Adventist Review Podcasts

Was the Advent movement just another religious experiment born in the ferment of nineteenth-century America, or something more? In this Experiences article, Alberto R. Timm traces the prophetic roots of Adventism back past William Miller to the evangelical scholars whose work Miller built on. Along the way he looks at a principle that once seemed settled: that in symbolic prophecy, a day stands for a year. Why did Miller push it too far in places, and why do so many Christians, including some Adventists, now set it aside? Timm argues that what is at stake is more than a method. Listen to the full article to hear why.

In December 1844, five grieving women knelt in prayer in Portland, Maine. Among them was a 17-year-old girl weighing barely 80 pounds, too ill to finish school, her voice little more than a whisper. Why would God choose her, of all people, when capable, educated men stood ready? In this Sabbath School Reflection, Cindy Tutsch traces a surprising pattern through Scripture, from a flawed Abraham to a rugged Elijah, a ruined Isaiah, and a desert-dwelling John the Baptist, and asks what that pattern means for anyone who has ever felt too young, too old, or too ordinary to matter. Listen to the full article.

As Christ grows greater in our minds, we lose our need to be authorities over what others think and do.

The deepening awareness that we have been wrong more than we have been right—that we are only now approaching the starting point of faith—creates a gentle tolerance for those now camped where we once stopped, or mired in the stuff from which Christ freed us. We learn to smile at vehemence and vitriol, remembering how frequently we used them for bad causes or when we were still unsure.

Grace makes us gracious to the ungraceful, for we see ourselves in them. We remember that their faults are just as pardonable as ours, and no more dangerous.

The fellowship of the forgiven is as vast as the grace that makes it possible.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

So you’ve lived a good life, a moral life, a life of treating others as you wish you would be treated. You pay your taxes when they’re due. You let the elderly go first. You rescue fledglings fallen from the nest. Your colleagues count on you for steady work. Your dog adores you.

Does all of this not matter when it comes to final reckonings? Is God not suitably impressed with upright choices we’ve made—with gifts we’ve given to the poor, with candles lit, with self-denying sacrifice? Surely, righteous deeds must tip the scales in our favor.

Such thinking is both fully natural and painfully mistaken—not because God fails to notice, but because He has provided a better and more perfect way to bring us to His heart. The Bible is emphatic: “Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:23-25). The Father has appointed a Saviour whose perfect life and sacrificial death isn’t sullied by our habits of accounting or self-congratulation. “He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with His truth” (Psa 96:13).

We’ll never earn God’s gift of grace. But in His name—and for His fame—we’ll move the world with kindness.

So stay in grace. -Bill Knott

What happens when the rules you were given for purity don't match the life you end up living? Beth Hill grew up inside purity culture's strict guidelines for dress, dating, and desire, and in this Lifestyle column she traces how those rules shaped her sense of self, her marriage, and even her faith in God. Some of it was good. Some of it, she came to realize, went further than Scripture ever did. Beth Thomas joins her to unpack what purity culture got wrong, what it's cost a generation now raising kids of their own, and what a healthier, more biblical picture of purity actually looks like. Listen to the full article and decide for yourself.

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.