6 July 2015 | San Antonio, Texas, USA [Victor Hulbert, tedNEWS] There could not have been a more appropriate day for Seventh-day Adventists to be reviewing their fundamental beliefs. As delegates gathered for worship and then business at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, Dr Daniel Duda, Trans-European Education director, took to the floor to remind delegates that it was 600 years to the day since the religious reformer, John Huss was martyred. A forerunner of the reformation he gave his life for his Bible-based beliefs.
What council might Huss have shared today? Dr Duda suggested these would set the tone for the day: “Therefore, faithful Christian, seek the truth, hear the truth, learn the truth, love the truth, speak the truth, adhere to the truth, defend the truth to death; for truth will make you free from sin, the devil, the death of the soul, and finally from eternal death.”
Defence of ‘the truth’ was certainly core to the day. Pastor Ted Wilson, World President of the Seventh-day Adventist Church emphasised early on that “We are not changing our Fundamental Beliefs. We are simply trying to enhance them and make them more understandable.”
For the most part the delegates recognised the truth of that statement. GC Vice-president, Artur Stele carefully led delegates through all the suggested changes. Some were simple and quickly voted. For instance, in the statement on the Sabbath (Fundamental Belief #20), delegates voted to change the anachronistic word ‘beneficent’ Creator to the more understandable ‘gracious’ Creator.
Others were more difficult. What does apostolic mean? That was a word to be dropped from Belief #17, ‘Spiritual gifts and Ministries’. Daniel Duda suggested it be changed to ‘cross-cultural’ rather than apostolic. Others noted the reference to Ephesians and that it should be retained for biblical authenticity. However, as it needs a 2/3rd majority to refer changes back to the writing committee, an attempt at change was defeated. Indeed, delegates discovered that any change, even for poor grammar, was difficult. Some wondered whether this was really the best way to make revisions – even though delegates had been given all the changes many weeks in advance.
Possibly the best received change was a strengthening of wording within Belief #23, ‘Marriage and Family’. The recommendation was to change the word marriage ‘partners’ to ‘a man and a women’, a phrase repeated twice in the statement. It was evident from applause that the change was popular in a world that is facing secular re-definitions of marriage. Elder Wilson came to the microphone to emphasise that while we “need to be loving to everyone… in this fundamental belief we want to leave no ambiguity.” Emmanuel Mwale from Southern Africa-Indian Ocean agreed. “This adds to our confidence in the church. We need to be very straightforward on this.”
The main change, and one that delegates had been anticipating, related to Belief numbers 6 & 8 – Creation and The Great Controversy. Larry Geraty (NAD) was immediately on his feet. He applauded the editors for including gender inclusive language, but noted that a few changes appeared to exclude. He stated that “all delegates hold the Bible to be our authority: ‘The Bible is our only creed’.” His concern was inclusion of wording that is ‘non-biblical’. “We say we are sola-scriptura but this will be seen differently by the rest of the world”, he said.
Together with Roger Roberton (GC), Megen Mole (TED) was concerned with the use of the word ‘historical’ in the sentence, “God is the Creator of all things. He has revealed in Scripture the authentic and historical account of His creative activity.” It was seen as both grammatically incorrect and as “an atheistic word, inappropriate for a religious statement of belief.” Others, from a broad cross-section of the delegation, were concerned by the use of the word ‘recent’. “How recent is recent?” they asked.
An improved and more understandable rewrite of the Belief #18, the Gift of Prophecy means that it is now more easily understood by those who are not Adventists.
With interruptions for the long-anticipated Nominating Committee report, most changes were voted with a few going back to the writing committee for consideration. It is anticipated that any changes will be brought to the delegation for approval Tuesday morning.
So who is going to help lead the world church for the next five years? At almost the end of business, and in not quite the expected order, nominating committee reports were brought for most Department directors, more Associate Secretaries, the General Conference Auditing Service (GCAS), Division Presidents and finally, a slightly reduced number of GC Vice-Presidents – partly due to the GC having shed a number of institutions to the North American Division.
The TED delegation warmly welcomed the re-election of their current president, Raafat Kamal. He had been serving in the role for almost exactly one year. See our separate article for more details and a short video interview.
For more on the GC Vice-Presidents and the rationale for reducing their number, visit the ANN website. A full listing of all personnel elected today is available in the daily bulletin from Adventist Review including six new-comers among the 13 Division Presidents, and a listing of the 12 directors so far elected.
Of particular interest to the TED, Sandra Grice was re-elected as an associate director of GCAS. She is based in the StAlbans office in the UK. Frensly Panneflek will be the TED representative on the GCAS board. [tedNEWS]
tedNEWS Staff: Miroslav Pujic, director; Deana Stojkovic, editor
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