Dear Louie: Your courage has, by …

Comment on Student reveals true intent of LSU’s biology seminar class by Kevin Paulson.

Dear Louie:

Your courage has, by the grace of God, accorded you a place in Adventist history. My desire is for your integrity and passion for truth to be duplicated exponentially, throughout the Adventist higher educational structure. Godly young people who hold to our distinctive message must raise their voices to a crescendo that will not be denied.

I am so glad to hear from the biology teacher at Monterey Bay Academy, where I attended some years ago. Thank God we still have teachers who hold to the principles found in Scripture and the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy! And may the cause of revival and reformation speed on and triumph gloriously!

God bless!

Pastor Kevin Paulson

Kevin Paulson Also Commented

Student reveals true intent of LSU’s biology seminar class
Dear Lydian:

I am not aware that any tithe outside the Pacific Union goes to the support of La Sierra University. As a Union institution, its sustenance is drawn from the territory it serves. With Loma Linda University, Andrews University, Oakwood University, and similar institutions whose direct sponsor is the General Conference, it is the entire world church from which support is drawn.

God bless!

Pastor Kevin Paulson


Student reveals true intent of LSU’s biology seminar class
Dear Lydian:

Let me clarify, if I may, some facts about La Sierra University and those to whom it is accountable in the denominational structure. Actually, LSU is located in the Southeastern California Conference, not the Southern California Conference. Moreover, LSU is owned and operated by the entire Pacific Union Conference, which includes far more than the two southern California conferences where many of its students come from.

I too lived in southern California for some time–18 years, to be sure, prior to accepting a call to the Greater New York Conference. I attended La Sierra University as well as Loma Linda University, studying for a Master’s degree in systematic theology. While it is true that Adventism in southern California includes a very large constitutency that is theologically liberal, it is also true–as you have noted–that many godly, dedicated Adventists live in that region also. Sadly, too many of them keep silent at moments such as these.

Regarding financial support, I would urge caution in assuming that theological liberals would make up the gap if conservatives and others were to withhold support from La Sierra University. Having lived and worked among theological liberals, both in southern California and elsewhere, I have found the issue of finances to be one area where liberals are quite conservative and where conservatives are quite liberal! Giving regularly, proportionately, and sacrificially to the church and its institutions is a trait of those who hold to the singular, unique mission of Seventh-day Adventism and its place in salvation history. Theological liberals don’t even believe in the unique identity and mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Hence, if they give of their means at all to any religious causes, their generosity is spread about very widely. Many others, due to their ecclectic, self-accommodating spirituality, tend to keep most of their means to themselves, believing their “progressive” religious outlook has liberated them to sample life and its temporal pleasures without guilt.

At the bottom line, it is the support of the conservatives that the church cannot afford to lose. No one out there, in all likelihood, is going to make up the gap should this support be lost. It is those who devoutly believe the church’s doctrinal and moral imperatives who form the bedrock of the church’s sustenance. Sooner or later, their convictions and hopes will not be denied.

God bless!

Pastor Kevin Paulson


Recent Comments by Kevin Paulson

NAD President, Education Director Dialog with La Sierra Campus Community
To all participants in the present discussion:

If we’re going to address the issue of how the origins debate should be handled in the public schools, I think we should recognize from the outset that this is most different from the basic question raised by this Web site, which of course is the question of whether theories of origins contrary to Scripture, the Spirit of Prophecy writings, and fundamental Adventist beliefs should be promoted in a Seventh-day Adventist classroom or pulpit.

As a strong Biblical conservative, I am constrained both to support the Genesis creation account as well as the separation of church and state. Seventh-day Adventists have historically supported both on strict Bible grounds. As strongly as I oppose within the church the teaching of ideas and practices which contradict God’s written counsel, I oppose with equal strength the efforts of certain Christian to impose Christian teachings and personal values through civil law.

With this in mind, I believe the best approach to origins in a public school classroom is a modified version of a proposal advanced by the late Stephen Jay Gould of Harvard, very much a devout evolutionist. Gould argued that the teaching of creationism did in fact belong in the teaching of science in public schools, but that it should be covered specifically when addressing the history of scientific thought. I would take this further than Gould and say evolution belongs in that section also.

Technically, as I see this discussion, neither creation nor evolution constitutes strict science, as science requires both observation and experimentation, and no one was present when the natural world came into existence. Science can be summoned to support both theories, but at the bottom line, both concepts invariably lead away from science into the realm of philosophy and faith.

As with other issues of theology and morality which at times enter the public square, it has long been my conviction that the objective evidence supporting the Biblical worldview is sufficiently decisive that the spurs of civil coercion need not be used to promote it to the larger society. The Christian community has sufficient resources and a massive popular presence in our culture, and these should be utilized to set before the public the evidence supporting the claims of the Bible and the Christian faith. Most of all, Christians need to focus less on impacting society through politics and more on impacting their neighbors and society in general through the power of a godly Christian example. From my experience, even the most secular minds have trouble gainsaying the power of the latter.

Finally, I think Phil Brantley needs to define a bit more carefully what he means by “mainstream,” when he says creationism is not a “mainstream” view. Does he mean mainstream in terms of accepted scientific thought, or does he refer to popular opinion? If the latter is considered, it might help to note that every poll I have seen indicates a large percentage (often a majority) of the American public at least, holds to a view of origins closer to Genesis than to Darwin.

God bless!

Pastor Kevin Paulson


NAD President, Education Director Dialog with La Sierra Campus Community
Perhaps it helps to remember that while Aaron was a facilitator, Moses was a watchman. The latter are the sort of leaders God seeks in a time of crisis such as this.

God bless!

Pastor Kevin Paulson


Former LSU student letter reveals professor’s agenda
Dear “Professor Kent”:

You seem to forget, once again, that neither Christ, His love, His forgiveness, nor His cross would be necessary if Darwinian macro-evolution is the story of humanity’s origins.

And once again you give evidence of your embrace of the false dichotomy so popular in modern and postmodern Adventism between “Christ” and the “doctrines.” You insist that correct doctrine will save no one. And you are wrong. Over and over again, in Holy Scripture, truth is declared to be the means of salvation (Hosea 4:6; Matt. 4:4; John 8:31; II Thess. 2:13; I Tim. 4:16). Such truth must be internalized within the heart, to be sure, but it is still the means by which God saves men and women.

You cannot separate Jesus from a literal understanding of the early chapters of Genesis, since repeatedly He made clear in His teachings that He took these events literally. The same holds true for the other New Testament authors. You cannot have the Gospel and evolution too. You cannot embrace Jesus and relegate the Genesis Flood to mythic or mere literary status. It is impossible.

The longer this discussion proceeds, the clearer it will be that you and all others who think as you do are in the wrong church. It is tragic you insist on putting yourself through the needless pain and agony of living a lie.

God bless!

Pastor Kevin Paulson


Former LSU student letter reveals professor’s agenda
Though I had briefly reviewed the letter from Jason and Janelle Shives some days ago, tonight was the first time I actually sat down to read the entire document. It is a masterful though tragic account of a most disturbing situation.

I have known Jason Shives for some time, and have admired him for his courage in standing for truth. He and I share a common experience in having both served as president of the Loma Linda University student body.

What is needed is a grassroots movement of godly students like Jason and Janelle, who will not sit and listen quietly to the perversion of truth in Adventist classrooms. Leaders with the courage to act are needed, most assuredly, but when a groundswell of concern from the young becomes evident, they can act with the awareness that the rising generaiton does not, after all, wish to see the church’s teachings trashed, as the liberals devoutly believe.

If the Bible means anything at all, revival and reformation involve drastic changes in the faith and practice of a community which for a time has departed from the written counsel of God. In the Bible story, this has generally meant the removal of unfaithful personnel from positions of influence and leadership. Most assuredly this must happen in contemporary Adventism. If it means closing departments or even institutions until we can staff them with faithful teachers, we must be prepared to do this.

Let us keep in particular our new General Conference President in our prayers, as the task of guiding the denominational ship of state rests to a large degree in his hands.

God bless!

Pastor Kevin Paulson


An apology to PUC
Dear Karl:

I truly appreciate your clarity and your speaking from the heart as you have. PUC is my alma mater also. And the things you have described I have heard described by a number of credible eyewitnesses. This climate of doctrinal indifference and postmodern spirituality, in which any and all viewpoints are given equal value (except of course those actually challenging the undergirding mindset of these folks), is a scandal of unapralleled proportions.

You are so right about constituents and school administrators turning a blind eye. I can only hope this is now starting to change, with the agitation of those like the organizers of this Web site, and the tone set by our new General Conference President.

I truly believe, however, that the real root of this tragedy is not so much postmodernism as those popular theories of salvation in modern Adventism which have devalued the necessity of correct doctrine and practical holiness. Once salvation is seen to be secure apart from correct belief and a godly life, once we accept the lie that error and sin are the unavoidable companions of even the sanctified believer, it became inevitable that erroneous worldviews and sinful practices would become less and less offensive in the church.

We need a thorough revival and a thorough reformation, and a consequently thorough cleansing of the ranks. I have been studying lately the Bible stories of revival and reformation in the faith community. Believe me, the process was never a feel-good, everybody-come-together-unconditionally type of event. False worship was destroyed. Wrong practices were condemned and expelled from the camp. Apart from such real-life consequences, these cherished words become just another empty slogan.

Thanks again, Karl, for your candor.

God bless!

Pastor Kevin Paulson