Triennial Matters: Advent Christians on Human Sexuality

This “Triennial Matters” series seeks to highlight some of the important items that will be considered at the 2023 ACGC Triennial Convention. The opinions expressed here are the author’s own and do not represent the views of the bodies he serves. All business items can be found here.

We live in confused times and have for quite some time. Sexual morality has been reduced to the mere measure of consent and gender has been divorced from biology; some denominations have been swept along in the moral mud slide. At the 2017 Triennial convention the matter of human sexuality was brought before the ACGC delegate body. Denominational leaders desired to strike a definitive stance on these matters for Advent Christians, to the extent that they attempted to add a 12th distinctive in this regard to the Declaration of Principles. Eventually they learned the procedure they employed was incorrect and so in lieu of this they put forward an endurin.g resolution on Human Sexuality

There was some disagreement over the wording in this resolution; a few desired a more pastoral tone. However, the majority determined that the resolution should be passed even with some possible need for improvement in the future. The committee given the task of considering improvements eventually determined that the best option for improvement would be for Advent Christians to instead endorse The Nashville Statement. Whether this occurs will be decided by the ACGC delegate body at the 2023 Triennial Convention this August.

The origin of the statement is succinctly summarized on Wikipedia:

The Statement was drafted in late August 2017, during the annual conference of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee. The statement was published online on August 29, 2017.[7] It was signed by more than 150 evangelical Christian leaders.

Six years later, the host website for the statement now claims over 24,000 signatories.

Comparing our current resolution with the Nashville Statement, you will notice that both make largely the same determinations. For those who worried about “pastoral tone,” I see no great difference in that regard. To be honest, I don’t see anything that is pastorally amiss in either of these documents. No document can do the work of a pastor - words on a page will always feel colder than human presence.

The most noticeable difference between the two is the written format - the resolution following the “whereas…whereas” pattern whilst the statement features an “affirm…deny” pattern. The statement’s pattern is more effective in my opinion; it is clearer and easier to read, important qualities when addressing this subject.

However, this preference pales in comparison to the real interest Advent Christians should have in endorsing the Nashville Statement. As our Declaration of Principles makes clear, there are good reasons for our distinct denominational existence (see also my comments here). Nevertheless, Advent Christians should have real interest in joining the chorus of the evangelical church on matters such as this, rather than striking our own tune.

Our history of joining the National Association of Evangelicals and eventually adopting their statement of faith as our own reflects such wisdom. It reflects our sober realization that it is an exercise in vanity to reinvent the wheel when it possible for us to speak with one voice as Christ’s Body. Indeed, Advent Christians should pursue such unity whenever possible - our anticipation of Christ’s return compels this humble expedience just as it also compels our fervent obedience to publicly confess the truth of God’s Word.

So I say, let’s join the late R.C. Sproul, the late J.I. Packer, D.A. Carson, Rosaria Butterfield, Francis Chan, Karen Swallow Prior, John Piper, and many other brothers and sisters in making their statement our statement. Let the Body of Christ stand as one in proclaiming these truths, embracing God’s design for human flourishing. Let us endorse the Nashville Statement.

Update: I encourage readers to read this account of the origins of the Nashville Statement from Andrew T. Walker. CBMW is a complementarian organization and of course, as Walker notes, they would craft the statement in a way that comports with complementarianism. Of particular note however is this commentary -

“The Nashville Statement is more or less a prequel to the Danvers Statement by way of content, even though it came afterward. Danvers dealt with ecclesial skirmishes related to pastoral roles and complementarity. The Nashville Statement was written in response not simply to egalitarianism, but to Western culture jettisoning Christian sexual ethics wholesale. [….] What always mystified me, continuing to the present day, is the extent to which individuals can misread the purpose of a document, especially the Nashville Statement. The Nashville Statement was never intended to be the final, authoritative, and exhaustive statement on gender and sexuality. If anything, it was a mere blueprint. Our intention was that churches and institutions would then take the skeletal outline of the Nashville Statement and build upon it (which, not incidentally, the PCA ended up doing). One can say much more than the Nashville Statement said (and arguably should), but never less.”
[bolding mine]

What seems obvious from this (and the Nashville Statement itself) is that Advent Christians can endorse the statement without forcing complementarian or egalitarian determinations upon any Advent Christian. Much more would have to be said which is left unsaid . This is useful for our purposes given our diverse fellowship.

NEXT - Triennial Matters: How can the Statement of Faith and Declaration of Principles be changed?