Reviewing Adventist World, NAD Edition

September 2010

Vol. 6, No. 9

www.adventistworld.org

Adventist World is free online. For that reason, I only review or comment on articles and editorials that I believe to be of special interest.

GENERAL COMMENTS

This issue supplies an overall view of what happened at the 59th General Conference Session: who was elected, what it was like to be a delegate, and what was accomplished. Most of the information was old news if you had been following the action via Adventist Review/Adventist World 8 General Conference Bulletin Supplements. (That’s not to say that the magazine and even the online version are bereft of additional stories and technical reporting.)

Four items attracted my special attention: TAKING IT UP A NOTCH, an interview of Dan Jackson by Bill Knott and Mark Kellner; the 5 Languages of Apology in FAMILY: ENJOYING THE JOURNEY TOGETHER by Carol and David Tasker; WHAT IF, by Angel Manuel Rodriguez; and LOVE’S FINAL APPEAL by Mark Finley.

REVIEWS

Dan Jackson, our new NAD president made it crystal clear that he is “by faith a dogmatic believer in a short-term, literal, six-day creation”.

The frequent use of Gary Chapman’s 5 Languages of Apology are of vital importance when it comes to establishing lasting human relationships.

• Expressing REGRET 
“I am sorry”
• Accepting RESPONSIBILITY 
“I was wrong
• Making RESTITUTION 
“What can I do to make it right?”
• Genuinely REPENTING 
“I’ll try not to do that again”
• Requesting FORGIVENESS 
“Will you please forgive me?”

WHAT IF? Angel Manuel Rodriguez’ speculation about what would have happened if Jesus had sinned, raises serious questions as to his fitness to be director of the Biblical Research Institute of the General Conference.

“This question, phrased in different ways, is often asked. And I’m always reluctant to deal with it because it is an invitation to speculate on matters about which we know nothing...Since the biblical God is by definition unbeatable, our question remains almost unanswered. Had the human nature of the Son of God failed, God Himself would have failed. But He did not. Amen!”

In his Bible Study, LOVE’S FINAL APPEAL, Mark A. Finley proposes that the story of the Biblical Flood reveals God’s “compassion” and “everlasting love” for the human race.