Practica Prophetica

4 thoughts on “The Battle for the Mind”

1. What happened to Brimsmead ?

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   1. The article on Wikipedia explains it pretty well:

      “During the 1970s after examining the controversies of the Protestant Reformation and the writings of Adventist church co-founder and author Ellen G. White, he abandoned this position and went back to the 16th-century Protestant principle of justification by faith alone. His representation of justification by grace through faith alone was substantially from the writings and thinking of Martin Luther. He founded the magazine Present Truth, whose name was later changed to Verdict.

      “In the late 1970s, he again underwent another theological shift and changed his focus from a call to return to Reformation principles to that of systematically questioning and discarding many of the doctrines he had held. A side effect of this activity was the commissioning of an independent study and report on the basis for Christian beliefs on final punishment or hell by Edward Fudge. Brinsmead’s Verdict Publications published the first edition of the resulting book The Fire That Consumes subtitled A Biblical and Historical Study of Final Punishment. The book became a major catalyst in the broader Christian evangelical world for a growing acceptance of annihilationism.

      “In the early 1980s Brinsmead’s theology shifted to liberal Christianity, and he now rejected the Adventist belief in the Sabbath. He abandoned his belief in many orthodox Christian teachings, including justification through faith in Christ and the divinity of Christ, seeing God’s interaction with mankind as not being limited to just the history of the Bible, but as an ongoing and continuous interaction with humanity towards a positive future.

      “In the 1990s he turned from his theological focus, and shifted his attention to politics and his tropical fruit theme park, Tropical Fruit World.”

      Somewhere in the mid-1960’s there was a general disappointment in the Awakening movement (in which Brinsmead was the leading figure), as the SDA General Conference refused to take up the 1888 issue. Some in the movement felt this was the “final call” to the church, but many, including the Brinsmeads, refused to take this step, and advocated returning to the SDA church (from which many had been disfellowshiped) and trying to work from within.

      Fred Wright, who had found a true conversion through the 1888 emphasis of the Awakening message, was teaching the message at that time, and was on the side of those who believed a time had come for permanent separation. Bob and Fred also disagreed on a few other issues, one of which was the eradication of the old man (spiritual nature). Fred applied this to the new birth, and taught that the old man was completely removed, to make room for Christ’s seed (“old things are passed away, all things are become new”). Although Bob had used the same type of language (for example, see the booklet “How is Perfection Possible?” where he uses the term “eradicate” a number of times), he refused to differentiate the old spiritual nature entirely from the sinful human nature. Later, when Fred’s first book “Living Righteously” was printed, Bob wrote a review of the book, condemning the teaching as a kind of “instantaneous sanctification.”

      You can read more of the history of that time in the booklet “A Brief History of the Early Years.”

      Personally, I think time has proved that Fred was on the correct path, as the message he brought continued and grew, whereas Bob went off into strange paths.

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2. So are these files by Brimsmead kosher then ?

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   1. Of course! God led in the Awakening. It was a real revival of the 1888 message, not just a reprinting of the old writings, but a modern expression of the same truths. Brinsmead had a gift to combine the prophecies of the Advent message with the 1888 gospel. There are many points where he was in advance of the common Adventist understanding, both of the gospel and of prophecy. His interpretations of Daniel 11, especially the last verses, clarified a number of misconceptions held by Adventists. His book, The Vision by the Hiddekel covers this more fully.

      There are only a few points where the truths presented in the Awakening were mixed with a few misunderstandings. Where those appear, I have tried to mark them with footnotes, and with an explanation in the Foreword. This particular book does not have any of those misunderstandings in it. It is mainly a quoting of the relevent Bible chapters, with a few footnotes explaining the important symbols, and some pages of clarification in between. Also the charts of the main time prophecies are presented (1260 days, 2300 days, 490 days).

      You know, even if we could have a book that was 100% correct in all its interpretations, men would still disagree about it, and there is a great danger that we ourselves would misinterpret and missapply it. The weakness is in all of us. So when we read the writings of past messengers, we always have to look at what God has done, and not focus on the human element so much. Are the writings of William Miller kosher? They are not free from error, and yet God worked marvelously through him. Likewise with Luther, Wesley, etc. And each messenger brought his own unique gifts and presented certain facets of truth, that others did not. This is true, even of light given in the past.

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