Beset by theological dissension and accusations of plagiarism in the writings of founder Ellen G. White, the Seventh-day Adventist church (SDA) has taken the offensive against critics and set the optimistic goal of adding one million members to its ranks by 1985. This comes despite what SDA World President Neal Wilson has called “Satan’s subtle sophistiy and cunningness.”
Wilson made that comment at the 1981 Annual Council of Seventh-day Adventists, held in October. He had in mind the cases of SDA theologian Desmond Ford and former SDA pastor Walter Rea. The church stripped Ford of his ministerial credentials last year (CT, Oct. 10, 1980). Administrators were angered by his attack on the SDA doctrine of investigative judgment, which holds that Christ entered into a heavenly sanctuary in 1844. From there, according to the doctrine, Christ began passing judgment on each professing believer.
Rea, on the other hand, alleged late last year that much of White’s 53 books was taken shamelessly from non-Adventist authors of the mid-nineteenth century. Administrators have responded that not too much was taken from other authors and that White was no less a prophet for selectively using outside material—just as New Testament writers sometimes used segments from apocryphal literature.
These developments, president Wilson told the church at its conference, are ploys of the devil to sow seeds of discord and suspicion. But he happily noted that membership is increasing in America and overseas despite the problems. (Not all problems are theological—the church is also involved in an internal audit to determine how much money its agencies lent a prominent member who has filed for bankruptcy.) The 3.8-million-member denomination was challenged to add one million members by 1985. That drive, to start in 1982, includes the ambitious goal of attracting one thousand converts daily until the SDA gathers for its 1985 convention.
Other church officials at the October onference echoed Wilson’s suspicion of recent developments. Charles Hirsch, who heads the SDA’s educational program, stated clearly that academic freedom is not an absolute in the denomination. Hirsch’s statement was relevant to the cases of Ford and Smuts van Rooyen, an assistant professor of religion who was dismissed at an Adventist seminary last summer (CT, June 12, 1981).
Hirsch said Adventists believe academic freedom must be balanced by academic responsibility. “An Adventist teacher acknowledges his responsibility to conform to the church’s basic beliefs as well as the aims for its educational program when he accepts employment in … an [Adventist] institution.”
Richard Lesher, director of the denomination’s Biblical Research Department, addressed the issue of White’s authority. He said Adventists consider the Bible their ultimate authority and that the Bible’s unity makes it “its own interpreter.” Still, Lesher said in a telephone interview, White holds an important place in determining church belief.
He said the SDA has clearly affirmed the Old and New Testaments as the “only unerring rule of faith and practice.” White is looked to for “comfort, guidance, instruction and correction,” but does not stand above the Bible. Nonetheless, Lesher admitted “most Adventists would be more reluctant to disagree with White than Presbyterians with Calvin or Lutherans with Luther.” And he said it is “difficult” for an Adventist to say that White makes any errors in her interpretation of Scripture.
Only SDA officials, 300 in all, attended the annual conference, which is a significant indicator of the church’s direction, and largely determines its future agenda. SDA leaders are signaling their resolve to stand by traditional Adventism. The denomination has published and is heavily promoting Omega, a book seen by one nontraditionalist as “a convenient labeling and dismissal of the evangelical Adventist movement.”
Ford considers himself an evangelical Adventist, as does dismissed professor van Rooyen, who has contributed to Evangelica. That magazine is published by Adventists who seek more freedom to disagree with White and want to reaffirm such Reformation doctrines as salvation by faith alone. It used strong words on Omega, saying the book breathed a “spirit of religious McCarthyism” and “marks traditional Adventism’s rejection of the Christ proclaimed in the apostolic gospel and a retreat to the cult mentality which Adventism could have outgrown.”
Evangelica’s reviewer considers the book a feeble attempt to convince faithful Adventists they should not be “concerned with the overwhelming biblical evidence against the 1844 theology [including the investigative judgment] and the alarming discovery that the visionary was a plagiarist.”
Dissenters like van Rooyen claim most SDA scholars agree that the investigative judgment is doubtful and are skeptical of other pronouncements by White, but do not speak openly because administrators hold the traditional SDA views. The administrators say their view is that of most within the denomination and is biblically sound. The struggle within Adventism continues.
Did Adventists Discriminate?
Theological dissent and charges of plagiarism are not the only problems faced by the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA). Now a graduate of its top school, Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, has filed a discrimination suit against the church.
The graduate is a woman, Carole Rayburn. She holds three degrees, including a doctorate from Catholic University, and a master’s degree from Andrews. A clinical psychologist, Rayburn says she applied for positions at two Maryland churches and was turned down. She believes she was turned down because she is a woman.
Denominational spokesmen say Rayburn has a weak case and that sexism is not involved. The suit, filed in federal court in Baltimore, will probably be heard in December.
The SDA church does not ordain women, but Rayburn was not trying to be ordained. She applied for positions as an associate pastor and an intern in pastoral care. A number of women hold such positions in the denomination. But Rayburn said she was denied employment and that a denominational official blocked her way.
