This new volume by Clifford Goldstein deals with two important aspects of Adventist belief and practice, specifically the sanctuary and the prophetic ministry of Ellen G. White. He uses the attacks launched by Dale Ratzlaff’s book The Cultic Doctrine of Seventh-day Adventists against the church to demonstrate the solidity of the Adventist position. Dale Ratzlaff is a former Adventist worker who left the church in 1981 and founded Life Assurance Ministries with the intention of providing support to former Adventists.

In dealing with Ratzlaff’s arguments, Goldstein uses the results of his own personal study of the sanctuary in Daniel and the resources produced by the Biblical Research Institute. He demonstrates that Ratzlaff is not bringing anything fundamentally new to the discussion but is simply rehashing old arguments. Goldstein suggests that Ratzlaff’s unwillingness to deal with the answers given by Adventist theologians to questions raised by Desmond Ford and others reveals poor scholarship on his part.

In the process of debunking the charges raised by Ratzlaff, Goldstein deals with questions related to the little horn in Daniel 8 and Antiochus Epiphanes, the judgment in Daniel 7 and 8, the beginning and ending of the 2300 days, the nature of the cleansing mentioned in Daniel 8:14, the sanctuary mentioned there as the heavenly sanctuary, the phrase “within the veil” in Hebrew 6:19, the year-day principle in the Bible, and the pre-Advent judgment and the gospel. The tone of the arguments is irenic but perceptive and penetrating. It becomes obvious that Ratzlaff was not properly informed concerning the Adventist views on most of those issues.

The last chapter of the book addresses charges raised against E. G. White’s prophetic gift. Goldstein does not deal with all of them because they have already been answered by others. Ratzlaff did not seem to be aware of those answers or chose to ignore them. In that section Goldstein gives a powerful personal testimony on the influence of E. G. White in his life and unapologetically acknowledges her prophetic gift. He deals with issues like the closed door, deception in E. G. White and particularly the accusation that she is anti-gospel. Goldstein pulls together historical data, biblical materials, and common sense thinking to demonstrate, first, that Ratzlaff was attacking a distortion of the ministry and role of E. G. White in the church and, second, that in some cases Ratzlaff did not pay careful attention to the evidence available.

The book will be useful to pastors, church administrators, and church members who want to understand or review the biblical foundation of the Adventist understanding of the sanctuary in Daniel and the prophetic ministry of E. G. White.