Norwegian Union Joins Rebellion

[Richard Myers]

The Executive Committee of the Norwegian Union voted on Sunday September 20, 2015 to discontinue the practice of ordaining pastors. The action means a change of a previously established practice, but is loyal to the vote in San Antonio this summer not to allow individual world divisions of the Seventh-day Adventist Church to make decisions regarding ordination of female pastors.

The document prepared for the Executive Committee refers to the General Conference Working Policy BA 60 05 entitled Basic Principles, which states: “The Church rejects any system or philosophy which discriminates against anyone on the basis of race, color, or gender. The Church bases its position on principles clearly enunciated in the Bible, the writings of Ellen G White, and the official pronouncements of the General Conference.”

The ordination practiced within the Seventh-day Adventist Church for many years has been at odds with the basic biblical principle of the equality of all human beings. The backing material for the Executive Committee refers to the priesthood of all believers and states that it is impossible for the church to respect the fundamental human right of equality without a reassessment of the way ordination has been practiced in the past.

During the past five years, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has conducted a thorough study of the theology of ordination. After the comprehensive studies on the theology of ordination, the Seventh-day Adventist Church world leadership has been aware of the fact that there exists two opposing views on ordination by conscientious and loyal Adventists. World church leadership has failed to provide space for unions, which are of the conviction that the present practice is biblically wrong, to follow their conscience within the boundaries of voted church policy. This has placed the Norwegian Union in a very difficult situation.

“The Norwegian Union does not want to be rebellious or to break away from the global Seventh-day Adventist fellowship. This is very important to us,” said Finn F. Eckhoff, Secretary of the Norwegian Union.

The theme of ordination has been studied for more than thirty years. Still it has not been possible to establish a clear biblical basis for the practice followed by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Now the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Norway has decided to encourage world church leadership to establish a biblically based practice that is not threatening the unity of the church.

The action voted by the Norwegian Union Executive Committee has six points. Point number one is a request to the Seventh-day Adventist world leadership to revisit the recommendations in the report from the Biblical Research Committee of the Trans-European Division. The 871 pages report recommends the church to admit, “there is no biblical command to ordain anyone by the imposition of hands and that there is no consistent biblical formula for how a leader is inducted to office in the Christian church.” (“The Mission of God through the Ministry of the Church. A Biblical Theology of Ordination – With Particular Attention to the Ordination of Women.” Biblical Research Committee, Trans-European Division, p. 814.)

From now on, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Norway will have a simple dedicatory prayer for a person embarking on pastoral internship. Similarly, there will be a dedicatory prayer for those who take the step from pastoral internship to regular pastoral service.

The Norwegian Union will operate with only two categories of pastoral employees from now on. 1) Pastors in regular service, and 2) Pastoral interns. The Norwegian Union will not report pastoral employees to the Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook until the General Conference has established pastoral categories that are not discriminatory.

Union President, Reidar J. Kvinge stressed the fact that the Norwegian Union does not want to be in rebellion against the global Seventh-day Adventist Church. But the vote of the Executive Committee comes as a result of a conviction that equality between the genders is a biblical principle.

“It is a matter of conscience for the Norwegian Union”, said pastor Kvinge. He added: “We cannot see any Biblical foundation for the ordination practice our church has followed for many years. That is the reason for our vote to discontinue the practice. The New Testament does not give us a command to discriminate against women in pastoral ministry. God gives his gifts to women and men. The Holy Spirit equips women and men for pastoral ministry. We want to recognize that.”

For many years, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Norway has treated men and women in pastoral ministry with equality. Pastoral employees have the same wage scale and terms irrespective of gender even if ordination has been only for men.

[Richard Myers]

The following statement is not surprising. It claims they are following God and have the right to not follow the world church. They do indeed have an obligation to follow God when the church is wrong. In the end, they must leave the world church if they feel so strongly. In this document they state this will be the end result, but they blame their leaving on the world church.

October 4, 2016

A response to «A Study of Church Governance and Unity»

A statement by the Norwegian Union Conference leaders

The document «A Study of Church Governance and Unity» published recently by the
General Conference Secretariat seeks, it claims, to develop unity in the Seventh-day
Adventist Church. The document has a number of weaknesses and is likely to contribute
to the splitting of the church over the issue of equality for women in ministry. An
attempt to coerce unions to comply with General Conference Working Policy is likely
to set in motion a series of uncontrollable and unpredictable events.
Oversimplification
A major weakness of the lengthy document from the Secretariat is over simplification of
the issue under consideration: the Adventist church’s approach to the ordination of
women. The basic assumption on which the argument of the document is based, is this:
Unity can only be achieved by getting deviant unions in line with General Conference
Working Policy.
It is understandable that the General Conference Secretariat, whose function is to ensure
that Seventh-day Adventist entities follow the General Conference Working Policy,
writes only in terms of policy compliance, but it is a dangerous oversimplification based
on pragmatic rather than moral and spiritual considerations.
Those unions which have ordained female pastors or stopped ordaining altogether, do so
because they are convinced that the Bible tells them to treat men and women equally.
Their decisions are not grounded in policy, but in spiritual and moral obligation.  Read the rest from Norwegian Union Conference

These bold leaders tell us they and their fellow rebels position "is likely" going to split church. They are set in their rebellion and will not change is what I am reading. And, I believe they are so far removed from Bible truth, they mean it. But, there are some in the union that are faithful to Scripture and the church, and they need our help. There needs to be a statement coming from the world church as to how they can proceed when this split comes.

We saw the effort made in the Netherlands by the faithful. It is most discouraging to not have any encouragement from the world church when the faithful find themselves surrounded by rebellion. The issue here is not making women leaders over men, it is faithfulness to God and His Word, and faithfulness to His church. In other words, the rebellion has to do with a lack of spiritual understanding. This has come about from leaders who are not filled with the Spirit of God, they are not in a converted state, and have been baptizing many who have not died to self. This is not uncommon in the church. We remain in a Laodicean condition. This is something the world church must take responsibility for. It does not excuse the rebels, but it does explain why the rebellion exists and why so many in Europe, Australia, and the North American Division are involved. If we continue to allow false gospels to be preached from our pulpits and published in our books and magazines, what else would we expect?

The Norwegian Union tells us "their decisions are not grounded in policy, but in spiritual and moral obligation." They have been so deceived they really believe women are to work and men are to stay home and feed the new born babies. They really believe that women are to be leaders of men. They have taken a position that tells the world, women are now to be drafted into the military and serve on the front lines of battle. Blindness had come upon unions and divisions within God's church. "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths." Isaiah 3:12.