In 1957, to the accompaniment of the above mentioned articles in Ministry and full page advertisements in the Review and Herald, the book Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions on Doctrine was presented to the church and the world. The eight pages of Ellen White quotations that had appeared in Ministry, September, 1956, were copied into this book in an Appendix dealing with the nature and work of Christ. The headings that had introduced the individual quotations in Ministry were deleted, and minor changes were made in the section headings that were retained. "Took Sinless Nature of Adam Before Fall" was reduced to "Took Sinless Human Nature." In the same year the material as presented in Questions On Doctrine was photo-copied into volume 7A of the Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary.
Authorship of the book Questions On Doctrine has never been disclosed by Adventist church leaders. Although Dr. Froom states that the manuscript was read and approved by 225 Adventist thought leaders,[l] their names have also been withheld.
We may be pardoned for desiring to ask, Why the secrecy? Were the Adventist thought leaders chosen by random selection, as a careful methodology would require? Or were they chosen because of their previously ascertained opinions?
Were all of them living close enough to the White Estate library in Washington, D. C. so that they could examine the relevant source materials, or were they scattered about the world, as seems more likely? If they were at their far-flung posts of duty, we may safely assume that they had Bibles in their possession, and could readily compare the theological statements in the book Questions on Doctrine and their supporting scriptural quotations, with their own understanding of those scriptures.
But the statement in Questions On Doctrine referring to the human nature of Jesus contained no references to scripture. It was constructed entirely of excerpts from magazine articles written by Ellen White before the year 1905, and from a private letter written by Ellen White to W. L. H. Baker in 1895. Scattered Adventist leaders would have had no access to these articles and probably would not have been aware of the existence of the private letter. Their "approval," then, could not have been based on an examination of the evidence. So what would be its value?
And again, why the secrecy? If the Christological material in Questions On Doctrine was, as it was represented to be, a historical report of the views of all Seventh-day Adventists except a "poorly informed minority" about the humanity of Jesus, why was such caution felt to be necessary? Were the members of the mistaken minority perchance persons of large influence in the Adventist community? If so, why were their opinions ignored in the historical assessment? Or if they were persons of small influence in the Adventist community, why need their reaction be feared?
At any rate, the strictest secrecy in regard to the names of those who wrote and those who approved the book has been and is still being exercised. Why?
Yet the book Questions On Doctrine has been very widely circulated and is considered by many to be unquestionably authoritative in its pronouncements.
The importance of its Christological statement must not be underestimated. Its influence has been incalculable, first outside the Seventh-day Adventist church, then within the church. It was on the basis of this statement and the assurances that accompanied it, that Walter Martin and his colleagues concluded that the Seventh-day Adventist people, aside from a poorly-informed minority, had never believed or taught that Christ came to this earth in the nature of fallen man, and published that conclusion to the world. It is on the basis of this statement that virtually every Bible department in Seventh-day Adventist colleges is now teaching that Christ came to the earth in the nature of the unfallen Adam, and that this was the position held by Ellen White.
This statement is widely regarded in Seventh-day Adventist circles today as the absolute and final truth regarding the church's view of Christ's human nature, an authoritative pronouncement from which no reasonable appeal or dissent is possible. It is widely assumed that any who would presume to question it are thereby demonstrating either their lack of education or their lack of intelligence, or perhaps both.
In 1971 Leroy Edwin Froom published Movement of Destiny in which he reports with satisfaction the acceptance by "many thousands of scholars, of many faiths and in many lands," of the book Questions On Doctrine, and indicates that its Christological statement is the portion of the book that carried the greatest weight with these scholars.[2]
Froom then goes on to present a synopsis of that portion of the statement which appeared under the section heading "Took Sinless Nature of Adam Before Fall." It consists of smaller excerpts, roughly corresponding to the emphasized portions, from the same quotations published in Ministry, Questions On Doctrine, and Volume 7A of the Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary. In the next chapter these will be presented verbatim for the benefit of students who may not have access to the publications themselves.
Notes: