Abstract

This thesis addresses the problem of Seventh-day Adventism's claim to comprise the final "remnant" church of Bible prophecy. The traditional emphasis within the church has been to lay exclusive claims upon the "remnant" of Revelation 12:17, God's last true church, on the basis that (a) Adventism exists in the "last days," (b) keeping the commandments of God" refers to their unique emphasis on the seventh-day Sabbath, (c) "having the testimony of Jesus" describes their possession of the gift of prophecy manifest in the life and work of Ellen G. White, and (d) God has given this church the task of spreading the "Third Angel's Message" of Sabbath observance to the world. When they complete this commission they will trigger the eschaton.

Such a view has developed problems in recent years. The first two chapters survey the historical and exegetical problems with such a claim. The research indicates that (a) Adventism's historical claims emerged within a particular world-view and biblical hermeneutic that largely ignored the contextual and historical setting of Rev. 12:17, and (b) subsequent attempts by Adventist scholars to justify historical Adventism's claims do not correspond with the findings of contemporary Biblical scholarship. The third chapter probes the Old and New Testaments for elements in the Biblical concept of "remnant," and the fourth chapter surveys recent attempts by Adventist theologians and ethicists to return to a Biblical definition. The fifth chapter offers a re-formulation of Seventh-day Adventist ecclesiological self-understanding under the Biblical teaching on "remnant." "Remnantness" is redefined first as a celebration of God's "leading in our past history" as one of many occasions of divine salvation amid disaster. Adventism is reinterpreted as a "historical" remnant in distinction to the "eschatological" remnant, which will only be visible after the eschaton. Second, remnant status for Adventism involves an impetus to respond to God's leading with a vigorous personal and social ethic in the spirit of the Old Testament prophets, who encouraged ethics as responses to grace, not precursors of the eschaton. Adventism, in this view, is understood as playing a cumulative, not culminative role, as we approach the end.

LLU Discipline

Religion

Department

Religion

School

Graduate School

First Advisor

T. Richard Rice

Second Advisor

Niels-Erik Andreasen

Third Advisor

Ronald Graybill

Fourth Advisor

Madelynn J. Haldeman

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Degree Level

M.A.

Year Degree Awarded

1988

Date (Title Page)

9-1988

Language

English

Library of Congress/MESH Subject Headings

Seventh-day Adventists -- Doctrines; Remnant (Theology)

Type

Thesis

Page Count

iv; 92

Digital Format

PDF

Digital Publisher

Loma Linda University Libraries

Usage Rights

This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has granted Loma Linda University a limited, non-exclusive right to make this publication available to the public. The author retains all other copyrights.

Collection

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Collection Website

http://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd/

Repository

Loma Linda University. Del E. Webb Memorial Library. University Archives

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