Adventist Theological Society

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The Adventist Theological Society (ATS) is an international nonprofit organization which serves the Seventh-day Adventist Church as a theological resource.

The society holds its annual meeting in connection with the Evangelical Theological Society.

It is representative of the conservative Adventist mainstream, and is not an official church organization.[1]

Contents

[edit] History

The society was organized in October 1988 at what is now Southern Adventist University, when a group of scholars broke off from the Andrews Society for Religious Studies, which is now the Adventist Society for Religious Studies (ASRS). The meeting consisted of four delegates from Andrews University and eight from Southern. Jack Blanco, author of The Clear Word, was elected president.

The first annual session was held at Wheaton College in November 1988.

In 1989 the society decided to publish the Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, with Leo Van Dolson as editor. C. Mervyn Maxwell and Gerhard Hasel were also actively involved with the journal.

Membership consisted of 1400 individuals in 1994.[2]

[edit] President

The following is a chronological list of those who have served as presidents of the ATS:

  • Jack Blanco
  • Gerhard Hasel
  • C. Raymond Holmes
  • E. Edward Zinke
  • 1994-? Richard M. Davidson[2]
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

[edit] Periodicals

The organization publishes the Journal of the Adventist Theological Society (JATS), a referred scholarly journal issued twice a year from Collegedale, TN. It was first published in 1990.

It also publishes the Perspective Digest, which contains popular level articles.

[edit] Constitution

The Constitution has six components describing the society's name, mission statement, core values, goals, categories of membership, describes the society's Mission Statement, core values, goals and other items. Acceptance of the constitution, particularly the core values, is required to become a member of ATS.[3] The core values are acceptance of the Bible, Christ as only savior of the world, and the fundamental beliefs, as well as the following doctrinal points (summarised):

a. Christ's death on the cross was both an act of love and a substitutionary atonement.
b. The Bible is the inspired, unerring, infallible Word of God.
c. The historical-grammatical method of interpreting the Bible, as opposed to critical methods
d. A literal reading of Genesis 1-11: six day creation, Flood geology, and a young earth.
e. The investigative judgment, historicist view of prophecy, and the year-day principle
f. Ellen White's writings possess more than pastoral authority (see prophetic gift of Ellen White)
g. The Seventh-day Adventist church is the remnant called to preach the three angels' messages of Revelation 14:6-13
h. The society will support the church financially and through personal effort.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ That it is conservative may be observed by comparing the "core values" of the constitution to the 28 fundamental beliefs of the church and other scholars. More progressive scholar Alden Thompson says "The society is right-of-center but claims to be centrist." (Thompson, Alden. The Future of Adventism: Where's The Church Headed? (A Topical Biography). Retrieved on November 12, 2006.) Similarly, progressive Adventist Raymond Cottrell wrote, "Its name ambiguously implies that it is either an official instrument of the church or that it represents the consensus of Adventist Bible scholars, neither of which is true." (The Ethos of Adventism) Furthermore, Woodrow Whidden, who appears to self-identify as a conservative mainstream Adventist himself writes, "Here is where I think such conservative, Bible-believing and Ellen White affirming Adventists such as the Adventist Theological Society and..." in an interview with Julius Nam.
  2. ^ a b "Adventist Theological Society" in Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia vol. 1, p.31-32
  3. ^ http://www.atsjats.org/site/1/docs/ATSMembership.doc
William Miller

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