The church must pastor all its children, whatever their education or intellectual culture. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is the mother of creation science. George McCready Price developed a theory of Earth history that sought to integrate statements of the Bible and Ellen White about creation and Noah's flood with statements found in geological literature. His work laid the foundation for the Geoscience Research Institute (a ?General Conference institution) and a variety of nondenominational, conservative Christian organizations which defend the scientific validity of a brief geo-chronology based on biblical genealogies. ('Brief geochronology' means variously that the universe or the solar system or major forms of life on Earth originated in a single week of divine creative action less than 12,000 years ago.) The views of Price have been modified over the years, but his basic notion that science agrees with the Bible in testifying that life first appeared on Earth a few thousand years ago has been unofficial Adventist doctrine for at least a hundred years. It has been a dominant motif in Adventist schools.

Adventists have given special emphasis to the study of science because of our commitment to health care and because of our conviction that the study of nature is a study of the work of God. Because of our long involvement in creation science, and because of our active promotion of science education for our young people, the Adventist church bears a special responsibility to provide pastoral care to those whose life work is the study of science. Whatever a person's views on Earth science, the church is obliged to provide moral guidance, instruction regarding salvation, hope for the future and encouragement in wholesome patterns of life.

The Adventist church now faces a profound challenge: Most of our members and clergy continue to believe correct Bible interpretation requires, and valid science supports, the view that life first appeared on Earth a few thousand years ago. However, a growing number of our members who have devoted their lives to the study of creation have concluded science requires, and the Bible allows, the view that the fossil record is millions of years old. These scientists and theologians remain convinced life is an expression of God's creative power, but they feel compelled by the preponderance of scientific evidence to believe a complete history of life on Earth includes a long time of life and change before the creation of humans.

The delegates to the 2004 International Conference on Faith and Science have invested the past three years in the study of the theology and science of creation. For many of us, this study has been the focus of our work for decades. Our process has required us to listen to a multitude of voices within the church. We know what scholars and members believe. Whatever our individual convictions, we are aware of the evidence and the arguments cited to support differing conclusions. As we reach the end of this three years of study, prayer and conversation, we offer to the Church this testimony:

The Bible and Nature Are Trustworthy Revelations of God

We embrace without reservation the twin declarations of the Old and New Testaments, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth...All things were made by him, and without him nothing was made that has been made". (Gen 1:1; John 1:3). Adventists are creationists. That means we trust the biblical statements that God is the originator and sustainer of everything. While nature does not offer explicit, unambiguous testimony about God, the careful, reverent investigation will not lead us astray. Nature points beyond itself to an origin of information and design. The Bible identifies and describes God, who is that Origin.

As people of the book (the Bible) we trust the picture of God's character found in the Bible. We trust the Bible's guidance in the great questions of morality and justice. We gladly accept Jesus as the fulfillment of the symbols, prophecies and communal hope of the Old Testament and look forward to his conclusive triumph when sin and sinners will be no more and one pulse of harmony and gladness will beat throughout the vast creation. As creationists (people of God's second book), we trust the record of Earth history God has written into the rocks. We believe that God does not change his moral or natural laws. We can probe the secrets of nature confident there is order and consistency across space and through time.

The historic Adventist belief in a short chronology has much to recommend it: apparently greater congruence with the biblical testimony about Earth history and our doctrines of salvation, the Sabbath and the Second Coming. However, old-Earth creationism also has much to recommend it: apparently greater congruence with a straightforward reading of nature, radiometric dating, ice core studies, fossil progression, and coherence between the world of nature and the human experience of suffering. The Bible testifies the Earth is God's handiwork. Nature points beyond itself to a source of information and personhood. Because we are biblical creationists we dare not ignore the testimony from either the Bible or nature. We know our comprehension of the Bible and nature is partial, defective and subject to change. But we can see clearly enough to worship and to obey.

Sabbath-Keeping Is Central in Our Worship and Witness

Seventh-day Adventists remember God's role as Creator in our observance of the Sabbath. Further, in our Sabbath-keeping we remember that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has secured our future. He offers us pardon, transformation and eternal life. Ultimately, human history will move beyond the cycle of life and death, birth and decay through the intervention of Jesus at his second coming. As leaders of the church we are responsible to provide for the spiritual well-being of all our members within the context of these convictions.

We have discovered that Sabbath-keeping unites Adventists across cultural and intellectual divides. Adventists who believe in a long chronology are no less committed to Sabbath-keeping and its theological lessons than are those who believe in a short chronology. It is crucial to our mission as a church that we continue to call all people, scientists and non-scientists, to keep the Sabbath and through their Sabbath-keeping to cultivate their confidence in God's promises and their obedience to God's law.

Pastoring All the Flock

Many wish the church would issue a definitive declaration about Earth history and invite everyone who disagrees to leave our fellowship. Such an action would betray our obligation to act as shepherds for the entire flock of God. The church cannot safely make a particular view of science, even creation science, a requirement for inclusion in the fellowship of the church. Science, even creation science, is always changing. For example, the geological theories of George McCready Price are no longer endorsed by any of the church's scientists. Even those who agree with his conclusions about the age of life disagree with nearly all of his scientific arguments. While many scientific theories have apparent theological implications, if the church declares a particular view of science to be the only acceptable view for believers, we run the risk of repeating the folly of the church in earlier generations, which declared the Earth to be the physical center of the universe. If the church makes authoritative pronouncements about geochronology, it risks involving itself in scientific folly no matter what view it adopts, short or long chronology, because science changes. The church is called to build on a more secure foundation. Our theology and ministry as a church transcend any particular theory of Earth history.

We cannot endorse the idea of "ancient life" on Earth. The church does not teach this. But we must acknowledge that many of our loyal members have been led by honest and diligent study to believe the evident age of the fossils is real. Their views on Earth history are not driven by rebellion against God or a disregard for Scripture, but by their commitment to pursue truth. By acknowledging that among our scientists and theologians are persons whose honest study has led them to conclude that Earth history is much longer than the church officially teaches, we are deliberately refusing to suppress the debate over the age of the Earth occurring in some places in the church. We believe truth will be better served by ongoing theological and scientific argument than by attempting to resolve the issue through fiat.

As pastors and teachers in the church of God, we are obligated to provide pastoral care and theological guidance for all of the children of the church, including those who believe the universe was created a few thousand years ago and the amateur and professional scientists who are compelled by their studies of creation to accept a long chronology.

We recognize that different educational institutions will develop different models for integrating the Bible and science. What we insist on is that every Adventist school, at every level of instruction, help their students to find intellectually and spiritually satisfying ways of integrating Adventist theology and practice with the content and processes of science.

Together, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we can build a community that is open to the knowledge that comes through the Bible and through science, is obedient to the commandments of God and confident in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Editors note: In August 2004, the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists will bring together theologians, church leaders and scientists from around the world for the concluding conference in a three-year exploration of the relationship of biblical interpretation and science. A major issue under consideration is geochronology¡ªmore specifically, the age of life on Earth. How will the church respond to the growing number of its members who treasure the church and its doctrine but dissent from its traditional teachings about the age of the fossil record? We offer this statement as one path the church might take.