title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: In 1963, Belva Cottier, a Rosebud Sioux social worker living in the San Francisco Bay Area, read an article that the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was to be closed and the property given to the City of San Francisco. Remembering the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, she and her cousin, Richard McKenzie, located a copy of the treaty and proposed that if the property was surplus land of the government, Sioux could claim it. She planned and organized an occupation and a court action to obtain title to the island. On March 8, 1964, a small group of Sioux demonstrated by occupying the island for four hours. The entire party consisted of about 40 people, including photographers, reporters and Elliot Leighton, the lawyer representing those claiming land stakes. According to Adam Fortunate Eagle, this demonstration was an extension of already prevalent Bay Area street theater used to raise awareness. The Sioux activists were led by Richard McKenzie, Mark Martinez, Garfield Spotted Elk, Virgil Standing-Elk, Walter Means, and Allen Cottier. Cottier acted as spokesman for the demonstration, stating that it was "peaceful and in accordance with Sioux treaty rights". The protesters were publicly offering the federal government the same amount for the land that the government had initially offered them; at 47 cents per acre, this amounted to $9.40 for the entire rocky island (), or $5.64 for the twelve usable acres. Cottier also stated that the federal government would be allowed to maintain use of the Coast Guard lighthouse located on the island. The protesters left under threat that they would be charged with felony. This incident resulted in increased media attention for indigenous peoples' protests across the Bay Area.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: The United Council of the Bay Area Indian community initially considered writing a proposal and filing an application for the use of Alcatraz by Sioux people under the conditions of their treaty. Plans were drawn up for using the buildings on Alcatraz as a cultural center. Conversations about handing Alcatraz over to developers for commercial development created concern about the future availability of the island. A desire for more immediate action to claim space for the local Indian community was finally spurred by the loss of the San Francisco Indian Center to fire on October 10, 1969. The loss of the San Francisco Indian Center spurred action among indigenous peoples because of the importance it held within their community. The center provided Native Americans with jobs, health care, aid in legal affairs, and social opportunities. This detrimental loss happening on top of the Indians' already growing tension with the U.S. government prompted strategies for obtaining Alcatraz for use by the local Indian community shifted from formal applications to more immediate takeover.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: In 1969, Adam Nordwall planned a symbolic boat ride for November 9th, during the daylight hours, to ride around Alcatraz to gain the attention of local news outlets. University student leaders Mohawk Richard Oakes and Shoshone-Bannock LaNada Means, head of the Native American Student Organization at the University of California, Berkeley, with a larger group of student activists joined Nordwall. A group of five boats was organized to take approximately 75 indigenous peoples over to the island, but none of the boats showed up. Adam Fortunate Eagle convinced Ronald Craig, the owner of the Monte Cristo, a three-masted yacht, to pass by the island when their own boats did not arrive. Oakes, Jim Vaughn (Cherokee), Joe Bill (Eskimo), Ross Harden (Ho-Chunk) and Jerry Hatch jumped overboard, attempting to swim to shore, and claim the island by right of discovery.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: The Coast Guard quickly rescued the men, ending their attempts. LaNada Means dissatisfied with the outcome of the day, hired a fishing boat paid by Earl Livermore (director of New American Indian Center in San Francisco, after the Old American Indian Center burned), making their way to the island again, and fourteen stayed overnight. The fourteen occupiers, led by Means and Oaks, included Kay Many Horses (Lakota), John Vigil (Pueblo), and John Whitefox (Sac and Fox), from the San Francisco Indian Center; Joe Bill (Inuit), Ross Harden (Winnebago), Fred Shelton (Eskimo), and Ricky Evening (Shoshone/Bannock), from San Francisco State University; and Linda Aranaydo (Creek), Burnell Blindman (Lakota), David Leach (Colville/Lakota), John Martell (Cherokee), and Jim Vaughn (Cherokee), from the University of California, Berkeley. The plan for that nights takeover was to split into groups that way if the coast guard found one group there would still be others there to continue the righteous fight. The following day, November 10th, Oakes surprised the student occupiers, by delivereing a proclamation, written by Fortunate Eagle, to the General Services Administration (GSA) which claimed the island by right of discovery, after which the groups were removed. The Native American Students felt betrayed by Oaks who gave them up to the Coast Guard. Having no knowledge of a proclamation that gave up the Native American student occupier groups in trade for a proclamation to no effect. There were more students on the mainland who were going to join the 14 occupiers and bring out food and supplies on the day of the 10th, that were questioning why the 14 occupiers were returning.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: The students distanced themselves from Adam Nordwall, Lehman Brightman who wanted to manipulate the movement, as they distrusted their motives because of their social position in mainstream society. In the morning hours at pier 39 of Fisherman Wharf, November 10th, 1969 LaNada Means decided upon the date of November 20th because Oaks had said that they would not go out to Alcatraz again giving them an element of surprise, and it would be a time when those elder men would be away at an educational conference.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: This decision by LaNada Means to choose November 20th, 1969 began the successful 19 month Occupation of Alcatraz opening up hearts and minds to Native American Issues and Struggles throughout the country, a forefront of the Red Power Movement and The Self Determination Era. Though recently many people have claimed that the American Indian Movement was somehow involved in the Takeover, AIM had nothing to do with the planning and execution of the Occupation, though they did send a delegation to Alcatraz in the early months in order to find out how the operation was accomplished and how it was progressing.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: In the late evening hours of November 20, 1969, 89 American Indians, including more than 30 women, students, married couples and 6 children, set out from Palo Alto to occupy Alcatraz Island. A partially successful Coast Guard blockade prevented most of them from landing, but fourteen protesters landed on the island to begin their occupation. The island's lone guard, who had been warned of the impending occupation, sent out a message on his radio. "Mayday! Mayday!" he called. "The Indians have landed!"


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: On December 10, 1969, on Alcatraz, protesters, including Stella Leach and Earl Livermore, had a conference with government officials, led by Kim Robertson, San Francisco's regional GSA representative, with members of the Labor Department.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: On December 24, 1969, Richard Oakes, Earl Livermore (Niitsitapi), and Al Miller, held a press conference at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary.<ref name="review.gale.com/2015/11/18"></ref>


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: At the height of the occupation there were 400 people. Native women, like Aranaydo, Woesha Cloud North (Ho-Chunk-Ojibwe), and Vicky Santana (Blackfoot) ran the school with the help of Douglas Remington, (Ute) and teacher's aids Justine Moppin, (Mono), and Rosalie Willie, (Paiute). There was also a daycare and Stella Leach (Colville-Lakota) set up the health clinic. Jennie R. Joe (Navajo) and Dorothy Lonewolf Miller (Blackfoot), assisted Leach as nurses, and Robert Brennan, Richard Fine, and Leach's boss, David Tepper, volunteered as doctors. Native and non-native people brought food and other necessary items to the people on the island, but the coast guard's blockades made it increasingly difficult to supply the occupants with food. The suppliers, after stealthily journeying across the bay via canoe, dropped off the supplies which then had to be carried up steep ladders. Aranaydo and Luwana Quitiquit (Pomo) were responsible for running the kitchen and cooking for the occupants. The occupation lasted about 19 months but ended peacefully. An employee of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Doris Purdy, who was also an amateur photographer, accompanied a group who went on November 29, stayed the night and recorded video footage.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: The protesters, predominantly students, drew inspiration and tactics from contemporary civil rights demonstrations, some of which they had themselves organized. Jerry Hatch and Al Miller, both present at the initial landing but unable to leave the boat in the confusion after the Coast Guard showed up, quickly turned up in a private boat. The first landing party was joined later by many others in the following days, including Joe Morris (a key player later as a representative of the Longshoreman's Union, which threatened to close both ports if the Occupiers were removed), and the man who would soon become "the Voice of Alcatraz", John Trudell.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: Although she would not receive the same recognition from mainstream media as Trudell and Oakes would, LaNada Means, who was one of the first to arrive and one of the last to leave, organized written statements and speeches that outlined the purpose of the occupation. Fellow activist Dean Chavers said Means was "the real leader of the occupation". To the media and to the federal government, Means made it clear that the occupiers wanted complete Indian control over the island, under the Treaty of Fort Laramie, for the purpose of building a cultural center that included Native American Studies, an American Indian spiritual center, an ecology center, and an American Indian Museum. According to Means' grant proposal, the center would include full-time Indian consultants, Indian teachers, Indian librarians, and an Indian staff leading people around the center in order to tell the story of Indians of All Tribes. The occupiers specifically cited their treatment under the Indian termination policy and they accused the U.S. government of breaking numerous Indian treaties.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: On Thanksgiving Day, hundreds of supporters made their way to Alcatraz to celebrate the Occupation. In December, one of the occupiers, Isani Sioux John Trudell, began making daily radio broadcasts from the island, and in January 1970, occupiers began publishing a newsletter. Joseph Morris, a Blackfoot member of the local longshoreman's union, rented space on Pier 40 to facilitate the transportation of supplies and people to the island.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: Cleo Waterman (Seneca Nation) was president of the American Indian Center during the takeover. As an elder, she chose to stay behind and work on logistics to support the occupiers. She worked closely with Grace Thorpe and the singer Kay Starr to bring attention to the occupation and its purpose.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: Thorpe, daughter of Jim Thorpe (Sac and Fox), was one of the occupiers and helped convince celebrities like Jane Fonda, Anthony Quinn, Marlon Brando, Jonathan Winters, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Dick Gregory, to visit the island and show their support. Not only did Thorpe bring both national and international attention to the occupation, she also provided supplies necessary to keep the occupation alive. Thorpe supplied a generator, water barge and an ambulance service to the island. Rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival supported the Occupation with a $15,000 donation () that was used to buy a boat, named the "Clearwater", for reliable transport to Alcatraz. As a child, actor Benjamin Bratt was present at the occupation with his mother and his siblings.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: On January 3, 1970, Yvonne Oakes, 13-year-old daughter of Annie and stepdaughter to Richard Oakes, fell to her death, prompting the Oakes family to leave the island, saying they did not have the heart for it anymore. Some of the original occupiers left to return to school and some of the new occupiers had drug addictions. Some non-aboriginal members of San Francisco's drug and hippie scene also moved to the island, until non-Indians were prohibited from staying overnight.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: On January 11, 1970, a letter from Earl Livermore, was written to National Council on Indian Opportunity.<ref name="nytimes/1970/02/22/Caldwell-boredom"></ref>


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: In an interview with "Radio Free Alcatraz," occupant and Sioux Indian, John Trudell, lamented that "water [was] still [their] big number one problem" and how, "rapidly, [their] number two problem [was] becoming electricity." The government often shut off all electricity to the island and made it difficult for water to reach the occupants in an effort to make them desert the island.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: After Oakes left, LaNada Means, John Trudell, Stella Leach, and Al Miller were challenged with reorganizing and did so upon creating Indians Of All Tribes. Means, having been in a family that was always active in tribal politics, was comfortable briefing reporters on how reservations operated or directing occupiers on island clean up. So when Robert Robertson, a Republican working for the National Council on Indian Opportunity, arrived on the island in 1970, just a week after Yvonne Oakes' passing, Means took the lead in trying to negotiate her planning grant for the cultural center, museum, and Thunderbird University of Alcatraz that she wrote. Along with Means, Robertson originally met with a group of occupiers to discuss safety and negotiations regarding the occupation. He was surprised that only ten men were present while forty American Indian women were present and active in discussion. When the initial meeting ended, Means invited Robertson to a private dinner between her and three lawyers to propose a $500,000 grant to renovate the island. Robertson, however, refused and would continue to refuse the occupiers' proposals until finally, in May 1970 the federal government began to transfer Alcatraz to the Department of the Interior and the National Park System.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: LaNada Means attempted to find different routes to support Indians of All Tribes and those still on Alcatraz. Means believed that if she could hire a high-profile attorney to represent their claim for the Treaty of Fort Laramie, IOAT would win their case. So she travelled further and further away from the island and found a high profile supporting attorney by the name of Edward Bennet Williams who was willing to work pro-bono, to secure Alcatraz as Indian Land for all time, and to fight for justice against Native American Injustices in this country. Meanwhile communication between Trudell and Means, Radio Alcatraz and Occupation Initiator, began to subside and opposing views began to form. These opposing views between Means and Trudell are only one simple example of the power struggle that was one of the main reasons for the demise of the occupation. Their demands proved contradictory of each other, and their inability to see past differences and compromise proved detrimental to the occupation of the island.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: By late May, the government had cut off all electrical power and all telephone service to the island. In June, a fire of disputed origin destroyed numerous buildings on the island. Left without power, fresh water, and in the face of diminishing public support and sympathy, the number of occupiers began to dwindle. On June 11, 1971, a large force of government officers removed the remaining 15 people from the island.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: Though fraught with controversy and forcibly ended, the Occupation is hailed by many as a success for having attained international attention for the situation of native peoples in the United States, and for sparking more than 200 instances of civil disobedience among Native Americans.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: The Occupation of Alcatraz had a direct effect on federal Indian policy and, with its visible results, established a precedent for Indian activism. Robert Robertson, director of the National Council on Indian Opportunity (NCIO), was sent to negotiate with the protesters. His offer to build a park on the island for Indian use was rejected, as the IOAT were determined to possess the entire island, and hoped to build a cultural center there. While the Nixon administration did not accede to the demands of the protesters, it was aware of the delicate nature of the situation, and so could not forcibly remove them. Spurred in part by Spiro Agnew's support for Native American rights, federal policy began to progress away from termination and toward Indian autonomy. In Nixon's July 8, 1970 Indian message, he decried termination, proclaiming, "self-determination among Indian people can and must be encouraged without the threat of eventual termination." While this was a step toward substantial reform, the administration was hindered by its bureaucratic mentality, unable to change its methodical approach of dealing with Indian rights. Nixon's attitude toward Indian affairs soured with the November 2, 1972 occupation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: Much of the Indian rights activism of the period can be traced to the Occupation of Alcatraz. The Trail of Broken Treaties, the BIA occupation, the Wounded Knee incident, and the Longest Walk all have their roots in the occupation. The American Indian Movement noted from their visit to the occupation that the demonstration garnered national attention, while those involved faced no punitive action. When AIM members seized the "Mayflower II" on Thanksgiving, 1970, the Occupation of Alcatraz was noted as "the symbol of a newly awakened desire among Indians for unity and authority in a white world". The occupation of Alcatraz Island served as a strong symbol and uniting force for indigenous peoples everywhere because of the importance the island held in their ancestors' lives. Indians traveled to Alcatraz about 10,000 years before the Europeans even entered the Bay Area. Over the course of their history, the island served the purpose of a camping ground, was used as a place to hunt for food, and at one point became an isolated and remote place where law violators were held. The occupation which began in 1969 caused Native Americans to remember what the island meant to them as a people. Although the Alcatraz occupation inspired many other Pan-Indian movements to occur, it also showed how gender played a part in Indian activism. Mainstream media had an obsession with documenting the stereotype of the male Indian warrior and as such it was only the men that were highlighted as being the leaders and creators of movements. Women at the occupation of Alcatraz, such as LaNada Means and Stella Leach, receive little attention for contributing to the movement. As a result, the many women who had initiated movements such as the Wounded Knee Incident would never be as well known as Russell Means and other AIM leaders, even though, in the case of Wounded Knee, of the 350 occupiers, just 100 were men. Quoted in John William Sayer's "Ghost Dancing the Law: The Wounded Knee Trials", John Trudell admitted, in reflection, "We got lost in our manhood."


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: The radio station formed a key ingredient in the occupation of Alcatraz. It broadcast half-hour programs at least 39 times via Pacifica stations KPFA (Berkeley), KPFK (Los Angeles), WBAI (New York), regularly at 7:15 pm PST, to more than 100,000 listeners. Today, the Pacifica Radio Archives has physical copies of 39 broadcasts and four broadcasts have been digitally preserved and are available. Its content consisted of discussions with various members of the occupation, whether Native American or not; and addresses by its prime mover, John Trudell, a Santee Sioux veteran. The station ended its operation when the Federal Government cut off electric power to the island in late May 1971. The FBI regarded Trudell as an especially dangerous voice for Native rights.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: Trudell spoke, in a calm midwestern voice, about key issues in Native life: forcible loss of ancestral lands, matters of spirituality, seriously contaminated water supply on Native reservations, sharp inequalities in infant mortality and life expectancy among Native Americans, as contrasted with the majority white US public. He addressed listeners as a plainspoken but calm mediator, not in stinging rhetoric. Each program began with Buffy Sainte Marie’s song "Now That the Buffalo's Gone".


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: Some 50 of the Alcatraz occupiers traveled to the East Bay and began an occupation of an abandoned and dilapidated Nike Missile installation located in the hills behind the community of Kensington in June 1971. This occupation was ended after three days by a combined force of Richmond Police and regular US Army troops from the Presidio of San Francisco. Moreover, the Alcatraz Occupation greatly influenced the American government's decision to end its Indian termination policy and to pass the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: The takeover of Alcatraz inspired the Occupation of Catalina Island by the Brown Berets during the Chicano Movement in 1972.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: The Alcatraz Occupation led to an annual celebration of the rights of indigenous people, Unthanksgiving Day, welcome to all visitors to a dawn ceremony under permits by the National Park Service.


title: Occupation of Alcatraz

text: In March 1970, a Seattle-based group called the United Indians of All Tribes occupied Fort Lawton, demanding the return of Indigenous lands that were about to be declared surplus. The organization and their action was expressly modeled on the Indians of All Tribes and the occupation of Alcatraz. Bernie Whitebear, one of those involved, stated that "We saw what could be achieved there and if it had not been for their determined effort on Alcatraz, there would have been no movement here. We would like to think that Alcatraz lives on in part through Ft. Lawton."


title: The Ark and the Aardvark

text: The Ark and the Aardvark (originally titled Noah's Ark) is an upcoming English-language Swiss computer animated adventure comedy film directed by John Stevenson and written by Philip LaZebnik and Glen Dolman. The film tells the story of an aardvark who becomes the leader of a group of misfit animals in order to bring all the animals onto Noah's Ark. The film stars the voices of Miles Teller, Aubrey Plaza, Jenny Slate, Rob Riggle, Craig Robinson and Stephen Merchant.


title: The Ark and the Aardvark

text: The story follows an outcast aardvark by the name of Gilbert, who becomes the reluctant leader of a ragtag group of misfit animals that need to be led to the mighty ark before the impending flood. Along their journey, they band together to conquer unforeseen obstacles, and ultimately, Gilbert discovers within himself the inner strength and ingenuity to prove that in a world of "twos", he was truly destined to be "the one".


title: The Ark and the Aardvark

text: It was announced that Unified Pictures would produce a $35 million budgeted computer animated film, "Noah's Ark," which Philip LaZebnik would write the screenplay, with ElectroAge handling the animation. In March 2013, the studio hired "Kung Fu Panda"s director John Stevenson to handle the creative work on the film with Cameron Hood as co-director. While later on August 20, 2014, it was reported that Stevenson had been hired as the director of the film, which had a script from LaZebnik and Glen Dolman. On October 3, 2016, Miles Teller was set to voice the lead character Gilbert in the film, now titled "The Ark and the Aardvark," which Keith Kjarval and Kurt Rauer would produce the film for Unified.


title: The Ark and the Aardvark

text: In October 2016, the film's production started in Los Angeles. With the animation being handled at Stellar Creative Lab in Vancouver and financing by I Do Culture Corporation, which is funded by the Zhejiang-based diamond brand Hiersun.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: The theology of the Seventh-day Adventist Church resembles that of Protestant Christianity, combining elements from Lutheran, Wesleyan-Arminian, and Anabaptist branches of Protestantism. Adventists believe in the infallibility of Scripture and teach that salvation comes from grace through faith in Jesus Christ. The 28 fundamental beliefs constitute the church's official doctrinal position.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: There are many teachings held exclusively by Seventh-day Adventists. Some distinctive doctrines of the Seventh-Day Adventist church which differentiate it from other Christian churches include: the perpetuity of the seventh-day Sabbath, the unconsciousness of man in death, conditional immortality, an atoning ministry of Jesus Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, and an “investigative judgment” that commenced in 1844. Furthermore, a traditionally historicist approach to prophecy has led Adventists to develop a unique system of eschatological beliefs which incorporates a commandment-keeping "remnant", a universal end-time crisis revolving around the law of God, and the visible return of Jesus Christ prior to a millennial reign of believers in heaven.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: The Seventh-day Adventist denomination expresses its official teachings in a formal statement known as the 28 Fundamental Beliefs. This statement of beliefs was originally adopted by the church's General Conference in 1980, with an additional belief (number 11) being added in 2005. The General Conference session in San Antonio 2015 made some changes to the wording of several fundamental beliefs. Also significant are the baptismal vows, of which there are two versions; candidates for church membership are required to accept one.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: In addition to the fundamental beliefs, a number of "Official Statements" have been voted on by the church leadership, although only some of these are doctrinal in nature. The "Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary" is a significant expression of Adventist theological thought.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: The first fundamental belief of the church stated that "The Holy Scriptures are the infallible revelation of [God's] will." Adventist theologians generally reject the "verbal inspiration" position on Scripture held by many conservative evangelical Christians. They believe instead that God inspired the thoughts of the biblical authors, and that the authors then expressed these thoughts in their own words. This view is popularly known as "thought inspiration", and most Adventist members hold to that view. According to Ed Christian, former "JATS" editor, "few if any ATS members believe in verbal inerrancy".


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Adventists generally reject higher critical approaches to Scripture. The 1986 statement Methods of Bible Study, "urge[s] Adventist Bible students to avoid relying on the use of the presuppositions and the resultant deductions associated with the historical-critical method."


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Seventh-day Adventist approaches to theology are affected by the level of authority accorded the writings of Ellen White. Mainstream Adventists believe that White had the spiritual gift of prophecy, but that her writings are subject to testing by the Bible, which has ultimate authority.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: According to one church document, "her expositions on any given Bible passage offer an inspired guide to the meaning of texts without exhausting their meaning or preempting the task of exegesis". "The Inspiration and Authority of the Ellen G. White Writings", document was issued by the Biblical Research Institute of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. It has received worldwide review and input, although is not an official statement. It concludes that a proper understanding will avoid the two extremes of regarding her "writings as functioning on a canonical level identical with Scripture, or […] considering them as ordinary Christian literature."


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Adventist theology is distinctly Protestant, and holds much in common with Evangelicalism in particular. However, in common with many restorationist groups, Adventists have traditionally taught that the majority of Protestant churches have failed to "complete" the Reformation by overturning the errors of Roman Catholicism (see also Great Apostasy) and "restoring" the beliefs and practices of the primitive church—including Sabbath keeping, adult baptism and conditional immortality.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Adventists typically do not consider themselves part of the Fundamentalist Christianity community: "Theologically, Seventh-day Adventists have a number of beliefs in common with Fundamentalists, but for various reasons have never been identified with the movement... On their part, Adventists reject as unbiblical a number of teachings held by many (though not all) Fundamentalists..."


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Seventh-day Adventist theology has undergone development from the beginnings of the movement. Doctrinal development has been associated with significant events, including the 1888 Minneapolis General Conference and discussions with evangelicals in the middle of the 20th century which prompted the publication of "Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine". As a consequence of these developments, different theological streams have emerged which today exist alongside the mainstream of the Church.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: While Adventism is a child of the 16th century Reformation initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli, its theological orientation really finds itself at home with the Radical Reformation or the Anabaptists. Anabaptists went back to the original early church teachings and rejected infant baptism and state support of the church. They called for a believer's church where baptism followed faith, and stood for a separation of church and state. Anabaptists viewed the Major Reformation churches as not being consistent in the belief of "Sola Scriptura". They sought to get back towards New Testament church ideals, rather than stick to where Luther, Calvin or Zwingli did theologically, moving away from church traditions and creedal formulas.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: The early Adventists emphasized the concept of "present truth"—see (NKJV). James White explained, “The church [has] ever had a present truth. The present truth now, is that which shows present duty, and the right position for us…” ”Present truth is "present" truth, and not future truth, and the Word as a lamp shines brightly where we "stand", and not so plainly on the path in the distance.” Ellen White pointed out that “present truth, which is a test to the people of this generation, was not a test to the people of generations far back.” The founders of the SDA church had a dynamic concept of what they called "present truth", opposed to creedal rigidity, and had an openness to new theological understandings that built upon the "landmark" doctrines, or Pillars of Adventism that had made them a people.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Still, the possibilities of dynamic change in Seventh-day Adventist beliefs are not unlimited. Those "landmark" doctrines are non-negotiables in Adventist theology. Collectively they have provided the Seventh-day Adventists with an identity. The "pillars" of their faith—the Bible doctrines that define who they are as a people—have been thoroughly studied out in the Scripture and have been attested to by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. As Ellen White put it, "When the power of God testifies as to what is truth, that truth is to stand forever as the truth. ... Men will arise with interpretations of Scripture which are to them truth, but which are not truth. The truth for this time, God has given us as a foundation for our faith. Robert Johnston noted, “Without repudiating the past leading of the Lord, it [the Seventh-day Adventist church] seeks even to understand better what that leading was. It is always open to better insights to learn—to seek for truth as for hid treasure. … Adventists are still pilgrims on a doctrinal journey who do not repudiate the "way marks", but neither do they remain stopped at any of them.” Ellen further said that there is more truth to be revealed and that true doctrine will stand close investigation. But there is a solid foundation to build new truth upon.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: A "Valuegenesis" study in 2000 of students at Adventist high schools in North America showed a generally high acceptance of the church's beliefs, with some such as marriage within the same faith, the remnant, Ellen White's gift of prophecy, and the investigative judgment with acceptance rates less than 63% percent. "In looking at the research this may be because over the first ten years of Valuegenesis research, fewer young people were reading their Bibles and Ellen White. And for a church that values a written revelation of God, less reading of the Bible probably means less understanding of its beliefs."


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: In a 1985 questionnaire, the percentage of North American Adventist lecturers who nominated various beliefs as contributions they believed Adventists had made to contemporary theology are:


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: A theological spectrum exists within Adventism, with several different theological streams existing alongside the mainstream. The conservative "historic" movement holds to certain traditional positions that have been challenged since the 1950s. By contrast, progressive Adventists typically question some of the church's distinctive teachings, and some of the fundamental beliefs of the church that are held by mainstream Adventists.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: In a 1985 survey of North American Adventist lecturers, 45% described themselves as liberal compared to other church members, 40% as mainstream, 11% as conservative, and 4% gave no response to the question. There are two main organizations of Adventist scholars or interested laypeople. The Adventist Theological Society describes its beliefs as "balanced and conservative Adventist theology", whereas the Adventist Society for Religious Studies is more progressive by comparison.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Jon Paulien has identified four brands of Adventism – evangelists and frontier missionaries whose beliefs are traditional yet creatively expressed, scholars concerned with an accurate understanding of the Bible, the typical church member (including most of the younger, postmodern generation) who is most concerned with what is relevant to ordinary life and not concerned with most doctrines, and those in the Third World who are similarly concerned for a minimal belief set and passionate about their faith.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: There is a common perception that different cultures and regions of the world vary in their theology.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: According to Edwin Hernández, the principal investigator of the AVANCE study into Latino Adventists in the North American Division, "There was a very high degree (95 percent) of fidelity to the orthodox teachings of the church."


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Seventh-day Adventists uphold the central doctrines of Protestant Christianity: the Trinity, the incarnation, the virgin birth, the substitutionary atonement, justification by faith, creation, the second coming, the resurrection of the dead, and last judgment.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: In "Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine" (1957), four authors outlined the core doctrines that they share with Protestant Christianity.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: All of these doctrines, with the exception of item 11 (regarding the premillennial return of Christ), are widely held amongst conservative or evangelical Protestants. (Different Protestant groups hold varying views on the millennium.)


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Seventh-day Adventists have often focused on those doctrines which are distinctive to Adventism. This was particularly true in the early days of the movement, when it was assumed that most people the church witnessed to were already Christian to begin with, and that they already understood the gospel.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Seventh-day Adventists believe that "the great principles of God's law are embodied in the Ten Commandments", and that these are "binding upon all people in every age" (Fundamental Belief no. 19). While the ceremonial and sacrificial laws of the Old Testament were fulfilled by the death of Jesus Christ, the 10 commandments are held to remain in force for Christian believers. The words of Jesus Christ in are foundational to this conviction:


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Seventh-day Adventists believe that the seventh day of the week, Saturday, is the biblical Sabbath which God set "apart for the lofty purpose of enriching the divine-human relationship". The Sabbath is a recurring message in the Bible, mentioned in the Creation account, at Sinai, in the ministry of Jesus Christ and in the ministries of the apostles. The Sabbath serves as a weekly memorial to Creation and is a symbol of redemption, from both Egypt and sin. By keeping the Sabbath, Adventists are reminded of the way that God can make them holy, like he did the Sabbath, and they show their loyalty to God by keeping the commandment in the Decalogue. The Sabbath is also a time for Adventists to spend with other people and with God.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Adventists believe that the Sabbath is not just a holiday but rather is intended as a rest for believers to grow spiritually. Although Seventh-day Adventists do not believe that they are saved by keeping Saturday as the Sabbath, they attach considerably greater significance to Saturday-Sabbath keeping than other denominations attach to worship on Sunday.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Adventists do not see salvation as a works-based doctrine, but rather righteousness comes solely through faith in Christ alone. The Sabbath commandment is seen as an act of faith in God's ideal for the believer, although its significance may not be seen by non-believers.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: They believe that the Sabbath is a whole day dedicated for worship and fellowship with believers, laying aside non-religious projects and labor.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Seventh-day Adventists teach that there is no evidence of the Sabbath being changed to Sunday in the Bible. They teach instead that it was changed by gradual acceptance of Sunday worship gatherings which came into the early church in Rome to distinguish Christians from the Jews and to align Christianity with political authorities. This change became more universally accepted with the establishment of Roman emperor Constantine's Sunday law of 321 AD and the decree at the Council of Laodicea that in canon 29 declared that Christians should avoid work on Sunday.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Seventh-day Adventists believe that prior to the beginning of human history, a challenge occurred in heaven between God and Lucifer (Satan) over "the character of God, His law, and His sovereignty over the universe" (Fundamental Belief no. 8). Lucifer was subsequently cast out of heaven, and, acting through the serpent in the Garden of Eden, led Adam and Eve into sin. God has permitted Lucifer's rebellion to continue on Earth in order to demonstrate to angels and beings on other worlds that his Law is righteous and necessary, and that the breaking of the 10 commandments leads to moral catastrophe.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: This understanding of the origin of evil is derived from the Bible (see Rev. 12:4-9; Isa. 14:12-14; Eze. 28:12-18; Gen. 3; Rom. 1:19-32; 5:12-21; 8:19-22; Gen. 6-8; 2 Peter 3:6; 1 Cor. 4:9; Heb. 1:14.). The book entitled "The Great Controversy" by Ellen G. White, particularly chapter 29, The Origin of Evil shows how this dispute originated.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: The Seventh-day Adventist church teaches that there is a sanctuary in heaven which was foreshadowed by the Mosaic tabernacle, according to their interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews chapters 8 and 9. After his death, resurrection and ascension, Jesus Christ entered the heavenly sanctuary as the great High Priest, "making available to believers the benefits of His atoning sacrifice" (Fundamental Belief no. 24). Adventists hold that Christ ministered his blood in the first section of the sanctuary (the holy place) until October 1844; after that time he entered the second section of the sanctuary (the Most Holy Place, or Holy of Holies) in fulfillment of the Day of Atonement.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Adventists therefore believe that Christ's work of atonement encompasses both his death on the Cross and his ministration in the heavenly sanctuary


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Venden points out that the atonement must have been complete at the cross—the sacrifice was sufficient. For when Jesus died for man's sin, it was enough to purchase man's salvation and man cannot add anything to it. Yet, the atonement involves more than just sacrifice. The process of redemption, the restoration of man's broken relationship to at-one-ment with God, was not completed at the cross, else there would be no more sin or suffering. It is the winning of men back to a love relationship with God that is not yet completed.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: They refer to his mediatorial work in heaven as an "atoning ministry" (as in Fundamental Belief no. 24).


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: The investigative judgment is a doctrine unique to Seventh-day Adventism, and teaches that the judgment of God's professed people began on October 22, 1844 when Christ entered the Holy of Holies in the heavenly sanctuary. Adventists find the investigative judgment portrayed in texts such as , and . The purpose of this judgment is to vindicate the saints before the onlooking universe, to prepare them for Christ's imminent Second Coming, and to demonstrate God's righteous character in His dealings with humanity. This judgment will also separate true believers from those who falsely claim to be ones.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: The biblical basis of the investigative judgment teaching was challenged in 1980 by ex-Adventist professor Desmond Ford. (See Glacier View controversy.) While the church has officially reaffirmed its basic position on the doctrine since 1980, many of those within the church's progressive wing continue to be critical of the teaching. According to a 2002 worldwide survey, local church leaders estimated 86% of church members accept the doctrine.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: The Seventh-day Adventist church regards itself as the "remnant" of Revelation 12:17 (KJV). The Remnant church "announces the arrival of the judgment hour, proclaims salvation through Christ, and heralds the approach of His second advent" (Fundamental Belief no. 13). The duty of the Remnant is summed up in the "Three Angels' Messages" of Revelation 14:6-12, and its two distinguishing marks are seventh-day Sabbath observance and the Spirit of Prophecy (see below).


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: At baptism, Adventists may be asked the following question: "Do you accept and believe that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the remnant church of Bible prophecy and that people of every nation, race, and language are invited and accepted into its fellowship?" (NB. In 2005 an alternative set of baptismal vows was created, which does not contain a reference to the Adventist church as the remnant. Candidates may now choose whether to take the original vow or the new one.)


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Seventh-day Adventists believe in an imminent, universally visible Second Coming of Christ, which will be preceded by a "time of trouble". The teaching that Christ will be universally visible is based on which states that "every eye will see him." The second coming will coincide with the resurrection and translation of the righteous, as described in . Adventists believe that the unrighteous, or wicked, will be raised after the millennium.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: As compared to other Christian views of eschatology, the Seventh-day Adventist view is closest to Historic (or post-tribulational) Premillennialism. Conditions on earth are expected to steadily deteriorate until the "time of trouble"The Great Controversy (which is similar to the Great Tribulation of classic premillennialist teaching), when civil and religious authorities will combine to unleash intense persecution upon God's people, particularly those who keep the seventh-day Sabbath. The time of trouble will be ended by the glorious appearing of Christ, which will also mark the commencement of the millennium.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Adventists reject dispensationalist theology and the pretribulation rapture, believing that the church will remain on earth throughout the end-time crisis. A further difference is that the millennial reign of Christ will take place in heaven, not on earth, and will involve all of the redeemed people of God, not just national Israel (See Fundamental Beliefs, no. 26 & 27.)


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Seventh-day Adventism interprets the book of Revelation using the historicist method, but also holds that some of the events it predicts are still future (see: interpretations of the Book of Revelation).


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Seventh-day Adventists believe that death is a state of unconscious sleep until the resurrection. They base this belief on biblical texts such as which states "the dead know nothing", and which contains a description of the dead being raised from the grave at the second coming. These verses, it is argued, indicate that death is only a period or form of slumber.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Adventists teach that the resurrection of the righteous will take place at the second coming of Jesus, while the resurrection of the wicked will occur after the millennium of . They reject the traditional doctrine of hell as a state of everlasting conscious torment, believing instead that the wicked will be permanently destroyed after the millennium. The theological term for this teaching is Annihilationism.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: The Adventist views about death and hell reflect an underlying belief in: (a) conditional immortality (or conditionalism), as opposed to the immortality of the soul; and (b) the holistic (or monistic) Christian anthropology or nature of human beings, as opposed to bipartite or tripartite views. Adventist education hence strives to be holistic in nature, involving not just the mind but all aspects of a person.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: This belief in conditional immortality has been one of the doctrines used by critics (particularly in the past) to claim that the church is not a mainstream Christian denomination. However, this view is becoming more mainstream within evangelicalism, as evidenced by the British Evangelical Alliance "ACUTE" report, which states the doctrine is a "significant minority evangelical view" which has "grown within evangelicalism in recent years". Evangelical theologian and conditionalist Clark Pinnock suggests Adventist Le Roy Edwin Froom's "The Conditionalist Faith of our Fathers", 2 vols., is "a classic defense on conditionalism".


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: The church believes the spiritual gift of prophecy was manifested in the ministry of Ellen White, whose writings are sometimes referred to as the "Spirit of Prophecy". The church's 28 Fundamental Beliefs state:


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Two other official statements regarding the prophetic ministry of Ellen White have recently been voted at General Conference Sessions. The June 1995 document "A Statement of Confidence in the Spirit of Prophecy" states that White "did the work of a prophet, and more", and that her writings "carry divine authority, both for godly living and for doctrine"; and recommended that "as a church we seek the power of the Holy Spirit to apply to our lives more fully the inspired counsel contained in the writings of Ellen G White." The 2005 document "Resolution on the Spirit of Prophecy" called upon "Seventh-day Adventists throughout the world to prayerfully study her writings, in order to understand more fully God's purpose for His remnant people", describing her writings as "theological stimulus".


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: There has been an increasing tendency in the church to view White in more human terms, although still inspired. Whatever the prominence assigned to her writings for doctrinal authority, Adventists are agreed that the Bible takes precedence as the final authority.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Early Seventh-day Adventists came from a wide assortment of nineteenth-century American Protestant churches, highly influenced in thought and teaching by Anabaptism and Restorationism. The vast majority of early Seventh-day Adventists writers rejected the Trinity Two of the church's principal founders, James White and Joseph Bates, had a background in the Restorationist Christian Connection church, which rejected the Trinitarian nature of God.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Ellen White, another principal founder, was raised in a Methodist family but she gave testimonies that did not agree with trinitarian creeds of her time. She, along with her husband, faced criticism from a missionary as "not sound upon the subject of his triune God." While Ellen White never condemned the Trinity as an error, like other early Adventists did, her writings appear incompatible with orthodoxy Trinitarianism because her visions taught that God had a form whereas trinitarian creeds, like the Methodist creed, declared that God to be without body and parts. Ellen White ultimately proved influential in shifting the church from largely Semi-Arian roots towards a view that Seventh-day Adventists today label as Biblical Trinitarianism.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Up to the 1890s most Seventh-day Adventists were anti/non-Trinitarian. They viewed God the Father as God in every way, the Son as divine but begotten at an incalculable point in the very distant past, and the person-hood of the Holy Spirit was a matter debate. The 1872 Declaration of the Fundamental Principles Taught & Practiced by the Seventh-day Adventists declared God to be "everywhere present by his representative, the Holy Spirit. Ps. 139:7" (Article I) and asserting that the "Spirit has simply made provision for its own existence and presence with the people of God to the end of time, to lead to an understanding of that word which it had inspired, to convince of sin, and work a transformation in the heart and life; and that those who deny to the Spirit its place and operation, do plainly deny that part of the Bible which assigns to it this work and position." (Article XVI)


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: One factor was the successful proselytizing efforts of Seventh-day Adventists brought in new members who might rightly be called closeted Trinitarians. Woodrow Whidden notes:


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: “...In an odd sort of way, the somewhat isolated, anti-ecumenical Adventists, thanks to their proselytizing success, became ecumenical in the sense that they were able, through these converts, to tap into the great tradition of the ecumenical creeds of the first four centuries (Woodrow Whidden: Andrews University Berrien Springs, MI (USA) A Paper Presented to The Tenth Oxford Institute of Methodist Theol. Studies Working Group: History of Wesleyan Traditions: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries August 12–22, 1997 Oxford University Somerville College)


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Another factor, one that is often overlooked in Adventism, was the impact of criticism against the Seventh-day Adventist church. While numerous scholars, Gane (1963), Holt (1969), Froom (1971), Burt (1996), Whidden (1998), and Moon (2003) have attempted to account for the factors of how and why the Seventh-day Adventist church changed its view, there is very little Adventist research that shows criticism as a major factor for positive usages of the word "Trinity" in Adventism from the 1890s onward. Gilbert Valentine briefly mentions this factor, by implication, when he wrote of the discussions in the mid 1950s between SDA leaders and Evangelical leaders Walter Martin and Donald Barnhouse. He wrote that "the issue of apologetics again became "the main motivating factor" in the attempt to find ways to express Adventist understandings more clearly and adequately both for those inside and outside the community.". Recent scholarship attempts to compensate for this overlooked factor


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: And yet another important factor was the development of new thoughts in Adventist soteriology as expressed at the important 1888 Conference. These thoughts were presented in the preaching of A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner. These men planted a seed that grew into a new focus on the Biblical doctrine of the Godhead. This was due, in part, to their emphasis on Jesus and how the law and righteousness by faith come together.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: During the 1890s Jones played an important role in presenting the eternal deity of Jesus. During his 1895 series on the third angel's message, he returned repeatedly to Colossians 2:9. Christ was the “fullness of the Godhead bodily.” “The eternal Word consented to be made flesh. God became man.”13 Two days later, speaking of Christ, Jones said: “In view of eternity before and eternity after, thirty-three years is not such an infinite sacrifice after all. But when we consider that he sank his nature in our human nature to all eternity—that is a sacrifice.”. A.T. Jones also continued to emphasize the birth of the pre-incarnate Son of God. During that same 1895 series Jones asserted that "He who was born in the form of God took the form of man." This same teaching was reiterated by Jones again in 1889 when he wrote: “He [Jesus] was born of the Holy Ghost. In other words, Jesus Christ was born again. He came from heaven, God’s first-born, to the earth, and was born again. But all in Christ’s work goes by opposites for us: He, the sinless One, was made to be sin in order that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He, the living One, the Prince and Author of life, died that we might live. He whose goings forth have been from the days of eternity, the first-born of God, was born again in order that we might be born again.”. This is in harmony with his teaching two years prior when he asserted:


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: "Unto none of the angels did the Father say that, for none of the angels were begotten of the Father; they were all created by Christ, for we have read that whether they be “thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers,” all were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made; while the Son Himself WAS DIRECTLY BEGOTTEN OF THE FATHER, AND SO IS CALLED HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON...” (A. T. Jones, Sign of the Times July 7, 1887.)


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: How Jones rationalized the eternal existence of the pre-incarnate Son of God and His birth in the form of God prior to His re-birth in the form of man here on earth is best explained in an 1886 article.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: “IN the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.” “In the beginning,” that is, before creation, BEFORE TIME WAS; for in his prayer at the last supper he said: “O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold the glory which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.” John 17:5, 24. HOW LONG BEFORE, NO FINITE MIND CAN MEASURE; for in the announcement by the prophet of the place of his birth, when he came into the world, it is said: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” Micah 5:2. The margin reads, Hebrew, from “the days of eternity.” THE MIND MUST BE ABLE TO GRASP ETERNITY BEFORE IT CAN MEASURE THE LENGTH OF DAYS OF THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD; BEFORE IT CAN KNOW HOW LONG THE WORD WAS BEFORE THE WORLD WAS. (Signs of the Times March 25, 1886, p. 186.1, caps emphasis added)


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: A.T. Jones gave particular emphasis to the begotten nature of Jesus as the eternal Son of God. Ellen White also made that same dual emphasis. She pointed to Jesus’ eternity back in the 1870s when she described Jesus as the “eternal Son of God.” She also pointed to His begotten nature by constantly referring to Him as the "only begotten Son" in His pre-incarnate existence. In her theology the "only begotten Son" is defined as being "not a son by creation, as were angels, nor a son by adoption, as is the forgiven sinner, but a Son begotten in the express image of the Father's person, and in all the brightness of His majesty and glory, one equal with God in authority, dignity, and divine perfection. In him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." (Ellen G. White, Signs of Times, May 30, 1895)


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Before the 1890s Ellen White made no explicit anti-Trinitarian or semi-Arian statements. However, in "Desire of Ages" (1898) she made the shocking, to some, statement, "In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived," which brought about the development on the view of the Godhead. She also affirmed the personhood and divinity of the Holy Spirit who was “the Third Person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fullness of divine power.”


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: In 1899, as editor of the Review and Herald, A. T. Jones wrote of the Godhead in a Trinitarian way: “God is one. Jesus Christ is one. The Holy Sprit is one. And these three are one: there is no dissent nor division among them.”


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Over the next several decades, other Adventists explored the Bible on the Godhead and established the Adventist Trinitarian teaching on the topic. In fact, a creedal Trinitarian view was adopted by many leaders. This difference between the original pioneer position was a matter of grave concern as reflected in the following letter from A.W. Spalding:


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: “D.E. Robinson says that you are the first one he knows of to teach the straight doctrine of the trinity, in Australia…..There is to me a twilight zone in this history which I wish to have lighted. Did all the fathers sin? And if so, did they repent? How prove the unity of the faith in our succession if our pioneers were Arians and we are Athansians? (A.W. Spalding to H.C. Lacey, June 2, 1947)


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Gradually after "transition and conflict" in the early 20th century this view of the Godhead was confirmed in Adventist theology, and by the middle of that century the Trinity became accepted. The move towards Trinitarianism can be observed in the successive doctrinal statements of the church. The 1872 "Declaration of the Fundamental Principles taught and practiced by the Seventh-day Adventists"Online Research Center: A Declaration of the Fundamental Principles Taught and Practiced by the Seventh-day Adventists, 1872 mentioned Father, Son and Holy Spirit but it did not present God as three persons thus it was non-Trinitarian:


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: By 1931 the "Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh-Day Adventists"Online Research Center: Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists, 1931 included a Trinitarian statement:


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: According to LeRoy Froom this statement was written entirely by Francis Wilcox. This statement was never taken up for a vote by the General Conference.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: “Realizing that the General Conference Committee or any other church body would never accept the document in the form in which it was written, Elder Wilcox, with full knowledge of the group, handed the statement directly to Edson Rogers, the General Conference statistician, who published it in the 1931 edition of the Yearbook, where it has appeared ever since. It was without the official approval of the General Conference Committee, therefore, and without any formal denominational adoption, that Elder Wilcox’s statement became the accepted declaration of our faith” (The Seventh-day Adventist


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: While this 1931 statement used the word Trinity in a positive sense it was imprecise regarding the eternal nature of the Son of God. It was purposefully written that way in order to make it acceptable to those in Adventism who still did not believe in a fully eternal Son. According to M.L. Andreasen there was still controversy within Adventism in the 1940s over the Trinity:


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: “The field is divided on the subject of the Trinity” (M.L. Andreason [General Conference Field Secretary] to Elder J.L. McElhany and Elder W.H. Branson, December 25th, 1942 pg 5)


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: "After carefully reading Wilcox's [1931] "Fundamental Beliefs" statement, Nichol expressed appreciation and approval of its scope and balance. He noted that it was conservatively stated- doubtless framed that way in the hope that it might be acceptable to those who had held divergent views, especially over the Godhead. Yes, that was true, Wilcox assented." (LeRoy Froom, Movement of Destinty pg 414 brackets added for clarity)


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: The first official Adventist Trinitarian statement, directly voted upon by the General Conference and adopted in 1980, include the following as statement number 2, "Trinity":


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Although it states "There is one God", some point out that missing in this statement is an indication of whether or not the "three co-eternal persons" are of one being or of one essence. This ambiguity allows for a variety of interpretive opinions within Adventism and debate among critics about whether the current Adventist view of the Trinity is orthodox, or if Adventist views are tantamount to the heresy of Tritheism. Some Adventist scholars claim that Seventh-day Adventists are in harmony with the orthodoxy:


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: “Nature of God. A reading of the above statements will show that with respect to their doctrine of God Seventh-day Adventists are in harmony with the great creedal statements of Christendom, including the Apostles’ Creed, Nicea 325), and the additional definition of faith concerning the Holy Spirit as reached in Constantinople (381)”. (George Reid, Seventh-day Adventists: A Brief Introduction to Their Beliefs, Biblical Research Institute)


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Other Adventist scholars have actually pointed out the distinction between the Adventist view and the orthodox view of this doctrine:


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: It is important to note that not all Seventh-day Adventist Trinitarian teachers are agreed on this subject. Max Hatton is an Seventh-day Adventist minister who has authored "Understanding the Trinity" and "The Trinity Doctrine for Seventh-day Adventists. He disagrees with the view of God as a plurality of beings. He writes:


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: "Some Seventh-day Adventists accept the full Deity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit but they do not accept that they all exist in the one Substance. They see each of them existing in the same sort of substance but try as they may they cannot avoid the charge of Tritheism. This is not the true doctrine of the Trinity. Maybe this is why I sometimes hear that we should not use the word Trinity but should rather refer to the Three Persons as the Godhead. Call it what you like it is not the true teaching of Scripture to have Three separate beings combined in a unity of character, love and purpose (and this and that) as the True God. I cannot escape the conclusion that three separate beings of separate substance are nothing less than three separate gods – Tritheism..."Now a further thought. It seems to me that Jerry Moon and others have maintained the view that the three Members of the Trinity are human like figures. That being so they can’t for a moment think of the Three being in the one Substance. No, they think of them being separate but being united in such things as character and purpose. This recent thought of mine has helped me a lot to understand the reason why some Adventists have a Tritheistic type Trinity.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: “We cannot, for example, think of God as a family of three, or a committee that always votes unanimously. This separates the persons and compromises God's unity.” (Richard Rice, Reign of God: An Introduction to Christian Theology form a Seventh-day Adventist Perspective pg 61)


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Despite their problematic history with this touchstone doctrine, the denomination has been "officially" Trinitarian for several decades. However, there is a growing resurgence of individuals within the church who argue that the authentic, historical Adventist position is semi-Arian.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Some scholars have denied that Ellen White was a major influence in the Adventist shift toward Trinitarian doctrine and have argued that early Adventism had neither an Arian, Semi-Arian, nor Trinitarian theology, but rather a materialist one.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Seventh-day Adventists believe that "God the eternal Son became incarnate in Jesus Christ. Through Him all things were created, the character of God is revealed, the salvation of humanity is accomplished, and the world is judged. Foever truly God, He became also truly human, Jesus the Christ. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived and experienced temptation as a human being, but perfectly exemplified the righteousness and love of God. By His miracles He manifested God's power and was attested as God's promised Messiah. He suffered and died voluntarily on the cross for our sins and in our place, was raised from the dead, and ascended to heaven to minister in the heavenly sanctuary on our behalf. He will come again in glory for the final deliverance of His people and the restoration of all things (Isa. 53:4-6; Dan. 9:25-27; Luke 1:35; John 1:1-3, 14; 5:22; 10:30; 14:1-3, 9, 13; Rom. 6:23; 1 Cor. 15:3, 4; 2 Cor. 3:18; 5:17-19; Phil. 2:5-11; Col. 1:15-19; Heb. 2:9-18; 8:1, 2) (Taken from "Seventh-day Adventists BELIEVE--An exposition of the fundamental beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church")


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: The early Adventists came from many different traditions, and hence there was also diversity on their views of the Holy Spirit. Some held an impersonal view of the Spirit, as emanating from God, or only a "power" or "influence". However the main emphasis at this time was on Adventist distinctives, not on topics such as the Holy Spirit.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: J. H. Waggoner called it "that awful and mysterious power which proceeds from the throne of the universe". Uriah Smith similarly described it as "a mysterious influence emanating from the Father and the Son, their representative and the medium of their power" and a "divine afflatus".


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Yet by the middle of 19th century, Adventists generally agreed the Spirit is a personal being, and part of the Trinity. Ellen White was influential in bringing about an understanding of the Holy Spirit and spoke of "the Third Person of the Godhead" repeatedly and "a divine person".


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Some Adventist books include Le Roy Froom, "The Coming of the Comforter" (1928); W. H. Branson, "The Holy Spirit" (1933); G. B. Thompson, "The Ministry of the Spirit" (1914); Francis M. Wilcox, "The Early and the Latter Rain" (1938).


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Since the middle of the 20th century, there has been ongoing debate within Adventism concerning the nature of Jesus Christ, specifically whether Jesus Christ took on a fallen or an unfallen nature in the Incarnation. This was precipitated by the publication of "Questions on Doctrine" in 1957 which some Adventists felt did not agree with what the church held.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: According to Adventist historian George Knight, most early Adventists (until 1950) believed that Jesus Christ was born with a human nature that was not only physically frail and subject to temptation, but that he also had sinful inclinations and desires. Since 1950, the "historic" wing of the church continues to hold this "fallen" view of Christ's human nature.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Adventists since 1950 believe that Jesus was made in the "likeness of sinful flesh," as He inherited the fallen human nature of Adam, with its physical and mental weaknesses and was tempted on all points. However His spiritual nature was "unfallen" and did not have the propensity to sin. Christ was tested by temptation, but did not have ungodly desires or sinful inclinations.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: "Those who claim that it was not possible for Christ to sin, cannot believe that He really took upon Himself human nature. But was not Christ actually tempted, not only by Satan in the wilderness, but all through His life, from childhood to manhood? In all points He was tempted as we are, and because He successfully resisted temptation under every form, He gave man the perfect example, and through the ample provision Christ has made, we may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world through lust."


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: The controversy within Adventism over Christ's human nature is linked to the debate over whether it is possible for a "last generation" of Christian believers to achieve a state of


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: sinless perfection. These matters were discussed at the "Questions on Doctrine 50th Anniversary Conference". Both points of view are currently represented at the Biblical Research Institute.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: According to Woodrow W. Whidden II (himself a supporter of the "unfallen" position), proponents of the view that Christ possessed a "fallen" nature include M. L. Andreasen, Joe Crews, Herbert Douglass, Robert J. Wieland, Thomas Davis, C. Mervyn Maxwell, Dennis Priebe, Bobby Gordon and Ralph Larson. Proponents of the view that Christ's nature was "unfallen" include Edward Heppenstall, Hans K. LaRondelle, Raoul Dederen, Norman Gulley, R. A. Anderson, Leroy E. Froom and W. E. Read.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Seventh-day Adventists have historically preached a doctrine of inherited weakness, but not a doctrine of inherited guilt. Adventists believe that humans are sinful primarily due to the fall of Adam, but they do not accept the Augustinian/Calvinistic understanding of original sin, taught in terms of original guilt. According to Augustine and Calvin, humanity inherits not only Adam's depraved nature but also the actual guilt of his transgression, and Adventists look more toward the Wesleyan model.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: "The nature of the penalty for original sin, i.e., Adam's sin, is to be seen as literal, physical, temporal, or actual death – the opposite of life, i.e., the cessation of being. By no stretch of the scriptural facts can death be spiritualised as depravity. God did not punish Adam by making him a sinner. That was Adam’s own doing. All die the first death because of Adam’s sin regardless of their moral character – children included."


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: The early Adventists (such as George Storrs and Uriah Smith) wrote articles that de-emphasise the morally corrupt nature inherited from Adam, while stressing the importance of actual, personal sins committed by the individual. They thought of the "sinful nature" in terms of physical mortality rather than moral depravity. Traditionally, Adventists look at sin in terms of willful transgressions. They base their belief on texts such as "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law." (1 John 3:4)


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: A few Adventists have adopted a more evangelical view of original sin, which believes in humanity's inherently corrupt nature and spiritual separation from God. They conceive of original sin as a "state" into which all humans are born, and from which we cannot escape without the grace of God. As one recent Adventist writer has put it, "Original sin is not per se wrong doing, but wrong being."


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: The Seventh-day Adventist church stands in the Wesleyan tradition (which in turn is an expression of Arminianism) in regard to its soteriological teachings. Wesley's views are opposed to the Augustinian/Tridentine version of justification which understood divine acquittal and forgiveness as the fruit of an infused righteousness.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: This is significant in two respects. Firstly, there is a very strong emphasis in Adventist teaching on sanctification as a necessary and inevitable consequence of salvation in Christ. Such an emphasis on obedience is not considered to detract from the reformation principle of "sola fide" ("faith alone"), but rather to provide an important balance to the doctrine of justification by faith, and to guard against antinomianism. While asserting that Christians are saved entirely by the grace of God, Adventists also stress obedience to the law of God as the proper response to salvation.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Secondly, Adventist teaching strongly emphasises free will; each individual is free either to accept or reject God's offer of salvation. Adventists therefore oppose the Calvinistic/Reformed doctrines of predestination (or unconditional election), limited atonement and perseverance of the saints ("once saved always saved"). "Questions on Doctrine" stated that Adventists believe "That man is free to choose or reject the offer of salvation through Christ; we do not believe that God has predetermined that some men shall be saved and others lost." The freedom of each individual to accept or reject God is integral to the Great Controversy theme.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Assurance of salvation in Christ is part of the official beliefs, and an estimated 69% of Adventists "Have assurance of salvation", according to a 2002 worldwide survey of local church leaders.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: The question of whether Christians can overcome sin and achieve a state of sinless perfection is a controversial topic for Seventh-day Adventists, as it is among the holiness movement and Pentecostalism. Mainstream Adventists hold that Christ is our example and shows mankind the path to overcome sin, and to manifest Christ's perfect and righteous character. They hold to the 28 Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists which in #10 states 'we are given the power to live a holy life' and right before that 'we are born again and sanctified' through the Holy Spirit. Ellen White wrote that the saints through faith in Christ would to reach a state such as Adam before the Fall, and refers in many of her writings that through Christ, He made it possible to overcome sin.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: In his book "The Sanctuary Service" (1947), M. L. Andreasen taught that sinless perfection can be achieved; his theology continues to be influential among Adventists. Some Adventists insist that a final generation of believers, who will live through the "time of trouble" (between the close of probation and second coming of Christ), who receive the seal of God mentioned in Revelation 7:3, must and will attain a state of sinlessness comparable to the pre-fall condition of Adam and Eve. They believe that historically this is the authentic Adventist position on the issue as taught by Ellen White, and that denominational leaders along with Progressive Adventists, have erred in moving away from it. Larry Kirkpatrick and the "Last Generation" movement www.LastGenerationTheology.org—The Final Atonement is Now Underway are representative of this stream of teaching. Such quote various texts such as


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: However, some Adventist theologians such as Edward Heppenstall have argued the view that this state of absolute sinlessness or perfection is not possible in this life, and that Christians will always rely on forgiving grace—even after the "close of probation". It is argued that "perfection" in the Bible refers to spiritual maturity, having "the continual counteracting presence of the Holy Spirit" to be "victorious over sin and the sinful nature within us", as opposed to absolute sinlessness.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: The Adventist Church world church does not officially, at this time, support the ordination of women to ministry within its standard procedures. Instead women pastors in the denomination hold the title of "commissioned" rather than "ordained," which allows them to perform almost all of the pastoral functions their male colleagues perform but with a lesser title. This compromise was reached during the 1990s, with disagreement primarily occurring along cultural lines. Although the Seventh-day Adventist Church has no written policy forbidding the ordination of women, it has traditionally ordained only men. From its formation, Adventists traditionally held to the view that no precedent for the practice of ordaining women can be found in Scripture or in the writings of Ellen G. White and the early Seventh-day Adventist Church. However, in recent years the ordination of women has been the subject of heated debate, especially in North America and Europe. In the Adventist church, candidates for ordination are chosen by local conferences (which usually administer about 50-150 local congregations) and approved by unions (which serve about 6-12 conferences). The world headquarters—the General Conference—says that the GC has the right to set the worldwide qualifications for ordination, including gender requirements. GC leaders have never taken the position that ordination of women is contrary to the Bible, but they have insisted that no one ordain women until it is acceptable to all parts of the world church.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: In 1990 the General Conference in world session voted not to establish a worldwide policy permitting the ordination of women, but they did not vote a policy forbidding such either. In 1995 GC delegates voted not to authorize each of the 13 world divisions to establish ordination policies specific to its part of the world. In 2010, the North American Division of the church voted to allow commissioned pastors to lead a Conference or Mission, as well as ordained ones. In 2011, the North American Division, without GC approval, voted to permit women to serve as conference presidents. In early 2012, the GC responded to the NAD action with an analysis of church history and policy, demonstrating that divisions do not have the authority to establish policy different from GC policy. The NAD immediately rescinded their action. But in their analysis the GC reminded the world membership that the “final responsibility and authority” for deciding who is ordained resides at the union level. This led to decisions by several unions to approve ordinations without regard to gender.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: In March 2012, several unions and conferences voted to support the ordination of women. These are the Mid America Union, the Pacific Union Conference, the Southeastern California conference, the Columbia Union, and the Potomac Conference.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: On April 23, 2012, the North German Union voted to ordain women as ministers, but by late 2013 had not yet ordained a woman. On July 29, 2012, the Columbia Union Conference voted to "authorize ordination without respect to gender." On August 19, 2012 the Pacific Union Conference also voted to ordain without regard to gender. Both unions began immediately approving ordinations of women. By mid-2013, about 25 women had been ordained to the ministry in the Pacific Union Conference, plus several in the Columbia Union. On May 12, 2013, the Danish Union voted to treat men and women ministers the same, and to suspend all ordinations until after the topic is considered at the next GC session in 2015. On May 30, 2013 the Netherlands Union voted to ordain female pastors, recognizing them as equal to their male colleagues. On Sept. 1, 2013, a woman was ordained in the Netherlands Union.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: In 2012-2013 the General Conference assembled several committees to study the issue and make a recommendation to be voted at the 2015 world General Conference session.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: On October 27, 2013, Sandra Roberts became the first woman to lead a Seventh-day Adventist conference when she was elected as president of the Southeastern California Conference. However, the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist church did not recognize this because presidents of conferences must be ordained pastors and the worldwide church did not recognize the ordination of women.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: As Protestant Christians who accept the Bible as their only rule of faith and practice, Seventh-day Adventists on both sides of the issue employ the same Bible texts and arguments used by other Protestants (e.g. 1 Tim. 2:12 and Gal. 3:28), but the fact that the most prominent and authoritative co-founder of the church—Ellen White—was a woman, also affects the discussion. Proponents of ordaining women point out that Adventists believe that Ellen White was chosen by God as a leader, preacher and teacher; that she remains the highest authority, outside the Bible, in the Seventh-day Adventist Church today; that she was regularly issued ordination credentials, which she carried without objection; and that she supported the ordination of women to at least some ministry roles. Opponents argue that because she was a prophet her example does not count, and that although she said she was ordained by God, she was never ordained in the ordinary way, by church leaders.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: On July 8, 2015, delegates to the General Conference Business Session, in San Antonio, Texas, voted 1,381-977 against allowing divisions the authority to ordain women. Ted N. C. Wilson, President of the General Conference, appealed to the world church to accept the decision, and also stated that "the vote means we maintain the current policy" (commissioning women, ordaining men as pastors).


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Seventh-day Adventists practice believer's baptism by full immersion in a similar manner to the Baptists. They argue that baptism requires knowing consent and moral responsibility. Hence, they do not baptize infants or children who do not demonstrate knowing consent and moral responsibility, but instead dedicate them, which is symbolic of the parents', the community's, and the church's gratefulness to God for the child, and their commitment to raising the child to love Jesus. Seventh-day Adventists believe that baptism is a public statement to commit one's life to Jesus and is a prerequisite for church membership. Baptism is only practiced after the candidate has gone through Bible lessons. According to the Bible, the act of baptism shows that the person has repented of sin and wishes to live a life in Christ.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Seventh-day Adventists believe that the bread and wine (grape juice) of the Holy Communion are "symbols" of the body and blood of Jesus; however, Christ is also "present to meet and strengthen His people" in the experience of communion. Adventists practice "the ordinance of footwashing" prior to each celebration of the Lord's Supper, on account of the gospel account of John 13:1-16.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: The 17th fundamental belief of the church affirms that the spiritual gifts continue into the present.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Adventists generally believe the legitimate gift of tongues is of speaking unlearned human languages only, and are generally critical of the gift as practiced by charismatic and Pentecostal Christians today.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: The Seventh-day Adventist doctrine of creationism is based on believing that the opening chapters of Genesis should be interpreted as literal history. Adventist belief holds that all Earthly life originated during a six-day period some 6000 years ago, and a global flood destroyed all land based animals and humans except for those saved on Noah's Ark. Traditional Adventists oppose theories which propose interpreting the days of creation symbolically. Adventists reject the naturalistic views of abiogenesis and evolution.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Although Adventists hold that creation week was a recent event, they believe the Bible speaks of other worlds populated by intelligent beings elsewhere in the universe, which pre-existed the Earth's creation. The Seventh-day Adventist Ministerial Association's "Seventh-day Adventists Believe" (2005), explains that the opening chapters of Genesis describe a limited creation:


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: While the majority of Adventists believe that all biological life was originally created recently during a literal week, there is a range of positions amongst Adventists regarding when the inorganic material of the universe and planet Earth was created.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Some Adventists hold that the entire physical universe was created at the commencement of the literal Creation week, though it is generally recognised that the creation of angels and the conflict between Lucifer and God would need to have occurred prior to the Creation event described in Genesis 1. Other Adventists hold that the universe was created prior to the Creation week, but that planet Earth and its immediate surroundings were created "de novo" at the commencement of that week.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Finally, another mainstream Adventist position is that the inorganic matter of planet Earth was created prior to the Creation week and was reshaped into its present inhabitable form during that week. All of these Adventist positions agree that the computed radiometric dates of standard geology are largely irrelevant to dating the creation of life on Earth. Clyde Webster calls radiometric dating an "interpretive science" with uncertainties. He stated that "it would seem logical, almost compelling to seriously consider other sources of data for determining the time of Creation" concluding that for a Christian scientist "such a primary source is the Holy Scripture."


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Adventists were influential in the redevelopment of creationism in the 20th Century. Seventh-day Adventist geologist George McCready Price was responsible for reviving flood geology in the early 20th century. He was quoted heavily by William Jennings Bryan in the Scopes Monkey Trial. His ideas were later borrowed by Henry Morris and John Whitcomb for their landmark 1961 creationist text "". The Morris and Whitcomb position is distinct from Seventh-day Adventism because they postulate both a young earth and a young universe.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: About the time that "The Genesis Flood" was having a large impact in the evangelical world, a number of progressive Adventist scholars educated in secular universities began promoting Theistic Evolution. Some Progressive Adventists no longer hold the literal view of Genesis 1. Other Adventist scholars have identified the consequences of moving away from understanding that the Creation week involved a recent literal week.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: In 2009, the Seventh-day Adventist Church held an international creation emphasis day as part of a "worldwide denominational celebration of the biblical account of creation." The event was part of a church initiative to underscore its commitment to a literal creation model. In 2010, the World Seventh-day Adventist Church's highest ecclesiastical body, the World General Conference Session, officially reaffirmed the Church's position in support of a literal six-day creation week.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Adventists teach that the scapegoat, or "Azazel", is a symbol for Satan. They believe that Satan will finally have to bear the responsibility for the sins of the believers of all ages, and that this was foreshadowed on the Day of Atonement when the high priest confessed the sins of Israel over the head of the scapegoat (Leviticus 16:21).


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: This belief has drawn criticism from some Christians, who feel this gives Satan the status of sin-bearer alongside Jesus Christ. Adventists have responded by insisting that Satan is not a saviour, nor does he provide atonement for sin; Christ alone is the substitutionary sacrifice for sin, but holds no responsibility for it. In the final judgment, responsibility for sin is passed back to Satan who first caused mankind to sin. As the responsible party, Satan receives the wages for his sin and the sins of all the saved—namely, death. Thus, the unsaved are held responsible for their own sin, while the saved are no longer held responsible for theirs.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Traditionally, Adventists have taught there will be a time before the Second Advent in which the message of the Ten Commandments and in particular the keeping of the seventh day of the week, Saturday, as Sabbath will be conveyed to the whole world. Protestants and Catholics will unite to enforce legislation requiring the observance of Sunday worship. In reference to the creation of an Image to the Beast -, Ellen G. White stated:


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: "When the leading churches of the United States, uniting on such points of doctrines as are held by them in common, shall influence the state to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions; then Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy, and the infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably result." -Great Controversy p. 445


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Jon Paulien maintains that the central issue of the "final crisis of earth’s history has to do with the Sabbath", based on the strong allusion of to (the Sabbath commandment of the Ten Commandments), and also other verses and themes in Revelation.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: From the time of Second Great Awakening the Millerite movement proclaimed the soon return of Jesus. Adventists have traditionally interpreted this as the initial proclamation of the three angels' messages. The "three angels' messages" is an interpretation of the messages given by three angels in Revelation . The Seventh-day Adventist church teaches that these messages are given to prepare the world for the second coming of Jesus Christ, and sees them as a central part of its own mission.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: The Seventh-day Adventist Church has traditionally believed that it is the remnant church of Bible prophecy, and that its mission is to proclaim the three angels' messages.


title: Seventh-day Adventist theology

text: Some critics and Progressive Adventists, typically reject the claim that the three angels' messages find unique fulfillment in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Mainstream Adventists believe that God has led the Christian movements in history, but progressives tend to deny putting Adventism on that level.


title: And Then There Were None (TV series)

text: And Then There Were None is a 2015 mystery thriller television serial that was first broadcast on BBC One from 26 to 28 December 2015. The three-part programme was adapted by Sarah Phelps and directed by Craig Viveiros and is based on Agatha Christie's 1939 novel of the same name. The series features an ensemble cast, including Douglas Booth, Charles Dance, Maeve Dermody, Burn Gorman, Anna Maxwell Martin, Sam Neill, Miranda Richardson, Toby Stephens, Noah Taylor, and Aidan Turner. The programme follows a group of strangers who are invited to an isolated island where they are murdered one by one for their past crimes.


title: And Then There Were None (TV series)

text: The serial, debuting to 6 million viewers, received critical acclaim with many praising the writing, performances, and cinematography. It also scored high ratings.


title: And Then There Were None (TV series)

text: On a hot day in late August 1939, ten people, all strangers to each other, are invited to a small, isolated island off the coast of Devon, England, called Soldier's Island, by a "Mr. and Mrs. Owen". The guests settle in at the manor home on the island tended by two newly hired servants, a husband and wife, Mr. Thomas Rogers and Mrs. Ethel Rogers, but their hosts are absent. When the guests sit down to dinner, they notice the centrepiece, ten abstract art deco figurines, supposedly representing ten soldiers arranged in a circle. Afterward, Mr. Rogers puts on a gramophone record, from which a voice accuses everyone present of a murder. Shortly after this, one of the party dies from poisoning, and then more and more people are murdered, all in methods synonymous with a poem affixed in each bedroom. With each death, the murderer removes a figurine from the centerpiece to coincide with the rhyme's sinister disappearance of each "little soldier boy." The remaining people must discover who the murderer is before they run out of time and nobody remains.


title: And Then There Were None (TV series)

text: "And Then There Were None" was commissioned by Ben Stephenson and Charlotte Moore for the BBC to mark the 125th anniversary of Agatha Christie's birth. The adaptation was produced by Mammoth Screen in partnership with Agatha Christie Productions.


title: And Then There Were None (TV series)

text: Writer Sarah Phelps told the BBC that she was shocked by the starkness and brutality of the novel. Comparing the novel to Christie's other work, she stated, "Within the Marple and Poirot stories somebody is there to unravel the mystery, and that gives you a sense of safety and security, of predicting what is going to happen next... In this book that doesn't happen – no one is going to come to save you, absolutely nobody is coming to help or rescue or interpret."


title: And Then There Were None (TV series)

text: Maeve Dermody was cast two days before the read through of the script and was in Myanmar at the time. She flew to the UK to begin work with a dialect coach and read the book in the first two weeks of filming.


title: And Then There Were None (TV series)

text: Filming began in July 2015. Cornwall was used for many of the harbour and beach scenes, including Holywell Bay, Kynance Cove, and Mullion Cove. Harefield House in Hillingdon, outside London, served as the location for the island mansion. Production designer Sophie Beccher decorated the house in the style of 1930s designers like Syrie Maugham and Elsie de Wolfe. The below stairs and kitchen scenes were shot at Wrotham Park in Hertfordshire. Railway scenes were filmed at the South Devon Railway between Totnes and Buckfastleigh.


title: And Then There Were None (TV series)

text: "And Then There Were None" received critical acclaim and was a ratings success for the BBC, with the first episode netting over 6 million viewers and becoming the second most watched programme on Boxing Day. Each of the two subsequent episodes netted over 5 million viewers.


title: And Then There Were None (TV series)

text: On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, "And Then There Were None" has an approval rating of 86% based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's critics' consensus reads: "Dark yet dashingly executed, "And Then There Were None" offers a brazenly misanthropic look at human nature."


title: And Then There Were None (TV series)

text: Ben Dowell of the "Radio Times" gave a positive review. Jasper Reese for "The Daily Telegraph" gave the first episode 4 out of 5 stars, calling it a "pitch-black psychological thriller as teasing murder mystery" and "spiffingly watchable".