Frank Hasel: The Work of the Biblical Research Institute

our heavenly father i just in would like to um thank you for the opportunity that we are alive and that we can connect even over long distances and while we have some some technical glitches and problems uh that we were not able to solve ahead of time uh i'll ask that you will still bless the things i share and that you will be with us now as we have this breakout session and i invite your presence uh and your help in the things i speak and the the questions that might be there and so we ask for your guidance and you're leading in the next couple minutes we ask this in jesus name amen amen all right so um adrian you you are the moderator of this this whole thing is that correct well i don't hear any objection sorry i'm not the the moderator is adrian i don't know if they can show his face yeah yeah um we can continue [Music] okay so um hello everyone to uh who is who's participating it has been a long day for you it's in the afternoon in in europe at least here it is uh early morning 10 20 in the morning uh i'm i'm joining you from silver spring in maryland in the united states of america and i'm happy to be with you connected uh and tell you a little bit about the work of the biblical research institute now what i have planned to do is to to give you a brief overview of what the biblical research institute or the bri as it is abbreviated is doing and share a little bit about uh the the function and the responsibilities and the projects that we are involved and uh and then i will just open the floor and uh you might have questions you might have heard things about the biblical research institute and you you might have questions where you would like to learn more about it and so i would like to dialogue with you about this and and share a few things so let me start with um with my person my name is frank hazel i'm the newest member in the team of the biblical research institute i'm an associate director of the bri and i was born and raised in germany i pastored there in germany i got my theological education in germany and in england and in the united states and i worked as a pastor in germany and then as a bible teacher at one of our schools in austria in europe at the seminar los bogenhofen and i was a bible teacher there and dean of the theology department and uh the director of the ellen white study center and the research center that they then organized and for the last four years now i have transitioned from austria to the united states and i work here for the biblical research institute now what is the the bri what does people at the bi do sometimes people ask me uh questions and by the way if you have any questions about things i say uh please feel free to uh to indicate that and uh and ask your question or clarify things i'd be happy to to do that to the best of my ability and i'm i'm looking forward to uh responding to your questions uh at the end i cannot promise that i have all the answers uh to your questions but um i'm happy to share whatever i know so um what do people at the bi do sometimes people ask me you know do you just study the bible you're just researching the bible yes and no of course we do study the bible and we investigate things so what is the what is the purpose of the bri why does the bri exist well the biblical research institute exists to explore and to promote the study and the practice of adventist theology and lifestyle as understood by the seventh-day adventist church around the world so we explore and we study adventist theology and lifestyle and we provide theological resources for the administration and the departments of the general conference of seventh-day adventists and the world church and we try to identify doctrinal and theological discussions that are taking place within and outside the seventh-day adventist church and try to seek to enhance our understanding of these issues and to to build a commitment to the truth of the bible and to what we seventh the adventists believe uh from the word of god so um these are just some some very general um tasks that we are involved in with the bri we also encourage and facilitate uh theological dialogue within the seventh-day adventist church worldwide and we try to foster theological and doctrinal unity now that is a challenge in and of itself as you can imagine because we are a very diverse and growing and multifaceted church around the world we have more than 20 million members and to support and to foster theological unity uh around the world so that uh there is a visible uh recognizable um thing as a seventh-day adventist around the world uh this is a challenge because people are very uh different and uh and bring very different questions to the table and and yet we want to maintain that because without a theological unity there is no unity in mission and without a theological unity there is no no progress in growth really and without a theological unity our identity as a seventh-day adventist church is in jeopardy and so these are very important questions that need to be tackled and that need to be addressed and that need to be explored and this is part of what we do so this is in very broad terms um the purpose of the bri now who what is the bri and here's here's something i wanted to share with you on the screen but it just didn't work so i'll show it i'll show it to you there's a recent new book that just came out uh a week ago or two weeks ago it's called a pocket dictionary for understanding seventh day adventism yeah it's it's a nice handy little booklet written by michael campbell and it has different keywords in there and short explanations and i just want to read from you for you from that book i wanted to show that to you on the screen but that didn't work so there is a short entry on page 56 on the biblical research institute on the bi and it says the following it says the official organization of the church for dealing with theological issues as a result of gathering of scholars during the 1940s and 1950s the biblical research institute became an official department of the general conference in 1975. now that is not correct and i wanted to point that out to you you know sometimes short statements um as helpful as they are do not depict the actual dynamics and the thing the biblical research institute is not a department at the general conference it is what the name says it is it is an institute now a depart what is the difference between a department and an institute a department is a department that is represented at every organizational level of the world church so let's say you have the department for family life ministries and you have a family life ministry department leader at the general conference at the division level at the union level and even at the conference level so at every level of organization you have a department representative worldwide around the church so if you have a ministerial department you have a ministerial department at the gc you have it at the division level you have it at the union level and even at the conference level where people deal with ministerial issues and so forth and every other department has the same structure the bri the biblical research institute is not a department so this information is not quite correct in this book in this new book it's just an institute it's a very small tiny institute and we have only five people working at the bri at the general conference of the adventist in silver spring who are the five people let me just briefly um introduce them to you and if you want to uh read that and follow that i'd recommend that you go to our official web page or to our website it's www adventist biblical research.org adventist biblical research in one word dot org and there you will find all the information that i try to share with you and some very important additional materials that i will mention in a moment so we are five people who are the five people at the brit the director of the bi is elias brasil de souza and as his name indicates already he is from brazil from south america he is an old testament scholar he has specialized in the sanctuary and in other issues in the old testament he's the director and then we have um we have four other people we have a cuabena doncor he is from west africa from ghana he his specialty is in systematic theology and philosophy and biblical studies and we have uh clinton wallene he is from north america and new testament scholar we have uh echo heart mueller he is from germany originally and uh has worked at the bri for the longest time now and he is a new testament scholar and myself and my area of specialty is also systematic theology what they call and biblical hermeneutics interpretation of the bible and ellen white and some other things so these are the five people at the bri and then we have a few um two secretaries that help us with administrative tasks and and desktop publish designer who helps us with the bri newsletter so uh these are the five people at the bi so you can see we have um trained people in different areas old testament new testament systematic theology and we work together and we help each other and we we are here to work for the church now our task is to be a resource to the leadership of the church especially the general conference leadership and division leaderships around the world what do we do so we provide we provide answers we we help to respond to questions that people might have and we um [Music] we are there if if things need to be evaluated or they uh look for feedback and input on theological questions that we as a church face now you can imagine that five people is not very much and if we have 20 million plus members around the world and every member would come with his or her question directly to the bi we would be simply overwhelmed we would not have the personal resources and the manpower to to respond to every individual question so we are not here to answer every single question that every member has out there this is not the purpose of the bri but we are here to be a resource for the gc leadership and the world leadership and the division levels and will help to facilitate that so if people what what do people do if they have questions in the local fields very well good question you go to your pastor that would be the first step and if the pastor is not able to help with a particular question you might have you can go to the next level which is um the conference or the union and see whether they might be able to be uh of of help and assist you in finding answers to that question and if it's a complicated question or that a question that demands more attention every division mostly every division around the world we have some 13 divisions around the world has a division biblical research committee that is staffed by scholars and theologians and administrators on the division level where they meet on a regular basis and deal with questions on the local level on at the division and we as bri people often participate in those local biblical research committees and facilitate the dialogue and help to assist to the best of our ability so this is um this is some of the purpose for the bri now what are more specific functions of the bri and uh let me address three major areas of our work and illustrate that with a few things and then i think we might be able to open up the floor to some questions and things that you might be interested to know so here are three areas where the bri is involved and where our responsibility is the first area is theological research we do research theological questions and that means that we are identifying areas in which biblical research is still needed in the seventh-day adventist church when i was a young theology student many years ago you know i started to study theology to become a pastor and i worked as a pastor for many years in southern germany and in austria for some time and um and i thought as a young student wow you know people have written learned books and and every single question has already been answered until you study some things more carefully and you study it in more depth and you realize there is a whole lot still to be explored from the word of god and there is much more that needs to be investigated where we need responses so we are trying to identify these areas where we need more um and better understanding of what we seventh-day adventists believe so how do we do that how do we do theological research well we enhance our understanding of biblical truth by studying the word of god by studying issues of biblical interpretation and by exploring new uh areas of truth um this has to do with another a second area of um of our work and you could call that apologetics now apologetics has uh in some quarters a rather negative touch but it really is uh the um the task of responding to challenges uh to biblical doctrines as we seventh-day adventists believe them and hold them very dear so apologetics means that we respond to questions that people have where they challenge our faith where they they point out that we might be wrong on something and we we have to respond to that and we have a responsibility as a church to um to give solid biblical answers to some of these objections that people have we are also engaging sometimes in in certain dialogue with other religious leaders this is not ecumenism but sometimes people have questions and they come to us and want to learn more and want to find out what seventh-day advertisers believe for instance we have one of the biblical research committees in the eud in the inter-european division has recently published a book that they worked on on adventists and military service because in some parts of the world the issue of military service has become a contentious subject and more and more young adventists voluntarily join the military even though in the past we have had a very strong conviction as the adventists that we should not bear arms and we should not kill other people and we should not uh necessarily serve in the military but follow the example of jesus so how do we respond to that and they have come up with a book and we have posted an article on that on the internet and a person from another church contacted me and wanted to speak with me and he says we have the same questions in our church and we would like to know how you approach that topic and what resources you have that we can share in our church so there's a dialogue between different representatives from churches over theological questions that we as seventh-day adventists approach and have investigated and so that can be a part of the work that we do there is also um there's also a third part of our task so we said theological research apologetics and the third part is service so we assist the general conference of seventh-day administer uh seventh-day adventist the administration on matters in biblical interpretation and doctrine and church trends we support them we provide resources that help them to address certain issues we provide seminars we conduct bible conferences and other things so i know i'm talking a lot here but let me illustrate that now some people think you know is there really a need to uh to address theological questions haven't we haven't we done so already isn't isn't everything said already yes we have a solid foundation no questions the the the basic beliefs are in place and uh we do not need to worry about that but there are new situations with which we are confronted in which we need to address theological questions from a biblical perspective let me give you one example as a church we have grown tremendously worldwide and in some regions of our church for instance in south america we have several million seventh-day adventists in just one one country like in brazil and um and when you have an increasing number of seventh-day adventists in your members and you're not not just a few tiny handful advocates that nobody really recognizes you are confronted with new questions and new challenges that you did not face before as a church so one of our members in south america uh became very uh influential and uh in politics and you know in in some countries of this of this world we have seventh theaters in leadership positions in the government as ministers in different areas or as high-ranking judges in some countries as seventh-day advocates who lead out uh the legal system in the country and other things where you have an input and an impact on society that in the past we didn't have all over the world so this particular person in south america who was engaged in politics was very strong promoting a capital punishment the death penalty as a legal and legitimate means to punish people and the church was wondering what are we as a seventh-day adventist church what is our position on capital punishment on the death penalty and it turns out we've we've never really had an official position on that because we were never in a position to to address that issue from a seventh-day adventist uh perspective and so the leadership asked the bri to investigate that from a biblical perspective and that the bri has a subcommittee that deals especially with ethical questions so it's the bri institute ethics committee and we have not just members from the bri we have other faculties and ethicists and specialists from a variety of different areas and specialties and we come together usually twice twice a year to address certain issues and discuss them and we draft a statement but then the bri is not the place that issues statements that are then adopted by the seventh-day adventist church we don't have the power to initiate new beliefs we don't have the power to uh come up with statements that we just write and uh people who who claim uh that that we do that um do not really understand our work and and uh this little book that i showed you is wrong on that one as well because it says that the bri um drafts statements on behalf of the world church and um this is not quite correct yes we draft statements but then we are not the ones who finally approve the statements we can help and assist the leadership to research something but then it is presented to a larger area of scholars and administrators and church representatives and they give input and they also share that and they finally approve it or not and so that's what we did we provided a statement on uh capital punishment it was shared with the church leadership they studied that they made input they uh they they did whatever was needed to be done and then they finally uh officially adopted that and it was uh then sent to the south american division and helped the church there to a response to that particular question that came up where we did not have a position as a seventh-day adventist church before so this is just uh one illustration another illustration would be the issue of abortion as you might know and have read our church recently adopted a statement on abortion and the sanctity of life human life and we as a church have never had a statement on abortion believe it or not we had some guidelines that would uh would be followed by some of our hospitals but usually guidelines follow a statement a general understanding of how we seventh-day adventists see the sanctity of life and the issue of abortions but we never as a church had addressed that issue and so there was a need in the church and again this was something that uh we studied where we helped to facilitate and to to come up with a statement but it was not just written and done by the bri but there was dialogue with uh the medical field and representatives from the medical field from administration and other members and it was a long process of dialogue and finally the church leadership decided on the final version of that document presented that and adopted it and so now we as a church have a official statement on the sanctity of life and uh the issue of abortion that can help us and guide us in the guidelines and in the practice of how we deal with that uh on the individual level then so this is just a little illustration of what we do so how do we foster theological unity and how do we uh support that and that is a huge huge task and as you can imagine we are just a handful five and how do five people uh accomplish a huge task like that for the world church it's a humanly speaking really a challenge and uh and if you want to pray for us i i would really appreciate that because we need prayer support and we need um we need that uh guidance in prayer and uh and that support from church members who pray for us because we need wisdom there are some questions that you would not even think are possible with what we are confronted and some of these questions are very difficult and not so easy to solve and to to find a solution and so we need the help of the holy spirit and we need the prayer support of our members for that important task so how do we foster theological unity we try to do that through a number of different means one important avenue and how we try to do that is through publications we try to provide for the world church publications that can help our members to better understand who we are what we believe and what is important in certain areas that are challenged in our faith so let me give you an illustration right now we are in the process of producing a number of new textbooks that can be used at our schools and colleges around the world in the training and in the education of our younger generation and the the students we have in our schools the first textbook has been produced already it's on the life and teachings of jesus the second textbook is in preparation right now and hopefully will come out in the next two months or so it's almost finished it's it's uh it's almost ready to go to the printers now and it is on the issue of the sanctuary you know that the sanctuary doctrine is something that is very dear and very important to our seventh-day adventists and it's something that we advertise share hardly with anybody else and makes us a unique uh in in our understanding it has been challenged in many ways and many people today um don't know anymore why the sanctuary is important for us and so we have a very nice new textbook or new book on the sanctuary this is not just written by bri people but we commission people we ask people to write that for us and then we we are part of the uh the editing process and we go through it and we give feedback and input and it is presented to a larger committee it's called the brycom biblical research committee uh consists about 40 45 members that are elected by the general conference uh scholars and experts bible teachers administrators from around the world and we usually meet twice a year where we discuss some of these writing projects and other questions that are posed to us where we need uh to respond and they give input so it's not just the five of us it's a larger group of people who who deal with that so i mentioned life and teachings i mentioned the sanctuary there is another textbook that is a preparation on the spirit of prophecy on alan white and her ministry there is another textbook that is in preparation on our fundamental beliefs what we believe as fb advocates so that people can learn what we advertise uh believe officially and there is a new book that is almost ready and i think next next month we will be sending it to the printers on biblical interpretation it's called biblical hermeneutics an adventist approach and you know the way you approach the bible the way you interpret the bible significantly impacts your theology and the outcome of your theology and with that your mission and your evangelism and your identity of who you are and so this issue of biblical interpretation of biblical hermeneutics has become a very um debated thing even within our church where where people have started to come up with new methods of biblical interpretation that lead to new interpretations and a completely different understanding of some subjects so uh this is another textbook where we try to provide a resource for the world church to um to be a help to shape our understanding our identity as seventh-day adventists and to guide our members and the pastors and the teachers who are serving the church in responsible positions to have a resource at hand that can help them in doing that tasks even more efficiently so uh we have a number of textbooks we have um you as you might know um right now the seventh-day adventist bible commentary is being revised this is not done by the bri there's another group of scholars who is involved in that but as part of the bible commentary series there are two volumes that are also being edited and revised and updated one is the bible dictionary we have an sda bible dictionary as part of the sda bible commentary and that bible dictionary is something that needs also update and expansion and so we have updated and expanded that and are in the process of of expanding that it's more than six thousand articles on the bible and theological questions and we work with different divisions on the world field to to gather articles from them this we we cannot write this ourselves alone but uh other scholars around the world adventist scholars they write articles and uh they submit that and we discuss that and this will be collected and down the road where we'll have a new updated bible dictionary and the same thing is true for the sda seventh-day adventist encyclopedia and as you might have heard there is a new electronic version of the encyclopedia and that electronic version has just been started in july now officially and it's very exciting and you will find articles on advertised missionaries and adventist institutions and what adventists believe and it gives a his background of these things and can be very inspiring to read and it's online available anybody can use it and download it and can use the resources that we as a church provide for the church for the mission for the unity of the church to help understand where we come from and uh what was the driving force that motivated our pioneers to do this and that to go to places where nobody had entered before and uh what is the um what is the historical development of some of the things that we believe as a seventh-day adventist and what is the background to that and so we we provide for that as well so these are some of the things that uh we do now let me um when do we have to close here when is that five five forty five okay yeah so how much more time do we have now we have like 20 30 minutes 20 30 minutes all right that's wonderful so let me just quickly wrap up a few more things that might be of interest to you and then we'll open up uh questions that you might have okay you all should be aware and i wanted to share that online with you but for some reason that just didn't work out but you just go to your web browser and check it out you should check out our official bri website it's as i said www.a biblical research in one word adventistbiblicalresearch.org org professor we have the link in the chat um board great so go to that and in there i want to make make you aware of two things that might be very helpful for your practical work uh be that in the youth ministry be that uh for asi no matter whether you are a young person or older person in in your interaction with other people who have questions if you go to our website number one you see a header that says newsletter and the bri issues an electronic newsletter bri newsletter the name of the newsletter is reflections and it is completely free and it's open to any anybody everybody can subscribe to it doesn't cost you anything and you will receive four times a year a newsletter with interesting theological articles addressing current issues book reviews that can help you to respond to some of the questions out there the latest issue from from from april now we're working on the next one hopefully it come out in september the last one had a whole issue just on covet 19 from a theological perspective is this the end time is this one of the last plagues you know we have some we had some people uh unfortunately in our church who have started to um to begin a soft time setting and they have come out with some creative interpretations of the bible and ellen white to predict that in 2027 or earlier or a little later jesus might come back you know and so we have an article that responds to these uh current issues and uh other things as well uh how do we conduct church services uh how do we do um baptisms how do we do communion service in times of covet 19. you know very practical questions and you find answers in this newsletter and i would highly recommend that you subscribe to it doesn't cost you anything you can share it you you can use it you you will benefit and profit from some of the articles that you find there and it might help you to respond to some of the questions that you face in your churches by members and other people so the newsletter and you can subscribe there just click there and go and give your name and email address that's it as easy as that there is another header that is just equally interesting and helpful i think and it's called materials and if you go to the materials section you see that the bri has produced hundreds and hundreds of short answers and articles to specific biblical questions and sometimes people ask you questions so so what what would you believe about this and how do you respond to that and you've never heard that question go there you can type in a keyword or you can go down the list of articles that are listed in the in in the right column there click on there and you will find several documents that the bri has produced over the years in response to specific questions now this is not the final word doesn't mean that there is no no truth to be explored anymore but it can be a good starter for you to to have answers to questions that people have in the church and outside the church about seventh-day adventists and you have a resource and materials many people don't know that you know and they're confronted with questions and they think they have to start inventing the wheel anew but no other people have been facing the same questions before and some people have given some helpful answers and the answers we've provided are there for free you can download the material doesn't cost you anything no matter whether you're in africa or in europe or in south america or wherever you are you can download it doesn't cost you anything we are not making any money on that it's a service to the church and uh many people are just not aware of that help and that resource and i think that's an important thing that you should be aware of let me just um end by saying that we also have short not just big books but short resources they are called bri releases and you will find that also under the book section in our webpage you find all the books that the bri has has written and we we are in the process of producing a number of uh new books very interesting important books two books on the sabbath in the old testament and in the new testament new books on the whole issue of marriage and all the related questions that go along with that uh the other books that i mentioned before on ellen why the sanctuary the doctrines on biblical interpretations so these are resources that we are providing that can be useful and a help to church leadership to pastors to interested church members who want to um deal with these questions so um i leave it at that as you can imagine from the brief description that i have given uh we do not complain that we have too little to do to the contrary it's a challenge and we need your prayer support and appreciate that and so thanks for giving me the opportunity to share that a little bit with you and maybe you have some questions now and i'd be happy to hear from you and see what what is on your mind and to to get in dialogue with you professor i want uh to make you some questions about uh what uh you have spoken as today uh the first one is about the handbook of seventh-day adventist theology will you prepare a new book a new version uh i have heard a little a bit about it but i'm not sure that you are in the process um you have that in plan or what is the reality very very good question yes there is a handbook of seventh-day adventist theology it's part of the commentary series really okay yes yes and uh unfortunately what i hear is that uh that book is out of print now okay but we are working we have plans to um to make that available again because that's the most comprehensive and most complete presentation of what we seventh-day adventists believes in recent times so uh there are plans um that we would like to work with uh review and herald to make that book available again and we need to find out the finances and and some other things you know that need to be um in place in order to make that happen but that would be something that we think is valuable to the church and should be uh available to the church at large and we hope that this can be done in in the foreseeable future in this same uh item i want to know if you are going to repeat the same version that was published originally originally in 2000 or you will put another more information a new version to my knowledge we have not planned uh there are no plans to to produce a completely new version it would be the same as in 2000 basically um i mean our beliefs have not changed substantially since 2000 uh so much uh that we need to rewrite everything but um but let me give you an example in in that in that volume on seventh-day adventist theology there is one chapter on biblical interpretation yeah yeah very good chapter written by dick davidson and uh an excellent chapter uh now we are producing a new book on biblical interpretation on adventist hermeneutics okay and in that new book we have uh 10 different authors okay 12 different authors actually who have been asked to write chapters on various aspects of of biblical interpretation and one chapter is by dr davidson on the inner biblical hermeneutics how bible writers in the new testament use the old testament okay you know sometimes people say oh the new testament writers they were very creative and not really faithful to the literal meaning of the old testament no he shows that they really were careful in how they quoted the old testament and it's not arbitrary and uh and and other things there's also a new chapter in that book a very long extensive chapter on new trends in biblical interpretation where we deal with newer trends that just have come up in the last 20 30 40 50 years that we have not addressed adequately like canonical criticism or literary criticism or some new literary approaches or post-modern approaches to biblical interpretation that have crept in in some quarters of our church and have influenced people and we felt the need to address that there are other chapters that deal with other things what is the relationship between the bible and ellen white if we claim to go by the bible alone what do we do with uh extra biblical prophets you know and how how do we deal with that in our interpretation is ellen white the one who interprets everything in the bible for us and and how do we deal with her in very practical very down-to-earth very helpful chapters uh that deal with a number of important issues what is what is the role of israel in the old testament and uh what do we do with the prophecies about the israel is the state of israel a fulfillment of those old testament prophecies what about um apocalyptic interpretation daniel and revelation and uh what about um culture you know and uh and uh cultural things and how how do we deal uh that what is permanent in the bible and what is what what not you know and all these questions are addressed in this new book that will come out next next month in september we hope uh so the the the chapters already with um have been copy edited and uh being prepared now formatted for the printer it should go to the printing press next uh professor uh hustle i have i i have one uh last uh question it's about the criteria of how of choose or what is it the criteria to choose someone to the uh bri um i don't know if like it's a like a soccer dream you know right you have to to to be uh married and to two sons and daughters i don't know you know i don't know i'm actually currently [Music] a student of theology in the ansagunto in valencia so um you know sometimes uh as students uh you um you see the biblical research um as the panacea as the last thing that you can reach as a investigator in the church you know so what is the criteria uh have i i i have to to to be uh you know if you are uh maybe so young you you have said that you are the your the newest a member but not the youngest one you know what what is the the criteria to choose from part of the your so what was your name again luis luis fajardo luis luis good to hear you yeah segunda is a wonderful school i've been there a couple times when we had meetings with the bri yeah louis um this is a good question you know all i can say is this you are not self-promoting yourself for the bri this is something that um where you will be invited you will be uh you will be um appointed that's the word you know the members of the bri are appointed by the general conference uh outcome administrative committee meeting uh and uh and so it's not that you uh send an application you know and uh i would apply for a position at the bi this is not how it work it didn't work like that for me in fact you know i never i never thought that i would go to the bri this was not on my agenda i had not planned this i had not initiated that but some people i i have been working with the biblical research committee of the eud you know in the inter-european division we have one of the longest standing biblical research committees on the division level and they have produced over the years a number of helpful books that have been translated in french and in german and some are in english and one of the latest ones is on adventist and military service as i mentioned and they're working on some other book projects now and i've been working uh with them for i think more than 20 years and uh or something like that and uh and so people from the bi knew me and and then when they were in a position where they needed to fill a new spot because someone had retired they approached me with the possibility of whether i would be open to to that and i prayed about it at first i did not really um i was not so excited because of us you know this was not really on my agenda but uh the longer i prayed about it i think that god uh placed it on me that this is something where he might use me and my my talents and uh so i was open to that and um then things worked out from there and i was i was appointed to the bri in 2016. actually already in 2015 they wanted to help me but i was still teaching at bogenhofen at that time and so i kindly requested that i could finish my teaching assignment at the school for that school year and not be removed during the school year and they they honor that and i appreciate that so um i think you know people need to know you and they need to to see what you have produced and uh and they need to to see uh that you are a person that can be uh doing research and that is uh is also you know it's not just an academic thing let me let me make this very clear sometimes we think oh the biblical research is just the scholars but when we deal with the bible you know this is not just an intellectual uh exercise it's a spiritual exercise and you need to be a spiritual person as well and you need to be a person who who is willing to be led by god and uh you know it's there is much more than just uh intellectual brilliance that is needed you know we need to have good scholars but you know also need to have people who are spiritual people and who who deal with god's word on a spiritual level and who are who are willing to learn from the bible not because they know everything but because they are still students of the world and i think you know if this is in place then the age and some other things are not the most important factors that uh that decide on this and i think others will recognize that and they will then see that this might be a possibility that could be explored and uh that's how how it came about thank you thank you for your response uh there is uh other questions there so uh thank you for your time all right can you read the questions in the mean channel do you wanna i can read some questions in the in the in the chat yes the one question i see is let's see here and it's just question number one how does the bri relate to adventist seminaries uh i don't know exactly what you mean by that question but members of the bri have been invited to teach for various seminaries around the world so i have taught for instance while i was uh at the bri i i have been invited by our university in argentina grew up you know university a river plate for our adventist university in chile in south america and i have taught classes there and other other schools have invited other teachers and we have been willing to go there if need be so the bri has a travel budget and uh when there is a need and we receive an invitation you know we don't over superimpose ourselves on anybody but if if the leadership is uh interested and sees light that this could be helpful we'd be more than happy to work with and assist and be available in teaching or in whatever capacity the need is so we have done that and we will continue to do that as as soon as the travel situation through covet 19 relaxes a little bit more and i hope that will be soon another question was here what if an adventist theological school claims academic freedom and their theology research is in divergence from bri views which research will have authority academic research or bri research that's a good question now let me make something clear the bri is not the institution that decides theological truth for the church we don't believe that we have a magisterium we don't believe that this is something like in the catholic church that decides the doctrines we believe that the holy spirit guides the whole church together we are part of that we serve the world church but we are not we are not the we are not the deciding factor that says this is correct or not now we want to honor and we want to respect what we as seventh-day adventists believe and we hope we will be faithful and we are faithful to what we officially believe and yes there is academic freedom but let me also make clear that you know this is not unlimited freedom we have freedom in the church to research and nobody predetermines the outcome but if the outcome of my free research leads me to conclusions that are in in stark contrast and even contradiction to what we advertise believe then i think we have a responsibility as scholars as pastors as teachers to follow our convictions and our conscience and uh be bound by that you know let's let's let's give an illustration it's let's say i research the bible and in my free research i should come to the conclusion that um sunday is a legitimate way and day to to worship god rather than the seventh-day sabbath i might come to that conclusion i believe it's wrong the bri believes this is wrong now if i come to that conclusion i'm convinced in my conscience that this is the way to go then i should not maintain my place in the seventh-day adventist church because the seventh-day adventist church has come to a different conclusion and it's not just the bri that decides these things it's the church family globally and uh corporately that led by the holy spirit comes to certain understanding of bible truth and if our understanding is that the seventh-day sabbath is the day of rest then every seventh-day adventist should should identify with that and abide by that and if i come to different conclusions then i should draw uh the consequences from that i i think that's that's what i would say i don't know whether that has answered that question another one is besides influence are there governance levels to keep the academic institution aligned with the bri or is gcbi without leverage now again i would i would have to say there's a misconception you know the bri is not the measure of of your alignment the measure of your alignment is what we seventh-day advocates believe now the bri helps to to facilitate that and to to help us to better understand that and to deeper understand that but if there is um an academic institution that is not in harmony with what we seventh-day adventists believe then it's not the role of the bri to come in and say listen um you need to change your views you know this is the role of the governing board of the institution it is the role of those of the constituency that you know supports that institution and here the bri nor the gc has any authority to overrule any of these and that is why it is so important that the constituency and the governing board of those institutions are carefully chosen because you know this is how we as a church have decided to function democratically and corporately and uh that needs to be addressed on that level so if if an institution let's say would come to the conclusion that we should teach evolution rather than creation then that would be a significant departure from what we said the advocates believe you know you need to know what evolution teaches and and how it works but it's a completely different thing to endorse evolution as an explanation model to explain the origin of life and if teachers would come to that conclusion that this is the case then we would have a problem with what we adventists believe but it's not the role of the bri to come in and and then sanction that teacher that is the responsibility of the governing board of that institution and they have to deal with that and they have to report and they have to to follow the guidelines that we as a church have uh adopted and and work with so that that is what uh what needs to be said um does the bri engage with other denomination bri equivalents if we do what would be the purpose of these engagements now to my knowledge there is at the present time there's very limited um engagement with other denominations uh on an official level from the bri in the past we have had uh such engagements let's say with the lutheran world federation the world federation of the lutheran church and uh we have had several talks with them or with the mennonite church and and others where they wanted to know more about seventh-day adventists and there was an exchange of ideas and conferences and presentations from lutherans and from adventists that helped to facilitate a better understanding and it has resulted in a book for instance on the lutherans and the seventh-day adventists where the presentations are listed everybody can read it and it's not a secret and i think it has helped to to show that we seventh the athens are not a strange sect that we actually go by the bible and that we have uh our understanding of biblical truth is is solid and uh is solidly founded in the word of god and it has helped to to see us in a in a more complete light i would say but that would be the purpose of any such engagement as far as i can tell you know it's a it has to help to understand us better it has to help to remove prejudices that uh that might be there and misconceptions it's not there to foster any economical agenda or anything like that this is something that we we have never supported as a seventh-day adventist official so these are the questions that i see here uh are there any new sda bible commentaries that you recommend us to read can you recommend any non-adventist commentaries which can be used for our understanding of biblical verses you know there are a number of new bible commentaries that are being produced by seventh-day adventists for one there is the new andrews study bible and there is a new two-volume andrew's bible commentary the first volume on the old testament has just been issued a couple weeks ago and then there is the new sda bible commentary multi-volume bible commentary and a few volumes have been um published already on genesis and some others are in preparation once they are out you want to have a look at that you know i need to have a closer look at both of them once they become available and i have not done so yet so i cannot really speak to that at this point i'm afraid uh what about other non-advertised commentaries you know the best way to study the bible is to go to the bible don't have the shortcut to go to a bible commentary and just read the bible commentary every bible commentary no matter how good and how biblical and how conservative it might be comes with a certain agenda of the person who writes it or the the commentary series that it is part of and you need to be aware of that and so no commentary is pure gold no commentary is pure truth and for that um for that uh you have to be careful there there are a number of helpful bible commentaries uh out on the market and have been for a while you know there's the new international bible commentary on the old testament and new testament from earthman's there's the new american bible commentary there are other new bible commentaries out there that can be helpful but not all of them and i i would not endorse anyone blank and uh and hook line and sinker so to speak well this is this is my short answer to some of the questions i hope they were helpful to you i don't know whether you have any other questions maybe our time is up anyhow okay regarding bible research is there a study methodology that you can recommend for us for a spiritual bible study now listen this is a good question you can read the bible in different ways you can study the bible you can research the bible and you can read the bible just for the pure enjoyment of reading the bible okay so and they are not the same now you can study the bible and still get a spiritual blessing and enjoyment out of that if you discover some new nuggets of truth and and and you're excited about that and this is a blessing but if you want to study the bible let me show you something i don't know whether you know this book here that i wrote it's called longing for god and it's a prayer and bible journal longing for god a prayer and bible journal it was published by pacific press 2017 and this is a book that grew out of my own experience about 10 10 and a half years ago i lost my wife she died she had breast cancer and didn't survive that and if you go through something like that it's a tough experience it's it's not pleasant and um being confronted with significant loss in life you're all of a sudden faced with with some deep questions spiritual questions nagging questions and you can easily lose [Music] your spiritual sanity and this book has grown out of my experience because reading the bible has helped me tremendously cope with some of these questions and some of these challenges and how do you do that when you all of a sudden have uh a single parent and you have to teach full-time and you have to to take care of your your family and your sons and and all that you know and all the other emotional questions that come come along with that and in that book i have a bible reading plan and most of the book are empty pages that's why i could write it so easily but it's really it's for every for every day of the year there's a bible passage from the old testament and the new testament and you have some free space to write down your insights i have a short introduction on how to read the bible for all its worth and it can be used by an adventist and a non-advertised just as well this book doesn't tell you what to believe it helps you to engage with the bible on a daily basis and if you were to follow that bible reading plan you will read through the entire bible in one year all the new testament and you will have an opportunity to write down prayer requests on the other side and at the end of every month i have a short chapter on prayer where i deal with very practical questions 12 times throughout the year on prayer and some some of the chapters i deal with some tough subjects you know what you do when your prayers are not answered what about praying and fasting what about praying for others and um the things i write there they are just suggestions they are they are not they are not the solution to everything but they are they're just recommendations suggestions that can help you revitalize your prayer life your spiritual life your reading of the bible and if you want to have a spiritual bible reading i recommend that book of course i have to say this now but but give it a try and um and if it's not available in your language find ways to translate that into your language i think it has been translated into swedish it's available in german and in english and maybe there are some other languages that could benefit and profit from that as well just let me know we'll work something out uh professor hassel i have a last question is about uh the engagement when you respond in english in your response of that question uh you thought that you have um very very limited uh engagement with all um others denominations um and you talked about um the sets that that the way that some denominations uh see us as a sense yeah so in this case should be weak as a dentist um concerned about the way that other christians uh other denominations uh ceos that's a good question i i think we should do everything in our power to um to dispel any misunderstanding you know many people have a very um very twisted understanding of who adventists are really sometimes people lump us together with jehovah's witnesses sometimes they think adventists are the mormons the latter-day saints you know and and and and all kinds of strange thoughts are in their minds and they think oh then you know then you don't even believe in jesus you know and uh the deity of jesus and things like that and it's completely unfounded and so i think we have a responsibility for our other christian friends out there and people with whom we interact to make clear that um their understanding of seventh-day adventists is really true to the facts uh and not uh founded on some strange uh or distorted uh understanding of of who we really are so wherever we have an opportunity to clarify things wherever we have an opportunity to present to other christians that we actually believe in the bible that we actually believe in salvation by faith in jesus christ alone that we actually believe you know in in things that the bible teaches where they have maybe a common ground we should use that uh and ellen white is is very clear she says you know that we should seek common ground wherever possible because there are many things that we share with other christians in common and uh where we have uh a foundation that we can build on and then there are other things that uh that we where we see differently and uh where we don't have common ground and that needs to be you know addressed as well in a fine and and honest and loving way uh without denouncing anybody without uh making anybody bad you know but pointing out why we believe things may be differently from other christians on certain issues so i think we have a responsibility as 70 adventists to do whatever is possible in our power to create such a positive perspective of ourselves so that people will be interested to learn more about us and to study the truth more fully so um yes uh if you know if you're a pastor try to to you know if you have um opportunity to talk to other pastors to help them to to see our church in a better life why not you know and i don't think this has to do anything with ecumenical uh contacts because the ecumenical movement has a completely different agenda and uh for obvious reasons we cannot really fully identify with that because we will not be limited in our missionary work by any region or or by by denying anything you know that we hold dear from the bible so so there are there are reasons why we we cannot engage in that and will not engage in that but on on on a general level i think we have every responsibility to make clear and to help other people to see that um that we are true christians and what the foundation of our faith is so i hope this helps you thank you very much for your response very quiet all right thank you the turnfront and now we can finish with our player all right so yes sure i do gracious lord we thank you for this opportunity to talk about my work and the work of the bri and and the questions that people have and i'll ask that you will guide them and that they will be men and women who love you and who are faithful to your word and to use every opportunity to be good ambassadors for your cause we ask in jesus name amen

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Length: 82min 50sec (4970 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 23 2020