Another look at the question, Just who is the Spirit?

 

“The Comforter that Christ promised to send after He ascended to heaven, is the Spirit in all the fulness of the Godhead.” Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 7, pp. 63. (1905) {Evangelism, pp. 614,615}

But, just who is the fulness of the Godhead? Who is the Godhead? The author of the above statement gives the definition to her own terminology. The paragraph before she stated that the Godhead consists of the Father and the Son:

“The Father is all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and is invisible to mortal sight. The Son is all the fulness of the Godhead manifested. The Word of God declares Him to be ‘the express image of His person…. The Comforter that Christ promised to send after He ascended to heaven, is the Spirit in all the fulness of the Godhead, making manifest the power of divine grace to all who receive and believe in Christ as a personal Saviour.’”

So there we have it! The Father is all the fulness of the Godhead, and the Son is all the fulness of the Godhead, and no one else. From the context we learn the exact meaning of Sr. White by the above first statement. The Comforter comes in all the fullness of the Father and the Son. It has no fulness of the Godhead except Theirs, because it comes from Their fulness, it is Their fulness! She didn’t say that the Comforter is all the fulness of the Godhead, as she did concerning God the Father and His only begotten Son. This is in perfect agreement with the words of Christ:

“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 [I] will manifest Myself to him.” (John 14:21).

“If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him. ” (John 14:23).

“And 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.” (John 14:16-18).

That wasn’t so hard to comprehend! It’s easy if we let the inspired writer define his or her own definitions and not make our own definitions, putting words into their mouths. A child can understand the Spirit. It’s the Spirit of the Almighty God and His only begotten Son. It’s Their united Spirit that will make Their abode with Their children. Jesus wants to manifest Himself, represent Himself, to us and not leave us destitute, like the fatherless and widows, without His presence in our hearts and minds. The Father’s “dear Son”, “Thy holy child Jesus” “the only begotten of the Father” “which is in the bosom of the Father”, His Beloved Son in whom He was well pleased, His spotless Lamb, the One to whom He said, “My love, My dove, My undefiled”, is the One who manifests Himself to us and is instrumental in bringing His Father’s presence into us. “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” The Beloved of the Father is who will mediate and intercede for us before His great God. We will be saved by our Advocate of whom He foretold, “It pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand”.

Why did Jesus refer to the Spirit as a Him rather than calling it the presence and power of His Father and of Himself? It is a Hebraism. Paul did the same when speaking of the man of sin (see 2Thess. 2:4), which would be an evil totalitarian replacement of Imperial Rome. Daniel did the same (see Dan. 7:20,24). Yet it was not a person or individual, but an empire. Not only did Jesus always speak perfectly in line with scripture, but He inspired its writers.

 :)

“Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works' sake.” (Joh 14:9-11).

How was Jesus able to be in the Father and the Father in Him? Spiritually; heart to heart; mind to mind. Always and ever, in Christ’s soul, either awake or asleep, when an adult, a child, or a fetus, there existed a cognizance, a peace, rest, comfort. The Father’s Spirit came as a thought, a silent voice, a constant presence unseen by His eyes or unheard by His ears, but by His faith only. Even before Christ’s Spirit was developed, while still an embryo in Miriam, His Father was present, watching, overseeing His gestation, causing it to happen, and waiting with inexpressible anticipation for more and more interaction with His preexistent Son.

As communication developed God became His Son’s teacher. His Father’s thoughts were His thoughts, and the joy of His heart and the life of His soul. Even as an infant Jesus was ahead of His time. He was a child prodigy of child prodigies. “Heavenly beings were His attendants, and the culture of holy thoughts and communings was His. From the first dawning of intelligence He was constantly growing in spiritual grace and knowledge of truth.” “Wonderful in its significance is the brief record of His early life: “The child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon Him.” In the sunlight of His Father’s countenance, Jesus “increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” Luke 2:52. His mind was active and penetrating, with a thoughtfulness and wisdom beyond His years. Yet His character was beautiful in its symmetry. The powers of mind and body developed gradually, in keeping with the laws of childhood.” DA 70, 68.

And we, too, can have power over the inherent weaknesses of our nature and the deformities of our character through the access we can have to Jesus, as He had access to His Father.

“The Heir, as long as He is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though He be Lord of all; 

But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father. 

Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: 

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 4:1-6).

Jesus, as an embryo, was “in bondage under the elements of the world”. But, in the fetal stage and ever afterward, His conscious response to His Father gave Him the power to resist all the sinfulness that Miriam’s fallen nature formed in His body and kept before His conscience.

“For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, 

Saying, I will declare Thy name unto My brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee. 

And again, I will put My trust in Him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given Me. 

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 

And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 

For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. 

Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. 

  For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted.” (Heb. 2:11-18).

Every advantage Jesus had over Satan and sin we can have. In Christ nothing is withheld. Through the union with God, through that Spirit of at-one-ment, Jesus’ victory can be the victory of every fallen son and daughter of Adam. “Be of good cheer”, said Jesus, “I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33).

Is the Son really the Son?

 

“Christ was the Son of God before He was born of a woman. … We are dealing with a metaphorical use of the word 'son.'” “The Son is not the natural, literal Son of the Father.” Ángel Manuel Rodríguez, Adventist World, A Question of Sonship, November 20151 .

A metaphor. What does that mean? A metaphor is like a simile, except without the words, “like” or “as”. Therefore, the meaning of Ángel Rodríguez’ statement is that “ Christ was [like] the Son of God before He was born of a woman.” But He wasn’t really the Son of God. He was not really begotten, but simply played that part. In all actuality, He was one God among three.

But, the scripture is clear, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten^G3439 of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14).

G3439

μονογενής

monogenēs

mon-og-en-ace

From G3441 and G1096; only born, that is, sole: - only (begotten, child).

Total KJV occurrences: 9

Because theogians have a title after their name, they are due the respect of the people. And the people love to have it so. Because the heads of NIST had titles after their names, their 9/11 official story must be accepted, despite all the 9/11 eye-witness testimonies that many bombs were exploding inside the world trade center buildings 1 and 2. And because the head of NIH has a title after his name we must believe everything he has to say about a pandemic.

“So there was a division among the people because of Him.” (John 7:43). The people had such a fear toward their leaders that most could not stand decidedly for their Messiah. Their leaders wore flowing robes with all the acoutriments that demanded respect.

And another biblical precedent for this is the way Satan during the Dark Ages caused the whole of Christendom, and how at the end he will lead the whole world, to admire and worship the beast. In either case, whether Papacy or Pharisim, Satan gives his agents great authority and esteem so that ultimately Satan gets the authority and worship.

“And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?” (Rev. 13:2-4).

What about us Adventists? Are we repeating history? We see our religious leaders who hold, D.D. or Th.D. as the next thing to God, and we stop thinking for ourselves. Isn’t this why Christ was crucified? Degrees and titles may serve a purpose, as well as other objects of outward show, but Jesus came without any of those trappings. “He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isa. 53:2,3).

Let us bow before the condemnation of the Law of God, and be justified by the suffering Servant of God. We will then be given the Spirit of God for discernment. We will take the word of God and the Spirit of Prophecy, and we will be taught of God. The false prophets and false priests will be exposed, and their Trinity god of persecutions will be exposed to be the fraud that it is. The only true God is the Father of creation, and the only true Lord is His only begotten Son.

“Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.” (1Jn. 2:22-24).

“But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name.” (John 20:31).

John's holy Spirit experience

John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit during his whole life because he was loved by parents who, like Hannah, Abraham, and Sarah, had longed for a child during their whole adult lifetime. Having suffered in the flesh and spirit they had completely ceased from self, and could be perfect parents. No self-indulgence, self-pity, self-exaltation, or selfishness marred their parental upbringing of John. They perfectly represented God to him. They perfectly represented the God of love; and the baby, the child, the youth, and man, had responded in kind. Under the barrage of love, John surrendered to all the Law that his parents had trained him up in. The Law was written in his heart, and there the holy presence of God abode and was shed abroad in his heart.

Sin was not wholly expunged from John, he being subject to the fallen nature of every descendant of Adam. But, his constant effort was repentance to God and faith in His mercies, a consistent repentance for his weakness and failures, and an effort for the expulsion of his sins. And he always knew that, like his loving parents had ever been to him, the God of heaven could be gracious toward his lack when no one else could be gracious toward him, that his God could accept him when no one else could, that his God could be patient with him when no one else could be, that his God loved him when no one else did. By faith he saw the invisible character of the King, and was humbled by the sight. God was his Rock, rock-steady like no man could ever be for John, making his spirit rock-steady in holiness like the holy Spirit of his God

The Holy Spirit is the holy presence of God abiding in His children. It is not another person in a trinity god, but an experience, a state of being, a transformation. It is redemption. The holy Spirit is encapsulated in the holy word of God that has found lodgment in the soul, written there by its Redeemer. The holy Spirit of God in the holy words of God in the soul is His means for purifying the soul through truth. “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” (John 17:17). “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” (John 15:7).

“Fathers and mothers were to instruct their children that the law of God is an expression of His character, and that as they received the principles of the law into the heart, the image of God was traced on mind and soul.” The Desire of Ages. p. 69.

“Every child may gain knowledge as Jesus did. As we try to become acquainted with our heavenly Father through His word, angels will draw near, our minds will be strengthened, our characters will be elevated and refined. We shall become more like our Saviour. And as we behold the beautiful and grand in nature, our affections go out after God. While the spirit is awed, the soul is invigorated by coming in contact with the Infinite through His works. Communion with God through prayer develops the mental and moral faculties, and the spiritual powers strengthen as we cultivate thoughts upon spiritual things.” Ibid. p. 71.

The holy Spirit uses holy truth, being, as it were, present with those words, and giving them power to quicken the whole soul, mind, and body, and to redeem the soul. The Spirit has access to the person through the conscience. And as the word of truth comes into contact with, and attaches to, the spirit in the conscience, the presence of truth there can only result in “sanctification of the [s]pirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” (1Pet. 1:2).

“But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the [s]pirit and belief of the truth; whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2Thess. 2:13,14). I decapitalize “Spirit” because King James’ translators were working with Koine Greek, which was written in all lower case letters, and they used their best knowledge of the gospel to capitalize words that had divine significance.

But they also worked under the strong Constantine-like demands of an unanointed, Evangelical King, whose fractionalized kingdom, like Constantine’s, was being destablized because of conflicting religions. So, King James, as did Constantine the Great, used religion to cement his realm together again. The translators therefore were subject to the King’s erroneous requirements of interpretation. He had neither the interpretive skill and knowledge of the educated Koine scholars, nor the anointing of the persecuted Puritan preachers, to demand his spin on the new translation.

Therefore there is an obvious unhealthy bias in favor regarding the Spirit in the King’s authorized New Testament and a prejudice against the Old Testament in regard to God’s holy Spirit. We see this in that His Spirit must be manipulated into a person. “The Spirit of Him that raised Jesus from the dead”, “His Spirit”, was always slanted to invent a Spirit with its own personality, person, and place in a trinity of Gods. This was not intended by Paul and the apostles and prophets, as can be seen by a candid reading of Romans 8:11. “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”

And the prejudice can be further seen in the translation of God’s Spirit in the Old Testament.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 

Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. 

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.” (Psa. 51:10-12).

[Note that the “Holy Spirit” was neither capitalized nor given third person attributes. It was clearly God’s possession, a faculty of His omnipotent mind, the expression from His very being, a function for the restoration of David’s joy, His healing property for David’s salvation. The parallelism of verse 11 equates “thy holy spirit” to “thy presence”, and verse 12, “thy free spirit” to “thy salvation”. To David “thy holy spirit” was no different than “a right spirit” and “a clean heart”, in verse 10. This is because our spirit under the stronger influence of Christ’s Spirit, and His Spirit dominated by His Father’s greater SPIRIT, is the Spirit proclaimed by the Bible. As it is written in 2 Corinthians 6:17, “He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” (Notice Paul here utterly rejects any third being of a trinity usurping the blessed experience of the holy union between the converted soul and its God. The third entity within the triune Godhead must be the synergistic atonement of the Father with a newly reconciled child of Adam through His one, only begotten God-Man.) Romans 8:16 also makes this plain. “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.”)]

In those early days of the Reformation, so surrounded by dark ages of devilish papal heresies, its understandable that the blasphemous trinity god would naturally still be perpetuated by the clearest minds of religious scholarship, even by both opposing factions of the gospel.

The great familiar spirit

"Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ." (1John 1:3).

Every epistle introduction involves two persons at the throne of heaven. And there are only two thrones.

"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." (Rev. 3:21,22).

And there is no third throne for a third divine being, because Jesus was the the Person who said those words. Jesus is the Spirit. He is our Comforter. Don't let anyone steal Jesus from you. Don't let His tenderest care for you and all of His children be taken away, and be attributed to somebody else claiming divinity.

Three is a big number in religious matters, and can be seen from the most ancient archeology. It appeared long before Christianity. Hecate was possibly the earliest myth of a divinity that had the attribute of three. Long before there was a Zeus or Hera. Long before Osiris or Isis. And Baal or Ashtoreth. Hecate seems to predate all the gods. Wicca is called the oldest religion, and Hecate is older than Wicca.

Hecate is a goddess. She is the goddess of the sky, the earth, and of the underworld. That translates to ruler over heaven and Earth and hell. What infamous being do we know who lays claim to the same? Wouldn't Satan represent the antitype of Hecate? Wouldn't Satan usurp the number three for his spiritual habitation? Who could run from a god who rules all that men can conceive? Who would not feel terror living under such a manifesting potentate?

This is just as the narcissistic master of manipulation would have it. This background explains why Christianity has a Trinity of unbiblical gods. Satan refused to accept his expulsion from the government of heaven.

"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." Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 34.

"The Father wrought by His Son in the creation of all heavenly beings. “By Him were all things created, ... whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him.” Colossians 1:16. Ibid.

"So long as all created beings acknowledged the allegiance of love, there was perfect harmony throughout the universe of God.... There was no note of discord to mar the celestial harmonies. But a change came over this happy state. There was one who perverted the freedom that God had granted to His creatures. Sin originated with him who, next to Christ, had been most honored of God and was highest in power and glory among the inhabitants of heaven. Lucifer, “son of the morning,” was first of the covering cherubs, holy and undefiled. He stood in the presence of the great Creator, and the ceaseless beams of glory enshrouding the eternal God rested upon him." Ibid. p. 35.

In Lucifer was found a condition that he harbored even after long instructions from the King through His Princely Son. When infinitely wise love seeks the restoration of a drifting soul, and cannot penetrate that soul's stubborn resistance, eventually its condition becomes incurable. Every appeal turned down, however politely, however nicely, however affectionately, hardens that soul into an infidel hardihood. 

Once Lucifer, filled with proud self-justification, arrived at that utterly lost state, then he sought to turn others of the angelic family into his path of self-exaltation. Once he committed that intentional affront to God's autocracy, then God arraigned him as treasonous, and shut him out of the glorious and life-giving presence of the only self-existent One. The reality of God's permanent disposition toward him finally occurred to him and settled in. That's when despair gripped him, only too late. He had shaken his fist at the Most Holy One too many times to justly overlook. 

How could God maintain discipline and order in His kingdom if He gave undue respect to the deceitful pretenses of the most ingenious of the powerful angels who excel in strength, both physically and mentally. That would be subordinating Himself to a weak created being. How could the infinite universe be governed and upheld by a created being, the Father allowing the highest creature to play games with his Creator?

"Satan in heaven had hated Christ for His position in the courts of God. He hated Him the more when he himself was dethroned. He hated Him who pledged Himself to redeem a race of sinners." Desire of Ages, p. 49.

So, to this day, Lucifer has tried to reinstate himself to the position he had at the beginning. But if he could never have it in reality, he would at least play the part, imagining himself not only in the presence of glory, but, as he had come to yearning for, himself the center of glory. To have such recognition and worship could only happen by forcing the human race to turn away from Jehovah Father and Son, and receive a new construct. Satan would own the whole throne as God does. 

He would appoint himself to be Vicar of God. He would take over God's office as Comforter/Lifegiver. Thus, he could make himself appear to recognize God's government as legitimate, but really place himself in the most involved office and most pleasing to a quintessential narssissist, the office that works the affections. The human being no longer under th strong spiritual control of the holy God, they could be lured around by stimulating their need for acceptance. The undue familiarity of the familiar spirits.

"Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God." (Lev. 19:31).

"And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people." (Lev. 20:6).

"And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity." (Eze. 23:3).

And to keep up the pretense of honoring the government of heaven, the vicar of God has instituted his own high priest, the vicar of Christ. That must be why Jesus represented the Revelation's dragon and  beast similarly, both having seven heads and ten horns, and both war-mongers.

No heretical matter, one straight chain of truth

"And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." (Rev. 12:17).

This beautiful confession from Mrs. E.G. White mandates that there must be a revival of past SDA history for the purpose of showing that what she had written, before and after 1898, was "a straight chain of truth" without a single heresy.

Ellen White purportedly changed her non-trinitarian theology to worship the Trinity post-1898. A war is underway. The fifth trumpet beast from the bottomless pit has overcome us, and will soon kill us spiritually. Our spiritual death will, to some degree, come from adopting the ancient Baalpeor, worldwide Trinity god by Ecumenical inducements, bribes, and the threat of Nicean-like persecution--and then worshipping the pagan god over the Father, who the Bible says is above all.

"One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." (Eph. 4:6).

Such a blatant departure from the everlasting only true God the Father, and the only begotten Son of His bosom, must result in a similar purging of His precious Advent movement as it did His equally precious Exodus movement. 

"With the merciful Thou wilt shew Thyself merciful; with an upright man Thou wilt shew Thyself upright; 

With the pure Thou wilt shew Thyself pure; and with the froward Thou wilt shew Thyself froward." (Psa. 18:25,26).

The years 1885-1887 were the European mission referred to in the Ellen White letter below. At the latest then, 1885 could be a kind of marker to commence a non-trinitarian SDA history and a "straight chain of truth" "without one heretical sentence", extending past 1898 to 1905 when the following letter was written.

This shows that 1898 was not a benchmark for a Godhead doctrine reform, but rather a continuous period of an unbroken, undisturbed platform of truth during the 20+ years that surrounded the date that The Desire of Ages was published, with its "three living persons of the heavenly trio".

"I am now looking over my diaries and copies of letters written for several years back, commencing before I went to Europe, before you [Mabel] were born. I have the most precious matter to reproduce and place before the people in testimony form. While I am able to do this work, the people must have these things to revive past history, that they may see that there is one straight chain of truth, without one heretical sentence, in that which I have written."— Letter 329a, 1905, pp. 1, 2. (To Mabel White, November 16, 1905.)

And doesn't that sound like something Jesus said?

"For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (Matt. 5:17).

And David,

"The works of His hands are verity and judgment; all His commandments are sure. 

They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness." (Psa. 111:7,8).

Yet, Satan has raised an outcry against those immutable statements also. But the truth remains, "I am the Lord, I change not." (Mal. 3:6).

The mystery religion

 "For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." (1Cor. 1:19).

"Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." (2Tim. 3:7).

"The rebelling mind can recreate the truth and call it truth. It can remodel the truth, and then drum up many arguments to prove its new truth. The unregenerate mind will study and study and study nature and revelation to hopefully stumble upon some evidence until it finds the missing link. Does not the Bible call us to “light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till [we] find it?” (Luke 15:8). Yes, but from the context of only true God."

Much controversy has erupted on the Trinitarian front. Can we find the hidden issues behind the contending parties? Here's one.

The fallen nature seeks salvation the easy way. In spiritual things faith alone can attain it. But faith is not obtained overnight. Neither is the road to it a rose garden. Redemption is precious, that is, it costs infinite riches. It costed the most precious life of the Prince of heaven. Salvation is deliverance from Satan and sin. And it will cost the life of everyone who lays claim to it. It will cost them their idols and every god that vie for our heart.

Therefore, conviction of sin has always been the foundation of the kingdom of God. And the evasion of conviction was ever been the foundation of the kingdom of Satan. Therefore we have these two axioms:

"To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in the them." (Isa. 8:20).

"Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." (Gal. 3:24).

Only the religion of God will lead to God. And only the religions of Satan will end at Satan. Satan's religions can never lead to God. The Law of God is the Law of love, the Law of righteousness. But the law of the devil is the law of lust and sin. The two laws are as far apart as the North Pole to the South Pole. God's Law is self-sacrificing; Satan's law is self-indulgent. God's Law is self-depricating; Satan's is self-exaltation. Love "seeketh not her own"; but lust is the only object and subject of self. Disinterested love serves others; self-interest forces others to serve it. Love is meek and trustful; lust is proud and trusts no one. The wine of God brings health to the body, brain, and soul. The wine of Babylon promises wholeness but never delivers. Love is everlasting life; but lust eternal desolation and bitterness.

God's humbling conviction of sin speaks of a loving Father. Satan's school of self-preservation speaks only of a mean opportunist. True life comes only through death. Real death comes through dodging death to self.

In Satan's religion, under his rule, the mystical, the unknowing is the object of study. It's a system of ever learning to know nothing. It's a school that teaches a round of busywork.

This is the motive behind the worship of the Trinity. "You can't understand the three in one God! It's a mystery! You can meditate on it for eternity and never know how three equals one! We worship three divine Beings, but not three Gods! It's a mystery! God the Father is highest in rank among the three, but they are all co-equal in every respect. It's just another mystery!

Sometimes the anti-Trinitarian battle can go hard

"Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest." (Psa. 55:6).

I just read an asitreads post, "Separate worship for the Spirit?" I came away with my head spinning. Did Ellen White really sing praise to the Holy Spirit? What's going on here?

Now where do I go? Is Jesus everything to us, i.e. the Holy Spirit/Comforter, or is He not all that? If she did believe believe Jesus is the Holy Spirit, as she said on occasion, then why would she treat the Spirit as a separate person/being in a heavenly Trio?

This is getting way too hard to explain, not only to ourselves, but to others. It boils down to a few measures. 

1) Let alone Ellen White's confusing statements, and stick to the Bible's clearer descriptions of the Father, Son, and Their Spirit,

2) Keep in mind that the Abomination of Desolation is using the "blessed Trinity" as the focal point of its Ecumenical evangelism, and to keep resolved to remain as distant as possible from the Trinity god, which is Baal, Ashtoreth, and Tammuz,

3) Repent to the Lord for my dull brain, to broaden my strength of conceptualizing, and for my slowness of heart to have simple, powerful trust in Jesus

https://www.asitreads.com/blog/2017/12/23/separate-worship-for-the-spirit?rq=worship

Ellen G. White's living will

"...one straight chain of truth, without one heretical sentence, in that which I have written. This, I am instructed, is to be a living letter to all in regard to my faith.

Did the servant of the Lord stop being an anti-Trinitarian after 1898? Her own written admission should be sufficient to silence all post-mortem attempts to make her a Trinitarian.

"I am now looking over my diaries and copies of letters written for several years back, commencing before I went to Europe, before you were born. I have the most precious matter to reproduce and place before the people in testimony form. While I am able to do this work, the people must have these things to revive past history, that they may see that there is one straight chain of truth, without one heretical sentence, in that which I have written. This, I am instructed, is to be a living letter to all in regard to my faith.” (Letter 329a, 1905).

Repeating the history of ancient Israel

[Apology: The font color is barely acceptable, but I'm making this post from my phone and I don't have all the capabilities of my laptop. Please bear with me.]

"Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live;

And I polluted them in their own gifts, in that they caused to pass through the fire all that openeth the womb, that I might make them desolate, to the end that they might know that I am the Lord.

Therefore son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me, in that they have committed a trespass against me." (Eze. 20:25-27).

Is our Lord remiss in His law of freedom of choice, so that He would give statutes that are false? 2 Samuel 24:1/1 Chronicles 21:1, and 2 Thessalonians 2:12 say that He would not be remiss in so doing. But in reality the deceptions have always come from Satan who they were serving through their refusal to keep all of the Lord's laws from a deeply repentant and humbled heart.

"And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, that he did for Israel.

And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old.

And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash.

And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.

And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim: 

And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger.

And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. 

And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.

Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn unto them: and they were greatly distressed.

Nevertheless the Lord raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them.

And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the Lord; but they did not so.

And when the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the Lord because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them.

And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way.

And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice;

I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died:

That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not...." (Jud. 2:7-22).

Just what is my point? What has all that got to do with the Trinity? From the Ellen White compilation, Healthful Living,

The Modern Church Repeating the History of Ancient Israel

1169. The trials of the children of Israel, and their attitude just before the first coming of Christ, illustrate the position of the people of God in their experience before the second coming of Christ.—The Review and Herald, February 18, 1890. HL 280.1

1170. Satan's snares are laid for us as verily as they were laid for the children of Israel just prior to their entrance into the land of Canaan. We are repeating the history of that people.—Testimonies for the Church 5:160. HL 280.2

1171. Their history should be a solemn warning to us. We need never expect that when the Lord has light for his people, Satan will stand calmly by and make no effort to prevent them from receiving it. Let us beware that we do not refuse the light God sends, because it does not come in a way to please us.... If there are any who do not see and accept the light themselves, let them not stand in the way of others.—Testimonies for the Church 5:728. HL 280.3

1172. “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live; that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him; for he is thy life, and the length of thy days; that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” HL 280.4

This song was not historical but prophetic. While it recounted the wonderful dealings of God with his people in the past, it also foreshadowed the great events of the future, the final victory of the faithful when Christ shall come the second time in power and glory.—Patriarchs and Prophets, 467.HL 281.1

1173. The apostle Paul plainly states that the experience of the Israelites in their travels has been recorded for the benefit of those living in this age of the world, those upon whom the ends of the world are come. We do not consider that our dangers are any less than those of the Hebrews, but greater.—Testimonies for the Church 3:358. HL 281.2

God's Dealing with Israel

1174. God in mercy called them out from the Egyptians, that they might worship him without hindrance or restraint. He wrought for them in the way by miracles, he proved and tried them by bringing them into strait places. After the wonderful dealings of God with them, and their deliverance so many times, they murmured when tried or proved by him. Their language was, “Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt.” They lusted for the leeks and onions there.... Said the angel, “Ye have done worse than they.”—Testimonies for the Church 1:128. HL 281.3

The Influence of Flesh Food upon Mind and Body

1175. How frequently ancient Israel rebelled, and how often they were visited with judgments, and thousands slain, because they would not heed the commands of God who had chosen them! The Israel of God in these last days are in constant danger of mingling with the world, and losing all signs of being the chosen people of God.... Shall we provoke him as did ancient Israel? Shall we bring his wrath upon us by departing from him, and mingling with the world and following the abominations of the nations around us? ... The same injunctions that rested upon ancient Israel rest upon God's people now, to be separate from the world. The great Head of the church has not changed. The experience of Christians in these days is much like the travels of ancient Israel. Please read 1 Corinthians 10, especially from the 6th to the 15th verse: “Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.... Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.”—Testimonies for the Church 1:283.HL 282.1

1176. The Lord intends to bring his people back to live upon simple fruits, vegetables, and grains. He led the children of Israel into the wilderness, where they could not get a flesh diet; and he gave them the bread of heaven. “Man did eat angels’ food.” But they craved the flesh pots of Egypt, and mourned and cried for flesh, notwithstanding the promise of the Lord that if they would submit to his will, he would carry them into the land of Canaan, and establish them there, a pure holy, happy people, and there should not be a feeble one in all their tribes; for he would take away all sickness from among them. But although they had a plain “Thus saith the Lord,” they mourned and wept, and murmured and complained, until the Lord was wroth with them. Because they were so determined to have the flesh of dead animals, he gave them the very diet that he had withheld from them. The Lord would have given them flesh from the first had it been essential to their health; but he had created and redeemed them, and led them the long journey in the wilderness, to educate, discipline and train them in correct habits. The Lord understood what influence flesh eating has upon the human system. He would have a people that would, in their physical appearance, bear the divine credentials, notwithstanding their long journey.—Unpublished Testimonies, November 5, 1896. HL 282.2

Warnings from the Experience of Israel

1177. The religion of many among us will be the religion of apostate Israel, because they love their own way, and forsake the way of the Lord.—The Signs of the Times, November 3, 1890. HL 283.1

1178. Because of Israel's disobedience and departure from God, they were allowed to be brought into close places, and to suffer adversity; their enemies were permitted to make war with them, to humble them and lead them to seek God in their trouble and distress.—Testimonies for the Church 2:106.HL 283.2

1179. “Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.” The experience of Israel, referred to in the above words by the apostle, and as recorded in the 105th and 106th psalms, contains lessons of warning that the people of God in these last days especially need to study. I urge that these chapters be read at least once every week.—Special Testimony to Battle Creek Church, 43. HL 284.1

1180. With the history of the children of Israel before us, let us take heed, and not be found committing the same sins, following in the same way of unbelief and rebellion.—The Review and Herald, April 18, 1893. HL 284.

With all of the above background, we can more correctly understand Adventist history. Below is an article copied from Ministry Magazine written by Merlin E. Burt, one of the directors of the Ellen White Estate.

"The 1890s began, two of the key thinkers on each side of the righteousness by faith/law in Galatians issue agreed on the derived divinity of Jesus. E. J. Waggoner wrote in his 1890 Christ and His Righteousness, “There was a time when Christ proceeded forth and came from God . . . but that time was so far back in the days of eternity that to finite comprehension it is practically without beginning.”¹² In 1898, Uriah Smith wrote in Looking Unto Jesus, “God alone is without beginning. At the earliest epoch when a beginning could be,—a period so remote that to finite minds it is essentially eternity,—appeared the Word.”¹³

The period after the 1888 Minneapolis General Conference saw a new emphasis on Jesus and the plan of salvation. This led to a consideration of His deity and what it meant for the redemption of humanity. A. T. Jones was among the first (with the exception of Ellen White) to suggest that Christ was eternally preexistent. Jones emphasized Colossians 2:9 and the idea that in Christ was the “fullness of the Godhead bodily.” He also described Christ as “ ‘the eternal Word.’ ”¹⁴ Though he avoided the word Trinity, in 1899 he wrote, “God is one. Jesus Christ is one. The Holy Spirit is one. And these three are one: there is no dissent nor division among them.”¹⁵

Ellen White played a prophetic role in confirming the eternal deity of Jesus and the Three-Person Godhead. As early as 1878, she referred to Jesus as the “eternal Son of God.”¹⁶ In The Desire of Ages, she wrote, “[Christ] announced Himself to be the self-existent One” and “In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived.”¹⁷ She wrote of the Holy Spirit as the “Third Person of the Godhead.”¹⁸Ellen White played an important role in urging the church toward a biblical trinitarian position. However, for years after the publication of The Desire of Ages, the church generally avoided these and other statements. While she never used the term Trinity in her published writings, she repeatedly conveyed the concept.

M. L. Andreasen questioned whether Ellen White had actually written some of her statements in The Desire of Ages and other books. During 1909, Andreasen spent three months at Elmshaven, California, and was convinced of the accuracy of her published position.¹⁹

 

FROM 1900 TO 1931: TRANSITION AND CONFLICT

During the first three decades of the twentieth century, the church remained divided in its position on the deity of Christ. The use of the word Trinity in print continued to be avoided. W. W. Prescott and A.T. Jones, both editors of the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, were key supporters of the full and eternal deity of Jesus. During the 1890s, Prescott was slower than Jones to accept the new view. But after 1900, as editor of the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, he published articles on the personhood and eternal nature of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.²⁰ Still Prescott believed that Jesus had a derived existence from God the Father. At the 1919 Bible Conference, he presented a series of eight devotionals for the conference titled “The Person of Christ” that expressed this view. Careful discussion at this conference showed that there were varying opinions.²¹

The early twentieth century saw Adventists and Protestant Fundamentalists battling higher criticism and the “new modernism” growing in Christianity. Liberalism rejected the deity of Jesus and His virgin birth. Adventist articles defending the Bible view began to appear more frequently in church papers. Irrespective of individual differences on details, Adventist ministers pulled into line against liberal views. Naturally, those who rejected the eternal preexistence of Christ did not want to speak of His beginning and weaken the argument against higher criticism. Even articles on the Trinity were tolerated.²² The result was an increased appreciation of the full deity of the Son of God.

 

FROM 1931 TO 1957: ACCEPTANCE OF THE TRINITARIAN VIEW

F. M. Wilcox was crucial in facilitating the final transition to an accepted Seventh-day Adventist view on the Trinity through his guidance in the 1931 Statement of Fundamental Beliefs and his articles in the Review and Herald.²³Doctrinal summaries were carefully avoided during the first decades of the twentieth century, due in part to conflict on the Trinity. According to L. E. Froom, Wilcox was “respected by all parties for his soundness, integrity, and loyalty to the Advent Faith—and to the Spirit of Prophecy—he, as editor of the Review, did what probably no other man could have done to achieve unity in acceptance.”²⁴ It was not until 1946 that the General Conference session officially voted a Statement of Fundamental Beliefs.²⁵

During the 1940s, an ever-increasing majority of the church believed in the eternal, underived deity of Christ and the personhood of the Holy Spirit, yet there were some who held back and even actively resisted the change. These were mainly comprised of a few older ministers and Bible teachers such as J. S. Washburn, C. S. Longacre, and W. R. French. In 1944, Uriah Smith’s Daniel and the Revelation was revised and his comments on the derived nature of Christ’s divinity were removed.²⁶

In 1957, the book Questions on Doctrineanchored the doctrine of the Trinity or Godhead for Adventists. While the book produced theological conflict in other areas, there was virtually no dissent on the book’s clear teaching of the Trinity.²⁷The current unambiguous statement on the Trinity in the Seventh-day Adventist  at the 1980 General Conference Session.

The process of adopting the Trinity continued from 1900 to 1950. Key influences in the change were (1) repeated published biblical studies on the topic, (2) Ellen White’s clear statements, (3) Adventist response to the attacks of modern liberalism on the deity of Christ and His virgin birth, and (4) F. M. Wilcox’s statement of Fundamental Beliefs and his Review and Herald editorials.

We may learn several lessons from the history of the development of doctrine of the Trinity in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. First, we must acknowledge that the development of Adventist theology has usually been progressive and corrective. This is clearly illustrated in the Holy Spirit is dynamic. Other doctrinal concepts developed in a similar manner. This development never supposed a paradigm shift that contradicted the clear biblical teaching of the heavenly sanctuary ministry of Jesus and the prophetic foundation of the church. Second, the development of the Trinity doctrine demonstrates that doctrinal change sometimes requires the passing of a previous generation. For Seventh-day Adventists, it took more than 50 years for the doctrine of the Trinity to become normative...."

https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/2009/02/the-trinity.html

And the rest is history to the present day.

But that past 130 year history, having disregarded Ellen White's statements from Healthful Living, paints only a partial picture. We have repeated the history of ancient Israel by departing into heathen worship. Just as Allah is not the God of the Old Testament, but is Ba'al, likewise is the Trinity god not the God of the New Testament, but is simply a makeover of ancient Baalim and Ashtaroth. Satan hasn't changed his tactics. He only changed names.

Therefore, the Ministry Magazine article is biased. Not taking into the Trinity discussion this post's opening scriptures and Ellen White quotations, Mr. Burt skews our history. He places a favorable light upon F.M. Wilcox's personal "1931 Statement of Fundamental Beliefs". I say "personal" because his Statement of Fundamental Beliefs was not voted on by a General Conference Session, as had all the previous Statements of Fundamental Beliefs. It could appear in the Review and Herald because he was its editor-in-chief from 1911-1944.

An excerpt from another website, Leroy Froom sheds light on this very subject:

"...Watson stated to me, that in the thinking of the small committee, no formal or official  approval should be sought forthe unofficial Wilcox statement of 1931.  It was therefore not brought before the General Conference Committee.  It had not been prepared as a creed, but as a summary of our fundamental beliefs, to see how it [the "Trinity" term] would be received. To this end the committee of four had been given power to act."  (Froom, MOD, p. 418, 419, emphasis supplied).

https://maranathamedia.com/article/view/another-perspective-of-the-1913-f-m-wilcox-trinity-statement

A point repeated by several documented cases in the above website regards the Adventists' backlash toward the current concepts of the Trinity. The introduction of this papal dogma was insidiously engineered and gradually slipped into SDA thinking. Such manuevering mimics Jesuitry so closely that it would defy reason to disallow Jesuit machinations here.

One last thought: we have applauded the statement concerning the early Dark Ages church's resistance to the Papal Sunday:

"The fact remains though that, outside of Rome and Alexandria, the rest of the Christian world continued to observe the Sabbath as a memorial of creation. Of course, gradually, Sunday observance also became popular early on within many Christian churches as a celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus.  The mid-5th Century historian Sozomen reported,

'The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria.'

Sozomen. The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen. Comprising a History of the Church, from a.d. 323 to a.d. 425. Book VII, Chapter XIX. Translated from the Greek. Revised by Chester D. Hartranft, Hartford Theological Seminary, Under the editorial supervision of Philip Shaff, D.D., LL.D. and Henry Wace, D. D., Professor of Church History in the Union Theological Seminary, New York. Principal of King’s College, London. T&T Clark, Edinburgh, circa 1846.

Socrates Scholasticus (380-440 AD):

The 5th-century historian Socrates Scholasticus of Constantinople noted:

'For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the Sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this.'"

http://detectingdesign.com/wp/2017/04/20/christians-and-the-sabbath/#Sozomen_400-450_AD

If we can be so full of applause to the Sabbath-keepers for holding fast to what God had given the apostolic church, then why shouldn't we be edified by the SDA church for contending for the anti-Trinitarian faith that was once given to the Adventist pioneers?