Dear Karl: I truly appreciate your …

Comment on An apology to PUC by Kevin Paulson.

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

Kevin Paulson Also Commented

An apology to PUC
Dear Eddie:

I fully agree. None of those sins should be practiced by anyone who lives off the Lord’s money.

God bless!

Pastor Kevin Paulson


An apology to PUC
It is becoming increasingly obvious that those advocating greater “tolerance” for theistic evolution and similar errors in our schools, have little or no regard for the teachings of Scripture in the broadest sense. Like the literal creation week and the universal Flood in Noah’s day, the Biblical doctrine of human sexuality is clear in both Old and New Testaments. Homosexual behavior is sinful–like fornication, adultery, incest, and similar departures from the divine plan. That is the teaching of God’s Word, without ambiguity or qualification. Yet it seems there are participants in this conversation who are oblivious to these very plain Biblical teachings, or at least appear to treat them with astonishing indifference.

This is the challenge God’s church is presently facing. Those calling for unfettered “tolerance” and “academic freedom” in our schools give increasing evidence that there is practically no variation from Bible truth, or perhaps none at all, which they think the church has the right to forbid within its ranks. If such clearly unscriptural, unchristian ideas as evolution and homosexuality are to be permitted within the church, where would these “tolerance” purveyors set limits? Nowhere? What if a likable, charismatic religion professor in one of our schools suddenly declared himself an atheist? Would the permissive ones among us defend “academic freedom” for him as well?

Make no mistake about it. What we presently see in the so-called “progressive” circles of our church is not only a repudiation of Adventism, but of Christianity as well.

God bless!

Pastor Kevin Paulson


Recent Comments by 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


LSU student petition surfaces
We need thousands more like these among Adventist students in all of our mainline schools, from the secondary to the graduate level. I pray their numbers increase, and do so dramatically.

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


PUC responds
Dear Samantha:

I appreciate your spirit of inquiry and desire to learn. But I urge you to consider that the Bible does not present itself as an ambiguous document which all are invited to subjectively interpret and apply as they please to their spiritual walk. The Bible assumes both the existence of an absolute, transcendent standard of right and wrong (Isa. 8:20; Acts 17:11; II Tim. 3:15-16), and the ability of human beings to perceive the content of this standard and be held accountable for it (Eccl. 12:14; II Cor. 5:10; James 2:10-12).

The Bible not only assumes that God will ultimately hold men and women accountable for their response to His Word; it also commands the faith community to hold one another accountable for faithfulness in word and deed (II Thess. 3:13-14; I Tim. 1:3,4). Belief in the truth and the conscious acceptance thereof is also declared in Scripture to be a matter of salvation (Hosea 4:6; John 8:31; II Thess. 2:13). According to the Bible, when dealing with sacred truth we are not dealing with subjective opinions. We are dealing with eternal realities.

I am not a trained scientist like the professor whose lecture has been the subject of scrutiny on this forum. But I know others who are in fact trained scientists, who would certainly say that the evidence presented by the professor in question regarding a recent creation and a universal Flood, was seriously incomplete. Merely because a pastor or professor comes across as open, intelligent, gracious, and God-centered does not mean he or she is “playing with a full deck” so far as relevant evidence is concerned.

God bless!

Pastor Kevin Paulson


PUC responds
Perhaps we would all be wise not to make this an issue of intellectual or personal maturity, or the alleged lack thereof. Most assuredly the students at PUC, or any of our other institutions, are not children, and should not be treated as such. But that is not the point in this conversation. I have seen adults of advanced years led easily astray by the charisma and presumed expertise of certain ones, and I have seen academy and college students wise enough to not blindly accept everything they hear in the pulpit or classroom, and to calmly apply the Berean test to every idea they encounter (Acts 17:11).

As I listen to the comments of the various students and alumni of PUC in this discussion, I am struck by the ironic similarity between their desire to be treated with respect, and the feelings I and many of my fellow students had on the same campus in a similar controversy many years ago. Only then, strangely enough, it was those of us who were conservative in our beliefs who were told we were too young and immature to have convictions about the issues at hand. It was we who were defending the orthodox teachings of our faith who were told we were “wet behind the ears” (a phrase one liberal Adventist scholar actually used at that time), and essentially told to take our cues from the “experts” and let them decide for us.

Had we agreed with those who were attacking fundamental Adventism and seeking to relegate it to the backwaters of a bygone era, we would doubtless have been hailed by the liberal professors and their fellow travelers as the young, idealistic outriders of the coming generation, poised to lead the church into a new era of presumed “enlightenment.” But because we were young yet conservative in our theology, we were seen as immature and lacking depth. Looking at the way many theological liberals are reacting just now to the rise of the GYC movement, it is clear not much has changed. Conservative theology and lifestyle standards being promoted by the young is a contingency most theological liberals simply haven’t programmed into their system.

This brings up a most important point. “Free thinking” is often a very relative term. Many who consider themselves liberated from the established and settled views of one group of authority figures, often find themselves captive to a different group of assumptions from another set of authority figures. What many such persons have done is to simply exchange one form of dogmatism for another. It is like a bumper sticker I saw years ago: “People who think they know it all are very annoying to those of us who do.”

In the end, as Jesus said, there are really only two roads for travelers–the broad road leading to destruction and the narrow road leading to eternal life (Matt. 7:13-14). Describing the broad road, Ellen White has written, “There is room for every man’s opinions and doctrines” (Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, p. 138). One way or the other, we will find ourselves under one or another set of presuppositions, one or another system of authority. It is best we recognize God’s way as revealed in His Word to be the best alternative, without having to learn so the hard way.

God bless!

Pastor Kevin Paulson