Date of Award

2005

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

College

Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary

Program

Religion, Church History PhD

First Advisor

George R. Knight

Second Advisor

Jerry A. Moon

Third Advisor

Woodrow W. Whidden II

Abstract

Topic

The Seventh-day Adventist Evangelical Conferences of 1955-1956 resulted in the publication of articles favorable to Adventists in Eternity and Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine, both of which evoked a variety of reactions among evangelicals and Adventists.

Purpose

This study identifies and analyzes various evangelical and Adventist responses to the Seventh-day Adventist Evangelical Conferences and Questions on Doctrine. In particular, this investigation examines the interaction between the major theological camps that emerged within and outside the Adventist church.

Sources

This research is a documentary/analytical study of materials produced between 1955 and 1971 in reaction to the Seventh-day Adventist Evangelical Conferences and Questions on Doctrine. Sources of particular importance to this study have been major evangelical and Adventist periodicals and unpublished materials gathered from archival collections at Andrews University, the Ellen G. White Estate, the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Loma Linda University, and the Presbyterian Historical Society.

Conclusions

Four distinct types of reactions were identified by this research: (1) pro-Adventist evangelicals; (2) anti-Adventist evangelicals; (3) pro-Questions on Doctrine Adventists; and (4) anti-Questions on Doctrine Adventists. The first group was represented by Walter R. Martin, Donald Grey Bamhouse, E. Schuyler English, and Frank Mead, who accepted Adventism as an evangelical church. The rest of the evangelical world belonged to the second group and continued to regard Adventism as a cult. The third group was led by those General Conference leaders who participated in the Adventist-evangelical conferences and in the publication of Questions on Doctrine. The final group was led by M. L. Andreasen, who strongly protested against the book which he considered to be significantly un-Adventist. The reactions by and interactions among these four groups until 1971 show that the controversy over the Adventist-evangelical dialogues and Questions on Doctrine was never fully resolved and the four sides remained in tension.

Subject Area

Seventh-day Adventist Evangelical Conferences, 1955-1971, Seventh-day Adventists--Doctrines, Seventh-day Adventists--Controversial literature, Andrews University--Dissertations--Seventh-day Adventist Evangelical Conferences, 1955-1971.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/dissertations/107/

Download

Files over 3MB may be slow to open. For best results, right-click and select "save as..."

Share

COinS