While doing research about John Wesley, I ran across a Wikipedia article on “Christian Perfection.” From extensive reading on this subject that I’ve done in the past, both from Ellen White’s writings and John Wesley’s, I have come to the conclusion that for all practical intents and purposes, their beliefs on character perfection were identical. The only differences that I know of have to do with White’s beliefs about the 144,000, the sealing, the close of probation, and the end of the investigative judgment (those items all being closely related), which seem to be wholly missing, though not contradicted, in Wesley’s teachings; and Wesley’s belief that the apostles and early Christians probably achieved a level of character perfection that White does not endorse (and seems to contradict). However, their views on the nature of Christian perfection, its scope, how it is accomplished, how it fits within the plan of salvation, etc., seem to be in perfect harmony. This is not too surprising, given that White was a Methodist.
Given our roots as a church growing out of the holiness movement, I believe one of the great shortcomings today in the church is the lack of attention given to holiness topics. It is much more popular to focus on mission, development and disaster response, basic discipleship, and similar themes. But in White’s writings, holiness subjects such as character perfection, the 144,000, the nature of Christ, disdain of worldliness, spiritual gifts, etc., are extraordinarily common. Although these doctrines sometimes seem to be an embarrassment even to those who believe them, I have always believed they constituted a fundamental part of what it means to be a solid, orthodox, conservative Seventh-day Adventist.
For that reason, I was surprised to read the assertion at the end of the article linked above, this sentence: “In the Seventh-day Adventist Church, some conservative members hold to a ‘Last Generation’ theology which teaches that there will be a final perfect generation of believers before Jesus returns. Most if not all Adventist theologians reject this.” (Emphasis added.)
Assuming “perfect” in this case means Christian perfection, and not something more absolute, I find this statement preposterous. However, given the reputation of Wikipedia, inaccuracies are not too uncommon. Still, I lack the hard data to disprove this, and I am very curious whether anyone knows exactly how marginal “last generation theology” is today. It certainly can’t be “all” Adventist theologians, but I am unsure about “most.”
I would say, it depends on your definition of “perfection.” While I can’t speak for MOST Adventist theologians, I rub shoulders with a fair number of “conservative theologians,” such as those that make up the faculty of the religion department at Southern. I would say, it probably is commonly believed that the last generation will be perfect, as in, “first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.” In other words, there will be a generation of people who, while they may still have room to grow in the knowledge department, will be living perfectly according to the light they have, and will be actively seeking more light.