At last I have some time to reply!

> > No, that's fine. Please let me know in the mean time what your impression > on the early popes was ? And history ? I'm not asking for a doctoral > thesis on it or anything like that, but I'm interested to know what your > reaction to it all is.

What I find interesting is the debate about authority obviously going on in the early church. Apparently up until Pius I the church was governed by a council or group of bishops, where the popes were simply the more prominant members of the govening group. Even when you go back to Peter it is clear the church was not authoritarian - there was debate and discussion with Peter, no one just did what he said.

However there is a trend which I am against in seeing the church as having authority over its members. Clement I in particular argues for a very strict obedience to the church, praising the Roman military as a model of obedience.

> > > I am not a BDSDA. I think their beliefs are interesting and I have written > > an introduction to their ideas. >

> Do you agree with their ideas ?

No, what I like about a number of offshoots from SDA is the fact that they still see God as very active with his people, whereas the traditional SDA church acts as if God was active in the 19C and now has stopped sending prophets and messages to the church.

> > Are you mainstream SDA ?

Er.. not really that either. What has happened to the SDA church in the last 30 years are a number of fairly fundamental divisions, between evangelicals and traditionists, modernists and conservatives etc, and I don't actually align myself with any particular group. I see each element has having something interesting and important to say, and would describe myself as neo-orthodox, accepting the basic truths but re-interpreted and re-understood in the light of modern realities.

John

Stephen Korsman is a Roman Catholic
John Mann is a Seventh-day Adventist

© John Mann 2000
New Perspectives on Seventh-day Adventism
jon.mann@btinternet.com