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Wahroonga, New South Wales
Nathan Brown
Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders and Bible scholars from across the South Pacific affirmed the Adventist belief in the nature of God and the Trinity in a statement endorsed at the conclusion of a congress held from May 1 to 4.
About 70 theologians, administrators and pastors gathered to examine questions raised among some church members surrounding these beliefs.
“How are we able to learn more about God? And what is the nature of the God we worship?” reflects congress organiser Dr Paul Petersen, field secretary for the Adventist Church in the South Pacific. “One way to answer such questions is to study the topic of the Trinity as revealed through the Bible.”
To this end, the program included the presentation of academic papers from the South Pacfic and international scholars, as well as times of group Bible study and worship.
Dr Ray Roennfeldt, dean of theology at Avondale College, pointed out how the Adventist view of the Trinity is meaningful only if based on an understanding of what the Bible teaches about salvation. “It is because of our belief in the full atonement of Jesus Christ that we believe in His eternal divinity and have developed Trinitarian expressions of faith,” says Dr Roennfeldt. “The Trinity doctrine teaches that God was fully in Christ, and we do not have to look anywhere but the cross for our redemption. As Jesus is, so God is.”
“The doctrine of the Trinity in the early church emerged as a biblical response to attempts to define Jesus in light of Greek and pagan philosophical speculation,” adds Dr Petersen. “We, as Adventists, have rightfully turned away from using and being dependent on the philosophy of the ancient Hellenistic world and, in line with reformers like Martin Luther, we want to view God in light of His self-revelation in Jesus, as revealed by the Holy Spirit through the Bible.
“The belief of the early church in the Trinity was not just the position of one section of Christianity, but was and is the belief of all Christian churches.”
Visiting scholars included Dr Ekkehardt Mueller, from the General Conference’s Biblical Research Institute, Dr Kai Arasola, from Mission College in Thailand, and Brian Edgar, a non-Adventist scholar from Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky (USA), who presented on the wider Christian theological framework of these issues.
Congress presenters contributed to a meeting held in the Fox Valley Community Centre on May 3, inviting ministers and local church leaders of the Greater Sydney Conference to a session, which included question-and-answer time.
The statement from congress participants was discussed and revised before being endorsed unanimously. “The conclusion is clear,” says Dr Petersen. “Adventist theologians of the South Pacific Division see the Holy Spirit’s guidance in the direction of our church toward a Trinitarian position. Our belief is based on biblical evidence and confirmed by the work of the Spirit.”
Along with articles contributed by Adventist scholars around the world, the papers presented at the congress will be edited for publication later this year.
Read the statement.
