[6] Colin is an author and administrator, as well as the founder and president of the independent Adventist institute Hartland College.
Russell became a prolific author, commencing with the publication of "Conflicting Concepts of Righteousness by Faith etc", co-authored with Dr John Clifford in 1976.
[citation needed] From 1983 to 2011 Colin was president of the Hartland Institute of Health and Education, acting as an author and as an invited speaker at many venues around the world.
The Standish brothers had long been vocal supporters and prolific authors of "historic Adventism", the conservative wing of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
They became particularly strong supporters of a group of senior SDA pastors who, in 1976, openly objected to doctrines being taught at Australia's Avondale College under the leadership in the Theology Department of Dr Desmond Ford.
Their views and those of the Standish brothers were rejected by the leadership of the Australasian Division of SDA's in a Biblical Research group meeting in 1976.
As such they criticized what they saw as 'new theology' within the church, particularly evident since the 1957 publication 'Questions on Doctrine', which accepted Adventists, formerly believed to be a cult, as being closer to the evangelical mainstream.
The Standishes predicted that the theology promoted by Dr Ford and Robert Brinsmead (so-called "forensic justification") in Australia and Dr Edward Heppenstall in the USA in the 1970s would lead to apostasy from other traditional Adventist doctrines, especially that of the Heavenly Sanctuary, unique to Seventh-day Adventism.
The Standish brothers also were strong supporters of Biblical Creation, the Adventist Health message and the prophetic gift of Ellen White.