1.
ADVENTIST IN
THEOLOGICAL
TENSION (1950)

2.
By the year 1950 Seventh-day
Adventist was more than a
century the church had had to
face several theological
challenges to its identity.

3.
O The first came with the Great
Disappointment of October 1844,when the
central question involved “What is
Adventist in Adventism?”
O Second arrived with the Christ-centered
awakening in the late 1880s, when the
pressing question asked “What is the
Christian in Adventism?”

4.
O The third surfaced in the 1920s with the
issue “What is the Fundamentalist in
Adventism?”
O That series of questions and the answers
to them largely shaped the development
of Seventh-day Adventist theology.

5.
O The new era beginning in the 1950s was
different in the sense that instead of a
single question becoming the focal point,
all three question would be asked
simultaneously in various sector of
Adventism.

6.
O The differing question and their answer
cumulatively led to the theological
tensions within Adventism that were at the
forefront of denominational discussions as
the church moved from the twentieth into
the twenty-first century .

7.
O During the post-1950 era the various
sectors of the denomination’s membership
identified with one or another of the
previous issue. Thus any understanding of
the theological issue troubling Adventist
today depends upon a grasp of the
dynamics evidence in Adventism’s earlier
theological development.

8.
Some Significant
Developments
O History is like constantly flowing and
changing stream. Adventism history is not
immune from that dynamic . And just as
the first half of the twentieth century
witnessed vast moves toward
professionalization in the larger culture, so
it was in Adventism. That professionalism
in time even affected religious studies in
the denomination.

9.
O One of the first harbingers of the change
was the establishment of the Seventh-day
Adventist theological Seminary in the
early 1930s. The original purpose of the
Seminary was not to train ministers in
Adventist but to provide graduate studies
for religion teachers in Adventist college, a
move demanded by the rising standards
in collegiate education.

10.
O As a forum for discussing important issues
the Bible teachers in 1943 formed the
Bible Research Fellowship. During its
decade of existence the Fellowship
examined about 120 scholarly papers on
such diverse topics as the shut door, the
jubilee calendar, the spiritual significance
of the sanctuary, and Armageddon.

11.
O By 1952 membership in the fellowship
include 91 percent of all the Bible
teachers in Adventism’s English-language
colleges around the world.

12.
O The discussion generated by the Bible
Research Fellowship bore fruit in several
direction. The 1952 Autumn Council of the
General Conference, for example, voted
to institutionalize the function of the
fellowship through the creation of an office
of Biblical Research (currently titled the
Biblical Research Institute) and a
permanent “Committee for Biblical Study
Research.” at this point the fellowship
disbanded.

13.
O A third movement directly influenced by the
bible Research Fellowship was the publication
of the seven-volume Seventh-day Adventist
Bible Commentary (1953-1957)
O Practically all the authors and editors of the
Commentary had been members of the
Fellowship
O In short, the commentary was work of
scholarship that utilized the various academic
methodologies developed for exploring the
Bible.

14.
O The 1960s and 1970s would see a
continued increase in academically
trained Bible Scholars. Not only did more
and more of the denomination’s religion
teachers have doctoral degrees but by the
mid-1970s and early 1980s some of the
church’s institutions began to offer Ph.D.'s
and Th.D.'s in several fields of religious
studies.

15.
O At same time the denomination’s
constituency was itself becoming more
educated. With that professionalism came
a desire to probe into the theological,
historical, and even sociological
implications of the Adventist church and
its belief systems.

16.
O This chapter will look at the present
tensions along four different lines.
O The search for historic Adventism
O The search for the meaning of 1888
O The search for Ellen White’s role
O The search for a theory of inspiration

17.
The search for historic
Adventism
O A new crisis and theological alignment
erupted in Adventism with the September
1956 publication of Donald Grey
Barnhouse Eternity magazine article “Are
seventh-day Adventists Christians?”

18.
O Barnhouse concluded that he was glad to
“say that we are delighted to do justice to
a much-maligned group of sincere
believers, and in our minds and hearts
take them out of the group of utter heretic
like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons,
and Christian Scientists, to acknowledge
them as redeemed brethren and members
of the Body of Christ”

19.
O Martin had read widely in Adventist
publication and had come to the meeting
with a number of question regarding the
denomination beliefs. Those covered a
wide range of Adventist theology, but four
areas stuck out in Martin’s mind:

20.
O That the atonement of Christ was not
completed upon the cross
O That the salvation is the result of grace
plus the works of the Law
O That the Lord Jesus Christ was a created
being, not from all eternity
O and that He partook of man’s sinful fallen
nature at the incarnation.

21.
That the atonement of Christ
was not completed upon the
cross
Question on Doctrine could note in
agreement with the evangelicals that Jesus
had “provided” the sacrificial atonement on
the cross while still not yielding the Adventist
understanding that the atonement continued
in the heavenly sanctuary where Christ
“applied” the benefits of His sacrificial
atonement (see QOD 431-355

22.
That the salvation is the result
of grace plus the works of the
Law
O Ellen white… she then pointed back to
post 1844 experience when the early
Adventist first grasped the full significance
of the three angels message. “One of the
landmarks under this message,” she
wrote “was the temple of God, seen by
His truth-seeking people in heaven, and
ark containing the law of God.

23.
O The light of the Sabbath of the fourth
commandment flashed its strong rays in
the pathway of the fourth commandment
flashed its strong rays in the pathway of
the transgressors of God's law.
O According to Seventh-day Adventist belief,
there is, and can be, no salvation through
the law or by human works of the law, but
only through the saving grace of God.

24.
That the Lord Jesus Christ was
a created being, not from all
eternity
He adopted human nature and when He
returned to His father, He not only carried
with the humanity which He Had assumed
at the incarnation, but He retained His
perfect human nature forever-thenceforth
eternally identifying Himself with race He
had redeemed.

25.
and that He partook of man’s
sinful fallen nature at the
incarnation.
O He took “mans nature in its fallen
condition, but “Christ did not in the least
participate in its sin.

26.
O In the autumn of 1957 the Adventist
leadership published Questions on Doctrine
as a quasi-official reply to the questions raised
by Martin and Barnhouse
O That volume, largely engineered by Froom
and Anderson, received wide distribution
among Adventists and went to thousands non-
Adventist clergy and teachers of theology
O By 1970 from estimated that the total
circulation had exceeded 138,000 copies.

27.
O Martin published his response to Question
0n Doctrine through Zondervan in 1960 as
The truth About Seventh-day Adventism.
He treated Adventist theology with a great
deal of respect and concluded that
Adventist were indeed Christians rather
than cultic.

28.
The search for the meaning of
1888
O By 1988 the 1888rs had a well-developed
theology. The preface to the second
edition of 1888 Re-examined nicely
summarizes its essential aspects:

29.
O 1. Christ sacrifice is not merely provisional
but effective for the whole world, so that the
only reason anybody can be lost is that he
has chosen to resist the saving grace of
God
O 2. Christs sacrifice has legally justified
every man.
O 3. Justification by faith is more than a legal
declaration of acquittal it changes the heart

30.
O 4. believers are to have the new covenant
experience in which God writes His Law in
their heart.
O 5. Gods love is active rather than passive
in that He actively searches out sinners.
O 6. it is difficult to be lost and easy to be
saved if one understands and believes
how good the news is.

31.
O 7. Christ came in the fallen sinful nature of
man after the fall and demonstrated
perfect righteousness.
O 8. because Jesus condemned sin in the
flesh then has become unnecessary in the
light of His ministry it is impossible to have
true New testament faith in Christ and
continue to sin to be truly human is to be
Christ like in character.

32.
O 9. the only element Gods people need in
order to prepare for Christ return is
genuine New need in order to prepare for
Christ return is genuine New testament
faith it is impossible to have faith works by
love.

33.
The search for Ellen G. White
Role and authority
O A third avenue that led to division in
Adventist circles during the post - 1950
period had to do with the role and
authority of Ellen White.
O Thus such idea as her being a hundred
years ahead of her ideas and facts came
directly to her through heavenly revelation

34.
O The first two thirds of the twentieth century
also saw the widespread acceptance of
the that Ellen White should function as a
divine commentary on the Bible.
O In terms of their usage of Ellen White
many Adventists had come to the Place
where they were making what she herself
called the lesser light into the greater light.

35.
O The next few years saw Spectrum publish
several articles that indicated that Ellen
white had used material from other
authors.

36.
O Interestingly enough, all of those issues
had been settled in the 1840s and
reflected upon at the 1919 Bible
Conference.
O Early in my youth I was asked several
times Are you a prophet? I have ever
responded I am the Lord messenger.
O Because in the last days many who boldly
claim that they are prophet are a reproach
to the cause of Christ.

37.
The Search for a theory of
Inspiration
O Closely related to the topic of Ellen White
are issues connected with the inspiration
of the Bible.
O We saw in previous chapters Ellen White’s
rather moderate view on the topic and the
action taken by the 1883 General
Conference session on thought rather
than verbal.

38.
O In the meantime, certain development
transpiring in the church would affect
Adventism understanding of inspiration.
O A second development involved the
increasing number of Seventh-day Adventist
who had advanced degrees in theology and
other academic fields that may have exposed
them both to the various forms of literary and
biblical criticism and to the authoritative use of
human reason as a basic for doing theology.

39.
O At the other end of the inspiration
spectrum are those Adventist who
definitely promote the extreme of the
fundamentalists of the 1920s One recent
books, for example argued that all the
claims that the Bible makes on any
subject theology, history, chronology,
numbers etc.. Are absolutely trustworthy
and dependable. Issue in revelation and
inspiration.

40.
Perspective
O In many ways the period beginning in
1950 has been difficult one for Adventism
theologically.
O The latest era in the denomination’s
theological development has seen
tensions that wont go away.
O Of course theology tensions have always
existed in Adventism, but since the 1950s
they have tended to move more
consistently to middle stage.

41.
THANK YOU
END