Robert Brinsmead

Robert developed a form of perfectionism after reading the writings of A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner (of 1888 Minneapolis General Conference Session fame).

Robert Daniel "Bob" Brinsmead (born 9 August 1933, in Victoria, Australia) is a formerly controversial figure within the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the 1960s and 1970s who is known for his diverse theological journey.

Brinsmead was born in 1933 in Australia, the youngest of eight children (another died in infancy) to Cedric John Brinsmead (1886–1980) and Laura Elsie Goullet (1889–1979).

He grew up in the Tweed area.

During his early childhood his parents were a part of the Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement, a German splinter group that broke away from the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the World War I era over military service and conscription.

They rejoined the mainstream church when he was 10.

According to Schwarz, this background gave him a disposition that was skeptical towards church leadership; although this assertion was removed when Floyd Greenleaf revised Schwarz' work.

As a youth he ran a large family banana plantation (near the location of what would become the tropical fruit theme park), and later sugar cane and banana plantations deep in the Queensland jungle.

He spent his personal time doing study and research into theology.

Brinsmead enrolled in a Bachelor of Arts in theology at Avondale College in 1955 when he was in his mid-twenties.

One of his older brothers, John, also enrolled at the college in this year.

His final year was 1958.

During the 1960s Brinsmead advocated a form of perfectionism which he described as the "[Sanctuary] Awakening" message.

There was tension in the 1960s within the Adventist church surrounding Brinsmead's message and influence, but Brinsmead's active promotion of his shifting views in the 1970s and 1980s led to fading influence, and saw the rise of Desmond Ford who opposed his perfectionist views.

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."

While still a student, Brinsmead was disfellowshipped from the church in 1961 for his writings on "perfectionism", which would be his theme for the 1960s.

Brinsmead wrote he "retained lay membership in the church until 1962."

However he would remain closely involved with the church for another two decades.

During the 1970s after examining the controversies of the Protestant Reformation and the writings of Adventist church co-founder and author Ellen G. White, he abandoned this position and went back to the 16th-century Protestant principle of justification by faith alone.

His representation of justification by grace through faith alone was substantially from the writings and thinking of Martin Luther.

He founded the magazine Present Truth, whose name was later changed to Verdict.

In the late 1970s, he again underwent another theological shift and changed his focus from a call to return to Reformation principles to that of systematically questioning and discarding many of the doctrines he had held.

A side effect of this activity was the commissioning of an independent study and report on the basis for Christian beliefs on final punishment or hell by Edward Fudge.

Brinsmead's Verdict Publications published the first edition of the resulting book The Fire That Consumes subtitled A Biblical and Historical Study of Final Punishment. The book became a major catalyst in the broader Christian evangelical world for a growing acceptance of annihilationism.

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 [Brinsmead's]".

(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."

In the early 1980s Brinsmead's theology shifted to liberal Christianity, and he now rejected the Adventist belief in the Sabbath.

He abandoned his belief in many orthodox Christian teachings, including justification through faith in Christ and the divinity of Christ, seeing God's interaction with mankind as not being limited to just the history of the Bible, but as an ongoing and continuous interaction with humanity towards a positive future.

His lessened influence is seen in the writings of 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 Keith 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."

In the 1990s he turned from his theological focus, and shifted his attention to politics and his tropical fruit theme park, Tropical Fruit World.

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."