I know Seventh-day Adventists who believe that God created this world over a period of millions and millions of years. Generally, they sit in church right next to other Seventh-day Adventists who believe God created this world over a period of six literal days about 6,000 years ago. Let this be the first snapshot of unity and tolerance in our Church. And please, do not forget that the point of all this is to help us live together in peace. This is the push of Christian ethics.

How should we deal with this very important matter of belief in God as Creator? Is there room in our Church for those who believe the earth is hundreds of millions of years old? Are these Adventists believers in evolution? And if so, does that make them enemies of God and those of us who believe in creation? On this issue, one Church leader wrote: “For those among us who have already decided—despite the Bible and Ellen White—on evolution, there are plenty of other Churches for you. Ours isn’t one.” Perhaps, as this person suggests, we should just show them the door and ask them to leave. We would be better off without them. Or so the thinking goes.

Throughout the next few months I want to take a look at a couple of other snapshots of unity and tolerance in the Church. I’ll clue you into my bias right now. I believe that Seventh-day Adventists as Protestants have always been and should always remain tolerant of a wide range of beliefs, particularly as it relates to our ability to worship together in Christ.

I believe this for what I take to be three good reasons. First, Jesus encourages tolerance toward those of us who believe differently (Matthew 13:30). Second, Ellen G. White discourages us from thinking that unity will come from an overwhelming assertion of what we do believe. And finally, our current General Conference President, Jan Paulsen, in his role as leader in our Church, wants us to uphold unity and tolerance even in the face of our very real diversity around the world.

There have always been struggles to maintain unity and tolerance in our Seventh-day Adventist history: the Sabbath conferences in our early days, the Trinitarian conflict, the 1888 message, the health message, the inspiration of Ellen White, the 1919 Bible conference debates, the Ford controversy and sanctuary doctrine, and the structural debates that have plagued the General Conference throughout our history. In each and every case, strong-willed positions have been taken on both sides of these issues. While it is true that in some cases lines have been drawn and people have been disfellowshiped, for the most part, I see a tolerant Church that has some sense of unity even in the wide range of beliefs we find among us.

In future installments, I’ll come back to the question of God as Creator. I’ll also try to shine a light on the following two snapshots: the conflict over Trinitarian doctrine and the inspiration of Ellen White. These two items of belief seem fundamental to Seventh-day Adventism. And yet, as we look at our history, we will find important differences of belief. Perhaps we can learn from our past about how to deal with our present.

Ask yourself how it would feel to sit next to someone in a worship service who doesn’t believe Jesus was co-eternal with God the Father—in other words, that Jesus was a created being. How would it feel to sit in church next to James White, Joseph Bates or Uriah Smith?