2016 Creation Conference

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Midvale Park SDA Church

Ed Zinke

Is Creation Important to SDA Doctrine

And somebody came up to me afterwards and said, do you know who that was?

Anyway, I didn't realize, but I found out later, and I found out even more when this was sent to me.

He is on about 15 committees at the General Conference and General Conference institutions, including the General Conference Executive Committee, the International Board of Ministerial and Theological Education Committee, the Faith and Science Council.

He's a vice chair of the LNG White Estate.

He is on the board of both Andrews and Oakwood Universities, and has served for nearly 2 decades as the Associate Director of the Biblical Research Institute at the General Conference and several others.

He was 1 of the co-founders and past presidents of the Adventist theological society.

His specific interest is in method in theology and the relationship between science and scripture.

I've actually, I'm 1 of the members of ATS, Adventist Theological Society, and I've actually for years appreciated the articles that Elder Zinke has written in there because they really encourage faith in the scriptures, the inspired Word of God.

I don't know how to say this, it's becoming more and more rare, it appears in our day.

On 1 end, but on another end, it seems that people's faith is getting stronger.

So I'm very thankful to have Elder Zinke here with us to share with us the importance of Seventh-day Adventist doctrine, specifically our understanding of creation.

So after Christy sings, Elder Zinke, we thank you for being with us.

It certainly set the stage for giving consideration to what God has done for us and his creation.

I also want to pause just a moment to mention that I still remember the day that I met Malcolm as well there at a LNG White retreat and he was a student at Southwestern at the time and I thought by the way he preached for us for Sabbath and we all appreciated it And I knew then that he would make a major contribution to the ministry.

Leonard Brand, who had an earlier presentation, will have a presentation this afternoon.

And I was going to tell you how long we've known each other, but anyway, it's a long time.

Art Chadwick, who was intending to be here, but he's still in Brazil with presentations down there so he wasn't able to join us.

The 3 of us and several others have had the privilege of working together from our different disciplines over many years.

And it has been mutually reinforcing, coming from science, coming from theology, and understanding how the 2 fit together.

It's been a very valuable experience and I'd like to thank you, Leonard, for the time that we've spent together.

She is now in charge of the Earth and Biological Sciences Program at Loma Linda.

And that is the only university in the world where you can get a degree in biology and geology from a biblical perspective So it's just wonderful that we've got that program there at Loma Linda and Dr.

Phillips stepped into the role of chair a couple of years ago and everybody's delighted with the work that she's doing.

I want to ask the question this morning, What is Christianity?

All of these are very important as to what Christianity is.

And it's amazing the many different ways in which Christianity has been seen.

I'd like to tell you about Simeon Stylides, a monk who lived 2nd and 3rd century.

He came converted to the Catholic Church.

Upon his conversion, he gave most of his wealth to the church and set aside a little bit so that his sister could live for the rest of her life.

And went out into the wilderness and found a cave out there in which he could meditate.

He spent day and night meditating in this cave.

Pretty soon the nearby villagers discovered that there was a pious monk out there in the cave meditating and so they wanted to be close to the pious monk so they crowded out around the cave so that they could be in proximity of the pious monk.

Well, pretty soon he said, you know, I came out here to separate myself from the world and the world's crowding around me.

I've got to handle this problem." So he went further out into the wilderness and built a platform and meditated on that platform so that he could separate himself from the world.

It wasn't long before the nearby villagers discovered that he was out there meditating.

And so they came out and built their platforms around his platform so that they could be closer to the pious monk.

In which case he built higher and then higher platforms.

According to tradition, he lived out his life on a platform 60 feet high.

Now meditation certainly is part of Christianity, But to separate yourself from the world like that, not to be engaged in the world, is not Christianity.

Some people say, well, if you keep the law, you keep it right down to the letter of the law, then you're a Christian.

Or others, if you go to church every Sabbath, make sure you don't miss 1 Sabbath, then you're a Christian.

If you pay your tithes and offerings and then you add a few extra cents to make sure you've calculated right, then you're a Christian.

If you know the doctrine, all 28, say them backwards and forwards, and believe them, then you're a Christian.

Well, these are all things that we can do for our own salvation, right?

And salvation is by faith, comes by grace through faith, not what we can do.

All of these, by the way, are important to Christianity.

I'm not trying to belittle any of them, but when we make them the center of Christianity, we begin to lose the Christ of Christianity.

My favorite text is our next slide, I believe.

And this is life eternal, that they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent.

And this is life eternal, that they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." Okay, so what is life eternal?

Now, this word know in the Greek has a little bit different connotation than it does in the Western world, in English, the world we live in.

You know, in our world, we know something if we know what kind of wood this is made out of, or how many watts that light bulb is, or so on and so forth, the dimensions of the sanctuary, then we know something.

The Greek word implies, in addition to that, personal knowledge, personal relationship.

And so this is life eternal if you have entered a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and with God.

Let's look at this just a little bit further.

The Bible really is God's love letter from cover to cover.

I think so often we think of other things when we think of the Bible.

Some people think the Old Testament's judgment and the New Testament is love.

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Is Creation Important to SDA Doctrine

Transcript

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