Professional Dissertations DMin

Date of Award

2002

Document Type

Project Report

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Doctor of Ministry DMin

First Advisor

Werner K. Vyhmeister

Second Advisor

Nancy Vyhmeister

Third Advisor

Ricardo Norton

Abstract

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Colombia at this time is facing dissidence from the group Koinonia. This research was carried out in order to produce material to help pastors, ministerial students, and laypeople to understand and face this dissident movement. The Bible and the writings of Ellen G. White provide the principles on which the Seventh-day Adventist Church has been established. These principles have been applied in order to face the problem caused by the group Koinonia in Colombia.

In order to understand what Koinonia teaches and how it operates, a number of interviews were conducted with former Koinonia supporters, with Seventh-day Adventist Church administrators in Colombia, with district pastors, with laypeople who have been influenced by Koinonia, and with ministerial students who have been in contact with those who spread the ideas of Koinonia. After a study of the biblical doctrine of the church, Koinonia activities and beliefs were analyzed. The three main areas of contention are that Koinonia maintains that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is in apostasy, that its organization makes it Babylon, and that each person is free to choose where he or she will pay tithe. Each of these ideas is refuted.

God established the church through Christ. The church is not perfect; it is not the kingdom of God. However, this does not mean that the church that God established is in apostasy. The believers in the church are instruments in God’s hands to promote the salvation of human beings. In view of the accusations of Koinonia and its persistent hostility, the Seventh-day Adventist Church cannot retain as members those who side with Koinonia in opposition to the church.

Subject Area

Church controversies--Colombia--Seventh-day Adventists; Seventh-day Adventists--Colombia; Seventh-day Adventists--Independent ministries

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dmin/538

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