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.   

The “Found” World of Genesis 1 Part II: How Does Science Inform Theology

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

 

  

 

Sometime back, I examined the claims of Professor John H. Walton of Wheaton College to have uncovered the “lost” world of Genesis 1. There, I examined his argument that Genesis 1 was consistent with other Ancient Near Eastern literature in only concerning itself with functional origins, not material origins.Thus, he believed that the Genesis account was silent as to when the physical stuff of the earth, plants, animals, and even humankind was actually made.

This concern with functionality, Walton claims, allows for the teachings of evolutionary biology to remain largely unaffected by the Biblical account, as there is really no conflict between the two accounts, once they are properly understood. I argued that Walton’s arguments were problematic for Adventists, who see both a functional and material story in Genesis, and who also would have significant theological problems with their Great Controversy framework if God used suffering and death to bring about His good creation.

But given the topic, it would be remiss not to say something about science. Religious scholars believe that scientists do not take the Bible and theology seriously enough, and the opposite is also true. Scientists are often frustrated by the apparent lack of willingness to listen by their theologian colleagues. No doubt we all have much to learn and improve in the skill and art of listening.

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: "Gift of Prophecy and the Church: A Biblical Perspective"

Presentation

Ranko Stefanovic, Professor for New Testament at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, traced origin, meaning, and function of the gift of prophecy in the Bible.* 

The Pre-Prophecy Period. After creation, still in Eden, God attempted to have an intimate relationship with Adam and Eve with straight face-to-face communication (cf. Gen 2:15-17). Since their disobedience and the fall caused a disconnectedness between them and God (Gen 3), the result was a disrupted relationship between Him and whole humanity as well as a destruction of their intimate communication with Him—which ultimately will not be restored until sin is totally removed (Rev 21-22).

Despite the fall God continued to communicate with humankind. According to Stefanovic, two phases can be traced in the Old Testament: a) the to-each-individual-communication and b) the through-prophets-communication. The first took place during the antediluvian/pre-flood up to patriarchal times where God spoke directly to individuals via theophanies or dreams. Examples for these periods can be found in Genesis, e.g., Noah (Gen 6:13-21; 7:1-4; 8:15-19; 9:1-19), Abraham (Gen 12-17; 22), Isaac (26:2-5, 24), Rebekah (25:22-23), Jacob (28:13-15; 31:3, 11-13; 35:9-12; 46:2-4), and also persons who did not belong to the godly line, for example Cain (4:6-15), Hagar (16:7-12; 21:17-18), and Abimelech (20:3-7). This list is not exhaustive and it also can be presumed, said Stefanovic, that God spoke to many others during this period, although they are not directly mentioned in Scripture.

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.

Mission Priority: Reforming Christians or Converting Non-Christians?

By Gorden R. Doss (Department of World Mission, SDA Theological Seminary, Andrews University)

As Martin Luther, John Calvin and the other Protestant Reformers developed their theological positions they also developed deep missiological commitments. Millions of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, animists and others knew little or nothing about the Bible and had not accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. The Reformers knew the history of Roman Catholic missionaries who had served over the centuries among non-Christian peoples. They quickly became convicted of their obligation to proclaim the Protestant way of being a Christian to non-Christian peoples. Therefore, they launched a systematic plan of global mission. They would not only work to reform the church from within but also to convert non-Christians to Jesus Christ.

Historic Reality
Sadly, the real narrative is quite different from this wishful narrative. The Reformers focused almost exclusively on missio interna (internal mission, to reform Christians) and ignored missio externa (external mission, to convert non-Christians). The first significant Protestant mission to non-Christians was initiated by Pietists in the eighteenth-century. Count Nicolaus von Zinzendorf (1700-1760) set the stage for William Carey (1761-1834) and others to launch what would be called the “Great Century” of Protestant mission—the nineteenth-century. From Luther’s nailing of the 95 Theses in 1517, three centuries would pass before a strong Protestant missionary movement to non-Christians would be under way.

Historians and the Supernatural

By Lisa C. Diller (Southern Adventist University, History Department)

It keeps cropping up in my classes. Perhaps we’re studying about reported visions that the Aztecs were said to have had which predicted the arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere. “Do you think this really happened, Professor Diller?” someone is bound to ask. And then we stop to have the conversation about miracles—a conversation it seems I have almost every semester in all my courses.

I see my work as a historian as service to God—an act of worship. But that doesn’t mean that in all my studies I am seeing God’s will and activity in the world. Even within the theological framework of the Seventh-day Adventist historian we tend to see God’s work as supernatural, based on faith, and therefore a bit more mysterious than we’d like our own professional evidence and arguments to be. As a practicing historian, I need to have some sort of consistent principles by which I assess what “really” happened, to the extent that I can. That’s part of what makes disciplines different from each other—the nature of the evidence that each one uses.

History and Conspiracy - Part II

 

Last week I began a discussion of conspiracy views of history. I distinguished small-scale conspiracies within history, such as criminal syndicates, corporate agreements to “fix” markets, and state secrets, from grand conspiracy theories that attempt to explain the course of history by the work of a small, secret group like the Masons or the Illuminati. The former types of conspiracies certainly exist. But I proposed that the latter, the grand conspiracy theory, generally violates certain basic principles of the proportionality of historical causation and human nature in relation to secrecy. This week I discuss two other principles of human nature and governance that grand conspiracy theories violate. I conclude by revealing the one grand conspiracy theory that the Bible supports.