Questions on Doctrine - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

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Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine (generally known by the shortened title Questions on Doctrine, abbreviated QOD) is a book published by the Seventh-day Adventist Church

Seventh-day Adventist Church

The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ...

in 1957 to help explain Adventism to conservative Protestants

Protestantism

Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

and Evangelicals. The book generated greater acceptance of the Adventist church within the evangelical

Evangelicalism

Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...

community, where it had previously been widely regarded as a cult

Cult

The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...

. However, it also proved to be one of the most controversial publications in Adventist history and the release of the book brought prolonged alienation and separation both within Adventism and evangelicalism.

Although no authors are listed on the title of the book (credit is given to "a representative group" of Adventist "leaders, Bible teachers and editors"), the primary contributors to the book were Le Roy Edwin Froom

Le Roy Edwin Froom

Le Roy Edwin Froom was a Seventh-day Adventist minister and historian.-Life:Froom was the first associate secretary of the General Conference Ministerial Association from 1926 to 1950. He was also the founding editor of Ministry Magazine...

, Walter E. Read, and Roy Allan Anderson (sometimes referred to as "FREDA").

In Adventist culture, the phrase Questions on Doctrine has come to encompass not only the book itself but also the history leading up to its publication and the prolonged theological controversy which it sparked. This article covers all of these facets of the book's history and legacy.

Background

The publication of Questions on Doctrine grew out of a series of conferences between a few Adventist spokepersons and Protestant representatives from 1955 to 1956. The roots of this conference originated in a series of dialogues between Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

conference president, T. E. Unruh, and evangelical Bible teacher and magazine editor Donald Grey Barnhouse. Unruh was particularly concerned because of a scathing review written by Barnhouse about Ellen White's

Ellen G. White

Ellen Gould White was a prolific author and an American Christian pioneer. She, along with other Sabbatarian Adventist leaders, such as Joseph Bates and her husband James White, would form what is now known as the Seventh-day Adventist Church.Ellen White reported to her fellow believers her...

book, Steps to Christ
Steps to Christ
Steps to Christ is an evangelistic book written by Ellen G. White, co-founder and prophetess of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It was first published in 1892 by Fleming H. Revell Company. The copyright was purchased by Seventh-day Adventist publisher Review and Herald Publishing Association in...

. Unruh had sent him a copy of the book in 1949. In the spring of 1955 Barnhouse commissioned Walter Martin to write a book about Seventh-day Adventists. Martin requested a meeting with Adventist leaders so that he could question them about their beliefs.

The first meeting between Martin and Adventist leaders occurred in March 1955. Martin was accompanied by George Cannon and met with Adventist representatives Le Roy Edwin Froom and W. E. Read. Later Roy Allan Anderson and Barnhouse joined these discussions. Initially both sides viewed each other with suspicion as they worked through a list of 40 questions. Central to these concerns were four alleged items of Adventist theology: (1) the atonement was not completed at the cross; (2) salvation

Salvation

Within religion salvation is the phenomenon of being saved from the undesirable condition of bondage or suffering experienced by the psyche or soul that has arisen as a result of unskillful or immoral actions generically referred to as sins. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or...

is the result of grace plus the works of the law; (3) Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

was a created being, not from all eternity; and (4) that Jesus partook of man's sinful, fallen nature at the incarnation.

By the summer of 1956 the small group of evangelicals became convinced that Seventh-day Adventists were sufficiently orthodox to be considered Christian. Barnhouse published his conclusions in the September 1956 issue of Eternity
Eternity (magazine)
Eternity was a monthly conservative Christian magazine published from 1950 to 1988. It included major contributions from such well known individuals as F. F. Bruce and others.- History :In 1931, Donald Barnhouse started Revelation...

magazine in the article, "Are Seventh-day Adventists Christians?" In it, they concluded, "Seventh-day Adventists are a truly Christian group, rather than an anti-Christian cult." This greatly surprised its readers, and 6,000 canceled their subscriptions in protest!

Following this announcement, Adventists were gradually invited to participate in Billy Graham

Billy Graham

William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...

's crusades.

Conflict within Adventism

In Barnhouse's article it was stated that most Adventists believed in the sinless human nature of Christ and those who did not were part of the "lunatic fringe." M. L. Andreasen

M. L. Andreasen

M.[ilian] L.[auritz] Andreasen , was a Seventh-day Adventist theologian, pastor and author.He was one of the church's most prominent and influential theologians during the 1930s and 1940s. Andreasen promoted the teaching known popularly as Last Generation Theology, controversial for its views on...

, a conservative Adventist theologian, took exception to this statement.

Further debate broke out between Andreasen and Froom in February 1957 after Froom published an article on the atonement in Ministry
Ministry (magazine)
Ministry: International Journal for Pastors is an international monthly magazine for Christian ministers, with a circulation of approximately 100,000. It is published by the Ministerial Association , an official body of the worldwide Adventist church. It is aimed at pastors and ministers of the...

magazine. In this article Froom argued that the atonement was a "full and complete sacrifice." He furthermore asserted that "the sacrificial act on the cross [is] a complete, perfect, and final atonement for man's sins." Froom's articulation of the atonement still held to the Adventist belief in Christ's work in the heavenly sanctuary

Heavenly sanctuary

In Seventh-day Adventist theology, the heavenly sanctuary teaching asserts that many aspects of the Hebrew tabernacle or sanctuary are representative of heavenly realities. In particular, Jesus is regarded as a High Priest who provides cleansing for human sins by the sacrificial shedding of his...

going into the Holy of Holies to begin a final atonement for humanity.
Venden points out that the atonement must have been complete at the cross -- the sacrifice was sufficient. When Jesus died for man's sin it was enough to purchase man's salvation and man cannot add anything to it. Yet, the atonement involves more that just sacrifice. The process of redemption, the restoration of man's broken relationship to at-one-ment with God, was not completed at the cross, else there would be no more sin or sickness or pain or sorrow or separation or batter children or hospitals or funeral trains or tombstones or broken hearts. It is the winning of men back to a love relationship with God is not yet completed.

Andreasen articulated a three-phase understanding of the atonement. In the first phase Christ lived a perfect life despite having a fallen nature. During the second phase the death of Christ on the cross occurred. And finally, during the third phase (the focal point of his theology), Christ demonstrates that man can do what He did. Satan

Satan

Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...

was not defeated at the cross but would be defeated by the "last generation

Last Generation Theology

Last Generation Theology or "final generation" theology is a belief system of overcoming sin held by some conservative members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which claims that perfection will be achieved by some people in the last generation before the Second Coming of Jesus much like the...

" in its demonstration that an entire generation of people could live a sinlessly perfect life.

Questions on Doctrine intensified the tensions over these issues because it brought more weight to the death of Jesus as a complete work of atonement and that though Jesus possessed Adam’s physical human nature after the fall, he did not inherit Adam's fallen spiritual nature. "When Adam Came from the Creator's hand, he bore, in his physical, mental and spiritual nature, a likeness to his Maker--God created man in His own image."
As a consequence, Andreasen embarked on a campaign against QOD. He published a series of responses to Froom in 9 papers written in 1957/1958 and in a series of booklets entitled Letters to the Churches (1959). On April 6, 1961, Andreasen's ministerial credentials were suspended by the church because of his ongoing public protests against church leadership. But a few months later on March 1, 1962, after Andreasen died on Feb. 19, 1962, the General Conference executive committee revoked its earlier decision of his ministerial credentials.

Evangelicals Divided Over Questions on Doctrine

In 1960, Walter Martin published his own response to Questions on Doctrine, entitled The Truth About Seventh-day Adventism, which had wide circulation. The book carried with it a disclaimer that only those Adventists whose theology agreed with Questions on Doctrine were true members of the body of Christ. From June 1960 till July 1961 Adventist magazine Ministry
Ministry (magazine)
Ministry: International Journal for Pastors is an international monthly magazine for Christian ministers, with a circulation of approximately 100,000. It is published by the Ministerial Association , an official body of the worldwide Adventist church. It is aimed at pastors and ministers of the...

published a long series of responses to Martin's book, which are available online. Other evangelicals besides Martin who argued for the acceptance of Adventism as an evangelical Christian group were Donald Barnhouse

Donald Barnhouse

Donald Grey Barnhouse Th.D , was an American Christian preacher, pastor, theologian, radio pioneer, and writer.-Career:...

, E. Schuyler English, and Frank Mead.

Many evangelicals disagreed with Martin and Barnhouse's positive assessment of Adventism. The leaders of this view included a large amount of Calvinist

Calvinism

Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...

evangelical writers. Calvinist-Arminian

Arminianism

Arminianism is a school of soteriological thought within Protestant Christianity based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius and his historic followers, the Remonstrants...

differences were a major part in the debate (Adventism is Arminian), but Martin did not regard Calvinism as a test of orthodoxy. In 1962 Norman Douty published Another Look at Seventh-day Adventism and Herbert Bird, Theology of Seventh-day Adventism, both of which argued that Adventists were still a cult. Anthony Hoekema grouped Adventism together with Mormonism

Mormonism

Mormonism is the religion practiced by Mormons, and is the predominant religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement. This movement was founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. beginning in the 1820s as a form of Christian primitivism. During the 1830s and 1840s, Mormonism gradually distinguished itself...

, Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...

and Christian Science

Christian Science

Christian Science is a system of thought and practice derived from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible. It is practiced by members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist as well as some others who are nonmembers. Its central texts are the Bible and the Christian Science textbook,...

in his 1963 publication The Four Major Cults. In this book Hoekema praises Adventists for moving away from Arianism, but argues that Questions on Doctrine failed to truly repudiate the doctrine of Christ's sinful nature, and similarly failed to remove ambiguities and inconsistencies regarding the atonement.

Legacy

Questions on Doctrine has proven to be divisive for many Adventists in the latter half of the twentieth century. Church historian George R. Knight

George R. Knight

George Raymond Knight is a Seventh-day Adventist historian and educator. He is emeritus professor of church history at Andrews University.- Biography :Knight joined the Adventist church through the ministry of Ralph Larson...

has written that "Official Adventism may have gained recognition as being Christian from the evangelical world, but in the process a breach had been opened which has not healed in the last 50 years and may never heal." Conservative Herbert Douglass agreed, "most, if not all, of the so-called 'dissident' or 'independent' groups of the last 45 years are direct results of the explicit and implicit positions espoused by [Questions on Doctrine] on the atonement and the Incarnation."
Around 138,000 to 147,000 copies of QOD were circulated, but the book was so controversial that it was placed out of print in 1963. Throughout the following decades, the two Adventist camps—those who supported and opposed QOD respectively—continued to struggle with the issues it brought up which was not eased by "the ambiguous stance taken by General Conference leadership on Questions on Doctrine".

Meanwhile, evangelicals were concerned that the withdrawal of QOD signified a doctrinal retreat by Adventists and called for the book to be reprinted. In an interview around 1986 with Adventist Currents
Adventist Currents
Adventist Currents is a discontinued magazine which was published independently by progressively-minded Seventh-day Adventists from 1983 until 1988.- History :...

, Martin himself said

"If the Seventh-day Adventist [Church] will not back up its answers with actions and put Questions on Doctrine back in print... then they're in real trouble that I can't help them out of; and nobody else can either"

QOD was not republished until Andrews University Press

Andrews University Press

Andrews University Press is an academic publishing authority operated under the auspices of Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Established with minimal funding in 1969, a permanent director was appointed in 1979...

independently chose to reprint the book in 2003 as part of their "Adventist Classic Library" series. This new edition contained annotations and a historical introduction by George R. Knight. The text of the original book had also been available online for several years prior to this republishing, through a private website. One review is by Nancy Vyhmeister.

"It's a very positive and aggressive statement of Adventist beliefs", according to George Knight. "This book played an important role in the history of the Adventist Church", according to Gerhard Pfandl. Questions on Doctrine generated a theological movement which backs the theology of Andreasen and opposes the teaching set forward in the book. These "historic Adventists" perceive Questions on Doctrine as representing a major departure from traditional Adventist teaching, and believe that its publication has been harmful to the church. Other Adventists feel that Questions on Doctrine represents a courageous and insightful restatement of Adventist theology, while acknowledging that the book is not free from fault. For instance, it is clear that the authors pushed the facts too far with regard to Adventism's historic understanding of the Trinity

Trinity

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...

, and present data about the human nature of Christ in a way that presents a false impression.

Evangelical Kenneth Samples has described four unique perspectives of Walter Martin given by Adventist friends of Samples. A more evangelical Adventist told him, "I really like Walter Martin. He stood up for us." A more liberal Adventist said, "Who's Walter Martin that he should ever question our orthodoxy?!" A more fundamentalist Adventist said, "Walter Martin poisoned our church." A cultural Adventist friend said, "Who's Walter Martin?"!

Walter Martin considered his impact on evangelical's perception of Adventism one of the highlights of his career.

50th anniversary conference

A scholarly conference marking the 50th anniversary of the book's publication was held from October 24–27, 2007 at Andrews University

Andrews University

Andrews University is a Seventh-day Adventist university in Berrien Springs, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1874 as Battle Creek College in Battle Creek, Michigan, it was the first higher education facility started by Seventh-day Adventists, and is the flagship university of the Seventh-day...

in Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

. It was precipitated by Julius Nam

Julius Nam

Julius Juhyeok Nam is an associate professor of religion at Loma Linda University School of Religion in California, and a commissioned minister of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He teaches Adventist history and theology. He is active in the American Academy of Religion, Adventist Society for...

's 2005 doctoral dissertation on the book. Scholars, church leaders and pastors from widely varying positions on the Adventist theological spectrum gathered with non-Adventist evangelical scholars interested in Questions on Doctrine for dialogue. Prior to the event, General Conference

General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists is the governing organization of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It is located in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, where it moved in 1989...

administrators including incumbent president Jan Paulsen

Jan Paulsen

Dr. Jan Paulsen was elected President of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists on March 1, 1999, at the age of 64...

had voiced reservations and even outright opposition to the conference, fearing that it might reignite a firestorm of controversy within the denomination. In spite of this, the conference was hailed as a success by participants from all sides, and was felt to have promoted "healing".

The organizers of the conference were Julius Nam, Michael Campbell and Jerry Moon, Adventist scholars specializing in Adventist history. Three institutions co-sponsored the event: Andrews University, Loma Linda University

Loma Linda University

Loma Linda University is a Seventh-day Adventist coeducational health sciences university located in Loma Linda, California, United States. The University comprises eight schools and the Faculty of Graduate Studies...

and Oakwood College

Oakwood College

Oakwood University is a private university located in Huntsville, Alabama, United States. It is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church...

. The keynote speakers were conservative theologian Herbert Douglass, Adventist historian George Knight

George R. Knight

, and Biblical Research Institute

Biblical Research Institute

The Biblical Research Institute is a service department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church with the three stated functions of research, apologetics , and service to the church. It serves as a theological consultant to the General Conference...

director Ángel Rodríguez

Ángel Manuel Rodríguez

Ángel Manuel Rodríguez is a Seventh-day Adventist theologian and director of the Biblical Research Institute . His special research interests include Old Testament, Sanctuary and Atonement, and Old Testament Theology...

. Presenters included Roy Adams, Arthur Patrick

Arthur Patrick

Arthur Nelson Patrick is a Seventh-day Adventist theologian and historian. He is an honorary senior research fellow at Avondale College in New South Wales, Australia...

, Jon Paulien

Jon Paulien

Jonathan K. Paulien is a Seventh-day Adventist theologian specializing in the study of books by John in the New Testament . He was the professor of New Testament Interpretation at Andrews University...

, Richard Rice

Richard Rice

T. Richard Rice is a Seventh-day Adventist theologian and author. He is a leading proponent of "open theism", a term he invented, which describes a controversial understanding of God...

, A. Leroy Moore and Woodrow Whidden

Woodrow Whidden

Woodrow Wilson Whidden II is a Seventh-day Adventist aurthor, theologian, and professor of systematic and historical theology at the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies based in the Philippines.-Biography:...

. The "conservative" position was represented by Larry Kirkpatrick, Colin and Russell Standish

Standish brothers

Colin D. Standish and Russell Roland Standish are identical twin brothers and "historic" Seventh-day Adventists. They are often referred to collectively as the Standish brothers...

as well as Douglass. In addition there were contributions from non-Adventist scholars Kenneth Samples and Donald Dayton.

Topics

Questions on Doctrine addressed the following topics:

Christology
Christology
Christology is the field of study within Christian theology which is primarily concerned with the nature and person of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament. Primary considerations include the relationship of Jesus' nature and person with the nature...
The role of Ellen G. White
Ellen G. White
Ellen Gould White was a prolific author and an American Christian pioneer. She, along with other Sabbatarian Adventist leaders, such as Joseph Bates and her husband James White, would form what is now known as the Seventh-day Adventist Church.Ellen White reported to her fellow believers her...

's writings
The role of the law
Biblical law in Christianity
Christian views of the Old Covenant have been central to Christian theology and practice since the circumcision controversy in Early Christianity. There are differing views about the applicability of the Old Covenant among Christian denominations...
The Sabbath
The Sunday-law and Mark of the Beast
The meaning of the remnant
Remnant (Adventist)
In Seventh-day Adventist theology, there will be an end time remnant of believers who are faithful to God.The remnant church is a visible, historical, organized body characterized by obedience to the commandments of God and the possession of a unique end-time gospel proclamation...
The prophecies of Daniel
Book of Daniel
The Book of Daniel is a book in the Hebrew Bible. The book tells of how Daniel, and his Judean companions, were inducted into Babylon during Jewish exile, and how their positions elevated in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The court tales span events that occur during the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar,...

chapters 8 and 9
The Adventist doctrines of the heavenly sanctuary
Heavenly sanctuary
In Seventh-day Adventist theology, the heavenly sanctuary teaching asserts that many aspects of the Hebrew tabernacle or sanctuary are representative of heavenly realities. In particular, Jesus is regarded as a High Priest who provides cleansing for human sins by the sacrificial shedding of his...

and investigative judgment
Investigative judgment
The investigative judgment is a unique Seventh-day Adventist doctrine, which asserts that a divine judgment of professed Christians has been in progress since 1844. It is intimately related to the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and was described by the church's prophet and pioneer...
The second coming
Second Coming
In Christian doctrine, the Second Coming of Christ, the Second Advent, or the Parousia, is the anticipated return of Jesus Christ from Heaven, where he sits at the Right Hand of God, to Earth. This prophecy is found in the canonical gospels and in most Christian and Islamic eschatologies...

of Jesus
Death and hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...

External links

Questions on Doctrine 50th Anniversary Conference website, October 24–27, 2007 at Andrews University
Andrews University
Andrews University is a Seventh-day Adventist university in Berrien Springs, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1874 as Battle Creek College in Battle Creek, Michigan, it was the first higher education facility started by Seventh-day Adventists, and is the flagship university of the Seventh-day...
A Response to Ministry's "Questions on Doctrine: Then and Now"
The Graves of Questions On Doctrine
The Synagogue of Satan (audio sermon) covers QOD
The Desmond Ford Apostasy
The History Of Questions On Doctrine

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