Robert M. Johnston
Robert M. Johnston, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of New Testament studies at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, United States.
Articles by Robert M. Johnston
What Can We Know About the Holy Trinity?
November 1964
The purpose of this article is twofold. First, it will briefly review what the Word of God has to say about the subject of the Trinity, and what can safely be deduced from these statements. Second, it will point…
Missionary From Heaven
July 1977
" 'AS THE Father has sent me, even so I send you'" (John 20:21, R.S.V.).
Jesus was the Missionary from heaven. Repeatedly, in the Gospel of John, He said that He was the Sent; and "missionary" comes from the Latin missum ("to send,"…
Weeding the garden of prayer
December 1981
According to an ancient story, a certain heathen came to Rabbi Hillel the Elder and said, "Convert me on condition that thou appoint me high priest, so that I might serve at the altar."
Hillel replied: "Sit down, and I will tell…
The devotional life of Brother Lawrence
July 1981
During my college years I wandered into a Presbyterian church, and in the foyer I spied something that has had a lasting impact upon my life. I saw there a literature rack, well stocked with pamphlets and booklets. The title of one caught…
Twisting their tales
October 1985
Jesus was not the only parabler in Palestine. As Ellen White noted, "Parable teaching was popular, and commanded the respect and attention, not only of the Jews, but of the people of other nations."1
The scribes and Pharisees…
The minister as a believer
March 1990
And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3).*
We give many reasons for going to church—fellowship, inspiration, service. But all of these…
Unfaithfulness to the marriage vow
November 1994
The Seventh-day Adventist position regarding divorce and remarriage takes as its first and basic starting point the following statement from the Church Manual: " 'In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus declared…
the case for a balanced hermeneutic
March 1999
In recent years Adventist scholarship has been exercised over issues of aspiration and methods of Bible study. Our struggle closely resembles a similar one currently going on in the evangelical world.
Few, if any, Adventists have been…
God's people and their franchise
November 2003
Seventh-day Adventist Statement of Faith #11: The Church. "The church is the community of believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. In continuity with the people of God in Old Testament times, we are called…
Unbaptized children and Communion
June 2007
An unfortunate practice occurs in some Seventh-day Adventist churches, perhaps as a result of ignoring the context of a statement by Ellen White in The Desire of Ages, page 656. The first part of the paragraph…
After death: resurrection or immortality?
September 1983
What happens to me after I die? Man has been asking this ultimate question since the beginning of time and has been able to come up with only a few options. The first one is simply that there is nothing beyond death; this life is all there…