Throughout 2007 Elder Grotheer was
not prepared to authorize the disclosure of specific information about
the state of his health. He frequently stated his
intention to send out a letter to the readers of Watchman, What
of the Night? explaining his increasing disability on his own terms.
This did not happen before he was hospitalized after a fall in
the last week of December, 2007. After that there
was
such a rapid deterioration in his condition that he was never able to
carry out his intention.
During 2007, some of us observed a
progressive decline in the giant intellect of this preacher and teacher
of Present Truth, as demonstrated over decades. The
observations were made by those of us who were living close to him, and
by others of us who talked with him on the telephone.
Those who could observe him in person were also aware of physical
changes in the way he walked and maintained his balance.
In due course a physician diagnosed Elder Grotheer
to be in an advanced stage of
progressive decline in cognitive function due to damage or disease in
the brain beyond what might be expected from normal aging.
Although the diagnosis did not specify the underlying disease
beyond stating that he was in an advanced stage of dementia,
general knowledge and experience suggest that it was either Alzheimer’s
or Parkinson’s; and quite likely Parkinson’s, because of the associated
shuffling gait and frequent falls to which he was subject
during 2007.
Elder Grotheer is sadly missed as a
champion of Truth, pure and unadulterated.
He has left behind a legacy of biblical exegesis which when carefully
studied by the unbiased mind must bring conviction of that Truth, the
knowledge of which in the Words of the Lord Jesus Christ makes us free.
While there may yet be some areas of the biblical expositions covered by
Elder Grotheer's writings and sermons which can be explored in greater
depth, his is essentially a finished work, anchored in the Bible, and a
sound foundation for continuing study.
We hope that visitors to
adventistlaymen.com
will carefully study and/or
review the many articles and listen to the sermons
on the great issues of Present Truth that are on this
website, dating from the critical year of 1980 until the end of 2006.
And that, knowing
the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our
salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent,
the day is at hand . . . Romans 13:11, 12a
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