Updated 6:30 pm PST. On Friday, July 3, 2015 by around 10:40 am the nominating committee was ready with its first report. At 10:57 word came that nominating committee was ready. Meanwhile, the General Conference secretary was able to complete his report. In due course, Pastor Ted N.C. Wilson was proposed to the delegates of the GC session to serve as president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in the new 2015-2020 quinquennium.
When Ted Wilson’s name was announced, there was a substantial audible positive reaction from the assembly across the dome. But a very unusual attempt to turn back the nomination came almost immediately. These attempts were all made by NAD or TED (Trans-European Division) delegates. Ray Hartwell, president of Pennsylvania conference lodged the first objection. He tried to refer the nomination back to committee. But rather than refer, the chairperson permitted the delegate to speak to the chair and secretary of the GC nominating committee to see whether his concerns had been addressed. They had. Then another delegate stood forth to offer the same objection. The same process was followed. Meanwhile, the assembled delegates grew increasingly unhappy with the obstruction as evidenced by their audible reactions to the NAD attempts and the rulings of the chair.
After those attempts failed, NAD delegate Elizabeth Talbot engaged in an extended attempt to have the vote be conducted by secret ballot in spite of the non-working electronic voting devices. Delegates rejected those motions.
Throughout these proceedings those present grew increasingly unhappy with the obstructive behavior of the NAD delegates. Finally, Larry Boggess, president of Mountainview conference (Columbia Union, NAD) moved that debate on the motion to elect Wilson be discontinued. The motion carried.
Vote was taken by card, not electronically. It seemed to those present that almost every card went up for pastor Wilson in every section, save two: in the locations where the NAD and TED delegations were located, the “yes” cards were almost not offered.
The response was overwhelming, approximately 90% voted in favor. The vote was a landslide. Ted N.C. Wilson has been reelected to the office of General Conference president!
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25 replies on “Pr Ted NC Wilson reelected GC president”
The Lord has spoken loudly!
Praise God, He is in control. We need to keep praying for the Holy Spirit leadership to continue to be with Elder Wilson, and the rest of the GC session.
This is good news so far. Pastor Ted Wilson has come under so much of attacks from liberals in the NAD and around the world but he has handled it all extremely well being the godly man he is. When a female delegate at a PUC Session rudely interrupted Pastor Wilson when he admonished them that it is not the purview of Unions to determine the criteria for WO he just smiled as though he expected that something like this would happen. Guess the NAD is no longer the playground bully – huh!
That is the one thing I can say this has show me. When this subject first got my interest. I read NAD and Trans-Euro were in favor. I thought this is a slam dunk. As a citizen of the USA, I was shocked to find we only made up 6-8% of the world church. That was humbling and a little bit of a relief. Our society is starting to look more like Nero’s dream more than the founders dream.
Whatever we may think of Elder Wilson’s re-election let none think that he is the frontier of the battle for the soul of Adventism. That battle is to be fought in every division, union, conference and field committee and church board. We are to do battle for the truth in every place where matters affecting the work of God throughout the world. He is but a man and one man at that. He needs all men of truth to stand with him and if he betrays the cause from fatigue or perfidy, others must be ready to take his place. This cause is too important to be entrusted to one man. Having said that, we are grateful for his re-election. He has acquitted himself well thus far and will need our support and faithfulness to succeed in his role as chairman of the board of this Divine enterprise.
Dear Noel, Elder Wilson cannot act alone as one man because GC is made up by consensus like a committee.
The church has been infiltrated by wolves in sheep’s clothing, shown by their deeds.
Elder appears to me to be a sincere Bible, SOP believing man but I’ve been very frustrated and upset about Elder Wilson’s apparent in-action against the rebels within our church plus other anomalies eg. the misleading Great Controversy project that went out as the Great Hope.
We as members have not been made aware of all the facts, note Elder took over the legacy of the last 2 ‘liberal’ GC Presidents who allowed a lot of rubbish to enter into our church and institutions and we as members regretfully did little about it.
Is Elder following our Lord’s example that He showed with Judas Iscariot (because he’s following God’s leading)? The disciples trusted Judas and were totally unaware of Judas’ deeds and intentions, have we SDA members acted the same?
What is the big picture that Elder Wilson hints at?
Is God allowing all the secret nuances in our church to be revealed because He does not work in secret?
I don’t think that there is any other suitable person out there that can lead the church at this time. I’m just relieved that it was not someone with the mind-set like that of Dan Jackson.
God is in control. Let us continue to pray for Elder to remain firm for God. God’s ways are not human ways, He’ll sort things out in ways not even imagined by us. Let’s be attuned to Him and be obedient.
I live it when God speaks through his people. It is time for WO people to surrender and repent.
We are to do battle for the truth in every place where matters affecting the work of God throughout the world are discussed. In every conference and every church, we are to remember that whatever may be Elder Wilson’s strengths and there are strengths there, he is not stronger than we are faithful where we are. The whole church needs to take advantage of Elder Wilson’s commitment to the Seventh Day Adventist God given message, his courage to stand and stand with him.
North America was never a bully. It is the saboteurs in the higher offices that have presumed to steal the church who have true to nature tried to bully the rest of the world church. North America has wonderful people who sacrificed a lot of money and their lives to carry out their God given task. They have been faithful teachers, pastors, nurses and doctors who never envisaged a day when power politics and the politics of power would become an agenda for a movement born in sacrifice and godly fear of heights. This is a new church they have to deal with and I meet them everywhere I go in North America, discombobulated by the change that is being foisted on their loving and sacrificial foundation. They cannot recognize the church that has been created over the last thirty years. No, these men and women marching to a different drum DO NOT represent NAD and I for one will never buy the idea that they do. They represent something else and someone else. They are foreign to us. The real North American Division has not been given the mic!
I agree that the NAD has many faithful Adventists without doubt as can be seen here on CAP but one has to remember the push for the election and ordination of elders came from the NAD as far back as 1975 which was in effect the forerunner of the current WO crisis. Secular culture and gender bender politics has hugely affected Adventists in America and that is were the problem really starts. Even besides those theologians and Bible scholars who have departed from the Methods of Bible Study document of 1986, others claim they still abide by these principles of study but have a second way to interpret texts which they argue is optional in the case of WO and claim it is a matter of policy and not doctrine. And where is all this coming from? The NAD. They even went ahead in every instance and elected, then ordained, women as Elders or Pastors ‘before’ any approval was given. I think that fits the characteristic of a playground bully rather well. Don’t you?
Dear brethen, I fear that the reelection of Ted Wilson is not the best decision. Remember, that he is neutral (we didn´t hear not only once his opinion) in the greatest crisis of SdA according WO, and God hates neutrality in a religious crisis. He is willing to perform WO, if the GC-session vote for it! And he had not disciplined the rebellious unions (because of WO and homosexualtiy in Netherland). And has he not broken his word by the changing from “Great Controversy” to “Great Hope” (with only 96 pages and 11 chapter)? Is his way not like Aaron, both speak well, but they didn´t do God´s will. We need leaders like Mose, who was an enemy of sin and apostasy and he punished 3.000 before he went to God, and to ask for the People. We don´t need politics, who keep unity above truth. We need leaders, who will fight not only by words but indeed. A president has to handle according to the church manual and the working policy, only than will God bless him. Please think about it, before we give a man glory – Jesus alone is our example.
Erich, Elder Wilson is against the push for Womens Ordination. His position on this subject has been known since the 1990s when he was president of the African-indian Ocean Division in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and this is the reason why some of the church leaders in North America who are fomenting this rebellion in the church rose up and raised an objection to his nomination as president on the floor. They do not want Ted Wilson as GC President, they want someone like Dan Jackson who went on an apology tour at La Sierra and castigated David Asscherik for speaking against the teaching of evolution in our schools, or politicians like Richardo Graham and Ernest Castillo. This reminds me of an encounter I had with Ernest Castillo in the late 1990s when he served as Vice President at the Pacific Union Conference. Pastor Castillo came to preach in our church one sabbath and after his sermon I asked him this question, Sir, could you please give me one biblical text in support of Womens Ordination?, and his answer was, “Well I am not a theologian so I cannot answer your question.” That is the kind of leaders we have here in the Pacific Union Conference. Let us praise God for the choice of Elder Wilson, and let us lift him up in our prayers. I believe he will deal with this rebellion once the GC in session votes on the WO issue.
Dear Michael, you’re right. The PUC leadership is dodgy. I watched the PUC Session where they tried to change the bylaws but failed by a close call; but then they still went ahead with the ‘without regards gender’ vote. It was a farce. When Pastor Ted Wilson showed them the error of their ways they cried give us Barabbas. There was this female delegate with earrings. Who voted her in? The problem is much deeper in these pockets of Cultural Adventism I would say. The wholesale compromising of a large number of Adventist pastors in the NAD would be the first port of call. In fact much of our problems in the church stem from compromising pastors. I think we need more CAP pastors to do the job – by God’s grace of course.
Erich, the basis for dealing with rebellion against the world church does not come from the authority of a single individual. Elder Wilson appears to be neutral regarding the WO issue because he is waiting for the GC session delegates to decide the theology of ordination as it relates to the world church. If he moved against those rebelling against current GC policy (which currently does not permit the ordination of women to headship roles) prematurely, he would have been accused of exercising “kingly authority.”
Once the WO issue is settled by the GC delegates, it will then be his responsibility to uphold the policies that have been set. Then, the rebuke will not come from himself alone, but from the collective voice of the world church.
Michael, if the position of Ted Wilson is really against WO, because the bible teaches it very clear, how can he then assure himself, that he will perform WO if the delegates vote for it?` Would this not be a rebellious act against God too? Why did he not clearly say, that WO ist against the word of God? And wouldn´t much more delegates then vote against WO? I fear, that WO will go through. Then would be the whole congregation in apostasy, like Korah, and the true one must go out. And the second point is, that the church manual and the working policy demand to discipline members and officers, who are in rebellion against the own order. Ted Wilson has not disciplined the transgressors.
We will see, what´s going on. I still hope, that WO will be refused by the delegates. Then we can see, what the rebellious are doing, repent or go out themselves.
I think the church will do well with Pastor Paul Ratsara as a leader in the GC who is not afraid to call a spade a spade. He’ll get my vote. If he gets president then that will be the first black Adventist at the helm.
A quick query. How is it that there is currently a woman serving as a GC Vice President?
I’ve viewed some of the clips on this site and read certain responses during the past couple of weeks, and, as a fourth-generation NAD SDA who has remained opposed to this issue since 1985 (when I was 20), I would like to share a quote from EGW about her prophetic role that has never been included–at least to my knowledge–in any literature that opposes WO: “From the year 1844 till the present time I have received messages from the Lord and have given them to His people. This is my work–to give to the people the light that the Lord gives me. I am commissioned to receive and communicate His messages. I am not to appear before the people as holding any other position than that of a messenger with a message” (8T, 237). Sadly, the SDA Church has wasted time and energy on this issue during the past thirty years, and the fact that it is still an agenda item before the world church twenty years later in another GC session labels it as nothing more than open rebellion. Truthfully, I no longer regard any leader in the church who is still promoting this issue as a “watchmen upon the walls of Zion” regardless of position. Here are two quotes that I shared in my recent Sabbath School lesson (both are from Evangelism): “For forty years did unbelief, murmuring, and rebellion shut out ancient Israel from the land of Canaan. The same sins have delayed the entrance of modern Israel into the heavenly Canaan. In neither case were the promises of God at fault. It is the unbelief, the worldliness, unconsecration, and strife among the Lord’s professed people that have kept us in this world of sin and sorrow so many years [written in 1883]” (696). “We may have to remain here in this world because of insubordination many more years, as did the children of Israel; but for Christ’s sake, His people should not add sin to sin by charging God with the consequence of their own wrong course of action [written in 1901]” (696). The driving spirit behind WO is one of the reasons why the SDA Church is still wandering in its earthly wilderness. So, what is my individual response if the church votes in the next few days to allow WO to become a regional/congregational issue? Simply, that I will no longer attend a local church where this policy becomes practice. In other words, I will not submit in heart to this issue that I feel is contrary to scripture. The GC in world session is only the voice of God to the people if its actions are found to be in harmony with God’s word. If we submit (in heart) to a principle of the GC that we find to be out of harmony with scripture for the sake of church unity, then we have elevated the GC to the status of the pope. Having said this, there is no other place to go–outside or apart from the remnant church–even if this upcoming vote results in a pro-ordination regional policy. Again, as a member in the pew, the only place where I can make a difference is in the context of the local church. The lesson for me in all of this is to truly experience an inward compassionate burden for those who want to change the direction of our church (Matthew 5:43-48).
1Timothy 4:4; 3:5; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables.
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: From such turn away.
EW 124
I was shown the necessity of those who believe that we are having the LAST message of mercy, being separate from those who are daily Imbibing new errors. I saw that neither young nor old should attend their meetings; for it is wrong to thus encourage them while they teach error that is a deadly poison to the soul and teach for doctrines the commandments of men. (Eg Spiritual Formation, Contemplative Prayer, WO etc). The influence of such gatherings is not good. If God has delivered us from such darkness and error, we should stand fast in the liberty wherewith he has set us free and rejoice in the truth. God is displeased with us when we go to listen to error, without being obliged to go; for unless He sends us to those meetings where error is forced home to the people by the power of the will, He will NOT keep us. The Angels cease their watchful care over us, and we are left to the buffetings of the enemy, to be darkened and weakened by him and the power of his evil Angels; and the light around us becomes contaminated with the darkness. E W p124
As a church member it’s clear that infiltration is real. We are at the closing period of earth’s history we know who the dragon is.
Blessings from a sister in the South Pacific Division. Janet
I am very displeased to see my conference president try to incite a revolt against Ted Wilson. I am trying to determine whether to start sending my tithe out of conference. Now I know why Ray was so pleased to invite the Review editor to campmeeting.
I also realize I need to learn more about the process of how conference presidents are elected (and removed).
Dear All, if GC votes for WO, I too agree that we must vote with our feet, ie. in my opinion we should not support local churches that abide by the unbiblical position with our attendance, tithes and offerings.
This also includes the mission, the union, the division.
But support (a) those churches etc that remain biblical and (b) biblically based SDA independant ministries.
I don’t want the church to compromise with what is wrong to stay united. I don’t want the church to throw away the church’s foundation – God’s Bible. It’s a decision that each of us will have to make
Also if WO is rejected, I think that our church leaders must not just stop there but should deal with those in rebellion plus ‘clean up’ our church and institutions from other non-biblical actions and practices too, otherwise crises will inevitably erupt to detract the church from it’s mission again and again.
World events declare that we do not have much time left to do what we’ve have to do.
We have no excuses because we have been warned in the Bible and the SOP.
any elected member of conference administration can be voted out of office at conference constituency time which is every four or five years according to how often the conference constituency meets. At that time the nominating committee which meets previously, can bring back the name of the conference president or recommend the name of someone else. If a president’s name is brought back to the floor as a recommendation, it may be referred back to the nominating committee. If this happens the person referring it back must go and state his objections Others can do so also, either for or against the person being recommeded by the nominating committee.
Thanks Harry for reminding me of this.
Ken, Without regard of issue, the GC-Executivcommittee has rebellion to deal according to the working policy (WP) and the church manual – between the sessions it´s the highest authority. All members of the Committee are responsible, and of course the Chairman too. Wilson has made with PREXAD (and in it were rebells as members! Jackson and Wiklander) a paper, it gaves the direction of handling the matter of the rebellion for the orderly GC-Committee. And the GC voted for this request. And they called this rebellion only a serious „mistake“ and not a great sin of rebellion. Why did Wilson not try with PREXAD to go the way of WP? And if Wilson wasn´t able to make a right decision with the committee, why didn´t he say it like David (2. Sam. 3:27-39; V. 37)? But his handling of this matter shows, that he is more than others responsible for the wrong decisions, and why this great delay (since Oct. 2013) after the further rebellions (and the rebellion of the issue of homosexualty in Netherland too)? And his time as president ended 2015! Should his follower make the rubbish away? If Wilson had made an orderly decisions with the whole GC-Executivcommittee according to the WP, that isn´t „kingly power“. But we can nothing do against defamation. But now the transgressors and others can say: The GC-Executivcommittee does not right handle the WP, why we have to do it? If the president or another officer is not working according the Working Policy, than he must be disciplined and be fired according to the WP. And if PREXAD is not able to work after her own order, than must the delegates replace it with a new one.
With all the fuzz about WO, I keep thinking of the prophets of the Bible that the Israelites have persecuted. One prophet in particular is prophet Micaiah in Kings 22 (which we just named our 3-month baby after). We all are called to stand for the truth even if the majority, if not all, are not in accordance to what the Lord has said.
Let’s all pray that Elder Ted would have the same spirit as Micaiah had and wouldn’t hold the truth for the cause of the few or even the many.