The Great Heritage of Adventist theology
(a summary of Dr. Whidden's remarks presented at the Seminary Adventist Heritage Sabbath)

The great heritage of Adventist theology came through our founding "pioneers" and the great shaper was Ellen White. The key to her tutelage was the affirmation that we must be biblical in our teaching, but biblical with a special twist---a powerful emphasis on the importance of "apocalyptic" prophecy. And it was this emphasis on the "apocalyptic" books of the Bible which led us to the great themes of the "sanctuary" and the "great controversy" as the important, shaping perspectives which give powerful context for the totality of the Adventist "message." These two themes ("sanctuary" and "great controversy") led us to a strong affirmation of the entirety of the biblical canon and provided perspective which has helped to bind both the distinctives of the "pillars," or the "landmarks" of "Present Truth" with the more foundational heritage of the "eternal verities" of Christian orthodoxy which we inherited from the larger Christian tradition (especially what we received from the Sixteenth Century Reformers and the Wesleyan Tradition). This has given us a compelling formation of that which is both Adventist and Christian---a doctrinal platform which allows both to profoundly form and shape one another. The result is a message which is "truth" in both its "eternal" and "present" appropriateness. The key that binds it all together is the issue of God's triune love and the remarkable way that Ellen White has led us to understand the "Great Controversy" between Christ and Satan as a full display of the depth and breadth of God's love. The climactic expression of this theme is found in the portrayal of Christ's passion in what I have come to call the "most holy place" of the writings of Ellen White--The Desire of Ages, pp. 761-63. In the most foundational and central sense, this is the great theme of entire canon of Scripture and the jewel of our Heritage from "pioneer" Adventism.

-- Dr. Woodrow Whidden