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:
"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 |