Inter European Division Responds to the German Queergedacht Book

One year ago, in January 2023, a Seventh-day Adventist Church pastor in Germany presented himself as bisexual and promoted this lifestyle. After meeting with him, the Hanseatic Conference voted on March 19, 2023, to affirm his ministerial credentials.

Ten months ago (March 2023) the EUD said,

“We consider that his open rejection of the official position of the worldwide church disqualifies him for pastoral ministry. The administration of the EUD will work with the Hanseatic Conference, in close consultation with the North German Union, to address this issue and reconsider the status of his credentials.”

Nine months ago, world leaders, assembled at the General Conference headquarters for Spring Council, called on the Inter-European Division to deal swiftly and biblically with this pastor’s violation of SDA Church moral standards.

Four months ago, The Inter-European Division issued a Statement regarding the pro-LGBTQ+ September issue of Adventisten Heute, the OFFICIAL church paper of the SDA church in Germany. It was weak. It ended with a vague committment to ‘dialogue.’ We’ve had too much dialogue already. We already know what the Word of God says regarding male and female sexuality.

Yesterday, the Inter-European Division released another statement on their News website. Here is the statement,

“The September 2023 issue of Adventist Today and the recent publication of the book Queergedacht have caused tension and concern among church members and leaders in Germany and beyond.

The negative reactions were mainly triggered by the fact that both publications take a one-sided position on a very complex issue and endorse same-sex marriage.

The Board of the Inter-European Division is convinced that more study, reflection and prayer should be devoted to the question of how we deal with LGBTQ+ people in our church. In this way, any tensions that may have arisen in local churches could be eased, as well as helping individuals, families and congregations who are struggling to find a solution characterized by understanding and compassion while upholding the ideal of God's creation: monogamous, heterosexual marriage.

As a church, we must listen carefully to those who identify as LGBTQ+ and encourage multidisciplinary research to better understand the situation of those affected and create an environment in our communities where all people are welcome.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church was founded on the conviction that the Bible is the Word of God and that its authors were inspired by the Holy Spirit; this conviction is also the basis for preserving the unity of our church. The Bible is the highest authority on matters of faith, doctrine and lifestyle. We must study it carefully, using an exegetical approach that focuses primarily on understanding the message of the particular author and comparing the different passages of different authors on a particular subject in order to understand the full range of the subject in the passage under study and in the Bible as a whole. In this way, the full range of the topic can be grasped in the examined section and in the Bible as a whole.

Since the book Queergedacht was written in German and is therefore aimed primarily at a German-speaking audience, the leadership of the Inter-European Division asked various Adventist theologians with German as their mother tongue to write responses to the articles published in the book. The Board of the Inter-European Division is very concerned about the hermeneutical approach used in the book Queergedacht, which ultimately undermines the reliability of the Bible as our ultimate guide for faith and practice.

It is our goal to provide an understanding of the themes and biblical passages analyzed in Queergedacht based on a hermeneutical approach that allows the Bible to interpret itself. We are convinced that such an approach leaves no room for the approval of homosexual practices. At the same time, we follow God's command to love all people regardless of their sexual orientation and to support them in their desire to live according to God's will.

00-EUD-Intro-Evaluation_QG.pdf

01-02-EUD QD Chapter 1-2 Schneeweiss.pdf

01-EUD The Gretchen question of biblical interpretation_Winfried Vogel.pdf

05-EUD Queergedacht - Chapter 5 Bojan Godina EUD.pdf

10 EUD Queergedacht - Chapter 10 (Martin Pröbstle).pdf

11-EUD Queergedacht - Chapter 11 (Martin Pröbstle).pdf

14-EUD Queergedacht - Chapter 14 (René Gehring).pdf

23-EUD Queergedacht - Chapter 23 (René Gehring).pdf

A-EUD QD Topic forced celibacy Schneeweiss.pdf

15-EUD Queergedacht - Chapter 15 (Martin Pröbstle).pdf

22-EUD Queergedacht - Chapter 22 (René Gehring).pdf”

Observations

“We are convinced that such an approach leaves no room for the approval of homosexual practices.” Hear, hear.

“At the same time, we follow God's command to love all people regardless of their sexual orientation and to support them in their desire to live according to God's will.” It is true that the Bible calls us to demonstrate love to others, especially fellow believers (Galatians 6:2; Romans 12:10; Ephesians 4:32; John 15:13; Hebrews 13:1-2; John 13:34-35 and 1 Peter 2:17) our neighbors, and even enemies (Romans 13:10; Galatians 5:14; 1 John 4:11;Luke 6:27). The Bible says truth is very important, it also says it must be spoken in love (Ephesians 4:15, 25). The truth is that homosexuality and LGBTQ+ moral sin will cause people to be eternally lost (Leviticus 18:22; Leviticus 20:13; 1 Cor. 6:9-11; Romans 1:26-27; Jude 7; 1 Timothy 1:10).

Speaking the truth in love is not as much about having a gentle demeanor as it is about the way that truth and love go hand-in-hand. Because we love one another, we must speak the truth.

Importantly, we are also called to love those who do not know Christ. The best way we can show love is to share with them the truth of the gospel, and the gospel require us to repent of sin, not celebrate it. Apart from Christ, people are dead in their sins and destined for destruction in hell (John 3:16–18; Romans 6:23). But in Christ they can receive new life and eternal salvation (Romans 10:9–15; 2 Corinthians 5:17). This is a message we must share. Peter wrote,

“In your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).

We share the everlasting gospel because we love the people for whom Christ died. We speak God’s truth because of His love and in a way that clearly and unapologetically communicates both truth and love (1 John 4:10–12).

Love speaks the truth. For politically-minded liberals, the highest point of political maneuvering is not doing anything about a problem, it's not fixing anything, it's not achieving a concrete objective, it's just having endless dialogue. Beware the endless conversation, or dialogue.

Responding to the deceptive Queergedacht book is one thing, our church must respond to the brazen LGBTQ+ pastor in northern Germany by removing his credentials. If we don’t, additional LGBTQ+ pastors will start popping up in western Adventism. We saw this already in the WO rebellion.

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“Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body” (Ephesians 4:22–25).