Neal C. Wilson

Neal C. Wilson
Born	July 5, 1920 Lodi, California
Died	December 14, 2010 Dayton, Maryland
Occupation	Former President of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

	Seventh-day Adventist Church portal
	Christianity portal

Neal C. Wilson, served as General Conference president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church from 1979 through to 1990. Wilson was head of the North American Division when elected on January 3, 1979, to take the place of the ailing former General Conference president Robert Pierson, who had resigned for reasons of health.^{[1] [2]}

He was succeeded as General Conference President on July 6, 1990, by Robert Folkenberg who was then the President of the Carolina Conference. Wilson died December 14, 2010. He was 90 years old. ^[3]

Biography

Neal C. Wilson was president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists from 1979 to 1990. He received his elementary and secondary education, plus two years of college, in Zambia, Malawi, South Africa, and India. These were countries where his father served the Seventh-day Adventist Church in pastoral and administrative posts. Wilson is an alumnus of Pacific Union College in Angwin, California.

Neal C. Wilson's son, Ted N. C. Wilson, would follow his father's footsteps and is the current president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

Crisis

Neal C. Wilson was involved in several crisis during his tenure, one involved what some claim was some financial mismanagement by a investment manager, Donald Daventport. Church leaders, members, and a number of conferences and unions had been investing funds with Davenport, and there were issues in the repayment of the funds when Davenport declared bankruptcy.^[4]

Neal C. Wilson later appointed a President’s Review Commission to spend a year investigating the entire matter. The result was some church officers “received letters of reprimand, and one who had already retired man was “disciplined. ^[5]

See also: Desmond Ford

Neal C. Wilson also appointed the Sanctuary Review Committee which was a group of biblical scholars and administrators which met to decide the church's response to theologian Desmond Ford, who had challenged details of the church's "investigative judgment" teaching. The meeting was held from 11–15 August, 1980, at the Glacier View Ranch, a church-owned spiritual retreat and conference centre in Colorado, United States. As a result, Desmond Ford's credentials were revoked and was the cause of much controversy in the church, and the church experienced the largest exit of teachers and ministers in its history. One modern commentator describes 'Glacier View' as "Adventist shorthand for pain, dissension and division".^[6]

References

1. ^ http://www.sdadefend.com/MINDEX-E-F/Folkenberg-858.pdf
2. ^ http://www.thethirdangelsmessage.com/ted_wilson_president.php
3. ^ http://www.asabbathblog.com/2010/12/breaking-news-former-general-conference.html
4. ^ http://www.adventistarchives.org/docs/RH/RH19811015-V158-42__B.pdf
5. ^ http://spectrummagazine.org/files/archive/archive11-15/13-3dwyer.pdf
6. ^ "Twenty-Five Years After Glacier View" by Arthur Patrick. Adventist Today 13:6

Preceded by Robert Pierson

President of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists 1979 – 1990

Succeeded by Robert S. Folkenberg