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VOLUME 13, ISSUE 1
D E P A R T M E N T S
Adventism EXAMINED with Rick Barker
Fundamental Belief #1. The Holy Scriptures: The Holy Scriptures, Old and New Testaments, are the written Word of God, given by divine inspiration through holy men of God who spoke and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. In this Word, God has committed to man the knowledge necessary for salvation. The Holy Scriptures are the infallible revelation of His will. They are the standard of character, the test of experience, the authoritative revealer of doctrines, and the trustworthy record of God's acts in history. (2 Pet. 1:20, 21; 2 Tim. 3:16, 17; Ps. 119:105; Prov. 30:5, 6; Isa. 8:20; Jn. 17:17; 1 Thess. 2:13; Heb. 4:12.)1
A close examination of how Adventists actually use the words describing this belief in their other writings reveals that this carefully crafted statement actually obscures the true Adventist belief.
The phrase “given by divine inspiration through holy men of God who spoke and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” suggests that Adventists believe the writing and speaking (the words) of these holy men came from God. But that is not the case.
Seventh-day Adventists Believe describes inspiration as “Divine revelation…given by inspiration of God to ‘holy men of God’ who were ‘moved by the Holy Spirit’ (2 Pet. 1:21). These revelations were embodied in human language with all its limitations and imperfections, yet they remained God’s testimony. God inspired men—not words.” 2
The commentary continues with several Ellen White (EGW) quotes to define what inspiration is:
The Bible “is not God’s mode of thought and expression. Men will often say such an expression is not like God. But God has not put Himself in words, in logic, in rhetoric, on trial in the Bible. The writers of the Bible were God’s penmen, not His pen.” “Inspiration acts not on the man's words or his expressions but on the man himself, who, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, is imbued with thoughts. But the words receive the impress of the individual mind. The divine mind is diffused. The divine mind and will is combined with the human mind and will; thus the utterances of the man are the word of God.” 3
The next obfuscation is the statement that Scripture is the “infallible revelation of His will.” A close scrutiny reveals that this infallibility is limited only to the revelation of God’s will and does not mean Scripture is inerrant. In fact, Adventism teaches that God’s word contains errors. See, for instance, this description of inspiration from the Adventist Review:
God gives the prophet freedom to select the kind of language he or she wants to use. That accounts for the different styles of the Biblical writers and explains why Ellen White describes the language used by inspired writers as “imperfect” and “human.”
Because “everything that is human is imperfect,” we must accept the idea of imperfections and mistakes in both the Bible and Ellen White's writings. This means at least two things: 1. The prophet uses his or her common, everyday language learned from childhood and improved through study, reading, and travel; there is nothing supernatural or divine in the language used…4
The statement “nothing...divine in the language” of Scripture cannot be reconciled with teaching that Scripture is God-breathed. Moreover, this Fundamental Belief does not state that Scripture is the only authoritative source for doctrine. The pre-1980 statement of belief said Scriptures are “all sufficient” and are the “only” unerring rule of faith and practice.5 The 1980 and (current) statement leaves out “all sufficient” and “only” but added, in Fundamental Belief #18, that Ellen White is “…a continuing and authoritative source of truth…” 6
The Adventist view is that God inspired Bible writers’ thoughts but did not directly inspire their words. This belief appears to have been influenced heavily by EGW, in both her descriptions of Biblical inspiration and of her own inspiration.
The Adventists’ first Fundamental Belief is carefully crafted to imply an orthodox-sounding doctrine that is almost completely the opposite of what Adventism actually teaches. †
Endnotes
- Seventh-day Adventists Believe, 2005 ed., Pacific Press, p. 11.
- Ibid., p. 14.
- Ibid., p. 15.
- “The Dynamics of Inspiration,” Adventist Review, May 30, 1996, pp. 22-28.
- Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual, 1976, p. 32.
- Ellen White is called “…a continuing and authoritative source of truth…” Fundamental Belief #18, Seventh-day Adventists Believe, p. 247.
Copyright 2012 Life Assurance Ministries, Inc., Casa Grande, Arizona, USA. All rights reserved. Revised April 18, 2012. Contact email: proclamation@gmail.com
Rick Barker is a native of Southwestern Ohio and facilitates a weekly Bible study for former and transitioning Adventists in the Dayton, Ohio, area. Rick graduated from Andrews University in 1987 and received a Masters degree from the University of Dayton. Rick and his wife Sheryl formally left the Adventist chuch in 2004. Prior to this they had been active in the Miamisburg and Wilmington, Ohio, churches. They currently attend Living Waters Lutheran Church in Springboro.
