SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST HISTORY; (ADVENTIST HERITAGE) Credits to Adventist University of the Philippines Theology Students Reports, From the Class of Pastor Cadao From August - December 2018. - Report 1 (R1) - Report 23 (R23)

1. What is Fundamentalist in
Adventism ? ( 1919 – 1950 )

2. By 1919 the Seventh- day Adventist Church had
gone through two identity crises.
The first is after the Great
Disapointment of October 1844, led to
the question.
What is Adventist in Adventism ?
The second, climaxing at the 1888
meeting in minneapolis, raised the
question.
What is Christian in Adventism ?
And of how the denomination should relate the
distinctive Adventist contribution to theology to
those beliefs shared with other evangelical
Christians.

3. A Polarizing Theological Context
The 1920s was an especially traumatic
decade for American Protestantism. For a
half century the Protestant churches had
gradually divided into conservative (
fundamentalist ) and liberal ( modernist )
wings.
Thus the liberal churches accepted such
philosophies as Darwinian evolution and
integrated it into their belief system as
God’s way of doing things.

4. Adventism found itself caught up in the struggle
between the modernists and the fundamentalists.
Like the fundamentalists, the Adventists also saw
the issues as being of the utmost importance. We
see that crisis mentality reflected in two book
covers from Adventist presses in 1924.
The first is titled “ The Battle of the
Churches: Modernism or
Fundamentalism, Which ?
The battle is on, reads the book’s first
sentence. It must be decided whether
Christianity is to accept the Holy Scriptures
as the rule of the faith, or have its way
charted by the rationalism, theories, and
specilations of men.... There can be no
neutral ground in this controversy. ( p. 7;

5. The second book, Christianity at the
Crossroads, depicts a man walking to the
holy city.
Standing at a junction, he faces a choice on which
way to take the way of modernism or that of
fundamentalism. Once again the book’s opening
sentences set the tone for the volume.
The Christian Church we read is being
shaken to day with tremendous force. It
has become necessary to examine its
foundations in an effort to determine
whether it can stand. (p. 5)

6. Adventism Moves Toward a More Rigid
Position on Inspiration
A group within Adventism had always held to
verbal inspiration and inerrancy. According to W.
C. White in 1928, W. W. Prescott had brought
the idea of verbal inspiration into Adventism
during the late 1880s.
The acceptance of that view”. White wrote,
by the students in the Battle Creek College
and many others, including Elder Haskell ,
has resulted in bringing into our work
questions and perplexities without end, and
always increasing. ( 3SM 454 )

7. But it should be realized that not all Adventist leaders
held to the fundamentalist position on inspiration.
Some of the foremost leader of the church took a
more moderate position.
The position she espoused on thought versus verbal
inspiration was the denomination at its 1883 General
Conference session. We believe reads part of the
resolution the light given by God to his sevants is by
the enlightenment of the mind, thus imparting, the
thoughts, and not ( except in rare cases ) the very
words in which the ideas should be expressed. ( ibid.,
Nov. 27, 1883, 741)
Not only did Ellen White reject verbal inspiration but she also
denied inerrancy. Thus she was more than happy to have the
factual errors corrected in such books as The Great Controversy
during its revision in 1911 ( for more in this topic see my Reading
Ellen White. 105 – 112 )

8. A People of the Book or a People of
the Books
A second issue in the area of inspiration during
the 1920s was the continuing temptation to do
theology from EllenWhite and to make her qually
authoritative with or even superior to the Bible.
The central place of Ellen White writngs in
Adventism was not just a preoccupation with
dissidents such as Holmes and Washburn.
Leader at the center of the movement also
espoused it.Thus F. M. Wilcox could claim in 1921 that her
writings constitute a spiritual commentary upon
the Scriptures and in 1946 that they were inspired
commentary on the Bible. ( RH, Feb. 3, 1921, 2, ;
June 9, 1946, 62 )

9. To that comment Daniells responded: yes
but i have heard ministers say that the
spirit of prophecy is the interpreter of the
Bible.
I heard it preached at the General
Conference some years ago { by A. T.
Jones } when it was said that the only way
we could understand the Bible was through
the writings of the spirit of Prophecy. J.M.
Anderson added that he also said infallible
interpreter.

10. A Revived Interest in Righteousness by Faith
One important outcome of Daniells 1924
ministerial in stitute meeting was a
recommendation for him to compile a book from
the writings of Ellen White on justification by
faith, resulting in the 1926 publication of Christ
Our Righteousness.
Another important event connected with the
ministerial institute was the conversion of Le
Roy E. Froom to the centrality of Christ and
His righteousness. Christianity he
subsequently reported is basically a personal
relationship to a Person Jesus Christ my
Lord.

11. The Crucial Role of M. L. Andreasen
and His Last Generation Theology
Andreasen served as a college and conference
administrator, an author of some 15 books and a
college and seminary professor. He was Adventism
most influential theologian in the 1930s and 1940s.
His special field of interest was the sanctuary and
Christ atonement.
A further concept crucial to understanding
Andreasen is his firm belief that Christ atonement
remained unfinished at the cross an idea going
back to Crosier early treatment of the heavenly
sanctuary and Adventist understanding that the
antitypical Day of Atonement began in October
1844.

12. The final demonstration he writes of what the Gospel
can do in and for humanity is still in the future. Christ
showed the way by taking a human body. Men are to
follow His example and prove that what God did in
Christ He can do in every human being who submits to
Him. The world is awaiting this demonstration . When it
has been accomplished the end will come. ( p. 299;
italics supplied )
He goes on to note that the plan of
salvation must of necessity include not
only forgiveness of sin but complete
restoration. Salvation from sin is more
than forgiveness of sin.” ( p. 300 )

13. In the last generation God gives the final
demonstration that men can keep the law of God and
that they can live without sinning..
Through the last generation of saints God stands
finally vindicated.
Through them He defeats Satan and wins His case....
The cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven is dependent
upon the cleansing of God’s people on earth.
How important then that God people be holy
and without blame. In them every sin must be
burned out so that they will be able to stand in
the sight of a holy God and live with the
devouring fire. ( pp. 319, 321; italics supplied )

14. Perspective
What is fundamentalist in Adventism . During
these years Adventism came to see itself as not
only being in harmony with fundamentalism on
most points, but as even being more
fundamentalistic than the fundamentalists since
Adventism had all the fundamentals, in cluding
such Adventist dustinctives as the truth on the
Sabbath the state of the dead and the two
phase heavenly ministry of Jesus
The fundamentalist theory of inspiration in fact largely set
the tone for Adventist thinking on the topic. Probably the
one thing that kept Adventism from an open and
wholehearted acceptance of the fundamentalist view of
inspiration was the residual influence of Ellen White