Interview with MarkFinley

[Gregory Matthews]

Pacific Press has just published a new book written by Mark Finley as to how he sees the future of the SDA Church.

 The following is an interview with Mark Finley about that book.

https://spectrummagazine.org/interviews/2019/church-triumphant-author-interview-mark-finley

 

[Gregory Matthews]

The following is taken from the article cited above.  In that quote, I have underlined a couple of aspects of the answer that concern me.

*  Who does God hold responsible for preserving the biblical foundations of Adventism?  Mark Finley's answer that it is the denominational leadership is  limited in my thinking.  Responsibilitiy for doctrinal purity rests with the members as a whole, which also includes the leadership, but does not limit to them.

In addition, his there may be foundations of this denomination that are not Biblical and should not be preserved.  I wish that Marak Finley had more clearly stated this.

*  I come from a military background.  There is no organization that has more policies than does the military.  Just about every situation that a commander might get into, has been previously studied and a recommended course of action developed.;  However, the mission comes first, not the policy.  The Commander is expected to accomplish the mission, and may deviate from policy in order to do so. From this background, I consider policy to be a recommendation.  I believe that the answer Mark Finley gave below, at least on the surface, seem to be to rigid and is not effective in accomplishing the mission that we as a denomination has been given.

 

Quote

Question: Given that we can't expect that church entities or church members are always going to agree on all topics, how should the church best handle disagreements on certain issues? Should differences between church entities be handled in a different way than differences between individual members?

It really depends on what those issues are. If the issues are biblical in nature or serious doctrinal departures, church leadership on all levels is responsible for preserving the biblical foundations of Adventism. To erode these foundations is to erode our identity. As a denomination, we will always be growing and discovering new ways to express truth, but truth is truth and spans the ages. So-called new truth never does away with old truth.

If the issue is organizational, voted by the General Conference in session, and is an integral part of church policy, leaders have the responsibility to abide by that policy. Policies are not doctrines. They can be changed. Policies are mutual agreements between responsible leaders. They do not dictate our conscience, but they do guide our actions as administrators.[/quote]