Gilbert Valentine
What a preacher! His resonant voice could best a thunderstorm. Known for both wisdom and overwork, he was president of 3 colleges at once, and founded or laid the groundwork for four (Union, Walla Walla, Newbold, and Avondale).
Beginning as a journalist, with a first-class education from Dartmouth, W. W. Prescott was soon editing a successful newspaper. The call to shepherd Battle Creek College involved a major pay cut. But over time he reshaped the church’s educational system and politics. Holding 11 different offices simultaneously, he initiated curriculum reforms (less classics, more Bible) that met with strong opposition. He organizational reforms triumphed in 1901.
In the aftermath of the 1888 tumult Prescott was a peacemaker. Yet controversy swirled around him most of the time: over the teachers he hired (A. T. Jones and E. J. Waggoner), over his reforms, and over his new theology. He was hounded by detractors for decades; nevertheless, his “heresies” -- the Godhead, his new view of the daily -- are now standard teaching. But the dispute over Daniel 8:13 would, in the end, prove his political undoing.
This deeply researched portrait of an energetic man of God will make you tired -- and inspire you to better things. This is one of a series of excellent biographies on the pioneers of the Advent Movement.
Hardbound, 336 pages
