THE BIBLE: A BOOK LIKE NO OTHER
Why We Need This Book
By
Samuel Koranteng-Pipim, PhD.
Michigan Conference of SDA
Without this book there would be no sacred music, oratorios, beloved hymns, and Negro spirituals.
The composer of the “Hallelujah Chorus,” George Frideric Handel, was not a religious man. Yet, even this world-famous composer was moved and inspired by words from this nonpareil book.
After several years of failure in opera, Handel was plunged into poverty and despair. At the age of sixty he was bitter, depressed, and defeated. When asked to write the music for a sacred oratorio, he glanced through the pages of the manuscript with little enthusiasm for the task. But something happened when his eyes suddenly caught the words, “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people . . . For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given . . . He shall lead His flock like a shepherd . . . Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden.”
The April 1948...
THE BABBLE OVER THE BIBLE
(Why the “Liberal” and “Conservative” Camps in the Church?)By
Samuel Koranteng-Pipim, Ph.D.
Director, Public Campus Ministries, Michigan Conference
[Article excerpted from author’s Must We Be Silent?]
Introduction
At a recent Michigan Conference camp meeting, a speaker shared with us the following story by an unknown author:
One Sunday, the minister was giving a sermon on baptism and in the course of his sermon he was illustrating the fact that baptism should take place by sprinkling and not by immersion [the method prescribed in the...
HOW CHURCH LIBERALS UNDERMINE THE BIBLE—Part 1
(The Use of Higher Criticism to Interpret the Bible)[Excerpted from the author’s Must We Be Silent?]
By
Samuel Koranteng-Pipim, Ph.D.
Director, Public Campus Ministries, Michigan Conference
There is a bug in Seventh-day Adventist hermeneutic [method of biblical interpretation], a deadly virus attacking the church’s approach to Scriptures. This bug threatens the church’s message and mission. The good news is that, as a result of the heated discussions on homosexuality, women’s ordination, divorce and remarriage, and contemporary worship styles, ordinary church members are becoming aware of this problem. The bad news is that some of the experts and leaders of the church who are supposed to fix the problem are pretending that the problem is not real.
This chapter identifies the hermeneutical bug, arguing that the on-going crisis within contemporary Adventism...
HOW CHURCH LIBERALS UNDERMINE THE BIBLE—Part 2
(The Use of Higher Criticism to Interpret the Bible)[Excerpted from the author’s Must We Be Silent?]
By
Samuel Koranteng-Pipim, Ph.D.
Director, Public Campus Ministries, Michigan Conference
Introduction
In Part 1, we detailed the cold-war that has ensued in the church over the Bible, detailing how during the past decade some influential thought leaders have undermined the authority of the Bible (and the Spirit of Prophecy) by their use of contemporary higher criticism. In this second part of our discussion, we shall attempt to explain the difference it makes when one employs the liberal approach to the Bible. We shall also mention how the Seventh-day Adventist church responded to this liberal challenge.
Whenever scholars teach the existence of factual errors in Scripture, they are compelled to explain the source of...
THE “SPIRIT” AND THE BIBLE
(How the "Spirit" of Liberalism Undermines Biblical Teaching)[Excerpted from the Author’s Must We Be Silent?]
By
Samuel Koranteng-Pipim, Ph.D.
Director, Public Campus Ministries, Michigan Conference
Although the theological term fundamentalist is quite elastic, it is usually employed as a caricature of, if not put-down for, Bible-believing Christians who reject the higher criticism of theological liberalism. Their “progressive” counterparts often perceive such Christians as anti-intellectual, pre-scientific, third world, or intolerant (according to the canons of pluralism, the belief that contradictory theological views must be allowed to flourish in the church). [1]
In the context of recent Seventh-day Adventists’ debates over the Bible, scholars who are attempting to revise the church’s beliefs and practices often invoke the term fundamentalist against their...
KEY QUESTIONS ON THE BIBLE’S INSPIRATION—Part 1
(Ways to Identify Contemporary Higher Criticism)[Excerpted from the Author’s Must We Be Silent?]
By
Samuel Koranteng-Pipim, Ph.D.
Director, Public Campus Ministries, Michigan Conference
Sometimes proponents of contemporary higher criticism resort to straw man arguments to articulate their views, or they employ impressive scholarly jargon to camouflage their babble over the Bible. They carefully ignore the substantive theological issues raised by their use of the liberal methodology. The result is that not a few are able to see through the smokescreen of the ideology of higher criticism.
The purpose of this chapter is to focus on the key questions being raised by those opposing the church’s official positions. Clarifying the issues and identifying the relevant theological concerns in the Adventist debate over the Bible will enable readers to determine whether...
KEY QUESTIONS ON THE BIBLE’S INSPIRATION—Part 2
(Ways to Identify Contemporary Higher Criticism)[Excerpted from the Author’s Must We Be Silent?]
By
Samuel Koranteng-Pipim, Ph.D.
Director, Public Campus Ministries, Michigan Conference
Introduction
In part 1 we begun by clarifying the issues at stake in the attempt by some thought leaders to use contemporary higher criticism (the “historical-critical method”) in the interpretation of Scriptures. In this Part 2 of the discussion we shall identify some ten key questions that will enable readers to determine whether or not a person is employing the assumptions of higher criticism to undermine the Bible’s authority.
To help focus the debate over the appropriateness of the historical method in Seventh-day Adventist scholarship, I will now briefly summarize the crucial issues that underlie the present hermeneutical debates...