defective, yet God works in it. 1 On one hand the church in all ages has been an arena where countless persons have been saved and transformed, where dedicated men and women have devoted their lives to unselfish service to God and humanity, and where the…
Read MoreA Survey of Church History: Apostolic Fathers of Reformation
The study of ecclesiology has fascinated scholars throughout the centuries. Hundreds of volumes and articles have been written on the subject. We find whole volumes dedicated to just one of the great Christian authors of the past. It is, therefore, with humility that we attempt this summarization.
Read MoreChurch Discipline
It is the task of the Christian church to investigate, proclaim and preserve the contents of its faith, and to keep its standard of conduct pure. This means discharging duty and upholding right at the same time, duty and right in defending/protecting the truth and in correcting error. Both are aspects of pastoral care. Therefore,…
Read MorePriesthood of Believers
In spite of its affinnation of the priesthood of all believers, there is perhaps no function which Protestantism has so much neglected. Not only have Protestant laymen not assumed the priestly role, but until recently even the clergy have shunned it.
Read MoreLiberation Theologies and the Church
In recent times and in certain quarters theology has begun to strip itself of I much of its characteristic dogmatics. The typical characterization of religion as a private affair is being challenged by a stress on the public character of the Christian message.
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