Category: Featured Speakers

Chantal has earned a M.Phil. degree in linguistics from Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and, over the past two decades, has served as mother, author, homeschool mom, high school teacher, university professor, and TV host.Chantal J. Klingbeil, M.Phil., was born and raised in South Africa. She currently serves as an Associate Director of the Ellen G. White Estate at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists in Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A.

Her articles have appeared in many journals and magazines, both in academic and popular contexts. 

Chantal is passionate about reaching children, youth, and young adults for Jesus. In her work at the Ellen G. White Estate she develops media and materials to bring Adventist history and the ministry of Ellen G. White to a new generation that is thoroughly at home in the digital age.

Gerald A. Klingbeil, Ph.D., associate editor of Adventist Review andAdventist World magazines. He is the research professor of Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary. He brings more than 15 years of teaching and ministry experience in diverse international contexts to the position.

Born in Berlin, Germany, Klingbeil completed a BA in Theology at an Andrews University affiliate campus, Helderberg College, South Africa, in 1990. The next year, he attended the University of Stellenbosch, where he received his BA Honors in Semitic Languages & Cultures and an MA and DLitt in Ancient Near Eastern Studies. 

Jiří Moskala, Ph.D., is professor of Old Testament exegesis and theology and dean of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan. He joined the faculty in 1999. Born in the Czech Republic, Moskala earned in 1979 a doctor of theology in 1990 from the Comenius Faculty of Protestant Theology (now Protestant Theological Faculty of Charles University, Czech Republic.

In 1998 he completed a doctor of philosophy degree from Andrews University with a dissertation on clean and unclean foods in Leviticus 11. Moskala has served in a variety of capacities within the Seventh-day Adventist Church including ordained pastor, administrator, and teacher. In 1989, after the Velvet Revolution when the Communist regime fell, he established the Theological Seminary for training pastors and became the first principal of that institution.

Moskal travels widely throughout all the divisions of the world church and is an active member of the Adventist Theological Society. He also belongs to a variety of other professional societies, and contributes to a wide variety of scholarly and denominational publications.

Clinton Wahlen, Ph.D., is an associate director of the Biblical Research Institute (BRI) at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Before coming to the BRI in 2008, he taught New Testament and Greek for eleven years at seminaries in Russia and in the Philippines.

He also pastored for seven years in Northern California, where he was converted from atheism, earned his first degree in theology, and was ordained to the ministry. Dr. Wahlen received his Ph.D. from Cambridge University and is the author of the recent Adult Bible Study Guide on James and of forthcoming commentaries on Matthew and Luke.

Originally from Portland, Oregon, he enjoys hiking, skiing, and talking with young people. His wife Gina works for Adventist Mission. Their daughter Heather is a junior at Fountain view Academy in British Columbia and their son Daniel and his wife Samantha live in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Merlin D. Burt, PhD, is founding director of the integrated Center for Adventist Research at Andrews University, director of the White Estate Branch Office, and professor of Church History at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary. He has been with the Ellen G. White Estate since 1993.

His dissertation examined the development and integration of the Sabbath, sanctuary, and Ellen White’s role in Sabbatarian Adventism between 1844 and 1849. Dr. Burt has published numerous articles and chapters and has served variously as a speaker, editor, and organizer of various conferences and symposiums.

He is author of Adventist Pioneer Places, and is in the process of writing a textbook on the development of Seventh-day Adventist theology. Previous to his academic and administrative appointments, Dr. Burt served as a pastor in Ohio and California in the United States.

He and Sarah, his wife of 35 years, have two grown sons and a teenage daughter in college. They also have two grandchildren. Dr. Burt’s hobbies include collecting Adventist-related materials and woodworking. He has a passion that Seventh-day Adventists connect God’s leading in the past to a personal living Christian experience. 

George R. Knight, EdD, a retired professor of church history at the theological seminary at Andrews University, is a specialist in Adventist history. His many books on the topic span the spectrum from its earliest Millerite roots up through present-day concerns.

He has authored and edited more than 70 books in such diverse fields as theology, biblical studies, educational philosophy, Ellen White studies, and Adventist history. In retirement he lives with his wife, Bonnie, in Rogue River, Oregon, where they enjoy nature, family, reading, and just being together.