How Scripture and Authority Are Understood by Teachers in Adventist Schools in North America

Abstract

This chapter begins by reviewing the debate about Scripture and authority that has taken place among conservative Christian groups in North America, and how this debate has been reflect in internal discussions among Bible scholars in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It then analyses data from questions relating to Scripture and authority in the results of surveys completed in 2018 by teachers in Seventh-day Adventist Schools in the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. According to their responses, 79% of teachers considered either religious teachings and beliefs or religion and common sense when they were making decisions concerning right and wrong. Over 96% of them considered that the “Bible was the work of people who were inspired by God and who represented God’s message in terms of their own place and time”; while 69% of them think that “not everything in the Bible should be taken literally, word for word.”