Me and My Messenger

“Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:

And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in former years.

And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.

For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” (Mal. 3:1-5).

In this post we will see that the Messenger was divine, and agrees with the “Messenger of the covenant”, as it should. It is a given that Jesus was the Messenger of the covenant, as He was “the Prince of the covenant.” (Dan. 11:22). Jesus was the Servant who He foretold and who He would send. Literally speaking, His Father would send Him; but in His communications of the prophetic writings, He, speaking in behalf of His Father, sends a Servant-Messiah, which is Himself.

“Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently, He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

As many were astonied [astonished] at Thee; His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men:

So shall He sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at Him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider….

For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: 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.

Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isa. 52:13-15; 53:1-6).

“Behold My Servant, whom I uphold; Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth; I have put My Spirit upon Him: He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street.

A bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench: He shall bring forth judgment unto truth.

He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for His law.

Thus saith God the LORD, He that created the heavens, and stretched them out; He that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; He that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:

I the LORD have called Thee in righteousness, and will hold Thine hand, and will keep Thee, and give Thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;

To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house….

Who is blind, but My Servant? or deaf, as My Messenger that I sent? who is blind as He that is perfect, and blind as the LORD’s Servant?

Seeing many things, but Thou observest not; opening the ears, but He heareth not.

The LORD is well pleased for His righteousness’ sake; He will magnify the law, and make it honourable.” (Isa. 42:1-7,19-21).

“I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.” (Gen. 3:15).

In all these prophecies the pre-incarnate Christ was representing His Father who was sending Him. He, the Word, was inspiring the prophecies as God’s designated Spokesman. Christ was given authority to speak in His Father’s place, and all communications between earth and heaven came directly from the only Mediator between God and man.

“All through the pages of sacred history, where the dealings of God with His chosen people are recorded, there are burning traces of the great I AM. Never has He given to the sons of men more open manifestations of His power and glory than when He alone was acknowledged as Israel’s ruler, and gave the law to His people. Here was a scepter swayed by no human hand; and the stately goings forth of Israel’s invisible King were unspeakably grand and awful. {PP 365.4}

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 centerof 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. {PP 366.1}

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. [SEE APPENDIX, NOTE 7.] 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. {PP 366.2}

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. 365, 366.

Scripture and Ellen White do not say, “The testimony of the third person of the Trinity is the spirit of prophecy”. The gift of prophecy does not come through the third person of the Trinity. Scripture says, “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy”. All true prophecy comes directly from Jesus with only angelic mediation. “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him…and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John.” (Rev. 1:1).

The quotation from Patriarchs and Prophets, above, says that the Person of the Godhead with whom Abraham normally held direct converse was Michael, Christ Himself, and not through an alleged third person Holy Ghost intercessor for Christ. We know Abraham’s communion with Christ was direct without an intercessor third person because the quotation goes on to say that Abraham also spoke with the same Person face to face, and no more directly then than when communing with the Spirit of Christ from heaven. Therefore, Christ Himself was the Spirit who Abraham heard speaking to his spirit, and not a third person of the Trinity. “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” (Rom. 8:16). “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). Christ is the Spirit who we commune with. “Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.” (Job 8:9).

In the Servant prophecies of Isaiah 42, 52, and 53 Christ Himself is speaker for His Father and pointing to Himself. Rather than the reality of the Father actually speaking of His Son when He would be incarnated and anointed for His ministry, it was Christ in His divine Spirit form speaking in all the authority of His Father and prophesying of His own incarnated ministry to save man. This aligns with Christ speaking to Moses’ spirit about the Spirit Angel in the cloudy pillar, which was Himself. And Christ on Mt. Sinai speaking of Himself in the angelic pillar  aligns with Malachi 3:1 where Michael—Messiah pre-incarnate—speaks through Malachi of His future incarnation, yet would retain His pre-incarnate Spirit fullness of the Godhead glory as He would inhabit the body that His Father prepared for Him. Michael, “who is like God”, says He would send His Messenger, who would be Himself.

Christ speaking and prophesying of Himself through Isaiah and Malachi also aligns with John 14:16,17; John 15:26; and John 16:7, as we will see at the end of this post. This Messenger (Christ who is Michael who is like God), the “Messenger of the covenant”, will go before “Me”, “the Spirit of Christ” (1Pet. 1:11), “the Holy Ghost” (2 Pet. 1:21), the Spirit of Michael—the Spirit.

But, this is different from the way Matthew and Mark learned the “messenger” in Malachi.

“And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John,... For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send My messenger before Thy face, which shall prepare Thy way before Thee.” (Matt. 11:7,10). “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; as it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send My messenger before Thy face, which shall prepare Thy way before Thee.” (Mark 1:1,2).

Here, Jesus refers to His Father as the speaker to Himself, with regard to John the Baptist. “I [God] will send My messenger [John]….before Thy face [Jesus].”

However, John’s “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1) and Paul’s “They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (1Cor. 10:4), as Christ’s larger revelation of Himself being the only One who inspired the holy prophets, agrees with the way Ellen White understood the Spirit of Christ as the one God of the Old Testament, as she also, at least in one instance, interpreted the Malachi prophecy, below.

“Through His servant God declares: ‘Behold, I will send My Messenger, and He shall prepare the way before Me; and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in; behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. And who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap; and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years.’” Signs of the Times, March 15, 1899 par. 11.

In the above quotation the Messenger in “My Messenger” must be Christ, the Messenger of the covenant who would come near to dispense judgment upon the Jewish nation which “hath dealt treacherously” (Mal. 2:11) through backsliding again into pagan religion and sorcery. He would also bring judgment against them for saying, “Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and He delighteth in them”; and, “Where is the God of judgment?” (Mal. 2:17). The Messenger of the covenant would also come to His temple and purify the sons of Levi. “But, who may abide the day of His coming?” (Mal. 3:2).

“Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.” (Amos 5:18-26). Through Malachi and Amos, this was all Christ speaking.

“I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not Me, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Mal. 3:5).

Doesn’t chapter 4 sum up Malachi’s whole message of warning?

“For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.

Remember ye the law of Moses My servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”

But, now Elijah is the messenger of the covenant that came through Moses. Jesus interpreted the prophetic Elijah to be John. “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.” (Matt. 11:13,14). And at John’s announcement Gabriel agrees with Christ’s witness.

“And when Zacharias saw him [the angel Gabriel], he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.

But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.

And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.

For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.

And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.

And he shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:12-17).

The John and Jesus ministries are also seen in the prophecies from Isaiah.

“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.

Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD'S hand double for all her sins.

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God….

O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!

Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” (Isa. 40:1-3,9-11).

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!

Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.

Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem….

Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:

So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.” (Isa. 52:7-9,13-15).

This last scripture from Isaiah 52 connects the coming of John with the gospel preaching of Paul. And Paul claimed the messengers of the gospel for the apostolic church. “And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! ” (Rom. 10:15). “Stand therefore, …your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” (Eph. 6:14,15).

This makes it appear as if John the Baptist and Paul the New Testament Moses, as bookends for the work of redemption and with the Messiah at their center, are all three the symbolic Elijah who would come at the beginning of the Christian dispensation—the Early Rain. And He will come again at its conclusion—the Latter Rain of the Holy Spirit—just prior to the day “that shall burn as an oven” “in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (Mal. 4:1; 2Pet. 3:10). “And all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble”.

So, if Christ and His anointed assistants are the capitalized Messenger, the divine Servant, who prepares the way before “Me” at the Early and Latter Rains, then who is “Me”? The pronoun, “Me”, must represent God, who through the pre- and post-incarnate Christ always spoke and acted for the King. “Me” is the Spirit of Christ, with “the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven” (1Pet. 1:10)—the Spirit of His Father reunited with His Son working together to put all enemies under the feet of Christ.

Based on this conclusion, I will re-quote the Malachi prophecy using red font for Christ while He was the pre-incarnate Spirit of Christ, blue font for Christ after He was incarnated, and red font again for the post-incarnate Spirit of Christ after His ascension. I will use the words “the Spirit of Christ through God” in the place of “God”, as Sr. White also wrote it in the above Signs of the Times article. I make this replacement because of her overarching concept that repeated the apostles’ revelation of the mystery that Christ had been the Lord God of the Old Testament. This we read from Patriarchs and Prophets, quoted previously in this post.

[Before going on, I first want to say that we must recognize the Spirit of Christ after His ascension as the main source and force of the gospel work throughout the book of Acts because that is the way Revelation shows it. “And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth” (Rev. 5:6) and, “And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals…. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and He that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto Him: and He went forth conquering, and to conquer” (Rev. 6:1,2).]

So, let us continue on with the Malachi prophecy.

“Through His servant God [the pre-incarnate Spirit of Christ through God] declares: ‘Behold, I [the pre-incarnate Spirit of Christ] will send My Messenger [of the covenant, the Spirit of Christ incarnated], and He [the Spirit of Christ incarnated] shall prepare the way before Me [the pre-incarnate Spirit of Christ]; and the Lord [the Spirit of Christ incarnated], whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant [Messiah the “Prince of the covenant” (Dan. 11:22)], whom ye delight in; behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts [the pre-incarnate Spirit of Christ]. And who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap; and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord [the post-incarnate Spirit of Christ] an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord [the post-incarnate Spirit of Christ], as in the days of old, and as in former years.’” Signs of the Times, March 15, 1899 par. 11.

In other words, “My Messenger” and “He” being capitalized, Christ is once again speaking to Malachi about Himself as He had spoken to Isaiah. This time He was foretelling that He would purify the Jews and have the pangs of birth for His people in exchange for the redemption of their transgressions in Gethsemane and Golgotha and bring His church into the world at Pentecost. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem would be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, as in former years.

“Then [the Jews] that gladly received his [Peter’s] word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

And all that believed were together, and had all things common;

And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.

And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,

Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” (Acts 2:41-47).

Being that Christ was speaking for His Father in Malachi 3, as He had ever done throughout the Old Testament, He was not only foretelling of John the Baptist and then of Himself incarnate, but He was also first telling of His incarnation, and then of His return as His Spirit, “the seven Spirits of God”, this time divested of human personality and independent thereof. Christ would first come physically in truth and grace, the Convicter of sin and the Comforter of all who God justified by faith in the Spirit of His Son while He was dwelling in a corporeal body, and then He would come later as the Spirit of truth and grace while He sat at His Father’s right hand, for the same purpose that He had while one earth, but on a much larger scale.

“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).

Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally; therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He should leave them, go to His father, and send the Holy Spirit to be His successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent. Manuscript Releases, vol. 14, p. 23.3.

After Christ’s departure in the clouds of heaven He returned in the Early Rain of the Holy Spirit. He, in the flesh, had prepared the way for His return in Spirit. And no angel—only He—could have prepared the way for Himself. “I [the Spirit of Christ] will send My Messenger, and He shall prepare the way before Me.” It’s a new way of seeing the mind of Christ, but, He requires us to adapt to Him if we will know the mysteries in the mind of His Father.

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall (although unseen by you), [THIS PHRASE WAS ADDED BY ELLEN WHITE.] teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" [John 14:26]. "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will come not unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you" [John 16:7]. Manuscript Releases, vol. 14, p. 23.3.

In John 14:16, 17, 26; John 15:26; and John 16:7 John recorded Jesus as saying metaphorically that He would send another Comforter, but the soon-coming Comforter He also said would literally be Himself. “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” (John 14:18). Later, John, in his epistle, collaborated this. “But the anointing which ye have received of Him 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.” (1Jn. 2:27,28).

This divinely inspired construct of the-subject-is-the-object was not a new paradigm that Christ was establishing. It was as old as the Diaspora from Babylon (given through Malachi), the Messianic prophecies through Isaiah, and the exodus from Egypt (given to Moses at Sinai).

This mystery construct was new to the disciples because they hadn’t studied the scriptures, and it returned to a mystery in the Church leadership and populace as they apostatized. Ever since then the true meaning of Jesus’ words concerning the Comforter has been overlooked. Today, everyone is still missing it. But, missing the mark on this has been a huge mistake, and has opened the door to paganism of the most archaic kind and of the darkest hue. From antiquity, that error has given Satan a sure place among the Father and Son team of Redeemers in order for the deceiver to hide Their redemption from our fallen race and to complete his usurpation of the Godhead, as all the world loves, focuses on, prays to, and worships “the Spirit”.

There would have been no argument against anti-Trinitarianism if Christ had been uplifted by pen and by voice, from the pulpits and the laity alike. Jesus “in the house”, Jesus “at the table”, Jesus “in the closet”, Jesus “in the field”. Steps to Christ, p. 72. There would have been no argument against anti-Trinitarianism if scripture had been laid over scripture and prayerfully analyzed by the Protestant pastors and people. The Old and New Testaments teach the same anti-Trinitarianism, and the Spirit of Christ certainly is not condoning the Trinity to those who are listening to Him.

Will the people of the Lord shut the door on Lucifer’s foot as he continues to solidify his position as highest among the Godhead in a global, United Nations, multi-religion Trinity? Will we return to the Godhead truth of the original apostolic church? Will we fall on the Stone and be broken until we hear Jesus through His written word, His precept and promise, His Law and love combining? “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. 365, 366.

Michael, who is like His Father

Michael, the pre-incarnate Christ was the person of Christ in the form of glory, His Self of glory made glorious by His Father’s Self. The Spirit of God is the glory of God, and the fullness of His glory was His Son, Michael.

“Who is the image of the invisible God, the 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).

The Father poured everything He had into His Son. As Jacob dressed Joseph in a unique and glorious robe, so did God give of His own glorious divinity begetting His glorious, only divine Son. God’s glory is His person. God’s person is His Spirit. The Spirit that we know is Jesus. It’s His Spirit, which is Himself. The Spirit of Christ is Christ Himself.

His person of glory, His Self made glorious by His Father’s Self, would be encapsulated in a one time splendid earthy house ramshackle, empty, and drab after 4,000 years of abuse, the Fullness of His Father’s glory now housed in the body of fallen Adam. “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 1:14).

Pre-incarnate Michael was glory, as His Father was glory. His Father was, is, and ever will be the embodiment of invisible grace and truth. Glory is not light, but grace and truth seen only by God’s angelic hosts, and by a Spirit-quickened conscience in the beings that He made in His image. So was His Son the embodiment of invisible grace and truth—glory. The fullness of His glory was the fullness of grace and truth.

Is Neptune only its Earth-size core? Or, is it the whole gaseous giant? We see a giant orb of blue, and call the whole thing Neptune. Yet, we call Earth only the core of what it used to be. At one time Earth had a dense atmosphere that extended from its surface out to the edge of the restraint put on the water vapor by the gravity of the core, making its pre-creation size that of Neptune. On the second day of creation week, that atmosphere was condensed into an ocean and a pre-Noahic shell above a firmament. And after Noah’s worldwide flood, the shell no longer existed. Now our planet is known only for its rock core.

Likewise, Michael had a condensed divine body of glory, given Him from His Father. His glory remained close to His body of divinity, as His Father filled all of His creation. “Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off? 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. 23:23,24).

Michael had a personality. Yet, He was a personality, glowing with truth and grace and glory, even as Adam had a soul, yet was a soul glowing with light and righteousness and tenderness. “O my soul….” (Ps. 103:1,2 cf, Ps. 42:1-6). Michael was a self as much as He had a self, because His self was His quickening glory, given Him from His Father’s own self. His glory was His essence that formed His body of clearness. His presence was inviting yet challenging, exquisite in mercy yet demanding reverence for the Law of God, “as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners” (Song of songs 6:10). “And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in His clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel He laid not His hand: also they saw God, and did eat and drink.” (Ex. 24:10,11).

But, the power and glory of His person, His self, His Spirit came from His Father’s Self and Spirit and Person. “O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own Self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” (John 17:5). Adam embodied his soul, because Adam was a living, walking, breathing expression of his love for his Creator. “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” (1Cor. 15:45). Like Adam, Michael the Lord God, embodied His self of glory; He was glory as He was a Spirit, a self, Himself. The Spirit that we know is the Lord God Himself. His glory, His Spirit of truth and grace was His clear body.

But, God gave Him to humanity, forever to bear our corporeal body. Michael “who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” (Phil. 2:6,7). Now His Spirit has a solid exterior; but His holy essence remains unchanged from its original divinity and power. It outshines His human frame like the Sun’s corona cannot be contained behind an eclipsing Moon. As Michael had been from the days of eternity, He is still “the express image of His [Father’s] person, upholding all things by the word of His power.” (Heb. 1:3).

At His baptismal prayer, His Father anointed Him in a special way. He sealed His Son with His Spirit without measure. “Never before have the angels listened to such a prayer. They are eager to bear to their loved Commander a message of assurance and comfort. But no; 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.” Desire of Ages, p. 112.

At His baptism the Spirit was the beams of the Father’s glory. And later again the Spirit was an avalanche of effulgence from His Father’s self that for a few hours restored the glory that Jesus had with His Father before the world was. “[Jesus] was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light…. While [Peter] yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.” (Matt. 17:2,5).

During the Old Testament, the Spirit of Christ was Michael. He was Spirit, brightness like God, His Father, but, encapsulated in a body of glory to the extreme. The Spirit of Christ has always been the power felt by the prophets, moving them to see and teach His knowledge to mankind.

The Holy Spirit is Christ Himself

Compare 2 Peter 1:21 with 1 Peter 1:10,11.

“Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who 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.” (1Pet. 1:10,11).

“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” (2Pet. 1:21).

According to Peter, the Spirit of Christ is the Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit. Revelation makes this clear in its introduction.

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to shew unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John.” (Rev. 1:1).

The light of heaven originated from God, to His Son, to Gabriel, to John. Paul agreed. He defined the Spirit as the union of Father and Son, Their infinitely united Spirit.

 “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).

According to Paul, the Spirit is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. It is Christ’s Spirit that must dwell in us, or we are none of the Father’s.

“And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 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.” (Rom. 8:10,11).

The Spirit of God is not another person beside the Father and Son, but it seems like it to the one that Christ is inhabiting. Here the Spirit is described as the power of God to resurrect Jesus. The Spirit of God is God’s Spirit, as Romans 8:11 calls it, “His Spirit”, God’s Spirit.

But, the Spirit comes through Christ from the Father. Hence, it is called “The Spirit of His Son” who enters “into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” (Gal. 4:6).

The Spirit is Christ Himself, as the Father empowered His Son. Paul was very bold to explain the Spirit as something like we have since we are made in God’s image.

“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.

But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” (1Cor. 2:9-12).

1 Corinthians 2:10 says that we have our own spirit just like God has His own Spirit. As I sit here, no one knows what I’m going to write next, except me. Paul wrote that no one can know what I think except me, and no one can know what God thinks except Himself. But He will reveal His thoughts and plans to His Son and His Son only; and His Son searches His Father’s face and His Spirit to know what is in His Father’s Spirit.

“At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight.

All things are delivered unto Me of My Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.

Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:25-27).

Because the Son seeks to know all His Father’s heart, He finds Him out. And then Jesus reveals His Father’s Spirit to all who need a Saviour from sin, and search for Him and His truth as for hidden treasure.

“Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of His servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.” (Isa. 50:10).

The Spirit is “the spirit which is of God” (1Co 2:12), and also “His Spirit” (1Co 2:10). It’s not a third person, any more than my spirit is an independence person from myself. My spirit does not leavesmy body after death and travels around the land. The immortal soul came from paganism and the darkest errors of Satan’s spiritualism, which must have resulted in the pre-Christianity God having a separate Spirit, and thus gave rise to Christianity’s Godhead having the third person of a Trinity.

The Spirit is God, God who “is a Spirit” (John 4:24), and is also Christ, who is the fullness of His Father bodily. Jesus is our only way to God and our only intercessor. Jesus searches our hearts and sees how Their Spirit has power upon our spirit, and then the Son of God makes intercession for us that is in tune with what God should hear in our prayers.

“Likewise the Spirit also 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 that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.” (Rom. 8:26,27).

God’s Spirit comes from God to Christ to us. It also translates to the power of possession by the heavenly agencies to all who desire victory over sin and Satan. They come to Christ and receive power to do His work.

“Therefore thus saith the LORD, If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before Me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as My mouth: let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.” (Jer. 15:19).

“And he that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of My Father. And I will give him the morning star.” (Rev. 2:26-28).

Every human has a spirit; and all who have surrendered to God have a new spirit that is re-empowered to restore in them the spirit that Adam originally had—one fully under the control of God’s Spirit.

“And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” (1Cor. 15:45).

Adam was made a living soul. “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” (Gen. 2:7). Adam was a living soul, and therefore Adam had a living soul.

“As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?

My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?” (Ps. 42:1-3).

But, even the many who have not surrendered are still in the image of God to a degree, unless they have committed the unpardonable sin, living off the sparks receiving the mark of the Beast and seek to destroy God’s redeemed children. Short of the unpardonable sin, they still have a spirit that can choose to adopt the divine Spirit of their Creator. The Spirit of His Son is the only path back to the Spirit of God through repentance and renunciation of living independently of the Son and His Spirit. Then the glory of God’s Spirit will replace the sputtering sparks of our own spirit.

“Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of Mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow.” (Isa. 50:11).

Ellen White was not a Trinitarian. The subject of the Spirit was a touchy one and one that needed gentle and careful explanation.

“For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen;

Whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, and said, Sirs, ye know that by this craft we have our wealth.

Moreover ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands:

So that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth.” (Act 19:24-27).

The whole world worships the third person of the Trinity, which is Diana of the ancient world. I know a woman from India whose maiden name was Arumagum, “the god with five heads.” Many paintings of the Christian Trinity were no different from the Trinities of the pagans—the heads of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit look identical, like identical triplets on one body. It all came from paganism. But, such a deeply rooted paradigm will not be easily removed. Only those who need a Saviour in the Father and Son, and see the self-sacrificing love that was revealed from both of Them, will realize that the Father and Son are the only Saviours. The “Holy Spirit” third person of a trinity never suffered the chastisement of our peace. It is no other than Azazel, the scapegoat who never knew the pains of death, but was presented alive before the Lord.

“And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat [H5799 ‘āzâ’zêl].

And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD’S lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.
But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.” (Lev. 16:8-10).

Azazel comes from two Hebrew words, H5795 ‘êz or H5810 ‘âzaz (a strong, hardened, stout, proud, female goat) and H235 ‘âzal (to disappear and wander to and fro)

All of God’s creatures, including the god of this world, Jesus says, “have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.” (Ps. 50:5).

Self-sacrifice is the very foundation of God’s eternal kingdom of love. He and His Son have buttressed their kingdom with self-sacrifice because of the great controversy. Self-sacrifice will remain forever the eternal quays that keep sin from every rising again. And self-sacrifice had nothing to do with Azazel, therefore the scapegoat, which escaped the sacrifice, represented Satan who, for a millennium, would wander among the carcasses that he hoped in. Because the third person never suffered with the Father and Son for the redemption of our transgression, Azazel, who never suffered for the redemption of the children of Israel, also represented the third person of the pagan trinities: Mary in a trinity with God and Jesus (or Satan in a trinity with Jesus and Mary?); Set in a trinity with Osiris, Isis; Tammuz in a trinity with Baal, Ashtoreth. The trinities had two gods that were polar opposites in nature—brutal, domineering, and sexually abusive Baal/Osiris/Bel; and pretentious to revere her husband god, supportive, and sexually seductive Ashtoreth/Isis/Astarte—and the third god who was a threat and kept the worshippers filled with sympathy toward the first two gods. Prayers went up from all over the earth to discourage the third god from hurting the dysfunctional husband/wife favorites.

But the early Church fathers having assumed all the trappings of pagan religion, now the Christian Trinity gets first billing in every creed, beginning with the Nicene. And 1500 years of repeating the creed had dug into Christendom too deeply to be removed, even for the Reformers. The human tradition continued during the Reformation and the Puritanical denominations to this day. A century ago, as the time of the end neared and the investigative judgment was in full swing, the need arose to bring all the truth out from the rubbish of the Dark Ages. The world needed to know all the truth of God, the great controversy, and the science of salvation. But, the move away from the rubbish of error needed to be gradual but systematic.

However, Satan was able to get into the last movement of God on Earth—the Advent movement. “The beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.” (Rev. 11:7). Among other doctrines affected, such as righteousness by faith and keeping the commandments of the Spirit of Prophecy, was the trinity doctrine. The Adventist forefathers were unanimously anti-Trinitarian, and the next generation was also. But Satan had changed the heart of Adventism from a self-sacrificing leadership and body to a combative/ debating leadership and a Laodicean body. We were under attack by the beast from the bottomless pit, and we were being overcome, according to the prophecy. Today we are killed. We are not at all what we were at the beginning. Self-sacrifice is rare and found only among a few Adventist Enochs. We are repeating the history of Israel.

We could not present the truth of the Father and His only begotten Son in distinction from the Trinity with its co-equal triplets, and have Their Spirit for power to give the Latter Rain gospel preaching for a witness to “they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations” (Rev. 11:9). even if we had a shell of the truth concerning the Father and Son Godhead, we were greatly deficient in the experience of Their Spirit. Despite Ellen White’s constant plea to be spiritual, we were losing ground. We were returning to the world, and Jesus had to let us go, along with the truth of the Godhead. We would be taken captive to the spirit of the world, filled with worldliness, unbelief, serve the gods of commercialism and soul corruption. And we would serve the gods of the Trinity and the Mass. Spiritual Formation is but an extension of the Mass. Together with the corrupted relationship with Jesus that comes out of the Trinity dogma, and the excitement of coming into God’s presence without being humbled by the Law of the Spirit of Prophecy, as Spiritual Formation allows, we are joining the Catholic church in a grand Mass. Such a Mass is so large and spread out that we don’t recognize it as the Mass, but the Trinity and Spiritual Formation do the same to the Protestant world that the Mass does to the Catholic world.

But, we would not be given over to the world without rebuke and warning.

“I am filled with sadness when I think of our condition as a people. The Lord has not closed heaven to us, but our own course of continual backsliding has separated us from God. Pride, covetousness, and love of the world have lived in the heart without fear of banishment or condemnation. Grievous and presumptuous sins have dwelt among us. And yet the general opinion is that the church is flourishing and that peace and spiritual prosperity are in all her borders.

The church has turned back from following Christ her Leader and is steadily retreating toward Egypt. Yet few are alarmed or astonished at their want of spiritual power. Doubt, and even disbelief of the testimonies of the Spirit of God, is leavening our churches everywhere. Satan would have it thus. Ministers who preach self instead of Christ would have it thus. The testimonies are unread and unappreciated. God has spoken to you. Light has been shining from His word and from the testimonies, and both have been slighted and disregarded. The result is apparent in the lack of purity and devotion and earnest faith among us.” Testimonies for the church, vol. 5, p. 217.

Just as salvation was only of the Jews, it is still found only in Adventism. Yet, that Adventism is a sleeping, snoring movement today. As we all have heard, “While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.” (Matt. 25:5). The character of having an ear to hear the Commander and a readiness to preach only what He wants seems beyond all possibility. We lay in the streets of the great city, according to Revelation 11:8. But, a revival will come according to verse 11 and the Lord will bring us up out of our miry pit and put a new song in our mouths, which no man can sing except the 144,000. Our new song will be as different from today’s song as a butterfly is different from its larva caterpillar.

Jesus would not let us go without first leaving hints, hidden in Mrs. White’s writings, that would bring the earnest seekers back to the truth of God and His only Begotten when they were ready to come under the true Spirit experience and take the responsibility that goes with having It. Therefore, the truth of the Spirit remains in the writings of Ellen White, but presented in a way that would not prejudice the people who would read her books.

Being sensitive to the difficulty of our Protestant brethren and of the non-Protestant world with regard to their reception of the truth of anti-Trinitarianism, the Lord through Ellen White drafted the subject of the Spirit so that the presentation of it could sound like Adventism did accept the trinity. But, the reality is that later, as the truth of the Spirit of Prophecy would become known, it would be clear that the Spirit is of the Father and Son.  It is all that we can receive of Them. Writing the truth in such a veiled way is not being dishonest, but gentle and wise. Just as the apostolic church boiled down the requirements of God to four essentials, so did the Lord’s messenger present the Godhead truth without being too pointed and sharply contrary to Protestant understanding.

For example:

“Before offering Himself as the sacrificial victim, Christ sought for the most essential and complete gift to bestow upon His followers, a gift that would bring within their reach the boundless resources of grace. ‘I will pray the Father,’ He said, ‘and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; 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 orphans: I will come to you.’ John 14:16-18, margin.  {DA 668.5}

Before this the Spirit had been in the world; from the very beginning of the work of redemption He had been moving upon men’s hearts. But while Christ was on earth, the disciples had desired no other helper. Not until they were deprived of His presence would they feel their need of the Spirit, and then He would come.  {DA 669.1}

The Holy Spirit is Christ’s representative, but divested of the personality of humanity, and independent thereof. Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally. Therefore it was for their interest that He should go to the Father, and send the Spirit to be His successor on earth. No one could then have any advantage because of his location or his personal contact with Christ. By the Spirit the Saviour would be accessible to all. In this sense He would be nearer to them than if He had not ascended on high.” Desire of Ages, p. 669.

This quotation, written for a large audience, sounds Trinitarian; but it actually is not. The biggest need from the five conflict series books was instruction with regard to the high standard in the areas of character-building and spirituality. The issue against the Trinity was certainly important, but not the priority at that time. So, the truth that Christ was the Spirit remained veiled. Yet it was the truth, as we read below.

“The Pharisees were horrified at this declaration of Christ’s, ‘Before Abraham was, I AM.’ They were beside themselves with rage that [He] should express such awful blasphemy, claiming to be the I AM. They would have stoned Him then and there, but the ‘I am’ blinded their eyes that they should not see Him, although He went out of the temple, passing through their very midst. As Jesus passed through the multitude, He saw a man who had been blind from his youth, and healed him.  {14MR 22.5}

     When Jesus came to our world, He proclaimed Himself, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me’ [John 14:6]. ‘Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man’ [John 1:51].  {14MR 23.1} 

     Although our Lord ascended from earth to heaven, the Holy Spirit was appointed as His representative among men. ‘If ye love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; 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’ [John 14:15-18].  {14MR 23.2} 

     Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally; therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He should leave them, go to His father, and send the Holy Spirit to be His successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent. ‘But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall (although unseen by you), [THIS PHRASE WAS ADDED BY ELLEN WHITE.] teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you’ [John 14:26]. ‘Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will come not unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you’ [John 16:7].  {14MR 23.3}

     It is not in the order of God that any man, or any class of men, should assume that God has made them conscience for their brethren, or put forth the finite hand in a patronizing manner to control the Lord’s delegated workers, thus endangering the safety of the Lord’s heritage as well as their own, and retarding the work of God. God does not confine Himself to one man, or to a set of men, through whom to accomplish His work, but says of all, Ye ‘are laborers together with God.’ This means that every believing soul should have a part to act in His sacred work, and every individual believer in Jesus Christ is to manifest to the world a symbol of Christ’s sufficiency, to represent to His church the higher laws of the future immortal world, and an obedience to the mandate of Heaven that is without a parallel. They should reveal a depth of knowledge independent of human inventions.  {14MR 24.1} 

     The Lord must be believed and served as the great ‘I AM,’ and we must trust implicitly in Him. Let not men prescribe laws to take the place of God’s law. Never educate men to look to men, to trust in men; for man’s wisdom is not sufficient to decide as to their right to engage in the Lord’s work. When God lays a work upon individuals, men are not to reject His sanction. God must not be impeded in the working out of His plans by man’s interference, but this has been done again and again.  {14MR 24.2}

     If the church on earth is to resemble a temple, let it be built according to the pattern shown in heaven, and not according to man’s genius. The invention of man often counteracts the working out of God’s plans. The golden measuring rod has not been placed in the hands of any finite man or any class of men, whatever their position or calling, but is in the hand of the heavenly Architect. If men will not meddle with God’s plan, and will let Him work upon minds and characters, building them up according to His plan, a work will be accomplished that will stand through the severest of trials.--Letter 119, 1895.

Ellen G. White Estate Washington, D. C. August 16, 1984.” Manuscript Releases, vol. 14 p. 23, 24.

While Sr. White agrees with the metaphical usages of Christ concerning pronouns that He used to explain the Spirit, she also divides pronouns referring to the Spirit between personal and impersonal. She continues to use “what” instead of “who” the Spirit is, and “it” instead of “Him”. Although she speaks against the effort to intellectually figure out the Holy Spirit, she was not against allaying errors that paganism brought into the Godhead truth, and teaching the world about the Spirit’s work on the heart and the life, and especially in the soon expected Latter Rain.

“It is not essential for us to be able to define just what the Holy Spirit is. Christ tells us that the Spirit is the Comforter, “the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father.” It is plainly declared regarding the Holy Spirit that, in His work of guiding men into all truth, “He shall not speak of himself” (John 15:26; 16:13). {YRP 11.2} 

     The nature of the Holy Spirit is a mystery. Men cannot explain it, because the Lord has not revealed it to them. Men having fanciful views may bring together passages of Scripture and put a human construction on them, but the acceptance of these views will not strengthen the church. Regarding such mysteries, which are too deep for human understanding, silence is golden. {YRP 11.3} 

     The office of the Holy Spirit is distinctly specified in the words of Christ: “When he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:8). It is the Holy Spirit that convicts of sin. If the sinner responds to the quickening influence of the Spirit, he will be brought to repentance and aroused to the importance of obeying the divine requirements. {YRP 11.4} 

     To the repentant sinner, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, the Holy Spirit reveals the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. “He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you,” Christ said. “He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 16:14; 14:26). {YRP 11.5} 

     The Spirit is given as a regenerating agency, to make effectual the salvation wrought by the death of our Redeemer. The Spirit is constantly seeking to draw the attention of men to the great offering that was made on the cross of Calvary, to unfold to the world the love of God, and to open to the convicted soul the precious things of the Scriptures.--The Acts of the Apostles, pp. 51, 52.” Ye Shall Receive Power, p. 11.

 

Below are examples of her use of It for the Spirit. The Bible writers and Ellen White never referred to the Father and Son, who are definite persons, as an It.

“Would that every one whose name is written in the church books could from the heart utter these words. The church-members need to know from experience what the Holy Spirit will do for them. It will bless the receiver, and make him a blessing. It is sad that every soul is not praying for the vital breathe of the Spirit; for we are ready to die if it breath not on us.  {PH154 4.1} 

     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 shall be graciously bestowed, our cold hearts may be revived, and we may have discernment to understand that it is from God, and receive it with joy. Some have treated the Spirit as an unwelcome guest, refusing to receive the rich gift, refusing to acknowledge it, turning from it, and condemning it as fanaticism. When the Holy Spirit works the human agent, it does not ask us in what way it shall operate. Often it 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 God 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. 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 work according to the devising of any man. Finite, sinful men are not to work the Holy Spirit. When it shall come as a reprover, through any human agent whom God shall choose, it is man’s place to hear and obey its voice.” Special Testimony to Battle Creek, vol. 154, p. 4,5 (1896).

Paul’s two laws

The two laws—the law of righteousness by the Spirit and the law of sin without the Spirit.

 

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Rom. 8:2).

 

“For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:3,4).

 

Can this be understood? Is it a bunch of theological or spiritual mumbo jumbo? Can it actually be put into practice? Is it for the common person to have?

 

Let’s see.

 

What is the law of sin and death? Can we find where Paul first brought up the subject?

 

The first word regarding the law of sin, that I see, is from the previous chapter, verse 21.

 

“I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.” (Rom. 7:21).

 

The law of sin. A power dwells in all of us that keeps us subjugated to a selfish, self-indulgent, self-exalting, self-pitiful state of mind. We need deliverance from self—“the flesh”. “For the creature was made subject to vanity…because the creature” is in “the bondage of corruption. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” (Rom. 8:20-22). The flesh.

 

“The flesh” and “the Spirit” (Rom. 8:1) stand counterposed. They are opposites. “It is the spirit that quickeneth [comes to life]; the flesh profiteth nothing.” (John 6:63). Whether or not we have the Spirit determines who controls us. We all are controlled by Christ or Satan. Our conscience is either inhabited by the holy power of Christ or the demonic power of the devil.

 

From our first birth, our naturally fallen condition has no holiness to guide our thoughts, words, or actions. That holy guide from natural birth left our race when Adam abdicated His loyalty to God and fell under the influence of the serpent. No longer could Adam’s progeny inherit a holy nature because Adam had none to bequeath. All that Adam could pass down was a physical body, empty of the holy nature that made him wholly in God’s image.

 

But that holy internal guide can be restored through faith in Him who was God incarnate, made the fullness of God bodily. Christ had the eternal Spirit, the Spirit without measure. If we will come under His influence, that is, His Spirit, by realizing His goodness and His everlasting love, then we can have some of His Spirit upon our mind and heart. Then we will have a new spirit, an impowered spirit.

 

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” (Rom. 8:16).

 

This is the law of the Spirit of life. It only comes to us when Christ comes to us. The Spirit comes with Jesus. The Spirit is Jesus divested of His human form, “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:2).

 

“Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally; therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He should leave them, go to His father, and send the Holy Spirit to be His successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent. ‘But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall (although unseen by you), teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you’ [John 14:26]. ‘Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will come not unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you’ [John 16:7].” 14MR 23.3.

The law of sin and death is how Paul described the presence of the Law of God in a conscience that was not submitted to God. This was the condition of Paul before He met Christ, “breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.” (Acts 9:1). His conscience had been quickened to the knowledge of sin by the Law. “I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” (Rom. 7:9).

 

Christ’s power of conviction latched hold onto Paul’s conscience and wouldn’t let go. Through his natural pride Satan was influencing him to cast arrogant mockery at the Law’s sky-high requirements. The Spirit of Christ was fighting for him to surrender to the Law. Paul couldn’t see enough benefits to obeying righteousness to find any worth in the Law because the devil wouldn’t let him see the benefits. Satan was keeping him blinded to all the good life that comes from the Law of love. “The commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.” (Rom. 7:10,11).

 

Looking back from the perspective of his new nature, Paul could see the clear deception from Satan’s whispering, that the Law is worthy of abrogation. But, even at the time and the condition of Paul’s unsurrendered heart, something in him kept him coming back to the Law; the Spirit of Christ kept calling to him that to not reverence the Law was a delusion from Satan. Hence the only natural conclusion in Paul’s mind: “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” (Rom. 7:12). Only the work of Christ could lead a sinner to come to that conclusion.

 

Paul was fighting a battle with the powers of darkness. But he was not alone. Christ Himself was fighting Satan. “Thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.” (Isa. 49:25). As Christ delivered so many people from devil possession when He had walked among us, He was doing the same with Paul.

 

“Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.” (Rom. 7:13).

 

God doesn’t make His Law of love and life death to any sinner. Satan makes the Law death, binding his victims by his miserable and commiserating influence, and preventing the presence of Christ to inhabit their conscience. Their tastes, the thoughts and intents of their heart, the whims and bent of their nature, Satan rallies all that is within to enlist them against the entrance of Christ’s Spirit. Christ is making His move to free the soul by His Father’s Law, but the soul must consent to the new Master. Until the soul consents to the love of Christ, he will not be delivered from Satan, even if he hopes in the Law of God.

 

Paul said, “I consent unto the law that it is good.” (Rom. 7:16). Yet consenting to a Law didn’t deliver him from sin and Satan. He still cried out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24).

 

It took time for Paul to see his own ability to be good before he could admit to complete moral and spiritual deformity. “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” (Rom 7:19,20). He needed the Spirit of Christ filling his empty conscience with “all the fulness of God.” (Eph. 3:19).

 

Slowly, as Paul analyzed the situation and his condition with a growing appreciation for the righteousness of God’s Law, silently a new discernment developed and a vision solidified. “I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” (Rom. 7:22,23).

 

His help lay beyond anything he could humanly conceive of. Help must come from outside of him and apart from his personal resources. Now he was floating on an ocean of hopelessness without a rudder and feeling alone.

 

“Who shall deliver me”?? (Rom. 7:24). Suddenly, Christ moved in by His Spirit. The environment was perfect for His entrance in Paul. During his wrestling with righteousness, Paul had filled his mind with the precepts of the Law, and had pinpointed and repented of all his personal weaknesses. Even if his repentances were not prayers to Jesus, Jesus heard them nonetheless, and knew this pitiful heart.

 

Christ’s power having permission to overthrow the devil by Paul’s efforts to please God, now a new law held sway in Paul—“the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:2).

 

Happily delivered from Satan and the devil’s efforts to darken his mind of all delight in righteousness and to amplify fear of ramifications for following after obedience to the Law, Paul proclaimed his means of deliverance, “God through Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 7:25).

 

From that day forward Paul knew how to cooperate with Jesus for a continued freedom from the power of the devil. “So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” (Rom. 7:25).

 

Notice that at this point Paul doesn’t yet counterpose the flesh with the Spirit. He is counterposing the flesh with the Law. Paul doesn’t despise the Law, nor desire its non-existence. Paul felt that way while Satan held his mind captive, but he doesn’t feel that way anymore. He knows the importance of the Law of God for convicting the conscience of sin for the means of surrendering to the authority of God over the sinner and for the means to having the blessedness of God through Christ’s Spirit. “The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be.” (Rom. 8:7). “O how love I Thy Law; it my meditation all the day.” (Ps. 119:97). And the importance of the Law of God in the mind of man is Paul’s segway to unleash the principle and the power of the Spirit for kicking Satan out of every weakened and confused sinner, and giving them a new lease on life.

 

The flesh and the Law are as equally contrasted as the flesh and the Spirit are. Our controlling element must be either the flesh or the Law and Spirit. The Spirit of Christ brings the deadened spirituality to life in the new Christian. Redemption is actually re-creation. or spiritual creation. It is restoring fallen creatures to their original freedom that Adam and Eve had in paradise.

 

“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of Hhis inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power…. You hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” (Eph. 1:17-19; 2:1).

 

This was not an arbitrary quickening (bringing to life), but a new source of life that resulted from the soul’s tireless search for a knowledge of God seen in His Son. Trusting in the Son of God brought power, energy, effort, freedom to choose, and the ability to accomplish the choice, for aligning with the Law of righteousness. “That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.” (Eph. 1:12). Everything necessary for obedience with a good conscience is what came to Paul with the Spirit of Christ as He presented Himself through His word. It was the touch of Omnipotence, the finger of God. Rest, true rest from Jesus.

 

“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Rom. 8:2).

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:1).

 

The new avenue to holiness and the new approach to the Law of God through beholding Christ took hold of Paul. It possessed him. The love of Christ possessed Paul. Christ possessed Paul; He moved this holy man of God. Paul could draw back from the possession by Christ whenever he so desired, but the holy love of Christ was what became Paul’s greatest delight during his wrestling over the Law in Romans 7. Paul’s greatest delight was to be possessed by Christ. Possession by the heavenly agencies was the solution to every problem in the world. Why should he be ashamed or doubtful of this panacea solution that could help every living soul on planet Earth? To be wooed away from his paradise would be as great a foolishness as Adam’s loss.

 

To return to dependence on the flesh with its law of sin and death would be suicide. The flesh without help from the Spirit only makes bad habits increasingly binding. Satan mishandles the pure principles of the Law and makes them say the opposite to their true message. “It is through false theories and traditions that Satan gains his power over the mind. By directing men to false standards, he misshapes the character.” Desire of Ages, p. 671.

 

“The strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” (1Cor. 15:56-58).

 

“The Comforter is called ‘the Spirit of truth.’ His work is to define and maintain the truth. He first dwells in the heart as the Spirit of truth, and thus He becomes the Comforter. There is comfort and peace in the truth, but no real peace or comfort can be found in falsehood.… Through the Scriptures the Holy Spirit speaks to the mind, and impresses truth upon the heart. Thus He exposes error, and expels it from the soul. It is by the Spirit of truth, working through the word of God, that Christ subdues His chosen people to Himself.” Desire of Ages, p. 671.

 

Approaching the Law without the Spirit ends in humanism and dead works from a conscience dead to holiness. And God understands this. God has been involved in conversions since the day He bought back the heart, soul, will, and loyalty of Adam and Eve by the sacrifice of the very first lambs. Our Creator knows better than we do that having “the Spirit of His Son” (Gal. 4:6) is the only way to obedience to all His commands.

 

“For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” (Rom. 8:3).

 

It is impossible for us to do God’s will by using our empty soul to achieve obedience. We need the Son of God in the likeness of our fallen flesh, who will expose sin from the context of love and His personable helpfulness. This is the way Jesus condemned sin before our eyes. In Him we have a model of friendliness and of perfection of holiness. We have a friend in our Deliverer who we can trust in, yet who helps us to have His holiness that we tremble before. “In all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren.” (Heb. 2:17). But, “being made so much better than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.” (Heb. 1:4). “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels” (Heb. 2:9), the Prince of princes whose glance convicted everyone of sin.

 

Now He has passed into the heavens, and is beyond our sight and hearing. But by Christ’s Spirit, “the Spirit of Christ” (1Pet. 1:11), which is “the Holy Ghost” (2Pet. 1:21), He still helps us obtain His righteousness through His written word, the Law. When we see Him in His strong inspired writings or in His Father’s stronger Law then He can again “be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.” (Heb. 2:17).

 

By His gift of faith, we come to Him and we expose ourselves to His high and Holy Scriptures. “Search the scriptures; for…they are they which testify of Me. And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.” (John 5:39,40). As we surrender to the holiness, righteousness, and goodness seen in the Law, we become more susceptible to the Spirit of Christ that uses the holy Law as His avenue to our soul. By His Law He puts in us enmity against sin and love for His character. We gradually transfer our loyalty to God’s character and He gives our mind and heart the law of the Spirit of His Son. We no longer have to see our wretched selves counterposed to the blinding light of the Law of a pure God. Having the evidence of God’s love for us individually, we no longer have to live under Satan’s relish for the mixture of good with evil in his fallen race that derange our hope in pure goodness. So long as we look for Christ in the Law, we are delivered from the condemnation and hopeless shame, perpetual service to temptation, and a walking death, which Satan’s fixation on our sins brings to us.

 

“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified inthe Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” (1Tim. 3:16).

“That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit.” (Rom. 8:4). We are God’s through “the Spirit of Christ” (Rom. 8:9); and we are Christ’s through the “the law of the Spirit” (Rom. 8:2), the principle of coming to Christ in His Holy Writ for life and a spirit after the divine nature.