23rd General Conference Session Special Report
From the discussions and decisions taken at the 23rd SDARM General Conference Delegation Session, below are a few highlights:
The interval between two General Conference delegation sessions has been amended to five (5) years (quinquennial interval) instead of four (4) years (quadrennial interval).
The office of the elder is often ignored, and the responsibility of the ordained deacon is misunderstood in the church today based on the account in the New Testament (Acts 6:1−?8; 1 Timothy 3:13). The men who are known as the seven deacons of the apostolic church were chosen and ordained to attend to the “business” of the church and to provide spiritual and material support (The Acts of the Apostles, p. 89). The Bible charges elders with the tasks of teaching and leading the local churches, yet the deacons’ responsibility is more service-oriented. They are to handle the physical or temporal matters of the church to free up the ministers and elders to focus on shepherding the spiritual needs of the church.
“The appointment of the seven to take the oversight of special lines of work, proved a great blessing to the church. These officers gave careful consideration to individual needs as well as to the general financial interests of the church, and by their prudent management and their godly example they were an important aid to their fellow officers in binding together the various interests of the church into a united whole.”—Ibid.
In order to give the ministers and the elders more time to focus on the church’s spiritual side, the deacons are responsible for the administrative and business work of the church and assist the ministers and elders in their duties, in promoting the spiritual welfare of the church.
“The fact that these brethren had been ordained for the special work of looking after the needs of the poor, did not exclude them from teaching the faith. On the contrary, they were fully qualified to instruct others in the truth, and they engaged in the work with great earnestness and success.”—Ibid., p. 90.
Therefore, the implementation of the Biblical principle of ordaining deacons would be a great blessing to the church. Below are some of the responsibilities of deacons. As a minister is responsible for the spiritual needs and yet has many assistants, the deacon may also have assistance in his work.
Financial management: The deacons are the ones primarily responsible for the general management of the church along with the day-to-day finances.
Care for the poor and needy: The example in Acts 6:1–6, clearly shows that one of the major purposes of their ordination, and involvement in financial management, is that the poor are cared for, the sick and needy are visited and that the widows are materially taken care of in an official, recognized capacity.
Church orderliness: All the responsibilities of a material nature during the meetings of the local church fall upon the deacon.
Those taking this responsibility who are not ordained are not called deacons. They may be called ushers or another term that describes their work without all the responsibilities that come with ordination as a deacon.
Church grounds: The maintenance and cleanliness of church property, both of the grounds as well as the building itself, making it ready for church services, is the deacon’s responsibility. This includes having the doors open and ready for any of the scheduled church activities and any of the technical needs (sound system, video as well as projection equipment, HVAC, etc.).
Material management: Deacons should be available to help in a variety of ways so that the pastors and elders are relieved to concentrate on teaching and shepherding the church.
Assistance to services: Preparing for and helping with baptisms, preparation for the communion service and assisting the minister or elder in such services are all to be part of the deacon’s responsibilities.
Spirituality: The deacon is to assist in the spiritual needs of the church (Acts 6:8). Based on the pattern established in Acts 6 with the apostles and the “seven,” it seems best to view deacons as servants who do whatever is necessary to allow the ministers and the elders to accomplish their God-given calling of shepherding, teaching, and in other ways spiritually administering the church. Just as the apostles delegated the financial administration to the seven, so the ministers and elders are to delegate due responsibilities to the deacons, so that they can focus their efforts on bringing souls to Christ while the deacons help the elders retain the souls that have already come into the church.
Seeking candidates: The church especially needs to evaluate the qualifications of treasurers and welfare workers to see if they meet the requirements to be ordained as deacons.
The following are some of the recommendations from the Doctrinal Committee:
In reality, the type of grain in the communion bread is immaterial as long as it is considered bread and has no leavening agent in it, as Christ is completely “unleavened” from sin and any of its attributes (1 Corinthians 5:7, 8; 1 Peter 2:21, 22). Since the leavening agent is required to be absent as a perfect symbol of Jesus, and since leaven specifically works upon the gluten in order to make the bread rise and make it light, and since a seed type manna was equally a perfect bread symbol of Jesus (John 6:31–35; Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 297; Evangelism, p. 284), and specifically used in the New Testament to represent Jesus, it is quite natural to draw a conclusion that another grain that has no gluten may also be used and still perfectly maintain its representation of Jesus as the bread of life for this world.
Armageddon is a universal war between all the nations of the earth during the sixth and seventh plagues that is the result of a peace conference (compare: 1 Thessalonians 5:1–3; Revelation 16:15) held in Palestine (verse 16) after the nations surrounding the Euphrates River have been left powerless or have been annihilated, thus paving the way for the eastern nations to be involved in the Middle East (verse 12). This peace conference will be devised by the nations as a result of a strong seemingly godly religious influence (verses 13, 14). However, the result of this deceptive religion is the worship of false gods. Therefore, this religious influence must be the three evil spirits of papal system (2 Thessalonians 2:3, 4) which had set the final date for the destruction of God’s people (Revelation 13:15; The Great Controversy, pp. 590, 604) blaming them for all the plagues and wars. Instead of peace, this conference results in a universal world war (Joel 3:9–15). This attempt on the lives of the saints is interrupted by the voice of God which delivers His people (Joel 3:16; Revelation 16:17), destroys a good portion of Babylon (verses 19–21), stops the war among the nations (chaptert 6:15) and delivers the people of God by the second coming of Christ (verses 14, 16, 17). This is how “Providence has a part to act in the battle of Armageddon” (The SDA Bible Commentary, [E.G. White Comments], vol. 7, p. 983).
The seven last plagues are a result of the great conflict between Christ and Satan ( The Great Controversy, pp. 449, 450, 605). As the plagues near their end, the battle intensifies, and God arises in defense of His people. God uses not only natural disasters but also the nations themselves to inflict His judgments upon them (Matthew 21:40, 41; The Desire of Ages, p. 596). From this we see that although Armageddon is a literal war between all the nations of this earth, the religious basis is clear and comes to an end by the second coming of Christ (Revelation 19:11–21) and ushers in the millennium (chapter 20:1–6).
The door is not closed for further study on this point.
• Regular health check-ups.
• Regular check of B-12 levels.
• Regular check of Vitamin D, especially those who live in the northern hemisphere.
• Other necessary analysis (lab, ultrasound, blood pressure, PAP test, PSA test, etc.).
• Obesity and insulin resistance (Hyperinsulinism); (Child Guidance, p. 379).
• Depression and Melancholy (Proverbs 17:22; Psalm 32:1–6): Pastors have their place in the treatment of depression. It is important that they know and are familiar with their place in this treatment.
• We recommend that they read The Ministry of Healing, and the last chapter of Steps to Christ, as well as similar books from other authors.
• Cardiovascular Disease: Prevention of this disease is much more than vegetarianism and not smoking (Proverbs 14:30; 4:23).
The Lord’s messenger testified: “I saw that the reason why God did not hear the prayers of His servants for the sick among us more fully was, that He could not be glorified in so doing while they were violating the laws of health.”—Counsels on Diet and Foods, pp. 25, 26.
• Regular physical exercise of at least 30 minutes per day.
• Regulated use of electronic devices, especially in childhood and youth.
• Mistakes in diet: use of refined sugars, refined fats (trans fats), aspartame, and insufficient intake of raw unrefined food (Ibid., pp. 27, 28).
• Insufficient time in sunlight (Ecclesiastes 11:7).
• Insufficient water intake and insufficient use of water for prevention and therapy (Healthful Living, p. 90).
• Publication of a Sabbath Bible Lesson quarterly on health principles.
• Such a lesson to be accompanied by a pamphlet(s) that give the latest scientific evidences in support of each lesson.
• Regular publications of health materials in smaller and larger formats.
Encourage closed group communication using social media among all medical field workers.
• Stimulate better communication and cooperation between medical workers and the ministry (including pastors, Bible workers, and church leaders).
• Stimulate better communication and cooperation between medical doctors and those practicing natural therapy.
• Stimulate young people to enter the study of health sciences.
• Existing missionaries who have finished their training should be encouraged to receive health sciences education to increase their effectiveness.
At every General Conference Delegation, there is typically a Plans Committee that comes up with ideas and suggestions that can be implemented as feasible.
This time, the Plans Committee made emphasis on the following areas:
• To continue with new canvassing projects, especially in Africa and other developing countries.
• Continue the work of preparing our own health and spiritual books for canvassing and translate them in several languages.
• Continue organizing vacation canvassing projects for the youth since this proved to be an effective way to keep them in the church and to make them feel like they have a purpose.
• To keep updating the webpage canvassing.sdarm.org and make it a source of educational materials.
• Dedicate a quarter of Sabbath Bible Lessons to the canvassing theme.
• Take steps to encourage young people to devote one year of their lives either to canvassing or missions.
• Encourage the Health Department to create a training program on the functions of the human body, prevention of disease, and natural treatments.
• Promote the preparation of a global missionary instruction manual.
• Prepare a courtship guide/counseling course for youth.
• Focus more energy in general on the spiritual needs of teenagers and children.
• Develop an educational curriculum for home school, church school, and missionary school in both traditional and online formats.
• Promote organic agriculture and rural living.
• Promote the work in new territories around the Pacific region in countries such as Cambodia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Taiwan, Macau, and others.
• Promote studies specific for revival and unity of the church.