Category: SDA theology

The following incident happened in the early 1940s on our family’s Pappinbarra Junction farm in New South Wales, Australia. I wrote this script in 1972 as an assignment for a Mike Jones writing class at Andrews University (Michigan, USA), and reproduce it here with its jarring Americanisms still in place, masking its Australian provenance. A few editorial additions are included in brackets. This, and the following two posts, are meant to illustrate the need for Adventists to become aware of  the way that their worldview may condition how they interpret and narrate their personal stories.

Brown grass crackled under bare feet as Alice and Ivy raced toward the squat farmhouse at the edge of the cool forest. The morning chores were done. Contented cows, already grouped in pools of shade under wattle and eucalypt trees, munched their cuds, eyes half closed and tails switching at persistent flies.

Hungrier animals hunted among tussocks of flax for any grass which had survived raspy tongues and fierce sun. A pair of bucket-fed calves still tried to suck each other’s ears. But the rest sprawled in the warm shade.

“Let’s go swimming,” Alice shouted as she and Ivy burst in the open door. Joe and Art, with windows and doors wide open, were munching big chunks of watermelon. They answered only with their eyes.

“What a beauty, “ Ivy exclaimed, her eyes feasting on the two melon quarters in the middle of the table. January melons, the first of the season, would be delicious. As the girls placed the big pieces on two plates and paused, spoons in hand, for grace, Alice determined to enjoy every mouthful. Next month at school the melons would be scarce and the slices small.

Joe poked the white ashes through the grate of the wood stove. The oak coals were glowing enough to make toast. It tasted great.

“Hunger is the best sauce,” Joe grinned as Ivy pulled her second piece off the sooty, three-pronged fork he held toward her. The family needed no appetizers. A few hours of chores before breakfast made them ravenous.

The soot-blackened kettle stopped its wheezy song as Ivy lifted it off the stove and poured water into a wide, tin basin. Alice cleared away the melon rind, eaten down to the white. But Don and Trixy would enjoy it even so.

“Come and we’ll make a raft,” Joe invited Art. He laid hammer and saw on the earth floor of the porch while the two collected a pocketful of nails. The lumber pile was in the woods behind the chicken house. As Joe rummaged through it, a hungry jackass bird (kookaburra) swooped down from his perch in the apple gum. The wood beetles scurried faster, but not all of them got away.

Joe was making quick work on the raft. “He’s a man already,” (Art thought of his sixteen-year-old brother). The Australian hardwood planks bent so many nails that Art dashed across the kikuyu grass lawn to hunt out a fresh supply. The raft was six-by-four feet. Perspiration dripping from his black eyebrows, Joe was sawing the last planks as the girls rode up on Don and Trixy, leading Creamy.

“You harness Creamy while I get the slide.” Joe was anxious to try the raft. The heavy slide was made from planks nailed across a forked tree. Joe pulled it near the raft. While the girls backed Creamy into place, he slid the raft on to the slide.

Summer air would do the work of towels, and old clothes felt cooler when wet. So swim suits were neither owned nor needed. With a sharp, “Get up, boy,” Joe picked up the reins as Ivy scrambled aboard with him. Creamy ambled down the rough grass track toward the creek.

Art’s skinny legs smarted where Don’s salty sweat burned at wild raspberry scratches. But the creek was only ten minutes away. Trixy pranced and tossed her head, champing the bit as Alice reined her in behind the slide.

Joe steadied Creamy as he neared the smooth boulders of the crossing. In the deep pool that reached under huge willows and upstream to the bridge, the water was lazy, motionless. Here it rippled, then gurgled among smooth rocks glazed with green slime.

Creamy launched the raft as he splashed forward slide and all until the cool water reached his belly as he sucked up great gulps of water. Joe shoved the raft off the slide into deeper water and sat on it. Roars of laughter from the younger three echoed up the creek-bed as Joe sank until only his head showed above the surface. Gum and tallowood are about as heavy as water. Almost useless as a raft.

“Let’s get the Paddle Wheel Steamer,” Ivy called. With the horses tied under the willows, the four scurried across the bridge. The gravel road burned tough soles keeping the steps brisk. Joe led the way down the steep bank to where a large, softwood log was baking on an outcrop of slate rock near the bridge. The water level had fallen since it was beached. A couple of stout sticks made good levers, and in a moment the log splashed into the water.

“Look out for the wasps,” Art shrilled. A dozen feet up, the log which held up the shady side of the bridge was caked with hundreds of palm-sized paper nests. A few wasps stirred to challenge the intruders, but they kept close to the shade of the bridge.

“All aboard.” Joe held the log while the other three scrambled on. The round log had less curve than Creamy’s back.

“We’re like roosters on a clothes line in wind.” Ivy remembered the bantams bobbing one way and then the other as they tried to keep their balance. The secret was to keep the Paddle Wheel Steamer balanced with six arms stretched sideways. The other pair of arms inched it forward. They were the paddles.

Art was glad Joe was near as they teetered over the black pool. The clean water was so deep here that it looked dark and frightening even outside the shade of the willows. But the water felt good. Finally, with the Paddle Wheel Steamer beached, it was the horses’ turn.

Trixy pawed the water as Alice dug naked heels into her ribs. Don insisted on lying down and rolling in the delicious relief of the cool water. Art remembered how he had done the same thing in a patch of knee-deep mud, saddle and all. Creamy took a quick breath as his feet left the gravel bed of the creek, and he started to swim. He always seemed half frightened of deep water.

Alice clung to Trixy’s mane as she turned her under the willows. Long leafy fingers tickled the clean face of the creek. Red roots reached out into the water. Trixy swept Alice through the veil of willow braches and curved back to the shallow water at the crossing.

“I’ll go and get dinner ready,” Ivy volunteered.

“And I’ll put the horses away.” Joe hitched Creamy to the empty slide. “Don’t drown yourselves and come home soon,” he called to Alice and Art, never dreaming what would happen next.

The thudding of hooves on the unused road was dying away as Alice had an exciting idea. The raft was bobbing against the boulders at the crossing. It was easy work pushing it upstream into the deeper water. One of the boards, held by a bent nail, had already come loose at one end. It floated at right angles from where it was meant to be. Art watched as Alice laid her hands on the raft and pushed off into the black pool.

“See, it’ll hold me up,” Alice chortled, as she drifted upstream toward the middle of the bridge.

“Artie, how can I get back?” She was frightened now. Down where her feet dangled the water seemed cold. Eels and catfish were happy there. It was safe for them. But Alice couldn’t swim. Suddenly her arms felt weak. To climb onto the raft was to risk going under. There wasn’t much to cling to, either. Would her fingers lose their grip in her fright?

“I’ll get you, Sis.” (seven-year-old) Art hurried toward the bridge near the left bank, beside the fallen tree which for years had been half-buried in the creek bed. The chest-deep water covered fine gravel which sloped away sharply. Out in the deep water Alice’s aching fingers clutched at the cracks between the boards of the raft.

“Wish I could swim.” There was a tremble in Art’s shrill voice. “But I think I can reach that loose board.” Toes digging deep into the yielding gravel, Art stretched toward the raft. The water was chin deep as he reached helplessly for the half-loose plank four feet away.

“Help!” The fine gravel on the deepening creek bed pulled Art’s feet toward the blacker depths. He jerked his chin upwards. All the pool seemed to be cramming into his open mouth as he gurgled for help. Terror flashed from his eyes and then the water blotted out willows and sunshine.

Suddenly Art found himself back in the chest-deep water by the smooth, slimy log. Alice’s finger nails still bit at the hardwood raft. Her face was white with fear for herself and Art. Now he was safe, but her lips were still tight and her throat dry from shouting for help. Her cries had echoed up the valley. Would they never be heard?

Art was still shaking, his eyes riveted on the weakening Alice, when Joe splashed with long strides into the shallow water at the crossing. He swam with a few thrashing strokes out to the raft. Grasping it with his left hand he tugged it-and Alice-back to safety.

Weak and relieved the trio headed for home and lunch. Ivy had tomatoes, cucumbers, bread, milk, and a bowl of lumpy salt on the table. She brought a big bowl of cream from the cupboard in the porch. Glad for more than thick cream on homemade bread, Joe thanked God for his care.

And the angel’s push? Years later Art found the Bible verse which he thinks tells how God saved his life at that terrifying moment when he was drinking water and didn’t mean to. He believes the strong hand of his guardian angel rescued him with a quick shove to safety. “For the Angel of the Lord guards and rescues all who reverence him” (Psalm 34:6, Living Bible).

Arthur Patrick, 21 January 2013

The pathology report, dated 17 March 1994, is before me as I write. Stark words like “tumour” and “carcinoma” convinced me then that the message the symptoms suggested was real. In fact, I had high grade (grade 3 of 3) cancer.

With that report, my world changes, instantly. Long-term plans suddenly seem irrelevant. I want to see family, now; what if there are only months to luxuriate in the sunshine of their love? At best there will be months of treatment and years of frequent tests. My specialist suggests that survival for five years augurs well for a longer future.

My daily work as a chaplain offers the opportunity to journey with patients and their families facing serious illnesses, long-term interventions, desirable remissions–and deaths. During one especially-taxing week I am called to attend ten deaths, more of them from cancer than any other cause. Patients and families pour out their fears and hopes. They rejoice when medical science triumphs. Some face the end of life with fear and anger; others simply cherish each day of comparative wellness.

My therapy for the first-diagnosed form of cancer was highly successful; the five-year horizon has lengthened to nineteen years. Some of the side effects of the therapy were profound–as when a combination of two powerful drugs unexpectedly attacked my nervous system, resulting in diminished sleep for eighteen months.

War on a new front

 

Nine years after the first encounter, a quite different set of symptoms indicated another of the many forms of cancer was attacking a different part of my body. It was 2003, and by then the Internet had radically changed our world. Enormous volumes of new information were available at the press of a few computer keys. This reality heightens patients’ expectations and multiplies their options. The questions for me were legion: Is surgery the preferred choice? Is treatment best in Australia, or is it more likely to succeed overseas? If local specialists and therapeutic centres are chosen, which have the best track record?

After careful listening to several specialists, I unwillingly accepted that surgery was not an option in my case; instead, a combination of chemical weapons and radiation may win the war. I remain eternally grateful to a specialist who offered me aggressive therapy when at least some others seemed likely to refuse to make any such attempt. The treatment obviously bought me a hoped-for, five-year remission. But then the symptoms began to return, unmistakably. During the four years, helped by the generous subsidies available to its citizens from the Australian Government, many thousands of dollars have been invested to help my body fight its foe.

A few things I’ve learned

 

In the years that I’ve lived with cancer, I’ve learned several things that seem to be important. First of all, from the moment of initial diagnosis, I’ve cherished the unfailing understanding of family and friends. We cancer patients live on borrowed time, a reality that also deeply impacts those we love. They need to be kept informed; we are all helped by freedom to laugh together, to rejoice when the news is positive, and talk through the reports that are the opposite of our hopes.

My family and friends have always respected the essential boundaries I needed, but one problem has emerged. There are a host of alternative therapies that people are tempted to advocate with caring enthusiasm. I could never read all the articles, books and blogs recommended to me, or ingest all the miracle liquids or remarkable substances advertised as certain cures. One lives with a measure of guilt for roads not taken but, on the other hand, unthinking compliance would raise insuperable problems.

Second, I profoundly respect yet seriously question everything my medical team recommends. In number, these highly-skilled people compare well with my fingers, and they live on different continents. All of them have done their best, of that I am convinced. But in hindsight some of their advice was dangerous, perhaps deadly. A patient has a right to a second or even third opinion; if I had not exercised such rights, I wouldn’t be writing this article.

Next, a diagnosis of cancer includes a healthy element. Wordsworth had it right when he exclaimed, “The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers” (William Wordsworth, 1807). To know we are living with cancer helps us focus upon the things in life that matter most.

Further, our society offers valuable help for the cancer patient’s journey. During the early stages of diagnosis and treatment, it is of enormous benefit to talk with others who have been on the same road for months or years. (Oh, I have many messages on my computer from a person I met as we undertook radiation therapy. Barrie is close to my age and although we had not met before, it has been helpful to compare notes as we travel through new and potentially daunting terrain.) I have not yet joined any of the available groups that offer group nurture for cancer patients, but the time may well come when I will.

Again, cancer in its many forms is a disease that strikes celebrities as well as the rest of us, indiscriminately. When a celebrity is attacked, that is news, bigtime. Think of Jane McGrath: young, beautiful, well-known as the wife of famous cricketer Glenn–and the loving mother of two children. Jane’s charitable foundation, memorialising the fight she lost with breast cancer, like the widely discussed struggle of broadcaster Alan Jones with prostate cancer, have helped to demythologise those forms of the disease. Think of the way Jones confronted the illness that takes the lives of some three thousand men in Australia each year. “I told them I didn’t do dying, that I just try to make the most of living,” he stated laconically.[1]

The most enduring dimension of my learning is a fuller appreciation for the plain words of Scripture. Three thousand years ago a shepherd-poet wrote some of the best-known expressions of faith in God, including Psalm 23:4:  “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me: your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” God, the Ultimate Shepherd, is best known through the Incarnate Jesus who declared, “I am the bread of life,” and “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 6:35; 10:11). That quality of spiritual sustenance caps the wonderful support of family, friends and skilful medical personnel.

Reflections

 

I often remember how one of my specialists, more than nine years ago, worked through the criteria that led her to offer me vigorous treatment when other specialists seemed likely to refuse all such interventions. Important to her was my overall state of fitness, including the fact that I was not overweight. Evidently she deemed the chances for the therapy to be successful depended a lot on a patient’s weight. All these years later my weight is a couple of kilos less than it was at the critical point of diagnosis. Almost seventy per cent of Australian men are overweight or obese, and my prescribed drugs make weight-gain particularly easy. I owe a lot to my wife and elder daughter for encouragement to stay slim, and their penchant for exercise. (My other daughter can be relied on to understand the journey of the mind. I rely on my son for his pragmatic buoyancy).

The human body profits from wise lifestyle choices. The same can be said for a positive state of mind. I cannot prove that a simple, lacto-ovo vegetarian diet that followed all my life until a couple of years ago, when I changed to a dairy-free diet, helps the fight against cancer. Nor can I prove that optimistic attitudes actually influence what is happening in the cells of our bodies. But the sense of wellness that one feels when one’s food choices are made intelligently and the essential joy that accompanies an upbeat attitude are well worth cultivating.

In my limited experience, a principal source of optimism is the essential message of Christianity. The Old Testament Scriptures assure us that we humans were created intentionally by a loving God. The biblical narrative proceeds with the message that, despite the tragedy of sin and the reality of suffering, we are invited to plan for a future where “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4, NIV). I find significant challenge in the writings of the Apostle Paul that fill about a third of the New Testament; he suffered beyond my capacity to fully understand (see II Corinthians 11:21-29) but later in life he could write, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances” (Philippians 4:11).

The families of cancer patients who have asked me to conduct funeral services for their loved ones usually find particular comfort in Romans 8:31-39. Paul states in verse 38:

I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Yes, cancer may be lethal for this life, but how limited it is in the face of twin realities–God’s love and eternity!

Arthur Patrick, drafted 22 June 2010, updated and posted 9 January 2013

Here are some further points to ponder:

“I enjoy convalescence. It is the part that makes illness worthwhile” (George Bernard Shaw, 1921).

“Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick” (Susan Sontag, 1978).

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Hearty thanks and warm regards to the thousands of people who have logged on to this little website during 2012. It seems appropriate to offer a few comments about the old year, as it becomes history.

Seventh-day Adventists, more than most Christian groups, identify with particular dates. There is 1844, a year of sublime expectation and bitter sorrow; the hope was so lofty and the disconfirmation so disastrous that ever since our religious community has spoken of the GreatDisappointment. The years 1860-63 were memorable in that, after a long struggle, we at last found a name for ourselves, developed state conferences and an over-arching General Conference structure. The year 1888 began an explosive debate about the central truth of Righteousness by Faith; it would take almost a century for rationality to supplant rhetoric. In 1901 we reorganised our denomination in a way that better accommodated the needs of a growing movement that was reaching out to a diverse world. The memorable conference of 1919 was almost totally lost to living memory for more than a half-century, until we realised that to ignore history made us liable to repeat its mistakes. The year 1970 marked a turning point as we were confronted by a powerful need to interpret our history from its primary sources rather than through the tinted glasses of our traditions. The years 1980 and 1982 witnessed something of a climax for this process as we faced the disturbing issue of how evidence shapes faith.

 

All these crucial dates (and many more) are rather familiar to readers of this website. So, the insistent question arises: How does 2012 look when compared with the years of acknowledged significance from the Adventist past?

The weekly Adventist Today newsletter that arrived on my computer (as expected) on the morning of December 29 carried its usual freight of interesting reports. Many of its narratives are unmentioned in the church’s official media, although (commendably) Adventist Review recently made a conscious decision to report the discussion about women’s ordination. Even so, it remains an arresting fact that, without independent news agencies such as the electronic and printed reports made available by entities such as Spectrum and Adventist Today, we would be ignorant of some of the crucial developments taking place within the church we value so highly.

The newsletter tells us:

“Adventist Today published more than 225 news stories this past year to provide an independent record of the Adventist community, unfettered by promotional goals and institutional interests. A number of these were controversial. Some resulted in a large number of comments and correspondence, as well as occasional internal debate among our journalists and the policy-makers at Adventist Today. There were even times when other publications made our reporting part of the news itself.

“Picking ten of these stories as the most important for 2012 is a difficult task. The most important events or trends are not always the most interesting or debatable. Feel free to nominate you own additions or replacements for these ten in the ‘Comments’ section at the end of this article.”

Here is the first of the ten issues selected from 2012, cited in the precise words of the AT report:

“Six union conferences in North America and Europe took a stand to end gender discrimination in ordination to the gospel ministry. At least two of these unions have already seen the ordination of women clergy and it has come to light that the Seventh-day Adventist Church in China has been doing so since the 1980s.

“The year began on an inauspicious note related to this issue; the North American Division (NAD) officers notified the members of their governing body that they would not publish a policy repeatedly voted by significant majorities over the previous three years, due to a ruling by the General Conference (GC) legal office that the body lacked then-necessary authority. The policy E 60 had been revised to permit women with credentials as Commissioned Ministers to be elected conference presidents.

“In early March the Mid-America Union Conference executive committee voted to support the ordination of women but did not take steps to immediately implement that position. In April retired GC President Jan Paulsen told the GC executive committee that he wished the issue had been settled during the 11 years he served as the denomination’s global leader. ‘The Spirit is ready to lead us where we, for various reasons, are reluctant to go,’ he told the denomination’s top leaders.

“On April 22-23 during a regular constituency meeting, the delegates to the North German Union Conference voted by a two-thirds majority to approve the ordination of women pastors in its territory. July 29 delegates to a special constituency session of the Columbia Union Conference in the United States voted four out of five by secret ballot to immediately authorize ordinations without gender discrimination. On August 19 the delegates to a special constituency session in the Pacific Union Conference voted the same thing by the same overwhelming majority. On both occasions Pastor Ted Wilson, current GC president, made a personal appeal to the delegates to not adopt the new policy.

“Since that time the union conferences in the Netherlands and Norway have voted the same policies. As a result there are now three union conferences in North America and three in Europe clearly on record. It is likely that others will eventually join them, even if they do not go so far as to implement the policy along with the scores of women who have been ordained or issued the credentials of an ordained minister in view of their having previously had a ‘laying on of hands’ when they were commissioned.

“The GC officers issued a statement expressing their view that these actions were regrettable and not valid. Rumors flew about possible sanctions that the GC might put in place against these union conferences. Adventist Today published analysis by former GC officers and well-known Adventist theologians. There was extensive debate among many of our readers about ‘unity versus uniformity’ and the role of women in the church. At the annual meeting of the GC executive committee in October the three hours of discussion were respectful and no sanctions were applied or suggested in the draft distributed to the committee members. A month earlier, Bill Knott, editor of the Adventist Review had announced that the ‘general paper’ of the denomination would again open its pages to the topic of women’s ordination after decades of silence.”

However, is the suggestion that 2012 may rank in importance with 1844, 1888, 1901, 1919, 1980 (and such) sustainable? I think not. Yes, the ten examples that are named and described are indeed impressive but, should our Lord tarry for another decade, will 2012 still appear as a towering peak?

The quoted report is succinct and meets the journalistic standards that we have come to expect from the news team at Adventist Today. The progress made on the issue of female ordination is indeed significant. You may want to read the other nine reasons given why 2012 seems particularly significant, and then judge for yourself just how 2012 fits within Adventist history. While I recognize the importance of the ten issues that the AT news team elaborate, I will be waiting for a while before I elevate 2012 to the level of importance claimed for dates such as those listed above.

Arthur Patrick, 30 December 2012

Yesterday Joan and I, in company with a small group of friends, travelled 125 kilometres South to view a remarkable exhibition of some 400 artifacts that are currently on display at the Australian Museum. Alexander the Great is the focus of this particular exhibition; we are grateful to people like Catherine the Great of Russia who helped to stock the world-famous State Hermitage in St Petersburg with a great many such treasures that illumine the past. It is a wonderful privilege to have these items on loan from Russia, touted as “the most exciting and prestigious classical culture exhibition ever to be hosted by the Australian Museum in Sydney.”

Why refer to Alexander III (356 BCE to 323 BCE), usually simply named as Alexander the Great, in a blog about Adventist Studies? Because, in part, Alexander is one of the most important historical figures alluded to in the Book of Daniel, an apocalypse written by a Jewish prophet who was exiled to Babylon by crown-prince Nebuchadnezzar’s first raid on Jerusalem in 605 BC.

Uriah Smith (1832-1903) published his Thoughts Critical and Practical, on the Book of Daniel in 1873. At last, Millerite prophetic interpretation was re-packaged in a more-sustainable but still experimental manner. Smith standardised for Seventh-day Adventists the concept that the Greek empire was the shaggy goat of Daniel 8 that “touched not the ground” and “had a notable horn” between its eyes, symbolising Alexander its “first king” (verse 21).

My interest in Daniel and Revelation was (as mentioned elsewhere on this website) enhanced when LeRoy Edwin Froom delivered a series of lectures at Avondale in 1955. Froom was able to offer us an historical context that helped us to better understand how we arrived at our interpretation of Daniel, not least with his four volumes entitled The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers. Also, about that time, I bought a newly-published book that I couldn’t really afford, Volume 4 of the Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary. Our church was on a journey toward a faithful exegesis (leading out of the meaning) of Scripture, including its apocalyptic portions, such as Daniel. We can now more adequately, with the help of a vast literature, interpret the complex symbols of Daniel. Chapter 2 depicts various metals (Greece is the kingdom of bronze that was to  “rule over the whole earth”); Daniel 7 portrays fearsome beasts (Greece is the creature that “looked like a leopard”); Daniel 8 describes a ram and a goat in deadly conflict (Greece is the goat that “became very great”).

The exhibition emphasised that almost 2,500 years ago Alexander, as a twenty-year-old Macedonian, embarked on a military campaign that, within a decade, enabled him to rule the then-known world and thus experience unparalleled power. It also documented for us, yet again, that Alexander was a multi-faceted personality whose “conquests dramatically shaped history with effects still felt today” in Western civilisation and even Asia. It further portrayed how history shaped Alexander; indeed, it created many “Alexanders” over the centuries, “few of whom would be recognisable to those who knew him.” Was he a ruthless destroyer, a chivalrous liberator, a military genius, a visionary statesman, an alcoholic, a god, a megalomaniac and a murderer? Yes, and much more.

“Alexander’s life was what legends are made of – gods and heroes, love and war, murder and betrayal, adventure and conquest.” Therefore, it is understandable that “his deeds were used to inspire or terrify, his name was invoked to achieve glory and his face became an artistic ideal.”

I had not realised the extent of the ancient sources that are available, nor the many fascinating ways that medieval legends and modern biographies have depicted Alexander the Great. A BBC series of DVDs on Alexander, that was kindly loaned to us, also helped us prepare for the Museum exhibition. Back in 2009, we spent about six weeks in Turkey, constantly confronted with evidence of Alexander’s travels, conquests and cultural inclinations. That experience spurred me to read the 2005 book by Paul Cartledge, Alexander the Great: The Hunt for a New Past. Now the exhibition in Sydney offers a marvellous visual experience for anyone interested in either ancient history or the symbolism of Daniel’s prophecies. Even the story of the New Testament would be different without the influence of Alexander the Great on Greek language (koine) and society. Rome ruled the world of the first century when Christ came to earth, but is was Greek speech, writing and culture that helped to facilitate the founding and development of Christianity, “the religion of Jesus.”

Arthur Patrick, posted 20 December 2012  

 

So it’s Christmas again, and that surely is a fitting time to think about the birth of Jesus. The words of the messenger Gabriel to Mary are quite staggering really, especially when one considers her lowly estate: “And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1.31-33). Many of the terms used to declare Jesus’ status were also used for Caesar—Lord, Son of God, Bringer of Peace, and Saviour of the World etcetera. But one title that Caesar avoided, Jesus accepted; at least when it’s rightly understood, and that title was “King” (that is, Christ or Messiah). Of course, Caesar’s avoidance of the title did not mean he eschewed the role, and in Asia Minor his subjects had no hesitation in giving him the royal title. Like most modern dictators (for example, Mohammed Morsi), Caesar purportedly only took absolute power for the benefit of the people. Given the Christian claims about Jesus, it was inevitable that his movement would clash with the Roman Empire, and clash it did—beginning with the crucifixion of Jesus.

But what kind of King, Lord or Son of God was Jesus? And what kind of Kingdom did he reign over? Well he was a servant king: “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10.45). “Son of Man” by the way is a divine title from Daniel 7.13. His kingdom was one to which the poor belonged (Luke 6.20), in which the persecuted found a place (Matthew 5.10), and into which the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind were invited to sit at the King’s table (Luke 14.13-21). His is a kingdom not after the models of this world (which fight over gold and silver with weapons of bronze and iron—Daniel 2); his is one where God’s will is done as it is in heaven; it’s characterised by the power of love rather than the love of power. One enters it with humility, which is the precondition of accepting the grace or the gift of God–and that gift is Jesus (2 Corinthians 9.15). Let’s pray that this kingdom of reversals, this antidote to human pride, is truly a “kingdom without end,” as Gabriel declared at the conception of Jesus.

Note: Within my lifetime of ministry, Adventists have changed from being dismissive about Christmas to being enclosed by (all too often) the tinsel that Western culture wraps around it. Dr Young (see the section about him in Post 86) is one of my most cherished New Testament exegetes. His brief paragraphs (above) express one way that a New Testament scholar helps us understand the meaning of this special time of the year.

Arthur Patrick, 18 December 2012

Avondale College of Higher Education from time to time confers the status of Honorary Senior Research Fellow on active researchers who have retired from full-time employment. The arrangement maintains their association with the College and encourages continued publication, contributing to Avondale’s research profile. This article surveys some highlights of the scholarly careers of three of Avondale’s most published Honorary Senior Research Fellows.

Dr Bryan Ball

Dr Bryan Ball, principal of Avondale from 1984 to 1990, has published prolifically in the fields of ecclesiastical history and theological thought. His first book, A Great Expectation: Eschatological Thought in English Protestantism to 1660 (E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1975) documents the thinking of Protestant English writers on themes associated with the second coming of Christ, demonstrating that belief in Christ’s return was in the mainstream of English Reformation thought.

The English Connection: The Puritan Roots of Seventh-day Adventist Belief (James Clarke & Co., Cambridge, 1981), traces the influence of English Puritanism on later religious movements, particularly Seventh-day Adventism, investigating Puritan thinking on such matters as Scripture, salvation by faith in Christ, baptism, gospel obedience, Christ as our high priest, the seventh-day Sabbath, prophecy, the second coming and the new earth.

The Seventh-day Men: Sabbatarians and Sabbatarianism in England and Wales, 1600-1800 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994) shows that observance of the seventh day was a significant minority practice in English Nonconformity, and that many Sabbatarians exercised considerable influence on the religious life of the period. A revised and expanded edition was published in 2009 (James Clarke & Co., Cambridge).

The Soul Sleepers: Christian Mortalism from Wycliffe to Priestley (James Clarke & Co, Cambridge, 2008) studies the rise and development of the doctrine of conditional immortality in England during the Reformation and post-Reformation periods, demonstrating that this view of humankind’s essential nature and ultimate destiny was held across a wide theological spectrum in English thought for at least three centuries.

Dr Bryan Ball contributed articles on six Puritan and Nonconformist preachers and writers to The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004). He is also a contributor to the online edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

His scholarly works for a more popular readership include The Essential Jesus: the Man, His Message, His Mission, co-edited with William Johnsson (Pacific Press, Boise ID, 2002); and Can We Still Believe the Bible? And Does It Really Matter? (Signs Publishing Co., Warburton, 2007), a book subsequently published in Latvian and Spanish. A revised and enlarged edition appeared in 2011.

Bryan Ball’s latest book, In the Beginning (Pacific Press, Nampa ID, 2012) is an edited collection of scholarly essays exploring issues relating to origins. Eleven chapters discuss origins from biblical and theological perspectives, six from scientific viewpoints, and one is a critique of social Darwinism. The book contains significant essays on the origin and reliability of Genesis, its theological themes, its importance in the rest of scripture, and its utilisation by Christ and New Testament writers. The discussions about design and the limits of neo-Darwinian evolutionary mechanisms are offered at greater depth than in most previous Adventist books.

Dr Arthur Patrick 

With degrees in history, biblical studies, theology and ministry, Dr Arthur Patrick brings a broad spectrum of knowledge to his scholarship. While he has published in all the above fields, he has developed a special interest in the history of religion and in Adventist studies, writing on Adventist history in relation to its broader historical and cultural contexts.

Patrick’s Master of Letters (MLitt) thesis was entitled “Ellen Gould White and the Australian Woman, 1891-1900” (University of New England, 1984). His PhD thesis expanded the scope further: “Christianity and Culture in Colonial Australia: Selected Catholic, Anglican, Wesleyan and Adventist Perspectives, 1891-1900” (University of Newcastle, 1992).

Patrick’s mastery of Adventist studies is evident from his bibliographical survey of the published literature in this field, which he prepared in 2006 as a guide for doctoral students. See http://www.avondale.edu.au/Departments::Main::Courses::Adventist_studies.pdf. He had previously published a review of sources on Adventist history in the South Pacific in the refereed Journal of Religious History (1987).

Patrick’s extensive publications include articles in refereed journals and in publications such as Ministry, Adventist Review, Spectrum and Adventist Today. A number of his papers have also been published online at www.sdanet.org/atissue and on the Avondale website under ResearchOnline@Avondale.

Since retiring from full-time employment he has continued to write prolifically. In 2003 he authored the centenary history of the Sydney Adventist Hospital (The San: 100 Years of Christian Caring 1903-2003); and in 2004 he wrote a chapter on the history of Adventists in Australia for the electronic resource Australia’s Religious Communities (Christian Research Association, Nunawading, Victoria).

His 2009 paper “The Re-parenting of Seventh-day Adventists? Reflections on the Historical Development, Substance and Potential of Ellen G White Studies” (ResearchOnline@Avondale) surveys the historical development of Ellen G White studies, documents literature published on Ellen White, and provides insights into White’s authorial methods. A refereed article in the Journal of Religious History (2010) contextualises the struggles of recent decades between continuity and change in Adventism, documenting three possible stances in relation to traditional Adventist thought: reversion, alienation and transformation. The article urges the importance of effective internal and external dialogue. A refereed article in Lucas: an Evangelical History Review, co-authored with Associate Professor Daniel Reynaud, traces the maturation of Seventh-day Adventist historiography from the early days of the movement to the era of professionally trained historians, and evaluates the significance of that development for the church’s view its own history.

Patrick has presented numerous papers at scholarly conferences, many of which have been published. These include “Re-visioning the Role of Ellen White for Seventh-day Adventists Beyond 2000” (Adventist Society for Religious Studies, San Francisco, 1997, published at www.sdanet.org/atissue); “Learning from Ellen White’s Perception and Use of Scripture: Toward an Adventist Hermeneutic for the 21st Century” (South Pacific Division Theological Conference, 2003, published at sdanet.org/atissue); and a paper at the 2007 conference at Andrews University marking the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the controversial book Questions on Doctrine. Patrick’s paper analyses the historical context of the publication of Questions of Doctrine in 1957, the conflicting subsequent perceptions of the book, and the impact of this controversy on the church. The paper, which was published in the Conference Proceedings, seeks to provide an interpretative framework to help the church move constructively beyond these tensions.

In 2009 Patrick delivered a paper on Ellen White as author at a conference in Portland, Maine, USA, which Patrick considers one of the most significant events in the history of Ellen White scholarship. The conference, organised by Professor Gary Land of Andrews University and others, brought together 66 scholars, one-third of non-Adventist background, to discuss the life, work and significance of Ellen White in the context of nineteenth-century America. Many of the participants were well-known authors in the field of American religious history. Two scholars, one Adventist, the other non-Adventist, were invited to present responses to each paper. Patrick saw the conference as “a fresh opportunity to foster a mature, sustainable understanding of Ellen White amongst believers and the wider community.”

Dr Norman Young

Dr Norman Young has established an international reputation for research and scholarship in New Testament studies, publishing an impressive array of articles in refereed scholarly journals, and presenting many papers at national and international conferences and other scholarly meetings.

His publications include the book Rebuke and Challenge: the Point of Jesus’ Parables (Review and Herald, Washington DC, 1985), and a supplement to John Wenham’s widely used Elements of New Testament Greek (revised edition, Cambridge University Press, 2001). He has also published a significant book documenting the fight to free Lindy Chamberlain (Innocence Regained, Federation Press, 1989). His scholarly publications include articles in leading international journals such as the Journal of Biblical Literature, New Testament Studies, Novum Testamentum, Journal for the Study of the New Testament, and Biblical Archaeologist. He has also published extensively in Seventh-day Adventist literature.

Since his retirement from full-time employment Young has continued to present papers at scholarly conferences and to publish in peer-reviewed journals. His conference paper “The Founding Fathers and the Fledgling Church According to the Epistle of Hebrews” (Macquarie University, Sydney, 2004) was published in the Society for the Study of Early Christianity Newsletter (2005). His paper at the Chamberlain Case Symposium (Macquarie University, 2005) was published in The Chamberlain Case: Nation, Law, Memory (Australian Scholarly Press, Melbourne, 2009). In 2008 he presented a paper investigating passages from Romans and Colossians in their social context at the 63^rd General Meeting of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, Lund, Sweden. In 2009 he presented an analysis of Romans 14:5-6 at the New Perspectives on Christianity Conference at Avondale, a paper subsequently published in The International Journal of New Perspectives on Christianity. In 2011 he contributed a paper on irony in the writings of the apostle John at the 66^th Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas Conference in New York.

In retirement Young has also written book reviews in the fields of New Testament studies and theology for the peer reviewed journals Biblical Interpretation (2005) and Pacifica (2007). In 2008 he published an article in Wartime, the peer reviewed journal of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, on his father’s involvement in the Second World War in New Guinea.

Avondale greatly appreciates the continuing contribution of its honorary senior research fellows to the College’s research profile.

Posted (with permission from Dr John Cox who wrote the article as editor and published it in Reflections 24:2, Summer 2012), 19 December 2012

A note for the reader: Any investigation of publications such as Adventist Review, Ministry and Record is likely to lead the researcher to conclude that, by 1982, the tidal wave of new information that began to rise in 1970 was about at its peak. Constantly ministers, teachers and members were dealing with qualitatively new data about the history and thought of the Seventh-day Adventist church, as well as the life and writings of Ellen Gould White (1827-1915).

I set about the task of creating symbols that would both embrace and apply the new information about Ellen White in a simple way, for general readers of Adventist magazines. It was deeply encouraging when Adventist Review published one of my short pieces under the title “Landmarks and Landscape” (27 October 1983, page 4), and rather surprising when Australasian Record reprinted the said piece is its 31 March 1984 issue, page 12. My intent was to offer an accurate understanding of both Ellen White’s inspiration and the specific limitations to what Adventists may expect from her writings. The words are my own, except for one sentence that was pressed upon me by a church leader: “On occasion she gives a ‘surface exploration’ account.” Here is the text; it will make more sense if it is read after Post 84.

 IN APRIL 1982, I again flew across the United States. For the first time in my flying experience there, visibility was excellent. From the warm sky above Los Angeles I saw the serene Pacific Ocean and the vast sprawl of the City of the Angels hugged by mountains. I saw marks of human effort and the panorama of nature, a vast continent spread below me.

If you asked me to draw a street map of Las Vegas, state the depth of the Grand Canyon, or give the location of the John Hancock Centre in Chicago, mistakes would mar my response. You may ask a thousand other simple questions about the continental United States that I could not answer. You may discount my claim that I saw a panorama of a great country beyond the vision of a surface traveller. Through the miracle of jet transport I was shown a useful vista of landmarks and now can interpret better a vast landscape.

To the benefit of Seventh-day Adventists, Ellen White was given a jet-aircraft vision of crucial realities in an age of spiritual surface travel. She saw landmark truths: God as the one whom to know is to love; health as the right arm of the third angel’s message; education dealing with the whole person throughout the whole period of existence possible to humanity; history as moving toward a supreme confrontation between good and evil, all to climax in the universal declaration that God is love; and many other distinctive features of faith precious to Seventh-day Adventists. She was shown such landmarks so she could encourage and guide the Advent people.

Some are tempted to claim either too much or too little for Ellen White’s ministry. Those who would require her to give the equivalent of a detailed surface survey have difficulty with certain statements in her writings. Those who deny her spiritual gift, assessing her to be a fraud or a false prophet, miss the enduring value of her prophetic vision. Either of these options can lead to conflict and disillusionment.

Ellen White wrote from an attitude of urgency, sensing an imminent end to all things earthly. Since her death, Seventh-day Adventists have benefitted from surface advances into the historical background of Scripture, aspects of science, causes of certain diseases, details of Christian history, and so forth.

In responding to detailed insights of painstaking investigation, we must remember the abiding usefulness of Ellen White’s direction-setting, panoramic vision. On occasion she gives a “surface exploration” account. To deny a role for either her panorama or our detailed investigation is to reject part of God’s gift of knowledge to humanity.

Arthur Patrick, posted 13 December 2012

I felt enormously privileged in 1976 when I was appointed as the founding curator (the title was soon changed to that of director) of the Ellen G. White/Seventh-day Adventist Research Centre opened at Avondale College to serve the (then) Australasian Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Such a task was beyond my expectations and even my dreams: I was charged with superintending, gathering, sharing and interpreting the primary and secondary sources relating to four important areas: Adventist history and thought, as well as the life and writings of Ellen G. White.

Probably there were several reasons why I was appointed to this particular role. It was known that I was raised in a family that had specific, detailed memories of Ellen White as friend, neighbor and prophetic witness.  During 1898 Ellen White met with my widowed paternal grandmother (Amelia Patrick) at the Brisbane camp meeting and advised her to bring her three sons to Cooranbong, where the Avondale School for Christian Workers was being carved from the bush. My maternal grandfather (John Pocock) had years of contact with Ellen White before she provided him accommodation at Sunnyside for about seven months while he worked on the Avondale School project and then, in 1899, Ellen White insisted that Pocock bring his family to Cooranbong to continue working with the developing Adventist ventures there.

So, having a family with positive attitudes toward Adventism and its prophet, I graduated from the Australasian Missionary College (now Avondale College of Higher Education) in November 1957, just in time to soak up the contents of Pastor Arthur White’s “Prophetic Guidance” lectures at Australasia’s first Seminary Extension School, December 1957-January 1958. Already, as a Theology student in 1955, Pastor LeRoy Edwin Froom, fresh from writing his four volumes entitled Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, had inspired me with new vistas of Adventism: “diamonds from Daniel, pearls from Paul, and rubies from the Revelation,” he declared. In my mind, I awarded Arthur White a doctorate for the quality of his two months of presentations, and determined to pursue similar investigations when our family had saved enough money to travel to and study at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, part of Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, United States of America. While there (1970-1972) I was befriended by Mrs Hedwig Jemison who, as the key person in the White Estate Branch Office at Andrews, seemed convinced that articles and papers that I wrote were appropriate, an opinion that I believe she shared with Pastor White as Secretary of Ellen G. White Estate, Inc. These and related factors may well have influenced my appointment to the Research Centre.

Back in September 1973, when I returned to Australia and was after five days called to Avondale, I carried a Diploma of Theology and Teaching (Avondale, 1956), a Bachelor of Arts (Theology, Avondale, 1957), a Master of Arts (Cum Laude, Systematic Theology, Andrews, 1972), a Master of Divinity (Andrews, 1972), and a Doctor of Ministry (Biblical Studies and Clinical Pastoral Education, Christian Theological Seminary, 1973). With the practical experience of a dozen years of pastoral evangelism (1958-1970) behind me, my teaching career at Avondale seemed promising. In 1976 I was also told that my appointment to the Research Centre was approved by White Estate (primarily) and the South Pacific Division (secondarily) as being like marriage, for life. The 22-point job description that was meant to guide me seemed a godsend. I was now half time in the Department of Theology and half time in the Research Centre, being paid for doing work that I loved. After all the celebration with Elder Paul Gordon and Mrs Jemison setting up and opening the Centre during February 1976 (see Milton Hook, “U.S. Research Worker in Australasia,” A.S. Jorgensen, “Ellen G. White Estate Secretary to Visit,” Alfred S. Jorgensen, “The Ellen G. White S.D.A. Research Centre,” “Research Centre Opened at Avondale,” Australasian Record, 16 February 1976, 1; 23 February 1976, 2; 3 May 1976, 8-9) the early years of my service were irenic but stimulating. So many Adventists seemed excited about the Research Centre and its possibilities.

I chose as the Centre’s secretary Mrs Eleanor Scale whose diligence and loyalty to her task and mine was impeccable. We valiantly tried to embrace the tens-of-thousand of pages of original materials under our care in print, photocopies and microform. The tens-of-thousands of pages of Ellen White letters and manuscripts were the most cherished resource, the Question and Answer File was valuable, as were the thousands of Document Files, except that soon a battery of new questions were being asked of us in person, by telephone and in letters. But even as significant a publication as Ronald Numbers Prophetess of Health (1976) seemed manageable. I went to the 1978 workshop in Washington, D.C., convened for White Estate headquarters staff and Research Centre directors, only to be further awed by the richness of Adventist heritage. While at the workshop we were told that a pastor in California was alleging that Ellen White used sources in her writing of The Desire of Ages (1898). Such a thing was “known” to be so impossible that our group passed the idea off as a figment of an irresponsible imagination.

All was not calm in the Australasian Church, however. By 1974 the battle lines were being drawn between loyalists who later dubbed themselves “Concerned Brethren” and Dr Desmond Ford, a friend of mine since 1950, now my departmental chairperson. I was a member of the South Pacific Division Biblical Research Committee that listened to the spirited exchange of two opposing sets of ideas about Righteousness by Faith: those fostered by Dr John Clifford and the Drs Russell and Colin Standish on the one hand, and those of Dr Ford on the other. Our verdict in support of Ford failed to endear us to the reactionary forces that were against him. The Palmdale Conference in California (1976) had real potential for solving the growing conflict, except it also seemed to lean toward Ford’s position on Righteousness by Faith and thus evoked more controversy. Always threatening for the church at the time were the effervescent activities of Robert D. Brinsmead. However, Ford’s transfer to Pacific Union College in California during the first half of 1977 was perceived by our Division president as a hopeful solution to Australasia’s problem: Ford would no longer seem like a big fish in a small pond.

By 1979 the Division officers were both concerned and optimistic; they decided to publish a book on the historical and theological issues under discussion that would put disputed matters to rest. Pastor Keith Parmenter, as president of the Division and chair of the Research Centre supervisory committee, had me appointed to write a chapter for the forthcoming book; it was to tell church members what they needed to know about Ellen White in terms of the contemporary discussion about her life and writings.

I had little time to work on the chapter before the end of the college year, and then I had a series of presentations to give in Fiji, for ministers. However, by devoting most of my holidays to the task, the first draft of my assignment was passed in at the nominated time, March 1980. The paper was entitled “Ellen White in the Eighties,” and it can be readily accessed (along with many of my papers, some of which are listed by date in “Ellen White and South Pacific Adventism: Retrospect and Prospect,” a paper presented at the Ellen White Summit, 2-5 February 2004, see pages 19-23), catalogued in the Document Files of the Research Centre and, in many cases, available on the CDs produced by the Centre.

I was quietly amazed that my chapter was not acknowledged, and the publishing project was abandoned without comment. Meanwhile, Desmond Ford had delivered his memorable 27 October 1979 Adventist Forum address at Pacific Union College and transferred to the church’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., to write his Glacier View document. I decided my task was to understand Ellen White in view of the swelling tide of new information that daily inundated my desk, so I wrote papers of various types that tried to locate her life and writings within a factual but constructive frame of reference. Ford had simply provided the spark that lit tinder-dry issues of the time; the consequent inferno in places like Australia and New Zealand seemed all-encompassing, for Ellen White as well as the Sanctuary doctrine.

Between 1976 and March 1980 the halo that Hedwig Jemison and Arthur White had placed on my head seemed secure, but thereafter it began slipping, increasingly. The chairperson of my supervisory committee was unable to spend even an hour digesting resources that were taking me years to understand, but he and his closest associate, Division secretary Ron Taylor confided they had a problem. The church’s ministers, teachers and members wrote to me for answers to their questions, and they wrote to the Division brethren for the same purpose. But the answers they received were not the same, in the eyes of the Division officers. I pointed out that the church had entrusted me with its memories and that I must be faithful to what the primary and other sources disclosed. Probably such an answer was inadequate; certainly it fuelled my leaders’ concerns.

The year 1982 filled me with new hope for a brighter future. Appointed as one of two South Pacific Division delegates to attend in Washington, D.C., the first International Prophetic Guidance Workshop, I felt that at last the Workshop had placed the essential data on the Adventist corporate desk. There is no need to repeat here the reports that I have written about this landmark event (see, for instance, sdanet.org/at issue), except to underline my deep disappointment when I was instructed from the Division office not to share its recorded discussions, written documents or my initial reports of the Workshop (note the diluted report, Arthur N. Patrick and Arthur N. Duffy, “Prophetic Guidance Workshop,” Australasian Record, 28 June 1982, 13). However, I felt a new surge of optimism when I was given about five hours to address the Victorian Conference ministers, Trans-Australian Union office personnel and others. An affirmative report (G.E. G[arne], “Understanding the Prophetic Gift More Fully,” Australasian Record, 16 October 1982, 3) seemed to indicate that it was possible to be both honest and affirmative with reference to Ellen White; at least that was the burden of the document from which I spoke, entitled “The Minister and the Ministry of Ellen White in 1982.” Pastor Robert Parr, president of the Greater Sydney Conference, reported to me that he had heard good reports of the September event in Victoria and wanted that repeated in Sydney during October. I did my best in the two hours allocated, but the last “Amen” was scarcely said before the telephones in Gordon and Wahroonga were ringing, reporting to the Trans-Tasman Union Conference and the South Pacific Division that my stance was unorthodox.

Earlier, the South Pacific Division had set up a small committee under the chairmanship of Pastor Ron Taylor to assess and approve papers that I wrote, but the only item that I recall being approved was a relatively short list of documents held by the Research Centre. I had also proposed that a Spirit of Prophecy Resource Committee be appointed to vet and pass on useful information to the church, and I was appointed as a member of the said committee. However, the task proved to be too delicate to handle effectively; a paper that I wrote took many weeks to be acknowledged and more valuable time to study and discuss. I was overjoyed when at last consensus was reached that the document was accurate. But, immediately that decision was made unanimously by the committee, a union president rose to his feet and in a forthright speech convinced the committee of peril, should these ideas become known by others than the members of the committee.[1] It was immediately agreed that only members of the committee would have access to the paper. (Eight years later, the essential ideas were summarised in my article, “Does our past embarrass us?” Ministry, April 1991, 7-10, currently available on the Avondale College website. Subsequently, a letter to the editor from Elder Joe Crews indicated that he had “never read a more dangerous and deceptive article in one of our magazines” during his 44 years in the ministry, see Ministry, August 1991, 2.)

Way back in May 1980 I had been a guest speaker at the Townsville (North Queensland) camp meeting, and was assigned to preach on the topic of the Sanctuary for the final Sabbath sermon. I accepted the task as a wonderful opportunity to draw a divided congregation together on the essentials of this great theme. The next week I was called to the Division office for extended questioning, focused not on what I had said but on what I had failed to say. By 1983, I had become rather accustomed to many hours of such interrogation in Wahroonga, often accompanied by urgings to resign. Therefore, it was hardly a surprise when Avondale’s principal, Dr James Cox asked me to be the College Registrar, beginning with the 1984 academic year. Sensing that a change of responsibilities was inevitable, I had already completed a Master of Literature in Australian religious history at the University of New England, thereby qualifying for PhD study in the same discipline at the University of Newcastle. The next thirty years would see my research and writing focus more particularly upon the field of Adventist Studies, in particular the life and writings of Ellen White.

Looking back, I remember the eight years, 1976-1983, as filled with exciting discoveries and escalating tensions. It was a huge disappointment at the end of 1983 to be ejected from a task that I fully accepted as being like marriage, for life. My principal regret is that my efforts to protect ministers, teachers and members threatened by termination of employment or disruption of fellowship were only sometimes successful, in part due to my inability to effectively share both data and the viable interpretation of information. The files of the Research Centre provide a rather diary-like account of how information surfaced, what its essentials were, and how the facts were perceived. Three potential responses are writ large in the story of Seventh-day Adventism in the South Pacific Division: neither reversion to the church’s tradition nor alienation from its heritage are indicated; only transformation of its tradition delivers an adequate response as fresh information is received and incorporated into the life and witness of believers. Hence, I cherish the contemporary (2012) climate of relative openness and comparative maturity that characterises the church that I love deeply and serve gladly.[2]

Arthur Patrick, 29 November 2012

ENDNOTES

“When memories exceed dreams, the end is near” (Thomas L. Friedman).

Abstract Ellen White Studies is a subset of the emerging discipline of Adventist Studies; it seeks to understand the life and writings of Ellen Gould White (1827-1915) in terms of all the known and potential data. Ellen White’s historic contribution to Seventh-day Adventism is being better understood since about 1970 when fresh questions began to be asked by researchers with increasing access to primary sources in addition to a growing number of secondary studies. This process replaced the certitude of the 1950s with the uncertainty of the 1970s and the conflict of the 1980s, until a new consensus began to develop during the 1990s. Currently, Adventists have an attractive opportunity to explore and express the relevance that Ellen White’s writings have for their lifestyle, teachings, identity and mission in Century 21.

Richard Osborn, president of Pacific Union College, writing in Adventist Review’s last issuefor 2007, cited “one of the most discussed books of the twenty-first century” and its view of “the flattened earth” that “empowers individuals through the synergy of the personal computer, the microprocessor, the Internet, and fibre optics.” The church of the future, Osborn suggests, will be increasingly “a flat church,” one that is “less vertical, more horizontal and collaborative in relationships.” It will demand leadership that adopts effectively “the role of a servant” and models “the way Jesus related to people.” Osborn applies his message with the help of Thomas Friedman’s warning: “In societies that have more memories than dreams, too many people are spending too many days looking backward.” Hence the arresting question: “Does your society have more memories than dreams or more dreams than memories?”[2]

Osborn asks, “What can we imagine for the future?” It is about the Adventist future that he enquires with this pertinent question. Segments of our church have developed a profound interest in specific aspects of the past. Note the energetic ministry of Glad Tidings Publishers (www.1888msc.org), the devoted efforts of the Adventist Pioneer Library project (www.aplib.org), the commitments of various “Historic Adventist” groups and the Standish brothers, the anti-Trinitarian and other impulses that effervesce in various parts of the world. The church we love is impacted by both constructive insights and recycled heresies such as Arianism and even panentheism. Far be it from any would-be Adventist historian to disparage the study of the history. But every emphasis on the past needs to be evaluated coherently in the light of all the available information.

An Altered Context

The church in Century 21 must perform this challenging evaluation within a context that has changed radically in just four decades. Until about 1970, the church’s leaders had a significant measure of control over the primary sources relating to Adventist heritage in general and the life and writings of Ellen White in particular. The major questions about Ellen White posed during the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century are well illustrated by two volumes. The first of these was written by Uriah Smith and trialled as articles in the Review and Herald before being published as a book (1868) that James White distributed widely. The second—a much larger tome—was written by Francis D. Nichol (1951).[3] Remarkably, spurred by a cluster of contributing factors from 1970 onward, it took only twelve years (that is, until 1982) to undermine the credibility of Nichol’s book. A huge volume of information, dumped unceremoniously on the church’s corporate desk, demonstrated the inadequacy of Nichol’s research. The mass of essentially fresh data was acknowledged as significant by the church at its first International Prophetic Guidance Workshop (1982), but the worldwide Adventist community is still in the process of fully embracing its implications.[4] Whereas before 1970 the processes that were developing Adventist theology could rely rather much on controlled documentation, now the earth is “flat” (to use Osborn’s term), with most of the essential information available to everyone at the press of a few computer buttons. Because of this, the Adventist future will be distinctly different from even the recent past, and a call for a fresh expression of servant leadership is appropriate.

Perhaps there is a need to be quite specific in contrasting the present state of Ellen White Studies with the way things were when many older Adventists were students at Avondale College. Back in 1950 and 1951 at the Australasian Missionary College, Russell and Colin Standish were two of my fellow students. A few months ago I completed an article (“Recent Tensions in Seventh-day Adventism,” available on the Avondale College website) that Russell Standish kindly read in draft form; he wrote to me about it on 27 February 2008, saying (in part): “I frequently pray for you that you will see that your present course has taken you far from the faith of your youth and far from the inspired words of both Scripture and the Spirit of Prophecy.”

I have nothing but gratitude for the prayers of both the Standish brothers up to the time of Russell’s tragic death. But I find it instructive to meditate on “the faith of my youth” with respect to the inspired writings of both Scripture and Ellen White. Of course today’s presentation gives attention only to the “red books,” since the development of biblical hermeneutics within Adventism is a related but separate subject.

The Ellen White of the SDA church at the beginning of the third quarter of the twentieth century is Russell and Colin Standish’s Ellen White still, but not mine. She offered an absolutely constant voice in a fast changing world. She was largely uninfluenced by the wider culture of her time and even (mostly) uninfluenced by her Adventist contemporaries. Hers was the definitive word on biblical history and chronology. Her writings gave Adventists the only fully reliable harmony of the four gospels. She told us the true history of the crust of the earth in a definitive manner, including the source of volcanoes. Her health writings, unlike those of all others, needed no revision. She used very few literary sources; what sources she did use were selected under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and thus were as authoritative as the visions that she recorded—in many pages spiced with numerous “I saw” statements. The literary beauty of her writings provided compelling evidence that she received direct, Divine inspiration. Her theology was without a flaw, despite the fact that growth and change characterised the movement with which she had a symbiotic relationship. In a word, Ellen White’s writings were what the Standish brothers identify as “inerrant in the autographs.”[5]

Not one of the statements in that last paragraph is sustainable in 2009 in the manner of the 1950s. My paper entitled “The Inspired and Inspiring Ellen White” (Part 2) notes five of the many potential examples of how documented evidence requires us to adjust the orthodoxy of the 1950s (see sdanet.org/atissue). The substantive question is, therefore, a very simple one: Will we tell the truth about Ellen White or will we seek to sustain the Ellen White of The Greatest of All the Prophets (2004), albeit in some modified form. I have wrestled long with the essence of that task, ever since it was overtly assigned to me by the leadership of the South Pacific Division in a letter written during the latter half of 1979. Initially that request from the church’s headquarters created a paper entitled Ellen White in the 80s; scores of other articles and papers have followed, seeking to detail the evidence and off sustainable interpretive comment.

Truth for Today

It may be helpful, therefore, to reflect on how we might “improve our light” (Ellen White’s term) in order to maintain the essentials of the faith of yesterday as “present truth” for today. There are some fundamental “givens” that undergird the process of understanding and applying Seventh-day Adventist faith. Seven of them may be worth listing at this point.

1. Jesus as “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6, NIV) is the prime focus of everything Adventist.

2. Scripture, the word of God, is truth (John 17:3) and our “only rule of faith and practice.”

3. At its core, Seventh-day Adventism is a quest to understand, apply and share the message of Scripture, “the truth as it is in Jesus.” Ellen White uses that expression 740 times (according to the index on the White Estate 2005 CD) and she does so in a variety of settings. We need to note the fact that (as is always the case) quite a number of the 740 statements are used more than once; that is, an identical statement may be repeated in more than one publication. But the import of this mass of statements is arresting indeed.

4. This truth grows in clarity as the church and individuals “walk with the Lord/In the light of His word” (“Trust and Obey” is how Hymn 590 describes the process). Rolf Pöhler has written a masterful study (the best, by far, but only the solo of our chorus) showing how that phenomenon operates in Christianity and Adventism.[6]

5. A central purpose of truth is to make us “wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (II Timothy 3:15). This point is so misunderstood that we might well pause on it for a moment.

The “science of salvation” relies upon revealed truth; its focus is upon Deity (God/Christ/Holy Spirit) in relation to humanity (our origin, nature and destiny). This revealed truth is at the centre of the message that the inspired Ellen White seeks to convey to us. Non-salvific truth is also important, but it relies principally upon the capacities that God has given us whereby human beings (made in the image of God) discover the realities that they classify (for instance) as mathematics, physics, geology, astronomy and a host of other branches of science. Where saving truth and human knowledge intersect, we often need supernatural assistance to define the relationships accurately. For instance, revelation discloses to us the reality of God as Creator; the purpose of God for human well-being; the conflict between good and evil, and so on. It is in such areas that Ellen White’s prophetic role has some of its greatest importance and most direct applicability to Adventist identity and mission.

6. Biblical truth is always understood and applied in a specific context; thus it is illumined by historical experience (as in Ellen White’s expression of the Great Controversy Theme or in her writings on education, health, mission, etc.).

7. Therefore, SDAs are called to be faithful to “present truth,” a term that Ellen White employs in 1,911 of the 38,963 times she uses the word “truth” in her published writings.

More About “Present Truth”

One of the remarkable aspects of Ellen White’s literary corpus is the way it creates a balancing tension between the past and the future. Take a statement that she wrote during the turbulent 1860s, the decade in which Adventists selected their denominational name, organised conferences and their General Conference, began more fully to “hear” the message of health reform and, with the American nation, experienced the horrors of Civil War.

Greater light shines upon us than shone upon our fathers. We cannot be accepted or honored of God in rendering the same service, or doing the same works, that our fathers did. In order to be accepted and blessed of God as they were, we must imitate their faithfulness and zeal,—improve our light as they improved theirs,—and do as they would have done had they lived in our day. We must walk in the light which shines upon us, otherwise that light will become darkness. Testimonies, vol. 1, 262.

Statements such as this could be multiplied readily, especially by the inclusion of those that advocate faithfulness to the concept of “present truth.” A seminal article by a New Testament exegete suggests that “the most striking characteristic of Adventism” is its quest for truth.[7] For Ellen White, our understandings must be continually honed in terms of fresh evidence and the ongoing guidance of God as we search the Scriptures. This is a demanding process that involves both unlearning and learning. It will never be complete on this earth and it will continue throughout eternity.[8]

Ellen White in the Adventist Past

This paper assumes at least a nodding acquaintance with but a sustained interest in Adventist history. Historically, Ellen White helped us coalesce after the Great Disappointment, identify and declare the four other landmark ideas that go with the Second Advent, structure our community, affirm practical emphases on health, education and world mission, better focus on Christ (both Advents, not just the Second), and avoid tempting aberrations (like holy flesh, pantheism and even panentheism—in the notable experience of Ellet J. Waggoner).[9] Her work is greatly illumined in terms of her relation to the Bible over against the patterns within other religious movements that sprang up in nineteenth-century North America. For instance, Joseph Smith offered new scriptures; Mary Baker Eddy gave her followers a “key” to the Scriptures; Charles Taze Russell’s movement flourished under the authority of two other leaders before it developed the teaching magisterium now known as the Watchtower Society. In contrast with each of these patterns of authority, Ellen White claimed she was simply “a lesser light” to lead us to “the greater light,” the Bible. Bert Haloviak’s paper on sdanet.org/atissue demonstrates the peril of requiring Ellen White to exercise exegetical control over Scripture. Recently George Knight described the constant temptation for Adventists to expect this exegetical authority from Ellen White.[10] By contrast, Gilbert Valentine describes the real Ellen White as one who valued the interaction of her spiritual gift with the spiritual gifts of the Adventist community, a matter so well illustrated by Prescott’s contribution. Alden Thompson applies the evidence together fruitfully on his voluminous website.[11]

So, we can summarise the big picture along the following lines. A symbiotic relationship developed between Ellen White (1827-1915) and Sabbatarian Adventism during the first seventy years after the Great Disappointment of 22 October 1844. Several recent studies (by Michael Campbell, Mark Pearce and Gilbert Valentine) infer the creativity yet complexity of the church’s ongoing relationship with Ellen White’s literary legacy during the early decades after her death.[12] By the middle of the twentieth century it was evident that she had helped Seventh-day Adventism develop from a tiny minority of Millerism that, after 1844, was suffused by great uncertainties, into a coherent movement that exemplified great assurance. However, the optimism of Adventism’s golden age of apologetics was eroded from 1970 as scholars and members asked fresh questions about Ellen White’s life and writings, and delved into newly-available archival resources to find the answers. The resulting controversy moderated during the 1990s; indeed, by 1999 the South Pacific Division (SPD) was able to create a strategy document that moved beyond the by-then-diminishing conflict of thirty years, implying the possibility of a more cohesive future.

An example of the fresh approaches trialled during the 1990s is a Trans-Tasman Union Conference initiative that explored the appropriate use of Ellen White’s writings.[13] Within the first decade of Century 21, there have been frequent indications that the church recognises it is essential to build a fresh appreciation for the relevance of Ellen White’s writings. Sabbatarian Adventism, birthed in the nineteenth-century, has become a world faith that is acutely conscious of an enormous task: heralding “the everlasting gospel” to “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” (see Revelation 14:6-7, KJV).[14] Now that we are under worldwide scrutiny by both religious and secular thinkers, a coherent sense of identity is even more crucial for the realisation of this demanding mission.

The Summit and the Coordinating Committee

The issue of relevance[15] lay behind the Ellen White Summit of 2004[16] and has influenced the agenda of the Ellen G. White Coordinating Committees that convene twice each year at the headquarters of the SPD. The minutes of the most-recent meetings (held 22 July 2008 and 18 February 2009) illustrate the committee’s ongoing attention to “a major challenge” that was aptly described during 2007:

The issue of the present and ongoing relevance of Ellen White’s writings and ministry is a major challenge for the Church. It was discussed at our recent meeting in the Ellen G. White Coordinating Committee, and the committee decided “to ask a small group of John Skrzypaszek (chair), Ray Roennfeldt, and Sally Hall to write a 2-3 pages succinct summary of the role of Ellen White today, containing points of contact with present culture” (E-mails, John Skrzypaszek to Arthur Patrick, 6 September and 8 November 2007).

The committee’s initiatives currently include the efforts of Sally Hall, a pastor in Coffs Harbour who is working in cooperation with the Field Secretary and the Adventist Media Network. Hall is listening to young people in her congregation and seeking to develop DVDs that address their interests. This process illustrates one of the many ways that the issue of Ellen White’s relevance is being addressed currently on various continents. It needs to be explicitly stated that all the observations made in this paper merely reflect aspects of a pervasive conversation that is occurring within the global Adventist community.[17]

Ellen White and “Present Culture”

A basic issue that we should address is the nature of “present culture.” The SPD initiatives embrace Australia, New Zealand and the island nations of the Pacific. Needs in the first two arenas are apparent; however, recent events in two island regions of the Pacific suggest that the dilemmas impacting the homelands since the 1980s are already appearing in the mission fields. Nor should we assume that even Australian and New Zealand cultures are the same in all respects.

Present culture in both Australia and New Zealand is multi-faceted, not least because of its growing ethnic diversity,[18] a matter that Ronald Lawson has explored well in Europe and the United States, and reported in cogent journal articles. It may be helpful to identify the many important characteristics of contemporary culture, perhaps noting salient features such as the following:

1. There is a passion for family history.

2. There is an unprecedented focus on health and physical well-being.

3. There is a sustained interest in personalities.

We might, then, apply these and other segmented but powerful impulses to the task in hand. Some Adventists can be interested in Ellen White through the narrative of her role in the Adventist family. An article, “Ellen White: Mother of the Church in the South Pacific,” Adventist Heritage 16:3 (Spring 1993), 30-40 illustrates this approach in a limited way. Further possibilities along this line are many and they are attractive.

For Ellen White’s role in Adventist health or lifestyle, we need to adopt a very studied but non-traditional approach if we are to connect with present culture. A few of the many ways in which we might proceed are intimated in my sdanet/atissue article, “Ellen White: Pioneer of Adventist Health Emphases” that is currently being revised under the stimulus of many e-mail communications between Don McMahon (Melbourne) and T. Joe Willey (Loma Linda). This task is part of my broader preparation for a conference in Maine and several presentations that will be delivered in West Coast locations during October and November 2009.[19]

The Ellen White Summit (2004) spawned a series of articles by well-known Adventists, reflecting upon their personal journeys with Ellen White—a theme that John Skrzypaszek is reapplying with increasing success. These personalised narratives have not yet made it into print. It is still my hope that the benefits of this initiative will be made widely available, at least in an electronic form. The effectiveness of such approaches may well be determined by the accuracy of our perceptions of present culture and the variety of ways we apply such insights. Culture is so pluralistic that it challenges us to be creative in finding ways to interact with various age groups, educational levels, employment types, and so on. One size does not fit all.

Now that the church has such effective Internet options at the level of the SPD and its various entities (see, for instance, “RECORD website receives virtual makeover,” Record, 21 February 2009, 7), we can more realistically address the needs and interests of various groups within our community of faith. A cluster of Record articles seem to indicate a serious interest in research relating to Ellen White in the context of Adventist history. Rick Ferret’s doctoral thesis (“Exploring the Adventist journey,” 3 March 2007, 11-12) is a case in point; more recently Record has noticed major studies by Michael Campbell and Woodrow Whidden (24 January and 7 February 2009). But our “Official Paper” can only be expected to achieve a very small part of what is needed or what is possible. Perhaps it may be fruitful to select a small group of qualified volunteers to referee articles for a dedicated section of the church’s website that could function as a stimulating resource for Adventist ministers, teachers and members. While any specific interest-group will be relatively small, over time the initiative could have an important trickle-down effect.

Relevance: Some Further Options

A cluster of rather random suggestions may be worth considering. Probably the most important mistake the South Pacific Division made during the Ellen White crisis that began in 1970 (and required much of two decades to move beyond destructive controversy) was to fear, curtail, condemn or ignore serious research. As a case in point Ronald Numbers, the first trained historian to seriously explore Ellen White as a health reformer, received few accolades from his community of faith. The church was aghast that his research showed we could not provide him, at that stage, with a viable concept of Ellen White’s inspiration, in view of his findings. So, we ejected him from fellowship. However, thirty-two years later, with the publication of a third edition of his book (2008), an extensive literature illustrates the fact that Numbers, more than any other author, has “not only contributed to a reevaluation of White within Adventism but elevated her from a virtually unknown historical actor to a minor star on the stage of American religious history.”[20]  In the light of this experience, the church needs to foster a relationship with graduate students and PhD candidates at Avondale and other South Pacific institutions. We can now read with pleasure and profit the thesis by Mark Pearce contextualising issues that effervesced in the years immediately after Ellen White’s death; a number of other relevant studies are in process.

Conferences on a Division-wide level are expensive. But the church has personnel able to travel to local conferences, city or regional events that could be innovative and beneficial. The Questions on Doctrine conference at Andrews University (2007) was conceived and birthed by volunteers; presenters and attendees mostly paid their own way (over 200 of them). Aspects of that venture indicate possibilities the church might tap in terms of its present agenda.

The church needs to think strategically and grasp opportunities in a timely fashion. For instance, Graeme Bradford was able to identify and express (in three books) a towering need to present the real Ellen White.  There have been cautions from the Biblical Research Institute (BRI) of the General Conference, Ellen G. White Estate, individual Andrews University professors and Ministry. But, with the recent completion of Michael Campbell’s dissertation, the church has a new opportunity to move forward in understanding. Of course some details in Bradford’s three books required detailed assessment. It is one of the roles of effective publishing to expose data and potential interpretations for careful analysis by the community at large. Undue delay in any such process may militate against the effectiveness of the outcome: intensified apathy on the part of many believers is likely to impact the thought and mission of the church even more profoundly than actual controversy.  This lesson was writ large in the wake of the 1982 International Prophetic Guidance Workshop, a matter that I address briefly in the two papers entitled “The Inspired and Inspiring Ellen White” published on sdanet.org/atissue.

We might fruitfully ask a series of what if questions. What if we engaged young people more intentionally in the task, as in the Redbooks drama produced recently at Pacific Union College? Or, with less risk: What if we intentionally listened to larger numbers of representative young people, building on Sally Hall’s initiative? What if we engaged other groups, in line with the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers? What if we digested and applied Pastor Gary McCary’s sermon from 22 September 2007 entitled “Ellen,” tracing “his experience in understanding EGW—from Sister White, to Mrs. White, and now to Ellen—affirming that she made a major contribution in establishing the SDA church but that she was human, very human, neither inerrant nor infallible” (AAF Newsletter, San Diego Chapter, November 2007, 2). What if we produced a single feature article or pamphlet (like the South Pacific and North American Signs series on Wycliffe, Huss, Luther and Tyndale, 2007) to present Ellen White briefly but winsomely?

Any short presentation such as this can suggest only a very few of the significant opportunities available to us in the present tense. Our initiatives may well be enhanced and even multiplied if we discuss Ellen White as relevant in terms of both who for (touched on briefly, above)and what for.

Relevant for what? Selected examples

At the heart of Seventh-day Adventism are teachings that seek to articulate major biblical themes, such as those expressed in the church’s 28 Fundamental Beliefs. The long history of these doctrines offers fruitful insights into their contemporary significance.[21]

The doctrine of the Trinity is a case in point. We can now see clearly why so many of Adventism’s co-founders and pioneers were at least semi-Arian in the beliefs, and why it took almost a century for an Adventist form of Trinitarianism to prevail.  The same data help us to be aware of the reasons why currently there is worldwide opposition to the doctrine of the Trinity, as well as to discern how this divisive impulse may be counteracted.

The evidence suggests that the doctrine of the Trinity illustrates aptly Ellen White’s role in relation to Adventist teachings. Scripture for Adventists in Century 21 is exactly as it was defined in A Word to the ‘Little Flock’” on30 May 1847: “our only rule of faith and practice.” In recent years, sociologists have helped us better understand Ellen White’s role in legitimising doctrinal change.[22] About three decades ago, Ron Graybill initiated a discussion of Ellen White’s role in such matters, employing the Scriptures as “normative” and her role as “formative.” Her writings are highly relevant for any minister who wants to lead her/his flock beyond destructive conflict in relation to the doctrine of the Trinity.

The development of the Adventist understanding of mission again illustrates the ongoing relevance of Ellen White’s writings. When the broadside “TO THE LITTLE REMNANT SCATTERED ABROAD” was published in Portland (Maine) on 6 April 1846, anti-mission was still the stance of “Little Flock” who deemed that “all the wicked world” was rejected by God. By 1851 this “Shut Door” doctrine was being replaced by an “Open Door” that first invited the children of Millerites, then those who had not heard Miller’s message, and then representatives of other nations resident in the United States—to heed the Advent message. Further development during the 1860s laid a basis for John Nevins Andrews in 1874 to be the first official overseas missionary of the young movement. Gottfried Oosterwal suggests that 1950 marks a point at which Adventists were asking a fresh question: Why should some people hear the gospel twice when so many have never heard it once? Many of us remember when the term “Global Mission” arrested our attention during the 1980s. To make sense of this development from anti-mission to Global Mission in connection with the role of Ellen White is to remove obstacles from the path of effective understanding.

Although the centennial history of Sydney Adventist Hospital (2003) is a coffee-table book, serious historical research lies back of its popular-level narrative. One of the convictions that descended upon me as I read the primary documentation was that Ellen White was able to open her spiritual family intelligently to the benefits of scientific medicine, contrasting with the pattern of another nineteenth-century health reformer, Mary Baker Eddy. This laid an ideological basis for the 168 sanitariums and hospitals, plus 442 clinics and dispensaries that now offer their services to million of patients each year. Elsewhere I have suggested that in a similar way Ellen White opened Adventism to the challenges and rewards of accredited education. Studies of our worldwide health-care and educational systems demonstrate Ellen White’s dual relevance as a founder (in the there-and-then) and sustainer (in the here-and-now).[23]

The doctrine of revelation/inspiration is crucial for the future of Christianity in general as well as for the denominated church we love and serve. We are a hundred years past the rise of Fundamentalism in its current form. When new information deluges a community of faith, especially when uncertainty prevails in the surrounding culture, the fearful carry what Morris West describes aptly as “a heavy load of unexamined certainties.” For some, faithfulness to received understandings of the past (reversion) is the norm, irrespective of any evidence that may be newly available. (I explore these matters at some length in a paper delivered at the Questions on Doctrine conference last October and in the Journal of Religious History article mentioned above.) Perhaps we should clearly state the fact that reversionists are God’s people facing the stress of uncertainty.

Many reversionists that I know are deeply sincere. Colin Standish is one of the most committed of them. During January 2008 I spent a couple of hours with him, just before he flew back to Hartland. I had wondered if there was something that I had missed during our 58 years of interaction. So I asked many questions. His reflections demonstrated clearly to me, yet again, that he has almost no knowledge of what church leaders have given the Adventist world in the chain of Ellen G. White/SDA Research Centres that serve the various geographical sections of the planet. He is honestly and deeply committed to the 1950s Ellen White, a construct of pious imagination. This Ellen White is about as historically accurate as the Catholic picture of Mary. She is not the Ellen White of Arthur G. Daniells, W.W. Prescott, William Clarence White, William A. Spicer, H. Camden Lacey and a host of more recent, careful students who have tried to embrace all the evidence that is now so freely available. Such dedicated believers as the Standish brothers have sacrificed millions of Adventist dollars to their cause and are “heartbroken” (Russell’s term) by reason of their perception of what they identify as “the ills of God’s Church.”

For other Adventists, cognitive dissonance is so painful that they reject the faith of the community whenever the dissonance becomes acute. There are many of these folk in Australia and New Zealand but they are both more in number and more visible in the United States. Both these responses (reversion and alienation) can be tabulated unmistakably as powerful impulses that have been operative within our church, during the past forty years in particular.

By contrast, the transformationist response beckons us winsomely. Note the five examples cited in “The Inspired and Inspiring Ellen White” (Part 2), taken together (many others might be added fruitfully), point toward answers to some of the most persistent questions currently on the Adventist corporate desk, such as: How did Ellen White do her work? How does this historical understanding show the ways in which she experienced growth and change? How did she relate to history (note the insights of “Willie” White, Robinson, Peterson, Harder, Graybill, McAdams and many others)? What does the demonstration of the ways she used the writings of others teach us about her inspiration (note the instructive input of Bryan Ball when, as a faculty member at Newbold College, he explored the literary context of Ellen White’s writings while she was in Britain/Europe)? Again in this context, what does the way she valued her literary assistants teach us? And the way she engaged specialists like Prescott to help clarify issues and revise her books? Further: What were the ways in which she related to Scripture? Cherished the spiritual gifts of the community of faith within which she worshipped and ministered? And so on.[24]

Conclusion

Ellen White’s relevance for contemporary Adventist life and thought emerges naturally from an accurate understanding of her life and writings. She does not need defending, she simply needs accurate understanding in the light of all the evidence: biblical, historical, theological, sociological and so on.

When, during the 1920s, Seventh-day Adventists retreated into the Fundamentalist camp, they longed for the continued security Ellen White had helped them develop after the Great Disappointment. So, gradually but increasingly, they elevated Ellen White’s writings to a very high position as the all-inclusive, authoritative encyclopedia of Adventist faith and practice. With a lot of help from other sterling leaders, Australian Francis Nichol reshaped Uriah Smith’s 1868 apologetic for Ellen White and put to flight the alien armies of her critics (1951). But the ink was scarcely dry on Nichol’s tome before new evidence eroded the foundations of the defensive wall he built so painstakingly; his work is now an Adventist equivalent of the Berlin Wall.

Ellen White is to be understood, first of all, as a Christian with a deep interest in the called people of God that we refer to as Jews. As a Christian, she nurtured a lifetime engagement with the formation, de-formation, re-formation, and consummation of the church. Next she was a Methodist with an abiding concern for John Wesley’s New Testament (primitive) Christianity, evangelicalism, and health reform. But Ellen White is also a Millerite, with a distinctive interest in the Second Advent. Finally, she is an archetypical Adventist of the nineteenth century, meaning her ultimate passion was for “the truth as it is in Jesus” that she expressed so well in the series of books published during her “decade of Christ,” following the 1888 General Conference.

It may seem trite to quote yet again what may be Ellen White’s best-known sentence: “We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history” (Life Sketches, 196).The history of Seventh-day Adventism demonstrates that we have done quite a bit of forgetting and that such memory-loss has brought dire consequences. In an article that is due for publication in the near future, Fritz Guy (see footnote 8, above) includes an appendix that demonstrates Ellen White’s attitude to both the un-learning and the learning processes with which the church must engage, constantly. This paper suggests that the continuing relevance of her writings might be explored fruitfully in terms of the part-paragraph cited above, from the first volume of Testimonies for the Church. Its simple message is that we should diligently “improve our light,” now.

Appendix: Notes for Further Consideration

A few suggestions may be appropriate for the church and its ministry to discuss, as potential action steps in the near future.

1. Consider again the value of a mature focus on Adventist history and the light this discipline throws on present dilemmas (for example, note the significance of the 1919 and 1982 conferences), in terms of the 1999 “strategy” and the essence of the presentations given at the 2004 Ellen White Summit.

2. Offer our ministers, teachers, and members a short, illustrated, accurate overview of Ellen White’s life and writings. (If we can do that in the Australian and the American Signs for major Christian reformers in 1,500 words, we ought to be able to do it for Ellen White in less than three thousand words!)

3. Study and apply George Knight’s and Gilbert Valentine’s recent articles that further explicate the Adventist struggle to be true to Scripture and Ellen White’s inspiration. Then we must move from the consideration of historical understanding to a focus on present duty and continuing opportunity. The reflective stance of Alden Thompson is helpful in this context.

4. Identify how an enhanced use of the Internet may better present Adventist history in general, and Ellen White’s life and writings, in particular. Note, for example, sdanet.org/atissue for the text of illustrative papers and note how the editors enhance some of them with links to relevant sources.

5. Engage the range of disciplines and specialists implied in the 1980 Biblical Research Institute/White Estate vision statement as we move into the immediate future.

6. Ask the church’s educational administrators how they might need support as they lead the teachers in the three levels of Adventist education who meet daily the scientific challenges that still too often cause shipwreck of faith.

7. Think laterally about how we might embrace, again, at least some of those individuals who were ejected from our communion by the centrifugal forces that operated so powerfully in earlier times, such as the 1980s.

By 1982, the main body of evidence that now enables Adventists to understand coherently the life and writings of Ellen White was already on the Adventist corporate desk. Currently we can better understand the forces that opted for reversion and alienation before, during and after that time. We cannot for a moment afford to deny evidence; we must faithfully interpret it, remembering well “the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.”

Probably all the above is rather well known to most leaders and ministers.  We might consider its implications fruitfully in relation to a cluster of matters that are on the corporate Adventist desk. A frame of reference is provided by the studies cited in the “Recent Tensions in Seventh-day Adventism” article (cited above). The intent will be to rejoice in the fruitage of Ellen White’s spiritual gift as we engage the spiritual gifts of the community that we cherish. The church might discuss such matters as the following (each of which needs a separate article to unpack its full potential).

1. Health. Let’s take the use of salt, as one of a thousand examples. Cf. Fraser (a New Zealander at Loma Lind University), Terry Butler and ARI, along with “Does Salt Affect Blood Pressure?” Adventist Review, 24 January 2008, 16.

2. Christian history. Note the content of Paul Landa’s teaching and the emphasis of the series he fostered “Great Disappointment, Greater Hope.”

3. Millerism. Note Gary Land on Everett Dick. Ellen White was a participant in Millerism. The study of the movement has gone through three stages. We now see the issues far more clearly, not least in the light of Kai Arasola’s dissertation.

4. Technology. See the Osborn AR article cited above.

5. The interpretation of Genesis. Laurence Turner (the text), Fritz Guy (theological meaning), Lynden Rogers (science). Cf. “Disagreeing Faithfully,” Adventist Review, 28 June 2007, 8-11.

6. The interpretation of Leviticus: Roy Gane, note Jenkins.

7. The interpretation of Hebrews: Young, Johnsson, Thiele. Not an Adventist tract but a New Testament one, with a profound message for Adventism.

8. The interpretation of Revelation: Jon Paulien and Graeme Bradford.

9. The doctrine of inspiration. Don McAdams, Bert Haloviak, Gilbert Valentine, Alden Thompson, Ray Roennfeldt and many others re Ellen White.

9. Adventist identity: the Bible in the end-times. Contrast the three religious movements noted above, the seven-volume SDA Bible Commentary, and the Ellen White who was open to the spiritual gifts of the community she served.

To follow along these lines will engage us with the Ellen White who helped Adventists  move from the limiting Shut Door concept toward that of Global Mission, who embraced the possibilities of the new translation of the Bible that occurred in her day, utilised the new-fangled technology of calligraphs (typewriters) when they became available, travelled by car after a lifetime using horse-drawn vehicles (see AR 17 January 2008, 23-25). But, most of important of all, we will be in tune with the Ellen White who directed us to the Bible in terms of “present truth.”

My wife of fifty years makes the best apple bread in the world. She goes to the same supermarket as others to buy ground grain, sweetening, apples and spices. The eggs are from her own free-range hens. But in the insightful mixing and cooking, the ingredients are transformed into a nourishing, tasteful loaf.

Adventism is a “loaf” with which the Lord wants to nourish Christianity and facilitate its mission in these last days. Adventists use the same essential ingredients (especially the Scriptures) as other Christians do. We also have a distinctive flavouring: the specific ministry of one who directed us not to herself, but to the light of Scripture. There are powerful impulses within our church that press us to make Ellen White’s writings into a new scripture. Others want her to be a “key” to the Scriptures. Others demand a teaching magisterium that will interpret for all the rest of us both the Bible and her writings (in contrast to Osborn’s concept of flatness that the Protestant Reformers described as “the priesthood of all believers”). The integrity of Adventism in the Western world now (as will soon be the case in the rest of the world also) depends considerably on the faithfulness and maturity of the church’s response (servant leadership) in view of these complex challenges.

Arthur Patrick, 10 March 2009, posted 29 November 2012

This paper was prepared for a group of about thirty associate degree students who were undertaking the subject “Seventh-day Adventist History and Ministry of Ellen White.” Since it was written in late February and early March 2009, for inclusion on a CD of reference materials that the students would use, it lacked the usual level of scrutiny that my papers receive before they become public. If any matter is unclear or if further documentation is needed, the reader is invited to contact me by e-mail: arthur.patrick@bigpond.com. The entire paper should be read as a footnote to the pamphlet “Adventist Studies: An Annotated Introduction for Higher Degree Students,” May 2006, revised and re-titled in 2009 and placed on the Avondale College website.

[1] The word “contemporary” in the title of this paper is an important descriptor. During the turbulence of an earlier era, I wrote a much longer paper entitled “The Minister and the Ministry of Ellen White in 1982” that also attempted to meet the strictures of being “contemporary.” While little within the 1982 paper requires revision in 2009 and its content offers data that inform the present discussion of Ellen White, the two papers are vastly different. It is important to recognise that this presentation assumes an understanding of previous history rather than restating that history in detail. Therefore, the reader may choose to consult a number of the articles and papers listed in “Ellen White and South Pacific Adventism: Retrospect and Prospect,” 5 February 2004, the paper I presented at the Ellen White Summit, available on the CD: “Adventist Heritage Lecture Notes, Database and Resources,” see “Section E – Important Documents, Patrick-Arthur Papers,” Ellen G. White/SDA Research Centre, Avondale College. An earlier article, “Does our past embarrass us?” Ministry, April 1991, 7-10, offers a brief historical overview that was updated by “Ellen White in the 1990s,” a summary article available on sdanet.org/at issue.

For the past year, Signs of the Times monthly magazines in Australia and the United States have been running articlcs on the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) and the Beatitudes, the “blessings” with which Jesus opened the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). My task has been to write very short analyses of exactly how each Commandment or Beatitude fits into the patterns of biblical thought.

There is no need to post these series of articles on this website, since with the help of Google my name and Signs can be accessed readily. However, below is my short meditation on the Sixth Commandment, one example of the many that try to indicate exactly what the Bible says.

That is the Adventist task: to focus on what the Bible said in the there and then before we make any attempt to ask what the Bible means in the here and now. In other words exegesis precedes interpretation, always.

To exegete a passage of Scripture is to lead out its meaning. It help to give attention to the original languages in which the text was written (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek), to closely examine the syntax, the context and the history that surrounds the text and its interpretation. Then we do well to explore what the rest of the Bible says on this same theme. Such processes get us ready to construct an understanding of what God wants to say to us in our time and place. The enormous challenge is for us to do that, seriously, for every verse from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22.

So here is one short attempt, but remember that you can easily find many others.

“Thou shalt not kill,” the four words many Christians learned as Exodus 20:13 from the King James Version of the Bible are better translated in such versions as the New International: “You shall not murder.” Even a modern dictionary aids our understanding; for instance The Macquarie Dictionary offers a legal definition of murder as “the unlawful killing of another human being with malice aforethought.”

The Old Testament regarded human life as so sacred that, in instances where it was ruthlessly taken, capital punishment was appropriate. In fact, God demands of each of us “an accounting for the life” of other persons. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man” (Genesis 9:5,6).

However, in the teachings of Jesus, the Sixth Commandment is vastly extended. In his best-known discourse, the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus declared: “You have heard that is was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment” (Matthew 5:21).

The tragic consequences of anger and “malicious forethought” are writ large in the Scriptures, beginning with the story of Cain, the first murderer (Genesis 4:2-12). But God wants us to do more than cherish the physical lives of other persons; he wants us to foster effective relationships. If we love even our enemies (see Matthew 5:44), there will never be a reason for violence.

Christianity cherishes “the word of God” that “judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). Such an exacting standard must ever be interpreted in the light of the Good News that Jesus Christ offers the only remedy for human frailty: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Arthur Patrick, 4 November 2012