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Walter Julius Veith | |
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| Born | (1949-01-25)January 25, 1949 (age 76) South Africa |
| Occupation(s) | Evangelist, author, speaker, professor, pastor |
| Known for | Evangelist for Clash Of Minds on nutrition, creationism, and "last day events." |
| Website | clashofminds |
Walter Julius Veith (born 1949) is a South Africanzoologist and aSeventh-day Adventist author and speaker known for his work innutrition,creationism and Biblical exegesis.
Veith was professor of the zoology department at theUniversity of Cape Town and taught in the medical bioscience department. During this time, the department was awarded a Royal Society London grant for zoological research.[1]
After joining theSeventh-day Adventist Church, he rejected thetheory of evolution in favor ofcreationism[2][3] and so had to give up teaching at the University of Cape Town.
As a creationist,[4] he speaks internationally on this and other topics. His lectures, videos, and books promote creationist andAdventist beliefs and doctrines. These include an evangelical understanding of the Bible with a very strong commitment to theTextus Receptus and theKing James Version of the Bible. He also promotes avegan diet and a belief in the imminent fulfillment of Biblical End Times and thereturn of Jesus Christ.
Veith has written a number of books, includingDiet and Health andThe Genesis Conflict, which gives a biblical perspective and evidence claimed to supportyoung Earth creationism.[5] He is the evangelist of Clash Of Minds, a non-profit worldwide ministry based inLimpopo, South Africa.[6]
Walter Veith was born in 1949 and grew up in a strictCatholic home. His mother, aProtestant, died early fromcancer. Veith was told by his religion teacher that because of his mother's non-Catholic beliefs, she would"languish forever and ever" in hell.[7] This prompted Veith to become anatheist at the age of ten.[8][9]
In 1971, Walter Veith began studyingzoology at theUniversity of Stellenbosch, where he graduated with aMaster of Science in zoology.[10][better source needed] His thesis dealt with the propagation of dwarf chameleons. A two-year postgraduate course at the University of Cape Town followed in 1979. His thesis was anAutoradiographic and Electron Microscopic study of embryonic nutrition in the teleost Clinus superciliosus. He also attended lectures on zoology at the universities of Durban-Westville and Stellenbosch.[11] Veith's research field is nutritional physiology, concentrating on the effect of modern animal husbandry on the incidence ofdisease transferral to humans. His research concentrates on degenerative diseases caused by incorrect nutrition and particularly on diseases such asosteoporosis,cardiovascular diseases, and also onfertility.[12]
After graduation, Veith became an adjunct professor at the University of Stellenbosch, and until 1987 gave lectures in zoology.
Early in the 1980s, after his young son fell seriously ill (believing it wasdemonic possession) and recovered, allegedly with the help of aCatholic priest, he and his wife returned to the Catholic faith. But a few years later he developed doubts about Catholicism and, through the influence of a craftsman who renovated his kitchen, he and his wife joined the Adventist faith.
In his first lectures as an adjunct professor, he had had a student who rejected what she called the lie of evolutionism and instead maintained the truth of the biblical creation story. He soundly put her in her place. Now, his new faith and his own Bible studies led him to adopt this belief, which brought him into conflict with what he was teaching. Because of his lectures on the alleged scientific evidence for the biblical creation story, he was asked to leave theUniversity of Stellenbosch.[13]
He sold his house in Stellenbosch and accepted a position as associate professor at theUniversity of the Western Cape in zoology. His serious concerns about the theory of evolution had been resolved by the proviso that he only needed to carry out research.
The university closed temporarily due to race riots. This gave Veith the opportunity to travel to California and visitAriel Roth, a creationist in charge of theAdventistGeoscience Research Institute,Loma Linda.[14][15] He researched evidence of the biblical story of creation, and developed a series of lectures to present his findings.
The following year Veith received a one-year contract at the University of Cape Town. His creationist lectures meant that his contract was not renewed, but he was hired in a research-only position at theUniversity of the Western Cape. At this time, Veith began to hold lectures outside university.[16] Initially, his talks were mainly to Adventist congregations inthe United States, then inCanada,Australia andEurope. In his lectures on nutrition he promoted Adventist values such asvegetarianism andfasting. His first book was published in 1998 under the title ofDiet and Health.[17]
In 1995, he became a full professor with tenure and the head of the Department of Zoology, the content also dealt with the theory of evolution after five years. He used his position among other things to promote his belief in creationism and to denythe theory of evolution, finding a fellow believer in these views in his colleague Quincy Johnson. In 1997 he published his results inThe Genesis Conflict.[18]
After conflicts at the University of the Western Cape due to their unorthodox views, Walter Veith and Quincy Johnson left the department of zoology. Johnson joined the Department of Microbiology, while Veith joined the Department of Physiology, where he worked until 2003. With this change, their right to teach zoology was withdrawn. Since his retirement from teaching physiology, Veith has devoted his time to pastoring.
Veith teaches in his lectures the basic pillars of Adventism,[19] which he believes are an extension ofthe Reformation's founding principles including Sola Gracia, Sola Christos, and Sola Scriptura–Grace alone, Christ alone, the Bible alone and a pillar of the Reformation: the identity ofthe Antichrist.[20] He states that Adventism has proceeded from the beliefs of the Reformation which eventually fell into creeds and made five key discoveries along with theThree Angels' Messages,"[21][22] which make the Adventist denomination unique:
Veith has also presented lectures on diet, how it directly impacts numerous degenerative diseases including his findings of the negative effects caused by poor nutrition, such asosteoporosis,arthritis, andcancer. He also lectures on creationism.[24]
Veith holds that some of the new versions of the Bible coming out came from manuscripts with corruptions introduced by theAlexandrian text and varies and is less reliable than theMajority Text.[25] The Adventist church does not hold aKJV only view,[26] although a number of Adventists continue to prefer the King James Version. Because of his 2004 lectureWar of the Bibles Veith was denied access to SDA churches inGermany for a time but was reinstated in 2010.[27]
A periodical recommended that Veith "revise from scratch future comments on this topic to be balanced, fair and serious or to dispense with them".[28]
The AdventistBiblical Research Institute disagrees with Veith's view of Bible translations.[26]
Spectrum magazine, an independent periodical focusing on Adventism, refers to Walter Veith as the leading conspiratory voice within Adventism.[29]
Without specifically naming Veith, the church's official paper, the Adventist Review, has addressed Veith's conspiracy theories.[30] Veith responded to the Review author explaining his views further.[31]
In May 2020, the head office of the Seventh-day Adventist Church inSouthern Africa, the Southern Africa Union Conference, issued a statement repudiating claims that Veith made thatJesus would come around or by 2027.[citation needed]
He has also made claims in recent DVDs thatthe COVID-19 pandemic is one of the signs of theimminent coming of Christ - in line with his 2027 claim. This is not supported by the church he is a member of.[citation needed]
In a lecture in Nürnberg-Marienberg in October 2012, Walter Veith claimed thatthe Holocaust was used by theFreemasons and Jesuits to "herd together" theJews from all over Europe, so that they could be resettled inPalestine.[32]
The leadership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Germany,Austria andSwitzerland decided on 9 November 2012 that these statements wereanti-Semitic and discriminatory. The church leaders took the view that they were "very close to criminal trivialization of theNazi reign of terror".[33] In December 2012, the Church leaders banned Veith from speaking in community centers and described his lectures as "conspiracy theories" and "spiritual abuse".[34]
However, various of the German Seventh-day Adventist groups are getting around this ban by inviting Walter Veith into larger, independent event halls.[35]
Amazing Discoveries and Walter Veith replied that the presentation was not meant to be anti-Semitic in any way,[36] and they distanced themselves from anti-Semitism and racism. Veith blamed the accusation of anti-Semitism on "linguistic inadequacy", because German is a foreign language for him, adding that in Germany there is a "hypersensitivity" to statements about the persecution of the Jews.[37] According to Amazing Discoveries, Arno Hamburger, a member ofNuremberg City Council and first chairman of the JewishReligious Community, speaking for the local Jewish community, expressed the view that there was no recognizable anti-Semitism in Veith's statement.[38]
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