Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
"The wonderful symbol of the living bird dipped in the blood of the bird slain and then set free to its joyous life (Lev. 14:4-8), is to us the symbol of the atonement. There were death and life blended, presenting to the searcher for truth and hidden treasure, the union of the pardoning blood with the resurrection and life of our Redeemer. The bird slain was over living water; that flowing stream was a symbol of the ever flowing, ever cleansing efficacy of the blood of Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world..." E.G. White, Sons and Daughters of God, p. 226.
What is the cleansing agent? The Holy Spirit life and soul of the Son of God.
"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 [cleanses] 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 [CLEANSING] 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.
"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.
"Christ is THE SOURCE of every right impulse. He is the ONLY ONE who can arouse in the natural heart, enmity against sin. He is THE SOURCE of our power if we would be saved." E.G. White, Review and Herald, April 1, 1890.
The living bird symbolizes the living first estate of the Son. That living bird never died. That living bird that was sacrificed from the foundation of the earth, was the innate Holy Spirit life of Christ. That life [the Holy Spirit life and Soul of Christ] was dipped in the blood of Christ, the Lamb slain on the cross. One sacrifice did not die. The bird dipped in the blood of the bird that died, never died! The other sacrifice, the Lamb, did die, but they symbolized the same person--the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. This is why Christ had to ascend to His Heavenly Father so that the bird (the Holy Spirit life of Christ) could be dipped in the blood of Christ, before His Holy Spirit life could be set free and descend to us as a regenerating agency. This occurred in the Heavenly Sanctuary where all matters concerning the Atonement had their original type. That living bird that was later dipped in the blood of Christ, was the Holy Spirit, appointed for this act from the foundation of the world. That accounts for the three heavenly dignitaries from the foundation of the earth.
The trinity doctrine makes that "bird" dipped in the blood of the bird slain, a person other than the Holy Spirit pre-Incarnation life of the Son. It was the Holy Spirit life of the Son which never died, but was slain from the foundation of the earth. This had everything to do with the Atonement, and symbolizes a sacrificial Atonement other than the Atonement on the cross. This living bird dipped in the blood, was the Holy Spirit life of Christ from the foundation of the earth, and any other third person Holy Spirit is inimical to this great symbol, and is therefore idolatry. The inimical third person of the trinity doctrine is non other than Satan Himself. The real third person of the Holy Spirit is the life, soul and breath of the Son prior to His Incarnation, which became the free bird after the dipping in the blood of Christ. Both were the same person at two different forms of Being and existence.
Psa 77:13 Thy way, O God, [is] in the sanctuary: who [is so] great a God as [our] God?
These words mean what they say. So do the following words mean just what they say--just as they read:
"The Holy Spirit is the breath of spiritual life in the soul. The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ. It imbues the receiver with the attributes of Christ. Only those who are thus taught of God, those who possess the inward working of the Spirit, and in whose life the Christ-life is manifested, are to stand as representative men, to minister in behalf of the church." Desire of Ages, 805.
"Christ gives them the breath of HIS OWN SPIRIT, the life of HIS OWN LIFE. The HOLY SPIRIT puts forth its highest energies to work in the heart and mind." Desire of Ages, 827.
"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.
"This was a voluntary sacrifice. Jesus might have remained at the Father's side. He might have retained the glory of heaven, and the homage of the angels. But He chose to give back the scepter into the Father's hands, and to step down from the throne of the universe, that He might bring light to the benighted, and life to the perishing." E.G. White, Desire of Ages, pp. 22, 23.
The "Raised Up" Sacrifice
Here is what the SDA Bible Commentary says about Acts 13:33:
"Raised up Jesus again. Or, 'raised up Jesus.' These words may most naturally be understood to refer to the resurrection of Christ. But if so, a problem arises in regard to the application of the quotation that follows from Ps. 2 (see below on 'this day'). Therefore many commentators understand the words, 'raised up Jesus,' here in the same sense that they appear in chs. 3:22; 7:37, where they clearly refer, not to the resurrection, BUT TO GOD'S INTRODUCTION OF CHRIST INTO THIS WORLD [His Incarnation]. See on Deut. 18:15....
Still another interpretation grows out of understanding the words 'raised up Jesus' (see comment above) as not referring to the resurrection, but to the INCARNATION. The quotation from Ps. 2:7 then refers clearly to the INCARNATION also, and is in the same setting as in Heb. 1:5. Acts 13:34 then goes on to speak specifically of the resurrection." SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 6, p. 289, cols. 1 and 2.
"Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." II Cor. 3:17.
"To make us partakers of the divine nature, heaven gave its most costly treasure. The Son of God laid aside His royal robe and kingly crown and came to our earth as a little child. He pledged Himself to live from infancy to manhood a perfect life. He engaged to stand in a fallen world as the representative of the Father. And He would die in behalf of a lost race. What a work was this!" E. G. White, A Sanctified Life, 274.
"But after Christ's ascension, His enthronement in His mediatorial kingdom was signalized by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit." E.G. White, Christ's Object Lessons, p. 120.
Question: If the Holy Spirit existed from time immemorial as the Third Person of the Godhead, why was it not poured out until Christ's ascension? The reason that the Holy Spirit was not poured out before the ascension, is because the Holy Spirit was the very LIFE, SOUL AND BREATH AND BLOOD of Christ, which was commended to the Father AT THE TIME OF THE INCARNATION IN THE SANCTUARY OF HEAVEN, as Christ's last will and Testament. That last will and Testament provided that upon Christ's death on the cross, what was ONCE (BEFORE THE INCARNATION) His innate Holy Spirit LIFE, SOUL, BREATH AND BLOOD, would be given as a gift to all who would accept His LIFE, SOUL, BREATH AND BLOOD. The life is in the blood. This was all in accordance to The Everlasting Covenant between the Son and the Father, as the means for making an Atonement for sin. This represented a separation of the Holy Spirit, into a THIRD PERSON, for the express purpose of thereafter representing Christ to the world.
God bless,
Ron Beaulieu