Unexplained Changes to the Church Manual that were not approved
Three Sentences Missing - from page 190 of the 17th edition - Explore this mystery and learn if it was restored
You can't find a paragraph in the 18th edition that was in the 17th edition, and you can't find where this change was approved by a vote of the delegates to the 59th GC Session in Atlanta. More amazing is that the correction was not made by the 60th GC Session in San Antonio
For those interested in a church mystery, here is a Church Manual mystery about the 'corporate witness of the church' that should interest you. The 'witness of the church' is found in the 19th Edition (2015) on page 59 - "Such a course would result in the fostering of a divisive spirit, the fragmenting of the witness of the church, and thus is hindering the Church's discharge of its obligations to the Lord and the world." This is very similar to the 'corporate witness of the church' found in the 17th edition, but the word 'corporate' has been removed and so has the definition of what the corporate witness is. I hope this has gotten your attention, so let's dig deeper into this mystery.
|
Self-Appointed Organizations - The church in its organized capacity is God’s instrumentality for preserving order and discipline among His people. Its God-given message is borne to the world not only by the personal testimony of the individual member but in the corporate witness of the church as the body of Christ. Such corporate witness requires the recognized administrative structure that has been established with all duly elected officers and all properly organized channels of work such as the Sabbath School, Personal Ministries, Youth organizations, et cetera. It also acknowledges such self-supporting institutions whose activities contribute to the attainment of the church’s objectives. Therefore, although all members have equal rights within the church, no individual member or group of members should start a movement or form an organization or seek to encourage a following for the attainment of any objective or for the teaching or any doctrine or message not in harmony with the fundamental religious objective and teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Such a course would result in the fostering of a factional and divisive spirit, in the fragmenting of the effort and witness of the church, and thus in hindering it in the discharge of its obligation to its Head and to the world.
Church Manual, page 190 (17th edition)
|
We start the investigation by noticing that the 19th edition (2015) says, 'fostering of a divisive spirit, the fragmenting of the witness of the church' so it seems that they are talking about the 'corporate witness of the church as the body of Christ' but just calls it simply the 'witness of the church' and does not connect it to the body of Christ at all.
Something else worth noticing is that page 189 and 190 in the 17th edition was chopped up by the changes made at the 59th Session of the General Conference. A look at the section titled "Unconsecrated Resist Church Discipline" which is three paragraphs (totaling 353 words) in the 17th edition that were taken directly from Testimonies, Volume 3 (page 265 to 271), The same section in the 18th edition is only two paragraphs of 223 words. The same section in the 19th edition is on pages 58-59 and " . . ." indicates the mission paragraph from the Testimonies.
Below is the wording of the second paragraph of this section on page 189 in the 17th edition that does not appear in the 18th edition section titled, "Unconsecrated Resist Church Discipline" found on page 58 and 59.
| "I was shown that the manner of Achan's confession was similar to the confessions that some among us have made and will make. They hide their wrongs and refuse to make a voluntary confession until God searches them out, and then they acknowledge their sins. A few persons pass on in a course of wrong until they become hardened. They may even know that the church is burdened, as Achan knew that Israel were made weak before their enemies because of his guilt. Yet their consciences do not condemn them. They will not relieve the church by humbling their proud, rebellious hearts before God and putting away their wrongs. God's displeasure is upon His people, and He will not manifest His power in the midst of them while sins exist among them and are fostered by those in responsible positions. {3T 270.2} Read entire section
|
It is left up to the reader to read the quote in Testimonies, Volume 3 and guess if that the missing paragraph is still part of the church manual.
Could it be that 'those in responsible positions' did not like this paragraph that talks about "while sins exist among them' and have removed this paragraph from the church manual. Since the 18th and 19th editions do reference Volume 3, page 270, 271 this is not the missing paragraph which is the subject of this webpage which is page 190 of the 17th edition. Consider this just a warm up to get you interested.
The next paragraph on page 190 in the 17th edition is a one paragraph section titled, 'Rules and Regulations Necessary' and a direct quote from Testimonies, Volume 5, page 274. This section was removed from the chapter on Church Discipline and now appears as the opening paragraph of Chapter 3 (page 26) of the 18th edition, "Organization and Authority"
The next section of page 190 is titled, "Self-appointed Organizations" which is the long paragraph quoted above (with the blue background). A section with this same name does not appear in the 18th edition at all. A search for the wording without the section title finds the words after 'Therefore' but with nine changes shown in [brackets].
| [Therefore,] although all members have equal rights within the church, no individual member or group [ of members ] should start a movement or form an organization or seek to encourage a following for the attainment of any objective or for the teaching or any doctrine or message not in harmony with the fundamental religious objective and teachings of the [ Seventh-day Adventist ] Church. Such a course would result in the fostering of a [ factional and ] divisive spirit, [ in ] the fragmenting of the [ effort and ] witness of the church, and thus in hindering [ it ] in the discharge of its obligation to [ its Head ] and [ to ] the world. (17th edition with changes in [red] The red may not appear to all viewers so we show it in [brackets] also. |
In the 18th edition; Chapter 7 on 'Discipline' in the section titled, 'Safeguarding Unity of the Church' we find the following as the second paragraph of this section:
Although all members have equal rights within the church, no individual member or group should start a movement or form an organization or seek to encourage a following for the attainment of any objective or for the teaching of any doctrine or message not in harmony with the fundamental religious objective and teachings of the Church. Such a course would result in the fostering of a diverse spirit, the fragmenting of the witness of the Church, and thus in hindering of the Church's discharge of its obligations to the Lord and the world. Church Manual, page 59 ( 18th Edition ) |
None of the other words found in the 17th edition section for "Self-appointed Organizations" can be found in the 18th edition of the Church Manual which was approved in 2010 and published in 2011. In other words, everything in this paragraph before - Therefore - is missing.
What is very interesting is that a close examination of the transcript of the 59th Session of the General Conference in Atlanta does not show discussion or approval to remove these words, and none of the changes described below have been approved by a vote of the delegates. The official transcript appears in Adventist Review magazine See Transcript Note: Adventist Review has changed this page sometime around 2015 and access is more restricted now.
Let's look at the changes that we find in the Church Manual itself and consider the impact of this change
Therefore =► Huge impact on the Church Manual because what the word 'Therefore' means. It means what follows is the logical conclusion of what came before it. Specifically, the "witness of the church" refers to the "corporate witness of the church" that was defined in the part that is missing from the 18th edition. It seems that the "therefore" was removed because it was no longer needed, because the part about "the Corporate Witness of the church as the body of Christ" was removed.
of members =► Low impact, the word 'group' implies group of members.
Seventh-day Adventist =► low impact, the word church, refers to SDA Church
factional and =► Unspecified impact, since the words 'diverse spirit' appears in both editions, it is the difference that 'factional' adds to the meaning of this section that has been removed.
effort and =► High impact on the Church Manual. Again the difference between 'effort and witness of the church' and just the plain witness of the church is reduced by what is involved with any effort of the church that is not involved with their witness. This is also effected by removing the definition of "corporate witness of the church" which appeared in the words before 'Therefore'
"it's Head" changed to "the Lord" =► This seems to be an improvement because the "head" of the church could be the President, whereas "the Lord" is clearly the real head and founder of the church. Also since the "body of Christ" has been removed, this change can be considered an improvement.
'in' - 'it' - 'to' =► these changes do not affect the Church Manual. They seem to be grammar and sentence structure changes required to make sense out of the other changes above.
Now we look at the section on page 59 where the text does appear "Safeguarding Unity of the Church" - by comparing it to the section with this same title in the 17th edition. Which is found on page 190.
Safeguarding Unity of the Church -- Christians should make every effort to avoid tendences that would devide them and bring dishonor to their cause. "It is the purpose of God that His children shall blend in unity. Do they not expect to live together in the same heaven? . . . Those who refuse to work in harmony greatly dishonor God" - - Testimonies, Vol. 8, 240. The church should discourage every action that would threaten harmony among its members and should consistently encourage unity.
Reconciliation of differences within the church and its membership should, in most cases, be possible without recourse either to a conciliation process provided by the church or to civil litigation. "If matters of difficulty between brethren were not laid open before others but frankly spoken of between themselves in the spirit of Christian love, how much evil might be prevented! How many roots of bitterness whereby many are defiled would be destroyed, and how closely and tenderly might the followers of Christ be united in His love!" - Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, page 59 (see Matt. 18: 15-18 and pp. 188-190)
Church Manual, page 190 ( 17th edition ) |
The 18th edition (page 59) has the first paragraph of the text above appearing in the section with the same name on page 59. The second paragraph of the text above has been removed from this section and now appears in the section titled - 'Reconciliation of Differences' on page 59.
The second paragraph in 'Safeguarding Unity of the Church' is the revised version of the paragraph discussed above. Which has been transposed from "Self-appointed Organizations" to"Safeguarding Unity of the Church" and there is no record in the transcript or discussion or approval for any of these changes.
Now we come to an interesting part:
NAD Working Policy B-90 the policy for Conciliation and Dispute Resolution, section 10 says that. Before applying the following procedures, all parties involved in the resolution of a dispute should read "Safeguarding the Union of the Church" in the current edition of the Church Manual. NAD Working Policy BA-45 which is very similar to B-90 also has a section 10 which says the same thing.
Since it is required that "all parties involved" read this section in the church manual - there is a huge inpact by changing this section of the Church Manual, because it also changes the Working Policy. The Working Policy has not been changed to reflect these changes in the church manual. It could be studied more, to see how much this change affects anyone using this process. Because there must be some affect to read something different now then what they read in the 17th edition. However, changes this far reaching should have been discussed in the transcript, but I can't find it.
Common sense tells us that such a substantial change to the church manual which affects Working Policy B-90 and BA-45 should be mentioned somewhere in the transcript of the 59th GC Session. It is possible that I missed it both times that I examined the transcript, can anyone point out where and when these changes were approved by the 59th GC Session or even where they were discussed?
If this was not approved, than I would think the Church Manual Committee restore the Church Manual to include only the changes voted and approved by the delegates to the GC session in Atlanta.
I will write a follow up article about the importance of knowing the "corporate witness of the church as the body of Christ" and how it hurts the church to remove this from the church manual. It seems to be done without the approval of the delegates.
Return to Letter to Church Manual Revision Committee
Return to Church Manual Changes page
