Adventist Church President Affirms the Bible's Relevance During Live Bible Society of Brazil Broadcast

In a dialogue marked by the centrality of the Bible, Erton Köhler, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, highlighted to Reverend Erní Seibert, president of the Bible Society of Brazil (SBB), its relevance for the Adventist faith and for the more than 24 million members of the denomination who live across more than 212 countries. 

The broadcast, which lasted just over an hour, connected Silver Spring, Maryland, and São Paulo, Brazil, and included reflections on Köhler’s early experience with Bible stories, as well as discussion on how Adventists encourage Bible engagement at personal and family levels.

"[My first contact with the Bible] was before I learned to read and write. In our church, we had a series of books called The Most Beautiful Stories of the Bible. There I would listen to the stories, see the pictures, and that would already be putting experiences and trust in God in my heart," recalled the Adventist Church president. As the son of a pastor, his contact with biblical content began very early.  

SBB’s initiative is designed to engage in dialogue with leaders from different Christian denominations and explore their relationship with the Bible and with the Bible Society. During the broadcast, organizers referenced a long-standing connection between the Seventh-day Adventist Church and SBB, dating back to the organization’s early years. The article noted that Adventists were present at SBB’s inauguration on June 10, 1948, and that the Church remains a partner in Bible distribution initiatives.

Article published by the Adventist Review in the September 1948 edition about the inauguration of the Bible Society of Brazil in Portuguese.

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In the last 10 years alone, the Brazilian Bible Society (SBB) and Casa Publicadora Brasileira, the largest Adventist publishing house in the world, have printed 5.3 million copies, totaling 6.2 billion pages. Each member baptized in Adventist churches, for example, receives a free copy, a result of this combined effort.  

Daily relationship with the Bible 

"In the Adventist Church, we always recommend that members have their own personal Bible reading in the morning, that moment with God. We have a project called 'Revived by His Word,' which has a chapter to read each day, and we read the same chapters all over the world. At the end of the day, we also have family worship, with a hymn, Bible reading, meditation on some portion of it, and we pray. This shapes us and puts God first," Köhler elaborates. 

During the conversation, he also explained how the denomination prepares people for baptism, which doesn't happen without them first completing a series of Bible studies and being convinced of what they've discovered in God's Word. The recommendation is always that they consult the Bible to find answers to their questions.  

Concerning education, Köhler believes there is a lack of the Bible in homes. In his view, society is a reflection of the family. When families are well-formed, society is well-formed. When they are dysfunctional, society is dysfunctional. If he could invest in the Bible as a tool to reach children and families, he believes it would affect prisons, schools, universities, and have a positive effect on other areas of education.  

The denomination's president also congratulated the SBB for its commitment to spreading the Bible in different ways, such as through the +31 thousand voices with the Word project, an initiative to record biblical texts in audio with the participation of people from different cultures and with different accents.  

"It's a very beautiful, Portuguese-speaking project, and it's advancing in other countries around the world where we are gathering voices. And it's already on Radio Bíblia. It's a project for all of us," emphasizes Seibert. According to Seibert, Brazil is the second country with the most readers of the Bible in digital format, behind only the United States.  

Köhler stated that the Adventist Church will intensify the use of media to spread hope. For one month in 2027, the OneVoice27 project will involve all Adventists in sharing the Bible using printed and digital resources, seeking to reach people worldwide, in different languages ​​and cultural contexts.

"I believe that if we get involved in this vision of sharing the Word, things will fall into place in our personal lives, in our lives as a society, as a family. As a denomination, we will advance grounded in the Word," he underlines. 

The original article was published on the South American Division Portuguese news site.