Theological Principles Are Timeless

New truths do not make old truths obsolete. “Perceptions” of truth, however, change as fresh information is discovered or when presuppositions may be recognized as faulty. But two plus two will always equal four, and the fact that Christ was crucified and resurrected cannot be altered by “open and free discussion.”MOL 531.4

Truth, indeed, has been like the un-folding of a flower or the growth of a tree. Its organizing principle is embedded in its seed. Each stage of development shows new structure. The branches of the tree and the petals of the bloom are a natural unfolding of the unifying purpose of the original seed. Part of the flower’s petals will not be daisy and part tulip. An oak tree trunk will not branch out with Ponderosa Pine limbs. Elements of truth are recognized by their coherence; in other words, truth in its development does not contradict itself.MOL 531.5

Ellen White, as we have discovered, has been a guide for her fellow Adventists and those multiplied thousands who have found Christ through her writings. Her own 70-year experience reflected the reality of the constant unfolding of truth. Perhaps clearer than her contemporaries, she expressed this principle: “The truths of redemption are capable of constant development and expansion.... In every age there is a new development of truth, a message of God to the people of that generation. The old truths are all essential; new truth is not independent of the old, but an unfolding of it. It is only as the old truths are understood that we can comprehend the new.” ^{17Christ’s Object Lessons, 127.}MOL 531.6

Thus, looking back, Ellen White saw how the stakes of truth were driven deeply into the Advent movement experience. ^{18“Let the aged men who were pioneers in our work speak plainly, and let those who are dead speak also, by the reprinting of their articles in our periodicals.” Manuscript 62, 1905, cited in “The Integrity of the Sanctuary Message.” “We are to repeat the words of the pioneers in our work, who knew what it cost to search for the truth as for hidden treasure, and who labored to lay the foundation of our work.... The word given me is, Let that which these men have written in the past be reproduced.” The Review and Herald, May 25, 1905.} She looked ahead to the lengthening cords that were connected ever so securely to those stakes. She was a future-oriented leader, confident of the developing configuration of truth: “We have nothing to fear for the future, except as we shall forget the way the Lord has led us, and His teaching in our past history.” ^{19Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, 196.}MOL 531.7