Southern Asia Division of Seventh-day Adventists

Gospel Outreach Seminar was held at Cochin April 16-19, 2009. The seminar was organized and conducted by Special Ministries department at Southern Asia Division. It was the first seminar of its kind ever since the Gospel Outreach had started its ministry in India. This seminar has been organized to lay plans for future for better results and efficient management of resources of the department. Around 70 delegates were present at the seminar from all the field units and unions in Southern Asia Division. The guest speakers at the seminar were: Dr Rom Fleck, President, GO USA, and Pastor Gordon Gray, president GO Canada, Dr. John Mc Ghee GO Director USA, and Israel Prasad from Jesus for Asia Ministries.

In his inaugural address Pastor R. John, President Southern Asia Division, emphasized on the values of Christ’s teachings. Pastor Gordon Gray explained GO partnership with the local administration in managing the volunteers in their units. Dr. Ron Fleck in his divine service address reminded the promises of Almighty God to those who involve in ministry for the Master.

The seminar was coordinated by Pastor William George and Ch Victor Sam and their team of Gospel Outreach personnel from Southern Asia Division

The Communication Director Dr. T P Kurian conducted one day seminar in five unions: Western India Union, North India Union, East Central India Union, South East India Union and South West India Union. The topics discussed were: How can we improve our communication department through the available media and further use of the internet. Survey of the unions reveals the following:

Content Page: Former Director of Biblical Research Institute GC. Author of Understanding the Scripture.

The Bible’s claim to be the expressed will of God is under heavy fire, occasionally even among Adventists.

Adventists must undertake a reassessment of where we are and explore once more the authority of the Bible. This includes the questions of whether the message presented in the Scriptures will recapture the deepest wellsprings of the Adventist spirit, and if so, just how it can come to pass. Given the historic Adventist insistence on grounding all things in God’s Word, this question is of high importance. The erosion of biblical authority is so significant that it overshadows many of the issues being tossed about.

No one since the Reformation has had such an impact upon the study of Biblical chronology as James Ussher, archbishop of Armagh in Ireland. In 1658 the English edition of his Annales established the evening of October 22, 004 B.C. as the beginning of Creation week! John Lightfoot, a Greek scholar and vice-chancellor at Cambridge, had achieved an even greater precision a few years earlier by declaring that man had been brought into existence at 9:00 am. On a Friday Morning, 3928 B.C.

Ussher’s date for Creation, based in part on Old Testament figures and in part on astromical cycles, eclipsed the figure suggested earlier by Lightfoot. His date of 4004 B.C. for Creation appeared in the margin of an English Bible in 1701, and his chronology, popularly known as the “Received Chronology,” provided dates for most Bibles during the next two centuries. The Cambridge University Press printed his dates in its university Press until 1910.