The books shown here have been authored or edited by Seminary faculty. Information on where to purchase the books is included.
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Understanding Ellen White: the Life and Work of the Most Influential Voice in Adventist History
Merlin D. Burt
The Seventh-day Adventist Church has become a truly global movement with almost twenty million members from diverse cultures and backgrounds; many of whom are unfamiliar with the history of God s leading and the prophetic ministry of Ellen White. While it does not attempt to provide the final answer for every question, Understanding Ellen White builds a foundation for interpreting her experience with God and her ministry. Basic to any understanding of Ellen White is her own walk with God. Two golden threads weave throughout her life and experience and are central to who she was and what she accomplished: the love of God in Christ and a focus on Scripture. When these two principles are correctly understood and integrated in examining Ellen White s life and experience, then all other issues addressed in this book are put in perspective. Perhaps the saddest reality regarding Ellen White s writings is that many dismiss them as irrelevant even before reading her work. A Kellogg s Corn Flakes advertisement from several years ago is apropos when applied to Ellen White s writings and ministry: whether you have lived with her writings your whole life or have never read her, the invitation is to taste them again for the very first time.
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Current Issues in Priestly and Related Literature: The Legacy of Jacob Milgrom and Beyond
Roy Gane and Ada Taggar-Cohn
The single greatest catalyst and contributor to our developing understanding of priestly literature has been Jacob Milgrom (1923–2010), whose seminal articles, provocative hypotheses, and comprehensively probing books vastly expanded and significantly altered scholarship regarding priestly and related literature. Nineteen articles build on Milgrom’w work and look to future directions of research. Essays cover a range of topics including the interpretation, composition and literary structure of priestly and holiness texts as well as their relationships to deuteronomic and extra-biblical texts. The book includes a bibliography of Milgrom’s work published between 1994 and 2014.
Features:
- Comparisons with Mesopotamian Hittite texts
- Essays from a diverse group of scholars representing a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and methodologies
- Charts and tables illustrate complex relationships and structures
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Questions and Answers About Women's Ordination
Martin Hanna and Cindy Tutsch
In Questions and Answers About Women's Ordination, Martin Hanna, PhD and Cindy Tutsch, Dmin take an indepth look at this much discussed issue of women's ordination in the Seventh-day Adventist church. Here is what many thought leaders in the church have to say about this work:
I believe the Spirit of God has guided our community of faith into a prayerful, collective study of the role of women in gospel ministry. While church commissions and committees have already invested hundreds of hours in the study, this book's concise and clear Q & Q presentation will be an invaluable aid to all of us who seek God's will for our third millennial church. -- Dwight K. Nelson, Senior Pastor, Pioneer Memorial Church, Andrews University
I believe that the editorial team for this book has been used mightly by God to provide an invaluable resource for the church. I highly recommend this work to all who are seeking solid, satisfying, biblically based answers to the key questions related to women's ordination. -- Richard M. Davidson, J. N. Andrews Professor of Old Testament Interpretation, Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Andrews University
If you are looking for understandable answers to the question of why Bible-believing Adventists support the ordination of women to pastoral ministry, this book is a great place to start. -- Teresa L. Reeve, Associate Dean and Associate Professor of New Testament Contexts, Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Andrews University.
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Moving Your Church
S. Joseph Kidder
Moving Your Church was written to encourage and equip members and leaders to successfully carry out the vision and mission of Christ in their local community.
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He Spoke and It Was: Divine Creation in the Old Testament
Gerald Klingbeil
The Bible opens with a statement that forms the basis of our faith:
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1, NIV). This is the foundation of all biblical theology, because it tells us that life began when a Creator spoke it into existence. This is where we encounter the God whose power is matched only by His love for His creation.
He Spoke and It Was: Divine Creation in the Old Testament is the result of an interaction between Seventh-day Adventist Bible scholars, scientists, and educators. Listening to one another, they engaged contemporary science and biblical scholarship constructively on this important issue. The book is the first volume in a series characterized by engagement with the biblical text itself with the aim of helping both scientists and interested non specialists to grasp the significance of biblical Creation, its terminology, and theology.
At its core, Creation is all about who we are, what our destiny is, and how God chooses to save a world that is in direct rebellion with its Creator. For the God of creation is also the God of salvation, and He will ultimately re-create an earth that has been corrupted by thousands of years of sin. The Creation account contains an echo of hope that rings through the centuries—and keeps tugging at our hearts. (From ABC website)
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The Genesis Creation Account and Its Reverberations in the Old Testament
Gerald A. Klingbeil
How does the rest of the Bible relate to Genesis 1 and 2? Do the various biblical authors portray creation theologies that align or diverge? In this volume, ten scholars—each addressing a different section, genre, or topic from the Old Testament—grapple seriously with this question. Collectively, they find that the weight of the textual data of the Old Testament clearly portrays an overarching understanding and theology of creation that permeates every biblical genre and book. These findings should inform the thinking of every honest Christian, whether layperson, theologian, or scientist. At its core, creation theology is all about Who God is, who we are, what our destiny is, and how God chooses to save a world that is in direct rebellion to its Creator.
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Church and Society: Missiological Challenges for the Seventh-day Adventist Church
Rudi Maier
The purpose of this book - written by 34 dedicated Christian scholars and community practitioners - is to help Christ's church to understand how this "world" and the people who live in it think, feel and react to some of the issues they face in their daily lives, and how to bring peace, justice and compassion to the society that sorrounds our homes, churches, and communities.
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Church and Society: Missiological Challenges for the Seventh-day Adventist Church
Rudi Maier
The Church has a reservoir of wisdom and truth in the Bible, and a role to play in witnessing to that truth. The Bible is full of mandates and challenges that ask us, the disciples of Jesus Christ, to “Make our light shine, so that others may see our good works and give glory to our God in heaven” (Matt 5:16). The purpose of this book—written by 34 dedicated Christian scholars and community practitioners—is to help Christ’s church to understand how this “world” and the people who live in it think, feel, and react to some of the issues they face in their daily lives, and how to bring peace, justice and compassion to the society that surrounds our homes, churches, and communities. Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God (Matt 5:9).” Shalom, which we translate as peace means more than the absence of conflict. To live in shalom, as a peacemaker, means we actively live our lives in a way that brings healing, wholeness, harmony and well being to the lives of people we meet. This is not a prescriptive book that will provide answers to all the social and missiological woes in society (though there will be some guidelines for how to start various ministries). Instead, the authors have attempted to describe some of the problems that exist in our societies and churches and have encouraged the readers as individuals, as well as groups, to find their own answers to many of the issues raised. Some of the issues raised will not be comfortable to discuss in Church circles, but we all hope that they will be treated with the same respect and compassion that Jesus gives in response to each one of our needs.
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The Love of God: A Canonical Model
John C. Peckham
"For God so loved the world . . ."
We believe these words, but what do they really mean? Does God choose to love, or does God love necessarily? Is God's love emotional? Does the love of God include desire or enjoyment? Is God's love conditional? Can God receive love from human beings?
Attempts to answer these questions have produced sharply divided pictures of God's relationship to the world. One widely held position is that of classical theism, which understands God as necessary, self-sufficient, perfect, simple, timeless, immutable and impassible. In this view, God is entirely unaffected by the world and his love is thus unconditional, unilateral and arbitrary.
In the twentieth century, process theologians replaced classical theism with an understanding of God as bound up essentially with the world and dependent on it. In this view God necessarily feels all feelings and loves all others, because they are included within himself.
In The Love of God, John Peckham offers a comprehensive canonical interpretation of divine love in dialogue with, and at times in contrast to, both classical and process theism. God's love, he argues, is freely willed, evaluative, emotional and reciprocal, given before but not without conditions. According to Peckham's reading of Scripture, the God who loves the world is both perfect and passible, both self-sufficient and desirous of reciprocal relationships with each person, so that "whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life."
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Women and Ordination: Biblical and Historical Studies
John W. Reeve
"It is the accompaniment of the Holy Spirit of God that prepares workers, both men and women, to become pastors to the flock of God." Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, p. 322. "The biblical understanding of ordination is not that the act changes those who are set aside, but only that the church is acknowledging what God has already done by equipping them through the gifts of the Spirit." Jiri Moskala, dean, SDA Theological Seminary. "Women's ordination to ministry does not violate the preservation of God's name, neither His precepts written in the Holy Scriptures. Only two factors can limit the decision of the Adventist Church in favor of women's ordination: avoiding scandal and the hindrance of the evangelizing mission to the world." Natanael B. P. Moraes, professor of applied theology, Adventist University of São Paulo, Brazil.
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An Understanding of the Biblical View on Homosexual Practice and Pastoral Care: Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary Position Paper
Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary
The intent of this document is not to judge but to clearly set forth what Scripture teaches concerning homosexual practices and offer guidelines on how to interact with persons of same-sex orientation.
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Shame & Honor: Presenting Biblical Themes in Shame and Honor Contexts
Bruce L. Bauer
Most Christian theology is framed in terms of Guilt/Innocence which people from an individualistic Western context have an easy time relating to. However, the peoples in the 10/40 Window and those in the major world religions would hear the gospel more clearly if it was expressed and framed in terms of God taking our shame and giving us his honor.
From September 19-21, 2013 almost one hundred theologians, missiologists, and field practitioners gathered at Andrews University for a conference dealing with the challenge of presenting biblical theme in Honor/Shame contexts. This book shares the conference presentations with a larger audience. -
Servants and Friends: A Biblical Theology of Leadership
Skip Bell
Against the chatter of pop psychology and the latest list of must-have motivational habits, twenty Bible scholars and ministry professionals thoughtfully grapple with what the Scriptures, in their totality, actually have to teach us about the essence of true leadership. In Servants and Friends, Skip Bell and his team examine and correlate the breadth of evidence in the Old and New Testaments. They trace the nature of God's intent, and bring it all together in a fresh and challenging theological understanding that may radically alter what we have thought leadership really is.
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Adventist Evangelistic Preaching
Russell C. Burrill
Whether you've preached hundreds of evangelistic sermons or you're preparing for your first, you'll find Adventist Evangelistic Preaching invaluable in making your presentations more persuasive, practical, and effective. In this book, Russell Burrill, veteran soul winner and evangelist, lays out the lessons he has learned over decades of evangelistic preaching and leads the reader, step by step, through every aspect of the evangelistic process from sermon preparation to calling for decisions.
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Drinking at the Sources
Jacques B. Doukhan
The schism between Israel and the Christian Church is rooted in the most profound reality in history.
When Jesus said that He was the Messiah, was His contention not to have consequences in a land occupied by Roman legions since 66 B. C.? In a land where leaders of resistance movements had regularly been proclaimed king and Messiah by their troops? Alas, messianic adventures were not uncommon in those times! Many of them ended in atrocious massacres.
Drinking at the Sources separates historical fact from fiction in an attempt to discover what was responsible for the hatred between early Christians and Jews that carries on to this day. It seeks to identify, from each side’s viewpoint, the decisive factors and arguments both sides have used in constructing seemingly insurmountable walls.
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The Ellen G. White Encyclopedia
Denis Fortin and Jerry Moon
This masterwork brings together hundreds of articles that describe the people and events in the life of Ellen White, as well as her stand on numerous topics. Everything from the hymns Ellen White loved to the homes she lived in are covered in heavily referenced articles. You’ll find a detailed chronology of her life and extensive articles on her ministry, her theology, and her statements in the light of advancing scientific knowledge. Whether you’re preparing a sermon, teaching a class, or finding answers to personal questions, this single resource has the answers you need.
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Youth Speak: The Church Listens
Kenley D. Hall and S. Joseph Kidder
Twenty-three participants invested three days in October 2012 to brainstorm as a think tank on the topic of keeping and reclaiming youth in the Seventh-day Adventist church. The group was composed of pastors, researchers, practitioners, and academics.
Three subtopics quickly emerged in the discussions. The first one dealt with why 50% of youth and young adults are leaving the church. Second, the groups dealt with how to keep them in the church. The final topic was how to reclaim those who left.
This book includes papers and resources featured at the conference:
- The Youth Speak: Research papers dealing with why some youth and young adults leave the church and some stay, and how to attract more of them to come back.
- The Church Responds: Case studies of churches that are attracting youth and young adults back to the church. This section includes several reflection papers on specific churches that are successfully reaching the younger generation.
- Appendices: Papers dealing with Church of Refuge, an association of churches devoted to actively keeping youth and bringing back those who have left.
Among the 10 papers included in this book, you will find powerful ministry ideas presented by Roger Dudley, Barry Gane, Ron Whitehead and Jeff Boyd, and more. Topics include building a church that retains its young adults, how to attract young adults to the church, and creating a culture of acceptance.
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Madaba Plains Project 6: The 1996 and 1998 Seasons at Tall al-'Umayri and Subsequent Studies
Larry G. Herr, Douglas R. Clark, Lawrence T. Geraty, Oystein S. LaBianca, and Randall W. Younker
This volume reports on the 1996 and 1998 seasons of the excavations at Tall al-‘Umayri and vicinity conducted by a consortium of colleges and universities principally sponsored by Andrews University.
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Christ and His Law: Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide: Teachers Edition
Gerald Klingbeil and Chantal J. Klingbeil
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Music and Worship in Africa: Adventists' Dialogue from Biblical, Historical, and Cultural Perspectives
Sampson M. Nwaomah, Robert Osei-Bonsu, and Kelvin Onongha
"Music and Worship in Africa" presents ideas that need to be discussed and studied. This book presents various author's views of these two subjects that have generated a lot of disagreement. However, many good biblical and Spirit of Prophecy principles are shared to help the reader struggle with these important issues.
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The Concept of Divine Love in the Context of the God-World Relationship
John C. Peckham
The Concept of Divine Love in the Context of the God-World Relationship addresses the significant and far-reaching theological conflict over the nature of God’s love, which is deeply rooted in broader conflicts regarding divine ontology and the nature of the God-world relationship. After engaging the traditional historical theology of love and recent exemplars of competing and influential conceptions of divine love, John C. Peckham seeks an alternative to the impasse by an extensive inductive investigation of the entire biblical canon in accordance with a final-form canonical approach to systematic theology, offering an alternative model of divine love that draws on the richness of the biblical text as canon and holds considerable implications for the God-world relationship.
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Quality Research Papers For Students of Religion and Theology
Terry Dwain Robertson and Nancy Jean Vyhmeister
This updated third edition of Quality Research Papers—fast becoming a standard reference textbook for writing research papers in the fields of religion and theology—gives improvements and added material for such things as the expanding field of online research and doing church-related research in a professional manner.
Because so many new developments have taken place in the field of research, especially in terms of electronic research, this handy reference explores the ways to do research on the internet, including how to document such research.
Quality Research Papers offers great opportunities to students today, especially in distant learning situations, to determine which resources can be used and which should be rejected. For this reason Nancy Vyhmeister brought in Terry Robertson, Seminary Librarian at Andrews University and professor of the seminary master’s level research courses. His expertise in library, computers, and the Internet are invaluable to the book.
In addition to substantial, current information on electronic resources and online research, this third edition preserves all of the features of the original editions, now presented in a newly revised, more logical order.
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Cleansing the Sanctuary of the Heart: Tools for Emotional Healing
David Sedlacek and Beverly Sedlacek
Struggling to pluck the sin from your life but having trouble conquering your past? Biblical counseling is a resource for Christians who need help locating the sin in their lives and cutting it out. David and Beverly Sedlacek offer the truths they have learned through years of clinical practice in this comprehensive guide to Cleansing the Sanctuary of the Heart. This book is a distillation of the biblical principles the Sedlaceks have used to heal others who have sought counseling for addictions, mental and emotional disorders, relationship problems, and abuse.
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On the Unique Headship of Christ in the Church: A Statement of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary
Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary
We, the faculty of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, affirm that Christ is the only Head of the Church (Eph 1:22; 5:23; Col 1:18). Therefore, while there exists legitimate leadership in the Church, no other human being may rightfully claim a headship role in the Church. As Head of the Church, Christ provides the ultimate manifestation of God’s love (Eph 5:23, 25), demonstrating and vindicating God’s moral government of love (Rom 3:4, 25-26 5:8), and thus defeating the counterfeit government of the usurping “ruler of this world” (John 12:31; 16:11; cf. DA 758; 2T 2:211).
