The Spirit is, Pt. 5

The voice of the Lord is essentially the Lord, even as a voice on the radio or an image on the television we say is President so-and-so or Mister so-and-so, although understood in a substitutionary sense. God’s strong breath, His transforming life, His disposition, His mind, His pneuma (G4151), or His word logos (G3056), felt by His church can be called “Him” because It is essentially God. “He” is the Spirit as much as Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev continued to be felt by many Americans as the sound of his forceful voice and rapping shoe rumbled down through a decade of Cold War.

 

The spirit of the Law that makes us free (see Romans 8:2; 2 Corinthians 3:17) can be said to be the Spirit of God, because the Law is God’s representative. God so equates His Law with Himself and holds Himself subject to It, that we can say God is bound in His Law. He is the Spirit of the Law. And God’s word is full of metaphors; without a parable spake He not. We can equate God with His Law; we face Both and tremble (see Isaiah 66:2). However and whatever and wherever He must use to reach us with conviction, that place is forever holy; the Law is holy because of its divine origin in Him who is holiest of all. Elijah believed Mt. Sinai forever to be God’s holy sanctuary. God is not bound in the Ten Commandments; but He is found in it. He is not the Law, but He places it before Himself in all His communications with humanity, so that It is all we see of Him. If we want to know Him intimately, we must go to His other interface—His Son. We cannot come to the Father through His Law and live. His Law needs a Mediator.

 

In our limited perspective, we say that God is where we found Him, and that such a place is forever holy: Penuel and Bethel remained holy to Jacob, as did Mt. Sinai for Moses and Elijah, and the field near Zorah for Manoah, the brazen serpent of Mt. Hor for Israel; in Jerusalem David “was born there”. We identify the holy Creator with material places and things, and the practice is biblical and was acceptable to the Lord as long as the objects or places weren’t worshiped (see 2 Kings 18:4). God didn’t literally reside at Penuel or on Sinai or in Jerusalem or behind the brazen serpent. But, the faculty of faith was supernaturally charged in the individuals who had met God there and from that time forward the place/object could be a spiritual interface with Jesus. Yet faith gave them the discernment to look beyond the place/object medium of the divine touch, to build there an altar to Jesus, and by faith to speak directly with the Holy One. The new spirit of meekness and faith in His redeemed child made sanctifying the place/object acceptable to the Lord. But, too often the place/object was revered without faith in its Originator and they incurred His rightful anger; for “without faith it is impossible to please him” (Heb. 11:6).

 

The Spirit is the divine medium for the Godhead to interface with Their material creation. God’s new gift of spirituality in the soul, which is “sent down from heaven” (1 Pet. 1:12), is receptive to God’s mortifying spirituality in those whose “circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit” (Rom. 2:29, cf Jer. 9:26; Num. 11:29; Rom. 8:26). We must seek a greater measure of this solidification of Jesus’ character into ours both intellectually and spiritually, our heart and mind hardened in conviction by Jesus, walking after His Spirit. The “hand of the Lord God” (Eze. 8:1) must be upon us, “straitening” (see Luke 12:50) our loose, fallen propensities to presumptuous worship and sin, His Spirit’s firm straightjacket keeping us under the control of the heavenly agencies. But, we must never worship the hand of the Lord; we must worship the Lord,  in the beauty of holiness and under the control of His stringent hand.

 

We can identify the Father and Son with Their medium, the Spirit. We call the holy medium “He” by our affectionate identification of It with our new Friend in “God our Saviour” (1 Tim. 1:1) and in His only begotten Son. However, while we identify It with Them, we must give Them our affection. Yes, we must honor and obey the Spirit, no less than we honor and obey the Father and Son ― because we are obeying Them through Their holy medium, the Spirit, Their Spirit. Likewise, to honor and to obey Their media of the prophets who spoke by “the Spirit of your Father” (Matt. 10:20, cf Heb. 1:1) has always received the same reward, benefits, and blessing as honoring and obeying “the LORD your God” Himself (2 Chron. 20:20, cf Matt. 10:40, 15). And, to dishonor the holy Medium and the token of our reconciliation with God is to give Them dishonor. They deny Christ in God who deny His medium of godliness, His power to make them righteous (see 2 Timothy 3:5). They have snubbed Him in whom is all authority in heaven and earth, and He will deny them before His Father. Similarly, to call Their Spirit’s promptings and convictions the work of the prince of devils is to deny and to blaspheme the Father and Son Godhead who gave It (see Matthew 12:32; 1 Peter 1:11).

 

We baptize in the name of the Holy Ghost, Their holy representative, because of the medium’s necessary involvement in Their condemnation of our sin and in Their comforting our humbled heart, a great work which is done under the Father’s management and by the Son’s direct labors. Yet, the holy Medium is not a third Person of the Godhead; It is Their holy extension, Their means of accomplishing Their will in the human heart for our justification and sanctification (see 1 Corinthians 6:11). We can worship the Godhead by springboarding off of the work of Their medium which is made holy by Its place as the extension of Divinity. But, we cannot worship Their medium, the Spirit. Worshiping the holy extension of God takes our eyes off of the Father and Son who alone all heaven worship, and who deserve our highest love (see Revelation 5:13). We can love and appreciate the Spirit, as we appreciate and love our neighbor; but, as is often the case in this misguided world, the principalities and powers of creation receive higher love and reverence than the Creators. Worse, worshiping the divine/matter Interface of the Godhead creates a diversion, an opportunity and an avenue for Satan to insert himself into our worship. That resourceful genius will make use of the church’s slightest step away from the holy path set up by its Lord and His messengers; and little by little, by the subtlest moves over time take the church far off her original course.

 

God’s holy extension/interface/medium, in the Spirit of God, is purely functional and does not love. It never visibly walked among the children of men; It never pled with us, or fellowshipped with us; It never affectionately called us “little ones”, or disciplined and forgave us. Proverbs chapter 8 refers not to the Spirit, but to Jesus; and every other action by the Spirit has been in conjunction with the Father or the Son. Why should God expect us to love a Person who hasn’t first loved us? He doesn’t.

 

The Spirit has never suffered. It never sacrificed Itself, as both Father and Son did at the cross. Only Jesus reveals the incomprehensible effort of God to save us. The Son of God stretched every limit of His humanity to reconcile the Father to us. But, a nebulous Spirit’s sacrifice does not exist in Christianity, and would mean nothing to us. A Spirit’s sacrifice is unthinkable; it is a spiritual and theological oxymoron. The nebulous Spirit causes no empathy and awakens no sorrow for sin. It reclaims no selfish heart from sin to righteousness; It has no redemptive affect upon our corrupted hearts. The Spirit, independent from Christ, cannot redeem a single soul; It is not the primary cause of our redemption. The Spirit only represents the avenue for our redemption. It is the Father working through the spiritual gestation capability of His only Begotten to quicken our soul’s receptors through which we may know the Deity’s self-sacrificing love for us. Only Father and Son have from the beginning been like a lamb slain. That should leave suspect a third Being in the Godhead.

 

Worshiping the Spirit leads only to confusion of face to no less a degree than worshiping the golden calf, which also never died, but also had a spiritually elusive, religious sense to it. To worship the Spirit that has not suffered even hardens hearts in sin, as Cain discovered by sacrificing inanimate objects. Worshiping the elusive third Person parallels Cain’s worship. Such false worship only exacerbated his chastisement of peace, even while Jesus counseled him to turn back to the true form of worship which pointed to Him. Praying to and worshiping the impersonal, inanimate Spirit not only turned Cain into a murderer, but it has ever since his day generated a race of murderers and assassins, oppressors and enslavers. No less a desolate condition will come from the new focus of Protestantism on the Spirit. We need to set our love on the Son. Everyone who chooses to not know Jesus, the wrath of God abides on him (see Psalm 91:14; John 3:36).

 

In His instruction to His disciples, Christ dwelt upon the great gift of the Spirit [emphasis mine], declaring that nothing was too great to be expected from the coming of the divine Spirit. He longed to quicken and enlarge the conception of His disciples by communicating to them His own complete appreciation of God’s love, that they might be able to comprehend the value of the gift of all gifts [emphasis mine], given by God with the giving of His beloved Son [emphasis mine], ― the gift of the Holy Spirit [emphasis mine]. On all who love and serve God this gift has been bestowed. Christ has made provision for all to receive His Spirit [emphasis mine]; for He desires to see human nature released from the bondage of sin, and, by the power which God gives, renewed, restored, raised to a holy rivalry with the angels Signs of the Times, August 7, 1901 par. 2.

 

The Bible (John 4:10; Luke 11:13, cf Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22), and the Spirit of Prophecy repeatedly, call the Holy Spirit a gift from the Father. The only time a person can be a gift is if that person were a slave. Otherwise, a gift is a thing; that is, a product or a service. Do Trinitarians believe that the third member of the Trinity is a slave or a thing, and wholly subject to the will of God? Not so, if they use the ancient formula of the Nicene Council’s three co-equal persons. And please remember that the gift of the Spirit is tagged with the Son (“Spirit of His Son”, “Spirit of Jesus Christ”, “Spirit of the Lord”, “in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God”, etc). Even when mentioned separately, it is in close context to the Father and His Son. At His baptism we see that there were only two divine persons present and a gift from the Father ― not another person, but a special package of glory ― “beams” ― as a message of His love, appreciation, and approval for His Son. The Father of glory is the great Giver of every good and perfect gift.

 

“”…beams of glory rested upon the Son of God, and assumed the form of a dove, in appearance like burnished gold. The dove-like form was emblematical of the meekness and gentleness of Christ Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 2, p. 60.

 

“”…the Father Himself will answer the petition of His Son. Direct from the throne issue the beams of His glory. The heavens are opened, and upon the Saviour’s head descends a dovelike form of purest light, ― fit emblem of Him, the meek and lowly One The Desire of Ages, p. 112.

 

The beams of glory could have been the Father’s reminder to Jesus’ of His heavenly home surrounded by His Father’s eternal love. As we read earlier, “The Son of God shared the Father’s throne, and the glory of the eternal, self-existent One encircled both” Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 36. The dove-like form was emblematic of Jesus’ gentleness and meekness, not another, third person of the Godhead. Jesus is the Gift from God at His baptism, there opened to earthly and heavenly public display. Salvation was of the Jews because of Jesus.

 

“”The Father is all the fullness [emphasis mine] of the Godhead bodily, and is invisible to mortal sight.

The Son is all the fullness [emphasis mine] of the Godhead manifested.… 

The Comforter that Christ promised to send after He ascended to heaven, is the Spirit in all the fullness [emphasis mine] of the Godhead, making manifest the power of divine grace to all who receive and believe in Christ as a personal Saviour…. ― Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 7, pp. 62, 63. (1905) Evangelism, 614, 615.

 

Notice the distinction Ellen White was making between the Spirit and the actual Godhead. In the above statement, she did not write that the Comforter “is” the fullness of the Godhead, as she did for Jehovah and His Son. But, the Comforter has the fullness of the Father and the Son. The fullness that It possesses comes from the Father and Son. It is recognizable only as Their fullness. Their Representative coming from Their fullness is not a source of Godhead fullness, but comes from Their fullness and in Their fullness. Nevertheless, It must be honored, heeded, and obeyed even as much as the eternal Father and His only Begotten are honored, heeded, and obeyed (see John 5:23).

 

Jesus said that He would send “another” convicter and comforter like Himself.

 

I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you….

At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?...

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you….

But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:…

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you (John 14:16-18, 20-22, 26; 15:26; 16:13-15).

 

Many have read the above statements from the Lord, and naturally concluded that they teach a third person of a trinity Godhead. “Another Comforter”, “he”, “the Spirit of truth”, all seem to clearly speak of someone other than Jesus, who is talking to the disciples. But, He said plainly, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” Of the coming Comforter, He was speaking of Himself. Jesus was both present and future Comforters. And, though Judas didn’t understand Jesus, he heard Jesus to say that He would later manifest Himself to His followers but not to all the people outside their group. Can the Lord say that He will be their comforter, yet also speak of Himself as another comforter? There is a precedent for this in the Old Testament by the Angel in the cloudy pillar.

 

“And the LORD said unto Moses…. Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee….

And the LORD said unto Moses… I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite…

And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses.

And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door.

And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle….

Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.

And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.

And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence” (Ex. 32:33, 34; 33:1, 2, 9-11, 13-15).

 

“And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth.

And the LORD came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth.

And he said, Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.

My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the LORD was kindled against them; and he departed.

And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous” (Num. 12:5-10).

 

“Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him” (Ex. 23:21). That Angel who Israel was to fear was the Son of God, the Lord God, and His heavenly agencies (see Ezekiel 1). In that Angel, He showed Himself as the manifestation of His own voice on Mt. Sinai.

 

In all these revelations of the divine presence the glory of God was manifested through Christ. Not alone at the Saviour’s advent, but through all the ages after the Fall and the promise of redemption, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.” 2 Corinthians 5:19. Christ was the foundation and center of the sacrificial system in both the patriarchal and the Jewish age. Since the sin of our first parents there has been no direct communication between God and man. The Father has given the world into the hands of Christ, that through His mediatorial work He may redeem man and vindicate the authority and holiness of the law of God. All the communion between heaven and the fallen race has been through Christ. It was the Son of God that gave to our first parents the promise of redemption. It was He who revealed Himself to the patriarchs. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses understood the gospel. They looked for salvation through man’s Substitute and Surety. These holy men of old held communion with the Saviour who was to come to our world in human flesh; and some of them talked with Christ and heavenly angels face to face. 

  Christ was not only the leader of the Hebrews in the wilderness ― the Angel in whom was the name of Jehovah, and who, veiled in the cloudy pillar, went before the host ― but it was He who gave the law to Israel. Amid the awful glory of Sinai, Christ declared in the hearing of all the people the ten precepts of His Father’s law. It was He who gave to Moses the law engraved upon the tables of stone Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 366.

                                   

“All the communion between heaven and the fallen race has been through Christ…. Christ was not only…the Angel in whom was the name of Jehovah, and who, veiled in the cloudy pillar, went before the host ― but it was He who gave the law to Israel.” In other words, the Angel was the LORD God, whose voice had also spoken to Moses on Sinai. From Sinai Christ spoke of this Angel, who was Himself, “the Lord GOD, and his Spirit” (Isa. 48:16). He spoke of Himself as another person. And please recall His words regarding the Angel, “My name is in Him” (Ex. 23:21). If Christ had never said, “I will send an angel before thee” (Ex. 33:2; 23:20), then Moses could have easily assumed that the God of Israel spoke to him on the mount and then appeared in the pillar of fire and cloud; because this was precisely the truth. Then why veil the truth of Christ in two persons?

 

This interesting duplicity was not meant to deceive Moses or the children of Israel. He wasn’t telling a lie or being convoluted to hide something. It may have been simply using a cloaked third person literary device for discretionary purposes, to keep a personal and loving monotheism as a hedge against an impersonal and violent Egyptian polytheism, and a barrier against Israel’s worshiping the cloudy pillar, which they could see, instead of “seeing him who is invisible” (Heb. 11:27), the Person in the pillar who they couldn’t see without faith. And it was a teaching tool to begin the revelation of the Binitary Godhead, an object lesson revealing the eternal order of heaven to deliver sinful man from Satan.

 

Similarly, Christ in the upper room used the same construct in order to be a help to His disciples and to “them also which shall believe on me through their word” (John 17:20). They needed to cease worshiping and hoping in “Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph” (John 1:45). They still needed to see beyond the visible Descendent of David, fully believing in His invisible divinity, as evidenced from the Father’s Spirit without measure. They must know the Holy Ghost experience from His Father above, ever fearing to blaspheme and never to deny It (see Matthew 12:31, 32; Exodus 23:21).

 

Therefore, in both cases with the disciples and with Moses, the Master Teacher spoke in parables. Even though it was the Angel who abode above the mercy seat, the LORD didn’t say that the Angel of the cloud would appear upon the mercy seat. The LORD speaks of Himself appearing there in a cloud.

 

And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat (Lev. 16:2).

 

Christ was their instructor. As He had been with them in the wilderness, so He was still to be their teacher and guide. In the tabernacle and the temple His glory dwelt in the holy shekinah above the mercy seat. In their behalf He constantly manifested the riches of His love and patience Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 288.

 

Again, the Lord who also spoke on the mount was the Angel in the cloud, who would not “pardon…transgressions” (Ex. 23:21, cf Ex. 34:7), yet was sitting upon the mercy seat. Another picture of His “grace and truth” (John 1:14).

 

Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.

Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance (Ps. 89:14, 15).

 

It was Jesus speaking from the mount, for He was the Word of God, God’s thoughts made audible. Jesus is the eternal Mediator between God and His creation. The Son of God had ever been God’s divine, ordained Representative, His Father speaking through Him. Jesus was speaking as God from Mt. Sinai in behalf of His Father, and simultaneously pointing to Himself as His Father’s servant to bring His Father’s people into the land that Christ Himself had long before promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He did the same at the end of the desert wandering, claiming the eternal existence of His Father “who only hath immortality…. Amen” (1 Tim. 6:16). He declared, “For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever” (Deut. 32:40, cf Dan. 12:7).

 

Jesus spoke of Himself as another Person, another Comforter and Guide. “All the communion between heaven and the fallen race has been through Christ.” There has never been a divine mediator between Christ and mankind. The Lord of hosts through His prophets is capable of getting and keeping our attention and our hearts.

 

The Lord God who brought the Israelites through the Red Sea would be the same Comforter/Intercessor/Deliverer of the church (see Isaiah 51:10-13; Ephesians 3:9; Revelation 6:2). “Where is the fury of the oppressor?” “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Isa. 51:13; Rom. 8:34, 35).  “I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; and forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?... I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: the LORD of hosts is his name” (Isa. 51:12, 13, 15). “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). He who died to deliver us from sin is our Intercessor and Comforter and our exceeding great Reward. There can be no other.

 

Another double talk construct, similar to the voice and the Angel both being the Lord, comes in a dream when He spoke to Jacob above the ladder that bridged the gap between God and man (see Genesis 28:12, 13), even though later He manifested Himself as that ladder (see John 1:51). He shows Himself as both the ladder of salvation and the Lord of the ladder. So, as Deliverer He said He would send Himself to guide Israel into Canaan; and as Comforter He said He would send Himself to guide His church into all truth.

 

But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father (John 15:26).

 

Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you (Acts 3:19, 20).

The Spirit is, Pt. 4

I believe that Ellen White’s insistence upon the use of “He”, “representative”, “three living persons of the heavenly trio” in relation to the Spirit was her effort to prevent or to preempt the spread of pantheism. If Dr. Kellogg had gone unchecked in his book, The Living Temple, when he changed his new pantheistic theology from saying that God the Father was in all created works, to saying that the Holy Spirit was in all created works, then pantheism would have ravaged the Advent movement. We would have moved toward the idea of anything divine as a blind force. No longer would God be the Father of creation, and many would have given Him no authority over their conscience. Therefore, not only did Ellen White stress the realness and personality of God the Father, but she emphasized the same for His Spirit.

But, the Bible is clear that creation is separate from its Creator. Material creation is not made of His invisible person or “substance” (whatever Nicene “substance” meant, for God is invisible Spirit; and all we see of Him is glory). He, by His Son’s word, upholds creation; by His living word all things consist (see Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 1:17) ― the material creation reacting to His almighty power. “Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together” (Isa. 48:13). The power of the Highest moves upon creation, and its atoms stand at attention or do as the Lord commands them. “With the blast of Thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea” (Ex. 15:8). The Creator is not in creation, but creation reacts to its Creator. Matter pushes away and bows when He passes through (see Revelation 20:11).

However, regardless of Adventism’s correct biblical stance on the Godhead before and after The Living Temple, another problem had been casting a dark shadow over many Adventist hearts. That was the pervasive lack of genuine conversion, even among the leading anti-Trinitarian pastors and elders. Right doctrine cannot compensate for spiritual poverty; purity and devotion of one aspect of the life will not offset the want of these qualities in another. Therefore, in order to shake the stony anti-Trinitarian hearts into the realization of their lack of spiritual life, new prominence needed to be brought to the Holy Spirit’s work of holiness, and even more so the restoration of Christ as the greatest focus. Ellen White knew this. How could we remain in God’s good graces without coming under His transforming power? How could the Advent movement remain under His government without a valid connection with His beloved Son? How could we grasp deep truth without a daily renewed heart for righteousness? Without spirituality, wouldn’t Adventists be ever searching and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth? Wouldn’t we repeat the history of Israel and end up without a barrier against sin? In the study of the scriptures we thought we had eternal life; but the scriptures testified of Jesus, and we would not come to Him that we might have life.

My SDA brethren and sisters, let’s be honest with the Advent movement, even of today. Laodicea had locked us into her gates; and although we had right doctrine, we were not saved. Even if we were under God’s gracious forbearance, how could Jesus grow the 144,000 in Laodicea? So, He moved our prophet to bring to the forefront of the Advent movement the subject of spiritual things: Righteousness by Faith by Jesus through the Spirit.

We were not to abandon our original truths, or our strong stance on the Law and the honest handling of the word of God. But, we were to find the grace of Jesus in the Law of the Bible. We were to suck honey from a stone Law, and oil from a flinty Bible. We needed both Law and grace; and the grace would come through the Law. We needed the Protestant stance against Rome and against her Trinity; but, we also needed the link with Jesus that would lead us to fuller truth, the truth as it is in Jesus. With Jesus centrally focused we would speak the truth in love and have tears in our voice when calling sin by its right name. Without Jesus and His Spirit, we would turn into zealots and Jehu’s. Without a new focus on Christ and His Spirit’s conversion of the heart, we could no more cooperate with Jesus in fighting in the future Latter Rain than the newly delivered children of Israel could overthrow the Canaanites and establish anything better in their place. We needed Ellen White’s new emphasis on Jesus and His Spirit.

Yet, Mrs. White left much apparent evidence that she didn’t completely see the Holy Spirit as a person. For example, she didn’t always refer to the Spirit as “Him”, but sometimes as “It”.

Before we engage that issue, let’s admit that “It” can be the properly used pronoun in the case of the Spirit because it has no form, it is not in our image. But, while our Father in heaven is a Spirit and is invisible to human sight, He has a form; the Almighty is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. “The Father Himself, which hath sent Me, hath borne witness of Me. Ye have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape” (John 5:37). Thus with a dimensionless entity called the Spirit, it seems that the human mind must accept either pronoun, “It” or “Him”, in order to relate to the third Person of a Trinity Godhead.

But, a distinguishing attribute of the Godhead is independence of thought and action. In Their oneness of purpose, the Father has worked independently of His Son, most apparently during His earthly life, His incarnation, baptism, transfiguration, and crucifixion. But, the Spirit is not independent of the Father and Son. We have quoted scripture which indicates the Spirit to be wherever the Father is or the Son is, to be attached to Their Person, to work only in unison with the Father’s and Son’s independent actions. (See John 16:13,14; John 14:15-17,21,23; John 7:39, cf Rev. 5:5,6; John 3:34; Gen. 1:2; Isa. 48:16).

Now, let’s hear how Sr. White related to the Spirit of God and the Spirit of His Son.

“Let it be understood in every institution in America that it is not commissioned to you to direct the work of the Holy Spirit, and tell how it [emphasis mine] shall represent itself [emphasis mine]. You have been guilty of doing this. May the Lord forgive you, is my prayer. Instead of being repressed and driven back, as it [emphasis mine] has been, the Holy Spirit should be welcomed and its [emphasis mine] presence encouraged. When you sanctify yourself through obedience to the word, the Holy Spirit will give you glimpses of heavenly things.” Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 435.

To “welcome” the Spirit is not to pray to It. We are not to sing to It and praise It until It comes down, “as the heathen do.” (Matt. 6:7). Our pioneers never sang,

“There’s a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place.…

Sweet Holy Spirit, Sweet Heavenly Dove,

Stay right here with us filling us with Your love….” SDA Hymnal, #262.

This is abominable heathen religion. It ranks with the 70 elders with their backs to the Lord and worshiping Nimrod at sunrise, and the women serving the Queen of heaven and Tammuz at sunrise.

Rather, “we are to pray [to God] for the impartation of the Spirit as the remedy for sin-sick souls.” 1888 Materials to S. N. Haskell, p. 1540. We are to “sanctify [ourselves] through obedience to the word.” Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 435. “My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.” (Prov. 6:20-22).

“My soul is deeply stirred at the things that have been represented before me. I feel an indignation of spirit that in our institutions so little honor has been given to the living God, and so much honor to that which is supposed to be superior talent, but with which the Holy Spirit has no connection. The Spirit of God is not acknowledged and respected; men have passed judgment upon It; Its [emphasis mine] operations have been condemned as fanaticism, enthusiasm, undue excitement.” Counsels to Teachers, p. 367.

“We are to pray for the impartation of the Spirit as the remedy for sin-sick souls. The church needs to be converted, and why should we not prostrate ourselves at the throne of grace, as representatives of the church, and from a broken heart and contrite spirit make earnest supplication that the Holy Spirit shall be poured out upon us from on high? Let us pray that when it [emphasis mine] shall be graciously bestowed, our cold hearts may be revived, and we may have discernment to understand that it [emphasis mine] is from God, and receive it [emphasis mine] with joy. Some have treated the Spirit as an unwelcome guest, refusing to receive the rich gift, refusing to acknowledge it [emphasis mine], turning from it [emphasis mine], and condemning it [emphasis mine] as fanaticism. When the Holy Spirit works the human agent, it [emphasis mine] does not ask us in what way it [emphasis mine] shall operate. Often it [emphasis mine] moves in unexpected ways. Christ did not come as the Jews expected. He did not come in a manner to glorify them as a nation. His forerunner came to prepare the way for him by calling upon the people to repent of their sins and be converted, and be baptized. Christ’s message was, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand; repent ye and believe the gospel.” The Jews refused to receive Christ, because He did not come in accordance with their expectations. The ideas of finite men were held as infallible, because hoary with age. This is the danger to which the church is now exposed, ― that the inventions of finite men shall mark out the precise way for the Holy Spirit to come. Though they would not care to acknowledge it, some have already done this. And because the Spirit is to come, not to praise men or to build up their erroneous theories, but to reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment, many turn away from it [emphasis mine]. They are not willing to be deprived of the garments of their own self-righteousness. They are not willing to exchange their own righteousness, which is unrighteousness, for the righteousness of Christ, which is pure, unadulterated truth. The Holy Spirit flatters no man, neither does it [emphasis mine] work according to the devising of any man. Finite, sinful men are not to work the Holy Spirit. When it [emphasis mine] shall come as a reprover, through any human agent whom God shall choose, it is man’s place to hear and obey its [emphasis mine] voice.” 1888 Materials to S. N. Haskell, p. 1540.

“The Holy Spirit will guide into truth. If men are willing to be molded by it [emphasis mine], they will be guided by our great Leader. There will be a sanctification of the whole being, soul, body, and spirit. You both need the spirit of understanding; then you will have the Holy Spirit, and you will discern it [emphasis mine] as it [emphasis mine] is, ― your Counsellor. . . .” Manuscript Releases, vol. 1, p. 285.

“The Lord Jesus acts through the Holy Spirit; for it [emphasis mine] is His representative. Through it [emphasis mine] He infuses spiritual life into the soul, quickening its energies for good, cleansing it from moral defilement, and giving it a fitness for His kingdom. Jesus [emphasis mine] has large blessings to bestow, rich gifts to distribute among men. He is the wonderful Counselor [referring to both Isaiah 9:6 and John 14:16, 17, emphasis mine], infinite in wisdom and strength; and if we will acknowledge the power of His Spirit [emphasis mine], and submit to be molded by it [emphasis mine], we shall stand complete in Him. What a thought is this! In Christ ‘dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him.’ Messages to Young People, p. 55.

“The Holy Spirit is a free, working, independent agency. The God of heaven uses His Spirit as it pleases Him: and human minds, human judgment, and human methods can no more set boundaries to its [emphasis mine] working, or prescribe the channel through which it [emphasis mine] shall operate, than they can say to the wind, ‘I bid you to blow in a certain direction, and to conduct yourself in such and such a manner.’ As the wind moves in its force, bending and breaking the lofty trees in its path, so the Holy Spirit influences human hearts, and no finite man can circumscribe Its [emphasis mine] work….” You Shall Receive Power, p. 323.

Even while Ellen White is calling the Spirit’s work free and independent, she continues to call it an “It”. And in this context of “It”, she specifically, purposely(?), then uses the phrase, “God...His Spirit...”. There is no hint of co-equal, coeval, divine minds conferring. We only read that the Father uses His Spirit as we would use a whip or a hammer. The Spirit is totally at the Father’s will and whim. It’s His, just as our arm, hand, foot, or leg is ours. The Spirit is Him, just as our extremities are us. Our extremities are not separate body parts that are mechanically plugged in or popped on, but they are members of our fearfully wonderful body with seamless transitions from torso to limb. God’s Spirit is just the same. His Spirit, His mind, is Him, just as our spirit and mind are us.

So, even though “It” “works the human agent”, and “It” “does not ask us in what way it shall operate”, and although “It” “often...moves in unexpected ways”, “It” does all this because “It” is “the God of heaven” using “His Spirit as it pleases Him”. Ellen White compared the Spirit to Christ because Christ is the immediate Medium in the Spirit, while the Father is the distant source and official Sender and Operate/Director of His Medium; “His Spirit” is His Son, “the Spirit of His Son” (Gal. 4:6) that God sends “into your hearts”, “the Lord...the Messenger of the covenant...behold He shall come” (Mal. 3:1). “Christ did not come as the Jews expected. He did not come in a manner to glorify them as a nation.” Likewise, shouldn’t we expect that when Christ comes in the Spirit to personally direct in the Latter Rain, that It/He will “not come as the” Advent movement expects. It/He will “not come to glorify them as a [denomi]nation”.

The Spirit does not exist apart from the Father or His Son. It is never apart from Them, any more than our mind is apart from us. There is no such thing as our mind apart from us. Neither is there such a thing as the Spirit apart from God and the dearly Beloved of His Soul. This can be defined by 1 Corinthians 2:11, where Paul explains the simple relation of “the spirit of man“ and “the Spirit of God”. The Spirit is animated by the Father’s use of it and by His words which are spirit and life. The Spirit is that which proceeds from Him, as His glory does. We can’t comprehend how His Spirit can create and recreate. That is not ours to ever understand, or to attempt to understand. But, it is ours to know the identity of the Spirit because we must know the Father, who He is, and who His only begotten Son. We must be wise and discerning as serpents in these days of tremendous deception.

“It was just before this that Jesus had a second time performed the miracle of healing a man possessed, blind and dumb, and the Pharisees had reiterated the charge, ‘He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils.’ Matthew 9:34. Christ told them plainly that in attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan, they were cutting themselves off from the fountain of blessing. Those who had spoken against Jesus Himself, not discerning His divine character, might receive forgiveness; for through the Holy Spirit they might be brought to see their error and repent. Whatever the sin, if the soul repents and believes, the guilt is washed away in the blood of Christ; but he who rejects the work of the Holy Spirit is placing himself where repentance and faith cannot come to him. It is by the Spirit that God works upon the heart; when men willfully reject the Spirit, and declare It [emphasis mine] to be from Satan, they cut off the channel by which God can communicate with them. When the Spirit is finally rejected, there is no more that God can do for the soul.” The Desire of Ages, p. 321.

“We need to feel the converting power of God’s grace, and I urge all who have closed their heart against God’s Spirit to unlock the door, and plead earnestly, Abide with me. Why should we not prostrate ourselves at the throne of divine grace, praying that God’s Spirit may be poured out upon us as it was upon the disciples? Its [emphasis mine] presence will soften our hard hearts, and fill us with joy and rejoicing, transforming us into channels of blessing.” Signs of the Times, September 27, 1899 par. 7.

These hints from Ellen White are whispers of her broader biblical view of the Spirit. Her several references to the Spirit using the pronoun “it” reveal that there was much more to her understanding of the “personality” of the Spirit of God than the standard Trinitarian third Person who is a Being co-equal with the Father and Son. Although her older usages of “it” for the Spirit were more abundant, she retained that usage as late as 1898. (And an argument could be made that the later few usages of “it” reflected the desire to be less offensive to our sister denominations.) In her writings, sometimes He was an “agent” (as in, a person), and sometimes It or it was an “agency” (as in, a non-personal office) or “agencies” (as in, not alone in that office, It being only part of a larger office or group of created beings).

She called the Holy Spirit the representative of God on Earth. Can a non-personal “it” be viewed as a person-like representative? Yes, that is possible. But, doing so requires a broader paradigm of the Spirit, which many are not willing to allow. We can understand this by two definitions of “representative” from the Webster’s 1828 Dictionary used by Ellen White:

REPRESENTATIVE, n.

1. One that exhibits the likeness of another.

A statue of Rumor, whispering any idiot in the ear, who was the representative of credulity….

2. In legislative or other business, an agent, deputy or substitute who supplies the place of another or others, being invested with his or their authority. An attorney is the representative of his client or employer. A member of the house of commons is the representative of his constituents and of the nation. In matters concerning his constituents only, he is supposed to be bound by their instructions, but in the enacting of laws for the nation, he is supposed not to be bound by their instructions, as he acts for the whole nation.

3. In law, one that stands in the place of another as heir, or in the right of succeeding to an estate of inheritance, or to a crown.

4. That by which any thing is exhibited or shown.

This doctrine supposes the perfections of God to be the representatives to us of whatever we perceive in the creatures.

Notice the fourth definition does not use a person as the representative. Rather than a relative pronoun “who” or “whom” that denotes a person and describes an intelligence owning the right to represent as in definitions 2 and 3, in definition 4 the relative pronoun “that which”, and the intangibles, “any thing” and the example “the perfections of God”, use conceptual subjects for a “representative”. “Any thing” refers not a person or persons, but to things—to an “it” or to many “it”s.

And looking at definition 1 we see this again in reverse. This definition does involve a person. We read that so-and-so is “the representative of credulity”. In this case of “representative”, today we might use the word, “personification”: a person is representing, personifying an intangible concept. In the fourth definition example, an intangible concept is representing a person, i.e. “the creatures” in our perception represent to us attributes exclusive to divinity, “the perfections of God”, or, “perfections…in the creatures” represent the exquisite “God” Himself.

 Did Ellen White even once call Jesus or the Father an “it”? No, because she knew that They were persons, and only persons. She always referred to the Father and Son as “Him” “He”, etc., for she knew that They were divine beings. And divine beings, as well as human beings made in Their image, are never called, “it”.

Ellen White would never have called the Father or the Son the pronoun, “It”, or the possessive pronoun, “Its”. To her, They were “He”, “Him”, or “His”, “Them”, “Their”, and nothing else. What was she trying to communicate, but that she saw in the Holy Spirit something other than the typical “person” or “personality” as we know it in human terms or thinking?

But, I also believe that, more often than not, Ellen White wisely added the personal pronouns “He” and “Him” in place of her “It” usages of the Spirit because the personal pronouns “He” and “Him” were used almost exclusively in the then wide-spread King James Bible. She may not have known that the King James translators fully understood the word, “Spirit”, Gr. pneuma, and that its neuter form always demanded an impersonal “it” as a pronoun. Yet because of the strong prevailing prejudice in favor of a third co-equal, male person of a Trinity, and their own prejudice in that regard, the translators used the personal pronoun of “he” when describing the Spirit. If the translators had retained their integrity with grammatical correctness and used the pronoun “it” instead of “he”, then much of the misconception toward the Trinity would by now have disappeared. Or, the attacks from Rome would have increased, by open war, intrigue, and subversion. Or, the King James Bible would have created a new uproar among the people, contrary to the main purpose of King James, who commissioned his new translation in order to bring peace to his already religiously divided realm. Based on these facts, it’s easy to assume that the king would have rejected all accurately grammatical references to “the Spirit” as an “it”. Ellen White, along with multitudes of Protestants, knew nothing about the Greek grammar pneuma-neuter-impersonal-“It”-pronoun issue, so the Trinity untruth would perpetuate itself within 20th century Protestantism and, later after her death, among the late Remnant.

By her use of both pronouns I believe Sr. White was trying to be faithful to the biblical references of the Spirit, as the Bible at times also used the pronoun, “it” (see Isaiah 34:16; Romans 8:26). And she was not theologically wrong to emphasize the Spirit of Christ or the Spirit of God as “He” and “Him”. The Spirit of God is essentially God Himself; the Spirit of Christ is essentially Christ Himself. The arm of the Lord is essentially the Lord; the hand of the Lord’s providence is Him in action, as is the metaphorical “finger of God” (Luke 11:20). Therefore what we experience of the government of heaven via the Spirit, by His extension is the Lord and His Father God, and can be metaphorically said to be Them. The Spirit of Christ, which we sense by faith, can be called Christ. By one touch, He broke through our hearts that were hardened in sin by His supernatural means. If I use a sledge hammer to break a slab of concrete, did I break the concrete, or did the sledge? “We” broke it, my sledge and I. I couldn’t have broken it by myself. But, I did break it. I broke it, and the sledge was the medium I used. So it is with the holy Medium of the almighty God and the mighty Son of God to break my self-will and wily, wrangling, tangled heart.

The Spirit is, Pt. 3

John was in the Spirit on the Sabbath when the Lord of the Sabbath appeared to him in Spirit (see Revelation 1:10, 11). What Ezekiel heard was that “the Spirit” was said to be “the Lord GOD”, “the LORD”, “the God of Israel”, His “glory” (see Ezekiel 8:3, 1; Ezekiel 8:4, cf Ezekiel 9:3). The Spirit and the Lord GOD were synonymous to the prophet. Likewise, Job 38:1 shows “the Lord” speaking to Job from the same whirlwind as Ezekiel witnessed (see Ezekiel 1:4); and this whirlwind encompassing internal fire was the glory Ezekiel saw later in chapter 8 (see Ezekiel 8:4). No doubt both manifestations involved whirlwinds enveloping the glory of the Lord. The Lord didn’t move separately from His glory. In His pre-incarnate form, Jesus was “in the form of God” (Phil. 2:6). He, like His Father, was “a Spirit” (John 4:24). His glory came from Himself, and was His own self. Thus, His prayer to His Father, “Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee:… And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” (John 17:1,5). Anciently that glory was likened to light and fire, as in “fire infolding itself” (Eze. 1:4). Glory is more than light; it is much more than photons. Glory convicts; it is quick and powerful, sharper than a two edged sword. Glory is divine; It is holy, and spirit. The “Spirit of glory” (1Pet. 4:14) writes His Law into our heart. Glory is the Spirit, which is the light that lightens every man that He brings into existence. We can say that God the Father so much is the origin of glory that the divine and holy One is glory; glory is the holy and divine One, the only true God. Yet, the Son is the bridge between the invisible God and His creatures. The angels of God have glory by loan. The Son had it by birth. Thus, He had a better name than they: Michael, “Who is like God”.

Like God, Christ the Lord GOD, was a Spirit. As the Father was the Law, the Son was the Word, “God’s thoughts made audible” The Desire of Ages, p. 19. The Son was the doctrine of God, the Law’s requirements made personable. He was the glory of God, the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The Son’s glory was always imbued glory from His Father God of love and tender care. From the beginning “God was in Christ” (2Cor. 5:19), reconciling the kingdom to Himself. The Father was in the Son, that is, the Father’s Spirit was in Him in all the Father’s fullness. “For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.” (John 3:34). Yet the glory from His Father was Christ’s own self because that glory from His Father came from Christ’s deepest soul. Like a human child expresses his parent’s speech perfectly, from deep within the child’s consciousness, likewise does the Son to His Father. The Son’s glory came so deeply from within Himself that essentially He owned it, His yearning identical to His Father’s, joining with His Abba’s at the moment of conception and eternally remaining with Him until His Father’s effulgence expressed itself in His Son’s glory. “God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.” (Ps. 45:7).

His yearning was His Father’s since the dawning of His intelligence, and ever afterward. The Son of God was divine because He was begotten of God His Father, made a quickening Spirit since time incomprehensible. “In Him was life.” (John 1:4). The Son, being divine, and His glory more than simply a declaration of His Father’s, was truly His glory. In Him was life underived, and glory underived. And, similar to the thought that the Father and Son each are a Spirit or are in the form of Spirit (see John 4:24; Phil. 2:6), yet each also have a Spirit, i.e. “the Spirit of the Lord” who “is that Spirit [of the living God]” (2Cor. 3:3,6,17, cf 1Cor. 2:10-12). Likewise, the God of love, who has only love to give, is nevertheless love. “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” (1Jn. 4:8). And likewise again, the only true God and His only begotten Son are in the form of glory and have glory. Although the Father is obscured by distance, and the Son is now encapsulated in a human body, both Father and Son have never lost Their form of glory because Their glory comes from Their deepest soul.

“His doctrine… was with power” (Luke 4:32) to raise their dead souls. To His people Christ restored the glory of Eden by glorious spiritual lessons, which He drew from nature and placed before the people’s minds. As it had been in the days of eternity, His paths again dropped fatness. Through His words and lessons, which were Spirit and life, and which came from His own Spirit, life comes to our spirit today via truth, spiritual truth, entering our mind, awakening it to the newfound power to love, and registering as light—glory—in our souls. God is about truth, truth, and nothing but the truth; He is about truth without an iota of falsehood. He is about good without evil, and our minds are to feed only upon that. Jesus’ truth without any falsehood will bring light and life to our mind and spirit.

Jesus has always been the source of that truth and light and life. As a quickening Spirit, He is “the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” (John 1:9). In His glorious Spirit, pre-incarnate form Jesus was the Word of Wisdom. Yet, in His new incarnate body, His Spirit has never ceased to be the Word of Wisdom. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men…. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1,4,14).

“God [the Father] is a Spirit.” (John 4:24). The invisible things of God the Father, His eternal power and Godhead, were clearly seen, being understood by the things that were made. God, “dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see…” (1Tim. 6:16).

“When Adam and Eve in Eden lost the garments of holiness, they lost the light that had illuminated nature. No longer could they read it aright. But for those who receive the light of the life of Christ, nature is again illuminated.” Lift Him Up, p. 255.

Adam and Eve had the mind of Christ. Their thoughts were deep and penetrating. They had life that brought perfect activity to their consciences and intellects, heart and brain working together in union for communion with the Most High. Without a written language or a codified Law, they understood the thoughts of God woven into His created works. The angels thrilled to guide the minds of the holy pair, to bring these special children of God into a closer union with their Father than they themselves could ever have. This has been the privilege offered to the Adamite Christian, the Hebrew Christian, the apostolic, Protestant, and Adventist Christians.

    

It was Jesus, in His Father’s power upon Their reunion, who caused the divine “rushing mighty wind” “sent down from heaven” (Acts 2:2; 1 Pet. 1:12, cf Eze. 3:12; Gen. 8:1; Ex. 14:21) to fill the upper room, putting glory upon every head. “Faithful to his promise, the Divine One, exalted in the heavenly courts, imparted of His fullness to His followers on earth. His enthronement at God's right hand was signalized by the outpouring of the Spirit upon His disciples.” Education, p. 95.

The Early Rain of the Holy Spirit was sent unrestrained in response to the tears of relief and joy within the Godhead, as the Father finally received His Son home, once again safe and sound after His great victory. Prior to His ascension (see John 20:22), Jesus simulated the coming Spirit of God’s breath, His sweet love, joy, and peace. The Lord desired to imitate the soon arrival of His Father’s electrifying grip of divine virtue upon hearts and minds and tongues at Pentecost (see Psalm 33:6; Matthew 13:34). God’s abundant gift of His Spirit at Pentecost came via His Son’s victorious death on the cross. In the poetic, prophetic Hebrew language speaking of Their dual source of original, underived, divine life: “Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death” (Isa. 53:12, cf John 12:31, 32; 14:30; Rev. 5:6; 12:7).

Referred to above, the Holy Spirit was the “whirlwind [that] came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself” (Eze. 1:4, 20, cf Job 38:1); and there was the hiding of His power. The Spirit was the Angel inside of the cloudy whirlwind which cloaked His glory to Pharaoh and his armies (see Exodus 23:20; Isa. 51:10) and which brought the chosen people into promise (though they often vexed “his holy Spirit”) (see Isaiah 63:10; Ephesians 4:30). “The Spirit” is “Christ…the Spirit” (Rom. 8:10, cf vs. 9) creating in us a new spirit to know Him, and reiterating to our heart, “Thou art My beloved [child], in whom I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11, cf Gal. 4:6). His all-powerful Spirit, who comes “in all the fullness of the Godhead” Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 7, pp. 62, 63, God has “sent forth into all the earth” (Rev. 5:6, cf Matt. 28:18; Zech. 4:10; Ps. 19:3). There is no language where His voice is not heard.

The angels bring us the word from Jesus through the power of His recreative, mediating Spirit (see Revelation 22:6-8). “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” (Heb. 1:14, cf Eze. 1:12, 20). Jesus is “captain of the host of the LORD” (Josh. 5:14); He is “the LORD of hosts” (1 Sam. 17:45). “He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven” (Dan. 4:35). The angels are not the Holy Spirit (see 1 Peter 1:12), but are co-workers with Christ through His Spirit. He was the great center of their beehive-like activity. Every day of His ministry on earth the angels of God ascended and descended upon Him, going and coming in the power of His Spirit, and receiving of His Spirit to do His will (see John 1:51, cf Matthew 8:8-10; Ezekiel 1:14). Wherever the Lord went the angels loved to go and the crowds surrounding Him followed, with eyes full of wonder and happiness. The angels worked to focus the people on Jesus (see Ezekiel 1:19, 20; 10:12). He taught with the justice and mercy of His Father, and the angels directed the thoughts and helped the understanding of the multitude. The people joyfully followed Him whithersoever He went, “angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him” (1 Pet. 3:22, cf Rev. 14:4).

The Spirit is Christ “the pre-existent, self-existent Son of God.... In speaking of his pre-existence, Christ carries the mind back through dateless ages. He assures us that there never was a time when He was not in close fellowship with the eternal God. He to whose voice the Jews were then listening had been with God as one brought up with Him”.--Signs of the Times, Aug. 29, 1900 (Evangelism, p. 615.2).

These dateless ages are not unquantifiable, indefinite, as it is with the Father “who liveth for ever and ever” (Rev. 4:9; Rev. 5:14), the eternal Father. In Daniel’s vision, the Father “Ancient of days” is seen in clear contrast to “the Son of man” (Dan. 7:9,13), One who Daniel recognized to be “Michael, your prince”, “Messiah the Prince” “which standeth for the children of thy [Daniel’s] people” (Dan. 10:21; 9:25; 12:1).

The “dateless” ages are quantifiable, but are a tremendous space of time. They refer to Proverbs 8:24,25,30. “When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth…. Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.”

In the next paragraph is the original article from which comes the “dateless ages” sentence. In her quotation of Proverbs 8 of that article Sr. White added, “When He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters should not pass His commandment; when He appointed the foundations of the earth”, giving definition to the Bible writers’ (and possibly her) concept of “in the beginning” (John 1:1) and “of old, from everlasting^H5769” (Mic. 5:2). (H5769, ‘ôlâm, “out of mind” “vanishing point”.) Creation was the furthest point in the past of which the prophets could conceive, and that means it is senseless to use extreme Greek philosophy to pinpoint an exact time of Michael’s birth from His eternal Father “who only hath immortality” (1Tim. 6:15). Simply admit that God, in the distant past, birthed His only divine Son, and be glad for that. With the angelic hosts, let’s worship the Son of the Father.

“  ‘Before Abraham was, I am.’ Christ is the pre-existent, self-existent Son of God. The message He gave to Moses to give to the children of Israel was, ‘Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.’ The prophet Micah writes of Him, ‘But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, tho thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of Thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.’  {ST, August 29, 1900 par. 13}

     Through Solomon Christ declared: ‘The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth. . . . When He gave to the sea His decree, that the waters should not pass His commandment; when He appointed the foundations of the earth; then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.’  {ST, August 29, 1900 par. 14} 

     In speaking of His pre-existence, Christ carries the mind back through dateless ages. He assures us that there never was a time when He was not in close fellowship with the eternal God. He to whose voice the Jews were then listening had been with God as one brought up with Him.  {ST, August 29, 1900 par. 15} 

     Christ’s words were spoken with a quiet dignity and with an assurance and power that sent conviction to the hearts of the scribes and Pharisees. They felt the power of the message sent from heaven. God was knocking at the door of their hearts, entreating entrance. But they refused to listen. By their persistent rejection of warnings and invitations they caused Him to abandon them to their blindness and its results. Satan was working with all his power to secure them in his cause, and under his control they developed a stubbornness which brought upon them their ruin.

                                                           Mrs. E. G. White.”

Signs of the Times, August 29, 1900.

Thus, Christ, the Word of Wisdom who appealed to men from this world’s beginning, is the eternal Spirit. And lo, He is with us unto the end of the world.

“The Spirit” (Acts 8:29, cf Acts 2:4; 5:9; 8:39; 10:19; 11:12; 16:7; 18:10) was Christ commanding His apostles to “turn to the right hand, and…to the left” (Isa. 30:21). The Spirit is Jesus’ testimony (see Revelation 19:10). The Spirit is “God’s thought made audible” The Desire of Ages, p. 19. The Spirit is the word of God, the communication of which His Son so fully assumes, and with which He so identifies in every respect, that He is called the Word. The Spirit is all the revelations from Jesus Christ, “which God gave unto him” (Rev. 1:1). Christ has been and always will be the only voice of God to His people. With power and authority the Spirit of the Lord Jesus spoke to the apostles as He spoke loudly to John when the apostle communed with Him on His holy day (see Isaiah 58:13; Mark 2:28). “I…heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last” (Rev. 1:10, 11).

“In all these revelations of the divine presence the glory of God was manifested through Christ. Not alone at the Saviour’s advent, but through all the ages after the Fall and the promise of redemption, ‘God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.’ 2 Corinthians 5:19. Christ was the foundation and center of the sacrificial system in both the patriarchal and the Jewish age. Since the sin of our first parents there has been no direct communication between God and man. The Father has given the world into the hands of Christ, that through His mediatorial work He may redeem man and vindicate the authority and holiness of the law of God. All the communion between heaven and the fallen race has been through Christ. It was the Son of God that gave to our first parents the promise of redemption. It was He who revealed Himself to the patriarchs. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses understood the gospel. They looked for salvation through man’s Substitute and Surety. These holy men of old held communion with the Saviour who was to come to our world in human flesh; and some of them talked with Christ and heavenly angels face to face. 

     Christ was not only the leader of the Hebrews in the wilderness—the Angel in whom was the name of Jehovah, and who, veiled in the cloudy pillar, went before the host—but it was He who gave the law to Israel. Amid the awful glory of Sinai, Christ declared in the hearing of all the people the ten precepts of His Father’s law. It was He who gave to Moses the law engraved upon the tables of stone. 

     It was Christ that spoke to His people through the prophets. The apostle Peter, writing to the Christian church, says that the prophets ‘prophesied of the grace that should come unto you: searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.’ 1 Peter 1:10, 11. It is the voice of Christ that speaks to us through the Old Testament. ‘The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’ Revelation 19:10.” Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 366.

The Spirit is the omniscience of God, “the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God”. The Spirit is His “unsearchable…judgments, and His ways past finding out” (Rom. 11:33). “Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught Him?” (Isa. 40:13). “Who hath known the mind [G3563, “understanding”] of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor?” (Rom. 11:34, cf 1 Cor. 2:10-16). “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1Cor. 2:16). The fullness of the riches of His wisdom He has forever given to His Son. Jesus is so filled with His Father’s omniscience that He metaphorically calls Himself omniscience. Metaphorically, Jesus is omniscience as He is the word and the truth.

“I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions….

Counsel is Mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength….

The LORD possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old….

When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water….

Then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.” (Prov. 8:12, 14, 22, 24, 30).

The Spirit of Jesus mirrors the Spirit of God in His Father’s absence and by His Father’s authority. He is the Sent, the Angel Ambassador of God, the only Vicar of God. He is the approved Guardian of His Father’s Law, the roving King of heaven. Jesus stands on the hills; He cries out to everyone, and the law of kindness is in His mouth. God pronounces His Spirit (His understanding and thoughts) through His chosen Representative, His willing Son (see Revelation 5:6).

The Father’s Spirit manifests Itself as His glory, visibly or invisibly, over His earthly operation (see Ezekiel 1:20, 3:12, 11:22, 23, 43:5, Revelation 14:4; Numbers 10:35, 36; John 17:22; Isaiah 63:10, Exodus 16:10, Numbers 14:10, Isaiah 60:1, 2; Luke 9:34, 35). The Spirit is the manifestation of the Father’s person which He infuses into the holy Offspring of His bowels of mercy. “And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was” (John 17:5, cf Luke 9:34). And His Offspring then infuses Himself into us, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27).

And our Lord Jesus is the only Mediator of that Spirit of God to fallen man (see Revelation 5:6; 1 Timothy 2:5), so much so that “the Spirit…” is defined as “…the Spirit of Christ” (Rom. 8:9). “No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6). The Son personally dispenses the Spirit of His Father to us as the word of the Lord (see 1 Samuel 15:26; 1 Chronicles 10:13; John 1:51; 1 John 2:27; Revelation 1:1).

“But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:4-6). “For ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15). “The Spirit of adoption” is “the Spirit of His Son”.

“Only the spirit of adoption can reveal to us the deep things of God, which ‘eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man’.” The Desire of Ages, p. 412.

The Spirit of adoption comes from the Son calling within us His own eternal desire, “Abba, Patēr (Father)”. Only the Spirit of the Son “can reveal the deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:10) for “no man knoweth…the Father, save the Son” (Matt. 11:27). It was the Spirit of His Son that rained down at Pentecost (see Revelation 5:6), and that will still distill upon us with new revelations of God as we see Jesus “through the law” (Gal. 2:19; Rom. 7:9, 24, 25, 4; John 6:40; 5:39; Deut. 32:13). “The anointing which ye have received of [Christ] abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him. And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming” (1 John 2:27, 28, cf 2 Cor. 1:21). The anointing comes from God through Christ.

“The Spirit” that we know is “Christ” (Rom. 8:9, cf 1 Pet. 1:11, 12) through the use of His ministering spirits. Christ makes intercession for His weak and spiritually infirmed children (see Matthew 18:2-6, 10, 11). He sanctifies their hearts, and instills in them urgency and burdens which they cannot otherwise have, moving them with humility and hope (Job 33:15-17). And God who sees their heart recognizes in them the childlike mind of His Son because His Beloved has been working into them sanctified and earnest supplications to God. “The Spirit [of His Son]…helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He [God] that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind [G5427 “purpose”] of [His Son’s] Spirit, because He [the Spirit of Christ] maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Rom. 8:26, 27, cf Gal. 4:6; Heb. 7:25; Luke 11:1-4). Thus, we, “as lively stones,” “offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5).

Likewise, the mediating Spirit of His Son helps us to understand God’s deep, eternal verities. Christ’s love plumbs the depths of His Father’s judgments that are otherwise past finding out. “God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:10). “The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.” (Prov. 20:27). The “Holy Ghost” (2 Pet. 1:21) moving the prophets was “God” (Heb. 1:1) through the Spirit of His Son, “the Spirit of Christ” (1 Pet. 1:11). By abiding in Christ, His little ones have His anointing that teaches them profound things that God has “kept secret since the world began” (Rom. 16:25). Those revelations appear profound to unbelievers, “in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom” (1 Cor. 2:7), only because they reveal the things of humility and righteousness and everything that the unregenerate hearts seek to avoid and overlook (see 1 Corinthians 2:6-8). That is why He can teach His knowledge and doctrine only to “them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts” (Isa. 28:9) and that only “out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength” (Ps. 8:2).

As “God…created all things by Jesus Christ” (Eph. 3:9), so the Spirit of God is “the power of the Highest” (Luke 1:35) manifested through His self-effacing, mothering Son. During creation week, the “Spirit of God”, that “moved upon the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2), gave “the word” (Ps. 33:6) to His co-Creator. The Lord God then took in His Father’s powerful will for creation, and, by “the breath of his mouth”, (Ps. 33:6) Christ “spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast” (Ps. 33:9, cf Mark 4:39; Isa. 48:13). The Spirit is His Father’s procreative voice, through His Son, that He bundles with life (see Hebrews 1:2). His power throughout the universe is displayed. “And [the Lord] said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. And the spirit entered into me when He spake unto me, and set me upon my feet” (Eze 2:1, 2). There is power in the Spirit of the Lord’s voice. “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth” (2 Thess. 2:8).

The above Bible texts clearly show that the Spirit is the manifestation of the Father and of His powerful love through His Son, and that the Spirit is no third Being or third Person in the Godhead. This is in full agreement with the following statements.

“The Sovereign of the universe was not alone in His work of beneficence. He had an associate ― a co-worker who could appreciate His purposes, and could share His joy in giving happiness to created beings. ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.’ John 1:1, 2. Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father ― one in nature, in character, in purpose ― the only being that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God. ‘His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.’ Isaiah 9:6.” Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 34.

“The King of the universe summoned the heavenly hosts before Him, that in their presence He might set forth the true position of His Son and show the relation He sustained to all created beings. The Son of God shared the Father’s throne, and the glory of the eternal, self-existent One encircled both.” Ibid., p. 36.

“Before the foundations of the earth were laid, the Father and the Son had united in a covenant to redeem man if he should be overcome by Satan. They had clasped Their hands in a solemn pledge that Christ should become the surety for the human race. This pledge Christ has fulfilled. When upon the cross He cried out, ‘It is finished,’ He addressed the Father. The compact had been fully carried out. Now He declares: Father, it is finished. I have done Thy will, O My God. I have completed the work of redemption. If Thy justice is satisfied, ‘I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am.’ John 19:30; 17:24.” Desire of Ages, p. 834.

   

The voice of God is heard proclaiming that justice is satisfied. Satan is vanquished. Christ’s toiling, struggling ones on earth are ‘accepted in the Beloved.’ Ephesians 1:6. Before the heavenly angels and the representatives of unfallen worlds, they are declared justified. Where He is, there His church shall be. ‘Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.’ Psalm 85:10. The Father’s arms encircle His Son, and the word is given, ‘Let all the angels of God worship Him.’ Hebrews 1:6.” The Desire of Ages, p. 834.

The “only begotten of God” was the “only” other “being” in the Godhead. Other than God and the only Begotten, everyone else in the universe were “created beings”. In the work of creation God “had an associate ― a co-worker”. “Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father ― one in nature, in character, in purpose ― the only being that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God.” And this last statement infers that Christ was the only Being who was one with God in all respects. The glory of God encircled Them “both”, excluding any other person from the Godhead. The only Persons that compose the true Godhead are the “Ancient of days” and “one like the Son of man” (Dan. 7:9, 13), Jehovah Elohim and His only Begotten.

Apart from the Father and the Son, the Spirit has no self-actuating power, creative or recreative. Apart from Father and Son the Spirit has no personality; It is Their holy manifestation. It is the holy intervention, the representative of the holy God within His kingdom. The holy Spirit of God is the divine-material, the divinity-creation Interface of the Holy Father and Son Godhead to manifest God’s almighty, all-seeing knowledge, and holy, righteous love. The Spirit is holy because the Father and Son, Its originators and owners, are holy. The Spirit speaks authoritatively because It is God’s voice and power from His Son joyfully proclaiming the holy authority of God who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. The Spirit is holy as every article associated with the Lord in His earthly sanctuary was holy ― and that only because the Holy One abode there. Of the priests He said, “Every one that toucheth them shall be holy” (Lev. 6:18, cf Ex. 29:37; 30:29), the type being that His servants must recognize their holy anointing and must not allow uncleanness into the Lord’s sanctuary through indiscriminate contact with unclean people or things; but, they were holy only by virtue of their proximity to Jehovah. As an object lesson of Christ’s Spirit, Peter didn’t have to touch the sick; his shadow was holy and healing by his connection with Christ (Acts 5:15). Every place forever remained sacred ground where the Lord showed Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts were perfect toward Him; and, likewise the holiness of the Spirit of God. Every creature must honor the Spirit, as much as they honor the Son because the Spirit comes from God and from His divine ambassador Son. He that grieves the Spirit, grieves away both the Son and the Father who supplied It.