The purpose of this inquiry is to ascertain what has been the consensus of opinion among Seventh-day Adventists in regard to the specific Christological question, Did the incarnate Christ come to earth in the human nature of the unfallen Adam, or in the human nature of fallen man?
The inquiry is of necessity historical in nature, rather than being scriptural or theological. It seeks to establish what Seventh-day Adventists have believed, not why they have believed it. The scriptural and theological reasons for their beliefs are judged to comprise a subject matter too large for the parameters of this paper, and will need to be dealt with separately. However, a brief list of the scriptures most frequently used by Seventh-day Adventist writers will be found in Chapter 5.
The source materials have included articles published in the major Seventh-day Adventist journals: the Review and Herald, the Signs of the Times, the Southern Watchman, the Watchman, Our Times, These Times, the Youth's Instructor, the Bible Echo, the Australasian Signs of the Times, the Australasian Record, and the South African Signs of the Times; General Conference Bulletins, Sabbath School Quarterlies, books written by Seventh-day Adventist authors, and, with particular emphasis, the entire body of books, magazine articles, and unpublished manuscripts written by Ellen White.
The letters of Ellen White were not examined, but the paper does include a few items from these sources that were supplied to me by others.