I was saddened when I read from the Summer 2018
Inside Report from Amazing Facts,
page 4, The
President’s Perspective that Amazing Facts put
out a new book teaching the Trinity book, Exploring
the Trinity, and warning Adventists and non-Adventists to beware of “the
resurgence of the teaching that Jesus is a created being and that the Holy
Spirit is nothing more than an impersonal force of God.” And then Pastor Doug
continues on in the ad to urge his audience, “If you or your church is dealing
with this hot topic, you’ll be blessed and strengthened by this brief but
thorough and convicting sharing resource.”
Fighting is no fun. I don’t want to have
enemies or to make enemies; and I love Pastor Doug. But, I must address a
misconception in Pastor Batchelor’s warning.
Three issues in this post contends with
Pastor Doug. SDA non-trinitarians do not believe 1) that Jesus was created, 2)
that the Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force, 3) that we are explaining the
nature of the Holy Spirit.
1) “…that Jesus is a created being and
that the Holy Spirit is nothing more than an impersonal force of God”.
No one of the non-trinitarian Seventh-day
Adventists refers to Jesus as a created being. That hand-me-down from the
apostatizing apostolic church, that accusation birthed from the Church of Rome,
is a fearful misconstrual of the remnant non-trinitarian cause and, even if it
is an innocent smearing, it is a smearing nonetheless. It alleges an untruth of
its opposers.
The Seventh-day Adventist non-trinitarians
confess, that there was a time when the Son did not exist. In dateless past
ages, “from of old, from everlasting” (Mic. 5:2), before “I was brought forth”
(Prov. 8:24), the Father existed alone as “the blessed and only Potentate, the
King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality”.
“…Our Lord Jesus Christ: which in His [set time] He shall shew,
who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;
who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach
unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power
everlasting. Amen.” (1Tim. 6:14-16).
God the Father, the Lord God Almighty,
alone is the self-existent One. And His only begotten Son inherited that
divinity and self-existence. The Son was born divine and self-existent, by nature
inheriting bonds with His Father God that could never be broken. But the
children of His birthing/creating hold eternal life not via inheritance, but by
their continued, personal effort to remain connected with God through His Son,
through whom they were brought into existence.
Greater than His Son who is King and Lord
over all creation, God the Father is the most blessed and the only, highest
Potentate, King over the King of kings and Lord of the Lord of lords. This in
no way diminishes the greatness of the Son who was called, “one like the Son of
man” (Dan. 7:13), “the Son of the Highest” (Luke 1:32). But, it does exalt the
utmost greatness of “the Most High” (Dan. 7:22), “the Highest” (Luke 1:35),
“the Almighty” (Ps. 91:1), “Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to
come” (Rev. 11:17), the blessed and only Potentate, “Him that sitteth on the
throne” (Rev. 5:13), “Him that liveth for ever and ever” (Rev. 5:14), “the
Ancient of days” (Dan. 7:9). If you ask me, “How dare you treat the Mighty Son
of God that way?” I can only say in return, “How dare you treat the first,
greater, Almighty Father of all, that way?”
After much planning and anticipation,
eventually the first thing the Father did was to bring forth His only begotten
Son, Michael.
“Being made so much better than the angels, as He hath by
inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
For unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son,
this day have I begotten Thee? And again, I will be to Him a Father, and He
shall be to Me a Son?
And again, when He bringeth in the FirstbegottenG4416 [prōtotokos,
“firstborn”] into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship
Him.
And of the angels He saith, Who maketh His angels spirits, and His
ministers a flame of fire.
But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and
ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom.” (Heb. 1:4-8).
These quotations from the Old Testament, “Thou art My Son, this
day have I begotten Thee” (Ps. 2:7), and, “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and
ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom” (Ps. 45:6),
describe the pre-incarnate Michael. By inheritance He obtained a more excellent
name—Jehovah—more excellent than the angels because He was “made so much better
than” (Heb. 1:4) they. Therefore, later “when He bringeth in the Firstbegotten
into the world”, the angels were sent to worship Him. For the love that He had
for us God sent His Son to be our propitiation. Therefore, God sent His Son because
God already had a Son to send, a unique Son with a unique name by inheritance
through birth—Jehovah.
“Who is the image of the invisible God, the FirstbornG4416 [prōtotokos,
“firstborn”] of every creature:
For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that
are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or
principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him:
And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.
And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell.”
(Col. 1:15-19).
As Adam was created in Christ’s image, and Eve in Adam’s image,
likewise Christ was made in His Father’s image. Therefore, it is that “the head
of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of
Christ is God.” (1Cor. 11:3).
After an unknown period of swaddling His
Son with His arms, pouring upon Him His attentiveness and joy, loving His first
begotten Prototokos, and training Him up in the way that He should go, the
Father could then, by His Son, begin the great work of creation. Now His Son,
through His Father, would beget—not divine beings, or even divine angels, but
holy beings, holy angels and holy corporeal sons on the inhabited worlds.
“…to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery,
which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all
things by Jesus Christ.” (Eph. 3:9).
It is a Greek philosophical assumption from the days of the Nicene
era, that to say if the Son of God had a beginning, then He mustn’t be divine,
but a created being. It is wrong to make such a deduction, and unnecessary to
create strife among the brethren by building such an insinuated, wrongly
described straw-man of the opposition’s case. The Son of God, being born of
divinity was not created, but made divine God, God from God, as divine as His
one and only Father is divine.
As God made His Son a High Priest forever, He also made His Son
the fullness of the Godhead, a Prince and Mediator since the beginning. But
that doesn’t mean that His Son was created. He was the Firstbegotten, the
Firstborn, the divine one and only Prototokos. When we look at the Deep Field
photograph, and see the 10,000 galaxies packed in a rice grain sized spot in
the cosmos, and then we multiply that by tens of thousands of same-sized spots
in the spherical azimuth of the cosmos, then one can begin to conceive of how
long in the past did the birth of the precious Prototokos take place. “In the
beginning” was a long time ago. “The LORD possessed Me in the beginning of His
way, before His works of old.” (Pro. 8:22).
Ellen White wrote that much in her
book, Patriarchs and Prophets, and a close reproduction of the same
in The Great Controversy (1911):
“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. His
‘goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.’ Micah 5:2. And the Son
of God declares concerning Himself: ‘The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of
His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting.... 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.’ Proverbs
8:22-30.” Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 34.
“Before the entrance of evil there was
peace and joy throughout the universe. All was in perfect harmony with the
Creator’s will. Love for God was supreme, love for one another impartial. Christ
the Word, the Only Begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father,—one in
nature, in character, and in purpose,—the only being in all the universe that
could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God. By Christ the Father
wrought in the creation of all heavenly beings. ‘By Him were all things
created, that are in heaven,... whether they be thrones, or dominions, or
principalities, or powers’ (Colossians 1:16); and to Christ, equally with the
Father, all heaven gave allegiance.” The Great Controversy, p. 493.
Yet, the Father was greater than the Son,
because He was before Him. And the Son wouldn’t have it any other way.
2) Let me explain concerning Pastor Doug’s
statement of the non-Trinitarians, “the Holy Spirit is nothing more than an
impersonal force of God”. I don’t see the Bible teaching the Holy Spirit like
that, and neither have I heard that from other proponents of the Father and Son
Godhead.
The “impersonal force of God” doctrine
exists in all the world religions. Protestant Christianity is the only true
religion because it reveals the Creator as a being, a personal God. The Spirit
of God—that is, the all-powerful, all-compassing, ever-present union of the
Father and Son—takes Their infinite bond to the uttermost limits of Their
created universe. Hear this prayer of David to Jehovah.
“For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORDH3068 [Yehôvâh],
Thou knowest it altogether.
Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot
attain unto it.
Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from
Thy presence?
If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in
hell, behold, Thou art there.
If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost
parts of the sea;
Even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold
me.” (Ps. 139:4-10).
“Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from
Thy presence?” (vs. 4), is a parallelism that equates the Spirit of Jehovah
with His presence. How sweet is His presence! “…Thy hand [shall] lead me, and
Thy right hand shall hold me” (vs. 10) is that for which David praised Jehovah
Jesus in Psalm 16. It is heaven to be in Jesus’ presence, as it is to be in
Jehovah, the Father’s presence.
“I have set the LORDH3068 [Yehôvâh]
always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also
shall rest in hope.
For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer
Thine Holy One to see corruption.
Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of
joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Ps. 16:8-11).
What David may not have understood was
that the One who was coming to Him was Two—the Father and Son.
“Jesus answered and said unto him, 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).
“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the
Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is
none of His.” (Rom. 8:9).
The Spirit is both the Spirit of God and
the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit is Them both. For more evidence for the Father
and Son Godhead, continue reading from the website below.
http://trinitytruth.org/ellenwhitethreeholiestbeings.html
“Introduction
Some believe that Ellen White became a
Trinitarian based on a few quotes that relate to the Holy Spirit. They
mistakenly believe these quotes say the Holy Spirit is a literal person when
she actually taught the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God coming to us through
His Son.
LeRoy Froom deliberately set out to search
over 100,000 pages of her writings (25,000,000 words) for anything that could
be mistaken as being Trinitarian. It is now alleged that he was working as a
Catholic Priest prior to entering the Adventist Church and some suspect [that
he] was a Jesuit.
On the 14 December 1955, Leroy Froom in a
letter to Reuben Figuhr wrote, ‘I was publicly denounced in the
chapel at the Washington Missionary College by Dr. B. G. Wilkinson as the
most dangerous man in this denomination.’
The quote containing the phrase ‘three
holiest beings’ was not used by LeRoy Froom because it was not available while
he was still alive.
Did Ellen White write, ‘Three Holiest
Beings?’
The answer is a definite ‘No.’
Ellen White DID NOT pen these words by her
own hand. They were written by a stenographer trying to keep
up with a sermon she was preaching.
So while some claim that Ellen White wrote
‘three holiest beings,’ the Ellen White Estate clearly informs us on their web
site that Sermons and Talks, Book 1 containing the phrase ‘three holiest
beings’ comes from a ‘HIGHLY EDITED’ stenographer’s report of a sermon she
preached on October 20, 1906 at the Congregational Church of Oakland,
California.
The date of release by the White Estate is
‘March 16, 1976.’ So this was not her handwriting but a typed report from a
stenographer that was first published 70 years after her sermon and can never
be authenticated.
This is what Ellen White wrote about
unauthenticated reports,
‘And now to all who have a desire for
truth I would say: Do not give credence to unauthenticated
reports as to what Sister White has done or said or written. If
you desire to know what the Lord has revealed through her, read her published
works.’ — (Ellen G. White, 5T 696.1)
The statement appears in the book Sermons
and Talks, Book 1.
In the forward of the book we are told,
‘All the messages reproduced in this
volume were delivered in public and stenographically reported, or were prepared
with that purpose in view. Many of Ellen White’s sermons may be found in the
Review and Herald and Signs of the Times, but nearly all of those included in
this series have been drawn from previously unpublished manuscripts, as they
appear in our files. So, although there were no tape recorders in Ellen White’s
day, a person may get the true “feel” of Ellen White as a speaker by reading
this book.’ — (Forward, Sermons and Talks, Vol. 1)
Ellen White taught that the Holy Spirit is
the Spirit of God coming to us through His Son and so she wrote.
‘The HOLY SPIRIT is the SPIRIT of
CHRIST; it is His representative.’ — (Ellen G. White, 13MR
313.3, 1895)
‘CHRIST has
left HIS HOLY SPIRIT to be HIS representative in
the world,’ — (Ellen G. White, Lt84, October 22, 1895)
‘The HOLY SPIRIT is the SPIRIT of
CHRIST, which is sent to all men to give them sufficiency,’ —
(E.G. White, 14MR 84.3)
‘We want the HOLY SPIRIT, which
is JESUS CHRIST.’ — (Ellen G. White, Lt66, April 10, 1894)
‘But it is the leaven of the
SPIRIT of JESUS CHRIST, which is sent down from heaven, called the HOLY GHOST,’
— (Ellen G. White, Ms36-1891)
Not only did she identify the ‘Holy
Spirit’ as the ‘Spirit of Christ,’ but she always identified ONLY two beings
ALONE, not three. So if Ellen White had said or written ‘three holiest beings’
then she would have contradicted herself making herself a false prophet.
Note that she wrote ALONE and ONLY.
‘The Father and the Son ALONE are
to be exalted.’ — (Ellen G. White, The Youth’s Instructor,
July 7, 1898) — ONLY TWO BEINGS.
Did she say the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit ALONE are to be exalted? No she did not!
And again, ‘God and Christ ALONE know
what the souls of men have cost.’ — (Ellen G. White, Signs of the
Times, January 13, 1909) — ONLY TWO BEINGS.
‘God informed Satan that to his Son ALONE he
would reveal his secret purposes, and he required all the family in heaven,
even Satan, to yield him implicit, unquestioned obedience;’ — (Ellen G.
White, Signs of the Times, January 9, 1879) --- ONLY TWO
BEINGS
‘Can anyone consider the condescension
of God in preparing the gospel feast, and its great cost, and treat the
invitation slightingly? No man, nor even the highest angel,
can estimate the great cost; it is known ONLY to the
Father and the Son.’ — (Ellen G. White, The Bible Echo,
October 28, 1895) — ONLY TWO BEINGS
If the Holy Spirit was a third co-equal
being then it would also know. But since it is the Spirit of Christ, then not
so.
‘The ONLY Being
who was one with God lived the law in humanity, descended to
the lowly life of a common laborer, and toiled at the carpenter’s bench with
His earthly parent.’ — (Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, October
14, 1897) — ONLY TWO BEINGS
‘CHRIST the Word, the only-begotten of
God, was one with the eternal Father, one in nature, in character, and in
purpose, the ONLY being in all the universe that
could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God. By Christ, the Father
wrought in the creation of all heavenly beings.’ — (Ellen G. White, The
Great Controversy, p. 493) — ONLY TWO BEINGS
In more than one quote Ellen White
identified the three highest beings in heaven before the fall as the Father,
Son and Satan. Not the Father, Son and Holy Spirit since the Holy Spirit is not
a being. ‘Satan, next to Christ, was at one time most honored of God, and
highest in power and glory.’ — (Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times,
July 23, 1902)
So that facts are:
1. Ellen White did not pen
the words ‘three holiest beings.’
2. The words of the stenographer are
not inspired.
3. The sermon was not transcribed for another
70 years.
4. The stenographer’s report was highly edited.
5. The stenographer’s report can never be
authenticated.
6. The words ‘three holiest beings’
contradicts a multitude of things she did write.
7. Sermon and Talks was only intended to get
the ‘feel’ of Ellen White as a speaker.
Picking out statements from Ellen White’s
writings that would fit into a Trinitarian concept of God while ignoring her
statements that do not fit the Trinitarian concept of God is a dishonest way to
use her writings. To understand correctly what God has revealed through Ellen
White, and find out what her beliefs were on this topic, it is necessary to
quote all that she wrote on this subject, not just be selective in what we
quote to suit our own agenda. That would be tantamount to deception.”
3) Addressing the third issue: Pastor Doug is incorrect that SDA
non-trinitarians are attempting to explain the nature of the Holy Spirit.
Rather, they are explaining its identity.
The following is the Amazing Facts overview of their book, Exploring
the Trinity, referred to at the top of this blog post:
“…But what is the nature of that close relationship?
Is God the Father the only “one God”—or is the Son, Jesus, God
too? If so, do Christians worship more than one God? Is that not polytheism, as
some suggest? Is God the Father superior to Jesus? Did
Jesus come after the Father? Was there a time when the Father but not Jesus
existed?
And what about the Holy Spirit? Is He God too? If so, do
Christians worship three gods, as some claim we do? And just what
or who is the Holy Spirit? How are we to understand the Holy Spirit in
relationship to the Father and the Son? Is the Holy Spirit divine, or merely an
impersonal force emanating from God?
From the early days of the Christian church to this very day, the
subject of the Trinity has caused contention in the church. And no wonder, the
church is made up of fallen, finite beings trying to grasp the nature of a
perfect and eternal God. Even if God weren’t a triune being, it would be
difficult to understand the full nature of God, a being who “spoke” the world
into existence. How do we even begin to grasp His power and personhood, Trinity or
no Trinity?...”
There is sufficient biblical evidence to convince the honest
student that the Spirit is not a person, but a divine faculty, a
creative-redemptive power, a dynamic love from the Almighty. “A new heart also
will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.” (Eze. 36:26). However
it works that that powerful love, ever flowing from the Father, changes hearts
and seals them for eternity, it is a mystery and will be our study and wonder
for eternity. “God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in
spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24).
One Sabbath after another, one new moon after the next, year after
year, age after age will stand still in the wonder of it all. If eternity would
not be everlasting it would be too short because of all that the peace and rest
will offer the redeemed.
“Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him?
saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.” (Jer. 23:24).
“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).
“Thousands of years after Jesus left the planet, Christians are
still asking questions and disagreeing about the topic of the Trinity. For
instance, some Christians take what is known as an “Arian” position regarding
the Trinity. This view claims that Christ hasn’t always existed; after He was
brought forth, however, His divinity was given to Him by the Father. If this
view were true, it would mean that Jesus is inferior to the Father. Many today
are now trying to resurrect these views, arguing that the doctrine
of the Trinity comes from pagan Rome, an example of how Protestant
churches have been infected by Roman Catholicism. Hence, all the more reason we
need to reject, they argue, the Trinity.”
To that I will let quotations give their answers.
“Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and
Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the
former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of
sympathy with Rome.” Great Controversy, p. 588.1
Any connection with a false doctrine of Rome is intoxicating and
sedating, and creates a bond of sympathy with her to be drawn into her snares.
“No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The
old is better.” (Luke 5:39).
“‘I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power;
and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong
voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the
habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every
unclean and hateful bird.’ ‘And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come
out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye
receive not of her plagues.’ Revelation 18:1, 2, 4.
This scripture points forward to a time when
the announcement of the fall of Babylon, as made by the second angel of
Revelation 14 (verse 8), is to be repeated, with the additional mention
of the corruptions which have been entering the various organizations
that constitute Babylon, since that message was first given, in the summer of
1844.” Great Controversy, p. 603.
The Sabbath was proclaimed during the third angel’s message. More
than the Sabbath truth will be declared during the fourth angel of Revelation
18:1-5. The apparently innocuous Trinity “additional corruption” entered the
Advent Movement in 1919. During the final preaching the Trinity will be exposed
for all of its connection with pagan religion.
“The Trinity is… the central doctrine of the Christian
religion.” Catholic Encyclopedia article: “The Blessed Trinity”
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as a university professor, was known to
teach that, more than Sunday sacredness, the Trinity forms the foundation of
Catholicism.
