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Doing Theology: Appeals To Human Authority-2
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September 1 - Doing Theology: Appeals To Human Authority-2

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Man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. Deut. 8:3, RSV.

While we all agree that the Bible is important, it is terribly difficult not to attempt to solve our theological problems by citing the opinions of the "experts." Both Uriah Smith and G. I. Butler made such appeals in the 1888 era. While the majority of Adventist ministers may have agreed with the leadership, Adventism's reform element raised a chorus of objections.

E. J. Waggoner was as lucid as anyone on the topic. In refuting Butler's use of expert opinion to settle the Galatians issue, he met the older man at his most vulnerable spot. "I care nothing," Waggoner argued, "for what a man says. I want to know that scripture argument instead."

If Adventists were to begin relying on authoritative opinion. Waggoner asserted, "we might as well turn Papists at once; for to pin one's faith to the opinion of man is the very essence of the Papacy." Seventh-day Adventists, he asserted, "should be Protestants indeed, testing everything by the Bible alone."

Not only did Adventists face the temptation to call upon the standard Christian authors to support various positions, but they also had their own well-established authors, such as Uriah Smith.

W. C. White pointed out that some Adventist ministers gave "equal importance to the quotations of Scripture, and to Ed, Smith's comments," because Ellen White had commended his Daniel and the Revelation. After all, some ministers argued, didn't she say that Smtih "had the help of heavenly angels in his work"?

Now, here is an interesting argument from Adventist history. Again and again people have argued for accepting some person's authority because Ellen White commended their writings or said they had the truth.

Such was not the position of the reformers at Minneapolis, including Ellen White herself. All of them would say that no matter how much truth someone might have, the only way to validate any particular teaching of their would be to go to the Bible and thoroughly check it out.

That's still good advice. Or as I like to say it, the eleventh commandment is "never trust a theologian." All ideas are to be verified by the Bible.

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The leaven hidden in the flour works invisibly to bring the whole mass under its leavening process; so the leaven of truth works secretly, silently, steadily, to transform the soul. The natural inclinations are softened and subdued. New thoughts, new feelings, new motives, are implanted(COL 98).
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