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Discussions on the doctrine of the Trinity are again
rippling the surface of Adventist reflection on the nature of the
Godhead. Adventists as a whole have not always been Trinitarian in
belief, as a number of recent authors1 have pointed out. Some
Adventists still think that we should not be Trinitarian.
Many early Adventist pioneers such as James White,
Joseph Bates, J. H. Waggoner, and R. F. Cottrell were, in fact,
strongly anti-Trinitarian. They came from Disciples of Christ or
similar church backgrounds and brought their strong anticreedal,
anti-Trinitarian theology with them. This was how it came to be that
semi-Arian concepts of Christology were fairly deeply imbedded in
early Adventist beliefs and literature.
When did the change to Trinitarianism occur?
As Jerry Moon points out, "an irreversible
paradigm shift" occurred in the Adventist Church in the 1890s,
spurred along by the church's publication of Ellen White's The
Desire of Ages in 1898. This influential book on the life of
Christ reflected Mrs. White's own developing understanding and called
attention "to scriptures whose significance had been
overlooked." Its publication contributed to a "complete
reversal" of Adventist thinking on the Trinity, and it became a
kind of "continental divide."2
Because theological concepts are interconnected and
interrelated, the paradigm shift inevitably had a deep and
far-reaching impact on the church's understanding of other parts of
its theology as I show in my biographical study of leading church
theologian W. W. Prescott. The development enabled the church to give
its distinctive message in a new gospel context.3
How did change come?
The change did not happen quickly, of course. It
took many years. But how did the change happen? Did Ellen White simply
initiate the changes in the late 1890s through some special burst of
revelation or insight? Or did the development occur as the result of
some sort of focused Bible study on the topic occurring in the church?
Was there some sort of "agitation and discussion" happening
somewhere in the background?
M. L. Andreason and others advanced the first
explanation. Andreason clearly gave this impression in his repeated
recalling of his own and the church's astonishment at reading in The
Desire of Ages the "revolutionary" statement on the
self-existent deity of Christ, "in Christ is life, original,
unborrowed, underived."4
To Andreason this was clearly an unexpected burst
of new light with no prior background discussion "of any
sort."5 Andreason's surprise was apparently quite common in the
experience of others in the denomination at the time.
Ministry editor Leroy Froom, on the other hand,
suspected there was more to it than that. As he understood things,
"the Spirit of prophecy [the work of Ellen White] was never the
instrument to initiate doctrine, or other truths among us."
Rather, new perspectives and understandings "have come from
study," he suggested. Froom's inquisitiveness in the mid-1940s
led to his seeking out witnesses of what had been happening during the
period when the changes occurred.6
Doctrinal development
How and why does doctrinal development occur?
Cambridge University scholar Maurice Wiles in his study of doctrinal
development in the earlier patristic period observes three underlying
motivations at work.
First, apologetics played an important part. This
involved the need for believers to express truth in a form that met the questions of the
surrounding world—defensively, on the one hand, to explain what
really was meant by a doctrinal statement and to correct
misunderstanding and challenges; and offensively, on the other hand,
to recommend the faith evangelistically, persuading and convincing
unbelievers.
A second motivation was to protect against heresy
within the church. This motivation was concerned to protect against
some unbalanced overemphasis on one part of a doctrinal statement at
the expense of another important aspect of the whole. Protecting
against heresy involved clarification of terminology or rejection of
the use of inappropriate language to express the faith. This tended
to result in an ever increasing precision of doctrinal statement.
A third motivation arose from the natural desire of
Christian believers to think out the implications and meaning of the
full spectrum of biblical teaching. It involved the community in an
ongoing study of Scripture and a seeking for effective language to
adequately express the understanding of truth. This was often related
to some personal or community spiritual crisis. And frequently it
involved the role of a "genius."7
Doctrinal development in the Adventist Church shows
the same motivations and factors. The changes in Adventism may be seen
first of all as arising from efforts within the community to correct a
pronounced "heretical" drift toward legalism at both the
practical and doctrinal level.8
The clearer Understandings of
justification by faith that developed around 1888 underscored this
effort and led to further clarifications in doctrinal expression.
Second, development occurred in response to
apologetic concerns about the effectiveness of mission and the clarity
of Adventism's evangelistic witness.
Underscoring these concerns was the third factor,
the desire to understand correctly the full teaching of
Scripture with regard to these issues. And the
process related to a community in crisis (the church faced the
possibility of schism following 1888), and it involved
"gifted" Adventist minds.
The details of the unfolding drama behind the
profound changes form a fascinating window on history
through which we can see how theological
development has occurred and will probably continue to occur in the
church.
People precipitating change
The immediate context for the developments in
Adventism involved a well-known preacher, an evangelistic campaign,
the writing of a Sabbath School lesson quarterly series, a Bible
conference, and a landmark publication venture by Ellen White. The
events revolved around a visit to Australia in 1895-1896 by one of the
church's leading thinkers. Professor W. W. Prescott at the time was
education secretary for the church, and he was on his first visit
overseas.
While in Melbourne he engaged in a very effective
new style of evangelistic outreach. At the same time he was involved
in researching and writing a year-long Sabbath School lesson study
series on the Gospel of John.
Professor Prescott's theological emphasis had
changed radically since 1888. Events following Minneapolis had led him
into a new religious experience that centered on a "personal
relationship with Christ." As a result, he came to see the whole
range of church doctrines from a quite different perspective.
As he explained to delegates at the 1919 Bible
Conference years later, the change had come to him "almost like a personal
revelation, like a person speaking to me." When he first
"started out" in the work in the early 1880s, he had thought
that "the thing to do was to prove the doctrines. ... As I had
observed and heard." The preacher's task was "simply to
demonstrate the truthfulness" of church teachings through careful
argumentative use of proof texts.
Following his "new vision" however, he had
"cast the whole thing aside and started in the simplest way
presenting Christ."9 Church
doctrines, he now believed, should
be presented as "simply the gospel of Christ rightly
understood." They should "grow out of a belief in Jesus
Christ as a living personal Saviour."10
This approach was not merely some sugar coating
that Prescott thought was necessary to give Adventist teaching a
superficial gospel flavor. Rather, it was a genuine, total
reorientation of his belief structure. For him, this
gospel-centeredness was a personal spiritual and theological paradigm
shift, and it set the pattern for the rest of his ministry.
To lead other Adventist preachers to the same
conviction and perspective became his lifelong burden. "That ye
might know Him, whom to know is life eternal" (ARV), became his
hallmark text of Scripture, remembered long afterwards by
generations of his students.11 According to Voice of Prophecy broadcaster
H. M. S. Richards, who attended some of the professor's later
ministerial institutes, Prescott's "legacy to Adventist
preachers" was that "Christ must be the center of every
sermon."12
But Australian Adventism in the 1890s was still untouched by the message of 1888.
Prescott's new message stirred both the hearts and minds of the
people.
The evangelistic series— "apologetics" and change
The story of the evangelistic camp meeting in the
Melbourne suburb of Armadale in late 1895 illustrates the
"apologetic" motivations behind doctrinal development and
highlights clearly the kind of impact produced by the new thrust in
Prescott's preaching. Pitched in the center of a prominent
middle-class suburb, not far from the city center, in full view of a
major city railway line, the 65-tent encampment presented a striking
novelty for the community.
As the meetings progressed, the regular
congregation of two hundred camping church members was augmented
during evenings and weekends by an inquisitive public. Evangelist
John Corliss and Ellen White shared in the preaching, but it was
Prescott who dominated with his charisma. Undoubtedly, the
professor's legendary, richly resonant voice attracted the ears of
the Aussie "colonials," but the real attraction that drew
in the crowds in ever increasing numbers was the Christ-centered
content of his sermons.
Church workers were astonished at the interest,
particularly in the light of the widespread prejudice against
Adventists in the community. Uriah Smith's Thoughts on Daniel and
Revelation had been widely distributed by colporteurs, and its
semi-Arian teaching on the pre-existence of Christ had caused many to
view Adventists as a heretical, sub-Christian sect that denied the
divinity of Christ.13
These apologetic concerns led Prescott to respond
by preaching sound Christian doctrine. "His theme from first to
last and always is Christ," reported an enthusiastic William C.
White.14 Prescott even managed to turn the traditional Adventist
Saturday-Sunday polemic into a remarkable gospel presentation. Prescott
had preached "with a clearness and power that exceeds anything I
have ever heard in my life," W. C. White reported.
The truth had been presented "with a freshness
and a brightness" never seen before. White recalled that he had
not even once heard Prescott preach "what we are accustomed to
call a doctrinal sermon" on "the old lines." "The
old lines of work" of getting up an "interest" by
"presenting the prophecies" must "be abandoned,"
he asserted. "The whole thing" must receive "a new
setting." He longed to see "every one" of the ministers
emulate Prescott in "preaching Christ and him
crucified."15
Ellen White was also ecstatic over Prescott's
sermons and the quality of the people—society's "very best
class"—who were drawn by his "exaltation of Jesus."
"Unbelievers turn pale and say, that man is inspired," she
reported to her son Edson.16 She saw in this Christ-centered
evangelism a pattern for the whole church. Clearly Ellen White
applauded Prescott's refocusing of the denomination on Jesus in this
fresh new way.
"Preaching Jesus as Professor Prescott has
done," added local conference president Arthur G. Daniells,
"seems to have completely disarmed the people of prejudice."
He felt that the public image of Adventists had been "completely
revolutionized."17
But it was more than just the public image of
Adventism that had been changed. Adventism itself was changing. The
Armadale meetings with their demands for clearer public witness to
educated, informed people helped lead to profound shifts in Adventist
thinking and understanding on Christology.
A. G. Daniells, president of the World Church, was
a convert to the new perspective. It was as if someone had switched
the lights on for him. Under Prescott's mentorship he became a new
person. His evangelistic preaching took on new power as he used the
same paradigm for teaching the doctrines in his next series of meetings
conducted after Prescott left.18
A quiet revolution was underway. It took a long
time, however, before many others caught the same vision. Prescott in
this, as in some other things, was ahead of his time.
A Bible institute and a Sabbath School lesson series
Some time after the Melbourne meetings, Prescott
spent three months at Cooranbong, north of Sydney, working with Mrs.
White and the founders of the soon to be established Avondale
College. When the start of school was delayed by legal problems, it
was decided to have school for the waiting teachers. Ministers were
invited as well.
Thus in April 1896, Prescott conducted a Bible
institute attended by about 40 ministers and teachers. The Cooranbong
Bible Institute is noteworthy not just for the charter it produced
for Avondale's educational development, but also because it
crystallized profound new developments emerging in Adventist
theology.
Prior to his journey to Australia, the professor
had been commissioned to write a four-quarter Sabbath School lesson
series for 1896-1897 on the Gospel of John. He considered this to be
"no small task." Thus, while en route to Sydney he took time
for an intensive study of the Gospel.
After his arrival at Cooranbong, W. C. White, with
whom Prescott shared the developing manuscript, was impressed. The
lessons were "more appropriate" than former ones, he
thought, and he urged the Battle Creek Sabbath School Association to
accept them. As might be expected, the fourth Gospel provided the
content for much of Prescott's preaching during this time.
One of the questions that grew out of Prescott's
study of John was the pre-existence and eternal deity of Christ and
the implications of this for the church's generally accepted teaching
on the Godhead. Many Adventists at the time associated the doctrine of
the Trinity with creedalism and other undesirable outside influences.
But was that necessarily a valid linkage?
Prescott visited a secondhand bookstore shortly
after first landing in Sydney in August and bought himself a copy of
Augustus Neander's classic, Lectures on the History of Christian
Dogmas. The book, now in Andrews University
Library, is extensively underlined by Prescott's editorial blue
pencil. The chapters marked are those that deal with Christological
controversies of the early centuries. Prescott had been rigorously
trained in Greek and Latin in the United States (Dartmouth) and he now
became interested at least to see how the church had, in the
development of the historic church statements about Christ, grappled
with problems of appropriate language in the expression of complex
ideas.
In spite of the strong anticreedal stance of many
in the church, he was at least prepared to consider what the creeds
had to say. The professor studied intently the specific issues of
Arianism, the deity of Christ and the Trinity.
As noted above, the widespread prejudice against
Adventists in the community that had been reported in Melbourne and
which arose from the circulation of Uriah Smith's Thoughts on
Daniel and Revelation bothered the professor and the ministers who
studied with the new converts in their homes. They needed help.
Adventism was not a sub Christian sect. And that they should be perceived
thus was unfortunate.
The Arian slant on the pre-existence of Christ was
not a "test" teaching of Adventism and it no longer seemed
adequate. In the light of his study of the fourth Gospel with its
strong emphasis on the divinity of Christ things began to look
clearer.
Prescott's three months at Cooranbong were, in effect, a research and study leave.
For the previous six months he had been constantly involved in intense
evangelistic work and constant counseling regarding the perplexities
of church administration. He was exhausted. His return to Cooranbong
was planned as a retreat. His purpose: to write out the materials he
had been using in preaching, complete his Sabbath School lesson series
on John, spend time with Mrs. White and, at her specific request,
assist in the editorial work on her voluminous life of Christ
publication project.
As a result of his continued studies in John,
Prescott's preaching at the Cooranbong institute specifically
emphasized the implications of the "I Am" claims of Jesus,
the full eternal sonship of Christ and the need for Adventist teaching
to have a clear Christological focus.
Daniells, who spoke at the evening meetings, chose
to speak on the theme of the Holy Spirit.19 Following the
Armadale camp meeting and prior to the Cooranbong institute, the
ministers in Melbourne, under Daniells's leadership, had followed up
the interest stimulated by Prescott and had been studying the doctrine
of the Holy Spirit in their daily workers' meeting. Daniells
had also perused the secondhand bookstores and found Andrew Murray's The
Spirit of Christ. He found the book helpful in nurturing his own
personal devotional life and used it as a guide for the workers' study
of Scripture on the topic.
The work and the person of the Holy Spirit were
thus also being actively discussed among the ministers during this
period.20
The publication project
Both doctrinal themes were highly lauded by Mrs.
White, who attended the institute meetings along with her secretary,
Marian Davis, and her other literary helpers. W. C. White commented
shortly afterwards that while the institute "was a big
interruption" of Mrs. White's editorial work on the life of
Christ, nevertheless it was a "grand success" and "it
has been a blessing to all her household and especially her literary
helpers."
Mrs. White was thankful at this time for "the
best set of workers she has ever had."21 As already noted, at the
time her team was focused on work on the manuscript that eventually
became The Desire of Ages. She solicited Prescott's help in
critically reading her manuscript from a literary, biblical, and
theological perspective. Why? Help was needed in organizing the
material. And, it seems clear, it was important that the new emphasis
Prescott was giving was properly presented.22
According to H. Camden Lacey, W. C. White's
brother-in-law (who was one of the young Avondale teachers at the
time), Marian Davis was having a hard time with the arrangement of
material for the first few chapters of The Desire of Ages. She
found the professor's help invaluable.
Prescott's assistance and emphasis brought about a
clearer and more decided presentation of Christ's deity in the book,
reported Lacey. "Professor Prescott's interest in the 'Eternity
of the Son' and the great T Am's' coupled with the constant help he
gave Sr. Davis in her preparation of the The Desire of
Ages may serve to explain the inclusions of the above-named
teachings in that wonderful book."23
Lacey had been at the Armadale meetings and in the
later Melbourne meetings with Daniells. His particular responsibility
had been the nurture of new believers at Armadale.24 He reports that
his own interest at the time had been in emphasizing "the
personality of the Holy Spirit" and that this new emphasis had
also been an important part of the doctrinal and theological
agitations at the time.25
Lacey, connected to Mrs. White's extended family
circle through marriage, was, in a sense, part of the "inner
circle" as it were, and is an important witness. Lacey's aged
parents had moved to Cooranbong from Tasmania to be with their
children and grandchildren, and they bonded with Mrs. White and her
family. Lacey's reports, although written out in the 1940s, are
consistent with the primary source documentation available from the
period. He does not seem to have overstated his case, nor did he see
Prescott's help as undercutting Mrs. White's claim to inspiration.26
Conclusion
The impact of the new emphasis in The Desire of
Ages lingered long in M. L. Andreason's mind. "I remembered
how astonished we were," he wrote, "for it contained things
that we considered unbelievable: among others the doctrine of the
Trinity."27 Andreason was apparently unaware of the extensive
background to the doctrinal developments that The Desire of Ages reflected.
Those developments did not occur in a vacuum but were motivated by a
desire to better understand the teachings of Scripture, more
adequately confess them, and more effectively communicate them to the
world.
As Prescott left Australia in 1897 he probably did
not realize how long a shadow his study and preaching would cast. The
events of 1896 set a solid foundation for further development. But
many decades were to pass before the church developed a common mind or anything that
approached a unanimity of conviction on the eternal deity of Christ
and its implications for the doctrine of the Trinity.28
Even as late
as the 1940s Prescott was still being viciously attacked for his
Trinitarian views.29
If the promise Jesus gave about the work of the
Holy Spirit is true, then, as the Spirit of Truth does His work, He
will continue to guide the church into deeper and broader
understandings of truth (John 15:12). There will, of a certainty then,
continue to be doctrinal developments.
There will continue to be new understandings
unfolding on the mind of the church. Apologetics will continue to be a
powerful motivation. The church will need to continue to make sure it
is using the best language and the best thought forms to express and
confess the full orb of truth.
Adventists as a community must continue to study
the Word in its fullness, seeking to correctly understand, discarding
inappropriate understandings, and searching for appropriate and
meaningful language to effectively confess to the world the beauty of
the truth "as it is in Jesus." As Bernhard Lohse has
observed, "A faith which no longer knows how to confess, and
which can no longer express this confession doctrinally will lose its
vigor and become weak. For every epoch must answer anew the question
which the Lord of the Church and of the world puts to it: 'Who do you
say that I am?'"30
Adventism has successfully weathered earlier
periods of development. Under the Spirit's leading it will surely
continue successfully in this pilgrim journey to the kingdom.
1
Woodrow Whidden, Jerry Moon, and John W. Reeve, The
Trinity (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 2002);
Gerald Wheeler, lames White, Innovator and Overcomer (Washington,
D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 2004); George Knight, Joseph
Bates: The Real founder of Seventh-day Adventism (Washington,
D.C.; Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 2004); Merlin Hurt "Demise
of Semi-Arianism and Anti-Trinitarianism in Adventist Theology,
1888-1957," unpublished research paper, 1996 AUHR. See also
Russell Holt, "The Doctrine of the Trinity in the Seventh-day
Adventist Denomination: Its Rejection and Acceptance,"
unpublished paper, Andrews University, 1969..
2
Whidden, Moon, and Reeve, 189. Moon shows clearly how
Ellen White's understanding in this particular area of doctrine
developed. Her statements over the years evidence a clear
progression "from the else and explicit" (196, 206, 208).
3
See W. W. Prescott: Adventism's forgotten Giant ami
Shaper of the Second Generation (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and
Herald Pub. Assn., forthcoming).
4
M. L. Andreasen, "Unpublished Chapel Talk," at
Loma Linda University, November 30, 1948: "Testimony of M. L.
Andreason," October, 1953. The frequently quoted statement from
The Desire of Ages is a loose paraphrase of a sentence from
John Cuming, Sabbath Evening Readings on the New Testament: St.
lohn (London: Arthur Hall, Virtue & Company, 1857), 6.
5
Leroy Froom (LEF) to H. Camden Lacey (HCL), August 8, 1945.
6
LEF to HCL, September 26, 1945.
7
Maurice F. Wiles, The Making of Christian Doctrine (London:
Cambridge University Press, 1967).
8
George Knight shows how this strand in Adventism was laid down by
Joseph Bates in Joseph Bates: The Real Founder of Seventh-day
Adventism (Washington D.C.; Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 2004),
83-88.
9
"1919 Bible Conference Transcript," July 13, 1919.
10
GC Bulletin, February 23, 1893, 350.
11
Author's interview with former Union College student George S.
Hutches, February 11, 1981.
12
H. M. S. Richards to G. M. Valentine, May 21, 1981.
13
W. C. White to O. A. Olsen, October 24, 1895.
14
W. C. White to Brethren, November 21, 1895.
14
W. C. White to S. McCullogh, November 5, 1895; W. C. White to A.
J. Breed, November 22, 1895.
16
E. G. White to S. N. Haskell, November 6, 1895.
17
A. G. Daniells to O. A. Olsen, November 22, 1895. Daniells
acknowledged that his own spiritual experience had in fact been
turned around under the impact of Prescott's preaching and spiritual
mentoring. They became lifelong friends.
18
A. G. Daniells to W. W. Prescott, March 3, 1896.
19
"The Cooranbong Institute." RH, June 16, 1896,
378.
20
A. G. Daniells to W. W. Prescott, March 3, 1896; H. Camden Lacey
to A. W. Spalding, June 2, 1947.
21
W. C. White to O. A. Olsen, May 1, 1896.
22
This was Ellen White's pattern. She had earlier asked A. T. Jones
to read manuscript for her from a biblical and theological
perspective to help ensure that the expression of ideas was correct.
W. C. White to C. H.Jones, May 18, 1887.
23
H. Camden Lacey to L. E. Froom, August 30, 1947. See also W. W.
Prescott to O. A. Olsen, February 10, 1896; E. G. White
"Diary" February 1896 and April 1896. The Life of
Christ manuscript was actually reworked and not published for
another two years.
24
A. G. Daniells to W. W. Prescott, March 3, 1896; H. Camden Lacey
to A. W. Spalding, June 2, 1945.
25
Interestingly, when Daniells reports to Prescott about the
helpfulness of Andrew Murray's book in his Armadale workers
meetings, he still refers to the Holy Spirit by the impersonal
pronoun. ". . . we studied about the Holy Spirit and prayed for
its indwelling presence, we felt assured that it came to us
and truly blessed us . . ." A. G. Daniells to W. W. Prescott,
March 3, 1896. The usage may simply indicate that issue of the
personality of the Spirit came up in the later meetings at
Cooranbong rather than in Melbourne. This latter suggestion is
implied in Lacey's correspondence with Froom. L. E. Froom to H.
Camden Lacey, August 8, 1945.
26
Lacey's report to Froom was called out by a request from Froom
specifically enquiring if there was any background of agitation or
discussion" of any sort that was occurring in Australia at the
time the much dearer statements on the eternal deity of Christ
appeared in The Desire of Ages. L. E. Froom to H. Camden
Lacey, August 8, 1947. In Lacey's response to an earlier enquiry
from Arthur Spalding on the same issue, Lacey cited some of the
changes Adventists had adopted in the lyrics of some of the
"outstanding hymns of the Christian Church" to avoid overt
references to the Trinity and the personality of the Holy Spirit (as
well as some references to righteousness by faith). He was glad that
the 1941 hymnal had reverted to the original wordings. The changes
to the wording had bothered his Anglican church musician mother when
she first became an Adventist.
27
Unpublished chapel talk, November 30, 1948; E. G. White, The
Desire of Ages, 530.
28
Although Review editor F. M. Wilcox was able to say in a
doctrinal summary in the Review in 1913 that Adventists
believed "in the divine Trinity," his language sidestepped
the issue of the eternal self-existent deity of Christ and was still
sufficiently vague as to be able to include both the traditional
semi-Arians and the Trinitarians. Jesus was simply "the son of
the Eternal Father." But the Holy Spirit was the third
"person" of the Godhead. "The Message for Today"
RH October 9, 1913,21.
29
See Judson Washburn, "The Trinity," 1939.
30
Bernhard Lohse, A Short History of Christian Doctrine (Philadelphia,
Fortress Press, 1985), 22. —Ministry
Magazine, May 2005, Vol. 77, No. 5, pp. 14-19.
Copyright 2005, General Conference Ministerial Association.
Reproduced by permission.
All rights reserved by copyright holder.
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