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Providence in Danish

A while ago the editor of Adventnyt, the church magazine of the Danish Adventist Church, messaged me in some stress. He needed an article on divine providence, and he needed it now. Something about another author falling through at the very last moment. So, on a very hot Sunday afternoon in Galilee, I Read more…

By Tom de Bruin, ago

Doyouunderstandwhatyouarereading?

Earlier this year, the Dutch Adventist church asked me to write a short booklet on biblical hermeneutics in Dutch. It was meant to be about 6000 words, easy to understand for any member, that will be distributed in Holland: one for each household. The timeframe was ridiculously short: writing, designing, printing and distributing within three weeks! But, we made the deadline (with thanks to my team of editors and designers) and the booklet was distributed at the Union Session on January 31. A couple of months later the booklet is also available in English. (more…)

By Tom de Bruin, ago

Time in the Bible

The Dutch Adventist Church creates a magazine, Contact, that goes to about 3000 people who are interested in the Bible. As some of these people have been receiving this magazine for quite a few years, the editors wanted to have a recurring theological column, meant for the long-time readers. This article should Read more…

By Tom de Bruin, ago

Refugees

Refugees are a hot topic at the moment. The first Advent (the Dutch church magazine) of 2016 was about refugees, and included a title article by me ‘Op de vlucht’. The article discusses the topic of refugees, immigrants and aliens from a biblical perspective. Subsequently Spectrum Magazine published it online to highlight Read more…

By Tom de Bruin, ago

Begrijptuookwatuleest?

The Dutch Adventist church recently asked me write a short booklet on biblical hermeneutics. It was meant to be about 6000 words, easy to understand for any member, that will be distributed in Holland: one for each household. The timeframe was ridiculously short: writing, designing, printing and distributing within three weeks! But, we made the deadline (with thanks to my team of editors and designers) and the booklet will be distributed at the Union Session on January 31. (more…)

By Tom de Bruin, ago

How Forbidding Incest Ruined the Church Manual

After the General Conference last year, Adventist Today contacted me. They wanted a retrospect on the meetings from various viewpoints. I suggested an article that even I thought was pretty out of the box. The article would be entitled ‘How Forbidding Incest Ruined the Church Manual.’ This was based on my reflections on the changes to the Church Manual that were accepted at a meeting that had historically low quorum of about 15-25% of the delegates. Changes that I felt were quite horrific. They liked my pitch, it was printed, and I just received a PDF of the copy. (more…)

By Tom de Bruin, ago

Focus on Adventists

Every five years or so the British Adventist church publishes an evangelistic magazine called Focus. This year they asked me to write an article about why I am an Adventist. That’s a very hard question, and the best answer I could come up with is ‘I like to believe that there’s a God.’ That was a good summary of my position. As the weird post-postmodern person that I am, I don’t really attach any important if there is actually a God. I don’t want to know if there is a God. All of this is the wrong question. I, personally, think my life is better if I believe in God, so I like to believe in him. (more…)

By Tom de Bruin, ago

That’s So Meta

I arrived home today to find an exciting bit of post: three copies of the latest Adventist Today. It is apparently the GC Session Special. It’s twice as thick as usual, and has been sent to all the GC Session delegates, as well as the normal subscribers. The exciting part is that it contains an article written by me: That’s So Meta: The Post-Postmodern Church. The article is based on a speech I gave at Reframe at the One project is San Diego. One of the editors of Adventist Today was in the audience and asked if I could give him a transcript. The wonderful editors at Adventist Today helped make the article much better than the speech, and definitely worth reading. (more…)

By Tom de Bruin, ago

Two popular articles in Advent

The Dutch Seventh-day Adventist Church publishes a quarterly magazine Advent, which gets sent to all its members. One of my many tasks for the church, is that I am the editor-in-chief of the magazine. The most recent edition (march 2015) contained two articles by my hand: one on Easter and one on the Read more…

By Tom de Bruin, ago

The Post-Postmodern Church

I recently returned from The One Project gathering in San Diego, where I gave a talk about what the future holds for Christians in Europe and the US alike. A longer version of that talk (adjusted for print) just went up on The One Project’s official website. Catch the first Read more…

By admin, ago

Avontuurlijk wandelen: Onderweg met de Bijbel

Onderstaande is het eerste hoofdstuk van mijn boek Avontuurlijk wandelen: Onderweg met de Bijbel.

Eén van mijn broers heet Paul. Hij is een levensgenieter. Hij heeft altijd tijd voor de leuke dingen in het leven, maar nooit voor de minder leuke kanten. Mijn ouders praten nu nog steeds over het grote wonder dat het antwoord was op hun gebed: Paul heeft de middelbare school afgemaakt! Zo druk als hij is met het genieten van de kleine dingen, zo weinig tijd heeft hij om zich zorgen te maken over stommiteiten als geld of carrière.

Uiteraard is hij mijn grote held. (more…)

By Tom de Bruin, ago