Miles J. Stanford

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Miles J. Stanford was a Christian author best known for his "spiritual growth" classic The Green Letters (1964). More than a million copies of the book have been distributed, including many foreign languages editions.

Other major publications include: The Red Letters (1965), The Reckoning That Counts (1966), The Principle of Position (1967), Abide Above (1970), The Ground of Growth (1971), The Line Drawn (1972), Spiritual Sharing Service (1973), None But the Hungry Heart (1973-1987), The Complete Green Letters (1975), The New Birth Explained (1977), Pauline Dispensationalism (1993), and Position Papers – A Spiritual Anthology (1994).

In addition, Stanford wrote and distributed hundreds of "polemic papers" addressing various doctrinal errors in conjunction with his 50+ year personal correspondence ministry. Stanford typically signed his doctrinally rich letters with his hallmark salutation, "Resting in Him."

[edit] Biography

Born 1914 in Wheaton, Illinois, and with little or no Sunday School background, his early life centered around baseball, golf, and alcohol to excess. On September 19th, 1940, Stanford became a Christian and thereafter began studying the Bible eight-to-ten hours daily. He then joined the U.S. Army Engineers in 1942 and served overseas for a year in England and nearly two years in Germany. During this time a correspondence developed with other Christians so that upon discharge in late 1945 he was writing to nearly 200 people.

From 1946 to 1955, he studied the Bible, along with numerous authors quoted in The Green Letters. At the same time, the correspondence continued to expand. In 1951, he met and married Cornelia de Villiers Schwab in Brooklyn, New York. Cornelia shared a similar desire for personal growth and to help other Christians develop spiritually. Subsequently, Miles and Cornelia moved to Warrenville, Ohio, and assumed heavy responsibilities in a local Bible church. The correspondence rapidly expanded during the next seven years. In 1960, The Green Letters series was begun with these “letters” going out to 1,500 correspondents every other month for three years.

In 1962, the Stanford’s ministry relocated to Colorado Springs, Colorado and for nearly the next four decades Stanford published other books and (with Cornelia) maintained the robust and growing correspondence ministry. Theologically Pauline and dispensational, Miles Stanford drew upon the written ministries of William Newell, Lewis S. Chafer, and a number of the original Plymouth Brethren, in particular John N. Darby. Stanford wrote (bold words his):

"Every born-again believer can certainly thank God for Martin Luther (1483-1546), the obscure monk that He laid His hand on nearly 500 years ago. It was through brother Martin that our Father brought to light again the life-giving truth of justification by faith. "As it is written, the just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17). The world, the church, and the devil have never been the same since God restored the truth of substitution through the faithful Luther. However, foundational as the birth truths are, they are not the intended means of spiritual growth.

"It was 350 years after the truths of substitution and new birth were reaffirmed that God restored the truths of identification and growth. Foundational and far-reaching as the Reformation was, it proved to be but the groundwork for the vast array of growth and related truths that God made available through another unknown, one John Nelson Darby (1800-1882).

"Listed are some of the vital doctrines that have been formulated and/or clarified by Darby: our full assurance of salvation; our complete acceptance by the Father in His beloved Son; the Church as the Body of Christ; the absolute distinction between Israel and the Church, and therefore between law and grace; the basic dispensations in the Word; the pre-tribulational, pre-millennial Rapture of the Church; much light on prophecy; our identification with the Lord Jesus in His death unto sin, His burial, resurrection and ascension; our deliverance from the reign of sin and the old man via Romans Six; our freedom from the principle of law, via Romans Seven; our position in the Lord Jesus at the Father's right hand; and God's purpose to conform us to the image of His Son." [1]

The historical and theological significance of Stanford was his careful and exhaustive exposition of both the position and condition aspects of believers’ History in the First Adam and History in the Last Adam. Not only did he set forth these Pauline doctrines of the Christian's "death, burial, resurrection, and ascension with Christ", he comprehensively documented their "life-out-of-death" application in the Christian's experiential "walk with Christ". The motive for the work of the "Holy Spirit", the object of the Christian's "progressive spiritual growth", is "intimate fellowship with God the Father and God the Son, above in the heavenlies". For an example of this fellowship, read Attention: Ascension! As Stanford was apt to exhort believers, "Abide Above--for your life below."

Due to Newell's and Stanford's focus upon the doctrinal content of the Pauline Epistles, some have erroneously identified them with hyperdispensationalism. During the 1980s and 1990s, Stanford published numerous papers clarifying the distinctive tenets of classic Acts 2, Pauline Dispensationalism. A collection of fourteen papers formed his 1993 book by the same name. Miles Stanford's website was established in 1996, making available a variety of e-publications.

At the age of 85 and after nearly 50 years of ascension ministry, Miles Stanford died on September 21, 1999.