This latest evangelistic campaign run by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church marks 2,000 years since the baptism of Jesus Christ in AD 27.
Preparation for OneVoice27
Preparation for OneVoice27 centres on the Empowered by Prayer Initiatives, a worldwide emphasis on prayer, spiritual renewal, and helping people encounter Jesus. Participants are encouraged to spend time daily contemplating Christ’s life through The Desire of Ages, while also sharing their faith through acts of service and personal witness. The programme further promotes the study of Daniel and Revelation, focusing on Christ’s first and second comings, with additional reflection on prophetic themes explored in The Great Controversy.
For many Adventists, The Desire of Ages is relatively uncontroversial because it focuses on the life and ministry of Jesus. Even people who have questions about Ellen White’s authority often acknowledge that it contains some beautiful devotional reflections on Christ.
The Great Controversy is a different matter.
Many historians, both Adventist and non-Adventist, have documented issues with its historical sources, quotations, and interpretations. Within Adventism itself, scholars such as Arthur Patrick, Raymond Cottrell, and others have discussed these questions for decades. Then there is the Catholic issue. When The Great Controversy was written, nineteenth-century Protestantism was deeply anti-Catholic. Much of the book reflects that historical context. While many Adventists today would say their concern is with systems and institutions rather than individual Catholics, the language can still be read as hostile or accusatory toward Catholicism as a whole.
This raises a bigger question for a movement whose stated purpose is to point people to Jesus. How do we reconcile a message centred on the love, grace and compassion of Christ with a worldview that can sometimes feel like “us versus them”, those who are inside and those who are outside, those who understand the truth and those who are deceived?
If we are inviting people to encounter Jesus, should our message be shaped by fear and suspicion of the world around us, or by the same compassion Jesus showed toward people who did not believe as He did?
Perhaps before we ask the world to listen to the Adventist message, we should ask ourselves whether the message we are giving actually sounds like Jesus.
If the stated goal is to unite believers around Jesus, then The Desire of Ages fits naturally into that objective. But when The Great Controversy is placed alongside it as required preparation, some members may wonder whether the movement is really centred on Christ alone, or whether it is also centred on a particular interpretation of history, prophecy, and denominational identity.
If OneVoice27 seeks to unite Adventists around Jesus, what place should The Great Controversy have in that preparation? Historical errors can be corrected, sources re-examined, and outdated anti-Catholic language challenged. Nonetheless, what happens when the ideas in question are attributed to Ellen G. White and are therefore inseparable from questions about her prophetic authority?
Can a movement truly speak with “one voice” about Jesus while allowing room for members who have serious questions about the historical claims and prophetic authority underlying one of its recommended books?
If OneVoice27 is asking Adventists to engage with The Great Controversy as part of its preparation, when should we talk openly about the authority of Ellen G. White? Is it reasonable to encourage people to read a book as part of their spiritual preparation without also encouraging them to examine the evidence for the prophetic authority of its author?
We Are Still Challenged to Study for Ourselves
Aren’t we, as Christians, challenged to study and examine these things for ourselves? The Bereans were commended because they did not simply accept Paul’s teaching on the strength of his authority. They “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11).
If believers were encouraged to test even the teaching of an apostle against Scripture, surely we should also be free to examine the writings of Ellen G. White, including The Great Controversy, and consider for ourselves the historical evidence, the sources, and the claims made in her writings.
Perhaps this is where the real meaning of OneVoice27 should begin. We do not need to have one voice about every book, every historical interpretation, every prophetic question, or even Ellen White’s authority. But we can have one voice about Jesus.
Unity does not require us to think alike. We can question, wrestle with difficult issues, disagree with one another and still search the Scriptures together. Perhaps the goal of OneVoice27 should not be to silence the many voices within Adventism, but to make sure that, above all the noise, we can still hear the voice of Jesus. After all, the most important question is not whether we are all saying the same thing, but whether what we are saying is leading people back to Him.
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