The Holy Spirit Further Defined by Scripture and Ellen White

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"I [Ellen White in context] have received yours [Bro. Chapman's letter] dated June 3. In this letter you speak in these words: 'Elder Robinson does not wish me to leave, but urges that I enter the canvassing field until such time as the conference can afford to employ me in some other capacity, but states positively that I cannot be sent out to present the truth to others until some points held by me are changed or modified in order that the views regarded by us as a people should be properly set forth. He quotes as a sample, 'My idea in reference to the Holy Ghost's not being the Spirit of God, which is Christ, but the angel Gabriel, and my belief that the 144,000 will be Jews who will acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah. On all fundamental points I am in perfect harmony with our people; but when I try to show what seems to me to be new light on the truth, those in authority, none of whom have seemingly ever made a personal investigation of the matter, refuse to look into the Bible, but brand me as a fellow with queer ideas of the Bible.'" Written by Ellen White to Brother Chapman from Petoskey, Michigan, June 11, 1891, Manuscript Releases, vol. 14, p. 175.

The Holy Spirit refers to the omnipresence of the Spirit of Christ, called the Comforter.-- "It is not essential for you to know and be able to define just what the Holy Spirit is. Christ tells us that the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, and the Comforter is the Holy Ghost, 'the Spirit of truth, which the Father shall send in My name.' 'I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you' [John 14:16, 17]. This refers to the omnipresence of the Spirit of Christ, called the Comforter. Again Jesus says, 'I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth' [John 16:12, 13]." Written from Petoskey, Michigan, June 11, 1891, by E.G. White to Brother Chapman. E.G. White Manuscript Releases Volume 14, p. 175.

“Cumbered with humanity Christ could not be in every place personally, therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He should leave them to 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.” E.G. White, (Manuscript Releases Volume 14 (No’s 1081-1135) MR No.1084.

Christ sent His own personal Holy Spirit to be His successor on earth after His Incarnation, for the following reasons:

  • His humanity cumbered the omnipresence of His Holy Spirit.
  • His Holy Spirit is Himself [a person] divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. Why? Because humanity cumbered that attribute and for the following additional reasons.
  • His Holy Spirit was His PURE DIVINE NATURE LIFE that He laid aside for us as a regenerating gift. He was still FULLY DIVINE, but then had something called humanity added to His DIVINITY. He thus laid aside His PURELY DIVINE ONLY STATE of existence.
  • Last, and just as importantly, the laying aside of His Holy Spirit Divine Nature for us, served the purpose of paying the penalty for the wages of sin, which is eternal death. The Son did not lay aside His Divinity, just His state of being PURELY DIVINE ONLY. That was a sacrifice in and of itself. Then He became FULLY DIVINITY COMBINED WITH FULLY HUMANITY. In this sense, He was the Son of God in a NEW SENSE--another person.
  • For the reason that the Son of God's Holy Spirit was divested of all His humanity; that Holy Spirit was considered another Comforter--another person, and that is why Ellen White in many instances refers to the Holy Spirit as a third person.
  • Without the laying aside of something forever, there was no eternal death payment for the wages of sin, which is eternal death. Thus, there would be no Atonement--No Sanctuary Service. The Son laid aside His PURE DIVINE ONLY state of Being forever, to pay that penalty. Three days in a tomb did not achieve that stipulation to the Everlasting Covenant.

"The sanctification of the soul by the working of the Holy Spirit is the implanting of Christ's nature in humanity." E.G. White, God's Amazing Grace, p. 244; original source: Manuscript 34, 1894.

"Christ brought men and women power to overcome. He came to this world in human form, to life a man amongst men. He assumed the liabilities of human nature, to be proved and tried. In His humanity He was a partaker of the divine nature. In His incarnation He gained IN A NEW SENSE the title of the Son of God." E.G. White, Selected Messages, vol 1, p.

Does Ellen White's Above Definition of the Holy Spirit Accord With That of Scripture?

"The Power of God in the Third Person.--The prince of the power of evil can only be held in check by the power of God in the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit.--E.G. White, Evangelism, p. 617.

"Who is it that turns us from our iniquities? "Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities." Acts 3:26.

I have told you no more about the Holy Spirit than the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy have told us. I have merely set what we are told in a framework of truth. From all of the above facts of Scripture and the Spirit of Prophecy, you should be able to come to the same conclusions.

God bless you,

Ron Beaulieu

Addendum added November 29, 2009

Dear Brother Paulo,

 

There were only two persons to the Godhead before the Incarnation. Then, at the Incarnation, the soul of the life of the Son, the one eternal Holy Spirit, shared by both the son and the Father from eternity, divested Himself of the humanity of the Son and became a third person.

 

Which was the third person has often been an enigma to me because when the Son of God was combined with humanity, Ellen White said that THEN, He became the Son of God in a NEW SENSE. I would view that as a new person NEVER BEFORE PART OF THE GODHEAD, and the third person. But it might be less confusing to describe the third person as the Holy Spirit divested of Christ's humanity at the Incarnation.

 

Since it is generally believed that the Godhead consists of:

1.    The Father

2.    The Son

3.    And the Holy Spirit

I trust you can understand my enigma. But the most important aspect of the entire issue is the fact that the Incarnation involved an eternal sacrifice that produced a third person. That sacrifice producing a third person is NOT taught by the Trinity doctrine. That doctrine teaches that a third person ALWAYS existed--thus, NO ETERNAL SACRIFICE--NO ETERNAL ATONEMENT--NO SANCTUARY SACRIFICE IN HEAVEN before the cross. Thus, the Sanctuary and Atonement are rendered as GONE, and this destroys the entire Christian economy:

 

Sanctuary Gone Atonement Gone -- "In a representation which passed before me, I saw a certain work being done by medical missionary workers. Our ministering brethren were looking on, watching what was being done, but they did not seem to understand. The foundation of our faith, which was established by so much prayer, such earnest searching of the Scriptures, was being taken down, pillar by pillar. Our faith was to have nothing to rest upon--the sanctuary was gone, the atonement was gone." E.G. White, The Upward Look, 152.

 

"The spiritualistic theories regarding the personality of God [the Godhead], followed to their logical conclusion, sweep away the whole Christian economy. They estimate as nothing the light that Christ came from heaven to give John to give to His people. They teach that the scenes just before us are not of sufficient importance to be given special attention. They make of no effect the truth of heavenly origin, and rob the people of God of their past experience, giving them instead a false science." E.G. White, Selected Messages, Bk.1, p. 204.

 

Pantheism achieved these ends of Satan in the Alpha of Apostasy by teaching that God is in everything including man. His Spirit was not given as a gift to man before the Incarnation. That was the "highest good, crowning gift" of the Incarnation.

 

The Trinity doctrine achieves these ends of Satan by teaching that the Holy Spirit always existed or always could have been given to man without the Incarnation "highest good, crowning gift" sacrifice. So both errors of Satan as manifested in the Alpha and Omega of Apostasy serve the same ends to:

1.    Do away with the Sanctuary and Atonement sacrifices in the Heavenly Sanctuary prior to the cross.

2.    Sweep away the entire Christian economy which is dependent on the verity of the Sanctuary and Atonement sacrifices in the Heavenly Sanctuary prior to the cross.

 

I pray this is clear. If not, please ask questions until it is. This is so important! I apologize for the confusion, but I still personally ponder the view the third person coming into being when the Son became the Son of God IN A NEW SENSE at His Incarnation. His Holy Spirit soul of His life existed before the Incarnation. The only entity that did not exist before the Incarnation was the humanity part of His being, so it is easy for me to think that the third person was the Son WHEN COMBINED WITH HUMANITY. But, for the sake of avoiding confusing, let's conclude that it was the Holy Spirit divested from the Son's humanity at the Incarnation.

 

"Christ brought men and women power to overcome. He came to this world in human form, to live a man amongst men. He assumed the liabilities of human nature, to be proved and tried. In His humanity He was a partaker of the divine nature. In His Incarnation He gained in a NEW SENSE the title of the Son of God. Said the angel to Mary, 'The power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God' (Luke 1:35). While the Son of a human being, He became the son of God in a NEW SENSE. Thus He stood in our world--the Son of God, yet allied by birth to the human race." E.G. White, Selected Messages, vol. 1, p. 226.

 

I gave the above explanation to confess my own wonderment on the issue, but based on the following statement, let us conclude ONCE AND FOR ALL, that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead. MR No. 791 - The Problem of Evil

 

     There is a self-propagating power in evil, and the man, woman, or child who pursues a wrong course in any line, becomes through his influence a propagator of evil, a parent to a line of misdoings.--Letter 39, 1896, p. 1. (To S. N. Haskell, April 26, 1896.) {10MR 63.1}

 

     The intrigues of sin surpass infinite conception. Every calamity, every suffering and death is an evidence, not only of the power of evil, but of the truth of the living God. [Man] having known the truth, the word of the living God, which abideth forever, and which through obedience gives life, his weakness in conforming to Satan's ingenuity is surpassingly strange.-- Ms 139, 1903, p. 11 ("The Message of Revelation," October 23, 1903.) {10MR 63.2}

 

     Evil had been accumulating for centuries, and could only be restrained and resisted by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fullness of divine power. Another spirit must be met; for the essence of evil was working in all ways, and the submission of man to this satanic captivity was amazing.--Letter 8, 1896, p. 1 (To "My Brethren in America," February 6, 1896.)

White Estate Washington, D. C. June 10, 1980 {10MR 63.3

 

So I readily yield to Ellen White, that the THIRD PERSON of the Godhead is the Holy Spirit.

 

All blessings,

 

Ron