The 1919 Bible Conference was a Seventh-day Adventist Church conference or council held from July 1 to August 9, 1919, for denominational leaders, educators, and editors to discuss theological and pedagogical issues. The council was convened by the General Conference Executive Committee led by A. G. Daniells, the President of the General Conference, and included the first major discussion of the inspiration of Ellen G. White’s writings after her death in 1915, and the far-reaching theological scope of the discussions would generate considerable controversy.
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The 1919 Bible Conference occurred during the height of a series of prophetic conferences held in the United States by conservative evangelicals toward the end of and soon after World War I. These prophetic conferences drew attention to the imminent second coming of Jesus, but most Adventists who attended these meetings could not accept their dispensationalist views. Out of these prophetic conferences a coalition of militant evangelicals would coalesce into what has become known historically as the Fundamentalist movement reaching its heyday during the 1920s. Despite obvious eschatological (end-time) differences, at the outset of the 1919 Bible Conference Adventist leaders would cite the example of these other prophetic conferences as an inspiration for their own meeting.
All together there were 65 individuals in attendance accompanied by between 7 and 9 stenographers. The Conference was the first academic Bible Conference of its kind where a significant number of participants had advanced training in theology, history, and biblical languages. The meeting was by invitation only so that those present could “exercise care and good judgment” while discussing varying viewpoints.[1]
While not on the original agenda, other historical and theological issues would be incorporated into the conference—-most significantly, the inspiration and role of Ellen White and how Adventist viewed her. George B. Thompson, field secretary of the General Conference, noted: “If we had always taught the truth [regarding Ellen White] we would not have any trouble or shock in the denomination now”.[2] Thompson’s statement represents a growing rift between participants over the nature and role of inspiration. Much of the debate revolved around problems in prophetic interpretation. Many of those present at this conference were personally acquainted with Ellen White and tried to correct the view that her writings were inerrant (that inspired writings contain no mistakes) as advocated by Fundamentalists (see Biblical inerrancy). A. G. Daniells, W. W. Prescott, and H. C. Lacey would publicly denounce the concept of inerrancy in relationship to Ellen White’s writings, but differentiated her writings from those of the Bible which they argued were inerrant.[3]
The suggestion that Ellen White’s writings might not be inerrant appears to have met with hostility, especially by Benjamin G. Wilkinson. Some of these younger leaders bucked against older church leaders. Interestingly, much of the debate on inspiration revolved around historical revisions in the 1911 edition of Great Controversy. Whereas Daniells and Prescott had been intimately involved in these revisions, some of the younger delegates were not, and there was the far more important question of how the denomination should go about making revisions now that she was dead. D. E. Robinson, who had been Ellen White’s secretary for 13 years, and who had also assisted on the 1911 revision, referred to some “slight inaccuracies in the historical work [Great Controversy]” and stated that Ellen White desired “to make everything accurate.” He said:
It is not clear what the consensus of the delegates was toward the inspiration of Ellen White. Some were concerned that church members would become “terribly upset if they should discover that Ellen White was fallible”.[5] No decision was officially made as to what to do, and eventually it was decided not to publish the conference transcripts. One delegate, John Isaac, remarked: “The study was a wonderful help to me. I always believed the testimonies, but quite often when I was asked questions I had to say I don’t know, I don’t understand, but . . . [now] I have received wonderful help from these meetings”.[6] Even Daniells remarked afterward, “I think I can truly say that at the close of this important meeting, we stand together more unitedly and firmly for all the Fundamentals than when we began the meeting”.[7] Yet the suspicions of J. S. Washburn and Claude Holmes, among others, were aroused, and they saw “this Bible Institute” as one of “the most terrible thing[s] that has ever happened in the history of this denomination”.[8] Together Holmes and Washburn would work to secure Daniells’ dismissal at the 1922 General Conference Session, as well as remove other key participants of the 1919 Bible Conference.
The conference was then nearly forgotten until 1975 when the Conference transcripts were discovered in the General Conference Archives. Transcripts excerpts were first published in 1979 by Spectrum, and are now available in their entirety from an official church website (see below).
Transcripts of conference: