Church History

Introduction Christian theologians and philosophers have discussed human nature for some two millennia. In light of the daunting smallness of human beings against the backdrop of God’s greatness and the vastness of the universe already the psalmist raised the question: “ What are human beings th...

Michael Campbell 1919: The Untold Story of Adventism’s Struggle with Fundamentalism (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2019). For the one hundredth anniversary of the 1919 Adventist Bible Conference, Pacific Press published a short volume written by Southwestern Adventist University professor Michael W. ...

War is an everyday reality that no longer happens remotely: it is played out in our living rooms and over the breakfast table, thanks to embedded reporters, smartphones, and the Internet. Adventists and Military Service, an initiative of the Inter-European Division Biblical Research Committee, is...

To commemorate the five hundredth anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, the editors carefully chose a collection of essays that explore “the various facets and contours of Luther and compares them with Seventh-day Adventism.” The book is comprised of four parts: Historical F...

World War I was a defining moment in world history. It had profound implications for religion, particularly among evangelical Christians. At the same time, it also had profound implications for Seventh-day Adventism. This presentation examines its impact for Seventh-day Adventist theology, particularly in a renewed emphasis upon Adventist eschatology. During World War I the rising fundamentalist movement held a series of prophecy conferences that captured the attention of Adventist church leaders. By the end of the conflict this sense of militarism had pervaded Protestant Christianity with various reactions to the war. This presentation surveys some of those reactions within Adventism, including how this impacted eschatological debates with Adventism and fundamentalism. The focus of this presentation is to survey Adventist eschatology and theological debates from World War I through World War II, leading up to the pivotal 1952 Bible Conference that finally culminated in continued eschatological discussions. This presentation argues that both twentieth-century world wars had a profound impact upon Seventh-day Adventist theology.

It is generally accepted that postmillennialism has reigned as the dominant eschatological view since the Reformation. In America most theologians from the Reformed and Puritan traditions encountered in postmillennialism the rationale to encourage Christian ethics and living, revival, and worldwide evangelism. They envisioned a millennial kingdom where the church and the state would create a political, social, and religious Christian order. Contrarily, premillennial views generally have a less positive assessment of humanity and its organizations, such as the church and society. Human sinfulness and general corruption in government and society seem to indicate that the church is incapable of transforming the present order. Consequently, premillennialists believe the necessity of the heavenly intervention of Christ in His second coming. Different from postmillennialists, premillennial thinkers expect deeper deterioration of the social and religious order. Although scholars commonly claim that William Miller was the first consistent premillennialist of his time, this presentation argues that Miller belonged to a religious milieu where theologians, especially within the Methodist tradition, refused to speculate about the future and defended a strong premillennial view. Without dismissing the value of revival and evangelism, they became convinced that both the biblical teaching and the evil of the present social order pointed to the second coming of Christ as the unique solution to human problems.

Since the ultimate aim of Christianity is the second coming of Jesus and the arrival of the kingdom of God, the delay of the second coming of Jesus is one of the most important issues to be solved by Christian theology. This presentation explores the understanding of Christian eschatology in modern theology with the historical dialectic method, and proposes the historical understanding of the kingdom of God as a synthesis of Christian eschatology. To understand Christian eschatology as the correct Christian theology, we should pursue the historical understanding that the Kingdom of God was presented in the past as the crucifixion of Christ, and is realized today in the lives of Christians, and will be completed in the future through the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Scripture reveals promises that shape biblical eschatology, the advent hope. However, is eschatology being presented in a way relevant to audiences of the twenty-first century? The Hebrew generations who coexisted during the early Persian period can illuminate current challenges on the proclamation of the Advent Hope. An overview of the Hope messages to the audiences of Haggai, Malachi, and Hadassah provides principles that are relevant today. These audiences have many elements in common with modernists, postmoderns, and metamoderns who coexist in current communities. Insights from these biblical texts and their archaeological context illuminate ways that could be used to present Adventist eschatology to contemporary generations.

Like most Christians, Seventh-day Adventists have historically displayed little interest in ecological matters. Around 1970, Adventist authors began addressing the issue of Christians’ responsibilities regarding the earth. However, such important efforts and official statements were neither comprehensive nor systematic. It remains for Adventists to develop a theology of environmental responsibility—one that is not only Christian but also uniquely Adventist. This presentation proposes an Adventist theology of the earth within a paradigm of five affirmations and two symbols. While none of these affirmations or symbols are entirely unique to Adventism, the assemblage is particularly characteristic of Adventist thought and practice. It asserts that such a theology of the earth is both complementary to an Adventist eschatology and necessary for it.

While the ending of the 1,260-year prophecy of Daniel and Revelation appears relatively decisive, there has been criticism of the beginning period as being rather obscure and imprecise. A careful, historical understanding of the history of church and state is exceedingly helpful to an understanding of prophecy. Rather than focusing on military events, losses or victories, a concern with legal enactments relating to church and state is of greater importance. The uprooting of three horns is a historical process over a period of time, from the 470s to 550s, whereas legal enactments—especially related to the Justinian Code—can provide a more precise time boundary for events. It also serves to highlight the end of the period, with Justinian’s Religious Code being replaced by the Napoleonic Secular Code in 1798. This new way of looking at prophetic periods may also help us with more obscure prophecies, such as the time periods in the fifth and sixth trumpets of Revelation.