Sanctuary Review Committee - Aftermath and Legacy

Aftermath and Legacy

Following Glacier View, Ford ultimately formed his own ministry Good News Unlimited. It also led to the founding of the "dissident bimonthly" Evangelica, which was based in Napa, California.

The Adventist church formed a committee called the "Daniel and Revelation Study Committee" in order to restudy the investigative judgment. This committee has produced a seven volume series, which is available from the Bookshop of the General Conference's Biblical Research Institute. The main contributing authors are William H. Shea and Frank B. Holbrook.

In June 1981 a group of Adventist theologians wrote a protest, "The Atlanta Affirmation".

According to Time in a 1982 article, the church soon obtained the resignation of 120 clergy and teachers who refused to support SDA teachings. This was presumably for their support of Ford's theology. Peter Ballis, professor of sociology at Monash University and an ex-pastor himself, wrote the definitive study on the subject, Leaving the Adventist Ministry, which grew out of his doctoral studies. He found that 180 pastors left the Adventist ministry in Australia and New Zealand over the succeeding 8 years and calls it "the most rapid and massive exit of Adventist pastors in the movement’s 150-year history" (although he cautions that the fallout may have involved more than one factor). He claims the primary reason for exiting was not theology or personal reasons, but treatment by administrators. It is further speculated by Ford that a number of current ministers privately agree with Ford but refrain from speaking publicly on the issue for fear of losing their employment. Some in the Adventist church feel that the events of 1980 represent a major milestone in the theological development of the church, and that the effects of this controversy continue to be felt today.

The church news magazine Adventist Review received "many very angry letters" during the 1980s.

Ford opined in 2002 that when Edward Heppenstall received the Glacier View manuscript, "he declared, 'The church will never be able to answer this,' and the last 22 years have proved him right."

In 2005, the Sydney Adventist Forum held a seminar to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Glacier View meeting. Approximately 250 people attended. Two presentations were given by Desmond Ford, as well as a paper delivered by Arthur Patrick, and a paper by Norm Young was read (although he was not present).