New Ellen G. White Resource Available

The “White Estate Digital Resource Center” is an important new research tool being made available on DVD in January 2009 to all 18 Ellen G. White Estate branch offices, research centers, and study centers worldwide. It contains the written replies to inquiries made to the Ellen G. White Estate from the early 1930s to the present (17,203 pages) as well as document files covering a wide range of theological, historical, and practical topics (15,911 pages). Development of the resource began at the Bogenhofen Seminary, Austria, through the creative vision of three theology students: Markus Kutzschbach, Stefan Serena, and Denis Kaiser. The students worked under the supervision of Frank M. Hasel, Dean of the Theological Seminary and Director of the Ellen G. White Study Center at Bogenhofen. Additional materials have been added to it by the Ellen G. White Estate at the Adventist Church World Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A. “This new resource opens up vast possibilities to the scholar and pastor as well as to the individual church member,” according to Hasel.

The DVD is just the first step in a more extensive project. To meet the rapidly-changing needs of today’s church, the White Estate has contracted with Kutzschbach and Serena (among others) to develop a new, user-friendly, highly interactive, state-of-the-art website. Planned for beta release early in 2009, the website’s resources will make study of the Bible and the writings of Ellen G. White easier and more enjoyable. Also planned is an online searchable global database of all the Ellen G. White books in as many languages as can be obtained, with links to Bible references (in various languages) and cross-references within her writings. It will also allow the text to be exported easily in various formats to PDAs, smart phones, CDs, etc. “The most important aspect of the global database,” observes Frank Hasel, “is that it offers the possibility of a unified and manageable language database of all of Ellen White’s books that can be constantly updated as more materials are made available.”

In the future, the database could also facilitate low-cost, on-demand printing and distribution of Ellen White’s writings in various languages. Several world divisions have requested the production of a multi-language CD-ROM of Ellen G. White’s Complete Published Writings. According to Elder James Nix, White Estate director, “The creation of this global database will enable our office to respond to these requests and to prepare a new Ellen White multi-language CD-ROM for worldwide distribution.”

New Book Answers Questions on the Spirit of Prophecy

The Gift of Prophecy: The Role of Ellen White in God’s Remnant Church by Gerhard Pfandl has recently been published by Pacific Press. The book answers questions that have been raised about the gift of prophecy, giving “succinct, unambiguous, compelling answers to the very questions I have heard from God’s remnant people around the world,” writes Cindy Tutsch in the book’s Foreword. These include: How necessary is the human herald in the process of salvation? Is speaking in tongues a genuine gift of the Spirit? In what way does God communicate His messages to prophets? What is the nature of Ellen White’s authority? Was every prediction she made fulfilled? What about the charge of plagiarism and the misuse or misinterpretation of her writings? Tutsch adds, “I have found Dr. Pfandl’s explanation about inspiration as clear and understandable as anything I have encountered in my quite extensive reading about the prophetic gift and particularly about Ellen White’s ministry.” The purpose of the book, according to Pfandl, is twofold: to respond to recent attacks against the gift of prophecy and to share with a new generation the blessings that God has given to the Seventh-day Adventist Church through Ellen White’s prophetic ministry. The 128-page book consists of thirteen chapters and costs US$11.99.

New Book Clarifies the Concept of the Atonement

The subject of the atonement has become a controversial one in contemporary Christian theology. The topic itself is extremely important because the work of Christ for the redemption of the human race is the theological center of Scripture. In, Spanning the Abyss: How the Atonement Brings God and Humanity Together, Ángel M. Rodríguez, BRI director, provides a careful discussion of the biblical evidence. He shows that, although the Bible approaches the topic from a multiplicity of angles, the substitutive interpretation of the death of Christ remains central in biblical soteriology. It serves to explain how the sacrifice of Christ on the cross reveals the glorious love of God for a fallen race. The book is the companion volume for the recently completed Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide by the same author entitled “Atonement and the Cross of Christ.” Published by the Review and Herald Publishing Association, the 155-page book costs US$10.99.

Adventists Take Leading Role at Inaugural Meeting of New SBL Consultation

An exciting new development within the structure of the Society of Biblical Literature annual meetings is the “Sabbath in Text, Tradition, and Theology” consultation which met for the first time on Monday, November 24, 2008 in Boston. The consultation, which combines topics from both Christian and Jewish perspectives, is co-chaired by Michael Chernick of Hebrew Union College and Tom Shepherd of Andrews University. Adventist scholars featured prominently in the inaugural meeting. The goal of the consultation, according to Shepherd, “is to foster an open and rewarding dialogue between Jews and Christians on this important religious institution.” Three Adventists presented papers at the morning session, which centered on the theme of “The Sabbath in the Pentateuch”: Ross Winkle of Pacific Union College and Gerald Klingbeil and Mathilde Frey of the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies. Baruch Schwartz from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was a respondent. The second session focused on “The Origin and Meaning of Sabbath” and featured papers by Jiří Moskala of Andrews University and Nikolaus Satelmajer, Editor of Ministry. A paper was also presented by Jeffrey Stackert of the University of Chicago Divinity School. The full papers, summaries of which were given at the sessions, may be obtained from Tom Shepherd, co-chair, at trs@andrews.edu. The respective themes for 2009 and 2010 are “The Sabbath in Second Temple Judaism and the time of Jesus” and “The Sabbath in the Second Century C.E. (Jewish and Christian sources).”