Trust and Doubt

Denis Kaiser, Ph. D. (Andrews University), is Assistant Professor of Church History at the Theological Seminary, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God . . . " We believe these words, but what do they actually mean? Did God exercise a dominating influence over the inspired writers of Scripture, or did He provide them with assistance in communicating His inspired messages? In their struggle to arrive at a biblical understanding of God's influence in the inspiration process, Seventh-day Adventists have advocated a variety of views since their very beginning. During a period of grave tensions on the subject of divine inspiration in American Protestant Christianity (1830s-1920s), Adventists experienced in their midst a living prophetic claimant whose very presence pressed them to ponder about the Holy Spirit's modus operandi. This book traces the interplay of various theories of divine inspiration in the writings of eleven key thinkers in that period of Seventh-day Adventist history.