The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4

II. Recovery of Established Orthodox Positions

So they considered their platform to be distinctly a recovery of the old and established in prophetic interpretation, not a discovery of something new, strange, and untried; a retention of the accredited and true, not an invention of the doubtful and fanciful; a restoration of the best and the soundest in exposition, not an innovation, advancing the questionable and debatable. As conservatives, and not radicals, they therefore stood as resolute champions of old positions, not as doughty defenders of new contentions. They took their position as stanch upholders of interpretive orthodoxy, not as purveyors of heterodoxy or expositional heresy. They consequently expressed a certainty born of deep conviction. Their attitude was positive, not negative; and was definitely aggressive, not defensive. PFF4 1054.3

They considered (hat they had come into being to revive and press those phases and features of prophetic truth that were now specifically due the world. They considered themselves to be a people with a mission, and a message pertinent to the times. This, they profoundly believed, was why they had been brought onto the stage of world action at that very time. They had a work to do, just as had others before them. They definitely felt that they were there to help complete the arrested Reformation. They believed that they had appeared at the time called for. They felt they were called into being to emphasize the prophetic message due the world and to stress the special truths destined, in the plan of God, for emphasis at that time. It was this sense of a mission and a mandate that gave them boldness and conviction in proclaiming the “message” as they saw it. PFF4 1055.1

They were therefore engaged in gathering up the gold from the cluttering dross of misconception and departure, in gleaning the gems of prophetic truth from the rubbish of error and departure-diamonds from the established expositions of Daniel, rubies from the sound interpretations of the Revelation, and pearls from Paul’s prophecy in the Thessalonian epistle. Consciously drafting upon the expositional strength of the ages, they were raising up and deliberately building upon the foundations of many generations of sound, progressive principles of exposition. They claimed the heritage of the years as their very own-for truth, they held, becomes the lawful possession of all who exert themselves to recover and proclaim it. In the light of such an understanding and attitude, let us now review the individual expositions of the leading pioneer builders of the now steadily expanding Advent Movement. First we note James White, and then we will come to his associates. PFF4 1055.2

Picture 2: JAMES WHITE STALWART ADVENTIST LEADER
James White’s birthplace in palmyra, and white at the age of forty-two, Whose father was deacon John White, of the baptist” Faith. These pioneers came from sturdy stock
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