An ad hoc General Conference committee has concluded that three Seventh-day Adventist-associated lay groups “operate in a manner that is consistent with offshoot movements.” The committee, which was formed in early 1998, had two meetings with leaders of Hope International (publishers of Our Firm Foundation), the U.S.-based Hartland Institute, and Remnant Ministries, of Australia. Based on these talks and study of the groups’ published material, the committee report concludes that the accumulative effect of the information “results in the perception of many church members that Hope International and associates are offshoot organizations.”
The committee’s final report is published in the August 2000 North American Division edition of the Adventist Review. “All agree that there is serious need for revival and reformation in God’s remnant church,” says the report, “but the methods used by Hope International and associates have produced dissonance instead of reform.”
The report documents instances where Hope International and associates have supported and encouraged “breakaway” movements in at least 18 countries-including Australia, Bolivia, England, Sweden, the United States and Vanuatu. Most recently, the report says, the groups “supported, in a court of law, a non-Adventist who was attempting to use the name of the church for his own organization.”
The committee identified four areas of “serious concern” relating to Hope International and associates: their “charge of apostasy against the Adventist Church;” their “distorted view of the nature of the Church;” “supporting dissident movements;” and “selectively using Ellen G. White writings.”
The report appeals “in Christian love, for a turn of heart and purpose that will bring Hope International and associates into full unity with the body of Christ, the remnant church.” Quoting the Adventist Church Manual, the report concludes that without a clear change of direction within 12 months, the church “may need to consider whether there is a ‘persistent refusal to recognize properly constituted church authority or to submit to the order and discipline of the church.’”
The report was received and voted by the General Conference administrative committee on April 25, 2000. The ad hoc committee was comprised of both current and former General Conference administrators, professors from Andrews University and Oakwood College, and members of the General Conference Biblical Research Institute.
For the full text of the report, see the August 2000 North American edition of the Adventist Review or visit the Adventist Review Web site at www.adventistreview.org.