After collecting data at various ONE Project sessions including, the Gathering, the Advance Conference, and the Create Conference, as well as two interviews with Pastors Sam Leonor and Terry Swenson, I felt I had a good amount of data to build a framework which I could use to analyze and interpret the results while I […]
What Others Have Said About the One Project
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a global family and with the rise of Social Media our ‘ties that bind’ are ever closer. Anyone today can post on Facebook or Twitter and expect a range of opinions from all over the world in real time. Likewise, the perspectives on The ONE Project are rich and varied […]
Relevance of the Investigative Judgment and Theological Pluralism
(Originally written for a group of Adventist ministers. by Mike Manea) I have over the years written many articles addressing the various objections raised against the doctrine of the Investigative Judgment(IJ) (http://bit.ly/IJcompilation). I’ve argued that we’re making a mistake debating critics on their exegesis when the real issue is their methodology. Significant work has been […]
Bible Prophecy for Atheists
For over ten years now I’ve been meaning to start an article series called, ‘Bible Prophecy for Atheists’ with the tagline, ‘Helping atheists interpret bible prophecy correctly so they can attempt to refute it intelligently.’ These days however I see the need rather to write an article with the same title, not for Atheists but […]
Christian Epistemic Models
The entirety of Christianity can be divided into several groups by epistemology; i.e. by how they build their knowledge beyond a basic concept of the existence of God. And, there are essentially three categories: High Certainty, Low Certainty or Arbitrary. When Jesus ascended to heaven He left behind three elements: the Church (Matt. 18:18), the […]
Articles on the Investigative Judgment
Intro Arguments against the Adventist doctrines of the Sanctuary and the Investigative Judgement take several forms that can be organized in order of importance: 1) ‘The IJ conflicts with the gospel or with the assurance of salvation.’ This argument is the most damaging and should be addressed before anything else. See a & b below. […]
QOD – A Way Forward Part 1
Background Some 60 years ago, the Adventist church was shaken up by the publication of a book called Questions on Doctrine (QOD). The book was intended to be a presentation of Adventist doctrine in language that the Evangelical world could better understand. And, while for the most part the book presented a typical exposition of […]
QOD – A Way Forward Part 2
(Read Part 1) The Nature of Christ, The Nature of Sin and Perfection If the two sides of the QOD debate can come to an agreement regarding Andreasen’s three-part atonement, there is hope that further progress is possible. In fact, I would propose that progress will prove easier than most might think because both sides […]
QOD – A Way Forward Part 3
(Read Part 2) Perfection, The Atonement and Everything Else In Andreasen’s Tag-Team Atonement theology, it was absolutely essential for the last generation to reach sinless perfection. The entire great controversy rested on this one factor. This created a major problem for Adventist understanding of salvation by grace through faith, since, such a mode of salvation […]
Why the Critics of the Investigative Judgment Have Failed
On October 22, 2015, the 171st Anniversary of the Great Disappointment of 1844, Spectrum Magazine published an article entitled, “1844 – Pillar of Faith or Mortal Wound.” According to the author, “…the viability of 1844 as a prophetic marker continues to depend heavily on isolated proof-texts. It seems Adventist scholars who defend 1844 as an […]
The Close of Probation
The close of probation is a concept that tends to strike fear in most Adventists and causes other Christians to view us with suspicion. But, as usual, it is because the concept is misunderstood. All Christians believe there is a close of probation, even though they don’t use the phrase. This might be at the […]
How Adventism Ended The Gospel Wars
You might think that, although Christians disagree on a lot of topics, they at least agree on the central theme of their religion: the gospel. But no such luck. You have Calvinism on the one side, Arminianism on the other, and an entire spectrum of options in between. And that’s just within Protestantism. The Catholic […]
Adventists and the Latter Rain
The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit is a topic that has been of significant interest to Adventists both historically and today. The early church was established in large part due to the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. And, the expectation is, that if the work of the gospel was started in the power of […]
Towards an Adventist Philosophy of Music
Much of today’s Christian music is to worship what Once Saved Always Saved (OSAS) is to theology.It’s an attempt to take hold of the assurance of God’s acceptance without a solid Biblical basis for such assurance. Over the years I’ve met many godly OSAS Christians. I have no doubt whatsoever that such people will be […]
On the Assurance of Salvation
How Adventism Ended the Gospel Wars On the close of probation – this one as an addendum to the assurance ones http://ssnet.org/blog/judgment-living-close-probation/
Christians, Scientific Methodology and Evolution Part 1
The theory of evolution has sparked much controversy among Christians. Some might even argue that this idea has done more to undermine the authority of Scripture than any other modern concept. On the other hand, many Christians have apparently found ways to reconcile their faith with the theory and have insisted that, to be taken […]
The Epistemology of Liberal Theology
Part 2 of Adventist Theology and the Exegesis Debate In my previous post I explained that Adventists have a set of presuppositions regarding the Biblical text that affect the methodology used to decipher the text. We don’t believe the Bible is a super-text, like the fundamentalists do, meaning therefore that it still has […]
Adventist Theology and the Exegesis Debate
I was recently talking with another Adventist who told me that the denominational position on 1844, the Sanctuary and the Investigative Judgment cannot be exegeted. In my opinion, we need to find much better ways to articulate the Adventist theological method to our members. I want to share some of my own thoughts on the […]
Christians, Scientific Methodology and Evolution Part 2
(Read Part 1) A Lack of Competing Models While as theists we expect science to be very effective in determining how our universe and everything in it works, we also expect that there will be some discrepancies when it comes to the process by which everything came into existence. And, because modern scientists sympathize with […]
Christians, Scientific Methodology and Evolution Part 3
(Read Part 1 or Part 2) An Alternative Theory So far in this series we’ve established that science works under an assumption of naturalism; the lack of alternative models makes evolutionary theory seem more certain than it is; and the alternative models proposed so far by Creationists have not been very successful. Now let’s elaborate […]
Manual For Debating Atheists
(This is a partial draft of a book that will be written on this topic) New Introduction As this material has been out for a while and has received significant amount of feedback I decided to write a new introduction that will hopefully better set the stage for the rest of the book. — In […]
Irreducible Complexity
Irreducible Complexity is a term that was coined by the microbiologist Michael Behe in the early ’90s intended as an argument against Evolution. It has since received a lot of criticism from the scientific community. The above is a video I put together in response to a popular YouTube video which criticizes Behe’s argument. The […]
A Response to M. Boudry on Methodological Naturalism
This is a work in progress. There are two main positions that atheists take in relation to the role of naturalism in science and my paper tries to explain why both positions are flawed. The following essay is a commentary on an article by Maarten Boudry called “How not to attack Intelligent Design Creationism: Philosophical […]
LGT Articles
A list of some of my articles on LGT and related topics. The lower articles are older and in need of revision. The Book at the bottom provides an alternative understanding of the elements that LGT is trying to protect. Adding two podcasts I did with Marcos and a video where Adrian does most of […]