Church History

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.

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.

Timely applications of the predictions made by biblical prophets often eclipse their timeless qualities. This presentation points to a need to pay more attention to the timeless aspects of biblical prophetic messages, particularly those that relate to the end times. To this end, statements like “the sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, the stars will fall from the sky” are surveyed in their original Old Testament contexts and genres. The presentation closes with a call to Adventist biblical scholars to give more attention to the timeless aspects of biblical prophetic predictions.

The investigative judgment doctrine has always been an intrinsic part of Seventh-day Adventist soteriology. Throughout the history of Seventh-day Adventists, however, the investigative (or Pre-Advent) judgment has been one of the most controversial doctrines, challenged and questioned more than any other Adventist belief. For Adventists, however, the investigative judgment forms an essential part of their theology and cannot be abandoned. This is because their soteriology is locked within a meta-theological paradigm that necessitates the eschatological pre-Advent judgment. Understanding this paradigm may be helpful in explaining the beauty and uniqueness of Adventist soteriology.

The historical application of the fourth beast in Daniel 7 has almost exclusively been interpreted by Adventist scholars with the emphasis on the western part of the Roman Empire. This is particularly noticeable when the end of the empire is linked with the territory where the little horn appears. This presentation attempts to demonstrate that taking AD 1453 as the end of the Roman Empire brings an opportunity for a much more historically precise application of Daniel 7 in regards to the fourth beast and a much more complete theological understanding of the identity of the little horn.

Introduction The acceptance of Ellen G. White’s modern-day prophetic gift naturally raises questions about the relationship between her writings and the biblical writings. If the same divine source generated both sets of writings, one may legitimately ask for the authority and finality of Ellen W...

The Reformation and the Remnant: The Reformers Speak to Today’s Church (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2016), 142 pp. Paperback, US$15.99 On the eve of five centuries since Martin Luther circulated his 95 Theses in Wittenberg comes this thoughtful, and at times even provocative, book on the meaning ...

Ecumenism has a history as long as the division of the Christian church. Unity of the body of Christ has been a prayer and a dream since the beginning. Jesus prayed for unity and the apostles struggled to maintain unity. In the history of every church, you will find unity being challenged. The hi...

Glúder Quispe, Merlin D. Burt, and Alberto R. Timm. Legado Adventista: Un panorama histórico y teológico del adventismo [Adventist Legacy: A historical and Theological Overview of Adventism]. Lima, Peru: Universidad Peruana Unión, Centro de Investigación White, 2013, 415 pp. US$20.00. This book—w...

Hans Heinz, Glaube, Macht und Hybris (Mundelsheim, Germany: Basista Media GmbH., 2013), 133 pp. EUR$7.90. Hans Heinz, Th.D., spent forty years in the classroom teaching theology students in Austria (Bogenhofen) and Germany (Marienhöhe and Friedensau). He has published several books and written ma...