Robert Brinsmead - Brinsmead and Church Tension

Brinsmead and Church Tension

There was much tension within the church surrounding Brinsmead's message and influence. Sometimes he triggered persistent emotional reactivity, and Brinsmead was also antagonistic at times. His legacy within the Seventh-day Adventist community involved substantial theological challenges. But beyond theology, there is also substantial evidence of a deep pattern of emotional reactivity among thought leaders in the church to his teaching and influence.

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 ". (This was eclipsed by the controversy and dismissal of Desmond Ford the following year.

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." According to the Standish brothers, "In the 1980s it is difficult to believe the emotive reaction which the name Brinsmead conjured up in the minds of the majority of Seventh-day Adventists in Australia two decades earlier. To have the name Brinsmead associated with a church member was akin to being termed 'pink' in the McCarthy era in the United States" (in other words, akin to being termed pseudo-"Communist" in an era of Communist paranoia)! His influence was described as "The Brinsmead Agitation" by the Biblical Research Committee, a precursor to the Biblical Research Institute.

Claims of collusion with Brinsmead could have devastating impact, according to the testimony of Desmond Ford. According to one report, towards the close of the Glacier View meeting, "a small group of church executives" confronted Ford with ultimatums such as "Publicly denounce Robert Brinsmead as a troublemaker and heretic or hand in your credentials." Ford would not do so, since Brinsmead had converted from his perfectionist views. According to a reported view of Ford, "John Brinsmead, brother of Robert, had evidently spun Parmenter the allegation that Ford and Robert Brinsmead were in cahoots and were determined to bring the SDA church down." Apparently he accepted this "allegation without verification." Arthur Patrick described a South New Zealand minister in 1961, who integrated a man known to have a connection with Brinsmead into his church and was asked to affirm the statement, "Robert Brinsmead is of the devil," to demonstrate his loyalty. When he refused to do so, he was given 10 months leave-of-absence.

One source describes him as "intense and driven."

In 1999 Raymond Cottrell observed: "Robert Brinsmead’s repeated and mutually contradictory positions over the years, together with his dogmatic public insistence on each of them successively, is clear evidence of immaturity. One cannot help but wonder if the present one is final, or if it is—like the others—ephemeral and will be followed by others."