On Sabbath, June 2, 2007, within several days of their return from the West Coast of the United States and Africa, respectively, Graeme Bradford and Arthur Patrick addressed the Sydney, Australia, Adventist Forum on the current struggle within the Seventh-day Adventist Church over the right understanding of the role and authority of prophets, both biblical and modern.

Bradford, author of three books that are currently read widely, Prophets Are Human, People Are Human, and More than a Prophet, spoke of his direct contacts in the United States with former Adventists presently campaigning actively against the Church’s stance on the gift of prophecy and right-wing Adventists who continue to argue for the authority of Ellen White in areas such as geology, history, and theology.

One former Adventist pastor told him that the present situation was a battle for the very soul of Adventism. He reported that there are still folk in North America who would fight to the death to defend an infallible Ellen White. Bradford also commented that if we don’t tell our people the truth about how Ellen White performed her ministry then our opponents will do so—and in a negative and destructive way—and this is already happening.

For his part, Patrick, former director of the Ellen G. White/SDA Research Centre at Avondale College, described Ellen White’s work between 1844 and 1915 as moving the Church from great disappointment to great certainty—only to be faced with uncertainty in the 1970s with new questions being raised. Unlike the set of former questions, such as whether believers should allow cheese and milk in their diet, current issues involve how Ellen White related to her culture, what use she made of sources, and how her writings impinge on the findings of history and science.

Patrick reported that the discovery and publication of the 1919 Bible Conference minutes in the 1970s revealed that these questions had been raised within several years of Ellen White’s death in 1915. He went on to comment that the way we deal with them now is directly relevant for the credibility (and hence the destiny) of Adventism in the Western world.

Both speakers called for an open and frank approach that puts the whole matter out on the table and moves forward in the light of all the present evidence. Bradford spoke of pastors in United States who advised him that his books were urgently needed. One former pastor said that every thirty years someone tries to do what Bradford is attempting, but that no one has succeeded. One earnest layman confided that he could forgive his church many things—but that he wanted it to be honest with him and tell things the way they really are.

Bradford expressed his concern for the worldwide church family—that thousands are walking away from both Adventism and Christianity and that they need to be given a frank indication of the true situation. He said that we need not be afraid to face the truth regarding Ellen White’s ministry because her role will meet every biblical expectation of a true prophet. The problem was with us as a church in that we have expected more from her than the Bible would intend. Bradford noted that his book, More than a Prophet, is available free on SDAnet.org, where readers’ comments may be entered as they wish.

Patrick, who had been in attendance in Washington in 1982 when some seventy persons from various world divisions met in the wake of findings by Walter Rea and others, reported on the call at that time to make known to the wider Church the full implications of the data that had emerged in such matters as Ellen White’s use of sources and the authority of her writings in areas such as history, health, and science. He went on to explain that, on his return to Australia, one of his superiors in church administration instructed him to keep for his own records reports he had written of the workshop and not to share either the 941 pages of documents given to attendees or the sound recordings of workshop discussions.

Bradford and Patrick have a conviction that the present struggles offer the Church yet another opportunity to clarify its position—to achieve what it failed to carry out after the 1919 and 1982 discussions. It can either accept, examine, and interpret the evidence that has come to light, or it can revert to its former blinkered stance.

On a positive note, clear recognition was given at the Forum presentation to the encouragement, particularly since 1999, by South Pacific Division administrators for a climate of openness that has seen Bradford’s books go to press and extensive papers by Patrick presented at church conferences.

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