The Adventist Theological Society Annual Fall Symposium is just around the corner. “The ATS presentations begin on Tuesday afternoon, November 15. These are in affiliation with the Evangelical Theological Society,” says Rahel Wells, ATS president.

The ATS presentations include:

            —“Holiness Restored: Ritual and the Effects of Sin in Ancient Israel” by Eric Ellison

            —“Which Ritual Abstentions Have Continuity Across Salvation History” by David J. Hamstra

            —“War as Worship: Hollow Form of Holiness” by Oliver Glanz

            —“Sanctification: A Dialogue Between John Wesley’s and Ellen White’s Soteriology” by Elmer Guzman

            —“What is Man? Holiness and the Holy One in the Psalter” by Jerome Skinner

            —“Righteousness and Holy Name in the Gog Oracle” by Kenneth Bergland

            —“Priestly Christology and Holiness: The Priesthood of Christ and the Sanctification of  Believers” by Adriani Milli Rodrigues

            —“The Holy Spirit or a Good Gift? A Textual and Redactional Reading of Luke          

               11:13” by Jonathan A. Campbell

            “The weekend events will begin on Friday night, November 18 at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel,” says Eike Mueller, ATS President-elect. “Friday evening features a meal and worship service, which is sponsored and hosted by the North American Division Ministerial Department.”

            A full day of activities are planned for Sabbath at the Boulder Adventist Church in Boulder. Morning presentations include “Holiness in Music” by David Williams and Holiness and Sabbath by JoAnn Davidson. Rahel Wells will provide the presidential sermon titled Holiness in Hard Times.

            Following lunch and a nature walk, the afternoon will feature breakout sessions, with the annual ATS Business Session following supper. 

At the 2022 Annual Council during a feature on the Biblical Research Institute (BRI), Gerhard Pfandl was honored for his contributions in developing the BRI library. Pfandl arrived at BRI in1999 and shortly thereafter was assigned the task of overseeing the library. “There were around 2,000 books in the library when I arrived,” said Pfandl during the presentation. Over the ensuing years that number has grown to 10,000+ volumes.

During the presentation Elder Ted N.C. Wilson announced that Pfandl’s contributions in growing the library would be recognized and honored by naming the library the Gerhard Pfandl library. You can watch the announcement here: https://bit.ly/pfandllibrary

ATS Member Justin Kim became the editor-elect of the Adventist Review on October 9 at the 2022 Annual Council meeting. It’s expected that he will become editor on January 1, 2023. Kim will succeed Bill Knott who serves as the current executive editor.

Kim most recently served as assistant director of the Department of Sabbath School and Personal Ministries (SSPM) at the General Conference. In June of 2022 he was elected as the associate director of SSPM. You can learn more about Kim and this recent election at https://bit.ly/KimElection

A Conference on Adventist Identity was presented October 13-15 at Andrews University. The conference’s theme was “Being the Remnant: Adventist Identity in History and Theology.” The conference was sponsored by the Office of Archives, Statistics and Research, the Biblical Research Institute, the Ellen G. White Estate, and the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary. Several ATS members presented papers during the conference. They include:

Jud Lake, Jiří Moskala, Alberto Timm, John Reeve, Denis Kaiser, Felix Cortez, Kevin Burton, Richard M. Davidson, John Peckham, David Williams, Goran Zivkovic, Clinton Wahlen, Jo Ann Davidson, Andrew Tompkins, Petras Bahadur, Merlin Burt, Frank Hasel, and David Trim.

The presentations are available at the following links.

Thursday https://bit.ly/AIThursday

Friday Morning https://bit.ly/AIFridayMorning

Friday Afternoon https://bit.ly/AIFridayAfternoon

Friday Evening https://bit.ly/AIFridayNight

Sabbath Morning https://bit.ly/AISabbathMorning

Sabbath Afternoon https://bit.ly/AISabbathAfternoon

Do you find yourself attempting to live life in continual crunch time mode? Gerald Klingbeil shares how this isn’t God’s ideal for humans and provides suggestions for a change in his article “Crunch Time.” https://bit.ly/ARCrunchTime

Why have some Christians begun to rationalize biblical events and question God’s power. Clifford Goldstein explores God’s power considering secularism and human explanations in his article, “The Metaphysics of Miracles.”  https://bit.ly/ATSMetaphysics

In “The Limits of Excarnational Truth,” Shawn Brace considers the implications if we have beliefs that we don’t live out daily.  https://bit.ly/ExcarnationalTruth

Ronny Nalin provides an informational guide to discuss faith and science in “The Science in Faith and the Faith in Science.” Nalin guides the discussion by using the topics ofinformal definitions, the science of faith, faith in science, and an online quiz to test your knowledge. https://bit.ly/ATSScienceFaith

In “One Conspiracy Theory Adventists Can Support,” Jeff Scoggins stresses that we must always distinguish between genuine and fake. He provides five biblical steps for the reader to use as a standard for uncovering the counterfeits and finding the genuine. https://bit.ly/oneconspiracy

Shawn Boonstra reassures in “Paradise Lost” that sharing prophecy still works because people are looking for order and hope in their lives.

https://bit.ly/ATSParadiseLost

Are you looking for a new mission story to read during the Sabbath hours? Gerald Klingbeil’s review “Hidden Song of the Himalayas” will have you ordering it for your next excursion into what it means to be a church-planting family in the 10/40 window. https://bit.ly/hiddensong

Some people say, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.” In his article, “The Junkyard Collector,” Joseph Olstad reflects on Mr. B, who saw value in items that others considered junk. https://bit.ly/junkcollector

Spiritual milestones. Each of us has them. At times they become less perceptible, and what do we do then? In “Choosing to Follow,” Sarah Burton Gane explores how we are to react to our faith and the milestones we experience, regardless of the phase of spiritual life we are currently living. https://bit.ly/choosetofollow

Adventist Pilgrimage

You won’t want to miss these podcast episodes with Michael W. Campbell and Gregory Howell.

• State of the Dead (featuring Dr. James Wibberding)—Michael and Greg travel to Pacific Union College to talk with Dr. James Wibberding,            chair of the department of religion and Adventist historian. Dr. Wibberding taught an inspiring course on the women of Adventist history and shares some stories with us—but he also knows how to have a good time in a cemetery.
• The Record Keeper—Greg gets the month off while Michael talks about his basement discoveries and the    importance of keeping historical records.
• The Seventh Day Baptists—Michael Campbell joins Matthew Lucio and Kevin Burton, and together they visit the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference and chat with Rev. Nicholas J. Kersten, director of education and history, about the intersections between SDA and                                                                               SDB history. Hilarity ensues.
• You can access this podcast series at the following:
• Megaphone—https://bit.ly/APMegaphone
• Apple Podcasts—https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adventist-pilgrimage/id1558388185
• Spotify—https://open.spotify.com/show/72XScH8GN9TjM9ySUr0MYP

Sabbath School Rescue

Sabbath School Rescue with the “Campbell Swoopes” duo digs deeper into the weekly Sabbath School lesson. 

• Interview with Dr. Alberto Timm— Why death and dying this quarter? After you hear Dr. Timm's interview many of your questions will be answered.
• Other episodes include “Death in a Sinful World,” “Understanding Human Nature,” “The Old Testament Hope,” “Resurrections Before the Cross,” and “He Died for Us.”

You can access this podcast series at the following:

Apple Podcasts—https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sabbath-school-rescue/id1499009364

Spotify—https://open.spotify.com/show/4HCJmkvpBCdTNqxN3JGjYJ

It Is Written Sabbath School — Study your weekly lesson with It Is Written Sabbath School host Eric Flickinger and Alberto Timm, the Adult Bible Study Guide author for this quarter’s lessons. https://bit.ly/ItIsWrittenABSG

Integrating Creation Science

Science educators and Adventist scientists in the Philippines met to learn more about “Integration of Creation Science in Teaching and Mission.” ATS members Ronny Nalin and Timothy Standish represented the Geoscience Research Institute of the General Conference. Read more at: https://bit.ly/CreationScienceMission

ATS Members in New Leadership Positions

The following ATS members were elected or re-elected to positions at the 2022 General Conference Session in St. Louis, Missouri.

• Pastor Audrey Andersson was elected as a general vice-president of the General Conference. https://bit.ly/AnderssonGCVP
• Dr. Alberto Timm has been elected as an associate director of the Biblical Research Institute. https://bit.ly/TimmBRI
• Barna Magyarosi was re-elected as secretary of the Inter-European Division. https://bit.ly/MagyarosiSecretary
• Robert Osei-Bonsu was elected as president of the West-Central Africa Division. https://bit.ly/Osei-BonsuWAD
• Anthony Kent was re-elected as associate secretary of the General Conference Ministerial Department.
• Geoffrey Mbwana was re-elected as a general vice-president of the General Conference.
• Artur Stele was re-elected as a general vice-president of the General Conference.
• Ramon Canals was elected director of the General Conference Ministerial Department.

Ekkehardt Mueller and Daniel Bediako serve as editor for the volume The Sabbath in the Old Testament and the Intertestamental Period: Implications for Christians in the Twenty-First Century.  The book covers the Sabbath from exegetical perspectives. From the opening lines of the Hebrew Bible to the last book of the canon of the Christian church, the Sabbath features prominently as a time of rest, fellowship for believers, and particularly worship of God, reminding humanity of His work of creation and redemption and touching on other important themes of Scripture.

 ATS members who contributed to the book include Teresa Reeve, Lael Caesar, Roy Gane, Elias Brasil de Souza, Richard M. Davidson, Laurentiu G. Ionescu, and Gerhard Pfandl. The digital book was recently released on the Logos platform.

Print copies are available through the Biblical Research Institute. https://bit.ly/OTSabbathBR       Ebooks are available through Logos. https://bit.ly/SabbathOT

For a review on the importance of worldview and how Scripture informs us on what the Christian worldview includes, you’ll want to read Living With the Mind of Jesus: How Beliefs Shape Our Worldview. Authors S. Joseph Kidder and Katelyn Campbell Weakley wrote about the topic in four parts. In the first part of the book, they answer the question about what worldview is and examine the influences that can shape it and how Scripture, religion, and culture play a role.

In Part II, the authors explore worldview considering Adventist beliefs of Creation, the Fall, sin, the character of God, redemption, and re-creation. Part III answers the question on the process of worldview change, and Part IV outlines why and how parents play a crucial role in shaping the worldview of their children.

• You can also read Gerald Klingbeil’s review of the book at https://bit.ly/MindofJesus

The recently published True North is a compilation of thirteen scholars, pastors, and evangelists writing on the need for a deeper personal commitment to Christ and biblical truths. ATS members who authored chapters include Mark Finley, Michael G. Hasel, Clifford Goldstein, Elias Brasil de Souza, and Clinton Wahlen. https://bit.ly/TrueNorthCompilation