Bert Haloviak and 666

On October 18, Bert Haloviak passed away at the age of 84. Bert was a wonderful person, and will be greatly missed by all who knew him. For many years he was the head of the department of the Adventist Church that takes care of the archives and of the compilation of statistics. To those interested in the history of the Adventist Church, Bert Haloviak was best known for his phenomenal knowledge of the church’s past. I got to know him in 1992, when I spent several weeks doing research in the archives of the denominational headquarters in Silver Spring, not far from the U.S. capital Washington. There, in the basement of the General Conference office, was the domain of Bert Haloviak. I was warmly welcomed there for part of the work on my dissertation, in preparation of my doctorate from the University of London (UK) in August 1993.

I was researching the relationship between Adventism and Roman Catholicism in the period from 1844 to 1965 (the time of the Second Vatican Council). Much of my work had already been done at the James White library at Andrews University and at the Catholic Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana, about 20 miles from Andrews. But there were some specific sources I wanted to check in the church’s archives. Any researcher knows that, as you do your research, you often come across interesting information about things you were not looking for. For example, in sifting through the minutes of the board meetings of the Review and Herald Publishing Association, I discovered that shortly after Ellen White’s death, the board decided to pay one-third of her funeral expenses. Ellen was in considerable debt when she died, and the cost of her funeral was a major problem for the family. After considerable discussion, it was decided to split the costs into several portions, with the publishing house contributing one third. I was totally surprised: imagine, the prophetess dies and then a discussion ensues about the cost of her funeral! Shortly thereafter, in those same minutes, I found a request from William White, Ellen’s son who was now going to have an important role in caring for her literary estate. He received a negative response when he asked for reimbursement for a new typewriter. It was believed that his activities were not so extensive that he needed one.

However, I was concerned with other things that were much more directly related to the subject of my dissertation. After I had been intensely busy for a few days, Haloviak came to me with a sizable box in his hands. “This is my 666 box,” he said. The box contained documentation on how the church had dealt with the explanation of the mysterious number 666, which we find in John’s Revelation. “This stuff hasn’t been catalogued yet,” he said. “Take a look at it, there’s bound to be something of your liking.” Indeed, that turned out to be the case. Among other things, I found the minutes of two church-appointed study committees that had tried, in vain, in the late 1930s to find historical support for the traditional explanation, namely that the number 666 refers to a title allegedly used by the pope: Vicarius Filii Dei. The conclusion was that this title could only be found in a forged medieval document, and that Adventist evangelists should no longer use their beloved explanation that “the number of the beast” refers to a papal title. Even though all experts agree with this conclusion, this sensational argument is still often used in evangelistic lectures and popular publications on the Revelation.

I was, of course, very grateful to Haloviak for his help with my research. The weeks in the archives proved to be a very fruitful few weeks. Unfortunately, he had not warned me beforehand that I had better not prepare coffee in the kitchen, which is next to the archives department. When I pulled out my pot of instant coffee and wanted to brew a cup of coffee, there was a loud protest from someone at the nearby Ellen G. White Estate-the department that still cares for Ellen White’s publications. Making coffee in this environment was apparently a mortal sin. But I gladly forgave Bert Haloviak for failing to warn me about this

Afterwards, during the years when I was the general secretary of the Trans-European Division of the Adventist Church, I was in frequent contact with Mary, Bert’s wife. She was the administrative assistant of the person in the headquarters office who was responsible for the relationship between the division and the General Conference. As general secretary, one of my tasks was to recruit missionaries for the countries that were at that time under our care—notably Pakistan, most of the Middle Eastern countries and newly “opened” Albania. I was in very frequent contact with Mary about this aspect of my work. To her, in particular, I express my condolences. I wish her strength, now that she has to go on without Bert. Her loss is of course infinitely greater than that of the many people who, like me, got to know Bert mainly because of his professional passion and his extensive knowledge. But they too miss him for the exceptionally fine human being he was.