Graham Maxwell
Arthur Graham Crowder Maxwell, often abbreviated as A. Graham Maxwell, was a Seventh-day Adventist theologian, and the emeritus professor of New Testament studies at Loma Linda University.Obituary 12/5/2010 In a 1985 survey of 55 religion teachers at North American Adventist colleges, Maxwell tied for fourth place among most influential Adventist authors.
Biography
1921–1936: Early years in England
A. Graham Maxwell was born in Watford, England on July 18, 1921. His father was "Uncle Arthur" Maxwell, who was known for his children's books. His mother was Rachel Elizabeth Maxwell. In the Maxwell home were six children, four boys and two girls. First Maureen, then Graham, Mervyn, Lawrence, Malcolm, and Deirdre. All the children in their younger days attended non-Adventist schools. They all grew up devoted Seventh-day Adventists. Most of them became influential leaders within the church.Music played an important part in young Maxwell's life. At fifteen years of age he sang for the 1936 British Union's quadrennial session held at Stanborough Park. The British Advent Messenger reported that "Master Graham Maxwell, the boy singer of the Stanborough Park church, pleasingly rendered the solo, 'How lovely are Thy dwellings'". A week earlier, at a youth rally, he is reported to have sung what some might view as a prayer later answered in his own life, "God Make Me Kind."
Early influences apart from immediate family include R. A. Anderson who was an associate of his father. ; F. C. Gilbert; W.G.C. Murdoch; Meade MacGuire. His uncle, Spencer George Crowder Maxwell, left for Africa a year before Maxwell was born. Spencer's influence was one of respected service and the occasional visit, such as the 1936 meetings, also attended by the 15-year-old Maxwell.
1938–1943: Student years at Pacific Union College
He came to America in 1936, and lived in Los Altos, California where his father was editor for the Signs of the Times. In 1938, he began studies at Pacific Union College. He was the spokesperson for the new students at the reception and handshake services. By 1940, he held was one of the student leaders. He helped earn his way through college by selling Christian books as a colporteur. Maxwell began teaching Greek as a student in 1942.Maxwell graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Pacific Union College with a double major in Ministerial and Biblical Languages. He met Rosalyn Helen Gildersleeve at Pacific Union College, and they married in 1943. They had three girls, Lorna, Audrey and Alice. By his death in 2010, he had 7 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.
1943–1961: Teaching years at Pacific Union College
Professional development
Maxwell taught at Pacific Union College full-time from 1944 until 1961. In 1944, Pacific Union College awarded him a Master of Arts degree along with Raymond F. Cottrell and James Paul Stauffer. In 1945, as instructor of Greek and English, he gave the April Rine lecture before an audience of teachers and students of the English and language departments. His subject was the Romantic movement in English literature. In 1946 Maxwell met W. G. C. Murdoch, the principal of the England's SDA college. Murdoch reported:"It was a pleasant surprise to meet young Graham Maxwell in Chicago. Graham has grown to be very like his father and is giving such promise as a teacher that the college board of Pacific Union College has voted him time off to study for his doctor's degree at the University of Chicago..."
He received his Ph.D. in New Testament in 1959 from the University of Chicago Divinity School; his thesis: 'Elements of Interpretation in the Translation of the New Testament.' He focused especially on the book of Romans. Upon receiving his doctorate, he was appointed Chairman of the Division of Religion at Pacific Union College, replacing L. H. Hartin who retired at the close of the 1959 school year. Maxwell remained division chair until moving to Loma Linda in 1961.
Leadership experience
In 1948, Maxwell was elected president of the PUC Alumni Association In July, 1950, some 500 P.U.C. alumni gathered in San Francisco's Whitcomb Hotel for a Luncheon timed to coincide with the influx of denominational workers from all over the world for the General Conference meetings. Maxwell was toastmaster for the occasion. Back on campus, he organized and led out in faculty and staff social events.In 1950, both he and his brother Mervyn were ordained to the Gospel ministry.
1961–1988: Teaching years at Loma Linda University
Maxwell taught at Loma Linda University for the next 27 years, and for 15 of those years he was the Director of the Division of Religion. In 1983, at a ministerial retreat in Michigan, Maxwell was honored for forty years of service to the Seventh-day Adventist church. In 1988 he retired from Loma Linda University as an Emeritus Professor of New Testament.He was a grammarian in German, Spanish, English, Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, yet was noted for his willingness to learn from those he taught.
Maxwell influenced many people within his denomination. For most of his adult career he taught a Sabbath School class which had a profound impact on many of those attending. He used the Socratic method of teaching. He insisted that his students think things out. To encourage such thinking, he began a class in what he called Biblical Philosophy. Central to this philosophy were these questions: "Is God arbitrary, vengeful, stern, and severe; as His enemies have made Him out to be? Or, is He very patient, and kind, and forgiveness personified?"
His sense of humor was appreciated by many. One associate describes a visit by Maxwell to their house. It was middle August in Southern California. The father of the house "came to the door wearing a plaid work shirt, open at the neck to reveal heavy underwear, heavy wool pants, wearing lined gloves." Maxwell asked him if he could come up to his house which was under construction, and give him some building advice. The father agreed and went to get his cap and jacket. The son said to Maxwell that his father seems to have the same problem that King David had in old age. Maxwell paused for a second and then said, "Yes, but it seems he has found a different solution."
1988–2010: Retirement years
In 2005, A special event celebrating the founding of Loma Linda University took place November 11 to 13, at Loma Linda University's Drayson Center. On Sabbath morning, November 12, worship services were led by longtime faculty members Maxwell and Louis Venden.In 2006, at the Loma Linda University Adventist Health Sciences Center Centennial Gala, “Looking Back to the Future,” held on April 9, Maxwell was honored with the Vanguard Award for Mission of Wholeness, "to make man whole”, along with eleven others. Recipients for the Vanguard Award for Mission of Wholeness were: Wil Alexander, Leonard Brand, Beverly Buckles, Harrison Evans, Kiti Freier, Gordon Hadley, George Hardinge IV, Lucille Lewis, Maxwell, William Murdoch Jr., Jack Provonsha, and Gerald Winslow.
Theology
God
''Can God Be Trusted?''
In December, 1976, Neal C. Wilson, President of the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church visited Maxwell at Loma Linda University. Subsequently, in the Review and Herald, he announced:"Early in December I was at Loma Linda University and visited with A. Graham Maxwell about the progress he is making in writing two books. The first deals with the question "Can God be trusted?" and the second develops the theme "The picture of God and what we are told about His character in all 66 books of the Bible."...
"Dr. Maxwell, a respected and much-appreciated professor of religion at Loma Linda University, has been granted a leave of absence for three quarters to concentrate on writing these much-needed books. One of the critical issues currently being discussed in theological circles and religious journals has to do with misconceptions about God's character. This should come as no surprise to Seventh-day Adventists, because Ellen G. White has warned us that in the final struggle of the great controversy between Christ and Satan everything possible will be done to distort and malign God's character. Creating doubt and destroying faith in the integrity of God's character has been one of the most effective tools employed by Satan. Each of us is a target for the deceptive efforts of evil forces seeking to discredit God's love and weaken faith in His word..."
Maxwell's book Can God Be Trusted? became the Seventh-day Adventist Church's Missionary Book of the Year for 1978. This book was published by sections in the twelve issues of the Signs of the Times in that same year.
Belief in a personal God
Maxwell held to a theistic worldview. In his book Can God Be Trusted he begins by describing a conflict that arose between God and Lucifer who later became known as Satan. Adventists consider this the beginning of what they refer to as the Great Controversy. Maxwell focused on Lucifer's lies about God:
"To set himself up as God he first must undermine confidence in the One he wished to supplant, and he sought to do this by destroying God's reputation. Since he could find no fault in God, he must resort to lying and deceit.
So began that long struggle for the loyalty of God's free, intelligent creatures. Who was right? God or the brilliant Light Bearer? Could it be true that God was arbitrary and severe, unworthy of the love and trust of the beings He had made? What kind of god would allow his character to be so challenged? Was it strength or weakness that led our God to permit such long debate, to allow this controversy to spread throughout His universe?
Finally Satan and his followers ventured into open revolt. Then God, in His farsighted plan for the best good of all concerned, expelled the rebels from His presence, and the great controversy was extended to the planet on which we live."
God, according to Maxwell, was the creator of all things who took actions motivated by love for all.