Diversity/ Debates in Adventism, Yesterday & Today
1. Waggoner Jones L E.Froom M.L. Andreasen Uriah Smith AG Daniells Prescott
2. Which One? “ Obey and Live” – pre-1888 or “Saved by Grace” post 1888 or post “Questions on Doctrine” ? “ What happened to Traditional, Historical Adventism?
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6. Which Shade Of Adventism? Historical, Conservative, Progressive, Evangelical, Moderate “ What happened to Traditional, Historical Adventism?
7. liberal progressive conservative extreme c onservative ultra-extreme conservative Moral influence theory evangelical moderate Theological diversity in Seventh-day Adventism http://www. ministrymagazine .org/archive/2010/december/theological-diversity-a-threat-an-asset-or-what (It is) an “undeniable fact that contemporary Adventist theology has quite a few different faces” Reinder Bruinsma, Executive secretary of the Trans-European Division & President of the Netherlands Union. "A problem in past evangelical evaluations of Adventism has been the failure to recognize its theological diversity . Adventism is anything but monolithic.“ Kenneth R. Sample, The Recent Truth About Seventh-day Adventists in Christianity Today February 5, 1990.
8. Volume 25, Number 6 • June 2010 The Immutable Law of God • Christ Our Righteousness • The Seventh-day Sabbath, The Three Angels’ Messages • The Non-Immortality of the Soul • The Sanctuary
9. Trisha Famisaran “… there has always been theological diversity in …”( the Church) “ it appears that there was more of an acceptance of theological diversity before the death of Ellen White than there is acceptable theological diversity now” http://www.spectrummagazine.org/node/2687
10. “ There is no excuse for anyone in taking the position that there is no more truth to be revealed, and that all our expositions of Scripture are without error. The fact that certain doctrines have been held as truth for many years by our people, is not a proof that our ideas are infallible. Age will not make error into truth , and truth can afford to be fair. No true doctrine will lose anything by close investigation” Ellen G. White, Councils to Writers and Editors , 35.
11. One of the ten horns (tribes or nations) described in Daniel 7 was according to:
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14. Dr. Ellet J. Waggoner 1855-1916 Alonzo T. Jones 1850-1923
15. "In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived ,” Ellen White, in Desire of Ages (1898) Christ is "the beginning of the creation of God." Not the beginner, but the beginning, of the creation, the first created being , dating his existence far back before any other created being or thing,next to the self-existent and eternal God. Uriah Smith, Thoughts Critical and Practical on the Book of Revelation (Battle Creek, Mich. Steam Press of the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association, 1865), p. 59. L.L. Caviness said “…I can not believe that the two persons of the Godhead are equal…” Knight, George. A Search for Identity, p.153 For Waggoner Christ possesses “all the fullness of the Godhead” being “by nature the very substance of God, and having life in Himself, He is properly called Jehovah, the self-existent One.” E.J. Waggoner. Christ and His Righteousness . Melbourne, Aust.: Echo Publishing, 1892; p. 23.
16. J. H. Waggoner called it "that awful and mysterious power which proceeds from the throne of the universe “ . J. H. Waggoner, The Spirit of God: Its Offices and Manifestations , p9 Uriah Smith similarly described it as "a mysterious influence emanating from the Father and the Son, their representative and the medium of their power “ Uriah Smith, The Biblical Institute (1878), p184 But respecting this Spirit, the Bible uses expressions which cannot be harmonized with the idea that it is a person like the Father and the Son. Rather it is shown to be a divine influence from them both, the medium which represents their presence and by which they have knowledge and power through all the universe, when not personally present . Uriah Smith G.I. Butler told J.H. Kellogg on April 5, 1904 “ It is not a person walking around on foot, or flying as a literal being, in any such sense as Christ and the Father are ..” Not a Person, Only a "power" or "influence". A Person of the Godhead Ellen White said that the Holy Spirit is “ as much a person as God is a person (Ev 616-17). He is the “Third Person of the Godhead” (DA 671) “… the Holy Spirit , the third person of the Godhead,…” 1931 Fundamental Beliefs LeRoy E.Froom “ May I state that my book, THE COMING OF THE COMFORTER was the result of a series of studies that I gave in 1927 – 1928, to ministerial institutes throughout North America. You cannot imagine how I was pummelled by some of the old-timers because I pressed on the personality of the Holy Spirit as the third person of the Godhead .” (L. Froom, letter to Otto Christenson, 27 th October 1960)
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18. SDA Leadership Totally Rejects The Trinity 1919-1946 “ the last of the "old-time" Adventist antitrinitarians died in 1968. A new generation of neo-antitrinitarians emerge in the 1980s” Merlin Burt, "Demise of Semi-Arianism and Anti-Trinitarianism in Adventist Theology, 1888-1957" (term paper, Andrews University, 1996). 1844-1919 1919-1946 1946-1980 1946-1980 Anti-Trinity Joseph Bates James White Ellen G White J N Loughborough Uriah Smith S N Haskell M C Wilcox J S Washburn W C White R F Cottrell H W Cottrell G I Butler J H Waggoner J N Andrews Anti-Trinity L L Caviness T E Bowen O A Tait W H Wakeman C P Bollman B G Wilkinson W R French J S Washburn Pro-Trinity H C Lacey W T Knox W W Prescott F M Wilcox L E Froom Anti-Trinity J S Washburn C S Longacre W R French Pro-Trinity Leroy E Froom R R Figuhr RA Anderson
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22. Verbalism and Inerrancy C.P. Bollman said in 1919: “ The Bible was inerrantly given” F.M. Wilcox said in 1928: He believed in the “verbal inspiration of the Bible” and Ellen Whites writings.” Knight, George. A Search for Identity, p. 137 Ministry magazine contained this quotation: The Bible ”is a book of divine information concerning the way of salvation , and without a flaw or error in the documents as written by the inspiration of the Spirit. Not only is every word of doctrine true , but there is also no mistake in the historical data offered, nor in any other point of divine human knowledge…even every incidental remark in the field of geology, cosmology, astronomy, and biology is true” Ministry magazine, June 1931, pp. 20, 21. Knight, George. A Search for Identity, p. 138 Though Inspiration & possible Errors 1883 General Conference Session position: “ We believe the light given by God to his servants 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.” (RH, Nov.27, 1883, 741) W.C. White writing to S.N. Haskell: “ Mother “never wished our brethren to treat” her writings “as authority on history…” I cannot see consistency in our putting forth a claim of verbal inspiration when Mother does not make any such claim…” Ellen added: “I approve…” (WCW to Haskell, Oct.31, 1912 Also for Thought inspiration: Daniells Prescott
