Remembering Graham

Dear Pineknoll, or whoever this will reach,

I just wanted to say something about Graham Maxwell. I wish I could've told him in person, if he was still alive and fresh I would have done anything to be his disciple.

He was truly an eye opener to me. The way he pictured God is indescribable. He made me love the writings of Paul, EGW and the Sabbath which all had such an arbitrary ring to it previously. I listened to his God in all 66 in 2008 and it truly changed my life. I feel much like that woman Graham often talks about who 'loved God all her life' but now like him as well :)

I pray that I may follow in his footsteps, and also be a representative of the picture of God in the setting of the great controversy.  I also want to thank for the inspiring work of Richard Nies that is posted on pineknoll.org. Thank you people for making sense of this thing called Christianity ;)

it is now not only the truth and you have to believe it because it is the truth, but it is truly the greatest way to walk this life.

Sincerest greetings

Christian Karlsson from Sweden.

I will never forget my first impression of Dr. Maxwell.  I was a freshman at PUC, far from home and knowing very few people and feeling so alone and shy.  I was walking to a class and met him coming toward me.  He smiled that wonderful smile and spoke so lovingly in passing.  I can remember thinking,"I don't know who he is but if Jesus was alive I think He would smile and sound just like this man".  Since I wasn't a theology student I was unable to take a Bible class from him, but discovered about the middle of the year that he taught Sabbath School classes. I discovered that you had to go early to be able to get a seat.  His SS class kept outgrowing the room assigned to him.  They kept giving him larger and larger rooms.  Finally he went to the PUC Prep auditorium.  He was inspiring!  His picture of God is so ennobling and empowering!  I feel very blessed to have access to his thoughts on his tapes and now the CD's.  It is also nice to listen to the ongoing class studies with those who hold him and his knowledge of God in high esteem.  What a huge loss we as a church family have received, but he would be the first to encourage us to go to our God for comfort at this time.  I hope some day to join him at Jesus side and listen as Jesus tells him, "Well Done, you have showed others what I was like.... you have said of Me what is right."

Wanda Mitchell
North Carolina

It is difficult to swallow the news and even digest it that our dearly beloved friend, teacher and mentor has passed on. Despite that fact that I am cognizance of the first death and what it represents there is still a feeling of sadness and regrets. I did not know that he was ill, I know that he was away taking care of his wife who was not well. So this news was a little shocking to me. Let's continue where Graham has finished to promulgate the picture of God that is in sync with the biblical records that God is not the type of person the enemies have made Him out to be vengeful, unforgiving, severe etc but all together powerful but equally gracious and values nothing higher than our freedom etc... May I express my sincere condolences to the family members all around.

Mourning his passing and giving God the glory for allowing him to touch my life during his sojourn.

Devrick Ivey
Kingston, Jamaica

Graham's ministry was much appreciated and inspiring. What would I have done travelling the roads of Norfolk & Suffolk and other roads in South England without STUDY TAPES?

Cheers,

David Neal

I was born in the "adventist bus" as Graham used to say. Went astray and came back to the church but with many doubts about my relationship with God. Then, I emigrated to the USA, some ten years ago. I didn't know English at that time, but at soon as I knew a few words here and there I tried to use the Sabbath School quarterly to practice and learn more.

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Dear Colleague,

It is with great regret that I have learnt of the passing of a marvelous friend and mentor. It was a pleasure meeting this son of God some year a back on the pine knoll site and since that time the grasp of his knowledge on the promulgation of the gospel which in essence the truth about God has been so profound that I can testify with that old lady that said after one of his session ,” I not only love God but like Him”. Graham in my opinion has been specially sent by God in a time like this to lead us back to the God who can be trusted and value nothing higher than our freedom and individuality, and treat us with dignity and the ability for us to think and to do. I am looking forward to meet Graham in the hereafter and share some of the fond memories we have had as I listen intently these many sessions covering the larger view and the type of person God is. Please express my sincere condolences to his family and lets rejoice in the fact that God has been so good to us to allow him to impact our lives in excess of the three score and ten. To God be the Glory.

Devrick Ivey
Kingston, Jamaica

Thank you so much for notifying us of Graham’s passing.

I received your note on my father’s 93rd birthday.  I’d spent the day caring for my 92-year-old stepmother and taking her to the doctor.  After settling her back in her room in her retirement center, I went over to Dad’s Adult Care Home to wish him Happy Birthday.  I think he knew who I was, and he smiled and sang, “Happy Birthday to Me”, but then he fell back into the blessed sleep of the aged.

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Graham will be missed!  Dr. Ralph Thompson told me recently how Dr. Hinshaw would host meetings at his house with Graham as the speaker after move from White Memorial to Loma Linda.  Many physicians attended these Bible studies week after week, and the meetings had much to do with creating an ‘esprit de corps’ at Loma Linda and with keeping people in the church who might otherwise have drifted away.  The memory that stands out the most in my mind comes from a sermon Graham preached in University Church in May, 1980, on the rape of the concubine in Judges 19.  Aside from telling the story in a gripping way, he read the statements from EGW about the crisis in the government of God, a crisis among the loyal angels.  He also pointed out that bad people assaulted the concubine from Bethlehem, but it was the good people who were implacably hostile to that other child from Bethlehem.  My thinking on this subject was already in motion, but this message was nevertheless transformative.  To this day it remains at the center of my sense of identity as a Seventh-day Adventist.  Next to the birth of our oldest daughter, it is my strongest and most enduring memory of my educational experience at Loma Linda University.

Please convey our love, sadness, and gratitude to Graham’s family.

Grace and peace, Sigve
California

I remember at LLU in a class with Dr. Maxwell, his saying, that some atheists are closer to God than those that profess their beliefs.  I always have remembered that.  I have shared that with others, including my son in law who has become agnostic.  Also, his saying that those that leave behind what they were taught, and search for themselves, often then have a stronger faith, once they find their beliefs, then those that just accept what they were told.  These have been helpful to me, and some of my doubts, through the years, as I have often found much sincerity, and kindness, among the "non religious" sometimes more so than the "religious".  So his perceptions have been helpful, to look to GOd, rather than people.  I still have trouble though understanding the seeming angry God in the old testament, compared to Jesus.  He certainly (Dr. Maxwell) seemed to be close to God and peaceful in his life.

DeAne Mueller Urban
Florida

While I have always dreaded knowing that this day would someday come, I can always remember him as one of the most, if not the most influential man in my life.  I always chuckled thinking of him wearing a baseball cap with FOTAP on the brim.  But my favorite Graham saying was the day he said "If the Father had come instead of the Son, history would have been the same".  That really sums up his unique theological contribution to the world.  I will miss calling him, and talking to him, and asking for his advise.  But someday, will be most anxious to sit and listen to him once again

Merrill Shidler
Ohio

I was sadden by the death of this scholar from God for man. I was first introduced to Dr. Maxwell's teachings about our Great Creator while a student in England in 1982 by the late Gladys Brailsford and Madge, Chelmsford, England. What a glorious and a rewarding revelation that has been even now. It has caused me to follow my Lord with a greater appreciation and love for His saving grace. I've listen to those tapes and the on-line source over and over.

Dr. Maxwell's most recurring phrase to me - "God is not the kind of god that satan has made Him out to be....He wants us to be His friends".

Heartfelt sympathy to his family as he rests until He is called in the FIRST RESURRECTION.

Andrew
Nassau, Bahamas

My husband and I were students at PUC in the early ‘50s and first knew Graham there.  Frequently in surveys of students and alumni he was ranked as a (the?) favorite teacher there.  He knew how to draw people to a loving and caring God.  I think that his Life and Teachings of Jesus class was my favorite during my four years at PUC, and I attended his Sabbath-school class regularly.  It is hard to say precisely how those both molded my life—I was a committed Christian before, but they certainly helped solidify that commitment; and he led a life of graciousness, kindness, pleasantness, yet conviction and commitment, that served as a model for all of us.

I think I may have babysat for the Maxwells once.  I more clearly recall the time that I needed an ed psych class project of teaching some child something, so I arranged to teach Lorna Maxwell (maybe 10 then) how to knit, and she would come to my dorm room once a week for that.

Through the years since, though my husband and I worked mainly in the Far East and then in Michigan, we kept in touch and remained friends.  It was not long ago that, on a visit to Loma Linda, we were happy to see him still teaching his Sabbath-school class.

Sincerely,

Madeline Steele Johnston
Michigan