Doctrines

Through the years, Seventh-day Adventists have attempted to express their views of scripture and its application to our daily life in concise statements of belief.  In this section we present the latest of such belief statements as well as additional explanatory, historical, commentary, or discussion materials surrounding them.  For additional material on specific points of doctrine, return to our main index page and select specific topics. 

The Official Statement of 28 Fundamental Beliefs  includes the 28th Fundamental Belief as voted by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Session in 2005. Please note that the additional belief statement was inserted as number 11, thus bringing the total to 28 and also renumbering all statements from 11 onwards as compared with the previous list.

The previous Official Statement of 27 Beliefs  is the Official Statement of Beliefs as voted by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventist Session in 1980.

Seventh-day Adventists Believe . . . 27  was written under the direction of the Ministerial Association of Seventh-day Adventists to expand upon and discuss each of the official 27 statements of belief, and published in 1988.. It has been widely circulated among Adventists. Now you may read the full text on-line. It will, of course, not include the new belief statement #11, and all numbering of statements will match the 27 Fundamental Belief statements rather than the new 28 Statements.

 The Being Adventist in Twenty-first Century Australia Conference, September 2002 selected papers menu.

Envisioning an Effective Adventist Future: What the Church Can Be in the Twenty-first Century, the Keynote address by Fritz Guy, Ph.D. 

Mapping the Past:   Exploring the Development of Adventist Theology, by Fritz Guy, Ph.D.

Uncovering the Origins of the Statement of Twenty-seven Fundamental Beliefs, by Fritz Guy, Ph.D. gives the history surrounding the writing of the original 27 Beliefs statement acted upon at the 1980 General Conference Session.

Ellen White, Yesterday and Today: Understanding and Affirming the Ministry of the Most Creative Seventh-day Adventist. by Arthur Patrick, Ph.D.

The Retrospective Document developed after the completion of the 2002 Conference "written consultitatively by about 40 conference attendees and presented to and recorded by the Business Meeting of the College Church on 19 November 2002, therefore this report conveys a consensus view of the conference."

Questions on Doctrine , published by the Ministerial in 1957 does not cover the full list of SDA beliefs, but only those specific questions that had been brought to church leaders by Walter Martin and his associates .  Initially given wide circulation to church members, it was allowed to go out of print after controversy arose in the SDA church as to whether or not church leaders had given accurate responses.  We at At Issue believe that the material here is a valid representation of SDA beliefs, and that it can make a valuable contribution, both to our own SDA understanding of our doctrines and to those not of our denomination who have questions about what we believe.  We have the full text of the original volume here for your reading and contemplation.

(The new annotated edition, Seventh-Day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine (Adventist Classic Library), which includes many pages by historian George Knight, giving historical background and interpretation, may be ordered on-line from http://www.amazon.com/Seventh-Day-Adventists-Questions-Doctrine-Adventist/dp/188392541X)

Without Fear or Favor, by Virginia Steinweg, is a biography of M. L. Andreasen, not a book on doctrine, and thus does not really belong with this general topic.  However, we have included it here since Andreasen is the one who, more than any other single person, is responsible for the attacks some SDAs have made on Questions on Doctrine and its authors.  This accusative chapter of Andreasen's life, however, was just one comparatively small segment after his retirement from a long life of beneficial service and loyalty to the SDA church.  We include this biography, therefore, to balance out the picture of Andreasen that we might get from the publicity given to his disapproval of a few sections of Questions on Doctrines.  We also think that the background given for his problems with church leaders near the close of his life sheds some helpful light on why he made the protests that he did.  While we do not agree with the validity of his protests, we do empathize with his concerns, and hope this helps others put this controversy into a better perspective.

Ellet Joseph Waggoner: The Myth and the Man, by David McMahon,  is especially relevant to those who are examining the various conflicts and strains of Adventist thought that grew out of the opposition to the book Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrines.  It is significant, not only because it analyses the teachings of E J Waggoner, and carefully chronicles his slide from a proponent of righteousness by faith into mystical and even pantheistic views of salvation,  but also because it represents a significant turning point in the views of Robert Brinsmead.   Since both Brinsmead's and Waggoner's names come up in discussions of the issues raised at the Conference held at the 50th anniversary of QOD, it is fitting that we take a serious look at this book.

We would do well to heed the warnings implicit in this book's analysis.... especially those which have to do with current theories of salvation that have their roots in the errors of the later Waggoner.