Book Description

Do you remember singing "Jesus Loves the Little Children" in Sabbath School as a young child? "... Red and yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world." Jesus loves everyone; yet as His followers, we often struggle to follow His example. In A Third Great Disappointment for the Remnant? Pastor Birch presents his research findings on race relations, the Millerite movement, slavery, the Civil War, segregation, the evangelical movement, and much more, addressing how these events have impacted and shaped the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Birch goes on to examine current race relations in the Adventist Church and the creation of ethnic conferences and warns against a final great disappointment of lost souls at Christ's second coming if we do not reconcile ourselves with each other and finish the work as one unified body. With a passion for racial and ethnic reconciliation, Birch offers bold recommendations on how to strengthen the Adventist Church through understanding and healing. We are precious in God's sight; we should also be precious in each other's sight. Now retired from church employment, Canute Birch, Ph.D., previously served as a senior pastor for many years in the Greater New York Conference in Manhasset, New York. In 2005, Dr. Birch and his supportive wife relocated their family to the state of Tennessee in order to take advantage of more easily accessible Seventh-day Adventist education for their children. Since then, they have held membership in the Collegedale Seventh-day Adventist Church. For numerous years, Dr. Birch spearheaded a multiracial/ multiethnic group of passionate, mixed-generation Adventist reconcilers to promote reconciliation, diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Seventh-day Adventist Church in southeast Tennessee. His desire is summed up in the yearning observed in Christ's prayer and dream for His church-"that they may all be one." Dr. Birch has also served as an adjunct assistant professor of New Testament studies in the School of Religion at Southern Adventist University. During the summer of 2010, he "sensed an irresistible divine calling" to write this book while engaged in daily devotion. He hopes that readers will develop a passion for reconciliation within the Seventh-day Adventist Church as well as in Christendom and help to realize this divine ideal.