Edward Heppenstall

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Edward E. Heppenstall (1901 England – 1994) was a leading Bible scholar and theologian of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. A 1985 questionnaire of North American Adventist lecturers revealed Heppenstall was the Adventist writer who had most influenced them.^[1]

Contents 1 Biography 2 Publications 3 See also 4 External links 5 References

[edit] Biography

Heppenstall was born in England, however most of his ministry was in the United States.

He was professor of theology at La Sierra College (now La Sierra University). He was chairman of the systematic theology department at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He was also professor of theology at Loma Linda University.

His presentations on the law and covenants at the 1952 Bible Conference were highly influential upon the theology of the church. Heppenstall was responsible for a shift in the understanding of the church's "investigative judgment" teaching.

Heppenstall was the most influential scholar to come out against M. L. Andreasen's final generation theology. While upholding the "pillar" doctrines of the Adventist pioneers, he opposed Andreasen's form of historic Adventism on such issues as the human nature of Christ and the atonement. He emphasized, as did Questions on Doctrine, the atonement on the cross with a continuing ministry in heaven in the antitypical Day of Atonement. Beyond that, he stressed such teachings as the helplessness of human beings to do good of their own selves, justification by faith in relation to the entire plan of salvation, the impossibility of humanly achieving what some people think of as sinless perfection, the fact that Jesus was not just like other children of fallen Adam and the new covenant experience.

Heppenstall's theology was definitely a more cross-centered, Christ-centered, evangelical form of theology. This plainly shows up in Heppenstall's understanding of character perfection. Far from ideas of sinlessness, perfectionism, the teaching that people must get to the place where they can stand without Christ, and other ideas set forth by Andreasen, he argued the nowhere does the Bible equate perfection with sinlessness when speaking of the child of God. And that salvation by grace means being shaken loose from the folly of implanting our ego at the center of the plan of salvation with the belief that we must arrive at sinless perfection to be sure of salvation. Focusing on the fact that sin is deeper than actions, that it is a part of human nature, Heppenstall indicated that sin does not reign in the Christian's life, but it does remain in the sense that human nature with it inherent limitations cannot even faultlessly discern the complete will of God. He demonstrated from the Bible that it is essentially spiritual maturity and walking with God in love. Thus perfection, citing Ellen White, is relative. With those conclusions he returned to the basic Wesleyan concept of perfection as love in dynamic growth, a concept that stood at the heart of Ellen's understanding of the topic.

While Heppenstall's writings were influential, his teaching career was much more so. He influenced a generation of preachers and religion teachers through his college and seminary lectures. Themes highlighted by Heppenstall would echo in other classrooms through such teachers as Hans LaRondelle and Raoul Dederen and in the pulpit through Morris Venden throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

One Heppenstall protege would eventually attain special visibility in the church. Heppenstall recognized the talents of Desmond Ford in the mid-1950s. But Ford would eventually move beyond Heppenstall in some theological areas that his mentor could not agree with. Meanwhile, in the early 1960s they both fought against what they believed to be the excesses and distortions of the Andreasen/Brinsmead perfectionist theology.^[2]

Earlier Adventism tended to view the judgment in stern tones, with God keeping out those those who hadn't been faithful. More recent times have witnessed an emphasis on the belief that God is for people, that He is on their side and wants to get as many into the kingdom as possible. That more recent perspective pictures the judge in the Bible sense of the term as being on the side of sinner with the judgment being the vindication of the fact that they are safe to save and will be happy in heaven. Heppenstall said God's judgment will be in favor of believers Gods people have nothing to fear from the judgment. the saint of the last days can also find confidence and security in facing the judgment when their names are confessed before the father and the angelic host.^[3]

He fathered two children, both doctors – Malcolm Heppenstall, MD; and Astrid Heppenstall Heger, MD.

[edit] Publications

• 1972 Our High Priest: Jesus Christ in the Heavenly Sanctuary
• 1974 Salvation Unlimited: Perspectives in Righteousness by Faith
• 1975 In Touch With God
• 1977 The Man Who is God: a Study of the Person and Nature of Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man (reprint)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

• In Touch With God: A Daily Devotional by Heppenstall
• "The Christology of Edward Heppenstall", chapter 4 in Webster, Claude (1984). Crosscurrents in Adventist Christology. New York: Peter Lang Publishing. ISBN 0-8204-0157-9. http://www.sdanet.org/atissue/books/webster/index.htm.  Reprinted with permission by Andrews University Press. Berrien Springs, MI (February 1992)
• Register of the Edward Heppenstall Papers from the Adventist Heritage Center at Andrews University (includes a brief biography)
• Articles by Heppenstall as cataloged in the Seventh-day Adventist Periodical Index (SDAPI)

[edit] References

1. ^ Malcolm Bull and Keith Lockhart (October 1987). "The Intellectual World of Adventist Theologians" (PDF). Spectrum (Roseville, California: Adventist Forums) 18 (1): 32–37. ISSN 0890-0264. http://spectrummagazine.org/files/archive/archive16-20/18-1bull.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-05-29. 
2. ^ Knight, George, 2000, A Search for Identity, pp. 171-175
3. ^ Knight, George, 2000, A Search for Identity, p. 197