"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.
What nature does Scripture invite us to partake of?
2Pe 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
What Nature is the Divine Nature?
When Jesus' Divine Nature was combined with our human nature at the Incarnation, Jesus became a new person in that He became the Son of God in a NEW SENSE:
"(See EGW on John :1-3, 14). The Son of God in a NEW SENSE.--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.' 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 Comments, SDA Bible Commentary, Vol. 5, p. 1114.
What was the New Sense of the Son of God?
Obviously, the Son of God was no more a Being of ONLY Divine Nature. He took upon Himself our Human Nature. He became a human who partook of the Divine nature of the Son of God in the same way we do. He laid aside His Royal Robes which signified His DIVINE ONLY BEING. He laid aside that life FOREVER, as a sacrificial "crowing, greatest good" gift to us, for the purpose of regenerating us back into the image of God. This is the Mystery of the Incarnation. Christ was still fully Divine because He was sired into the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit which He shared with the Father. They were both of the same ONE ETERNAL HOLY SPIRIT. But Christ became "another" Comforter after His Incarnation.
Turned Into Another Person
Let's take a look at Bible another Bible verse that uses the word "another:"
"And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man. . . . And it was so, that when he had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another heart [mind--spirit]: and all those signs came to pass that day." (1 Samuel 10:6, 9).
Here we find that Saul became another man, yet physically he was the same person. His experience made him another man. This illustration may be used to show how the Son of God became a different person after His Incarnation, and how His prior Being became the Holy Spirit "another Comforter" to us. We do need to account for all the statements by Ellen White that say forthrightly that the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Godhead, and that He is as much a person as God is a person--Evangelism, p. 616. Some, such as Martin Eldon, and comrades, brand this statement by Ellen White as being fraudulent. But even if that were so, there are just too many statements by her defining the Holy Spirit as the Third Person of the Godhead, for them all to be fraudulent.
The Bible says that the Comforter is the Holy Spirit (John 14:26). Who is the Holy Spirit? "Now the Lord is that Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." (2 Corinthians 3:17). Who is the Lord? "But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and ONE LORD, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him." (1 Corinthians 8:6).
Ellen White says that the Holy Spirit is the life and soul of Christ imparted to us:
"Christ declared that after his ascension, he would send to his church, as his crowning gift, the Comforter, who was to take his place. This Comforter is the Holy Spirit,--the soul of his life, the efficacy of his church, the light and life of the world. With his Spirit Christ sends a reconciling influence and a power that takes away sin.
In the gift of the Spirit [HIS LIFE--THE SOUL OF HIS LIFE], Jesus gave to man the highest good that heaven could bestow....
The Spirit was given as a regenerating agency, and without this the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail....
It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the
believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given his Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress his own character upon the church." E.G. White, Review and Herald Articles, May 19, 1904, vol. 5, p. 42.
Ellen White further says that Christ suffered the death which was ours, that we might have the life which WAS HIS:
"He (Christ) suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which WAS His." Desire of Ages, p. 25; 1 Cor. 11:24-265, cf. John 6:53, 54, Titus 3:5, 6.
This brings to mind two all important questions:
- What death was ours? Was it three days on a cross and then return to life as usual, or was it eternal death in payment for the wages of sin?
- What life WAS HIS, that we are to partake of? Was it His Divine--Human life combination, or the Divine Nature only? Scripture invites us to partake of His Divine nature (mind) ONLY. That is the life, the mind, the soul, that is imparted to us. He laid that life aside ETERNALLY, as payment for the wages of sin. Three days on the cross does not make any ATONEMENT for the wages of sin, as that was NEVER the penalty for sin. Because Divinity cannot die per say, the Son laid aside His first estate of PURE DIVINITY NATURE, for us. That is the life that WAS HIS, that we are invited to partake of. As a human, He Himself partook of that nature as an example for us, and availed Himself of no more than that life for the purpose of overcoming sin, to demonstrate that we may do the same by partaking of His Divine Life and Soul Nature Mind. There is no third God, because all three persons are of the same ONE ETERNAL HOLY SPIRIT.
What is the Name of the Holy Spirit?
Lynnford Beachy asks the question: "We know that God the Father has a proper name, which is 'YHWH,' otherwise known as 'Yahweh' or 'Jehovah,' and His only begotten Son has a proper name, which is 'Yahshua,' or 'Jesus.' May I ask, what is the name of the Holy Spirit."
Mr. Beachy, let Scripture and Ellen White answer your question. Both refer to the Son of God as Jehovah:
"Jehovah, the eternal, self-existent, uncreated One, Himself the source and sustainer of all, is alone enetitled to supreme reverence and worship." E.G. White, SDA Bible Commentary, Vol. 7A, p. 439.
"Jehovah is the name given to Christ. 'Behold, God is my salvation,' writes the prophet Isaiah; 'I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day ye shall say, Praise the Lord, call upon His name, declare His doings among the people, make mention that His name is exalted.' 'In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: we have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord forever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." E.G. White, The Signs of the Times, May 3, 1899, p. 2. SDA Bible Commentary Vol. 7a, p. 439.
Oh, you say, "Is not Ellen White contradicting herself? No indeed! Why not? Because Jehovah the Son, and Jehovah the Father are of ONE ETERNAL HOLY SPIRIT ESSENCE SUBSTANCE. Also, Ellen White referred to the Son as self-existent, having life unborrowed and underived.
Exd 6:3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by [the name of] God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.
Psa 83:18 That [men] may know that thou, whose name alone [is] JEHOVAH, [art] the most high over all the earth.
Isa 12:2 Behold, God [is] my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH [is] my strength and [my] song; he also is become my salvation.
Isa 26:4 Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH [is] everlasting strength:
We have discovered in this study that there is ONE LORD, Jesus Christ.
Lynnford Beachy makes an interesting statement: He says:
"Paul declared, ' I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels.' (1 Timothy 5:21). Paul called the heavenly agencies to witness this charge given to Timothy. Notice who Paul called as a witness for him. God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are naturally the first ones to be mentioned, but Paul did not stop here. He called all the angels of God to be witness for him. Certainly if Paul knew of a third being who is coequal with the Father and His So, then he would have mentioned him in this verse. Yet there is no hint of another being, which is plain evidence that Paul knew nothing about a third god."
Is Beachy implying that Paul knew something about a SECOND God? That is what Beachy is implying, but there is only ONE God, for the reason that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are of ONE ETERNAL SPIRIT--MIND, ESSENCE, SUBSTANCE. Though the Son laid aside His Holy Spirit Divine Nature Mind at His Incarnation as a gift to us, that same God, essence, sired Him into the womb of Mary. So God equals God equals God. There is no third God and not even a second God, as Beachy implies.
So, again, for clarification, what is the difference between what I am saying and the Trinity doctrine. Just this: The Trinity doctrine says that the Holy Spirit is a third person extra to Christ and that it is not the Holy Spirit Divine Nature of the Son as laid down for us in sacrifice at His Incarnation, as eternal payment for the wages of sin, and as a regenerating agency in order to restore us to the image of God.
Implications
So the implications of the Trinity doctrine and the false doctrine espoused by Beachy and life compatriots of his, is that there was no eternal death sacrifice in payment for the wages of sin which is eternal death--only a three day death on the cross. Therefore, the serious implication of both the trinity doctrine and Beachy's thesis is that there has indeed been NO ATONEMENT AND NO SANCTUARY OFFERING--no sprinkling of any eternal sacrifice blood offering in the Sanctuary Service in heaven. What blood was offered? The blood of Christ on the cross? How could that be? Because Christ could have returned to His PURE DIVINE PRE-INCARNATED STATE OF BEING AT ANY TIME PRIOR TO HIS DEATH ON THE CROSS. When He last commended His Spirit to His Father on the Cross, He FOREVER relinquished the option of returning to His first preincarnated estate of Being. That was the eternal blood sacrifice associated with His sacrifice on the cross. The life is in the blood, and when that blood was shed, it was forever impossible to return to His pure DIVINE STATE ONLY- as compared to His taking upon Himself our humanity. By His incarnation, he made an eternal sacrifice, without which, His death on the cross would have been of no avail:
"Christ declared that after his ascension, he would send to his church, as his crowning gift, the Comforter, who was to take his place. This Comforter is the Holy Spirit,--the soul of his life, the efficacy of his church, the light and life of the world. With his Spirit Christ sends a reconciling influence and a power that takes away sin.
In the gift of the Spirit [HIS LIFE--THE SOUL OF HIS LIFE], Jesus gave to man the highest good that heaven could bestow....
The Spirit was given as a regenerating agency, and without this the sacrifice of Christ [both at His Incarnation and on the cross] would have been of no avail....
Without relinquishing (laying aside) His Divine Nature, He could not die the death that was ours that we might have the life that WAS HIS, prior to His Incarnation. That life was never before available under the Old Covenant.
God bless,
Ron Beaulieu