Dr. Erwin Gane

 
Dr. and Mrs. Erwin Gane
Dr. and Mrs. Erwin Gane
In honor of Dr. Erwin Gane and his precious wife, Winsome, the St. Helena SDA Church hosted an Italian dinner Sabbath, January 7, 2012. The Gane's left our area to live near their family in Colorado. We  miss them! Winsome passed to her rest in 2017. If you would like to dialogue via email with Dr. Gane, you may email him
 
Dr. Erwin Gane, a many-decades-long Napa Valley resident, has made a life-study of the Holy Spirit of God and presented a special series entitled The Holy Spirit and the Latter Rain at the St. Helena Seventh-day Adventist Church in the autumn of 2011. The message is timely and timeless.  Additional Bible studies on other topics are below. 

This page contains links to a series of Bible study articles written by Australian-born Dr. Erwin R. Gane. Former professor of Pacific Union College (1970's), Elder Gane was a member of the St. Helena Seventh-day Adventist Church for more than five years in the 1990's and led a much-beloved weekly Bible Study class here. He has served as interim pastors at both the St. Helena and Middletown Churches during several months of 2007 and 2009.  Currently he resides in Colorado. 
 
1.Which View of Salvation is Correct?
2. What Does Sanctification Have to do With Salvation?
3. Did God Predetermine Our Salvation?
4. Are the Ten Commandments Still the Law for Christians?
5. Is Israel Still God's Chosen Nation?
6How, When and Why Does God Judge His People?
7. Does the Bible Teach Trinitarianism?
8. What Does Sabbath Observance Have to do With Salvation?
9. When, How and Why was the Sabbath Changed From Saturday to Sunday?
10. Do Mary and the Saints Hear and Answer Our Prayers?
11. How are Immortal-soul Proof-texts to be Interpreted?
12. Will the Rapture be Secret or Public?
EXTRA: A Brief Answer to the Jehovah's Witness Article on Adventist Theology.
 

Revelation's Seven Trumpets Reconsidered



Dr. Erwin R. Gane has written yet another timely book, Revelation's Seven Trumpets Reconsidered.  The following is part of an interview held with Dr. Gane July 2008 regarding this new book.
 
“As I taught the book of Revelation [at Pacific Union College in the 1970’s] – I had not taught it before I came here – it occurred to me that there were many different views on the Trumpets – and the seals, too, for that matter. So I spent months and months studying the seals and the trumpets.  As a result of the study of the seals, I wrote the little book, Heaven’s Open Door, which a gentleman at Sonoma Church, is also putting on the internet. I have a slightly different view of the seals, although it doesn’t contradict the historical approach.  And then I studied the trumpets, and my view was that you had to take every symbol, and you had to trace every symbol through the scriptures, and then draw your conclusions to what was intended.

“The Book of Revelation was a very arduous process, and I came up with about 150 pages of notes. I used it in my teaching, but I never did write it up.  I thought, when I retired, that I’d better get to work and do this.  So I wrote it up into a book of 270 pages and that was based on the notes that I had prepared when I was teaching.  That’s what the [Trumpets] book is all about.

“The thesis of my book is that the Trumpets have a duel application.  I believe that Revelation 8:5 is the close of probation.   In Revelation 8:2-5, Christ is the High Priest.  He’s standing at the altar of incense, offering incense, the prayers of His people. The merits of His intercession mingle with our prayers.  In verse 5 He takes the censor and He casts it into the earth.  I believe that that’s the end of intercession, I believe that that’s the close of probation.  There were two closes of probation. There was a close of probation for the Jews at the end of the 70 weeks prophecy in 34 AD, so there are historical trumpets, after that close of probation.  There’s an end-time close of probation. After that end time close of probation, there are eschatological trumpets – end time trumpets. 

“So I believe history repeats Itself. I believe Kenneth Strand had a wonderful idea when he talked about history as cyclical, so he came up with the philosophy of history approach.  I believe that the historical trumpets are types of events that will occur after the end-time close of probation. So when we study those historical trumpets, we can know the kind of event that will occur after the close of probation.  If you put that with Ellen White’s Great Controversy, especially the final chapters, she spells out what happens after the close of probation and it’s dramatic how that fits in with the further prophecy of the trumpets.  I think that what she wrote was intended to be an interpretation of the prophecy of the trumpets even though she didn’t state that. 

“My view of the historical trumpets is substantially the orthodox Adventist view. A little different than Uriah Smith, but so is the view that is spelled out by  Dr. Jon Paulien, and the views spelled out by Ranko Stefanovich, who teaches at Andrews and wrote a commentary on Revelation.   His view of the historical trumpets is substantially the same as Jon Paulien’s.  I have believed that they’ve got it pretty straight historically, but they don’t spell out Revelation 8:5 as the close of probation, nor does Mervyn Maxwell in his book, God Cares, volume 2.  I think that that verse is absolutely crucial, and Ellen White identifies that as the  close of probation. She talks about the censor being cast.  I’ve quoted her.

“What I do is to present the historical trumpets, which is standard Adventism, and then I say that this is a type of what is going to happen at the end of time, after the end time close of probation, and these are the events that will occur, and I’ve spelled it out in detail with some nice charts and all the rest of it.

“As I studied it and read it, I thought, this is scary stuff. Many may read it and be frightened to death by it. But what do you have when you read the final chapters of Great Controversy? That’s scary stuff, too.  We need to know what’s going to happen.  And this prophecy in Ellen White’s material spells out what’s going to happen.  Through this whole experience, God is with us."
 

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Erwin R. Gane,  M.Div., M. Th., is well known to the members of the SDA church. He spent nine years of service before "retirement"  at the General Conference as editor of the Adult Sabbath School Lesson Quarterly.  Prior to this he taught religion classes at Avondale College in Australia, Union College, and Pacific Union Colleges in America.

He has also pastored churches in Australia and the USA; most recently, post-retirement, he pastored the Calistoga SDA Church and in 2007 served as interim pastor of the St. Helena SDA Church. He is now "retired" in Colorado.  His beloved wife, Winsome, died in 2017.

Additionally, Dr. Gane's M.A. thesis is now available online:

 

The Arian or Anti-Trinitarian Views Presented in Seventh-day Adventist Literature 
and the Ellen G. White Answer


This research examines the literature of Seventh-day Adventists to discover the prevalence of Arian or anti-Trinitarian views and the Ellen G. White answer to these views.

Since the Yearbooks published from 1931 to 1962 indicate official acceptance of Trinitarianism, special attention was given to the earlier history of the Denomination to determine whether this was from the beginning the accepted understanding of the Deity.


Dr. and Mrs. Gane have two sons, Roy and Calvin, two talented and lovely daughters-in-law, and three remarkable grandchildren.  The Ganes enjoy the company of their sons and their families immensely.
 

Books by Dr. Gane include:

•    Heaven’s Open Door (Study of Revelation 4:1 – 8:1)
•    This We Believe (Co-authored with Leo Van Dolson)
•    Enlightened By the Spirit (On the Holy Spirit and the Latter Rain)
•    Paul’s Epistle to the Galations
    Jesus Only (Paul’s letter to the Romans)
•    You Ask, God Answers: Questions on Salvation
•    Revelation’s Seven Trumpets Reconsidered (On the Internet)
•    An Examination of Desmond Ford’s Book Right With God, Right Now (His commentary on
      Romans) (Available FREE only from maranathamedia.com)