Robert Brinsmead

Robert D. Brinsmead (Australia, 12 August 1934—) is a formerly controversial figure within the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the 1960s and 1970s, known for his diverse theological journey.

Richard Schwarz wrote in 1979, "Although there had been dissident groups in the church from its start, none was more troublesome to Adventist leaders than [Brinsmead's]". (The Glacier View controversy regarding Desmond Ford also had a large impact, occuring the year after this statement was made). This is despite the fact he was never employed by the church in an official capacity, such as a minister. According to Larry Pahl, "The name of Robert D. Brinsmead was once capable of evoking strong emotion and division in the Adventist circles brave and informed enough to discuss his controversial ideas." His influence was described as "The Brinsmead Agitation" by the Biblical Research Committee, a precursor to the Biblical Research Institute. One article described him as "intense and driven."

During the 1960s he advocated a form of perfectionism which he described as the "[Sanctuary] Awakening" message, aligning with historic Adventism. During the 1970s he abandoned this position and strongly emphasized the the 16th century Protestant principle of justification by faith alone. His representation of justification by grace through faith alone was derived substantially from the writings and thinking of Martin Luther. He founded the magazine Present Truth in 1972.

In the 1980s his theology resembled liberal Christianity, and he rejected the Adventist belief of the Sabbath. Later he rejected many orthodox Christian teachings, seeing God's interaction with mankind not limited to just the history of the Bible, but an ongoing continuing interaction with humanity towards a positive future. In the 1990s he was silent theologically, turning his attention to politics and Tropical Fruit World, his theme park in northern New South Wales. Brinsmead rejects the teachings of an apocalyptic world-destroying God, which he believes to be the polar opposite to the very definitions all religions give to the Creator. He also has environmental and political interests, and argues for a human centered approach to ecology.

Biography

Childhood

Brinsmead was born on 12 August, 1934 in Australia, the youngest of eight children. During his early childhood his parents were a part of the Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement, a German splinter group that broke away from the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the World War I era over military service and conscription. They rejoined the mainstream church when he was 10. According to Schwarz, this background gave him a disposition skeptical towards church leadership. He received high marks from Murwillumbah high school. As a youth he ran a large family banana plantation (near the location of what would become the tropical fruit theme park), and later sugar cane and banana plantations deep in the Queensland jungle. He spent his personal time doing study and research into theology.

Avondale College (late 1950s)

Brinsmead enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts in theology at Avondale College in 1955 when he was in his mid-twenties. One of his older brothers, John, also enrolled at the college in this year. In his final year, Brinsmead studied under Dr. Burns, then head of theology, and was leading a great interest in spiritual things among his fellow students. The college was in full revival mode with room meetings until midnight on many nights. There was such a ground swell among students the church leadership began to take notice of Brinsmead.

According to friends of Brinsmead, in his final months of school he wrote a book which a relative published against his wishes and knowledge. The book ended by quoting a Bible prophecy that the abomination would enter the Holy Land. Adventist church leadership took this to mean that Bob was teaching that "the abomination that maketh desolate" was in the church. According to friends of Brinsmead, this book was influential in his dismissal from Avondale.

While still a student, Brismead was disfellowshipped from the church in 1961 for his writings on "perfectionism", which would be his theme for the 1960s. He closely involved with the church for another two decades. According to friends of Brinsmead, he was denied graduation from Avondale, although he did receive his BA in theology.

According to friends of Brinsmead, the week prior to Robert being dismissed from Avondale, Desmond Ford, then a theology professor, said he was sitting on the platform ready to take the Sabbath (Saturday) church service at Avondale, "when a voice directed him to look at Brinsmead". The voice said to Ford, "this young man is my chosen vessel", although Ford fought this conviction for many years. Ford later spent time in Brinsmead's extended family during the months when Ford's wife was dying of cancer. Ford had many hours of dialogue with Brinsmead and eventually joined forces with Brinsmead in delivering the gospel to Adventists in the 1980s.

Ford was dismissed from ministry subsequent to the events of the Glacier View controversy in 1980, regarding his rejection of the investigative judgment teaching. According to a presentation given in a 2005 Sydney Adventist Forum meeting, Ford's dismissal was partly due to accusations of collaboration between Brinsmead and Ford to harm the church.

Perfectionist era (1960s)

Brinsmead's early views were an expression of "historic Adventism". His primary opponents were Desmond Ford, for sixteen years head of the Department of Religion at Avondale College, and Hans LaRondelle of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University in Michigan, United States; who both strongly emphasized salvation by faith alone. In the 1960s he advocated a form of perfectionism which he described as the "Sanctuary Awakening" or "Awakening" message. He claimed he was led to this position by the pre-advent judgment in Seventh-day Adventist eschatology. He also claimed it was a thoroughly evangelical concept of justification – "I taught sanctification by atonement, not by attainment."

He visited the United States throughout the 1960s, holding retreats and seminars to teach his message. The "sanctuary" element referred to the distinctive Seventh-day Adventist theological understanding of events believed to have begun in the year 1844 in a heavenly sanctuary, of which the earthly sanctuary in the Old Testament was understood to be a figure and type. Like other "historic Adventists", Brinsmead and his colleagues were convinced that they were recovering the original core message of the founders of 19th-century Seventh-day Adventism.

Evangelical era (1970s)

In the early 1970s, he abandoned this position, turning to a view more in line with the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther and Luther's understanding of the New Testament gospel message of Paul the Apostle. Adventist eschatology was relegated to the background. By late 1971 Brinsmead had reversed his ideas on the nature of Christ and perfection. He believed "righteousness by faith" is entirely justification by faith. He was a prolific writer and public speaker in the United States (and occasionally Europe) throughout the 1970s, engaging a variety of interested lay and professional audiences.

In 1972, Brinsmead and his wife Valorie purchased the property which they developed into "Tropical Fruit World" in northern New South Wales. Also in 1972, Brinsmead created the journal Present Truth to support a more evangelical Christian message, with a central focus on the Protestant principle of justification by faith alone. A survey of Present Truth throughout the 1970s indicated that he studied a wide range of 16th century Protestant Reformation scholars, including John Calvin, Philipp Melanchthon, and Martin Chemnitz.

A debate raged between Kenneth Wood and Herbert Douglass, the United States editors of the Review and Herald (now the Adventist Review) on the one hand, and Australians Ford and Brinsmead on the other. The magazine produced a special issue named, "Righteousness by Faith" on 16 May 1974, which argued that "righteousness by faith" included both justification and sanctification. Brinsmead has claimed, "we won that argument hands down." Brinsmead and Ford led what would become an evangelical Adventism, focusing on justification by faith and not the uniqueness of Adventism.

In 1976 Brinsmead claimed that his magazine, Present Truth had a readership of 100,000. Typically, 45,000 to 70,000 copies were printed for circulation. The issue dedicated to Righteousness by Faith realized a circulation of over one million copies.

After contacts with Neal C. Wilson and other General Conference leaders, he focused on renewing interest in righteousness by faith amongst traditional Protestant circles. In 1977 he was joined by Australian Anglican Geoffrey Paxton, who later wrote The Shaking of Adventism (1978) regarding Brinsmead and the struggle over righteousness by faith within the Adventist church. Present Truth's name was changed to Verdict in 1978.

After "extensive study and thinking", Brinsmead began to question the 1844 investigative judgment, although he claimed he hesitated "blasting this theology because I thought someone from within Adventism should do it". When in the United States, he attempted to convince Heppenstall and Ford to write a refutation of the traditional understanding. When they refused, Brinsmead returned to Australia and published a monograph, 1844 Re-Examined in which he criticised the investigative judgment, heavenly sanctuary doctrine, and the shut-door theology of early Adventists. Brinsmead's interests and the journal's emphasis had already expanded into areas of theology and biblical study that reached beyond the areas of theological interest of the Seventh-day Adventist Church at the time..

Liberal era (1980s)

In the 1980s, Brinsmead's theology resembled liberal Christianity. He left his Reformational view of the Bible, and rejected the Adventist belief of the Sabbath. He came to believe that two churches existed simultaneously in early Christianity, Jewish Christianity and Gentile Christianity (see Pauline Christianity). He examined the argument over the Jewish law, concluding the Jewish Christians (whose writings appear in the New Testament apocrypha), the "primitive Paul" and the apostles did not accept the Trinity or the Virgin Birth. He believed Paul tried unsuccessfully to unite the two groups (Romans 14:5–7). This historical approach led him to reject the Sabbath. He published Sabbatarianism Re-examined in 1981 attacking the Sabbath, and related articles such as Myths about the Ten Commandments (1982). His writings against the Sabbath motivated Desmond Ford to research the matter and subsequently write The Forgotten Day (1981), arguing in support of Sabbath observance. It was ironic that Ford, who had himself recently been removed from church employment, would defend the Adventist position. The Worldwide Church of God sent copies of "Sabbatarianism Re-examined" to all its clergy, and later rejected the Sabbath in 1995.

In 1980, Brinsmead wrote a plea to the judge in the murder case of Lindy Chamberlain. Chamberlain, an Australian Adventist, lost her baby to a wild dingo in the Australian outback. Because of media bias, and false rumors spread by those ignorant (or intolerant) of Adventist teachings, she was convicted of murdering her baby in 1980. False rumors were spread by media outlets that Adventists sacrificed children. Her murder case and appeal was the most publicized trial ever in Australia.. Brinsmead argued in support of Lindy and why he believed she was innocent. He argued that her case should not be judged based on misinterpretations and misrepresentations of Adventist belief and lingo but rather on the facts of the case itself.

Theological silence (1990s)

Around the 1990s Brinsmead did not write any theology for almost ten years. He donated 3,000 books from his personal library to Avondale College, saying he would never read them again. His last major publication before a decade long hiatus, was an article titled "A Christian Atheist Manifesto", in which he said he declared himself an atheist to human created concepts of God that made a monster of the Deity. He once said in defense of atheists "people are often atheist not because they take the concept of a God so lightly, but rather because they take it so seriously". According to Brinsmead, atheists often ask the questions the pious are afraid to ask.

Brinsmead later wrote, of the late 1980s and early 1990s, "I found myself in the trenches on my long spiritual journey, I had questions for which I had no answers, so I stopped writing until I had answers." During this period of reflection on the meaning of the crucifixion and resurrection event, Bob thought it more honest to wait for answers than presume he had them, and returned to horticulture.

During this decade he entered politics and was elected as a Councillor for the Tweed Shire Council.

He later became well versed in John Dominic Crossan and Robert W. Funk, co-founders of the Jesus Seminar; as well as Karen Armstrong, Bart D. Ehrman, and other modern biblical scholars. His search of texts for truth led him to the writings of Michael Morwood, a former Australian Catholic priest whose own spiritual journey mirrors Brinsmead rough and tumble experience in Adventism. Morwood and Brinsmead remain close friends. Robert is also a fan of secular writers Howard Bloom and Michael Crichton, the later of which posits that environmentalism is the new religion - because it is no longer tolerates science. Brinsmead is a prolific writer and public speaker.

He again published Verdict in 1998.

Brinsmead developed a sort of humanist emphasis. According to Larry Pahl, "Brinsmead's journey has led him back, full circle, to raw perfectionism. The new Brinsmead requires that we become 'forgiving, caring and compassionate, doing the right thing', certainly the marks of a perfect man."

Recent views (2000s)

A major theological change was regarding the divinity of Jesus. Brinsmead came to believe that the Jesus born of a virgin, by divine celestial impregnation, was merely a Greco-Roman heroic overlay of the Jewish man's history. He claims the virgin birth was unknown to Jesus' followers. Mithra, Caesar, and others were also attributed such circumstances of birth in their time, as was the historic custom of writers of that time. You might say that the superheros of that time were expected to wear their capes. Joseph Campbell calls this phenomenon "the Hero with a thousand faces". Yet the story of the Jesus of History is so compelling a story, so unique in its place in time, it can only be genuine. The reality of Christian teaching is that it is not built just built upon the words of Jesus, but also on the words and opinions of the Apostle Paul and writings attributed to Paul along with the thoughts and interpretations of early Church Fathers and scribes.

Brinsmead sees the salvation story of Jesus in a new light. It's not one of an incarnated God giving himself to die for the sins of mankind (hence the requirement for the incarnational theology and the incomprehensible baggage of the trinity - to retain the claim of monotheism). As a result, Brinsmead moved toward a Unitarian position on the Deity. When asked if he believed that Jesus was the son of God, Brinsmead replied "only in the sense that you and I and every human are the sons of God and the incarnate expression of God in this physical world".

According to Brinsmead, the story of Jesus is that of a man God loved who was the first fully human man—A man not motivated by revenge and payback justice (If Jesus taught to turn the other cheek would not also the Father teach and practice that?) Brinsmead characterizes the teaching of Jesus as a message about "the scandalous generosity" that is our inheritance as the children of God that includes a relationship with an "Abba" (literally "daddy") Father. There was no fall from God. Where can we go where God is not? Death did not enter the world through Adam, dinosaurs were ripping flesh from limb and bone long before Adam and Eve. There was no perfect past paradise we lost. We are given everything we need, and God's forgiveness and compassion and generosity are beyond our comprehension. We come from God, we return to God, and our sole requirement of life, is as Jesus said of his followers "That they love one another". In this sense of God and Jesus, Brinsmead and Michael Morwood find a high degree of resonance. It's a straight on theology with the maker of all things.

Brinsmead increasingly saw the message of Jesus in terms of serving humans, and that there was no such thing as "loving God" in the abstract. All we know about love, expressing love, giving love, comes from the human contacts we have made. None of us have seen God. None of have talked face to face with God. Yet humans insist arrogantly that we love God through abstractions of ritual and dogma. Brinsmead posits that humans only show love towards God when humans show love towards each other. Jesus was conflating the two great laws (which even the Pharisees understood) yet they thought they could love God before humans.

"There is no concept such as loving God in the abstract, none of us know what God is like, and our very definitions of God preclude we ever will as humans know what God is in totality. Every evil of religion has come from putting 'God' before the needs of Humans. Every suicide bomber thinks he's honoring God. Every religious persecutor is doing it in the name of their God. Every religious war is in the name of God",

Brinsmead argues. Brinsmead believes religion gets it wrong when it puts loving God at a higher priority than loving humans. "It is impossible to love God in the abstract!", Brinsmead is well known for saying.

Brinsmead's current research interests are the similarities between environmental Global Warming apocalyptic thinking and the apocalyptic thinking of Christendom. In religion, God strikes back at a fallen sinful mankind, in deep ecology global warming rhetoric, nature strikes back at her disrespectful child.

Both viewpoints long for a long lost paradise that never existed. Nature has become the new God. Particularly disturbing to Brinsmead is the deep ecology thinking of Arne Næss who views that mankind has no more right to this planet than mosquitoes. He views this new environmental apocalyptic thinking as a mutated meme of Christian apocalyptic thought and that both are antagonistic to human needs.

Brinsmead remains an unabashed free enterprise proponent and sees mankind as the pinnacle of this earth's biological development, echoing the progressive element of Modernism. He does not believe applying totalitarian governmental principles or taxes to the environment will work any better at protecting it than it did for Russia and China, who already have the most appalling environmental records. Brinsmead, like most Christians, does believe in the wise stewardship of the creation and its resources. He makes his living as a horticulturist on a farm with over 500 species of tropical fruit trees. Brinsmead sees the current witch hunt attitude towards global warming skeptics having much in common with the heresy hunts of religion. Such hunts are never about arriving at truth, they are about protecting dogma and those who teach dogma. Brinsmead has toppled his own dogmas (much to consternation of those who want pidgeon hole him) on several occasions when he felt it no longer represented what he felt was true. Life and understanding, he feels, is a journey. Environmental science should be as brave.

Brinsmead believes we do not live in a zero sum game when it comes to the environment or the economy. He believes science needs to be used where possible to determine truth. God has already given us everything we need - but its often up to us to figure out how to use what has been given. That is the God given role of mankind on the planet. To do what nature could never do for itself. Modern research into nanotechnology points to new ways to use limited resources. Research into zero-point energy by physics seems to indicate that we are literally swimming in a sea of energy - without the use of fossil fuels - if we can figure out how to harness it.

In 2006, Brinsmead became a Hall of Fame Winner of the Tweed Business Excellence Award.

On August 7th, 2007, Robert Brinsmead's wife Valorie died at age 68.

See also

• Historic Adventist
• Progressive Adventist
• Seventh-day Adventist theology
• History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
• Desmond Ford
• Avondale College

External links

• Present Truth Magazine, started by Brinsmead. As of August 2007, Bill Diehl is publishing editor. According to its charter, "This web site and the material contained herein are produced and sponsored by the 'Gospel Friends Christian Fellowship', an association of evangelical Seventh-day Adventists... These views do not necessarily reflect the current views of Robert Brinsmead."
  • 1844 Re-Examined by Brinsmead
  • A Review of the Awakening Message – Part I (first published May 1972), Part II (first published April 1973) by Brinsmead; his own assessment of his earlier "historic" views
  • The Shaking of Adventism by Anglican Geoffrey J. Paxton, in which Brinsmead features prominently in 5. Off to an Auspicious Start: The 1950's, 6. Pain and Progress: The 1960's, 7. Advance and Retreat: The 1970's, and the Conclusion: The Shaking of Adventism
• Quango Networks, which contains articles by Brinsmead, including Verdict articles
  • "Sabbatarianism Re-examined". Verdict 4:4, June 1981
    • Ford, Desmond (September 1981). "The Sabbath: Brinsmead's Polemic" (PDF). Spectrum. 12 (1). Association of Adventist Forums. ISSN 0890-0264. (a response to Brinsmead)
    • A further response by Brinsmead, and then again by Des Ford in Spectrum 12:2 (December 1981)
• Outlook by Worldview Publications, publishing editor, Norman Jarnes, a former editor of Present Truth/Verdict.
• May/June 1999 issue of Adventist Today, containing articles about Brinsmead:
  • Where is Robert Brinsmead? by Larry Pahl
  • Whither, Robert D. Brinsmead? by Raymond F. Cottrell
• Return of the Prodigal Pastor, a personal testimony by Dennis Sellers in the Adventist Review, 1995. Sellers followed Brinsmead's teachings for a while and left Adventism, before returning to the Adventist church

Offline resources

• Defense Literature Committee (precursor to the Biblical Research Institute), The History and Teaching of Robert Brinsmead, 1961
• Biblical Research Committee (also a precursor to the Biblical Research Institute), The Brinsmead Agitation, 1969
• Richard Schwarz, Light Bearers to the Remnant, p. 456–61
• Brinsmead, Judged by the Gospel: A Review of Adventism. Fallbrook, California: Verdict Publications, 1980. (Review, "Evangelical Essentials And Adventist Distinctives" by Richard Rice appeared in Spectrum 13:1 (September 1982), 55–57)