Desmond Ford
Desmond Ford was an Australian theologian who studied evangelicalism.
Within the Seventh-day Adventist Church he was a controversial figure. He was dismissed from ministry in the Adventist church in 1980, following his critique of the church's investigative judgment teaching. He had since worked through the non-denominational evangelical ministry Good News Unlimited.
Ford disagreed with some aspects of traditional Adventist end-time beliefs. However, he still defended a conservative view of scripture, the Seventh-day Sabbath, and a vegetarian lifestyle. He viewed the writings of Ellen G. White as useful devotionally, but not at the level of authority held by the Church.
Ford shared the sermon time at the Good News Unlimited congregation, which meets on Saturdays in the Brisbane suburb of Milton, and in periodic seminars on the eastern seaboard of Australia.
Biography
Early life and conversion
Desmond Ford was born in Townsville, Queensland, Australia on 2 February 1929, to Wilfred Ford and Lillian Simpson. He had one brother, Val, who was three and a half years older. The Ford lineage consisted of farmers and cattlemen of English and Australian descent. The Simpson lineage derived from England, Ireland and China. Desmond's parents were nominal Anglican Christians, with his father almost an atheist in practice, and his mother presenting "a religious façade". Wilfred encouraged his son to read, beginning a lifelong obsession for the "unusually gifted" boy.When Lillian was pregnant with Desmond, an Adventist book salesman shared insights on nutrition with the family, sparking a chain of events affecting Desmond's life. At an Adventist camp meeting in 1939 Desmond was given a Bible, whose reading he would complete three years later, around the time he finished primary school. However his parents divorced when he was nine; Wilfred moved to Canberra, and Lillian and the boys later moved to Sydney, New South Wales. He passed his Intermediate Certificate in 1943. However, due to the family's poverty and Australia's involvement in World War II, Desmond had to drop out of school. He became officially employed with Associated Newspapers at the age of 15, although he had started working there months earlier, and was promoted from copy boy to an editorial position, because of his published work. Meanwhile, Desmond took night classes for high school. All along, Desmond was being influenced by encounters with Adventists and other Christians, and steadily collected books on Christian theology, and the creation–evolution controversy.
Ford was challenged by the strict lifestyle standards presented in Ellen G. White's Messages to Young People, and gave up the cinema and reading fiction. Reading novels had been his main childhood hobby, and became replaced with reading theology. White's book The Great Controversy was a key influence on his conversion. In winter 1946 he publicly responded to a call for commitment to God's service. Ford was impressed by the Christian character of many of the Adventists who had nurtured him. In September he was officially baptised into the church. This was despite strong opposition from his brother; and his mother was also originally resistant to his conversion, having become disenchanted with the Adventist church herself. Ford resigned from his job, and returned briefly to Townsville with his family. He then left in 1947 for the Australasian Missionary College in the Lake Macquarie region of NSW, to train for the ministry.
Seminary
Ford found his time at Avondale exciting for spiritual growth. He was an active participant in class discussions, and occasionally taught classes to fill in for the lecturers. He was particularly inspired by Dr. William Murdoch, and carried out research for him. Ford gave talks in nearby churches, and published around a dozen articles for church magazines during this time. He also led students in Bible study. He struggled financially, and worked on Avondale's farm and elsewhere, and also selling Adventist books.He graduated from the Ministerial Course in Avondale in 1950, with high marks.
Early ministry
Ford lived in a caravan with his mother, who insisted on accompanying him, while canvassing. Ford was sent to help build a new church in the coastal town of Coffs Harbour, NSW. In 1951, still in his first year of service as a pastor, he was sent to Newcastle, NSW, then an industrial city, to assist evangelist George Burnside. While Burnside was a dynamic presenter, Ford's biographer Milton Hook describes him as a fundamentalist, and draws an analogy with a rugged, gung-ho cowboy, like a John Wayne character. Ford questioned him on some end-times interpretations, resulting in conflict between the pair – a sign of further things to come. Later he sold books in the Lake Macquarie and nearby Upper Hunter regions, which he found challenging work.He worked as a pastor in various churches and as an evangelist for about 7 years in NSW, in Australian rural towns.
In 1952 Ford pastored the Coffs Harbour area, under a supervisor. His mother returned to Queensland. In December he married Gwen Booth, with whom he had shared a budding friendship and romance since their meeting at Avondale, where she studied teaching. Gwen had been raised in humble circumstances in Yass, and was a quiet achiever who cared about others, and had a deep faith in Jesus. The following year they moved to the country town of Quirindi, where Ford pastored the church. From 1954 to mid-1955, Ford pastored in the Gunnedah area, then moved north to Inverell. There a public debate with Burgin, a Church of Christ minister and a "formidable opponent" of Adventists, brought Ford respect. The topic was the Sabbath, with the specific title "Is the Seventh Day or the First Day Binding on Christians?" Arguably Ford won the debate. He later baptised some of Burgin's church members.
Return to Avondale
The South Pacific Division called him back to Avondale, to complete his ministry course. He completed a BA in 1958, and went on to complete a Master's degree in systematic theology at the SDA Washington Seminary in 1959. Ford subsequently received a PhD in the rhetorical analysis of Paul's letters from Michigan State University in 1961. In the same year he returned to Australia and became head of the Religion Department at Avondale College, where he would remain until 1977. At Avondale, Ford taught many classes, including public speaking, homiletics, and evangelism. He was a member of the Biblical Research Committee in Australia and the United States.He completed his second PhD in 1972 from the University of Manchester, while on leave from teaching at Avondale. His supervisor was the renowned Protestant theologian F. F. Bruce. His field was New Testament studies, specifically eschatology. Ford entitled his thesis, The Abomination of Desolation in Biblical Eschatology. His main expertise was biblical apocalyptic literature, such as Daniel and Revelation, and eschatology.
Tension over theology
Ford was a primary opponent of the perfectionism within the SDA church, especially its form as taught by fellow Australian Robert Brinsmead, a former classmate of Ford's at Avondale.Ford believed that victory over the guilt of sin was provided at the cross, victory over the power of sin is the work of a lifetime and victory over the presence of sin occurs at the return of Christ Jesus. Ford disagreed with the belief of sinless perfection, and did not hold to the belief that the saints are sealed at the end time, but held that the final removal of sin occurred when mortality changes to immortality at the return of Jesus Christ. Ford held that victory over the presence of sin does not occur during this lifetime, so sin continues among the saints up to the return of Jesus Christ.
Ford held that justification precedes sanctification, because victory over the guilt of sin, precedes victory over the power of sin. Ford taught that while justification is distinct from sanctification, the two concepts are always found together, in the same manner as two railway lines are distinct but never separate. Adventist belief places an equal emphasis on sanctification compared to justification, while still believing both are necessary for salvation.
Ford disagreed strongly with the belief of "eschatological perfectionism", which is the teaching that a final generation of believers must achieve a state of complete sinlessness in the final period just before the second coming of Jesus, when the saints are sealed. Mainstream Adventists consider the life and character of Christ as a perfect example, that all must imitate.
Ford stepped into the debate within Adventism concerning the nature of Jesus Christ, specifically whether Jesus Christ took on a fallen or an unfallen human nature in the Incarnation. This was precipitated by the publication of Questions on Doctrine in 1957, which some Adventists felt did not agree with what the church held.
The debate revolves around the interpretation of several biblical texts:
and statements made by Ellen White:
According to Adventist historian George Knight, most early Adventists believed that Jesus Christ was born with a human nature that was not only physically frail and subject to temptation, but that he also had the fallen predisposition and inclination to sin. Since 1950, the "historic" wing of the church continues to hold this fallen view of Christ's human nature. Mainstream Adventists hold to the belief taught by Ellen White that He came with the effects of Adam's sin deep within his nature, that Christ took on the fallen nature but not the sinfulness of man.
In contrast to the "historic" view, Ford believed that Ellen White was clear that Christ took our infirmities and with the weaknesses of fallen man, the sinful nature in the sense of that he had a lessened capacity with respect to the fallen physical nature that he inherited from Adam, including physical weaknesses, frailties and mental, and moral degeneracy and deterioration. While Christ was tempted as all other human beings are, Ford noted that the lessened capacity of his human nature did not ever include giving in to temptation or having any evil desires or propensity or predisposition towards sin in his spiritual nature, a position with which Ellen White taught and mainstream Adventists agree.