E. J. Waggoner: From the physican of good news to agent of division
Review by Arthur Patrick

The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones" (Testimonies to Ministers, page 91). This sentence is still one of the bestremembered statements from the copious writings of Ellen White about the epochal General Conference, held in Minneapolis, Minnesota (US), during 1888.

During the 1960s, such statements awakened intense discussion among Adventists in Australia and New Zealand, spurred by the writings of Robert Wieland, Donald Short, Milian Andreasen and Robert Brinsmead. Ellen White's affirmations were used to highlight the crucial importance of the "most precious message" given by the two young ministers, A T Jones and E J Waggoner. Constantly, we were warned: "If you reject Christ's delegated messengers, you reject Christ" (page 97).

The church has long needed the newest volume in the ongoing "Adventist Pioneer Series": Woodrow W Whidden's E J Waggoner: From the Physician of Good News to Agent of Division. As the series editor, George Knight ensures the quality of the series. There are a number of strengths in this new biography of Ellet J Waggoner (1855-1916); we will notice just three.

First, to understand history, authors must have sources, especially primary sources. In 1950, Wieland and Short began to ask important questions about 1888. Between 1958 and 1970, spurred by Wieland and Short's writings, as well as those of Andreasen, Brinsmead wrote and spoke about 1888 with intense passion. But all four men were bereft of essential documentation.

In 1966, A V Olson's Through Crisis to Victory helped somewhat, as did Froom's Movement of Destiny in 1972. David McMahon gave us some remarkably good insights in his book Ellet Joseph Waggoner (1979), following his detailed analyses of some of Waggoner's articles. But it wasn't until the 1980s that comprehensive progress was made with the full range of complex issues, as a wealth of primary sources were mined by well-trained historians and other researchers. Three of many studies illustrate the clearer understanding that was developing: Eric Webster, Crosscurrents in Adventist Christology (1984); George Knight, From 1888 to Apostasy: The Case of A T Jones (1987), and a slim volume edited by Arthur Ferch, Towards Righteousness by Faith: 1888 in Retrospect (1989).

Second, it was not until 1980 that most of the important biblical questions were widely understood among Adventists. Different positions on righteousness by faith were being espoused-some quite vigorously. Clearly, careful Bible study was required, so church leaders put in place two important initiatives: a conference at Palmdale in the high desert of California during 1976, and a Righteousness by Faith Consultation that was reported in Adventist Review, July 30, 1980. At last, the church was developing a better grasp of the questions that needed asking and answering from Scripture.

Third, Dr Whidden had far more than the combined benefits of all the primary sources, all the secondary studies and the biblical data listed above. With fuller documentation than that available to all the authors just mentioned, plus the added help of a number of recent, detailed studies of Waggoner, his book offers us mature perspectives.

Much that is now clear was quite beyond our ken as recently as the 1970s. We can now better understand Ellen White's endorsement of Waggoner, and her sorrowful disendorsement of him, when both his theology and personal morality became unacceptable.

Those earnest Adventists who focus on and diligently promote some of Waggoner's writings need Dr Whidden as a competent tour guide through the maze. It is now evident that, as early as 1889, the loved "messenger" was becoming unreliable as a spiritual guide. His decline was probably accelerated during the 1890s by the heresy of a Scottish author, Edward Irving, who advocated the teaching that Christ had a sinful human nature. While Dr Waggoner avoided some of the pantheistic ideas of his colleague Dr John Harvey Kellogg, he developed an even more subtle error, panentheism. As he diminished his early focus on justifying grace, he emphasised the Christ within, to the point where his doctrines of "perfection" and "spiritual affinities" ended his effectiveness as a minister.

With Dr Whidden's biography, we can better celebrate God's gift to us through Ellet J Waggoner, cherishing "the most precious message" and avoiding the perils that beset "the physician of good news."

E J Waggoner: From the Physician of Good News to Agent of Division
Woodrow W Whidden II
Review and Herald, 2008, hardback, 401 pages.
Available from Adventist Book Centres
Price $A42.95; $NZ53.95

This has been a review from Record, February 7, 2009