Adventist Review Podcasts

What does a 380-year-old fight over censorship have to do with the Seventh-day Adventist Church? In 1644, the poet John Milton published a furious defense of free speech — and Shawn Boonstra suggests it may have quietly helped set the stage for a movement that wouldn't emerge for another two centuries. From book burnings to Bible societies, this Perspectives column traces a trail of "coincidences" that looks suspiciously like design. Was it chance, or the finger of God nudging history forward without violating human free will? Listen to the full article and decide for yourself.

Drive in snow and overcorrect one way, and you'll end up in the ditch on the other side. Theologian John Peckham argues the same danger lurks around one of Christianity's most contested ideas: sola scriptura. Push too hard toward reading the Bible in total isolation, and you land in one ditch. Push too hard toward letting community or tradition control what Scripture means, and you land in the other. So where's the road between them — and how did Jesus himself model staying on it? Listen to the full article to find out.

Between this moment and the final triumph of God’s love, there will be many moments when the outcome may appear in doubt.

Hard-edged, hard-hearted people flourish in a world chilled by greed. Deceit—in all its printed, spoken, filmed and digitized dimensions—settles like a toxic fog over what was once a landscape formed by trust. Unforgiveness grasps our culture by the throat, insisting that no war can ever truly end; no feud can ever fully finish.

And still the Word of God insists that grace personified in Jesus will sweep the world’s stage “by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself” (Phil 3:21).

In the face of graceless, human-caused catastrophes, the Bible is emphatic: “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:10-11).

Grace will win because God’s love is so much greater than our hate. Every soul will have the chance to choose that grace for themselves—and thrive in it.

Choose now—and stay in grace. -Bill Knott

And you thought grace was just for individuals.

When God’s mercy and affection are much-welcomed and deep-trusted, lasting impacts start to flow to all within the circle.

Grudges soften at the edges; ancient bitterness begins to fade. Forgiveness flourishes in crevices, even between those who never thought they could be anything but enemies. Gentle, subtle acts of kindness replicate themselves like wavelets traveling outwards, touching lives far distant. Other souls are softened, watered, warmed, enriched. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us” (Rom 5:5).

The grace “that saved a wretch like me” is so much more than God’s plan to bring me safe and sound to heaven, lovely as that is. Yes, it starts in one responsive heart, but never ends just there. As the old hymn constantly reminds us, “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy like the wideness of the sea.” “The grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people” (Titus 2:11).

Grace ripples through our families, our friendships, our communities—unlimited; inclusive, and unstoppable. “Let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift” (Rev 22:17).

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

3 billion people on Earth have never heard the name of Jesus — and most of them live in cities the Adventist Church has been quietly leaving for decades.

Gary Krause, Director of Adventist Mission at the General Conference, sat down with Shawn Boonstra to explain what's actually being done, where it's working, and the 4-word principle that changed how both of them think about mission.

A minister who's raised his kids and an editor still in the trenches sit down over one question: what do you do when the most addictive thing your child will ever hold fits in their pocket? No easy answers — just honesty about the fear, the failures, and the grace that carries parents through.

Shawn Boonstra and Justin Kim talk screens, dopamine, the anxious generation, the "bubble" trap, and why every parent they know has "gone nuclear" and regretted it — plus the stranger's words that changed Shawn's life at 16.

Three churches. Three continents. One thing they all figured out that most Adventist congregations still haven't.

Shawn Boonstra opens the mission reports that reach the General Conference building — the ones most members never get to see. A district in the Scottish 
Highlands that filled a Gospel Fest with people who'd never set foot in an Adventist church. A youth ministry in wartime Ukraine that sorts every person 
they meet into five levels — starting with "haters." And a congregation in Seoul's professional district that stopped waiting for growth to happen organically.

The pattern connecting all three isn't budget, location, or talent. Listen to the end.

She once heard voices telling her she was about to hurt someone. Now she hosts one of Hope Channel's most-watched shows. This episode asks the question most Christian parents are afraid to say out loud: is it ever loving to let someone hit bottom?

Years ago Shawn Boonstra signed the guest book at a church that wasn't his own, just to see what would happen. They called him back in 32 hours. Meanwhile, interest cards from his own television broadcast were sitting in a filing cabinet for three months.

Tim McTernan spent 30 years in marketing before he brought it into the church — supermarket brands, telecommunications, a million pieces of direct mail a week. Now he leads innovation and marketing for the South Pacific Division, and he says the Adventist Church is leaving people on the table who already raised their hand.

This one gets uncomfortable: what a baptism costs, whether it's obscene to measure it, why 46% of Gen Z open TikTok looking for spiritual truth, and what $200 can actually do for a local church. And at the very end, the story of a 45-minute car ride in Sydney that no marketing budget could have bought.

Shawn joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church six weeks before Waco burned. Justin comes from a country whose own society files Adventism as an official cult. So they took the actual checklist — the warning signs people use to identify a cult — and ran the church through it, line by line, including the ones it doesn't pass.
Filmed at the General Conference world headquarters. No script, no talking points, no PR department in the room.