I've been up since 4 am trying to finish the Sabbath School translation and to input my questionnaires into SPSS. I tried to get some sleep but was unsuccessful. Well, I thought I'd try posting something on my blog. After all, it's been a while since I'd posted anything useful here.
The past week has been quite a busy one. Attending the Seminary Forum was just one of the activities. Then I had to drive some people to the Airport, which was good because I got to earn some money out of it.
The Forum was a good one, with the theme of "Current Trends in Adventist Theology" the BRI people presented several papers that dealt with the current trends in the church. Dr. Angel Manuel Rodriguez, the director of Biblical Research Institute, presented his papers on several issues. He presented about current and recent trends in Adventist Theology and Soteriology. He reminded us of the theological and philosophical influences on SDA Theology. Process theology of Whitehead have influenced some of our SDA theologians, such as Richard Rice. Regarding the doctrine of creation, he said that "Today SDA opinions in the area of creation and evolution range from literal six-day creation to theistic evolution." That is surprising for me! On the Doctrine of Salvation he said, "Traditionally SDA's have taught that Jesus died on the cross as our substitute. Several SDA theologican can no longer accept that." So many revealing things that are hapenning that I may not have heard of before.
Dr. Ekkehardt Mueller discussed more on divorce and remarriage issues. Several interesting questions were asked on Sabbath afternoon that might have required more time to answer. Anyways, he'll still be around AIIAS. I'd like to know his opinion about a case that happenned in a church where I was serving before.
Present was also Dr. C. Wahlen. His paper was about Sabbath and Sunday, Laodecia and Adventist Eschatology, and Charismatics and NT Charismata. Interesting papers that Dr. Wahlen presented. I have heard a little about him when I arrived in AIIAS, he was described as a strict professor, which gave me a picture of a huge, always frowning guy. Actually when I saw him, he was nice, soft spoken, had a nice smile too!
On Sabbath, the typhoon Santi hit AIIAS. The acting president sent out an email cancelling all Sabbath programs. It was really raining hard. The wind was quite strong too! A coconut tree was uprooted, some trees fell and there were rivers of waters everywhere. But around 9a.m the rain stopped, and the sun came out. So the Forum continued at 11a.m.
Dr. Woody Whidden gave a very animated and thought inspiring sermon regarding the deity of Christ. He described how theologians have held on the post-fall and pre-fall state of Christ.
Well, I guess I'll have to continue this at a later time. This is my weakness, I lose interest easily when I'm blogging. Anyways... Its nice to have blogged today.