Rev 17:5 And upon her forehead [was] a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [will let], until he be taken out of the way.
The mystery of iniquity had its Alpha development in Paul's day. Mystery Babylon made its debut early in the Christian church, and alas even before the development of the church in the mutiny of Satan and his angels. All error and iniquity is a species of spiritualism. To think that the Alpha of Apostasy had its first introduction in the SDA Kellogg crisis, would be most provincial minded. But that apostasy involved spiritualistic notions regarding the presence and personality of God (Christ).
"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. The 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, ibid., p. 204.
"I have been instructed by the heavenly messenger that some of the reasoning in the book Living Temple is unsound, and that this reasoning would lead astray the minds of those who are not thoroughly established on the on the foundation principles of present truth. It introduces that which is nought but speculation in regard to the personality of God and where Is presence is [the Godhead]. No one on this earth has a right to speculate on this question. The more fanciful theories are discussed, the less men will know of God and of the truth that sanctifies the soul." E.G. White, Selected Messages, vol. 1, 201-202.
Ellen White paraphrased and paralleled the Alpha and Omega to a statement by Paul, 2 Th. 2:7, concerning the great apostasy which had already begun in his day.. The following statement is from Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 7, p. 57, wherein Ellen White is discussing the Alpha and Omega of Apostasy:
"One thing it is certain is soon to be realized, the great apostasy, which is developing and increasing and waxing stronger, and will continue to do so until the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout. We are to hold fast the first principles of our denominated faith, and go forward from strength to increased faith. Ever we are to keep the faith that has been substantiated by the Holy Spirit of God from the earlier events of our experience until the present time. We need now larger breadth, and deeper, more earnest, unwavering faith in the leadings of the Holy Spirit. If we needed the manifest proof of the Holy Spirit's power to confirm truth in the beginning, after the passing of the time, we need to-day all the evidence in the confirmation of the truth, when souls are departing from the faith and giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. There must not be any languishing of soul now." (E.G. White, Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 7, p. 57).
The beginning of the Alpha of apostasy involved the personality and presence of God. Satan contested that Christ was no greater than he, and that he had a right to participate in the councils between the Father and the Son. Right there, the personality and presence of Christ was questioned by Satan. The lie Satan told Eve was a spiritualistic lie about the personality of God; that He was withholding knowledge from Adam and Eve that would let them aspire to being gods.
What the Sabbath and the Godhead Issues Have in Common
Many voices are arising nowadays asking: Why would God permit His people (and they refer to His people as mainline Christianity) to be without a true knowledge of the Godhead all of these centuries? Can you imagine the same mainline Christian churches asking the very same question concerning the Sabbath issue in 1844?! Why would God permit His people to ignorantly keep Sunday sacred for centuries if it was not the true day of worship?
The clear, clarion answer is that God did not permit His people to ignorantly keep Sunday sacred for centuries. His Word was clear on the subject. He has always had a faithful remnant who has kept His seventh-day Sabbath holy. But the centuries old lie about the Sabbath was to be exposed before all as a test at the end of time. The very same explanation may be applied to the issue of the Godhead. Why would God let professing Christians go for centuries without enlightening them on the true nature of the Godhead?
Truth is that God did not such thing! The Bible is just as clear on that issue as it is on the Sabbath issue, yet both of these subjects have arisen as major issues over the centuries, and it is only fitting that they come to a head at the end-time so that no man will have any excuse to be ignorant of either issue. Fact is that there is ONE ETERNAL SPIRIT, and God is Spirit, and that the Lord is that Spirit. It is only common sense that it was a sacrifice for the Son of God to lay aside His Divine Nature, omnipresent Holy Spirit life and soul, (His Royal Robes) and take upon Himself the fallen, sinful nature of man, after four-thousand years of degradation. That was a tremendous sacrifice without His sacrifice on the cross. It is only common sense that the Son made that sacrifice for a good reason, because all He did was for a good reason. He took the life that was ours that we might take the life that WAS (PAST TENSE) 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.
Christ sacrificed His purely Divine Nature at His Incarnation, as a crowning, greatest good gift of regeneration to man. This gift was not proffered to man under the Old Testament Covenant. This gift was first made available at Pentecost. This gift is proffered in 2 Peter 1:4:
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.
The Divine Nature was and is the Holy Spirit life and soul of Christ. How do we know that? Because there Scripture says that there is one eternal Spirit, and that God is Spirit. That means that the Father and the Son had the same one eternal spirit. That means that the Holy Spirit had to be the divine nature life and soul of Christ that is proffered to man under the New Covenant. How do we know that this Holy Spirit is the life and soul of Christ? Because we are told that the Lord is that Spirit, and that the "another Comforter," is non other than Christ, John 14:16-18, with emphasis on verse 18 which says: "I (meaning Christ) will come to you."
Further to these facts are the following considerations:
- The Testator of the Everlasting Covenant had to die.
- The Son was the Testator to the Everlasting Covenant.
- The Son was Divine when He Testated to die.
- The wages of Sin is eternal death, not death for three days on a cross.
- Divinity cannot die.
- Since divinity cannot die, something had to be laid aside forever, and what was laid aside was the Holy Spirit life and soul Divine Nature of the Son of God for the sanctification of man in order to restore him to the image of God. Without that sacrificial gift to man, His sacrifice on the cross was of no avail except to provide justification for continued sinning, because there would have been no sanctifying power without the Incarnation sacrifice of His Divine Nature Holy Spirit for us, as a regenerating agency. This laying aside of the Son's first estate of Being was like a form of death to that former life which He bequeathed to us at His Incarnation.
- The same Holy Spirit life that the Son forfeited at His Incarnation, descended upon Him as a dove at His baptism. He availed Himself of the very same power which He has made available to us. Ellen White substantiates this.
- Enough of the facts supporting this truth are found within Scripture, so that if man had truly been faithful to God, he would have been blessed with the understanding of this beautiful truth of the greatest good--crowing gift of Christ.
"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 Sri
he 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.
There has always been a remnant who has understood the truth of the Sabbath. There has always been a faithful remnant who has understood the truth of the Godhead. James White and the pioneers such as J.N. Andrews, taught that the trinity doctrine did despite to the Atonement. And so it did? How? Why? Because the Holy Spirit was not a third person from eternity. The Holy Spirit was the Father and the Son's One eternal Spirit. The Son laid His Holy Spirit LIFE aside for us so that we could partake of that divine nature under the New Covenant, as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress his own character upon the church.
Without the gift of His Holy Spirit life and soul, there would have been no cure for sin, and His death on the cross would have only justified sin forever. So the sanctuary could never be cleansed. There would be no AT-ONE-MENT with Christ, with He as the Head and we as the body. If the above scenario is not true, there has been no atonement, no Sanctuary service. And that is the logical conclusion of the trinity doctrine. That is how it does despite to the Atonement and the Sanctuary.
The trinity doctrine does not teach that the Holy Spirit is the result of such a sacrifice on the part of the Son of God, and that the third person of the Holy Spirit did not accrue until the Incarnation, at which time the Son's Holy Spirit became His successor when He laid it aside as a bequeathed gift to us--or all who would accept it. The trinity doctrine teaches that the Holy Spirit was extra to the Son and co-equal and coeval with the Father and the Son. There goes the Incarnation sacrifice of the son. There goes the power by which we become AT-ONE-MENT with Him. There goes the Sanctuary, because it can never be cleansed it there is no Atonement. This is why in the Alpha, Ellen White said:
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 Omega of Apostasy was to be much greater in scope. It was to involve the entire church except for a faithful remnant who would receive this truth. Now, in 1931, the church adopted the trinity doctrine from Babylon. It will not member one who will not pay homage to this Satanic doctrine by taking a vow to believe it when being baptized. This is the end-time test concerning the Godhead. This is the Omega Heresy--the greatest abomination possible because it involves the greatest, crowing gift ever proffered to man.
It is interesting to note that one person identified the Alpha, and to date, one person has identified the full truth of the Omega of Apostasy--the Omega Heresy. But others will follow and embrace this truth because it is truth and not because of any person but the person of Jesus Christ.
May God give you grace and discernment to see this all important truth is my every prayer,
Ron Beaulieu