The original edition of the book Questions on Doctrine, published in 1957, became the most divisive book in Adventist history. A number of independent ministries in the church today consider it the beginning of the Adventist Church’s theological apostasy.

The book was the result of a series of meetings in 1955/6 between Seventh-day Adventist church leaders and Walter R. Martin, a staff member of the evangelical magazine Eternity, who was writing a book about Seventh-day Adventists. He later gained fame as author of The Kingdom of the Cults. Because of its adherence to such teachings as the Sabbath, the non-immortality of the soul, the investigative judgment, and the prophetic gift in the life and work of Ellen G. White, the Adventist Church, since its origin, has often been viewed as a “cult” by other Christians.

The series of meetings between Adventist Church leaders (primarily LeRoy E. Froom, W.E. Read, and R.A. Anderson) and Walter Martin, George Cannon (professor of theology at Nyack Missionary College), and Donald G. Barnhouse (editor of Eternity) led to a growing acceptance of Adventists as fellow Christians by many evangelicals. Walter Martin submitted a list of questions to which the Adventist leaders provided answers. The result of those discussions was published in two books. The church in 1957 brought out the book Questions on Doctrine, and Walter Martin in 1960 published his book The Truth about Seventh-day Adventism.

Questions on Doctrine contained the questions Martin asked and the answers provided by the church’s representatives who counseled with Bible teachers, editors, and church administrators before submitting their written responses. The introduction in the original volume states that “the writers, counselors, and editors who produced the answers to these questions have labored conscientiously to state accurately the beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists.” However, because the text of the book was never voted by a General Conference in session it has never been considered as an official statement of Seventh-day Adventist beliefs.

The annotated edition of Questions on Doctrine with a lengthy historical and theological introduction by George R. Knight, professor of church history at Andrews University, is one of the first two volumes in the Adventist Classic Library series. The layout of the book is very well done, the page numbers of the 1957 edition are found in the text in bold enclosed by paragraph signs, e.g., §123§, and all page references are to the original 1957 edition. All additional material as well as all the new footnotes found in the annotated edition have been shaded in gray. In contrast to the original edition that used stars and crosses, the new footnotes are numbered with Arabic numerals. This helps the reader to quickly recognize the material that has been added in the annotated edition.

Most of the shorter footnotes provide references to more recent literature such as the 2000 edition of the Church Manual or the seven volumes of the Daniel and Revelation Committee Series. Longer footnotes (1-4 pages) that contain a sizeable amount of new material can be found in the sections on the Trinity (pp 44-46), the Sabbath (pp.145-146), the atonement (pp. 277-280), and on the topic of conditional immortality (pp 469-473). The bibliographic list of Adventist doctrinal literature has almost been doubled and appendix B on “Christ’s Nature During the Incarnation” has an extensive footnote over several pages that explains why the book has probably done more to create theological division within the Adventist Church than any other document in its history.

According to the Adventist News Service, three years before his death in 1986, Walter Martin, in an interview, cautioned Adventist leaders that QOD should return to the shelves: “If the Seventh-day Adventist [Church] will not back up its answers with actions and put Questions on Doctrine back in print … then they’re in real trouble that I can’t help them out of; and nobody else can either,” he told Adventist Currents, a now-defunct magazine published by church members. [Mark A. Kellner/ANN/ Nov 18, 2003].

Nearly 20 years later Questions on Doctrine is back on the shelves. Republication of the book in this annotated form supplies the historical and theological context of its original appearance in 1957. Every church administrator and pastor as well as all interested church members should have a copy of this volume. Not only is it a valuable work theologically, but it is a part of recent Adventist history which still impacts the church in many areas of the world.