Ted Wilson

Wilson’s presentation was one of several of the series held during the 10-day international event and sponsored by the Geoscience Research Institute.

Although Wilson’s new responsibilities as world church president will prevent him from continuing in many of his previous roles, he shared his intent to remain chair of the Geoscience Research Institute board, a position he’s held since 1999.

“I am so proud of our Geoscience Research Institute and Faith and Science Council,” Wilson said at the beginning of his presentation. “These organizations, along with the Biblical Research Institute, form the core defense for God’s great Word—the Word of God.”

“What an incredible Creator; what an incredible God,” Wilson noted, after reading Revelation 4:1-11. “Praise God for the intellectuals who presented their faith during the ‘Yes, Creation!’ [lecture] series right here at General Conference session. You learn many wonderful things, including the strong evidence for God as the Creator.

“Unfortunately, there are those who dismiss Genesis 1–11 as allegorical, [as] nice stories but only symbolic,” he added. “I want to tell you . . . that God created this world in six literal, consecutive, contiguous, 24-hour days of recent origin.” (Read more)

Southeastern California Conference delegate, Donna Richards, is interviewed by pastor of LSU Church, Chris Oberg.

[Excerpt]

1. Creation

Given the recent discussions in the church about the promotion of theistic evolution in some of our institutions, it came as no surprise that the world church re-affirmed its belief in the historicity of Genesis 1-11, a literal 6-day, 24-hour, contiguous, creation. The delegates did so in two important actions–namely, (i) approving a 2004 “Affirmation of Creation Statement,” and (ii) recommending to the Church Manual committee to incorporate essential components of that Statement into our Fundamental Belief #6.

The 2004 “Affirmation of Creation Statement” is a significant document that summarized the views of the church after a three-year discussion of the issue of creation and evolution. In view of the fact that some within our ranks are claiming that our present Fundamental Belief #6 (dealing with Creation) is ambiguous or broad enough to allow for naturalistic evolution, the 2004 Affirmation of Creation Statement makes very explicit what is implicit Fundamental Belief #6—namely, God actually created the heavens and the earth in six literal days, of 24-hours each.

In the deliberations on the floor and in their vote for these two actions delegates essentially rejected the new views on Creation, arguing that theistic evolution: (i) undermines the authority and reliability of Scripture, (ii) attacks the character of God, (iii) overturns key aspects of the doctrine of salvation, (iv) overthrows the foundation for morality, and (v) seriously erodes distinctive doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The 2004 Affirmation of Creation Statement ensures that there will be no doubt in anyone’s mind about our church’s position. It was very clear that the representatives of the world church were very concerned that at a time when the Church needed resources to preach the gospel, we are actually paying some people to stand in our classrooms and pulpits to undermine our biblical teaching on Creation. I believe that the 2004 Affirmation Statement will ensure that our members and employees are held accountable.

By recommending to the Church Manual Committee a rewording of our current Fundamental Belief #6 to incorporate the essential components of the Affirmation of Creation Statement, the delegates were seeking to bring a definitive closure to the claim by some that theistic evolution is an option for Seventh-day Adventists. (Full article)

Ted Wilson

Go forward, not backward! Stand firm for God’s Word as it is literally read and understood. Of course, we must always humbly recognize that we are finite, fallen creatures observing the works of an infinite omnipotent God. There are things in both of God’s two great books of nature and Scripture that we do not fully comprehend. In fact, we are told that the sacrifice of Jesus will be “the science and the song of the redeemed throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity.” But that which the Lord in His mercy has given to us in clear language to be taken as fact simply because He said so must not be shrouded in skepticism. Don’t go backwards to misinterpret the first eleven chapters of Genesis or other areas of Scripture as allegorical or merely symbolic. As just this week we have once again affirmed in an overwhelming manner, the Seventh-day Adventist Church both teaches and believes in the biblical record of creation which took place recently; in six literal, consecutive, contiguous 24 hour days. The Seventh-day Adventist Church will never change its stand or belief in that foundational doctrine. If God did not create this world in six literal days and then blessed the Sabbath day, why are we worshipping Him today on this seventh-day Sabbath as SEVENTH-DAY Adventists? To misunderstand or to misinterpret this doctrine is to deny God’s Word and to deny the very purpose of the Seventh-day Adventist movement as the remnant church of God called to proclaim the three angels’ messages with Holy Spirit power. Don’t go backwards to atheistic or theistic evolution, go forward to the prophetic understanding that loyalty to God, the Creator and Redeemer, will be seen in the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath as the distinguishing characteristic of God’s people in the very end of time. Seventh-day Adventist Church members, hold your leaders, pastors, local churches, educators, institutions, and administrative organizations accountable to the highest standards of belief based on a literal understanding of Scripture. Utilize wonderful resources such as the Biblical Research Institute’s new book on hermeneutics that helps us know the correct way to interpret the Scriptures.

Ted Wilson Sermon

June 30 2010, during GC session general vice president Gerry D. Karst introduced the following motion to the floor:

Part A, I move that the [59th] session of the General Conference endorse the 2004 Annual Council statement, reaffirmation of creation. Part B, further, that the General Conference administration be requested to initiate a process to integrate Fundamental Belief Number 6 and the statement ‘A [Response to An Affirmation] of Creation’ as provided for in the 2005 General Conference Session protocol for amending a Fundamental Belief.

Both motions passed despite being split at the suggestion of Southern Adventist University president, Gordon Bietz.

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An article by Keith Lockhart, published by Spectrum, is quite interesting concerning more details of this vote.  Here are a few excerpts from his article:

[New GC President Ted] Wilson appealed to delegates to allow the General Conference to initiate a process to integrate the 2004 affirmation with the church’s current fundamental belief no. 6. This states that in “six days the Lord made ‘the heaven and the earth’ and all living things upon the earth and rested on the seventh day.” But the leadership now thinks it is too ambiguous on biblical origins.The president said: “It is absolutely critical that we accept Scripture as it reads. Personally, and I know in the Seventh-day Adventist Church we believe, that the first 11 chapters of Genesis are not allegorical, not symbolic in some abstract way, but they represent an authentic, a true literal explanation of how God created this earth and also those events following creation, including a global flood of massive proportions.

Holding up a Bible he added: “We are facing a critical time. The devil is trying his best to undermine the very foundations of our beliefs that are derived from this Word.”…

Southern Adventist University president Gordon Bietz urged that the vote be split into two sections. The first would be a vote on the reaffirmation of the affirmation of creation, and the second, which he opposed, would be opening up the doctrine for a rewrite.

 

Ben Clausen of the Geoscience Research Institute said that Ted Wilson’s statement put science teachers in Adventist schools in an untenable position. Quoting from the statement, Dr. Clausen said that “it is impossible,” to teach students “scientifically rigorous exposure to and affirmation of our historic belief in a literal, recent six-day creation.”

He added: “There are no available models.”…

With very little time set aside for debate and only a few delegates publicly opposing any modification of the church’s current statement on creation, the proposals easily cleared the floor…

As a participant in the International Faith and Science Conferences in Colorado in 2002-2004, Larry Geraty, president emeritus of La Sierra University… was responsible for drafting the original fundamental belief 6 when he taught at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary thirty years ago. He adds:

I fear that the proposal will result in a more literalistic interpretation that will serve to exclude members who love the church, believe in the authority of the Bible, but interpret it in harmony with accepted standards of interpretation for God’s revelation in both nature and Scripture.

(read the full article…)

Educate Truth has confirmed that a committee has been setup by the LSU Board of Trustees to “discipline,” or quite possibly kick out, three board members for sharing information with three church officials. LSU seems intent that no one, even at the division or general conference level, should know what is going on. This isn’t surprising given their track record since this controversy became public in April 2009. Through questionable advertising practices and harassment of a LSU student who played a significant part in publicizing this issue, they have continually attempted to cover up the problem. There is probably tremendous pressure on board members to keep silent. With this in mind, Educate Truth would like to make it perfectly clear that nothing that has been published here was passed on to us by a LSU Board member.

Finally, over one year later, the LSU Board has created a special committee to look into the problems within the biology department. Why this didn’t happen earlier is a mystery. No news on how many are on the committee or who is on it or how long they’ll take. This is the first action the board has taken to directly address the problems within LSU’s biology department that we know of.