To Hymn or Not to Hymn Adventist Hymnody and the Wonder of Creation How Different Generations Read the Bible James Londis on the Hermeneutics of Delay What Shall We Do with Ellen White Vision for the Medium: North American Adventism and Mass Media Today VOLUME 42 ISSUE 4 n fall 2014 SPECTRUM is a journal established to encourage Seventh-day Adventist participation in the discus- sion of contemporary issues from a Christian viewpoint, to look without prejudice at all sides of a subject, to evaluate the merits of diverse views, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED COPYRIGHT © 2014 ADVENTIST FORUM and to foster Christian intellectual and cultural growth. Although effort is made to ensure accu- rate scholarship and discriminating judgment, the Editor Bonnie Dwyer statements of fact are the responsibility of con- Editorial Assistant Lonnie Kotanko Tutupoly tributors, and the views individual authors express Design Laura Lamar are not necessarily those of the editorial staff as a Interns Rachel Logan, Eliana Zacarias whole or as individuals. Spectrum Web Team Alita Byrd, Joelle Chase, Bonnie Dwyer, Rich Hannon, Jonathan Pichot, SPECTRUM is published by Adventist Forum, a Ruben Sanchez, Wendy Trim, Jared Wright nonsubsidized, nonprofit organization for which gifts are deductible in the report of income for About the Cover Art: purposes of taxation. The publishing of SPEC- “Blue Note” by Janene Editorial Board: TRUM depends on subscriptions, gifts from indi- Evard. viduals, and the voluntary efforts of the Beverly Beem David R. Larson Artist’s Statement: English Religion contributors. 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Writer/Graphic Designer Gerhard Svrcek-Seiler I work with many Sacramento, California Vienna, Austria media, from hard surfaces tel: (916) 774-1080 such as fused glass to silks Fritz Guy Norman Young fax: (916) 791-4938 and nylons that can blow Theology Cooranbong, Australia in the wind or hang La Sierra University [email protected] slightly away from to the wall, whose shapes may be held in place by fram- Letters to the editor may be edited for publication. ing with bamboo, paper, carbon, or fiberglass. Working on ideas in Permissions: ISSN: 0890-0264 my studio is a long prayer Unless otherwise marked, Bible quotations are taken from THE HOLY of meditation and interac- BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ® Used by permission. All rights reserved tion with my Creator. 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Bible references marked NET are taken from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, LLC. http://netbible.com All rights reserved. fall 2014 n VOLUME 42 ISSUE 4 SPECTRUM contents 3 Editorials 2 Name That Tune | BY BONNIE DWYER 3 What Shall We Do with Ellen White? | BY CHARLES SCRIVEN 5 Noteworthy 5 An Annual Council Delegate’s Memoirs | BY SOMER GEORGE 13 Back to (Reading) the Bible 13 About Building Shrines on the Mountaintop Matthew 17:1–13, Luke 9:28–36 | BY SMUTS VAN ROOYEN 15 The Hermeneutics of Disappointment: What Does the “Delay” of Jesus’ Coming Do to the Adventist Story? | BY JAMES LONDIS 15 22 How Different Generations Read the Bible | BY TIMOTHY FLOYD North American Division and Adventist Media 22 34 North American Division Votes to Move Out of the General Conference Building | BY JULIO C. MUÑOZ 35 Vision for the Medium: North American Adventism and Mass Media Today | BY TOMPAUL WHEELER Music of the Spheres 45 45 Adventist Hymnody and the Wonder of Creation: What Composers’ Cosmology Brings to Adventist Worship | BY KENDA HALOVIAK VALENTINE 62 To Hymn or Not to Hymn: A Global Church Wrestles with Worship Music | BY RONALD LAWSON 70 70 An Exegesis of Existence: Heschel, Schubert, and a Prophetic Voice | BY STEPHEN HARDIN Poem back cover My Church | BY SOMER GEORGE WWW.SPECTRUMMAGAZINE.ORG 1 EDITORIAL n from the editor Name That Tune | BY BONNIE DWYER What is the title of the most famous Adventist hymn? Valentine reminds us in her article on hymnody in this Think Voice of Prophecy. issue, singing together is important. Ron Lawson shows Is it “Lift up the Trumpet?” us in his piece how it is fragmenting. Richard Hickam Think Wayne Hooper. of the Florida Hospital Church recently pointed out to Is it “We Have This Hope?” us that, unlike in past years, for the upcoming General Conference there has not been an invitation to musicians t’s both. And the two songs have now been combined to create new music. into a magisterial production number for the upcom- In addition to music, we look at Bible reading in this I ing General Conference in San Antonio. Arranged by issue. The study process created by the Theology of Ordi- Williams Costa (director of the General Conference nation Study Committee revealed the difficulties that we communication department) for orchestra, choir, and chil- have reading the Bible together. Three different scriptural dren’s choir, the sheet music was distributed at Annual interpretations emerged around the topic of women’s ordi- Council in October 2014, along with a DVD with tracks nation. Somer George tells us about how those readings to use in rehearsal. were presented at Annual Council in 2014, as she recounts When I talked to Jim Hooper, son of Wayne, about the her experience as a lay delegate to the General Conference new arrangement, I asked what his father might have annual meeting. thought of having his most famous composition used in We have three people helping us think about how we this way. “He would have loved it,” Jim said. read the Bible: Smuts van Rooyen, James Londis, and Tim- Talking about Adventist hymns always make me think othy Floyd. Each generation reads in a different manner, of Wayne Hooper and James White. To me, they are the we learn from Floyd. Van Rooyen takes us to the text that Adventist hymnal heroes: James, for publishing the very shows God’s priorities as we read. Londis helps us see how first hymnal and for helping us sing our way through the reading affects our own story as a church. Great Disappointment. And then Hooper for his work on This issue’s exegesis of our community life includes a the 1985 hymnal. In the 1970s, Hooper began his cam- look at Adventist television media in North America. And paign for a new hymnal by bringing to the attention of the we close with a tribute to the exegesis of existence as expe- brethren how long it had been since the previous hymnal rienced through the music of Franz Schubert. Check our was published, in 1941. Once a committee had finally website for links to the music in the Schubert story. been appointed, Hooper worked full-time on the project Janene Evard, our cover artist, created her exuberant art for four years, writing arrangements and making sure piece while at her home in the Swiss Alps and titled it “Joy everything was in order. Then he spent another six years Upon the Mountain.” working on a companion book to go with the hymnal, We wish you joy as 2014 comes to a close, and we look with stories and details about each song. forward to good times singing and reading together in Perhaps it is time to sing that tune again about the 2015. n need for a new hymnal, now that it has been thirty years since the last hymnal was published. Worship music has Bonnie Dwyer is editor of Spectrum magazine. changed significantly in that time. And as Kendra Haloviak 2 spectrum VOLUME 42 ISSUE 4 n fall 2014 from the forum chairman n EDITORIAL What Shall We Do with Ellen White? | BY CHARLES SCRIVEN across as sheer denial, even as willful disregard of truth. And you cannot read Ellen Harmon White: American Prophet, the just-published Oxford University Press volume edited by Terrie Dopp Aamodt, the late Gary Land, and Ronald L. Numbers, without realizing all of this anew. This book was written mainly by persons with links to Adventism. Nineteen of the 22 contributors are Adventist by current practice or background. More than half have given their lives to the church and its mission.