I will never forget a phone call from a church member while I was pastoring who was quite concerned about me. You see, I had been suffering from a raspy voice for about three weeks, and was not the most pleasant to listen to while preaching. The caller started by sympathizing with my condition and wanting me to know he had been thinking about me. Then he told me the Lord had shown him why I had been struck by this malady: I had not embraced a point of doctrine he had come to believe and because I was not expounding on his cherished fringe ideology, God was taking away my voice.
What would you say to someone who made a claim like that? As long as we have a church filled with curious people who more than anything want to see Jesus come, we are going to have fringe beliefs popping up. These are often embraced by sincere people who have become hyper-focused on one area.
Beliefs, not creeds
While we as a church do not have a creed, we do have a list of fundamental beliefs which hold us together theologically. As Adventists, we hold the Bible and the Bible alone as the only source for our beliefs. We also believe we will be life-long learners and will be studying throughout eternity. Therefore, we always leave room for new knowledge and understanding from Scripture to guide our paths.
Our first collection of beliefs was compiled in 1872 and was titled “A Declaration of the Fundamental Principles Taught and Practiced by the Seventh-day Adventists.” It listed 25 points drawn from our church founders’ study of Scripture. The next edition of Adventist beliefs came out 42 years later in 1931. Several points were combined, giving us a total of 22. It was in 1931 that our points of faith became known as the “Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventists.” These beliefs were published in the 1931 Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook.
A formal vote on our beliefs came at the 1980 General Conference Session where 27 beliefs were adopted. The last change to this list came in 2005, at the General Conference Session held in St. Louis, Missouri. A new belief about growing in Christ was voted to our official list. While we still have 28 Fundamental Beliefs, their present form is the result of wording revisions made at the 2015 GC Session held in San Antonio, Texas.
Scholarly foundations
Why do I share this history? Because, in a very important way, these 28 Fundamental Beliefs are what hold us together. There are many other points of doctrine people want to introduce, or claim are central to Adventism that are not part of our official doctrinal position. This is something we must be mindful of and help people understand. We must be careful not to judge someone else’s Adventist journey by a set of beliefs outside our Fundamental 28.
Do the 28 Fundamental beliefs cover everything? Of course not. Is there going to be new light? Absolutely! But it is important to remember that no one should try to control people within the church by their own private interpretation which the church as a body has not recognized yet. The church has a well thought out plan to consider new light. It is full of rigor and in-depth study. (You can find the process in our Church Manual.)
The challenge with new theology is that it often comes lacking in scholarly foundations. Peer reviewed studies are a must as we seek to understand new light gleaned from Scripture.
Another challenge coming from fringe theology is that often it leads to extremism. When this happens, a local church can be divided and hurt terribly. I have seen this happen more than once over views people held that went beyond our Fundamental 28.
Our beliefs are precious and centered in our Savior, Jesus Christ. While we have always been able to let people believe something different than our Fundamental 28, we need to be careful not to let someone who believes differently teach in our churches something other than the fundamentals.
Oh, and by the way, my raspy voice disappeared the next day. Let’s be kind, gentle and long-suffering to those who might have a different point of view than we do. And let’s lift up and protect our core beliefs as we move forward together.
