Memory, Meaning & Faith

2012 Seminary Scholarship Symposium: "Reception of Ellen White’s Trinitarian Statements by Her Contemporaries (1897–1915)"

Presentation

Denis Kaiser, Ph.D. student in Adventist Studies and Historical Theology at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary in Berrien Springs, MI, presented his research on the topic: “The Reception of Ellen White’s Trinitarian Statements by Her Contemporaries (1897–1915).” 

Introduction

Kaiser pointed out that various scholars had already done historical research on the semi-Arian position of the early Seventh-day Adventists, the development to the Trinitarian position, and Ellen White’s role in that developmental process. Researchers who had looked at Ellen White’s writings paid primarily attention to the content of her Trinitarian statements and the authenticity of the original handwritten and typed manuscripts containing her own interlineations. What has not been done so far and what Kaiser aimed to do through his research is to focus on how Ellen White’s contemporaries received her Trinitarian statements during her own lifetime. The study examined the reception and use of her two famous statements that (a) the Holy Spirit is “the third person of the Godhead” and (b) there are “three living persons in the heavenly trio.”

2012 Seminary Scholarship Symposium: "A Theology of Music Among Sabbatarian Adventists, 1849-1863"

 

Presentation

Professional musician David Williams, Ph.D. student in Church History at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary in Berrien Springs, MI presented his research paper with the title: "A Theology of Music Among Sabbatarian Adventists, 1849-1863". 

 

Methodology

Williams examined the writings and hymnbook publications of the Sabbatarian Adventists from 1849-1863 to derive their theology of music. In order to demonstrate their theology of music, he sought to a) demonstrate the value of music among Sabbatarian Adventists through their prolific hymn publication, b) show from their writings theologies of true and false music, and c) present their belief about music and its role in the Christian life. 

Leaning on Quentin Skinner's (*1940-) teaching, that historians must begin by seeing things their way, Williams studied the development of the Sabbatarian Adventist theology of music without placing the music within the known categories of systematic theology. Neither did he want to disregard the notion of a theology of music alltogether. Starting to see things their way, his purpose was not to classify music according to our modern theological systems, but rather to describe the meaning of music in terms in which these early Adventists understood it.

They did not use the phrase theology of music, but they however did discuss music in highly theological terms. Williams' thesis is that music was not ancillary among Sabbatarian Adventists, but rather, they demonstrated a theology of music that was central to their life and eschatological hope. 

 

Adventists and Ecumenism: The Good and the Bad

By Dr. Nicholas Miller (Department of Church History, SDA Theological Seminary, Andrews University)

• This article renders the response of Dr. Nicholas Miller to Dr. M. Kinnamon's address "The Ecumenical Movement and Why You Should Be Involved" at the Seminary Scholarship Symposium, February 2, 2012 at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Andrews University, in Berrien Springs, MI. 
• M. Kinnamon is the former General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA. A summary of Kinnamon's address can be found here. 
• N. Miller is professor at the SDA Theological Seminary and director of the International Religious Liberty Institute. 
• Please note: Since Miller responded to Kinnamon directly, terms like "you/your" are directed at Kinnamon, not at the audience and not at the readers of this blog. 

 

Adventists and Ecumenism: The Good and the Bad

A Response to Dr. Michael Kinnamon

Thank you, Dr. Kinnamon, for your challenge to our complacent and even lazy thinking about interchurch fellowship. As Adventists, we all too often show apathy towards other Christians and their churches, and mentally justify it on vague theological grounds, such as “standing for the truth” or avoiding “compromise.”

But all too often it is simply an unwillingness to move beyond the familiar and the predictable of our comfort zones. You have challenged us to think carefully about our view of God’s church, in both its visible and invisible aspects. We need this challenge, because in many Adventist circles, “ecumenical” has become a dirty word.    

Caution is needed on this topic, but too many of us throw the baby out with the bathwater. There is, I believe, a positive ecumenism, and a problematic ecumenism. I would like to explore both the positive and the problematic in reacting to your paper.   

Are Children Born Sinners?

 By Edyta Jankiewicz, Ph.D. cand.*

 

Although Adventists reject a purely Augustinian conception of original sin, the official teaching of the church affirms that Adam’s sin “resulted in the condition of estrangement from God in which every human being is born. This estrangement involves an inherent tendency to commit sin.”[1] This must, of necessity, include children. Despite much discussion regarding the nature of humanity, however, little of the contemporary Adventist debate has pertained directly to children; thus, Adventism does not have a complete or systematic theology of the nature of children.

2011 Ellen White and Current Issues Symposium: "The Early Translation of Ellen G. White Books into Spanish"

Presentation

Glúder Quispe, currently a Ph.D. candidate in Adventist Studies at the SDA Theological Seminary, and a native from Peru, shed light on early translations of Ellen White into Spanish and the role Eduardo F. Forga played in this process.* He limited his research mainly to the years between the 1890s and 1915, the year in which Forga (as well as E. White) passed away. 

Translation from White's Books into Spanish from the 1890's to 1907. Quispe pointed to the important role that the literature work played in Adventist missions (Matthew 28:19-20 and Revelation 14:6) in every new global field. The first impulse to translate Adventist books into Spanish for the mission work in South America came from the European book committee. The first book published in Spanish was Patriarcas y profetas (Patriarchs and Prophets) by E. G. White in the year 1893. In the same year a group of missionaries arrived in Mexico and helped in the establishing of a medical mission and a school. In 1896 the first Adventist magazine in Spanish, El amigo de la verdad (The Friend of the Truth) with Dan T. Jones (1855-1901) as an editor, began to be published there. Articles by Ellen White and others started to follow soon. Other book projects were planned.

In 1897, G. W. Caviness (1825-1923) joined that group, after having worked as an SDA representative in an interdenominational committee to revise the Spanish translation of the Bible in Mexico City. After Jones' death in 1901 he became the next editor of El amigo de la verdad, and he worked  25 years in Mexico, translating also books and periodicals for the Spanish field.

2011 Ellen White and Current Issues Symposium: "The Captain Goes To Church"

Presentation

James R. Nix, director of the Ellen G. White Estate at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, was the first presenter after the devotional. He took the audience back to a series of events that happened in 1899 and that were almost unknown for several decades.*

On February 15, 1899, the 33rd General Conference Session of Seventh-day Adventists opened in South Lancaster, Massachusetts. According to a letter of M. C. Wilcox to Ellen White nothing important happened during the first two weeks, but this should change soon with the arrival of Elder Frank H. Westphal and his accompanying guest, Captain Henry Norman. Westphal, a 41-year old missionary to Argentina and official delegate from South America, had met Captain Norman on a ship going from Southampton, England to New York City.

Immediately after their arrival, Captain Norman recognized Mrs. S. M. I. Henry who was sitting on the side of the GC Session platform. Conversing with each other he told her that he had seen her several years earlier at a series of her lectures for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in Washington, D.C.; she had been the national evangelist for the WCTU. After learning that she had been a Methodist before becoming an Adventist, Norman said that he had a Methodist background too, but was discontent already for years with his denomination. Mrs. Henry handed him a pamphlet of hers, "How the Sabbath Came to Me," and got to know from him that he considered the way of meeting Elder Westphal and coming to the GC Session as providential, because he felt like being in the presence of the people of God.

2011 Ellen White and Current Issues Symposium: Devotional

2011 Ellen White and Current Issues Symposium

Every year the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, in association with the Center for Adventist Research and the Ellen G. White Estate hosts an Ellen White and Current Issues Symposium in order to highlight current research and discuss new questions relating to her work and ministry. This year, on March 28, 2011, is the seventh such symposium (download the program (PDF) here). In the following days, Memory, Meaning & Faith will give summaries of the proceedings by our web editor, Angelika Kaiser*.

 

Devotional

Dwight K. Nelson, Senior Pastor of the Pioneer Memorial Church of Seventh-day Adventists, on the Campus of Andrews University in Berrien Springs, MI, opens this year's Ellen White Symposium with a devotional entitled "The Gift".

The Fruits. After reading Matthew 7:15-20, Nelson pointed to a survey by pollster George Barna on authors which pastors consider as most influential in their library and life. The surveyed pastors under 40 championed, among John Ortberg, Thom Rainer and others Ellen White as one of the most influential authors. - Just recently (March 17, 2011), USA Today published an article on "Adventist's back-to-basics faith" in which interviewed professor of Fuller Theological Seminary Daniel Shaw utters his astonishment on the growth of Adventism. - The Christian Science Monitor's article from November 15, 2010 entitled "For real education reform, take a cue from the Adventists" deals with the role, the Adventist holistic educational system could play as a model for educational reform. Nelson pointed to these examples as to "good fruits" of the ministry of Ellen G. White.

Prophets and Pastors

  

Who should lead the church? For most Christians, the answer is obvious. Those who have been duly appointed, - the pastors, priests, ministers - are the visible leaders of the church. But it was not always that simple. There are periods of church history when the church also had apostles and prophets, who had not been appointed by men but called directly by God.

The early Christianity and early sabbatarian Adventism are two movements that were led in part by prophets. In early Christianity, Didache reflects a situation where it was possible if not common for there to be more than one prophet in a local congregation. By contrast, early Adventism came to recognize the ministry of just one prophet, Ellen G. White.

As illustrated by the expulsion of the Montanists and Ellen White's years of exclusion from the Review and Herald, prophets and pastors do not always get along. There is a tension between the type of authority they have that can lead to conflicting motives and goals in their church leadership.

Arminianism and Adventism: Soteriological Synergism And Its Sorrounding Seductions

Barry Callen presented "Soteriological Synergism and its Sorrounding Seductions," which was drawn from his concerns regarding the new fundamentalisms. He defines fundamentalism as looking at truth in a simple, uncomplicated way that demands straightforward obedience. By contrast, he looks at orthodoxy like riding a bull, holding onto both horns, knowing that the truth lies in the middle. You can paddle a canoe on one side, but won't get where you're wanting to go.

Callen does not agree with following theological statments by periods. He believes "Jesus is raised" should be followed by a exclamation point. On the other hand, "I am saved" should be followed by a comma. Calvin's mistake was to follow "God is sovereign" with a period.

So while salvation is all of God, (following the statment with a comma), is salvation also in some important sense our work? Is the clearly unconditional to be followed by a condition?

Arminianism and Adventism: Seventh-day Adventism, Semi-Pelagianism, And Overlooked Topics In Adventism's Soteriology

George Knight's paper, "Seventh-day Adventism, Semi-Pelagianism, and Overlooked Topics in Adventism's Soteriology: Moving Beyond Missing Links and Toward a More Explicit Understanding," addressed Roger Olson's claim that “Mormons and Seventh-day Adventists have tended to promote Semi-Pelagian views of salvation, although the latter have been moving more toward orthodox Protestant Christianity in the second half of the twentieth century” (The Mosaic of Christian Belief) Is Olson right or wrong? The answer is yes.

George Knight limited the focus of his presentation to the 20th century official Adventist statements and representative books. He began by defining some basic terms:

• Sin: lack of conformity to God's law in act, disposition, or state
• Original Sin: Transmission of guilt or inheritance of fallen nature
• Total Depravity: Sin has affected every last aspect of who were are
• Bondage of the Will: Calvinists and Arminians agree that in their natural state, humans do not have free will.

Arminianism and Adventism: Seventh-day Adventism In The Calvinist-Arminian Debate

The symposium opened with a prayer offered by professors in the historical costume and persona of John Calvin, Martin Luther, James Arminius, John Wesley, and Ellen White—each highlighting their particular theological contribution. Following an official welcome, a video produced for the symposium on the histoical background the questions the symposium intends to address. The narrator explained that Adventists are not a rootless tree and that although we agree, together with all Christians, that Christ is our salvation, the question is, What exactly does that mean?

The dean of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Dr. Denis Fortin, presented the first paper of the symposium, "Historical and Theological Perspectives on the Rise of Arminianism and the Place of Seventh-day Adventism in the Calvinist-Arminian Debate." Dr. Fortin affirmed that the Seventh-day Adventist understanding has roots in Arminianism via Methodism, and therefore the goal of his paper is to clarify the Arminian dispute with Calvinism as a background for Seventh-day Adventism

Are We Confused About Ordination?

What an experience it was to be with over 2000 delegates and thousands of church members in Atlanta's Georgia Dome during the recent General Conference Session. I enjoyed the experience, and I marveled at our Church in all its multi-cultural and multi-lingual expressions.

But sitting through long sessions of interminable discussions on amendments to the Church Manual required some dedication. Most revisions appeared to be reasonable but so many of them generated amendments that after the second day of business I began to tune out. Some delegates became famous for asking questions or proposing amendments. As we worked laboriously through the 160-page document, I began to notice something I had not seen before: our church is really confused about ordination. Let me explain.