Glacier View controversy

In the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Sanctuary Review Committee was a group of biblical scholars and administrators which met to decide the church's response to theologian Desmond Ford, who had challenged details of the church's "investigative judgment" teaching. The meeting was held from August 11–15, 1980, at the Glacier View Ranch, a church-owned retreat and conference centre in Colorado, United States. The event is referred to informally as "Glacier View". The outcome was Ford losing his job.

It was also the largest investment of money and time of church workers ever given to a doctrinal issue in Adventist history. At the time, one scholar stated it was the most significant Adventist meeting of its type since the 1888 Minneapolis General Conference Session. Ford's firing was a controversial and emotionally charged issue, and the church experienced the largest exit of teachers and ministers in its history. One modern commentator describes 'Glacier View' as "Adventist shorthand for pain, dissension and division".

The investigative judgment doctrine has been criticized, in part or whole, by a few vocal Adventists since the late nineteenth century, such as D. M. Canright, A. F. Ballenger, W. W. Fletcher, W. W. Prescott, Louis R. Conradi, and Raymond Cottrell. Many of these individuals ultimately left the Adventist church. Issues with the traditional Adventist interpretation of Daniel 8:14 were acknowledged by a number of North American theologians in the 1950s, with the result that a special committee was formed to discuss "problems in the book of Daniel".

In the 1970s, dissident Australian former church member Robert Brinsmead attempted to convince leading Adventist theologians Desmond Ford and Edward Heppenstall to write a refutation of it. Brinsmead said he hesitated "blasting this theology because I thought someone from within Adventism should do it." After Ford and Heppenstall declined his request, Brinsmead returned to Australia and wrote the critical work "1844" Re-Examined which he published in July 1979.

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