Desmond Ford

Desmond Ford (2 February 1929 – 11 March 2019) was an Australian theologian who studied evangelicalism.

Within the Seventh-day Adventist Church he was a controversial figure.

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, which 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 (NSW).

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.

Ford found his time at Avondale exciting for mental and 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.

Ford lived in a caravan (trailer) with his mother, who insisted on accompanying him, while canvassing (selling Christian books).

Ford was sent to help build a new church in the coastal town of Coffs Harbour, NSW.

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.