Are We Missing Something Here
The Godhead, The Holy Spirit, and the
“Infinite Cost” of Our Salvation
by
Bruce Bivens
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The Sanctuary is Chapter 6 and 7 Dear Reader, What follows is the preface to Bruce Bivens’
new book (Written this year, 2008) on the Holy Spirit. The entire book is
available from: Xlibris Corporation 1-888-795-4274 Orders@Xlibris.com All emphasis by way of emboldened parts are
as they appear in Bruce’s book. Preface ___________ A Brief
History of the “Trinity” Doctrine’s Entrance into the Seventh-day Adventist
Faith |
||||
This preface has
been added in order to give readers a brief overview of the “Trinity” doctrine’s
entrance into the Seventh-day Adventist Church and to provide impetus for you
to dig into the study that follows in this book. I have found that a
surprising number of Seventh-day Adventist[s] have practically no knowledge of how we have come
to believe in the Trinity and even believe that this doctrine was one of the
“Fundamental” beliefs of our founding pioneers and of Ellen White herself. I
was not. I myself was not aware of its complete history within our
denomination nor the surprising fact that “one man” was primarily responsible
for its induction into the SDA Church until this book was nearing completion.
It will become clear why this doctrine is dangerous and why we need to
“reconsider” our belief in it. It is my hope that this information will be
helpful in creating a better-informed audience and provide a “reason” for our
looking into this study of the Godhead—and more specifically, the Holy
Spirit.
It is important
for us to note that the Catholic Church considers the doctrine of the Trinity to be the “central
doctrine” of their faith: “The
mystery of the trinity is the central doctrine of the Catholic faith. Upon it
are based all other teachings of the church.” (Handbook
for Today’s Catholic, pg. 16).
So how did the
“central doctrine” of the Catholic Church make its way into, and end up as a
central doctrine of the Seventh-day Adventist faith? It may come as a
surprise to many that LeRoy Froom (perhaps our Church’s most prominent
historian) was primarily responsible for introducing the Trinitarian doctrine
to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and very purposefully set about to
promote its acceptance and institute it into the beliefs of the Church.
In his book “Movement
of Destiny,” which was
published in 1971, he tells us how he came to write about the Holy Spirit and
how he came to believe in the “Trinity.” His brief account of this is very
enlightening in
terms of both his history and his method. Here is what he has to say concerning this:
“May I here make
a frank, personal confession? When back between 1926 and 1928 I was asked by
our leaders to give a series of studies on “The Holy Spirit” . . . I found
that aside from priceless leads found in the Spirit of Prophecy, there was practically
nothing in our literature setting forth a sound, Biblical exposition in this
tremendous field of study.
There were no previous pathfinding books on the question in our literature.”
“I was compelled
to search out a score of valuable books written by men outside of our faith .
. . . for initial clues
and suggestions, and
to open up beckoning
vistas to intensive personal study. Having these, I went on from there. But they were decided
early helps. And scores, if
not hundreds, could confirm the same sobering conviction that some of these
other men frequently had a deeper insight into the spiritual things of God
than many of our own men had on the Holy Spirit and the triumphant life. It was still a largely obscure
theme . . . .”
“It was then that
I again saw the peerless pre-eminence of the Spirit of Prophecy portrayals
that not only supported
but greatly enhanced the choicest gems of truth glimpsed in part
by these other writers
. . . .”
“Mr. Froom then
exuberantly exclaims: “Thank God, that time of reticence and misunderstanding
has passed . . . . This
is the supreme hour . . . . Thank
God, that final awakening is definitely underway. (Movement of Destiny, p. 332:
Review & Herald Publishing Association, 1971; Used by permission;
Emphasis Mine).
Froom goes on to
state that the “Truth of the Trinity” was an inevitable evolution in our
theology stemming from the 1888 Conference and message: “When once the
sublime truth of the complete Deity of Christ . . . was affirmed by a growing
number at and after the Minneapolis session, emphasis on certain
inseparably related truths followed inevitably.”
“Thus the Truth
of the Trinity was set forth in
Tract form by the Pacific Press . . . in February, 1892 . . . . It was
not written by one of our own men,
but by “the late Dr. Samuel Spear.” . . . .This sound and helpful tract by Spear . . . . was simple,
but adequate, as the first step in recognition and declaration. It was the
logical aftermath of 1888.”
Mr Froom
concludes his brief account by claiming that the book “The Desire of Ages” presented an “inspired depiction” of the
trinity doctrine and because of this it has become our denominations’
“accepted position.” Froom also boasts that the “Desire of Ages” was even
publicized in the prominent Catholic journal (as if this adds credibility to the book). Here it is in
his own words: “. . .The Desire of Ages, of course, presented an inspired
depiction, and was consequently destined to become the denominationally
accepted position . . . . The Desire of Ages . . . . is one of
the most highly esteemed books of the Denomination—a recognized classic, even
publicized in such a Catholic journal as the “Universal Fatima News” for
September 1965.” (Movement of Destiny; pp. 323, 324) I
must admit that the reason for Mr. Froom’s obvious pride in its endorsement
and publicity in a “Catholic Journal”
puzzles me. One can hardly conclude that this inclusion adds anything to the credibility of the book, or proves that
the Desire of Ages supports the doctrine of the Trinity!
The very
first thing I would
like to note about LeRoy Froom’s account of how he came to believe in the Trinity
is the method
he
Obviously
employed in arriving at his conclusions. Mr. Froom did not start his study
with the Bible and then move on to the writings of Ellen White before turning to “outside” sources.
Indeed, Mr. Froom did his study in the exact opposite order! He
began with the
writings and theologies of “men outside our faith” and worked his way back to the
writings of Ellen White in order to find support for his conclusions. Even if
Ellen White had been alive and had agreed with his conclusions, I believe
that she would NOT have approved of his method in arriving at his position.
Our denomination would most certainly never have been brought into existence
if we had begun our study of such topics as the Sabbath, the State of the
Dead, the Sanctuary, and others if we had conducted our study of these
subjects in the manner that Mr. Froom employed! And when it comes to the
Trinity Doctrine the fact is that Ellen White never used the term “Trinity” in any of her writings, and as we will
see, she did not actually support this doctrine.
The REASON LeRoy
Froom could not find anything he considered “Pathfinding” written by any of
our Pioneers—or
by men within our faith
on the subject of the Holy Spirit; is NOT because there had been nothing written on the subject but
because NONE of our pioneers
were “Trinitarians” and therefore did not agree with Elder Froom’s
conclusions or opinions! Mr. Froom states that even the Spirit
of Prophecy had only
“priceless leads” to offer him as
he began his study. Yet he later declares that The Desire of Ages set forth an “inspired depiction” of the
Trinity. If the Desire of Ages truly sets forth an inspired depiction of the
“Trinity” and was the “Denominationally accepted position” of the Trinity, why didn’t Mr.
Froom acknowledge this to start with as he began his study of this subject in
1926? And if Mrs. White had truly set forth an inspired depiction of the
Trinity as far back as 1898, why couldn’t He find much more material to support his
position within the rest of the pages of the Spirit of Prophecy? If Mr. White
truly believed
in the doctrine of the Trinity, why is it that she NEVER used the term
“Trinity” to describe the Godhead in any of her writings?
The fact is that
LeRoy Froom “discovered” what he believed was the “truth of the Trinity” and
the Holy Spirit from writers “not of our faith,” and then set out to support it with [selected]
statements from the Spirit of Prophecy. LeRoy Froom wrote a book called, “The
Coming of the Comforter”
as a result of, and shortly following his study during 1926-1928.
Mr. Froom,
talking about the publication of his book in a letter to Dr. Otto H.
Christiansen on October 27, 1960; stated that: “May I state that my book, The Coming of the Comforter, was the
result of a series of studies that I gave in 1927-28, to Ministerial
institutes throughout North America. You cannot imagine how I was pummelled by some of the
old-timers . . .”
and speaking of his Trinitarian views he states: “Some men denied that . . .
still deny it, but the book has come to be generally accepted as standard.” It should be noted that this
book is still widely used and is available in our ABC bookstores.
In 1969, Russell
Holt, in a term paper entitled “The Doctrine of the Trinity in the
Seventh-day Adventist Denomination: Its Rejection and Acceptance”
(Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary), divides our denominational
history on the subject of the Trinity into three periods: During the first
period, which he delineates as 1844-1890, he says: “The field was dominated
by those who saw the trinity as illogical, unscriptural, pagan and
subversive of the atonement . . . . anti-trinitarianism is the evident
denominational stance.”
He next refers to
the time period of 1890-1900, saying: “Roughly within this period, the course
of the denomination on the trinity was decided by statements from Ellen G.
White.” (Ibid. Emphasis Mine).
Finally, He
states of the period between 1900-1930: “This period saw the death of most of
those pioneers who had championed and held the anti-Trinitarian position.
Their places were being taken by men who were changing their
thinking, or had never opposed the doctrine . . . .” (see—
http://www.sdanet.org/atissue/trinity/moon/moon-trinity1.htm all Emphasis
Mine).
Russell Holt,
commenting on Froom’s publication of “The
Coming of the Comforter (and the subsequent writing of other’s) states
that: “The trinity began to be published, until by 1931 it had triumphed, and had become the standard
denominational position. Isolated stalwarts remained who refused to yield,
but the outcome had been decided.”
(Emphasis Mine).
In 1931, F.M.
Wilcox included the term “trinity” in the S.D.A. Yearbook’s 22-point
“Statement of Beliefs” and this was the first time that this term was seen in any
Adventist Statement of Beliefs. Immediately following, in 1932, this
pro-trinitarian Statement of Beliefs was added to the first “Church
Manual” and all
succeeding “Adventist Yearbooks” and
began to appear in nearly all the Church books. It had not been voted on by the Church
at large, by the
General Conference, nor even by a representative
body of the leaders of the S.D.A. Church.
Note by Ron: This
is a classic example of when Ellen White said that the General Conference is
no longer the voice of God—when a few men acting on their own, enact things
that aren’t even voted on by the General Conference in World Session, to wit:
General
Conference as the Voice of God: "God has ordained that the representatives
of His church from all parts of the earth, when assembled in a General
Conference, shall have authority. The error that some are in danger of committing
is in giving to the mind and judgment of one
man, or of a small group of men, the full measure of authority and
influence that God has vested in His church in the judgment and voice of the
General Conference assembled to plan for the prosperity and advancement of
His work. When this power, which God has
placed in the church, is accredited wholly to one man, and he is invested
with the authority to be judgment for other minds, then the true Bible order is changed....Let us give to the
highest organized authority in the church that which we are PRONE to give to
one man or to a small group of men." E.G. White, Testimonies,
vol. 9, 261. IS THE CONFERENCE THE VOICE
OF GOD? Some Adventists believe the
conference will always be the voice of God.
In the early years Mrs. White described the opinions handed down by
the conference in session as "the voice of God." If we look at later statements by her, we
will find she changed her opinion over time as the conference changed and
became less obedient to God. If the
conference was a faithful organization, making Bible-based decisions, not
popularity-based decisions, not following the world, we would be able to
consider it to be the voice of God: 1899 "Let those in America who
suppose the voice of the General Conference to be the voice of God, become
one with God before they utter their opinions." Testimony to Elder S.N.
Haskell 11-16-99 1899 "It has been some years
since I have considered the General Conference as the voice of God." GCD
2-24-99 1901 "That these men should
stand in a sacred place to be the voice of God to the people as we once
believed the General Conference to be, that is past." GC Bulletin 1901,
25. 1901 "It is working upon wrong
principles that has brought the cause of God into its present
embarrassment. The people have lost
confidence in those who have the management of the work. Yet we hear that the voice of the
Conference is the Voice of God. Every
time I have heard this, I have thought that it was almost blasphemy....We
have reached the time when the work cannot advance while wrong principles are
cherished." Man. 37, 1901. 1901 "Year after year the same
acknowledgment was made, but the principles which exalt a people were not
woven into the work. God gave them
clear light as to what they should do, but they departed from that light and
it is a marvel to me that we stand in as much prosperity as we do
today." GC Bulletin, 1901, 23. 1909 "Every individual soul
has a responsibility before God, and he is not to be arbitrarily instructed
by men as to what he shall do, and what he shall say, and where he shall
go. We are not to put confidence in
the counsel of men and assent to all they say unless we have evidence that
they are under the influence of the Spirit of God." RH 7-1-09. End note
by Ron. “The 1931 Statement of Beliefs read
as follows: “That the Godhead, or Trinity, consists of the Eternal Father, a
personal, spiritual Being, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, infinite in
wisdom and love; the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Eternal Father,
through whom all things were created and through whom the salvation of the
redeemed hosts will be accomplished; the Holy Spirit, the third person of the
Godhead, the great regenerating power in the work of redemption. Matt.
28:19.” (Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists, “Seventh-day Adventist Year Book,
[Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1931], 377). Holt comments on this change in our
fundamental beliefs by noting: “A
comparison of statements of faith issued at various times by the denomination
shows a marked change in the opinion of the church concerning the trinity . .
. .” He observes that: “. . . Separate
statements appeared in 1874, 1889, 1894 and 1931. The first three of these
are, for all practical purposes, identical in the articles dealing with the
deity. A comparison of the statements of 1894 and 1931 shows the change.” Please note that there was no
change in the Statement of Beliefs in regard to the “Trinitarian” viewpoint while Ellen White was alive. J.S. Washburn
(1863-1955; a retired Adventist minister and contemporary of Ellen White—He was
converted by J. N. Andrews at 11, baptized by James White at 12 and began
preaching Adventism at 21), opposed this change in the strongest possible
terms writing: “The doctrine of the trinity is a cruel, heathen monstrosity,
removing Jesus from His true position of Divine Saviour and mediator. . . .
This monstrous doctrine transplanted from heathenism into the Roman, papal
church is seeking to intrude its evil presence into the teachings of the
Third Angel’s Message.”
Washburn goes on
to say: “If we should go back to the immortality of the soul,
purgatory, eternal torment and the Sunday Sabbath, would that be anything less
than apostasy? If however we leap over all these minor, secondary doctrines
and accept and teach the very central, root doctrine of Romanism, the
trinity, and teach that the Son of God did not die, even though our words
seemed to be spiritual, is this anything else and anything less than apostasy
and the very omega of apostasy?” (See Judson Washburn, “The Trinity,” 1929.
Emphasis mine).
Benjamin
Wilkinson, the man who wrote the book entitled “Truth Triumphant,” wrote a
letter to Dr. T.S. Teters in 1936, saying: “Replying to your
letter of October 13 regarding the doctrine of the Trinity, I will say that
Seventh Day Adventists do not, and never have accepted the dark, mysterious,
Catholic doctrine of the Trinity.”
In 1941, the
Baptismal Vow was revised to include the Trinitarian statement (Mr. Froom was involved in this
action as well). So that, NOW, in order to become a Seventh-day Adventist,
you have to agree to belief in the trinity.
In a letter
written to Roy Allan Anderson, J. L. Schuler, Denton Reebok, A.W. Peterson,
W.G. Turner and J.E. Weaver; November 22, 1966; LeRoy Froom says: “I am
writing to you brethren as a group for you are the only living members of the
original committee of 13, appointed in 1931 to frame a uniform baptismal
covenant. Elder Branson was the chairman and I was Secretary. The
task of this committee was to formulate a uniform baptismal covenant and vow
based on the 1931 Fundamental Beliefs statement in the yearbook and Manual. .
. to point up a
bit more sharply, the first, second and third persons of the Godhead.”
(Emphasis mine).
In 1945, all the
standard Adventist books were edited, and all
the anti-trinitarian statements taken from them. In his book Movement of Destiny, LeRoy Froom states:
“The next logical and inevitable step in the implementing of our unified fundamental
beliefs involved revision of certain standard works, so as to eliminate
statements that taught, and thus perpetuated erroneous views on the Godhead.
Such sentiments were now sharply at variance with the accepted fundamental
beliefs set forth in the Church Manual.” (Movement
of Destiny, page 422 Emphasis mine).
The “official”
acceptance of the “Trinity” into our fundamental beliefs did not come until
1946. According to Dr. Jerry A. Moon (in “Andrews University
Seminary Studies, Vol. 41, No. 1,
113-129”): “when the statement had gained general acceptance, the General Conference session
of 1946 made it official,
voting that “no revision of this Statement of Fundamental Beliefs, as
it now appears in the [Church]
Manual, shall be made at
any time except at a General Conference session.” [See Fifteenth Meeting,
General Conference Report No. 8, Review
and Herald, June
14, 1946] (Emphasis mine).
In 1946 the book Evangelism was compiled from the writings of Ellen White.
LeRoy Froom (along with others) was instrumental in the choice and
compilation of statements from Ellen White’s writings, which seemed to support the Trinitarian
viewpoint. This book contains the quotes most often used now (from the writings of Ellen
White), to support the trinitarian doctrine within our denomination.
Here’s what Froom
had to say about this is a letter he wrote to Roy Allan Anderson on January
18, 1966: “I am sure that we are agreed, in evaluating the book Evangelism, as one of the great
contributions in which the
Ministerial Association had a part back in those days. You know what it did with men in the Columbia
Union who came face-to-face with the clear, unequivocal statements of the
Spirit of Prophecy on the deity of Christ, the personality of the Holy Spirit,
the trinity and the like.” “They
either had to lay down their arms and accept those statements, or else they
had to reject the Spirit of Prophecy. I know that you and Miss Cluser and I had
considerable to do with the selection of those things under the encouragement of men like Elder
Branson, who felt that the earlier concept of the White Estate
brethren on this book on evangelism was not adequate.”
Note: I fear that
this is still the attitude of our Denomination and that it is based largely
on the Ellen White quotes that were chosen to be included in the book Evangelism. The book you now hold in
your hands will seriously challenge the assumptions that have been made
because of the narrow and carefully selected use of Ellen’s writings on this
subject.
In 1955 there
were meetings of the leaders of the Adventist Church with Dr. Walter Martin
and Dr. Barnhouse, two evangelical theologians who felt that the Seventh-day
Adventist Church was a cult, and as a result of these meetings the book “Questions on Doctrine” (a book in which LeRoy Froom
played a leading role)
was produced in 1957 in an attempt to show that SDA’s were not a cult and
that we were quite “mainstream” in our beliefs—including the doctrine of the
Trinity. [This book, unfortunately, also contained statements that we do not
believe the atonement is taking place in Heaven right now, that Christ came
with an “unfallen” human nature, and other untrue and misleading statements
regarding Seventh-day Adventist beliefs].
In 1980, the
General Conference voted on a new set of “27 Fundamental Beliefs” in which
the Trinity Doctrine was upheld. Fundamental belief number 2 now read: “2. The
Trinity[.] There is one
God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a unity of three co-eternal
Persons.” (Emphasis mine).
The concept delineated here, that there are “three co-eternal Persons,” is in complete
harmony with the Catholic Church’s teaching regarding the “Trinity” and, as
we shall see, is incorrect (http://www.sdanet.org/atissue/trinity/moon/moon-trinity1.htm;
note 60).
In 1988 the book “Seventh-day Adventists Believe . . . A
Biblical Exposition of 27 Fundamental Beliefs” was published and included
the doctrine of the Trinity. This book was highly promoted for use as an
evangelistic tool to explain to non-Adventists what we believe our core
doctrines to be.
It seems clear to
me that as I review the history of the “Trinity” doctrine and its acceptance
into the Seventh-day Adventist Church that something has gone seriously
amiss within our
denomination. We have not critically considered the “Truth” (or non-Truth) of
this doctrine in light of the Great Controversy, and we have certainly not
considered the serious implication
this doctrine has on the sacrifice, mediation, and ministry of Jesus Christ! Indeed, the
doctrine of the Trinity—with its focus on the Holy Spirit as a “third
co-eternal person” of the Godhead—has successfully caused us to lose our
focus on Christ, His Sacrifice, and His ministry in the lives of all
believers since the Cross. It effectively limits Christ’s ministry to that of
“Justification” only, while leaving the work of “Sanctification” to the
“Third” person of the Godhead—the Holy Spirit. This is, frankly,
unbiblical—and is why we must earnestly examine this subject. I pray that you
will find, as a result of your prayerful consideration of this book, that your
focus is returned [to]
the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and that your understanding
of His great sacrifice in the plan of redemption will be broadened and
enriched beyond words.
This is, in fact,
a book about Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and is not meant to be a
refutation [of] our denomination’s “Trinity” doctrine per se, but rather a
book that will open up to you the enormity of the sacrifice of Christ on your
and my behalf. A clear understanding of this sacrifice will enable you to
refute quite adequately the “Trinity” doctrine on your own.
Having said all
this, let me state that I do
believe that there are “three” persons in the Godhead. How there came to be three
is the subject of
the rest of this book. The “TRUTH” about the Holy Spirit will astound you! It
is a beautiful
and important
truth for God’s Remnant people. My promise to you is that, by the time you
have finished this book, you will understand why an understanding of all this
is vitally important.
You will clearly understand “who” the Holy Spirit really is and where He came from.
You will have a much deeper appreciation of the “inconceivable” sacrifice made by Jesus Christ
in order to redeem you and me. And you will be able to intelligently “pray with understanding” for the outpouring of the
Holy Spirit in Latter Rain power. That said; I invite you now to delve into a
careful,
and
prayerful study of the
remainder of this book . . .
Bruce Bivens
Chapter 1
_____________________
Introduction to The Godhead & The Holy Spirit
Let me
make clear that the things that I am espousing in this book are not likely to
be the “end-all” of this subject. I have not arrived at a perfect knowledge of this subject and make no claims
to know the “whole Truth”—anyone who knows me, knows that. It is, however, my hope that those who are more
knowledgeable than I will be able to take what I am setting forth here and
expound upon it until we ALL arrive at an understanding of these vital
Truths. I have studied, intensely, the things contained here for several
years now (I expect to be studying this for the rest of eternity!) and it is
my firm belief that this subject is vital
and that it has everything to do
with our experience with Christ
and with our eventually being enabled to receive the promised blessing of the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit. With that in mind, let me tantalize you for a
moment and start the wheels of your mind turning. Consider this: We are told that, “The great gift of salvation has been placed within our reach
at an infinite cost to the Father and the Son. To neglect salvation, is to
neglect the knowledge of the Father and of the Son whom God hath sent in
order that man might become a partaker of the divine nature, and thus, with
Christ, an heir of all things.” (RH March 10, 1891; par. 2). Now
I ask you: What was that “infinite
cost” to the Father and to Christ? Was it merely Christ coming to live on
this earth as a human; denying self and suffering ridicule, pain and death?
Was it even having the sins of all of mankind laid upon Him? As great and as
humiliating as all this was, it hardly seems to me that this would be an infinite Page
2 cost to
God. What would 33 years as a human be in the life of a God who is eternal? Would that (if that was all
that was involved) be considered an “infinite
cost”? What would the sufferings of a moment be in the life and the glory
of an eternal God? I believe that “Sin” in its most basic and
truest sense is “separation” from God. Apart from God, ultimately, there can be
no life. I believe that Christ is my “Sin” bearer and that in order for Christ to bear my sin He had to
experience this “separation” from God. I also believe that Christ, in taking
my “Sin” upon Himself, suffered the penalty of that separation from God brings—which
is “death” (for “the wages of sin
is death” Rom. 6:23). “The
spotless Son of God took upon Himself the burden of sin. He who had been one
with God, felt in His soul the awful separation that sin makes between God
and man. This wrung from His lips the anguished cry, “My God, My God, why
hast Thou forsaken Me?” Matthew 27:46. It was the burden of sin, the sense of
its terrible enormity, of its separation of the soul from God—it was this
that broke the heart of the Son of God.” (SC, p. 13, par. 2). This “death”
was not the death that all men must face (for many have died the natural,
physical death (but was the “second death”
from which there is no resurrection. If Christ was “GOD” and “died”
then I must conclude that God died.
That would certainly qualify as an
“infinite cost” wouldn’t it? But
how can God “die”? Could God really separate from Himself and die?
Is it possible to reconcile this paradox? When we add to this paradox the
fact that Christ was resurrected
and that He lives, the paradox becomes
even more complex and confusing.
What are we to do with all this? How are we to understand and reconcile
these truths? As Seventh-day Adventists we put great stock
in understanding the “Great Controversy” existing between Christ and Satan.
This is fine and proper and is what has made our message unique and necessary.
However, it seems to me that we have failed
to apply this knowledge to certain
doctrines (or aspects of
doctrines), which we now hold. It is my firm belief that All Doctrine must be viewed in
the context of the Great Controversy
or we will fail to grasp the
importance and/or Truth of the
Doctrine. And I believe this failure has been especially true concerning our understanding of the Nature of the
Godhead and the Holy Spirit. Have we been missing something here? There simply must be more to all this than we currently understand. Page
3 Not convinced? Then consider this
interesting quote: “The
incarnation of Christ has ever been, and will ever remain a mystery. That
which is revealed, is for us and
for our children, but let every
human being be warned from the ground of making Christ altogether human, such
an one as ourselves; for it cannot be. The exact time when humanity blended
with divinity, it is not necessary for us to know. We are to keep our feet on
the rock, Christ Jesus, as God revealed in humanity.” (Manuscript Releases,
vol. 13; p. 19, par. 1). This statement is NOT made in the context of
some discussion as to when Christ
was born—that is, it is not said
in response to the question as to the exact “time” of Christ’s birth as a
“human” here on this earth. This
statement is made in response to the position put forth by some that Christ
was “brought forth” (Proverbs 8:24, 25) or “Created”, and therefore was merely and “altogether” human. That is, some proposed, that He was “created” just as we were. The fact is that
Jesus was neither “Created”, nor “brought forth as “altogether human”.
Remember that even in His “birth” as a human there was a blending of the
divine with the human: Mary was told that “The Holy Spirit will
come upon you, and the power of the Most High [God] will overshadow you; and
for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35 emphasis mine). According to the prophet of God; Jesus was
God, existed as God, and even
today exists as God: “…while
God’s Word speaks of the humanity of Christ when upon this earth, it also
speaks decidedly regarding his pre-existence. The Word existed as a divine being, even as the eternal Son
of God, in union and oneness with his Father … The Word was with God, and the
Word was God.” Before men or angels were created, the Word was with God and
was God.” (RH April 5, 1906; par. 5). “In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived …. The divinity of Christ is the believer’s assurance of eternal life.” (DA; p.
530, par. 2). To suggest otherwise is to rob ourselves of any hope of salvation. If Christ had
been “Created”, He could not be
our savior, for no created being could redeem another created being. If
Christ were “created” and “brought into existence”, even
possessing all the qualities of the unfallen
Adam, then we would be lost—left without a Savior. “The highest angel in heaven had not the power to pay the
ransom for one lost soul … The reconciliation of man to God could be
accomplished only through a mediator who was equal with God …” (RH December
22, 1891; par. 1) Only one who was equal
with God—who Page
4 was God—could
make atonement for those created beings who have transgressed His law. That being understood, what then does this
statement mean? Why would the Prophet of God tell us: “The exact time when humanity blended with divinity, it is not
necessary for us to know.” This would seem to suggest that the blending of
Christ’s divinity with that of humanity occurred at a time other than strictly at the time of
His conception or at His birth as a babe in a manger. And this would seem to
be in harmony with the Biblical position that Christ was “the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world” (Rev.
13:8)—that is, at a time prior to
Creation. While it must be conceded that this information is not necessary for us to know in order
to obtain “SALVATION” “There are
many questions treated upon that are not necessary for the perfection of the
faith.” (Manuscript Releases, vol. 13; p. 20, par. 2), it does suggest that there is more to the blending of Christ’s
divinity with that of humanity than we have yet grasped (“there are things
not yet simplified, statements that human minds cannot grasp and reason out …
[Ibid]). The fact is that Christ’s divinity did blend with that of humanity. He
took upon Him our human nature. And while this happened in the fullest
sense at the time of His birth here on earth—I believe that His
“partaking” of the lot of His Created beings actually happened, or began, before
He Created anything![1]
That is, that it took place in a mysterious
manner at the time described in Proverbs 8:22-31 (prior to creation) when
He was “brought forth” from the Father—with whom He was “One” and
with whom He alone shared the Godhead. The text says: “When there were no
depths I was brought forth … Before the hills I was brought forth; While He
had not yet made the earth and the fields, nor the first dust of the world …
Then I was beside Him, as a master workman; and I was daily His delight,
rejoicing always before Him” (vs. 22, 24, 30). Page
5 Now, if Christ had existed as God from all
eternity (which I fully believe) then how is it that He was “brought forth”?
Was this bringing forth, as some of our scholars say, merely a change in His official “office” or work—or is there
something of much greater significance being revealed here? Is there
something more involved in the “incarnation” that we have yet to understand?
Is there something of vital importance
that we are missing in our
understanding of the Nature of
Christ and whether His Nature has changed or why it would be necessary for it
to change? What was [is] actually involved in the incarnation, the plan of redemption, and God’s ultimate purpose
and objective for us? Is your interest still not aroused? Let me
pose to you a few more “difficult” questions that even the “scholars” within
our church have failed to give adequate response [to]. Why is it that when
the “Throne of God” is spoken of,
in both the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy, there are only TWO personages ever associated with it—the Father and the Son [Christ]? Why
aren’t there three spoken of? Why
does Ellen White consistently
speak only of the Father and the
Son when she speaks of the “Councils of God”, the origin of the “Plan of
Salvation”, or of the plan to “create” man? Here are a few examples: “…Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the eternal
Father—one in nature, in character, in purpose—the only being that could enter into all the counsels and purposes
of God….The Father wrought by His Son in the creation of all heavenly
beings.” (PP p. 34, par. 1-2). “The
Father and the Son engaged in the mighty, wondrous work they had
contemplated—of creating the world.” (PP p. 44). “After the earth was
created, and the beasts upon it, the
Father and Son carried out their purpose, which was designed before the
fall of Satan, to make man in their own image. They had wrought
together in the creation of the earth and every living things upon it. And
now God says to his Son, “Let us
make man in our image.” (ST Jan. 9, 1879; par. 13). “In the beginning the Father and the Son had rested
upon the Sabbath after Their work
of creation.” (DA p. 769, par. 2). “The great plan of redemption was laid
before the foundation Page
6 of
the world. Christ did not stand alone in this wondrous undertaking for the
ransom of man. In the councils of heaven, before the world was created, the Father and the Son covenanted together that if man proved
disloyal to God, Christ, one with the Father, would take the place of the
transgressor, and suffer the penalty of justice that must fall upon him.” (RH
November 15, 1898; par. 1). “There is
a personal God, the Father; there is a personal Christ, the Son.” (RH
November 8, 1898; par. 9. “…Christ and
the Father would redeem the fallen race.” (ST Feb 17, 1909; par. 9). “His
death had answered the question whether the
Father and the Son had sufficient love for man to exercise self-denial
and a spirit of sacrifice.” (PP p. 69, par. 3). Where is the Holy Spirit in all this? If
there have always been THREE
members of the Godhead, then why do we see so many key instances where only TWO
are mentioned? Here is another conundrum: Jesus said, “where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am
there in their midst” (Mat. 18:20). He also said “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mat.
28:30). “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18). Now
this wouldn’t be a problem except
for the fact that when Christ left this earth, He did so with a “human” body—He had taken on “human nature” and has retained that
nature (including its physical limitations)—“He is our Sacrifice, our Advocate, our Brother, bearing our
human form before the Father’s throne, and through the eternal ages one with
the race He has redeemed—the Son of man.” [SC, p. 14])—He
simply could not be here “with” us, in our “midst”,
or “come” to us as He promised He would. “Christ did not make believe to take human nature; He did
verily take it: He did in reality possess human nature.” (RH April 5, 1906;
par. 4). “The Son of God, now at the Father’s right hand, still pleads as
man’s intercessor. He still retains His human nature, is still the Saviour of
mankind.” (ST July 15, 1908; par. 7). “Cumbered with humanity Christ could
not be in every place personally …” (Manuscript #1084, p. 7—Manuscript
Releases, vol. 14; p. 23). So what did Jesus mean when He said that He
would come to us and always be with us—even in our “midst”? How could this be
accomplished if He is limited by His adopted human
nature—including its form? Note by Ron: Here is another instance where
Ellen White said that Christ retains His humanity forever. "By His life
and His death, Christ has achieved even more than recovery from the ruin
wrought through sin. It was Satan's purpose to bring about an eternal
separation between God and man but in Christ we become more closely united to
God than if we had never fallen. In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound
himself to humanity by a tie that is never to be broken. Through the eternal
ages He is linked with us.” The Desire of Ages, p. 25. End note. Page
7 Jesus also made this remarkable statement:
“no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father
except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” Luke 10:22
puts it this way: “no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the
Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”
Are we to believe that the Holy Spirit doesn’t know the Father or the Son?
Are we to believe that the third member of the Godhead doesn’t even know who
the Father and the Son are? Sounds ludicrous doesn’t it? Was Jesus lying? Didn’t Jesus know what He was
talking about? Are we willing to say: “Yes, that is what Christ said …but this is what He meant.” Are we so presumptuous that
we would suggest that we know
better than He what He meant to say? And consider this: The Apostle Paul states
that; “There is one God, and
one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).
There are several statements in the Spirit of Prophecy that confirm this;
here are a couple from the book Steps
to Christ: “Christ was the
medium through which He [the Father] could pour out His infinite love upon a
fallen world” ….”Jesus, the only medium of communication between God and
man.” (SC, pp. 13&20). Here is another: “Men have only one advocate, one intercessor, who is able to
pardon transgression.” (Bible Echo; May 1, 1899; par. 7). In
Hebrews 7:25 Paul tells us that: “He
is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He
[Jesus] always lives to make intercession for them [us]” (See also Rom. 8:34).
Yet Paul also wrote that, “In
the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to
pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groaning too
deep for words” (Rom. 8:6)! This is supported in the SOP as well. So
which position is correct?—Is there only one
mediator and intercessor or
are there two? Was Paul mistaken? Was Ellen White confused?
Are God’s Disciples, His chosen Apostles and His Prophets all wrong? I don’t think so. I believe
that the reason that we have such a problem answering or resolving some of
these problems is that we have
become entrenched in what we have accepted to be “the truth” and have tenaciously defended our belief for so long
that we will listen to nothing else. The Lord’s servant has said that this
should not be the case among us: “Investigation
of every point that has been received as truth will repay the searcher: He
will find precious gems. And in closely investigating every jot and tittle
which we thing is established truth, in comparing Scripture with Page
8 Scripture,
we may discover errors in our interpretation of Scripture.” (RH, July 12,
1898). “The fact that certain doctrines have been held as truth for many
years by our people is not proof that our ideas are infallible.” (RH,
December 20, 1892). “We cannot hold that a position once taken, an idea once
advocated, is not, under any circumstances, to be relinquished. There is but
One Who is infallible—He Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” (TM, 105).
Indeed, we have been told: “New
light will ever be revealed on the word of God to him who is in living
connection with the Sun of Righteousness… The diligent seeker for truth will
find precious rays of light yet to shine forth from the Word of God… Many
gems are yet scattered that are to be gathered together to become the
property of the remnant people of God… Let no one come to the conclusion that
there is no more truth to be revealed … There is no excuse for anyone in
taking the position that there is no more truth to be revealed… We are not
safe when we take the position that we will not accept anything else than
that upon which we have settled as truth.” (Counsels on Sabbath School Work, p. 34). There are a couple of statements in the
Spirit of Prophecy that have intrigued me, even bugged me, like an itch that
you can’t reach to scratch. Here is one of them. “The man Christ Jesus was not the Lord God Almighty.” (SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 5, p.
1129). Or this one that was made concerning what God did when
Lucifer had rebelled and had insisted that he be included in the councils of God. God responded in this way: “The Great Creator assembled with the heavenly host, that he
might in the presence of all the angels confer special honor upon his Son.
The Father then made known that it was ordained by himself that Christ, his
Son, should be equal with himself.” (Spirit
of Prophecy (1870), vol. 1, p. 17). And if you add to
that quote, this one—“To
Christ had been given an exalted position. He has been made equal with the
Father.” (Testimonies, vol. 8, p.
268)—it ought to really leave you scratching your head! Interesting questions aren’t they? There are
many more, equally intriguing questions regarding the Godhead and the Holy
Spirit, which we have yet to satisfactorily answer. As Seventh-day Adventists
we believe in the “Latter Rain”—that the Holy Spirit is to be poured out in
full measure upon God’s people just prior to His Second Coming—and that this
outpouring of the Spirit is essential if the people of God are to be fitted
and empowered to do the work which God has called us to do. We believe that
it will be an essential component in the experience of God final
representatives in revealing Christ to the world. And we believe Page
9 that the outpouring of the Spirit is what
will enable us to actually be partakers of the divine Nature! If
this is the case, it seems only logical to me that we will need to understand
much more clearly who or what the Holy Spirit is. It seems rather ludicrous for me to ask God
for something when I have no idea
what that thing is. Could God answer my prayers and bless me if I were praying
to “Mary”, or for Mary to answer
my prayers? He could not, because if He did He would be reinforcing my belief
in that which is not Truth and
would be sanctioning a lie. I would be praying to and for something that has no power to provide. I would, in reality,
be praying to and for a false God—a
god of my own making. Could we be
doing exactly the same thing when we pray for the Holy Spirit, while not
understanding what it is that we are actually praying for? Could we believe
that the Holy Spirit is something that it is not, and therefore be limiting
God in His desire to answer our prayers by the outpouring of His Spirit?
If we don’t understand who or what the Holy Spirit is, while we are earnestly
praying to receive it, might we be opening the door for the Devil to deceive us through an outpouring of a
false spirit—his spirit? How can
we resolve these issues? Or, why even try to understand them at all? I would
like to propose that the answer to these questions actually has much to add to the experience of
those of us “upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Cor. 10:11). I
believe that all of these things can
and will be resolved when we consider the Godhead, the plan of Salvation,
and the Holy Spirit within the context
of the Great Controversy! These questions and others beg an answer, which I have yet to see adequately addressed. But
before we look at this, let me explain why. I believe that these questions have not been
adequately addressed or answered primarily because we have attempted to
answer them by using the “proof-text” method exclusively. Let me explain why
the proof-text method alone is
inadequate for such a task. Chapter 2 _____________________ Why the
“Proof-Test” Method is Not Adequate or Sufficient for the Understanding or Explanation
of Al Biblical “Truths” and Concepts The
Proof-Text method is not sufficient for the comprehension of all
Biblical concepts for the simple reason that “Truth” is a progressive
revelation. If Truth were not progressive we would find the Bible to
be a very short book! God would simply lay out everything to us in a list and
that would be that. But God does not operate like that and neither does His
Truth. Proof-text studies tend to be very static, while God’s Truth is a living dynamic.
Proof-texts may win you an argument, but they are unlikely to
produce any meaningful change in
the lives of those who approach the study of God in this way.
Truth must be understood from that which has been revealed—that is, that
which has come before—and understood from the ongoing
revelation of the Holy Spirit, both from the Scriptures and within
the life of the believer. Truth is person centered. It is centered in
the person of Jesus Christ—who is “the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn.
14:6)—and it is centered in the lives of those who believe in
Him and in whom He abides. Paul uses the Old Testament Scriptures to support
what he is revealing and expounding upon—but he does not do it exclusively
in a “proof-text” fashion. He does not make a statement and then exclusively
quote scripture to prove that statement. He Page
11 does quote scripture to back up, or “prove”
what he is saying sometimes—but more often he uses scripture (what
has been revealed) as a launching point (starting point)
for the Truth that he is introducing and then expounds
upon. In other words, Scripture is used by the inspired writers of the New
Testament as the basis, or starting point, for the revelation and development
of new truth—or the revelation of a deeper understanding of a
truth already introduced elsewhere. Paul was interested in
imparting knowledge, but he was more interested in the effect that true
knowledge produces in the believer when it becomes an experience and not just
a bunch of facts. We should use the Scriptures (Old and New
Testaments) in much the same way. “There
are mines of truth yet to be discovered” (5T, p. 704). “There are bright and
important truths of which we only discern the shadows.” (E.G. White; Letter
147, 1897). “We have only glimmerings of the rays of the light yet to come to
us.” (RH, June 3, 1890). If there is much truth “yet to be
discovered,” “truths of which we only discern the shadows,” then we can safely
conclude that they are not written out in a concise
fashion within a few texts of scripture (we must “dig” for Truth
as for hidden treasure)! This is why the “proof-text” method will fail
to reveal all of the rays of light yet to come to us.” We must use
the scriptures, but we cannot expect a text here, and a
text there, to be combined into a concise or total understanding of every
truth. We must understand that God often has introduced concepts
within the text of the scriptures, which are to be developed under the
guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit. These concepts are not always
laid out plainly in a fashion that lends itself solely to the
proof-text method of interpretation or understanding. Another reason
that the “proof-text” method often fails
is that, too often, people will use only those texts
that will “prove” their own beliefs. We often have a preconceived idea of what the “truth” is and set out to
“prove” it by quoting only those texts that support our preconceived views or positions. If one does this, one can
make the Bible (or the Spirit of Prophecy) say almost anything!
This is why
Christians often disagree on subjects such as the
Sabbath or the state of the dead. Some Christians will use texts that “prove”
that the day we are to keep holy is the 7th day Sabbath, while
others use texts that seem to “prove” that Christians are to
Page 12
Keep Sunday, the
1st day of the week, holy—or that it doesn’t matter which day you
keep holy as long as you keep some day holy (Ex. 20:8; Acts 13:42, 44 &
18:4; Mar. 2:28; Heb. 4:9 cf. Acts 20:7; Col. 2:16; Rom. 14:5). One Christian
will use texts that indicate that Death is an unconscious “sleep,” while
others will use texts that would seem to indicate that we return to God (or
go to be with Him) when we die (Jn. 11:11, 14; Eccl. 9:5; Ps. 115:17; 1 Thes.
4:15; 1 Cor. 15:18; Ps. 146:4 cf. Eccl. 12:7; 2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:21; Ps.
146:4; etc.). Notice that Psalms 146:4 can be used by both groups to “prove” opposite
positions! The Biblical concept of “Righteousness by Faith” is
a particularly difficult thing to adequately explain using only the
proof-text methodology. Perhaps that is why so few Christians “truly” understand or experience it.
When it comes to
the Godhead and to the Holy Spirit I have heard prominent leaders in our own
church using texts like “holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts” (Isa. 6:3)
to defend the Trinity doctrine (as
we teach it) and to prove that there are three
individual beings that have existed as God from all eternity and who comprise
the Godhead because the text uses the word “Holy” three times. This is no
different than those who use the text “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God,
the Lord is ONE” (Duet. 6:4) to prove that there is only one person of the Godhead or who is God. It is also no
different than many Christians using the text “the spirit shall return unto
God who gave it” (Eccl. 12:7) to prove that man has a “spirit” that exists
separately from his body and which “returns” to God (goes to heaven) at the
time of death! These are the weakest of arguments and show the
failing of trying to use the “proof-text” method alone
to establish an understanding of the doctrine. It is also a terrible misuse of the Scriptures.
Adventists have rightly maintained that the whole
Bible must be used to understand the truth of any given subject—that all the texts dealing with a subject must be gathered
together and studied within their context
in order to
arrive at an understanding of “The Truth.” Any Scriptures that appear
obscure, or appear to indicate something disagreeing with the majority of the
rest of the texts, must either be resolved by the overriding majority opinion
and context of the texts as a whole—or must be considered as
having a meaning intended by its author of which we
are unsure or simply don’t
Page 13
Understand. For
Adventists, this is further complicated by our belief in the inspiration of
the writings of Ellen White; for we must gather everything from the vast additional light that she has provided on
Biblical subjects and consider and compare her statements on those subjects
as well. This comparison must be made, not only to what is contained in the Scriptures, but, also to that which is contained in
the whole of her writings.
When you consider that Ellen White has provided us with more than 100,000
pages of printed text (that’s more than 25 million
words—or the equivalent of more words than could fit into 32 Bibles)—one can
readily understand that this can be a daunting
task!
We also must
understand that “inspired” writers (whether the writers
of the Bible or other inspired writers such as Ellen White) sometimes reveal things from their visions, or in their writings, which
they themselves did
not understand! This was
certainly true for Daniel (see Dan. 12:8, 13) and it seems quite obvious that this was the case for Ezekiel and for John
the Revelator in many of the things that they saw and recorded. Why would we assume that it would be different for Ellen White?
Indeed, given the vast amount of information that God conveyed through her, it would seem quite unreasonable for us to assume
that she “understood” everything about everything
she wrote! She never made any claims to such “all-knowing” understanding, and
often spoke of things as “mysteries”
and as things that she did not understand fully (e.g. the Incarnation, the
nature of the Holy Spirit, etc.).
This fact should not come as a surprise to us when we consider and
realize that “Truth” is progressive. No-one has ever yet had and understood ALL the Truth that God has revealed—or that God is going to reveal! I find it unconscionable
to think that God revealed to the Bible writers OR
to Ellen White everything that He intended to reveal to
mankind. When we consider that almost a century has elapsed since the death
of Ellen White—can we possibly conclude that God has had nothing more to say to us? Can we really hold to the position
that there was to be no more “new
light” yet to be
revealed? Mr. White speaks strongly to the contrary (see Appendix
“D” on “New Light” quotes)!
Ellen White
recognized and acknowledged her limitations as a human being—even as one
through whom the Lord spoke directly.
Page 14
She says: “There
are many mysteries which I do not seek to understand or to explain; they are
too high for me” (Manuscript 1107; p. 5; Manuscript Releases vol. 14, p.
179). Interestingly, she makes that statement in the context of (in the
middle of a discussion about) the Nature of the Holy Spirit! Just a few
sentences earlier she said: “The nature of the Holy Spirit is a mystery not
clearly revealed.” (Ibid). These statements in no way
imply that the nature of the Holy Spirit would forever
remain a mystery, or that the truth about its nature would never be “clearly
revealed.” I believe that it was a mystery to her in the same way that much
of what Daniel wrote was a mystery to him: She could not
understand it “fully” simply because it was a Truth who’s [whose]
time had not yet come. Like Daniel, however, she faithfully revealed that
which was revealed to her—in spite of the fact that she did not understand
all that she revealed. I believe, that like Daniel, much of what she wrote
about the “Godhead” and about the “Holy Spirit” will rise again for its
“allotted portion at the end of the age” (Dan. 12:13)—that the things which
she wrote will be “revealed” and “understood” in their proper light prior to
our Lord’s coming. This “revealing,” however, will not come as the result of
suing the proof-text method alone.
I do not think
that it is a mere coincidence that Jesus told His disciples:
“I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John
16:12)—and that He said that in the middle
of a discourse about the Holy Spirit! I also do not think that it is a mere coincidence that Mrs. White informs us that what Jesus left
“unrevealed” (or not totally
revealed) to the
disciples involved the plan of Redemption. “What was it that Jesus withheld
because they could not comprehend it?—It was the more spiritual, glorious
truths concerning the plan of redemption.” (RH October 14, 1890; par. 4).
Within Adventism,
we have found ourselves arguing about the nature of the Holy Spirit primarily because we have sought to “prove” our positions by using only the “proof-text” method. We have failed to
consider the truth about the nature of the Holy Spirit within the context of the problem of Sin, the Great Controversy, and
the Plan of Redemption. It is my opinion that this has caused us to
misunderstand much about the “nature” of both
the Godhead and the Holy Spirit.
Proof texts are
not a bad thing. Indeed they are a necessary component
in understanding the nature of God, the entrance of
Page 15
Sin and the
problems sin brought with it, and they are absolutely necessary to our
understanding the plan of Salvation! I have used many “proof texts” in
writing this book and in order to explain what I am expounding here—but
I will be suing these “proof texts” within the context of the Plan of Redemption, and this is where
their use will differ from merely “proving” a bunch
of facts. They will be sued in order to
gain a greater understanding of the immense Sacrifice that
has been made in order to make possible the great plan of Redemption, what
that Sacrifice entailed and how it actually affects
us, and to give us a greater appreciation of both the Loving God
(Father) an our Loving Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
With all this in
mind, I would like to consider the nature of the Godhead and the Holy Spirit within the context of the Great Controversy and the
Plan of Salvation, and attempt to discover what God has revealed to us concerning these things. So let’s go back
to the beginning and consider the predicament that faced God as He planned
to create intelligent beings—beings that would have
the freedom and capacity to choose for themselves whom they would serve.
Chapter 2 Summary
1.
Truth is progressive—that is, it is ever unfolding and some subjects
cannot be simply “proved,” and the matter permanently settled, because there
is more to be learned and more to be
revealed about the subject. The “proof-text” method will fail to reveal all
the truth about some subjects for this reason.
2.
The “proof-text”
method is often used to “win” an argument (to prove that “our” position is
correct and “theirs” is wrong). It may accomplish this objective, but little
is achieved in simply “winning” an argument. The Truth
must be explained in a way that will make a difference in one’s life and in
their relationship with God. The proof-text method does not always do this.
3.
The “proof-text”
method often does not take into consideration the context of
the texts themselves and can be sued to prove almost anything if one is not
careful.
4.
Finally, the
“proof-text” method is a helpful aid in explaining truth when it is done
within the context of the subject being explained. For Seventh-day
Adventists, it is vitally important to consider all doctrine (and all
proof-texts used to prove a doctrine) within the context of The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan.
Failure to do this will cause us to fail in comprehending
the “truth”—and the significance of the truth—of the subject
being studied. This is especially
true with regard to
the subject of the Godhead and the Holy Spirit.
CHAPTER 3
___________________
IN THE BEGINNING!
The “Problem” Facing God as He Considered
Creating Intelligent Life
In discussing the “Godhead”
(exactly who and what it comprises) we must go back to the “Beginning”—before
the “Creation” of Heaven and Earth, and everything that exists save God
Himself. This is necessarily important because GOD is eternal and omniscient (all knowing—knowing the “end” from
the “beginning”). Anything and everything God has done, is doing, or will do has a
purpose—and if His purposes are not to be thwarted or overthrown in any way,
He must have made provision for every contingency.
So let’s consider
for a moment, as much as is humanly possible, the plans of God and the
predicament in which those plans placed Him. Sometime in eternity past God
purposed to Create intelligent life—Life that would exist not
only “by” Him, but also “for” Him and “with”
Him. Because God is a God of “LOVE” (because “God IS
Love” [1 John 4:8)]) His special, intelligent, created beings would not only
be capable of Love themselves—they must
also be granted “free
will” (because Love
cannot be “forced” or “imposed” on anyone or anything). This poses certain
problems because with the capacity to Love also come the capacity, or power
NOT to Love. Love must be Chosen. In other words: Love can be given, but “giving” love does not insure that it
will be received, accepted, or
returned! If God were to
Create Beings capable of experiencing,
Page 18
Expressing and
returning love (sharing in His very “essence” which is love) they must also
be created as intelligent, “Free” moral agents—capable of acknowledging and returning God’s Love but also capable of
deciding to reject that Love.
God wanted
intelligent beings to share His life and essence. He wanted beings that were
capable of appreciating HIM and who would acknowledge
Him AS God—the source of Love. He wanted more than anything else to be the recipient of love as well as the giver of it! But this
brought with it the risk (just as it does with us when we choose to love another) of rejection—the risk of being hurt—the
risk of not having His love returned and thus, the inevitable consequences of that rejection. Which, in the case of God,
meant not only pain and suffering—but also ultimately DEATH for those who would reject His Love. A life
devoid of love; devoid of God; a life chosen
to be lived apart
from Him; a life in which His Creatures would assert themselves to be superior to Him could not be allowed to
continue, for it would ultimately be a “Life” or existence worse than “Death.”
God, the
consummate author and sustainer of life, could not allow HIS creatures (creations) of love to continue living
apartr from His love. Because God is
Love those beings choosing to reject love (and therefore HIM) would, of necessity, cease to
exist. Death for these beings would, in reality, be the ultimate act of Love
on God’s part for they would NEVER be
happy, joyous and fulfilled apart
from Him! That could be
the subject of [an] entire study in itself but, sufficient for the one at
hand, it brings into focus the problem God faced in creating
intelligent, free-moral beings!
This brings up
another conundrum. How could a God who IS LOVE and who’s very Being is SO
PURE that it would consume anything impure instantly, create other beings
that had the “potential” to become imperfect? God knew that He would create everything
“perfect,” albeit with the capacity for growth. But in the case of free-moral
agents, beings with the capacity to choose
to become something other than He desired, how was He to exist in their presence—or they in His? What was HE to do?
God would have to
make a way possible for created
beings not only to
exist in His presence but also to interact
with Him (even those who would make the mistake of doubting Him). He
Page 19
Would have to
make it possible for intelligent beings to be able to approach and learn from
Him. He would have to make it possible for them not only to receive His Love, but also provide a way for them to share it—a way for them to return and express their love for Him and a way for them to grow in it. He would have to have a way to communicate with them in a way that they would understand (He
would have to come down to their level if you will). There would HAVE to be some sort of “go-between” or mediator
between Himself in His Total Consuming Purity and those with whom He wished
to commune—Someone capable of communing in HIS physical
presence while also being able to commune in the presence of His created
beings (even those who would become “imperfect” and separate from Him through
sin). He would need someone through
whom He could reveal
Himself while maintain the opportunity for mercy and forgiveness if and when
that should become necessary.
That “Someone”
could NOT
be one of the
beings He intended to create. No, that “Someone” would have to be someone who
was like Him. Indeed, someone who was ONE with Him—someone who shared His very essence. That someone would have to be (in human terms)
“Flesh of His Flesh,” “Bone of His Bone,” Blood of His Blood;” while at the
same time, being capable of partaking
of the nature of the beings He intended to create. God would
need someone who could communicate His love to created beings
AND could communicate their love back to Him in return. It would have to be
someone that could serve as a mediator, it you will, between Him and
His creation when Sin would appear so that they
would not simply be consumed and immediately cease to exist. Where was God to find such a
being?
God
was not alone:
The Bible informs
us in John 1:2 that; “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God.” That
this “Word” was the person of Jesus Christ in His pre-incarnate form is made evident
by verse 14 of the same chapter:
“And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” This could only refer to the person of Jesus. The
phrase “with God” in John 1:1 carries the
meaning of being “by the
Page 20
Side of God” and
expresses a uniqueness or individuality
from God (the Father). The phrase “was
God” indicates a
state of being and expresses the nature that Jesus had at this time.
So Jesus co-existed “with” God the Father as a separate
or individual being and He shared the Father’s nature
of “being” God. Christ was in fact God
AND existed with the Father (God) before the creation of intelligent life.[2] “The Word existed
as a divine being, even as the eternal Son of God, in union and oneness with
his Father . . .Before men or angels were created, the Word was with God, and
was God.” (RH April 5, 1905; par. 5). The fact that the Father God was not alone and that He had someone else who existed with Him
who shared all of His attributes is what actually made it possible for Him to create intelligent life in who would
be imbued the capacity and freedom of choice. Had He been alone in His creation of intelligent beings possessing
the freedom to choose whom they would serve (God or
“self”), those beings whom He created who would
choose to serve themselves would have been incapable of existing in His presence and would have been instantly destroyed by His absolute purity.
This is why the
Father created (and had to create) all things through the Son, Christ Jesus. There had to be a mediator between Himself and His created
beings. Someone who could fully
reveal the
Father’s character and purposes to His created beings and who could interact directly with them and
with Himself. Someone who could serve as a “buffer,” if you will, between the
Father’s absolute and consuming purity and the beings He wished to create who
would fall short of His ideal—while
they were learning to serve Him, and when some would choose not to
Page 21
serve Him. Jesus
was that person. “From everlasting he was the Mediator of the
covenant” (RH April 5, 1906; par. 5). “Christ is mediating in behalf of man,
and the order of unseen worlds also is preserved by His mediatorial work.”
(MYP, p. 254). “It was for them [unfallen worlds and Angels] as well as for
us that the great work of redemption had been accomplished. They with us
share the fruits of Christ’s victory.” (DA, p. 758). “Christ was appointed to
the office of Mediator from the creation of God, set up from everlasting to
be our substitute and surety.” (1SM p. 250).
The Bible clearly
reveals that: “All
things came into being through Him [Christ], and apart from Him nothing came
into being that has come into being.” (John 1:3—see also Heb. 1:1). The Spirit of Prophecy (referred to as the “SOP”
in the remainder of this book) confirms this in a most concise and clear
way—“The Father wrought by His Son in the creation of
all heavenly beings.” (PP p. 34, par. 2). Most of us have no problem accepting and
acknowledging this fact. However, right
here is where we have
missed an important and vital Truth concerning the Godhead, the Creation, and
the plan of Salvation.
Here is what we have missed:
BEFORE God could create intelligent
“free-will” beings through His Son, there had
to be a change in the Nature of the Son and of the Godhead. Had Jesus
maintained His “pure God” nature, the same problem would have existed as has
been outlined above. Christ’s purely “God Nature”
would have consumed imperfect beings and sinners
just as surely as the Father’s pure nature would! So what was the change that took place? What change had to take place in order for God to accomplish both
the work of creation and the plan of redemption? What was the change, and how would this change affect the Godhead?
Chapter 3 Summary
1.
God was faced with
a very real problem when He contemplated creating intelligent—free moral
beings. If He were to create them with the potential to choose to separate
from Him (Sin) then that potential in and of itself would create difficulty
in His being able to directly commune with them. If they chose to sin, they
would be immediately consumed and would have no chance to reconsider their
choice. This would eventually lead to His creations being afraid of Him (and
serving Him out of fear instead of out of love) as they saw their fellow
beings “disappear” from existence. God must have a mediator, someone who
could serve as a “go between” between Himself and His creations.
2.
That mediator
would have to be someone who was like Himself—someone who was equal with Him and
could participate in His creation. He needed someone who could partake of His
nature and be capable of partaking of the nature of His created beings as
well—someone who could express and exhibit God’s nature and will to His
creation and be capable of expressing and exhibiting their love in return.
That person was the person of Jesus Christ.
3.
Before Jesus
could perform this role, there had to be a change in His very nature. He
could not maintain His purely “God” nature and accomplish His mission. A
drastic change in His very being had to take place before He could function
in the role of mediator between the Father and His intelligent, free-willed
creations.
Note by Ron
Beaulieu: Bruce’s book ignores the fact of the Everlasting Covenant whereby
in order for a mediator to exist at all, the Testator of the Covenant
[Christ] would have to die, to wit:
|
||||
God
the Father could not be the Testator for man’s sin because He could not die.
Someone had to be alive to keep the universe intact. This is another reason
the Son had to be amongst the Godhead; to pay the penalty for man’s sin. That
penalty was eternal death for us and it had to involved eternal death to
something involving the Testator, Jesus Christ. And it did which we will
discover further along. End of note by Ron.
Page 23
Chapter 4
________________
The Original Godhead
&
Christ’s Nature
Prior to Creation
The “Trinity”
doctrine, which has been espoused and taught as a major tenet of the Orthodox
Christian Faith for many centuries, was not taught in its current form by Christ or by the Apostles. It entered into
Christian Theology long after the first disciples had passed from the scene.
The first real mention of the term “Trinity” was made by Tertullian (150-225
AD). The “doctrine” of the “Trinity”—that is, “One God in Three co-eternal
persons” was developed over a period of years and “Officially” became the orthodox teaching of Christianity during the 4th
century AD.[3] Interestingly, it was
introduced, developed and proclaimed by the Roman
Catholic Church and is claimed to be the Doctrine upon which every other
doctrine they hold and teach rests.[4]
Page 24
That,
in and of itself ought to raise suspicion in the minds of God’s Remnant
people!
Are
we to believe that the “TRUTH” about the nature of God and the Godhead was
revealed, by God, to the organization which His Word describes as “the Beast”
(Rev. 11:7; 13:1-4, 18), the “Scarlet
Woman” (Rev. 17:3, 4),
the “Mother of harlots” (Rev. 17:5) and the “Anti-Christ” (1 Jn. 2:22; 4:3; 2 Jn. 1:7)?[5]
Are we to believe that God has sent His “Truth” through the organization that
has been foremost in its propagation of “Error” regarding the nature of God
and of His plan of Salvation? Does God send “light”
through agents of darkness? The idea is preposterous and
unconscionable, and yet this is exactly what mainstream Christianity
has done—and what Seventh-day Adventist’s have done also. The fact is that
God is not going to reveal Truth through an organization that is diametrically opposed to Him, and who teachings run contrary to His revealed Word! Please remember that the
Devil introduces error by amalgamating (or mingling)
it with truth. He creates “partial
truths” (deception) with
the sole intent of thwarting God’s purposes and through which acceptance he hopes to secure our eternal destruction.
Does this mean that I do not believe in the
“Trinity?” Yes and no! I believe that “There are three
living persons of the heavenly trio . . .three great powers of heaven—the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” (Special
Testimonies, Series B, No. 7, p. 63; 1905—quoted in Evangelism, p. 615).
I believe this with all my heart. However, I do not
believe it in the totality or sense that the Trinity doctrine (as developed
by the Catholic and accepted by orthodox
Christianity—including Seventh-day Adventists) is taught today.
The Orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, which
Seventh-day Adventists have come to espouse and teach (see the “Preface” of
this book for a brief history of [how and when] the Trinity doctrine entered
the SDA Church), states that there are three members of the Godhead—the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and that these three have always existed as
“one” and yet as three separate individuals or persons. It is the latter half
of this doctrine (or belief) that I question and
Page 25
Which I believe we have failed to properly
understand. Have there always been three members of the Godhead? I don’t
think so—at least not in the “beginning!?
The “Original”
Godhead
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God.” (Jn. 1:1). This text, I believe, reveals the “Original”
Godhead. Other texts support this text and show that Christ existed as God with
the Father from all eternity and indicate that He and the Father alone were responsible for creating
the universe and the plan of salvation (see Jn. 17:5; Micah 5:2; Isa. 9:6;
Jn. 1:1-3; Heb. 1:1, 2; Col. 1:13-16; Jn. 3:16; 17:3; 6:44-46; 2 Cor. 5:19;
etc.). There are NO Biblical texts, which speak of
or confirm that there was a third member of the Godhead from eternity past.
Note by Ron: Some would cite Genesis 1:2 as
evidence that the Holy Spirit was extant as a third person at that time, but
that is not the case. Scripture says that God is a Spirit and that there is
one eternal spirit. It was the Spirit of God and Christ (who share the same
ONE ETERNAL SPIRIT) that moved upon the face of the waters.
Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void;
and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters. End note.
I have also found NO Spirit of
Prophecy quotes that speak of an independent third member of the Godhead from
eternity past. Some may object that there are texts which speak of the Holy
Spirit being the third member of the Godhead and of His being “as much of a
person as God is a person” [e.g. Manuscript 66, 1899]—which does express both
God-being and individuality),[6]
but I have found none that suggest the existence of an original, individual,
third member of the Godhead apart from the Father or Christ. Frankly, it
amazes me that we have not critically examined this glaring omission in both
the Bible and the SOP! We will examine this in detail as we proceed and what we
will find is a surprisingly “easy to be understood”
Note by Ron: See Appendix F
wherein I comment on the statements that are most often proffered as “proof”
that the Holy Spirit existed as a third SEPARATE person from eternity. He
sure existed ETERNALLY in the person of the Son of Man, but not as a third,
separate person until He was slain from the foundation of the earth.
Page 26
Truth
that may leave you wondering how we have been so slow to recognize and
understand it.[7]
We are told that:
“... Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the eternal
Father—one in nature, in character, in purpose—the only being that could
enter into all the counsels and purposes of God .... The Father wrought by
His Son in the creation of all heavenly beings.” (PP p. 34, par. 1-2). In this statement, the word “nature” must refer to Christ’s physical substance—His physical
“being”–because she makes the distinction between His “nature” and His
“character.” If the “nature” being referred to here consisted of His
“character” then the statement would be nonsensical—it would read like this:
“Christ ... was one with the eternal Father—one in character, in character, in purpose ...”. I believe that in
using the word “nature” (in this
instance)[8]
she is referring to Christ’s existence prior to creation
in which He existed as one with the Father in Spirit form.
This “Spirit” form, or
“nature,” would include His physical form as well as the attributes that make God, God. These attributes include His Omniscience,
His Omnipotence, and His Omnipresence. These three are attributes of His “being,” not simply of His character per se. For example, Omnipotence is an attribute
of being “ALL-POWERFUL” and is a physical
attribute (if you will) not one of character (as are “Love, Mercy, and
Justness”). It implies the ability to create and to “act” upon both the
animate nature (the physical dimension of matter)
as well as on the inanimate nature (the spiritual dimension) of beings such
Page 27
As in the “thoughts and desires
of the heart.” This is not simply a character trait. Likewise, Omnipresence is the
capacity or ability to be everywhere at once and is a physical
attribute, not a character attribute. I believe that omniscience (the
attribute of being “all-knowing”) is inseparably connected
to Omnipresence (the attribute of being everywhere) because I find it
inconceivable that one could be “all-knowing” if one was not also
“ever-present” in some fashion. Christ showed this to be the case when,
describing the timing of His Second Coming, He declared: “But of that day or
hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father
alone.” (Mark 13:32). Jesus was not “all-knowing” (omniscient) when He said
this because He did not possess the ability to be “ever-present”
(omnipresent) at this point in time. This point is important as we consider the incarnation and will become
clearer and more evident
in a moment.
Christ existed as “one” with the Father in the beginning. He was “one”
with Him in Character, purpose, substance, and in glory. God
is a “Spirit” (John 4:24)
and I believe that, since Christ was God
in eternity past, that He existed with the Father before
the creation in the form of “Spirit.” John 1:14 says that “the
Word [Christ] became flesh, and dwelt among us.” If Christ “became”
flesh then He must have existed in some other form
before this time. “Before Christ came in the likeness of men, he
existed in the express image of His Father.” (Youth’s Instructor; December 20, 1900; par. 4). Now I do not wish to get into
a debate as to what “form” a “spirit” has (if does apparently have one for we
are told in Early Writings, page
55: “I saw a throne, and on it sat the Father and the
Son. I gazed on Jesus’ countenance and admired His lovely person. The
Father’s person I could not behold, for a cloud of glorious light
Page 28
Covered
Him. I asked Jesus if His Father had a form like Himself. He said He had, but
I could not behold it, for said He, “If you should once behold the glory of
His person, you would cease to exist”),[9] the point is that Jesus once shared the Father’s
“Spirit form” (with God and as God) and enjoyed all the attributes of God
including Omniscience, Omnipresence and Omnipotence. This is not entirely the
case now.[10]
Before the creation of other
intelligent life forms—when Christ existed solely with the Father—there would
have been no need for Christ to exist in any other form than that of
“Spirit.” In this “Spirit” form, Christ and the Father were most fully, completely, and totally ONE! They were still individuals
yet they were united in form, character, and
purpose. It was only as
the Father and the Son began their work of creation that the necessity for a change
in this nature (or state of “being”) arose.
Some will argue that God does
not and cannot change. They will cite Malachi 3:6
“For I, the LORD, do not change” as “proof” of this. But the context of this text shows that God is speaking of His character and not of His form or nature—the
word “therefore” indicates this: “For I, the
LORD, do not change; therefore [because of this fact] you, O sons of Jacob,
are not consumed.” God indicates that He is willing to change His stated
purposes based on our reaction and relationship to Him: “At
one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to
uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; if that nation against which I have
spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned
to bring on it. Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or
concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it; if it does evil in My sight
by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I
had promised to bless it.” (Jer. 18:7-10; see also Jer. 42:10). God’s character does not change and is not subject to change. God
could not change His Law, for instance, in
order to accommodate man in his sinful condition or in order to save him.
This type of “change” would have violated His
character (for the Law is a transcript of His character) and would have
caused Him
Page 29
To become something that He is
not. But to say that God cannot change in any way would effectively deny the
incarnation. “Incarnation,” by its very definition, means “to invest with
flesh or bodily nature and form... to give a concrete or actual form to...”[11]
If God cannot change in any way then Christ could not have become “flesh, and
dwelt among us” (Jn. 1:14). It is evident that God can and indeed did change
in the “bodily nature and form” of Jesus Christ. So let’s look at the
“original” Godhead for a moment.
Where is the Holy Spirit? The “Creation?”:
When one reads in the Bible and
in the Spirit of Prophecy one cannot help but be struck by the omission and
absence of the Holy Spirit in the most vital
acts and plans of God. For instance, the Bible clearly states that the Father
and the Son were active in the creation, but there is no mention of a third member
of the Godhead being involved here. In Hebrews 1:2 we are told that the
Father created all things through the agency of His Son:
“God [Father] ... in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He
appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” Likewise, Colossians 1:16
tells us “For by Him [Christ] all things were created, both
in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or
dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created by Him and
for Him.” John 1:2 says: “All
things came into being by Him; and apart from Him nothing came into being
that has come into being.” Proverbs
8:30-31 states: “Then I [Christ] was beside Him [Father-singular],
as a master workman; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before
Him, rejoicing in the world, His earth, and having my delight in the sons of
men.”
Mrs. White also speaks of the
Father and the Son as those responsible for the creation, but like the Bible
writers she omits any mention of a third
person of the
Godhead. Here are several of her quotes: “The sovereign of
the universe was not alone in His work of beneficence.
Page 30
He
had an associate—a co-worker who could appreciate His purposes, and could
share His joy in giving happiness to created beings ... Christ, the Word, the
only begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father—one in nature, in
character, in purpose—the only being that could enter into all the counsels
and purposes of God .... The Father wrought by His Son in the creation of all
heavenly beings.” (PP p. 34, par. 1-2). “The Father and the Son engaged in
the mighty, wondrous work they had
contemplated—of creating the world.” (PP p. 44). “After the earth was
created, and the beasts upon it, the Father and Son carried out their
purpose, which was designed before the fall of Satan, to make man in their
own image. They had wrought together in the creation of the earth and every
living thing upon it. And now God says to his Son, “Let us make man in our
image.” (ST Jan. 9, 1879; par. 13). “In the beginning the Father and the Son
had rested upon the Sabbath after their work of creation.” (DA p. 769, par.
2). “ . . . Adam and Eve united with them [the birds and all nature] in
thanksgiving to the Father and the Son.” (PP p. 50).
Why is the Holy Spirit omitted? Why is He so glaringly absent in all these references? I am sure that
some will argue that Genesis 1:1 speaks of the “Spirit of God’ moving over
the surface of the waters and that this must
mean that there was a third person involved here—but does
it? We will consider this in a moment. One must be struck, however, by the many
references to the creation and by the fact that only two persons are
mentioned in connection with it!
The “Councils of Heaven” and the “Plan of Redemption”:
Who
do we find involved in the “councils of heaven” and in the Plan of Redemption?
Again, we find only two persons
referred to as responsible for it—the Father and the Son. “Christ,
the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father—one in
nature, in character, in purpose—the only being that could enter into all the
counsels and purposes of God” (PP p. 34, par. 1-2). “The Son of God shared
the Father’s throne, and the glory of the eternal, self-existent One
encircled both . . . . none but Christ, the Only Begotten of God, could fully
enter into His purposes, and to Him it was committed to execute the mighty
counsels of His will” (PP, p. 36). “The great plan of redemption was laid
before the foundation of the world. Christ did not stand alone in this
wondrous undertaking for the ransom of man. In the councils of heaven, before
the world was created, the Father and the Son covenanted together that if man
proved disloyal to God, Christ, one with the Father, would take the place of
the transgressor, and suffer the penalty of justice that must fall upon him.”
(RH November 15, 1898; par.
Page 31
1).
“. . . .Christ and the Father would redeem the
fallen race.” (ST Feb 17, 1909; par. 9). “The great contest that had been so
long in progress in this world was now decided, and Christ was conqueror. His
death had answered the question whether the Father and the Son had sufficient
love for man to exercise self-denial and a spirit of sacrifice.” (PP p. 69,
par. 3). “There is a personal God, the Father, there is a personal Christ,
the Son.” (RH November 8, 1896; par. 9).
The “Throne of God”:
There are at least 66 verses in
the Bible that refer to the “Throne of God” (23 in the Old Testament and 43
in the New Testament-24 references to the “Throne” are found in the Book of
Revelation alone!). Only two
persons are ever named in connection with God’s Throne—the Father
and the Son! In the Spirit of Prophecy there are over 2,000 references to the
“Throne of God,” and while I cannot claim to have read every one of these I have read many
and have found only two
persons mentioned in
relation to God’ Throne. Never have I come across a reference in either the
Bible or the SOP where three persons are associated with the Throne of God,
OR where the Holy Spirit is specifically identified (as a person) in connection with it. If someone can find a
reference to a third person residing on God’s Throne I
would welcome the opportunity to see it!
Surely, if there were three persons in the Godhead there would be three
persons mentioned regarding God’s Throne, or regarding His Creation, or
regarding the councils of God and the development of the Plan of Redemption.
Why isn’t the Holy Spirit mentioned,
named, and included in these references to the Godhead?
There is an important reason why we do not find the “Third Person”—the “Holy
Spirit”—mentioned in any of these critical references to the “Godhead.” And it all has to do
with the “change” that took place in the
Godhead prior to the creation in order to accommodate the
eventuality and entrance of Sin and in order to provide a means by which
sinners could be redeemed and reconciled to God.
Page
32
Chapter 4 Summary
1.
The doctrine of
the Trinity, which is accepted and taught by Orthodox Christianity, including
Seventh-day Adventists, teaches that there are three
members of the Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and that these three individual members of the One true God have always existed as three individual persons within the Godhead. This is
simply not true!
2.
Christ existed in
the beginning as “One” with the Father in nature (form), character, and in purpose.
That is to say
that Jesus existed, prior
to the creation of intelligent life, in Spirit
Form—with all the attributes inherent in God’s “Spirit” form
including Omnipresence,
Omniscience, and Omnipotence. Prior
to creation all
the evidence from the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy indicates that there
were only two members of the Godhead-0-the Father and the Son. These
two—Jesus and the Father—comprised the Original
Godhead.
3.
In order for the
Creation of intelligent and free moral beings to be accomplished—there had to be a change in the nature of the
Godhead. The Holy Spirit
is not mentioned in any of the critical references to the Godhead (e.g. The
Councils of God, the Plan of Redemption, and the Throne of God) because of
the change that took place in the nature
of Christ—which resulted in a change in the composition of the
Godhead. This will be explained more in the next chapter.
Chapter 5
________________
The “Change” in the “Person” of Jesus Before and After the
Creation
The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way,
Before His works of old. From everlasting I was established, from the
beginning, from the earliest times of the earth. When there were no depths I
was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before
the mountains were settled, before the hills I was brought forth; While He
had not yet made the earth and the field, Nor the first dust of the world.
When He established the heavens, I was there. When He inscribed a circle on
the face of the deep, When He made firm the skies above, When the springs of
the deep became fixed, When He set for the sea its boundary So that the water
would not transgress His command, When He marked out the foundations of the
earth; Then I was beside Him, as a master workman; and I was daily His
delight, Rejoicing always before Him” (Proverbs 8:22-30).
Dr. Richard M. Davidson has
written a compelling research paper on Proverbs 8 in which, I believe, he
conclusively shows that the being spoken of in Proverbs 8 (that is, “Wisdom”) pre-existed with God and was also,
himself God.[12] In his
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Paper, I believe that Dr.
Richardson not only only establishes the prexistence of
“wisdom” in the form of a distinct
person with God the
Father prior to the creation, he also
provides compelling proof that “Wisdom” is the
person of Jesus Christ and that it
was indeed Christ that was “brought forth” (vss. 24, 25) from the Father at,
or more succinctly preceding, the creation. Some Bible Commentaries also
confirm this position: Matthew Henry comments on Prov. 8:22-31 ( and the
relationship existing between “Wisdom” and Christ) in this way:
“That it [Wisdom] is an intelligent
and divine person that here speaks seems very
plain, and that it is not meant of a mere essential property of the divine nature [character trait], for
Wisdom here has personal
properties and actions; and that intelligent divine person can be no other than the Son of God himself, to whom the principal things here spoken of
wisdom are attributed in other scriptures . . .”[13]
M Many modern commentaries
are totally silent regarding Proverbs 8. Those
Scholars that do comment on it generally take the position that the language
of Christ’s being brought
forth “is to be taken
as technical terminology for the installment into office”—that is, that it is suggestive
only of a change in the role
(or office work) that Christ was to perform from that time
forth and not indicative of a substantive change in His being
(Davidson, p. 50). However, and much to his credit, Dr. Davidson also muses:
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“Is
it possible that, perhaps in a council between the members of the Godhead
before creation, it was decided that the One we now call the Second Person of
the Godhead would at the commencement of creation condescend to partially
empty himself (cf. The kenosis of Phil 2), to step down (perhaps taking the form of an angel? [Emphasis mine]) to become the
Mediator between the infinite God and finite creatures? And that Prov 8 is
referring to this installation—this “begetting” of the Son of God—into the
office of Mediator between the transcendent God and finite created beings?
And that Prov 8 describes the mediatorial role of Wisdom—the pre-incarnate
Christ?” (Davidson, p. 53).
I would take the
language of Proverbs 8 a step further and suggest that Christ’s being
“brought forth” involved much
more than a mere
change in His office work. I do not debate that Christ’s being “brought
forth” did involve a change in His
position and office work—but I believe that it involved a great deal more than that. I believe that His
being “brought forth” involved a change in the very substance of Christ’s being—as
well as a change in His office work and/or role. I believe that this “change”
is very much a part of the incarnation—the beginning
of it—and that one can only resolve the difficult
and apparently
contradictory statements in
the Bible and the SOP regarding the Godhead and the nature of the Holy Spirit
by accepting the position that Christ’s being “brought forth” involved a substantive change in His being.
Later, when we
examine this “change” in detail, we will see that
the personification of “Wisdom” takes on
particular significance when it is viewed as an existential
component of Christ: “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get
wisdom; and with all thy getting get understanding” (Proverbs 4:7; KJV), or
“The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; And with all your acquiring, get
understanding” (NASB). “Christ [is] the power of God and the wisdom of God”
(1 Cor. 1:24: Young’s Literal Translation, 1898). Righteousness, sanctification, and redemption are
all intrinsically linked with Jesus Christ. But they are more than just linked to
(associated with) Him, they are actually
embodied in the person of Jesus Christ. “. . . .ye are in
Christ Jesus, who became to us from God wisdom, righteousness also,
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36
and
sanctification and redemption,” (1 Cor. 1:30; Young’s). “And in none other is
there salvation; for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is
given among men, wherein we must be saved” (Acts 4:12); Revised Version). For the moment, however, I
hope that we have established (and agree on) the fact
that Jesus was “brought forth” from the Father prior to creation and that a
very important change took place in the nature of
the Godhead at this time.
Jesus had existed as God and with
God from the depths
of eternity past. This is confirmed in Proverbs 8:22 above, and in John
1:1-2. When He existed as God and with God, before
the Creation of intelligent life, He existed as/with God in “nature [form],
character, and purpose” (PP p. 34, par. 1). That “nature” (or form) was
almost assuredly that of “Spirit”—for “God is Spirit” (Jn. 4:24). According
to Proverbs 8:22-30, Christ was “Brought
Forth” from the Father
prior to the creation “when there
were no depths I was brought forth . . . before the hills I was brought forth.” Proverbs 8 describes Christ being brought forth as “a Master Workman” (vs. 30) and is in harmony
with other Biblical texts that teach that all things were created through and
by Christ (Jn. 1:3; Heb. 1:1, 2;
Col. 1:16). As outlined in chapter 3, this was necessary
in order for God to commune with His intelligent (free-willed) created beings
and to provide for the eventuality of Sin. But what exactly was this bringing forth? What did this involve? Was there a change in the nature of Christ at this time? And how
does this change affect our understanding of the
Scriptures, the Godhead, Christ’s nature, and the plan of Salvation?
Brought
Forth—How?
It is clear from Proverbs
8:22-30 that Jesus was “Brought Forth” prior to the creation—but in what
sense was He “Brought Forth?” Was it just
in terms of the role He would assume from then on
(His “office work”) or was it something more?
When we consider Christ’s
interactions with the Angelic host prior
to the fall of man, it becomes clear that Jesus had indeed changed in form and that He appeared in a form
that was very much like their own! Throughout the Bible we find references to
“the Angel of the Lord” which undeniably refer to the person of
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37
Christ. Examples of these can
be found in the accounts of Abraham and Sarah, Hagar, Jacob, Moses, Balaam,
Gideon, Manoah, David, Joshua, and others (See: Gen. 16:7-9; 22:11, 15; Ex.
3:2; Num. 22:32; Judges 6:12, 21-22; 13:15-21; Zech. 3:1-7; etc.). The
accounts of Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Joshua are worthy of particular
notice.
Genesis 22:10-18 describes one
encounter Abraham had with the “angel of the Lord” where it can be clearly
demonstrated that the “Angel” was actually the LORD! These passages recount
the story of Abraham and Isaac. Abraham is just about to sacrifice his only
son in obedience to the command of the LORD: “Abraham
stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of
the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham! And he said,
“Here I am.” He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do
nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld
your son, your only son, from Me.” ... “Then the angel of the LORD called to
Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, “By Myself I have sworn,
declares the LORD, because you have done this thing and have not withheld
your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly
multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on
the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your
seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed
My voice.”
When the Lord was about to
destroy Sodom and Gomorrah He appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre in the
heat of the day and Abraham
“lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were
standing opposite him; and when he saw them he ran from the tent door to meet
them and bowed himself to the earth, and said, ‘My Lord, if now I have found
favor in Your sight, please do not pass Your servant by’” (Gen. 18:2-3). Then he prepared a feast of the best he had to
offer them and they ate
with him. One of
these “men” was the LORD. It was here that the Lord promised: “I will surely
return to you at this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a
son” (vs. 10). Sarah laughed at the thought but the LORD rebuked her and
said: “Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will
return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son” (vs. 14). Then came the familiar
conversation between Abraham and the LORD about the destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah. There are a couple of things worthy of note in these passages.
First, it is clear that Abraham was speaking with the LORD! Second, the LORD,
appeared
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38
as a man. Third, the other “men”
were angels (Gen. 19:1). Fourth, the LORD ate with Abraham (he ingested
food!)—Does a “Spirit” ingest food?
When Moses was on the Mount, we
are told: “The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the
midst of a bush” (Ex 3:2). And when Moses went closer to see why the bush was
not consumed “the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him
from the midst of the bush and said, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I
am.’ Then He said, ‘Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your
feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ He said also,
‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob.’ Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.”
(vs. 3-6). It was here that God (the “Angel of the LORD”
in verse 2) declared His name: “I AM, WHO I AM.” In John 8:58 “Jesus said to
them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM.” So we are
on very safe ground when we conclude that JESUS was the “Angel of the LORD.”
In Exodus 24:9-10 we find Moses
returning to the Mount:
“Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu,
and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel; and
under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the
sky itself.” In Exodus
33:22-23 we find the LORD telling Moses: “and it will come
about, while my glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the
rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take My hand away and you shall
see My back, but My face shall not be seen.” Exodus
31:18 reveals that the Ten Commandments were written by God’s own hand: “When he had
finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of
the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.” “Then Moses
turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony
in his hand, tablets which were written on both sides; they were written on
one side and the other. The tablets were God’s work, and the writing was
God’s writing engraved on the tablets” (Ex. 32:15-16). In all these texts we find physical attributes
attributed to God—feet, hand, finger, back—that were seen by Moses. If Jesus
was the One who appeared to Moses declaring Himself to be the “I AM”—then we
can see that Jesus, as “the Angel of the LORD,” had physical attributes just
like other Angels spoken of in the bible.
When Jacob wrestled with the
Angel by the brook Jabbok, the being he wrestled with certainly had physical
substance! Jacob
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39
Wrestled all night with Him!
And when the morning came and he realized who he had actually been wrestling
with he declared: “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been
preserved.” (see Gen. 32:1-32). The Spirit of Prophecy confirms that the
being spoken of in these passages as the “Angel of the LORD” was indeed
Jesus:
“Abraham had seen in his guests only three tired
wayfarers, little thinking that among them was One whom he might worship
without sin. But the true character of the heavenly messengers was not
revealed . . . . Two of the heavenly messengers departed, leaving Abraham
alone with Him whom he now knew to be the Son of God” (PP; p. 138, 139).
|
|
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal
Spirit offered himself without spot to God,
purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? |
“THE” eternal Spirit
means one eternal spirit. The Spirit the Son of God laid aside at his
incarnation was of the same essence and substance as the Father’s Spirit.
|
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man
love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we
will come unto
him, and make our abode with him. |
But it was Christ’s Spirit
that was “laid aside” for us and the Son was raised to take away our
iniquities.
“Who but the Holy
Spirit can work with human minds to transform character by withdrawing the affections
from those things which are temporal, perishable, and imbues the soul with
earnest desire by presenting the immortal inheritance, the eternal substance
which is imperishable, and recreates, refines, and
sanctifies the human agents that they may become members of the royal family,
children of the heavenly King.” Ellen White, Ms. 1, 1892.
"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.-- Special Testimonies, Series A, No. 10, p. 37. (1897).
Acts 3:26 says that God raised up His Son Jesus
to bless us in turning us away from our iniquities (Sins).
Ellen White said that such iniquity, evil, sin,
can be held in check ONLY by the third person
of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit.
So what Scripture means
in John 14:23 by saying “we will come” is not certain except that evidently
all three members of the Godhead come to those who receive them. But it is true that the Father comes to us
through Christ’s Holy Spirit. It might be better to say that we partake of
God’s Spirit through the Son, Jesus, and that is what Bruce says in essence
in what follows. End note.
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because of the critical
differences between our being and His being (listed above). Christ could
fully partake of the Father’s Spirit. He was of divine origin and had been
brought forth from the Father. He had never
sinned and this fact set Him apart from us in a very distinct manner.
However, it should be noted that this gave Christ no advantage over us. Had Christ committed sin, He would have
been consumed—the Father’s
presence residing in Him would
have consumed Him had He sinned. But as long as He remained without sin,
Christ could partake of His Father’s Spirit and live through complete
dependence on His (Father’s) strength and power to overcome temptation and
sin. We are not in that exact position, but the “way” that we are to resist
temptation and be victorious over sin is the same—we must depend on God’s
Spirit (in this case Christ’s Spirit)
for the strength and power to overcome. The process is the same for
us as it was for Christ even though the direct agency of dependency differs.
Jesus has always pointed us to God the Father
as the source of all goodness and
of all power. But the Father can only give us these things in and through the person of Jesus Christ. He has appointed Christ as
the only medium through which He can bless mankind. “No
one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of
the Father, He has explained Him” (Jn. 1:18). “All things have been handed
over to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father nor does
anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to
reveal Him” (Matt. 11:27).
God’s wisdom and
strength and power are to flow to us, but they must flow through the agency
of Christ. This “power” cannot flow to us through the physical person (man) of Christ. It must flow through
Christ’s “Spirit.” Remember that
Christ is the only means of
communication between fallen man and God. ALL things must go through Him. “ . . . Man alienated himself from God; earth was cut off from
heaven. Across the gulf that lay between, there could be no communion. But
through Christ, earth is again linked with heaven . . . Christ connects
fallen man in his weakness and helplessness with the Source of infinite
power” (SC: p. 20, par. 2). Even the Angelis messengers are described, by Christ, as
coming through Him. In His conversation with Nathanael, Christ said, “Truly truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened
and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (Jn. 1:51). Christ is the
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means by which God’s graces flow to us. “There is no true
excellence of character apart from Him. And the only way to God is Christ”
(SC: p. 21, par. 1). “ . . . the communication between God and man . . . was
opened through Jesus Christ alone” (RH: March 25, 1875; par. 1). Jesus said:
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but
through Me” (Jn. 14:6).
Christ partook of His Father’s divine nature and “Christ
expects that men will become partakers of His divine nature while in this
world, thus not only reflecting His glory to the praise of God, but
illumining the darkness of the world with the radiance of heaven” (5T p. 731,
par. 1). Christ was dependent upon
His heavenly Father—we are to be dependent upon our Heavenly Father, which is Christ Jesus![34]
One of the greatest temptations the Devil
brought to Christ was to use or depend upon His own divine nature in order to overcome, or to relieve any of
the burden and suffering He experienced. In the wilderness, the Devil tempted
Christ in just such a manner. “The archdeceiver hoped that under the force of
despondency and extreme hunger, Christ would lose faith in his Father, work a
miracle in his own behalf, and take Himself out of his Father’s hands. ]He
wanted Christ to take His power back up and use it for Himself\ Had He done
this, the plan of salvation would have been broken; for it was contrary to
its terms that Christ should work a miracle in his own behalf . . . . As
man’s representative, He was to bear the trials of man, leaving a perfect
example of submission and trust in God” (Bible Echo: November 15, 1892; par.
2). “He exercised in His own behalf no power that is not freely offered to
us. As man, He met temptation, and overcame in the strength given Him from
God.” (DA p. 24, par. 2).
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When Christ was
“brought forth,” prior to the creation, He had undergone a change in His nature—He had separated some part of Himself from
the part of Himself that carried the attributes of God (Omnipresence, etc.).
However, the brought forth Christ did not
completely divorce Himself from using
His divine power, but had subjected its use to the Will of the Father. When
Christ was fully incarnated as a man, Christ relinquished His prerogative to use His divine power completely.
From here on out, the brought forth—fully incarnated Christ would be
forever dependent upon the Father
for the source of His power. It
should be noted that Christ never relinquished
His “RIGHT” to power—which was His
by “birth” and by “merit.” This fact is made clear by the Father’s
pronouncement to the heavenly host regarding “the true position of His Son” and “the relationship He sustained to all created beings” (see PP: p. 36,
par. 2). Jesus Christ was still
the “Son of God” and shall always
have “right” to the authority, power, and homage that goes with that title.
This is also made clear in the Bible—for God has appointed Christ “heir of
all things” (Heb. 1:2) and “of the Son He says, Thy throne, O GOD, is forever
and ever” (Heb. 1:8).
However, after His
incarnation as a man, Christ declared: “I
can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just;
because I see not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hat sent
me” (Jn. 5:30).
Even after His resurrection Christ declared that: “All
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth” (Mat. 28:18). It was His by “right,”
but it was not inherently His any
longer—it was given to Him by His
Father. Even His authority to rule as “Judge” has been given to Him: “This is
the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead”
(Acts 10:42; see also Acts 17:31). Things had changed dramatically for the
One who in the beginning, “was with God and was God.” Things had changed even
more drastically now that Christ had become a “man.” And things were about to
change irreversibly for the “Son
of God.”
Up until the point of
His death on the Cross, Jesus could
have abandoned His plans and picked up His Divine Power—reunited Himself
with His divine “Spirit”—and returned to His original relationship with His Father. Had He done so, however,
mankind (the entire human race)
would have been lost. “Terrible
was the temptation to let the human race bear the consequences of its own
guilt, while He stood innocent before God . . . . Christ might even now
refuse to drink the
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cup apportioned to
guilty man. It was not yet too late. He might wipe the bloody sweat from His
brow, and leave man to perish in his iniquity. He might say, let the transgressor
receive the penalty of his sin, and I will go back to My Father . . . . Three
times his humanity shrunk from the last, crowning sacrifice. But now the
history of the human race comes up before the world’s Redeemer. He sees that
the transgressors of the law, if left to themselves, must perish. He sees the
helplessness of man . . . . He will save man at any cost to Himself . . . .
He will not turn from His mission” (DA pp. 688, 690, 693).
When Christ entered
into His last hours here o this earth He began to feel the full affects of
His Sacrifice. “As the substitute and surety for sinful man, Christ was to
suffer under divine justice. He was to understand what justice meant. He was
to know what it means for sinners to stand before God without an intercessor.” (PK: p. 691, par. 1). Christ began to
suffer the total separation from
God that sin brings. “The spotless Son of God took upon Himself the burden of
sin. He who had been one with God, felt in His soul the awful separation that
sin makes between God and man. This wrung from His lips the anguished cry,
“My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Matthew 27:46. It was the burden
of sin, the sense of its terrible enormity, of its separation of the soul
from God—it was this that broke the heart of the Son of God” (SC, p. 13, par.
2).
As a “man” Christ had
to bear the burden of the sins of the world. It is true that: “Deity suffered
and sank under the agonies of Calvary” (SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p. 907.
[Manuscript #44, 1898])—But Christ was redeeming the human race and, as man’s
surety and substitute, He must do so as the rightful head of the human
race—He would have to accomplish this in
His humanity. This meant that He would be “separated” from His Father.
“Christ suffered upon the cross. He bore the sins of the whole world upon
Him. He was separated from His Father and great bloody sweat came from His
brow and moistened the sod of Gethsemane. He said, ‘If it be possible let
this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will but thine be done.’ He staggered,
and the cup trembled in His hand. The destiny of a lost world was upon Him.”
(Northern Illinois Recorder: August 17, 1909, par. A4). I really do not
believe that we have grasped the enormity
or significance of this
“separation.”
Christ was paying the
penalty for man’s sin. He was paying the penalty for “lawlessness”—the
penalty for man’s transgression of the Law of God. The penalty for
“lawlessness” (transgressing the Law) is “death.” But it is not the mere
physical death that all men face. “. . . to
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knowingly transgress the holy commandment . . . is a crime in
the sight of heaven which was of such a magnitude under Mosaic law as to
require the death of the offender. But this was not all the offender was to
suffer, for God would not take a transgressor of His law [a lawless—“Selfish”
person] to heaven. He must suffer the second death, which is the full and
final penalty for the transgressor of the law of God” (1T, p. 533, par. 1). Although Christ had
never sinned, He was taking the guilt of man’s transgression upon Himself
and, as such, would have to suffer the consequences
rightly due to man. The death that Jesus faced (and must experience) was the
“second death.” We simply cannot escape this conclusion. This is “the full and final penalty for the
transgressor of the law of God.” If Christ were to truly make a full and final atonement for our sin,
He would have to pay the full and final penalty
for sin. It could be no other way.
But “The penalty threatened is not mere temporal death, for all
must suffer this. It is the second death, the opposite of everlasting life”
(SOP vol. 4; p. 364, par. 2). What is the “second death?” If it is the “opposite of everlasting life” then it must be the final, permanent, everlasting death
of the individual (or person). This poses a problem for us. If Christ must pay the penalty for sin, and that
penalty is the “second death” (the final, permanent and everlasting
death)—then how is it that Christ was resurrected?
How is it that He “Lives?” The answer lies in what Christ did through the
incarnation and through the Cross. We must understand how Christ actually
“died” (and what was actually sacrificed) at the Cross. Did it involve only
His “physical” human life?
We are told that: “Humanity died: divinity did not die” (Youth’s Instructor,
August 4, 1898, par. 1). There is an awful lot contained in that short statement! The
death that occurred on Calvary was not just the death of one man! All of
“humanity” died in the person of Jesus Christ! Christ came to pay the penalty
for the whole human race—every
man, woman, and child that has ever lived! God has laid
“the iniquity of us all” upon Christ” (Isa. 53:6). “For as in Adam all die,
so also in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Cor. 15:22). “He Himself is the
propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the
whole world” (1 John 2:2). In Christ is the hope of the entire human race.
But the quote says that “Humanity died: divinity did not die.” Christ obviously died
as a man. It was in His humanity
that Christ died. Christ became a man, died as a man, was raised as a man—and Christ still retains His human nature. “The Son of God, now at the Father’s right
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hand, still pleads as man’s intercessor. He still retains His
human nature, is still the Saviour of mankind.” (ST, July 15, 1908, par. 7). If His “divinity” did
not die, then what happened to it?
We know that Christ was “raised”
in His humanity and that He will forever
retain His human nature—so He could not
have returned to His original divine Spirit self. “He who was one with God has linked Himself with the children
of men by ties that are never to be broken. Jesus is “not ashamed to call
them brethren” (Hebrews 2:11); He is our Sacrifice, our Advocate, our
Brother, bearing our human form before the Father’s throne, and through
eternal ages one with the race he has redeemed—the Son of man. And all this
that man might be uplifted from the ruin and degradation of sin that he might
reflect the love of God and share the joy of holiness” (SC, p. 14). What then became of
His divinity—His “divine” self—the “Spirit” self that existed with God in the
beginning?
The “death” that
Christ suffered was the second death.
It had to be Christ must suffer eternal separation from God. And this separation had to be of a permanent nature for there is no resurrection from the second death
(Eternal separation from the life giving Spirit of God is the very nature of
the second death). How then, was the man Jesus Christ eternally and permanently
separated from God the Father when He died? Wasn’t He resurrected, and
doesn’t He now exist in the Father’s presence?
Two things need to be
recognized here. First, as a “man” Christ did not sin (individually considered) and therefore the Law could not condemn Him—it could hold no threat of
eternal death for Him. The individual
person of Christ could be resurrected because He had committed no sin and
had no right to death. The man Jesus Christ, the only man who has ever lived without
committing Sin, could not be held
in the grave for death held no claim on Him. This is why the man Jesus Christ
could be resurrected and “live.”
God is a Just God and could not
hold an innocent man—a man that
had obeyed Him fully and without fail—a man who never sinned—guilty under the penalty of death for something that
he had never done. The grave simply could not hold Christ. In Christ, humanity could be resurrected and live eternally.
But Christ had taken on the sins of the world.
Christ literally “became Sin” for us, and suffered
the results of Sin for us (2 Cor.
5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might
become the righteousness of God in Him.”). Christ was able to do this
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because he was of divine origin. “The law of Jehovah, the foundation of His government in
heaven and upon earth, was as sacred as God Himself; and for this reason the
life of an angel could not be accepted of God as a sacrifice for its
transgression . . . . But the Son of God, who had in unison with the father
created man, could make an atonement for man acceptable to God, by giving His
life a sacrifice and bearing the wrath of His Father.” (Story of Redemption,
p. 48, par. 1). “Since the divine law is as sacred as God Himself, only one
equal with God could make atonement for its transgression. None but Christ
could redeem fallen man from the curse of the law and bring him again into
harmony with Heaven. Christ would take upon Himself the guilt and shame of
sin—sin so offensive to a holy God that it must separate the Father and His
Son.” (PP, p. 63, par. 2). As One who had been equal
with God, Christ could take upon Himself the guilt and shame of sin—He could
stand as man’s substitute—but in
so doing Christ would suffer the consequences
of sin and should be “separated”
from the Father. How? And for how long?
If Christ must suffer
the full and final penalty for sin—which is the second death (eternal and
permanent separation from God) then He would have to be “separated” from the Father eternally.
How could Christ be separated from the Father eternally? The answer lies in
the incarnation and the full
affects of the incarnation. In the Beginning Christ had been brought forth
from the Father for the purpose of mediation
(communication) between a Perfect
and All-Consuming God and the
creatures with which He wished to commune. At His birth Christ had laid aside
His royal robe—laid down His own divinity—and became a man. He relinquished the use of His own divine Spirit on His own behalf.
In effect, He separated Himself
from it (it did not reside in
Him). At His death, this separation between His brought forth, Divine Human “Self” and His Divine Spirit “Self” became permanent. Christ was to be “through eternal ages on with the race he has redeemed—the Son
of man.” (SC, p. 14, par. 3). Christ would never
again enjoy the intimate
Oneness that he had enjoyed with the Father in the beginning when He was
“with God and was God.”
Why would the Father
allow such a thing? How could He part with His Son? “Nothing
less than the infinite sacrifice made by Christ in behalf of fallen man could
express the Father’s love to lost humanity.” (ibid. par. 2). “For God so
loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in
Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (Jn. 3:15).
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And why would Christ
consent to such humiliation and undergo such condescension? Why would He be
willing to leave His Father’s side in order to rescue us? Why would Christ be
willing to part with His Divine Spirit and eternally become a man? “Christ took upon Himself humanity, and laid down His life a
sacrifice, that man, by becoming a partaker of the divine nature, might have
eternal life.” (Selected Messages, Bk. 3, p. 141, par. 1). “Christ was
treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves. He was
condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified
by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which
was ours, that we might receive the life that was His.” (DA, p. 25, par. 2).
Christ came in order
to demonstrate how man can
overcome through faith in
God—through a total submission to
God’s Will. Christ also came in order to demonstrate
what “MAN” can become through
being a partaker of the divine nature!
“The man Christ Jesus was not the Lord God Almighty.” (SDA
Bible Commentary, vol. 5, p. 1129). Christ had “laid aside His divinity” and would demonstrate to
us what being a partaker of the divine nature could actually do in us. In partaking of His Father’s
divine nature, Christ, as a man,
would actually unite divinity with
humanity and would incorporate humanity
into the Godhead!
Christ had to take on our nature and depend totally
upon His Father in order to do this. Christ also had to give up His divine nature in order to give it to (or share it with) us so that we too could be united
with God in a way that would actually qualify
us to be called “Sons (and Daughters)
of God” and share His Throne.
“Divinity had united with humanity for the purpose of uniting humanity with
divinity, that through Christ man might become a partaker of the divine
nature” (RH, July 7, 1896, par. 5. Christ came, not only to restore man to
his original glory but to elevate man to a state exceeding his original
design.
“. . . Christ gave up His life for the human
race. This sacrifice was offered for the purpose of restoring man to his
original perfection; yea, more. It was offered to give him an entire transformation
of character, making him more than a conqueror. Those who in the strength of
Christ overcome the great enemy of God and man, will occupy a position in the
heavenly courts above angels who have never fallen.” (General Conference
Bulletin, April 1, 1899, par. 2). This is a tremendous thing! This is a tremendous
Honor! “This is the mystery of godliness. That Christ should take human nature, and by a
life of humiliation elevate man in a scale of moral worth with God; that He
should carry His adopted nature
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to the throne of God, and there present His children to the
Father, to have conferred upon them an honour exceeding that conferred upon
angels,--this is the marvel of the heavenly universe, the mystery into which angels
desire to look. This is love that melts the sinner’s heart.” (Australasian
Union Conference Record, June 6, 1900, par. 15). Yet we talk of it as though it were a mere novelty. Our appreciation of it is
sadly lacking in most circles and our understanding of how this was accomplished is even more disturbing. Christ gave everything for us in order to make
this possible—and we sit around like little school children praying for the
latter rain and having no clue as
to what it is, and what it has cost the “Son of God” to provide it for us.
Christ
literally died to “self.” He died
to the “self” that once existed with God and as God” in order to save you and
me. He became “one” with us (and one of
us) in order that we might
become one with God. Christ not only
gave Himself for us, He gave
Himself to us! The "Son of
Man” now at the Father’s Throne, would be forever dependent upon His Father’s Spirit for divine power. His own divine Spirit He has given to us, that we may become
partakers of the divine nature. “The glory
which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as
We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so
that the world may know that You sent me, and loved them, even as You have
loved Me.” John 17:22, 23.
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Chapter 8 Summary
1. Christ created this earth and man using the power of His own
divine Spirit in accordance with (and to the glory of) the Will of the
Father.
2. When man sinned, Christ embarked on His mission to redeem man.
This required Christ to enter into a different
sort of ministry than He had performed prior to man’s fall. Christ now became the promised Messiah.
3. At the time that He was needed most, Christ incarnated Himself (through His Holy Spirit) into
the womb of Mary and thereby into the human race.
4. This “incarnation” had already begun at the time Christ was brought forth from His Father (and
His Spirit nature). His incarnation
was now “completed” as He took on our human nature.
5. Christ did, in fact, take on human nature—He became human.
“Christ did not make believe to take human nature; He did verily take it. He
did in reality possess human nature.” (RH, April 5, 1906, par. 4).
6. Christ took all the steps that we must take in conversion,
repentance, baptism, obedience, and resisting the evil one. Christ did this
through a complete surrender to
His Father’s Will and through complete dependence upon His Father for wisdom
and strength to resist and overcome the tempter. Christ did not use His own
power (His own divine Spirit) to do this—Christ partook of His Father’s
Spirit and relied upon His Father in order to do all that He did.
7. In doing this (depending solely upon His Father), He gave us a
living demonstration (example) of
what we are to do by depending solely upon Him and His Spirit for
the wisdom and strength to overcome sin and the devil.
8. Christ alone is the
medium through which we may approach God the Father. All of the Father’s blessings flow through Christ, and our communication
with the Father can only be done through
Christ. “The only way to God is Christ.” (SC, p. 21, par. 1).
9. Christ’s humanity
suffered the full and final penalty for our transgression which is the second
death—eternal separation from God. In Christ’s case this meant that He would never
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again be “One” with, and equal to, the Father in the way that He had been prior to the creation and the fall of
man. Christ would be forever
united with the human race. He would forever
retain His human nature.
10. In permanently taking
on human nature, Christ forever separated from His divine Spirit nature. This
Spirit nature separated from His divine Spirit nature. This Spirit nature is
what the Bible refers to as the Holy Spirit. Christ partook of His Father’s
Spirit nature—not His own. His own Spirit He sacrificed for us, in order that
we might become partakers of the divine nature (His) and thus, be “One” with
God
11. Proof that the “Holy
Spirit” is in fact “Christ’s Spirit” and why Christ sacrificed His Spirit for
us is the subject of the following chapters.
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Chapter 9
__________________
The Holy Spirit
Difficult and Revealing Bible
Texts
“They have one God and one Saviour; and one Spirit—the Spirit
of Christ” (9T p. 289)
“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the
Spirit of the Lord is; there is Liberty.” (2 Cor. 3:17)
I wish that it were possible
to devote this entire chapter to
the beautiful aspects of Christ’s Spirit
and what it means to us. However, in writing a book of this sort one is
inescapably faced with the necessity of examining some of the technical issues, difficult Bible texts,
and the inevitable objections bound
to be raised in response to the position set forth her. I know that this
sometimes makes for dryer reading but it is necessary before we can move on
to the kind of things that will stir your soul. So I would like to start with
these issues and conclude with the more glorious implications of all of this.
We will begin by looking at some of the difficult Bible texts used by some to
support the idea that the Holy Spirit is not
Christ’s Spirit but an unrelated third person of the Godhead (the traditional Trinitarian viewpoint).
Then we will take a look at the names of
the Holy Spirit and the character attributes that inseparably link Him to
Christ. We will also look at some of the Spirit of Prophecy quotes that have
muddled the waters of our understanding
of the nature of the Holy Spirit
and which many people use as proof positive inspired quotes to prove that the traditional doctrine of the Trinity
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is
the correct one. Finally we will examine both the Bible and the SOP quotes
that offer us a true understanding
of exactly who the Holy Spirit is,
and the beautiful implications of understanding this truth.
First,
let me say that it is impossible for a believer
in, or a student of, the Scriptures to conclude that the Holy Spirit is not God! His titles, His work, His relationship with God and His
relationship to us, all prove His
existence as “God.” I do not argue
this point. The Holy Spirit is indeed a
“Divine Being”—He is God. This fact, however, has caused many to erroneously conclude that the Holy
Spirit has existed as a third,
individual (or independent), member of the Godhead from all eternity.
This is simply not the case. Let
me explain.
Just
because the Bible identifies the Holy Spirit as being God does not mean that He must have existed as a third
person of the Godhead from all eternity. The Bible states that “God is Spirit
and since it refers to the “holy Spirit”
we could conclude that since the
Holy Spirit is God that He has existed as a separate individual (third) member of the Godhead with the Father
and Christ from all eternity. However, this type of reasoning is flawed for several reasons. We have
already seen that it was the Father
and the Son who created all things
and who were involved in the councils of heaven, the plan of Salvation, and
who are the only ones associated
with the Throne of God. It would also be incorrect
to assume that just because two things are true (fact) and are related to
a single subject (or person) that
they are directly correlated and
must exhibit all the characteristics of that subject/person (i.e. personal history and existence)! Too many of us have approached the subject of the
Holy Spirit with this type [of] faulty
reasoning and have used it, ultimately, to supp[ort our preconceived
opinions—or the teachings with which we were indoctrinated. Let me illustrate
why this type of reasoning can lead us to a wrong conclusion.
I
went to work yesterday—Yesterday I got sick. Does this mean that since I went to work yesterday that
this is the reason I got sick?
Absolutely not! I may have picked up a virus days ago (over the weekend) and
only came down sick yesterday. The fact that I went to work yesterday had nothing to do with my getting sick.
It would be totally fallacious to conclude that my going to work yesterday
was responsible for my getting
sick yesterday just because both things happened to me yesterday.
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Students
of the Scriptures sometimes employ this same kind of fallacious reasoning.
For example: We know that God (Father) is “Spirit” and we know that the Holy Spirit
is God. Does that mean that the Holy Spirit is the Father? Some believe He
is. Their reasoning incorporates the reasoning that God (the Father) is
“Spirit” and that He is “Holy” coupled with the fact that the Holy Spirit is God—
and
they conclude that God the Father IS the
Holy Spirit. This is correct in a
sense—we can certainly refer to the Father as a “Holy Spirit”—but
referring to the Father as The “Holy
Spirit” would not be true to Biblical revelation or its teaching
regarding “The Holy Spirit” as a being which is separate (or individual) from the Father. Just because the Bible
says that the Father is “Spirit” and it also speaks of the “Holy Spirit” as
being God, does not mean that the Holy Spirit is the Father God.
The
same kind of fallacious reasoning is employed by many of us in concluding
that the Holy Spirit, since He is God—and since God has existed from
all eternity—must have existed as
the third individual member of the Godhead from all eternity. This is simply
not the case and it is wrong for
us to make such a conclusion. God has indeed changed. Christ, who was “with God and was God,” was brought forth from the Father as a
divine being who was different
from the divine being that existed with the Father prior to the creation of
intelligent, free-moral, beings. Even the brought forth Christ underwent further change when He incarnated Himself into the human family
and took on the nature (form, intellect and character) of man. This change created a very real change in the nature of the Godhead. The Father and the Son no longer share the
intimate ONENESS THAT THEY ONCE DID WHEN Christ Existed, singularly, as the same type
of being (substance, attributes, and form) as the Father. In accomplishing
the incarnation (beginning with Christ being “brought forth” from the Father)
Christ could not maintain all the
attributes that once made Him truly
and singularly (individually) God.
Difficult Bible Texts:
John 3:12, 13: “If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall
ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to
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Heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man
which is in heaven.” (KJV emphasis added).
Some
translations of the Bible, such as the New American Standard Version (NASB),
do not include the last four words of verse 13: “which is in heaven.” They note it in a marginal
reference but do not include it in the body of the text. Many other
translations—The King James Version, the Revised Version, the International
Standard Version, the American Standard Version, Young’s Analytical
Translation, Webster’s, the Analytical-Literal Translation, etc.—all include these words.
I do
not know exactly why the NASB does not include the last part of this passage.
I realize that they are using what they consider to be the oldest and the best manuscripts available and that some of these do not include
these words. I do wonder though, if the translator’s may have chosen not to
include these words (which are found in other reputable manuscripts) because
they appear to make no sense at all! Whatever may be the
reason, these words are included in the majority
of Bibles and are worth our attention and study.
Jesus
is speaking here, and He (the Son of Man/God) is addressing Nicodemus as one
standing in his midst—in his immediate presence. These were not words spoken
through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—as were many of the other words
written by the disciples. Nicodemus related his encounter with Jesus to the
Apostle John who recorded this account in his gospel (see DA p. 177, par. 2).
Jesus revealed to Nicodemus his need to be “born again” “by an agency as
unseen as the wind” (DA p. 172)—that is, “the Spirit.” In other words, Jesus
was talking to Nicodemus about the Holy Spirit and his need to be re-born
from above. Christ was trying to
get Nicodemus to discern “heavenly
things.” HE was trying to get him to go beyond his earthly wisdom and understanding and to focus on that which is
from above, that is, on those truths which are spiritual and which are spiritually
discerned. Christ had used “earthly” things to illustrate the spiritual
things He was relating and while Nicodemus seemed eager to understand that which he was being taught, he
stubbornly refused to do so. Christ told Him: “if I told you earthly things
and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?”
(Jn. 3:12). Then Christ threw him a real “bone” to chew on. This difficult
bon (truth) is found in the
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Very
next words spoken by Jesus. It is the apparently
contradictory statement found in verse 13: “no man hath ascended up to
heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in
heaven.”
It
is not difficult to understand the first
part of this statement—that the One who came down from heaven and who has
ascended up to heaven is the “Son of Man”—Jesus Christ, the Messiah. But the second part of this verse leaves most
of us scratching our heads—“which [who] is
in heaven.” How could the man speaking these words to Nicodemus, and who
was physically present with him at
that moment, say that He is also in
heaven?! The tense that is
used in the word translated as “which is” (in heaven) is the first person singular present indicative—this
means that the word “is” is indicative
of the state of the person
speaking, at that moment—it indicates where the person speaking “is” right then. Jesus was saying, in effect, “although I am standing
here speaking to you right now”—“I am in heaven.” That will blow a
few brain cells! Especially if you understand that the Son of God, now
incarnate as “The Son of man” (Jesus Christ),
was not “Omnipresent.” “Cumbered with humanity Christ could not be in every
place personally.” (Manuscript 1084, p. 7—MR vol. 14, p. 23, par. 3)]. How then, could
Christ be present and speaking with Nicodemus here on this earth and be in
heaven?
If
you have followed the premise of this book so far, you can understand
perfectly
“how” this could be the case. Christ, in His brought forth/incarnate form,
was here speaking to Nicodemus—while Christ, in His Holy Spirit form, was in heaven. Interestingly, the roles would
be reversed following His death, resurrection and ascension—The Son of Man
would be performing His work in Heaven while His Holy Spirit would be
actively working here on earth. This is why Christ later told His disciples: “. . . ‘It is expedient for you that I go away.’ No one could
then have any preference because of his location or personal contact with
Christ. The Saviour would be accessible to all alike, spiritually, and in
this sense he would be nearer to us all than if he had not ascended on high.”
(RH, December 5, 1912, par. 6).
1 John 5:6-8: “This is he that came
by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and
blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is
truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the
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Father,
the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three
that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and
these three agree in one.” (KJV).
In the King James Version verse 7 reads: “For there are three
that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost: and
these three are one.” In almost every
other reputable translation these words are not included. Unlike John 3:13 above; these words are not omitted because of the use of
different documents or because
they don’t make sense. The words are omitted because the simply don’t belong there! They are not found in the original text. They were added from a corrupted text (more accurately, they became the corrupted text of this
passage of the King James Version).
This
verse made its way into the KJV primarily because Erasmus (a 16th century Theologian, Catholic Priest
and humanist), who hurriedly published his translation of the New Testament
in 1516, surcame to the pressure of the Catholic Church to include the words
in verse 7 from the Latin Vulgate. Erasmus agreed to do so if a Greek
manuscript could be found that contained these words—miraculously just such a manuscript was produced (by the Catholic
Church) AND Erasmus included this verse in the 1522 revision of his original
work. The manuscript he worked from, however, was one included in what is
known as the “Textus Recepticus” (meaning: “received” or “agreed upon” Text).
This “Textus recepticus” contains many errors primarily because it was a typed text that incorporated several scribal
notes in the original text. 1 John 5:7 of the KJV is an example of one of
those “scribal notes” that made it into the Bible. Interestingly, Erasmus was
“encouraged” to add this text
primarily in an effort by the Catholic Church to support and maintain the
doctrine of the Trinity.
However
it made its way into the King James Version, the text itself can be shown to
be out of context (not belonging) here. I should say that I really don’t have
any quarrel with the “truth” of the text—we certainly find the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit bearing record in heaven—but the insertion of this
text into the text of 1 John 5:6-8 is completely out of place and does not
belong there—and unfortunately, it gives a completely different flavor to
these verses if it is retained. It tends to make you think that John is
talking about the “Godhead” when he is not. Reputable
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scholars
would not think to use this text
to argue the Trinitarian position. Only those who are ignorant of its insertion, or, those who stubbornly deny that the King James Version could be in any way
“corrupt,” or, those who are desperate
to hold on to any text that would support their belief in the Trinity
would ever think to use this text as a “Proof
Text.”
For
these reasons I have to agree with the translators of the NASB (and other
versions) which omit this verse in
1 John 5 and translate verses 6-8 in this way (I will include verse 5 for
clarity): “Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes
that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the One who came by water and blood,
Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood.
It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there
are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three
are in agreement.”
The
verses take on a totally different flavor without the inserted text! One can readily see that you simply cannot insert the “Father” into these verses—they are
simply not talking about Him. The verses do speak of “Three that testify: the Spirit
and the water and the blood,” so let’s see what we can
learn about these “three.”
In
verse 5 John makes it clear that the “one who overcomes the world” is the one “who believes that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God.” His subject
here in these verses is the person of Jesus
Christ—the Son of God. Let’s look
further. John includes the “water and the blood” as two of the three that
“testify.” But he clearly states
that both the water and the blood
refer to one person—Jesus Christ
(see vs. 6). This indicates that there are not three separate individuals testifying. At best we could only
conclude two—Jesus (the water and the blood) and the Spirit. So what is John
telling us?
Given
that the subject matter of these
verses is the person of Jesus
Christ—and given that two of those
that “testify” indisputably refer to Jesus Christ (see vs. 6)—one must wonder why we would assume that
the third witness (the other one
testifying) here is someone, anyone, other than Jesus Christ! It makes
absolutely no sense to conclude
such a thing, and if we would simply read on in 1 John 5 we will find that
“the Spirit” is none other than Christ Jesus—our Lord.
In
verse 7 we read: “and it is the Spirit
who bears witness, because the Spirit is the
Truth.” Jesus emphatically declared: “I am . . . the
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Truth”
(Jn. 14:6). Jesus’ own words must be the precedent
upon which the Apostle John’s words are based
and are to be understood. John certainly understood this and so must we. When
John says that, “the Spirit is the
Truth” he cannot be contradicting the words of Jesus. So, if “The Spirit is
the Truth” and Jesus “is the Truth” then the Spirit must be Christ’s Spirit.
John must be stating that the “Spirit and “Jesus” are ONE of the same person, and if we continue reading in 1 John 5 we
find that John says exactly that.
John
explains that the “three” witnesses “agree in one” (vs. 8). The word translated as “agree” (KJV) or as “in
agreement” (NASB) LITERALLY MEANS: “are.” The WORD translated as “one” is
exactly that: it is the word for the numerical value of 1 (one) or “only.” So
the International Standard Version correctly translates the verse: “the
Spirit, the water, and the blood—and these three are one.” John already
explained to us in verse 5 that the “water” and the “blood” refer to the person of Jesus. Here in verse 8 he
is telling us that the “Spirit is “ONE”
with the water and the blood—that the “Spirit” is an integral component of the person
of Jesus Christ.
John
launched his discourse with the words: “And
who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the
Son of God?” (vs. 5). John summarizes his discourse with the same
emphasis: “The one who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself
. . . And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this
life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son
of God does not have life” (1 John 5:10-12) How is it that we have this
“witness” within ourselves? The incarnated
Christ certainly cannot literally be “in” us—but His Spirit most assuredly
can! And “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are the
children of God.” (Romans 8:16).
The three witnesses are this: the water is representative of (witnesses
to) the incarnation of Christ into
the human race. The blood is
representative of (witnesses to) the death
(sacrifice) of Christ on our behalf by which He made possible both the Forgiveness of our sins and our Justification (returning us to a
right standing) before God, and the Spirit
is representative of (witnesses to) His ongoing work on our behalf in
which He ‘transforms” us (Sanctifies
us) into His image by the indwelling of His
Spirit. “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son,
born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were
under the law, that we might receive the
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Adoption as sons, Because you are sons, God has sent forth the
Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are
no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”
(Galatians 4:4-7).
1
John 5:6-8 does not give us any
proof of an eternally existing “Triune” Godhead. On the contrary, it confirms
an original Godhead consisting of Jesus Christ and the Father, who, embarked
on a mission to save a lost race
through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Instead of speaking of the Godhead
itself (or of the Trinity, we see that John is speaking of the person of Jesus Christ when referring
to the “three that bear witness” and John has shown us that the Holy Spirit
is indeed Christ’s Spirit—not a separate member of the Godhead apart from Christ. The Holy Spirit
is: “. . . Christ in you, the hop of glory.” (Colossians 1:27. See
also 1 Peter. 3:15)..
Matthew 28:19: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them
to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to
the end of the age.”
This
is, by far, the most difficult Biblical Text to deal
with if you don’t agree with the traditional
doctrine of the Trinity. It is perhaps the only real Biblical text containing the Trinitarian formula per se. This text has bothered me for a very
long time—since before I came to
the belief I now hold regarding the Godhead and the Holy Spirit. Here is the
reason it bothered me so.
In
Matthew 28:19 (if we accept these words to be the words of Christ) we find a direct command from Jesus for His
disciples to go and baptize in the “name,
of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” First of all, we have to wrestle with the fact that
the text instructs them to baptize in the “name” (Singular) of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now I
understand that Jesus said that He and the Father are “one,” but if you want
to show that these three are
separate individuals then you would want to use the Plural (“names”) instead of the singular. More troubling than
that though is the fact that this is a direct
command. Surely the disciples realized the importance of obeying their Lord and Savior! Surely
they would follow His instructions to the letter—especially if Christ had
been as specific about the procedure as He appears to be
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in this verse. WHY is it then that we have absolutely NO
examples of the disciples obeying
Christ by following this direct instruction on how to baptize? You can search
the entire New Testament through and never find an example of the disciples
baptizing in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. What you
will find are examples in which they always,
and only, baptized in the name of JESUS. Why is that? Doesn’t that
bother you?
In the book of Acts we find examples of the disciples “making
disciples” of other men and baptizing them into the Lord Jesus Christ. In
each of the examples recorded we find them baptizing in the name of “Jesus.”
Act 2:38 “Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of
you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins;
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 8:16 “For He [Holy Spirit] had not yet fallen
upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord
Jesus.”
Acts 10:48 “And he ordered them to be baptized in the
name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days.”
Acts 19:5 “When they heard this, they were baptized
in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
Were
the disciples careless about
following our Lord’s instructions? Or did they understand perfectly what
Jesus had told them to do? Isn’t it more plausible (likely) that the
disciples were obedient to Jesus and followed His instructions? And if this
is the case, isn’t it probable
that those instructions were not
stated as we find them recorded in Matthew 28:19?
Now
I don’t want to sound like some naysayer who, whenever I come to a
“difficult” text, immediately says that it “doesn’t belong there” or that it
is “corrupt” and inserted by someone other than the actual author of the
text. However, we need to be honest
in our approach to God’s Word and not be afraid to critically examine it—comparing Scripture with Scripture—to
insure that it maintains its integrity and continuity. Unfortunately, most of
us do not want to critically examine
these things and prefer to read into a text our own preconceived opinions and beliefs. We don’t want to “THINK” about
or “QUESTION” ANYTHING. And WE take great
pride in suggesting that by accepting
whatever we read in the Bible as being inspired by God
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That
we are being more faithful to God
than someone who critically examines and questions the statements found there
(this is especially true in regards to difficult texts such as the one at
hand). In fact, we are often predisposed to attack anyone who questions something we have believed for so
long and who challenges us to look at our cherished beliefs in a different manner. I am quite certain that
many will attack me for espousing the position I have set forth in this book.
But that does not mean that these things are not true. Throughout history, many have been ridiculed (and even killed) for challenging a
long-held belief—only to be proven correct
as the Spirit of the Lord has brought Truth after Truth back into its proper
light and understanding. Wasn’t Martin Luther severely chastised for
preaching Righteousness by Faith? Haven’t Seventh-day Adventists been
ridiculed for their preaching the Sabbath? Could we be in danger of rejecting further “light” simply
because we are unwilling to let go of a long-held belief? Could we be in
danger of rejecting “new light” simply because we have become too lazy to honestly and critically
study God’s Word for ourselves—preferring instead to be spoon fed by the men
we consider “leaders” and “scholars?” I simply cannot afford to do this—and
neither can you. Mrs. White has told us that this can be a very risky thing
to do:
“Every
soul must look to God with contrition and humility, that He may guide and
lead and bless. We must not trust to others to search the Scriptures for us.
Some of our leading brethren have frequently taken their position on the
wrong side; and if God would send a message and wait for these older brethren
to open the way for its advancement, it would never reach the people.” (GW
1918, p. 303).
“I
have been shown that ministers and people are tempted more and more to trust
in finite man for wisdom, and to make flesh their arm . . . . I entreat of
you to search the Scriptures as you have never yet searched them, that you
may know the way and will of God. O that every soul might be impressed with
this message, and put away the wrong.” (Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 10
(1909); found in Testimonies to
Ministers and Gospel Workers, pp. 480, 481).
“Investigation
of every point that has been received as truth will repay the searcher. He
will find precious gems. And in closely investigating
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114
every
jot and tittle which we think is established truth, in comparing Scripture
with Scripture, we may discover errors in our interpretation of Scripture.
Christ would have the searcher of his word sink the shaft deeper into the
mines of truth. If the search is properly conducted, jewels of inestimable
value will be found. The word of God is the mine of the unsearchable riches of
Christ.” (RH, July 12, 1898, par. 15).
“There
is no excuse for any one in taking the position that there is no more truth
to be revealed, and that all our expositions of Scripture are without an
error. The fact that certain doctrines have been held as truth for many years
by our people, is not a proof that our ideas are infallible. Age will not
make error into truth, and truth can afford to be fair. No true doctrine will
lose anything by close investigation.” (RH, December 20, 1892, par. 1).
“We
cannot hold that a position once taken, an idea once advocated, is not, under
any circumstances, to be relinquished. There is but One Who is infallible—He
Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Those who allow prejudice to bar the
mind against the reception of truth cannot receive the divine enlightenment.”
(Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, p. 105, par. 2, 3).
“When
God’s people are at east, and satisfied with their present enlightenment, we
may be sure that he will not favour them. It is His will that they should be
every moving forward, to receive the increased and ever increasing light that
is shining for them. The present attitude of the church is not pleasing to
God. There has come in a self-confidence that has led them to feel no
necessity for more truth and greater light.” (5T pp. 708, 709. See Appendix
“D” for additional New Light quotes from the Spirit of Prophecy (these are
real eye-openers)!
Matthew
28:19 is indeed a very suspect
text. One of the reasons this is the case is that there is a very large gap
of time from the time Matthew wrote his Gospel and the earliest Greek manuscripts we have containing the words found in
Matthew 28:19—almost three hundred years exist between the two. Unfortunately, the “Church” during this
time period was also slipping quickly into darkness. The
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115
Catholic
Church developed much of their theology during this time and was doggedly
zealous in its enforcement of
these doctrines. If you dared to challenge them, you were labeled a heretic and could face shunning,
censure, and even death. To have only manuscripts dating to this time
(the 3rd and 4th centuries—during which the Catholic
Church was firmly establishing
itself and its belief as the authority
of the Scriptures), is a very real
and a very big problem. This face
alone should immediately call for some caution
in our acceptance of ‘every word’
contained in these documents. It would be nice if we had older, more reliable
manuscripts to work from. Unfortunately, as F.C. Conybeare informs us: “In
the only codices which would be even likely to preserve an older reading,
namely the Sinaitic Syriac and the oldest Latin Manuscript, the pages are gone which contained the end of Matthew.”[35]
In Shem-Tub’s Hebrew Matthew”
which uses Hebrew texts pre-dating
the Greek texts which we have,[36]
there is a very different ending to Matthew 28:19 which reads: “You go and
teach them to carry out all the things that I have commanded you forever.”[37]
Eusebius, in at least 18 citations of Matthew 28:19, always wrote it this way:
“Go ye and make disciples of all nations in
my name, teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I commanded you.”[38]
This reading would certainly be more in line with the Bible’s “in Christ” motif.
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You do
not have to go to the ancient manuscripts in order to deduce that the text,
as it reads in most Bibles, does not fit the Bible’s Theology. Nor do you have to agree with my position concerning
the Godhead to recognize that this text does not really fit into the bible’s
teaching about baptism. Please note that I am not suggesting that Christ didn’t give the great commission,
only that the words that He used are unlikely to be those found in most of
the translations we have of Matthew 28:19. If Christ gave the commission to
go and “baptize” then it would only make sense that His words would be in
harmony with the rest of the Bible’s teachings regarding baptism.
The
Bible clearly states that we are baptized into Jesus Christ (not into the Father or the Holy Spirit):
Rom. 6:3, 4 “Or do you not know that all of us who have
been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore
we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ
was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might
walk in newness of life.”
Gal. 3:26, 27 “For you are all sons of God through faith
in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed
yourselves with Christ.”
Acts 22:16 “And now why tarriest thou? Arise, and be
baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” (KJV).
“What ARE YOU waiting for now? Get up, be baptized, and have your sins washed
away as you call on his name.” (ISV).
Acts 10:48 “And he ordered them to be baptized in the
name of Jesus Christ.”
You
will never find any deviation from this except as it is recorded in Matthew
28:19! Why is that? If Jesus actually said the disciples should be baptizing
in the name of “the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit” then why don’t we
find this being done? This is a very serious
question and it demands a serious
and straightforward answer.
Jesus
could not have commanded the
disciples to baptize people in the name of [into] the Holy Spirit for if we
are baptized into the Holy Spirit
what need would there be to be baptized with
the Holy Spirit? Jesus could not
have told His disciples to baptize
people into the Holy Spirit simply because this is not a baptism that the disciples
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were
to perform.[39] We are told that Jesus is the one who will baptize us with the Holy Spirit—that this is the
baptism of Jesus. John the Baptist said: “I baptized you with water, He
[Christ] will baptize you with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8 cf. Mat. 3:11 &
Lk. 3:16). “ . . .This [Jesus] is the One who baptizes in [with] the Holy
Spirit.” (Jn. 1:33). Since this is obviously a separate baptism—a baptism in which we are immersed [baptized] with
the Holy Spirit—a baptism that Christ is to perform—then Jesus could not have
told the disciples to baptize people into the name of the Holy Spirit.
Once
we understand who Jesus is and how
He has provided us with Salvation, we are to be baptized into Him. He will then
baptize us with His Holy Spirit.
Christ’s Holy Spirit is the gift
we receive when we accept Him and
are baptized into Him. In
Galatians 3:27 we read: “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have
clothed yourselves with Christ.” To be “clothed with Christ” is to be baptized “with the Holy Spirit.” We “put on” Christ through the reception
of His Spirit in our mind and heart. “He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He
has given us” 1 John 4:13 makes all of this perfectly clear: “By this we know that we abide I Him and He in
us, because He has given us of His Spirit.”
So
the prescribed order is to learn of
Christ, be baptized into Christ,
and then to receive Christ’s
Spirit. “Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of
you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins;
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38). While there are some
exceptions to this order (see Acts 10:47), the normally prescribed order is
repentance, baptism, and the reception of the Holy Spirit—and there is a reason for this order.
Jesus
said to “go and teach” or “make disciples” of all nations. Teach them
what? Make them disciples of whom? We are to teach men of Christ in
whose name is the “forgiveness of
sins.” (See Lk. 24:47; Acts 2:38 & 10:43)—for “there is salvation in no
one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among
men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Jesus said: “I am the way, and
the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.” (John
14:6). We must
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be taught (learn) that we are in a lost condition and that there is only
one hope for us-the person of Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us that we might not die but
have eternal life. We must be persuaded
to place our faith I the Son of God and we must learn to depend upon Him for the power to overcome and to
live a new life in the power of His Spirit. We must repent (die to “self”) and make a
public proclamation of that repentance and of our acceptance of Jesus Christ
as our Savior, Lord, and God. That public proclamation is made through the
ordinance of baptism—in which is
symbolized our acceptance of Christ and His
sacrifice, our death to self, and
our resurrection to a new life in Christ—a life powered by the Spirit of
Christ! Paul stated it very clearly: “I have been crucified with Christ;
and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I
now life in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and
gave Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20).
Baptism
is an absolute imperative for all
those who are mentally and physically capable
of making such a public proclamation for to deny it is to deny Christ
and to have no part in Him. To neglect such a proclamation is to
neglect (or deny) the eternal price paid by Christ for our Salvation, and “how
will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” (Heb. 2:3). To refuse
baptism is really a “public proclamation” in itself—that we do not accept Christ’s death on our
behalf and that we do not accept Him as our Lord and Savior. Refusing to repent (die to self) and be baptized (being buried with Christ and resurrected to a new life
in Christ) is to remain “in the flesh”
or in our “sin.” And the Bible tells us that to do this is to remain dead in sin: “For the mind set on the
flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit [Christ] is life and peace,
because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not
subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those
who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but
in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does
not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” (Romans 8:6-10).
The
Bible is very clear about the fact that Salvation is through Jesus Christ alone. No one need be confused about
this: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John
3:15). This is the whole theme of
the Bible. Period. Once we understand this, we are to show our acceptance of Him by being baptized into Him. This is why I believe
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that
Jesus did not instruct His
disciples to baptize new disciples into the name of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit. He instructed them to baptize men into HIS name—the only “name under heaven
that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12).
We
need to be baptized into the name of
Jesus and not into the name of
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: because when we are
baptized into the threefold name
we are being baptized into a misconception.
We are being baptized into a false
belief about God, about Jesus Christ, about the Holy Spirit, and about the
Plan of Salvation. What I am saying is not sacrilege. Nor is it heresy. I am
not diminishing the value or the
persons of the Father or the holy Spirit in any way. Nor am I suggesting that the Father and the Holy Spirit
do not play an important part in our salvation. I am simply saying that doing what the Lord has commanded and in the way that that God has ordained is what we, as Christians, ought to be doing. When
we are baptized into the threefold
name (even ignorantly) we are
being baptized into the traditions of
men and not of God. Jesus
said: “BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF
MEN.” (Mark 7:7 & Matthew 15:9). I don’t want my worship, or my service
to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to be “in vain” – do you?
I
believe that one of the reasons we
have received so little of the Holy Spirit is because we have never
truly been baptized into Jesus Christ.
That is to say, that we have not had a
clear conception of who He is or
what He has done in order to make Salvation available to us. Or, as Mrs.
White puts it, “because we are so far behind our privileges.” (RH, October 8,
1889, par. 2). I am not suggesting that there is some kind of magic in the manner of our baptism.[40]
I am suggesting that the manner of
our baptism is what shows our understanding
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of,
and our commitment to, God’s Will and our willingness to demonstrate
that understanding and commitment in the way that He has prescribed. Until we
intelligently understand the will
of God in the person of Jesus Christ we will never be prepared to fully partake of His Spirit.
John 14:16-18: “I will ask the
Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of
truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know
Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will
not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”
This
is another favorite text of those who espouse the traditional view of the
Trinity. In this text there are several words that they seize upon in order
to deny that the Holy Spirit is
actually Christ’s Spirit. Those
words are: “another” (which they claim must
indicate that it is not Christ);
“He” and “Him”” (which they claim identifies a person other than Christ); and, of course, “Spirit” (which they claim identifies a person who is another person,
apart from Christ). These arguments simply don’t hold water, and we will
examine this in detail in a moment—dissecting this passage using textual
criticism, Greek meanings and usages, the Apostle’s understanding of the Holy
Spirit, and the extra-Biblical inspired
writings of E.G. White. But let me say right now that the meaning of what Christ was saying is
contained right within the text itself. Christ says that the disciples
already know Him (the
“Helper/Comforter”) because He abides (is
abiding) “with” them (Christ is the one abiding with them at this point). Then He says that He “will be” in them (yet future but soon to come to pass—Christ,
after He ascends to Heaven following His crucifixion, would abide in His
disciples through His Spirit), In verse 18, Christ explains that this other
“comforter” is really Himself—He would not leave them comfortless, He would “come” to them. It really isn’t that hard to understand is it? We are the ones that have muddled
this up! When we get done examining all this I believe that you are going to
be hard pressed to conclude that the Holy Spirit is not Christ’s Spirit! So if you want to hold on to your “cherished” traditional understanding
of the Godhead and the Holy Spirit, STOP RIGHT HERE! Otherwise, leave your
cherished positions at the door; humbly knock, and let the Spirit of our Lord
speak to your heart.
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“Who”
did the Apostles understand this
“other Helper,” this “Spirit of Truth,” to be? I am quite confident that the
disciples did not understand who
this “Spirit” was, at the time
that Jesus spoke these words, for in another place John tells us “But this He
spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the
Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not get glorified” (Jn. 7:39).
Jesus had also told the disciples that there were many things which He did
and was yet to do that they did not understand at the time He said or did them: “What I do you do not realize
now, but you will understand hereafter” (John 13:7). Ellen tells us: “The words of Christ were not always comprehended by the
disciples; and even when they were understood in a measure, the comprehension
of them did not measure their full significance. In order to understand the
sayings of our Lord, we should carefully and prayerfully contemplate the
words of truth, not merely to reach that comprehension of them which the
people of an earlier age might have had, but to reach a deeper significance;
for if our minds are illuminated by the Spirit of God, more and more of the
force and meaning attached to them by the Saviour himself will come to our
hearts.” (ST, April 6, 1891; par. 5). The disciples, however, did not remain ignorant as to the identity of
the Holy Spirit. The Apostles and the early Church understood that the Holy Spirit was indeed Christ’s Spirit and not
a completely separate being of the Godhead (as the Apostate Church teaches
and from which the Traditional and
Orthodox understanding of the Holy Spirit and the Trinity has come).
It
is extremely interesting that when Jesus was right in the middle of His discourse on the Holy Spirit (in Jn.
16 & 17) Jesus stopped and
said; “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot hear them now.”
(Jn. 16:12). What were those “many more things?” Ellen White tells us quite
clearly: “What was it that Jesus withheld because they could not comprehend
it?—It was the more spiritual, glorious truths concerning the plan of
redemption.” (RH, October 14, 1890, par. 4). Obviously, the truth about the
Holy Spirit is part of the “more spiritual, glorious truths concerning the
plan of redemption,” for she goes on to tell us that: “Only the Holy Spirit
could enable them to appreciate the significance of the plan of redemption.”
((ibid). She also tells us that this is a truth that must be “searched for”
through the inspired testimony of the disciples. It is not something that
will be understood by those who are given to a “casual” understanding of the
truths of God’s Word. “The lessons of Christ, coming to the world through the
inspired testimony of the disciples, have a significance and value far beyond
that which the casual reader of the Scriptures gives them . . . . He spoke of
the truths of the Bible as a treasure hid in a field . . . .
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He
represents the gens of truth, not as lying directly upon the surface, but as
buried deep in the ground; as hidden treasures that must be searched for. We
must dig for the precious jewels of truth, as a man would dig in a mine.”
(ibid).
So
let’s “dig” into the disciples’ testimony and see if we can’t come to a
knowledge of the truth concerning the Holy Spirit. As I said before, the
disciples came to understand clearly that the Holy Spirit is the “Spirit of Christ.”
Paul understood this:
Paul
wrote a very emphatic statement about Jesus Christ (which is in complete
harmony with the rest of the Bible) in 1 Timothy 2:5, 6 where he writes: “For
there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all . . .” Yet if we turn to the book
of Romans we find Paul stating that there is someone else making intercession
for us: “In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not
know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with
groaning too deep for words.” (Rom. 8:26). So which way is it Paul? Is there
only one mediator (“intercessor”)
between God and men, or are there two?
The simple truth is that there is only One, and Paul understood this perfectly.
Excepting
the Apostle John, Paul most fully understood and explained that “the Spirit”
who intercedes for us is “Christ’s Spirit.” We only have an “intercessor” or
“mediator” in Christ Jesus if we
have accepted Christ as our Savior and our Substitute—and if we have become His children. And
Paul explains that if we have become His children that Christ’s Spirit actively acts in our behalf: “Because you are
son, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba!
Father!” (Gal. 4:6). Paul understood the workings of Christ’s Spirit on His
behalf and he had complete confidence in this: “For I know that this will
turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provisions of the
Spirit of Jesus Christ, (Phil. 1:19). Paul understood that the person of
Jesus Christ, in both His humanity
and in His Spirit, are active in the process of our sanctification: “how much
more will the blood of Christ [His humanity], who through the eternal Spirit
[His Spirit self] offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause He is
the mediator of the new covenant . . .” (Heb. 9:14, 15).
As
the mediator of this “new
covenant,” and during the New Testament era (following Christ’s death and
resurrection), Christ
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Had
promised to put His Spirit inside us,
enabling us to obey Him and walk in His commandments: “I will put My Spirit
within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe
My ordinances.” (Eze. 36:27). Paul understood all this! And Paul understood the importance—the necessity
of the indwelling of Christ
through His Spirit in our lives if
we are to be victorious over our fleshly natures: “However, you are not in
the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But
if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”
(Rom. 8:9). This is also why Paul exhorts us to: “Keep examining yourselves
to see whether you are continuing in the faith. Test yourselves! You know, do
not you, that Jesus Christ lives in you? Could it be that you are failing the
test?” (2 Cor. 13:5 [ISV]).
Peter understood this:
Peter
also understood that the Holy Spirit was Christ’s Spirit. Peter tells us: “But
know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s
own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will,
but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” (2 Peter. 1:20, 21). Peter
makes it very plain that no prophecy
contained in God’s Word was spoken without the direct inspiration of the Holy
Spirit. Who is that Holy Spirit? Peter tells us: “As to this salvation, the
prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful
searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of
Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ
and the glories to follow.” (1 Pet. 1:10, 11). In other words the prophets who prophesied and predicted
the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow, did so through the
inspiration of “the Spirit of Christ”
which was “within them.” Peter
understood that the “Holy Spirit” is the
“Spirit of Christ,” and not some “other” person apart from Christ.
John understood this:
John
had an intimate understanding of the person
of Jesus Christ and of His Holy Spirit that surpassed that of many of his contemporaries. John wrote more
comprehensively on this subject than any of the other Apostles. Because John
recognized the importance of Christ’s words concerning His Holy Spirit, he
recorded the teachings of Christ
on this subject in greater detail
than did any of the other
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Apostles.
John realized the significance of the
sacrifice Christ has made in order to give us “His Spirit.” And this is
probably the reason Jesus chose John
as the one through whom He spoke most intimately regarding the Holy Spirit
and why John would be the one through whom Christ would give the “Revelation.”
It is also the reason why John ascribes the personal pronoun of “He” and “Him” to the Holy Spirit. John knew that the Holy Spirit is a person, and that the person of the Holy Spirit is “part
and parcel” of the person of Jesus
Christ. Here is the reason why we
know that John understood the Holy Spirit to be part of the person of Jesus Christ.
Technically
the Greek noun “pneuma,” translated as “Spirit,” is neuter—meaning that it does not
have a gender (masculine or
feminine) ascribed to it. Technically,
the pronoun used with a noun, must always agree with the noun to which it
refers.[41] Hence, the noun
“Spirit” ought always take a
neuter pronoun such as “it.” Consequently, any discussion about the “Spirit” ought (technically) be done without the use of the personal pronoun of
“He” or “Him.” But John knew that
the “Spirit” is not just an impersonal “power” (i.e. “the power of the flame”
Isa. 47:14), and that the Holy Spirit is inseparably
linked to the person of Christ and should rightfully be addressed as “He.” John is the only writer who consistently uses the masculine
pronoun “He” when he speaks of the Holy Spirit precisely for this reasons.
More Textual Criticism
concerning the “Helper” of John 14:16-18 and “His” identity as Jesus Christ:
The
word “another” is translated from the Greek word “αλλος” which means: “Another, numerically but of the same
kind in contrast to héteros
(G2087), another qualitatively, other,
different one.”[42]
In other words, this “other
Helper” is “another” numerically,
but qualitatively He is of the same kind (character/nature) as
Christ.
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Or,
to put it another way, the “helper” that the Father would send would not be a different one than Christ.
While
Jesus is the one who spoke the words recorded in John
14:16-18; it was John who chose which Greek words to use when
he recorded them. The prudence of John in choosing this particular Greek word
to describe what Christ had said, evidentially
demonstrates an understanding of
what Christ really meant that,
unfortunately, has eluded most of us.
Jesus
tells us in John 14:26 that this “helper” would be sent by the Father “in My name.” “But the Helper, the
Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all
things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.” Those words, “in My name,” are extremely significant. “It is through the name of Jesus that
every favor is received.” (MB, p. 133, par. 1). Anything that is truly done “in His name,” is intrinsically linked to Him. Something done in His name is to
be accepted as being done by Him.
Note these texts:
Mat 18:5 "And whoever receives one such child
in My name receives Me.”
Mat. 18:20 “For where two or three have gathered
together in My name, I am there in their midst.”
Mar 9:37 “Whoever receives one child like this in My
name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who
sent Me.”
Mar 9:39 But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for
there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon
afterward to speak evil of Me.
Luk 9:48 and said to them, “Whoever receives this
child in My name receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent
me.”
Mar 16:17, 18 “These signs will accompany those who have
believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new
tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it
will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Jn. 14:13 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I
do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Jn 14:14 “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will
do it.”
Jn. 15:16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and
appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would
remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to
you.”
Jn 1624 “Until now you have asked for nothing in My
name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.”
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Jn. 16:26, 27 “In that day you will ask in My name, and I
do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf; for the
Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I
came forth from the Father.
Jn.
16:23 “In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I
say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to
you.” He (the Father) will give it to you because you are “in Christ”
and your petition is considered as Christ’s
petition (so long as it is in harmony with the will of God).
Someone
sent in “His name” is to be accepted as His representative. But, in the case of the “Holy Spirit” it reflects
a much deeper meaning than that. The Holy Spirit is much more than Christ’s “representative”—He is Christ Himself, in
“Spirit” form. Mrs. White tells us that the words of Christ, especially those
recorded by John in the 16th and 17th chapters of his
Gospel, carry a significance for
us that we have not realized—a
significance that our enemy (Satan) understands much more clearly than we do
and is not willing to have us grasp.
“The
salvation of human beings is a vast enterprise, that calls into action every
attribute of the divine nature . . . . The Lord is gracious and
long-suffering, not willing that any should perish. He has provided power to
enable us to be overcomers. How full of comfort and love are the words of
Christ to his disciples just before his trial and crucifixion. He was about
to leave them, but he did not want them to think that they were to be left
helpless orphans. “I go my way to him that sent me,” he said, “and none of
you asketh me, Whither goest thou? But because I have said these things unto
you. Sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is
expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will
not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is
come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of
judgment: of sin, because they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I
go to my Father, and ye see me no more; of judgment, because the prince of
this world is judged. 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: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he
shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He
shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.
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127
Then
comes the wonderful prayer recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John,--a
prayer that means much more to us than we realize. Let us receive it into the
treasure-house of the soul, and make it the daily lesson of our lives:--
“As
thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the
world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be
sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them
also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one;
as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us:
that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou
gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in
them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the
world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast
loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me; be with me
where I am; that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me: for thou
lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world
hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou
hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it:
that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Satan
understands this prayer better than do the members of churches and the heads
of families. He does not want the people of god to understand it, lest they
should see the advantage God has bestowed on them, and know the day of their
visitation. He would keep them in discord and strife over little
misunderstandings and little differences which, dwelt upon, grow into
variance and hatred. He knows that if he can keep them thus, they will
present before the world a showing exactly the opposite of that which God
desires them to present.
I
urge our people to cease their criticism and evil speaking, and go to God in
earnest prayer, asking him to help them to help the erring. Let them link up
with one another and with Christ. Let them study the seventeenth of John, and
learn how to pray and how to live the prayer of Christ. He is the Comforter.
He will abide in their hearts, making their joy full. His words will be to
them as the bread of life, and in the strength thus gained they will be
enabled to develop characters that will be an honor to God . . . . Perfect
oneness,--a union as close as the union existing between the Father and the
Son,--this is what will give success to the efforts of God’s workers . . . .
It is this union that convinces the
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World
that God has indeed sent his Son to save sinners. Christ gives to his true
disciples the glory of his character, that his prayer may be answered.
Through the impartation of his Spirit, he appears in their lives.” (RH,
January 27, 1903, par. 9-13, 15.
The
Apostle John realized that Jesus Christ is the only One “sent” by the
Father (for our Salvation)—notice how many times John records this fact: (Jn.
3:34; 4:34; 5:23,24,30,36,37,38; 6:29,38,38,44,49; 13:20; 14:24; 15:21; 16:5;
17:3,8,18,21,23,25; 20:21& 1Jn 4:9,10,14). The other Apostles realized
this also, as did the early Church, but John really seems to have “honed” in
on this fact (and for an important reason). Matthew records this fact only
once (Mat. 10:40) as does Mark (Mk. 9:37). Luke records it only five times
(Lk. 4:18,43; 9:48; 10:16 and Acts 3:26). Paul refers to Jesus being “sent”
twice (Gal. 4:4,6). John records this fact at least 43 times! John seems to have recognized a significance in Jesus’ words regarding His being “sent.”
Thirty-nine (39) out of those 43 John is recording the words of Jesus (Jesus was obviously stressing
this point over and over again in order to get it through our heads that He is the only One “sent” by the Father for the Salvation of mankind—there
is Salvation in none other.
John
realized that when Christ said that the Father would send “another Helper” He was not referring to someone other than
Himself (Christ). We know this from our earlier study of 1 John 5:6-8 where
John showed us that the water and
the blood and the spirit were all references to Christ. There is no contradiction indicated in these statements when applied to
the premises of this book. But so that we are absolutely clear on this let’s
review a few facts.
Regarding
the Holy Spirit, we have absolutely no
evidence that He existed as a separate
individual member of the Godhead (apart from Christ) prior to the
Creation.[43] In fact, we have a
great deal of evidence that there were not three members of the Original
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Godhead.
We cannot simply ignore this fact.
And I don’t believe that we can simply explain it away as something that has
not been revealed to us— “ . . .for there is nothing concealed that will not
be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.” (Mat. 10:26). There are
simply too many quotes (Bible and SOP) which indicate that there are actually
only two persons of the original
Godhead, and that these two created
and implemented the plan of Salvation. This plan required a tremendous sacrifice on the part of both the Father and the Son.
Established before the creation of
the world, this plan required a separation
of the Son from the Father, which resulted in, or created, three members
of the Godhead. Explaining the “when” and “how” and, especially the “why” of the Holy Spirit becoming the third member of the Godhead has been the whole purpose of this
book.
And understanding of Christ’ sacrifice is vital for our Salvation. And an understanding of “What” Christ
has actually don is absolutely crucial for those of us “upon whom the ends of
the world are come.” (1 Cor. 10:11). Understanding that He has actually given His Holy Spirit to us in order that we may truly be
victorious over sin and the devil and in order that we may actually become partakers of His Divine Nature is critical for those who would receive the Latter Rain. We’ll see
why this is so crucial in chapter 11.
Before
we look at the “Helper” of John 14:16 under the other descriptive titles He
is referred to (e.g. “the Spirit of Truth” and “The Comforter”), we should
probably look at some of the SOP quotes that are used by those who believe
that the Holy Spirit is someone other than Christ. That way, when we have
finished examining these seemingly definitive
quotes on the nature of the Holy Spirit, we can move on to the most beautiful truths concerning the Holy
Spirit.
Ellen White and the “Third”
person of the Godhead:
Ellen White recorded several quotes that indicate that the
Holy Spirit is a person, that He
has a personality, and that He is
the Third member of the Godhead.
Many people use these quotes to prove
that the Holy Spirit must be
someone other than Christ. Here is
a listing of the most pertinent quotes used by those who insist that the Holy Spirit is not Christ:
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“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.” (Testimonies to
Ministers, p. 392).
“Keep yourselves where the three great powers of heaven—the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—can be your efficiency. These powers
work with the one who gives himself unreservedly to God. The strength of
heaven is at the command of God’s believing ones. The man who makes God his
trust is barricaded by an impregnable wall.” (In Heavenly Places, p. 176).
“There are three living persons of the heavenly trio, in the
name of these three great powers—the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit—those who receive Christ by living faith are baptized, and these
powers will co-operate with the obedient subjects of heaven in their efforts
to live the new life in Christ.” (Evangelism, p. 615).
“We need to realize that the Holy Spirit, who is as much a
person as God is a person, is walking through these grounds. The Holy Spirit
has a personality, else He could not bear witness to our spirits and with our
spirits that we are the children of God. He must also be a divine person,
else He could not search out the secrets which lie hidden in the mind of God.
‘For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in
him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.”
(Evangelism, pp. 616, 617).
“We have been brought together as a school, and we need to
realize that the Holy Spirit, who is a as much a person as God is a person,
is walking through these grounds, that the Lord God is our keeper, and
helper. He hears every word we utter and knows every thought of the mind.”
(Manuscript Releases, vol. 7, p. 299).
“The Holy Spirit is a person; for He beareth witness with our
spirits that we are the children of God . . . At such times we believe and
are sure that we are the children of God . . . ‘We have known and believed
the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in God, and
God in him.’” (Manuscript Releases, vo. 20, pp. 68, 69).
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“For ages prayers had been offered for the fulfillment of
God’s promise to impart His Spirit, He determined to give His representative,
the third person of the Godhead. This gift could not be excelled. He would
give all gifts in one, and therefore the divine Spirit, that converting,
enlightening, and sanctifying power, would be His donation . . . . It came
with a fullness and power, as if for ages it had been restrained but was now
being poured forth upon the church . . . .” (My Life Today, p. 36).
“We need to realize that the Holy Spirit . . . is as much a
person as God is a person . . . . The Holy Spirit is a free, working,
independent agency . . . . The Holy Spirit was the highest of all gifts that
He [Jesus] could solicit from His Father for the exaltation of His people.
The Spirit was to be given as a regenerating agent, and without this the
sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail . . . . Sin could be resisted
and overcome only through the mighty agency of the third person of the
Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fullness of
divine power. The Holy Spirit is an effective helper in restoring the image
of God in the human soul.” (The Faith I Live by, p. 52).
I have absolutely no quarrels with these statements. In
fact, I agree with them wholeheartedly! There are, however, a few mistakes that are often made by
Adventists when it comes to Ellen White’s writings. First, we have assumed
that she understood everything
there is to know about the subjects she was inspired to write about. This is
simply not the case. We readily
admit that the Bible writers didn’t always understand everything they were
inspired to record. Daniel certainly didn’t understand everything he recorded: “As for me, I heard but could
not understand.” (Dan. 12:8). Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and even the Apostle
John certainly did not understand
everything they recorded. Peter, speaking in Acts 2:16-18, told those
gathered in Jerusalem that what they were witnessing on the day of Pentecost
was the fulfillment of the
prophecy of Joel 2:28-32 regarding the outpouring of God’s “Spirit.” But we
know that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost was only
a partial fulfillment (the Early Rain) of what Christ intends to
do in the “last days” when He will pour out His Spirit in Full measure (the Latter Rain). Peter did not understand all that was involved concerning the outpouring of the
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Holy
Spirit. Why then do we insist that it was any different for Ellen White? She
certainly admitted that she was not “all-knowing” and that there were many things yet to be revealed. In
fact, when it came to the subject of the Holy Spirit, she made it clear that
“the nature of the Holy Spirit is a mystery not clearly revealed” and she
clearly stated: “There are many mysteries which I do not seek to understand
or to explain, they are too high for me . . .” (MS #1107 [MR vol. 14, p.
179]. This statement is made in direct reference to the Holy Spirit).
The
second error many of us have made is one of neglect. We have neglected to
compile all of her writings on a
particular subject before we have drawn our conclusions about what God was revealing through her. When people
do this with the Bible we become
very alarmed. Yet we often do this with Ellen’s writings. Why?
Third,
we forget that the revelation of “Truth” is progressive and that some truths will only be brought into the
“light” when God deems the time to
be right. Ellen White was human
and made human errors even during the many years that she received special
revelations from the Lord. “In the vision given me June 12, 1868, I was shown
the danger of the people of God in looking to Brother and Sister White, and
thinking that they must come to them with their burdens, and seek counsel of
them. This ought not so to be. They are invited by their compassionate,
loving Saviour, to come unto Him, when weary and heavy laden, and He will
relieve them . . . Brother and Sister White are striving for purity of life,
striving to bring forth fruit unto holiness; yet they are only erring mortals
. . . We utterly refuse to be conscience for you” (2T, p. 118 (119), par. 3).
If you will read the 1st volume of the Testimonies, you will see
that Ellen rather severely rebuked a man and a woman who had rediscovered the
truth about “unclean” meats: “If God requires His people to abstain from
swine’s flesh, He will convict them on the matter . . . If it is the duty of
the church to abstain from swine’s flesh, God will discover it to more than
two or three. He will teach His church their duty.” (p. 207) This statement
was written on October 21, 1858; five years before the great health reform vision of 1863. Yet it was written
during a time when Ellen was receiving
other important instruction from the Lord and was under His “inspiration.”
This
illustrates the fact that just because a prophet makes a statement at one
moment it either may not be directly from God or it may indicate that God had
not yet purposed that a particular truth be brought to the forefront. In
either case, the prophets understanding
of the subject would not be entirely correct. “The disciples themselves yet
cherished a regard for the ceremonial law, and were too willing to make
concessions,
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133
Hoping
by so doing to gain the confidence of their countrymen, remove their
prejudice, and win them to faith in Christ as the world’s Redeemer . . . .
Though some of these men wrote under the inspiration of the Spirit of God,
yet when not under its direct influence they sometimes erred. It will be
remembered that on one occasion Paul withstood Peter to the face because he
was acting a double part.” (Sketches
from the Life of Paul, p. 213, par. 2). This really should not bother us at all. Indeed, I find it
comforting to realize that God uses erring
human beings to shed forth His Truth—it gives me confidence and hope that
He can use someone as erring as myself in His great work When the time is
right, God will reveal His truths.
We
also often ignore the fact that inspired writers often recorded more than they themselves were aware, concerning the things they wrote
about. Sister White tells us: “Mysteries into which angel desire to look,
which prophets and kings and righteous men desired to understand, the remnant
church will carry in messages from God to the world. The prophets prophesied
of these things, and they longed to understand that which they foretold, but
to them this privilege was not given.” (6T, p. 19, par. 4). Mrs. White
understood this principle. The Biblical prophets understood this. Why don’t we?
So
let’s look at more than just a few
of Ellen’s statements regarding the Holy Spirit before we draw our conclusions about His nature. I
believe that you will be pleasantly surprised at how much God actually revealed about the nature of the Holy Spirit
through Ellen—even though she felt
that it had not been “clearly revealed” and was “too high” for her.
The Holy Spirit IS Christ (is
“Christ’s Spirit”):
We
can use the Bible alone to show that the “Spirit” is Christ’s Spirit. In Proverbs 8 we see that it is “Wisdom” that
was “brought forth.” We know that this refers to Christ and can refer to no
one else. So “Wisdom” is Christ.
Then we find references to the “Spirit of Wisdom” (see Isa. 11:2; Acts 6:3
and Eph. 1:17). If “Wisdom” is Christ, then the “Spirit of Wisdom” must be the “Spirit of Christ.” This
same truth is expressed in the Holy Spirit’s title of the “Spirit of Truth.”
Christ said: “I am . . . the Truth.” So if Christ is the Truth, then the
“Spirit of Truth” must be the “Spirit of Christ.”
In
John 14:16-17, Jesus referred to the other “Helper” as “the Spirit of Truth,
whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know
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Him,
but [Christ told his disciples] you know Him because He abides with you and
will be in you.” (John 14:17). If you believe the Spirit of Prophecy (and I
hope you do), there can be no doubt
that this other “Helper”—the “Spirit
of Truth”—is, in fact, Jesus Christ (Christ’s Holy Spirit). “Christ was
the spirit of truth. The world will not listen to His pleadings. They would
not accept Him as their guide. They could not discern unseen things;
spiritual things were unknown to them. But His disciples see in Him the Way,
the Truth, and the Life. And they shall have His abiding presence. They shall
have an experimental knowledge of the only true God and of Jesus Christ whom
He hath sent. To them He says: You will no more say, I cannot comprehend. No
longer shall you see through a glass darkly; you shall comprehend with all saints
what is the length and depth and breadth and height of the love of Christ,
which passeth knowledge. He who has begun a good work in you will perform it
until the day of Jesus Christ. The honor of God, the honor of Jesus Christ,
is involved in the perfection of your character. Your work is to co-operate
with Christ, that you may be complete in Him. In being united to Him by
faith, believing and receiving Him, you become a part of Himself. Your
character is His glory revealed in you. And when you shall appear in His
presence, you will find the benediction awaiting you, ’Well done, good and
faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things: I will make thee
ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of the Lord.” (Southern Watchman, October 25, 1898,
par. 2).
“There
are many things that we ought to be able to understand, that we do not
comprehend because we are so far behind our privileges. Christ said to his
disciples,” I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them
now.” This is our condition. Would they not have been able to understand what
he had to say to them, if they had been doers of his word—if they had
improved point after point of the truth which he had presented to them? But
although they could not then understand, he told them that he would send the
Comforter, who would lead them into all truth. We should be in a position
where we can comprehend the teaching, leading, and working of the Spirit of
Christ. We must not measure God or his truth by our finite understanding, or
by our preconceived opinions . . . . Is Christ abiding in your hearts by
faith? Is his Spirit in you? If it is, there will be such a yearning in your
soul for the salvation of those for whom Christ has died, that self will sink
into insignificance, and Christ alone will be exalted. Brethren and sisters,
there is great need at this time of humbling ourselves before God, that the
Holy Spirit may come upon us.” (RH, October 8, 1889, par. 2).
Jesus
not only described the Holy Spirit as the “Spirit of truth,” but also as the
“Comforter” (“Helper” and
“Comforter” are used
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Synonymously
and come from the same Greek word): “But the Comforter which is the Holy
Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things,
and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
(Jn. 14:26 KJV. See also: Jn 15:26 & 16:7. Jesus is our comforter: “I,
even I, am He who comforts you.” (Isa 51:12). The Spirit of Prophecy leaves
us no doubt as to the identity of the “Comforter.”
“As by faith we look to Jesus, our faith pierces the shadow,
and we adore God for His wondrous love in giving Jesus the Comforter.” (MS
#1405 [MR, vol. 19, pp. 297, 298]).
“The Saviour is our comforter. This I have proved Him to be.”
(MS #548 [MR, vol. 8, p. 49])
“Christ tells us that the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, and
that the Comforter is the Holy Ghost, “The Spirit of truth, which the Father
will send in my name . . . . This refers to the omnipresence of the Spirit of
Christ, called the Comforter.” (MS #1107 [MR, vol. 14, p. 179]).
“Let them be thankful to God for His manifold mercies and be
kind to one another. They have one God and one Saviour, and one Spirit—the
Spirit of Christ . . .” (9T p. 189, par. 3).
“The reason why the churches are weak and sickly and ready to
die, is that the enemy has brought influences of a discouraging nature to
bear upon trembling souls. He has sought to shut Jesus from their view as the
Comforter, as one who reproves, who warns, who admonishes them, saying, “This
is the way, walk ye in it.” Christ has all power in heaven and in earth, and
he can strengthen the wavering, and set right the erring.” (RH, August 26,
1890, par. 10).
“Jesus is waiting to breathe upon all His disciples, and give
them the inspiration of His sanctifying Spirit, and transfuse the vital
influence from Himself to His people . . . . they must act with His Spirit,
that it may be no more they that live, but Christ that liveth in them. Jesus
is seeking to impress upon them the thought that in giving His Holy Spirit He
is giving to them the glory which the Father hath given Him, that He and His
people may be one in God.” (MS #99 [MR, vol. 2, pp. 36, 37]).
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“Let them study the seventeenth of John, and learn how to pray
and how to live the prayer of Christ. He is the Comforter.” (RHY, January 27,
1903, par. 13).
Jesus
said that He would not leave us “comfortless” and said” “I will come to you.”
(John 14:18). Jesus also said “where two or three have gathered together in
My name, I am there in their midst” (Mat. 18:20). He assured us; “lo, I am
with you always, even to the end of the world” (Mat. 28:20 KJV). How is Jesus to “come” to us? How is He “in our midst?” How can He
be with us “to the end of the
world?” He tells us how in John
14:16 where He says that the “comforter/helper” would “abide with you
forever.” Jesus, in His humanity cannot be in all places at all times—He
cannot “abide” with everyone, everywhere, “forever.” “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.” (MS #1084 [MR, vol. 14, p.
23]). “The Son of God, now at the Father’s right hand, still pleads as man’s
intercessor, He still retains His human nature, is still the Saviour of
mankind.” (ST, July 15, 1908, par. 7). In the person of His “Holy Spirit” form, Christ could be in all places
at all times and “abide with us forever.” “While Jesus, our Intercessor,
pleads for us in heaven, the Holy Spirit works in us, to will and do of His
good pleasure.” (MS #99 [MR, vol. 2, p. 37]). “Christ declared that after his
ascension, he would send to his church, as his crowing 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, Jesus gave to man the highest good that
heaven could bestow.” (RH, May 19, 1904, par. 1, 2).
When
Christ said “I will not leave you comfortless,
I will come to you,” it is readily
apparent that He was speaking of Himself
as the “Comforter,” the Spirit of Truth that will “abide with you forever.”
Jesus was speaking of His Spirit—“the
soul of his life” which He has given to us. “John calls upon the
world to ‘Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God.’ It is a love that passeth knowledge. In
the fullness of the sacrifice nothing was withheld. Jesus gave himself.” (The
Paulson Collection, p. 339, par. 3).
The
inspired Apostles understood and taught that the Holy Spirit is Christ’s Spirit: “Now the Lord is the
Spirit, and where the Spirit
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137
of
the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2 Cor. 3:17)—And that, “if anyone does not
have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” (Rom. 8:9). They
taught that it is only through our
acceptance of Christ (expressed in
our baptism) THAT His Spirit IS
GIVEN to us: “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit.” (Acts 2:38). The Bible states that Christ is “He who comforts you.”
(Isa. 51:12). And Ellen White has clearly
demonstrated that the “Comforter”—the
Spirit of Truth—the Holy Spirit, is none other than Christ: “Christ was the
spirit of truth” [Southern Watchman, October 25, 1898, par. 2). “He is the
Comforter.” (RH, January 27, 1903, par. 13). She even tells us that the Holy
Spirit is “the soul of His life.” (RH, May 19, 190-4, par. 1) which has been given to us that we may become a
“partaker of [His] divine nature.” (Ibid. par. 3). This really ought to be
argument enough to establish this fact—but apparently it isn’t, for we
continue to deny this Truth! So,
let’s dig a little deeper.
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Chapter 9 Summary
1.
Christ taught that the Holy Spirit is, in fact, His Spirit—but because the disciples
hadn’t even understood fully that He was indeed the Messiah—He had to teach
this truth in ways that were somewhat obscure and abstract. Concerning the
Holy Spirit He told them “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot
bear them now” (Jn. 16:12). Christ would
tell them later, but He would have to do so through the person of His Holy
Spirit—after He had ascended into heaven.
2.
The Disciples learned and taught the truth that the Holy
Spirit is “the Spirit of Christ” (
Rom. 8:9; Phil. 1:19) and they did this quite clearly. Their understanding of
the full significance of this
truth may have been limited, but they knew
and they experienced this truth
when Christ baptized them with His Holy Spirit.
3.
Unfortunately for us, some of the texts recorded in the Bible
have been corrupted over time and have introduced fallacious views of the
Holy Spirit. These views have been propagated largely by the Catholic Church
and have been accepted by the majority of Protestants as well (SDA’s included).
4.
Satan does not want the people of God to understand the truth
about the Holy Spirit because he knows that if we understood it clearly and
appropriated Christ’s Spirit fully, that his power over us would be broken
and his end would come.
5.
Satan has been successful in encouraging us to make limited use of Mrs. White’s writings
concerning the identity of the Holy Spirit and has gotten many of us to use
only a few of her
statements—sadly, mostly the one’s which seem
to support the traditional doctrine of the Trinity. When we compile all of
her writings on this subject and couple them with what the Apostles taught,
we find that they are in agreement and that they clearly reveal that the Holy
Spirit is Christ’s Spirit and not
someone other than Christ.
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Chapter
10
________________________
The
Holy Spirit
The
Mystery Explained
There are many things that we ought to be able to understand,
that we do not comprehend because we are so far behind our privileges. Christ
said to his disciples, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot
bear them now.” This is our condition . . . . We should be in a position
where we can comprehend the teaching, leading, and working of the Spirit of
Christ. We must not measure God or his truth by our finite understanding, or
by our preconceived opinion.” (RH, October 8, 1889, par. 2).
Have you ever wondered “why,” in all of Ellen White’s writings,
she never uses the term “Trinity”
when speaking about the Godhead? I believe that this is a most meaningful omission. Ellen was certainly
familiar with the term. She had come out of a church that believed in and
taught this doctrine. Why, then, does she not use the term trinity when
speaking of the Godhead? If the traditional “Orthodox” position of the
Trinity is correct then why not
use the word that has come to be the accepted term in describing this
position? Ellen uses phrases that do describe three beings comprising the Godhead such as “heavenly trio” or
“three divine dignitaries,” but she never
uses the term Trinity—Why? Why
didn’t God inspire her to use this term
to describe the Godhead if it truthfully
describes the doctrine of the Godhead and the members comprising it?
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I can only conclude that God did
not intend that the traditional doctrine of the Trinity—as taught and
accepted by most within the Christian world (and perhaps especially important, His remnant
church)—should be understood by His
people in the way that we have been content
to understand and teach it. I believe that God intended, and still
intends, that His people would
come to know the “Truth” about the Godhead and the Great price that has been paid by both the Father and the Son in
order to redeem us and make us partakers of the Divine nature. I believe that
god especially intends that we shall know the Truth about the Holy Spirit and
the work that He is to accomplish in those in whom He is going to fully reproduce Christ’s character
before the Great and Dreadful day of the Lord.
I believe that God intends
that we shall understand that Christ’s incarnation and death involved not
only the giving of His human life,
but also the giving of His divine life
(His Spirit) for the Salvation of His children. Christ sacrificed the fullness of His being in order to redeem the human race. This sacrifice meant
“parting” with, or “laying aside,” His inherent
powers of divinity—that is, He could no longer singularly possess all
of His divinity in His person. His person underwent a change and
effectively created a third person
of the Godhead. Now, these two
“individuals” of the Godhead comprise the totality of Christ. They exist as His divine humanity (which has been incorporated
into the Godhead) and His divine Spirit
(which is that part of Himself that encompasses His divine power and has always existed with the
Father).
“Jesus has done everything for you; he withheld not even
himself.” (ST, November 20, 1884, par. 20). Christ has paid the penalty for our transgression and in His
humanity Christ pleads His own merits on our behalf before the Father. But
that is simply not enough to bring about our transformation into His likeness: “Christ
must be in us a living working power.” (MS #39, 1896 [7BC p. 921, par. 5]). He can only transform us into
His image by abiding in us through
the indwelling of His Holy Spirit.
It is His “Spirit” that confirms and makes effectual what Christ, in His
humanity, has done for us. His Spirit is responsible for the completion of
the Plan of Redemption. “It is the Spirit that makes
effectual what has been wrought out by the world’s Redeemer. 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
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divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated
tendencies to evil, and to impress his own character upon the church.” (RH,
May 19, 1904, par. 3). Christ’s divinity
and His humanity combined
constitute the perfect sacrifice that He has made in order
to make us “One” with God.
Some of you are probably
mindful of the statements made by Ellen White that: “He [Christ]
did not part with His divinity.” (RH, June 15, 1905. [SDA BC, 7a, p. 444,
par. 6]). We must address this issue
very seriously, and I hope that I can do so here. I do not wish in any way to leave the impression that
Jesus Christ “gave up” His divinity and that He is no longer God. If Christ
is not divine, then He could not be our Savior—and this position would be
completely unbiblical. I am acutely aware of the warnings that the prophet of God has given regarding our
treatment of “the humanity of Christ.” And I believe that she had good reason
for giving this advice. “Avoid every question in relation to the humanity of
Christ which is liable to be misunderstood.” Truth lies close to the track of
presumption. In treating upon the humanity of Christ, you need to guard
strenuously every assertion, lest your words be taken to mean more than they
imply, and thus you lose or dim the clear perceptions of His humanity as
combined with divinity. His birth was a miracle of God . . . . Never, in any
way, leave the slightest impression upon human minds that a taint of, or
inclination to, corruption rested upon Christ or that He in any way yielded
to corruption . . . . let every human being be warned from the ground of
making Christ altogether human, such an one as ourselves; for it cannot be.”
(SDA BC, vol. 5, pp. 1128, 1129). So the warning is given so that we do not
speak of Christ in such a way as to leave the impression that Christ was a sinner—such an one as
ourselves.
We are, however, encouraged to study the incarnation and to “dig
deep for hidden truth:” “As the worker studies the life of Christ, and the character
of His mission is dwelt upon, each fresh search will reveal something more
deeply interesting than has yet been unfolded. The subject is inexhaustible.
The study of the incarnation of Christ, His atoning sacrifice and mediatorial
work, will employ the mind of the diligent student as long as time shall
last” (Gospel Workers, p. 251, [SDA BC, vol. 7a, p. 444, par. 1]). “We should
come to this study with the humility of a learner, with a contrite heart. And
the study of the incarnation of Christ is a fruitful field, which will repay the
searcher who digs deep for hidden truth.” (The Youth’s Instructor, Oct. 13,
1898. (SDA BC vol. 7a; p. 443, par. 1). But we are to be ever mindful that in so doing we do not make
Christ out to be “altogether human,” a sinner
such as we are, and thereby lose
our Savior.
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While Christ was not
“altogether human” (such a one as ourselves), the “truth” lies uncomfortably
close to this. Christ did in fact become a man: “Christ did
not make believe to take human nature; He did verily take it.” (RH, April 5,
1906, par. 4). And: “In taking
our nature, the Saviour has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is never
to be broken. Through the eternal ages He is linked with us. “God so loved
the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son.” John 3:16. He gave Him not
only to bear our sins, and to die as our sacrifice; He gave Him to the fallen
race. To assure us of His immutable counsel of peace, God gave His
only-begotten Son to become one of the human families, forever to retain His
human nature. This is the pledge that God will fulfill His word.” “Unto us a
child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His
shoulder.” God has adopted human nature in the person of His Son, and has
carried the same into the highest heaven.” (DA, p. 25, par. 3). Indeed, Christ so fully
partook of our human nature (became a “man”) that even He was, for a time,
put on probation. “As a free agent, He [Christ] was placed on probation, with
liberty to yield to Satan’s temptations and work at cross-purposes with
God.”) The Youth’s Instructor, October 26, 1899). “For a period of time
Christ was on probation . . . .Had He failed in His test and trial . . . the
world would have been lost.” (ST, May 10, 1899, par. 6). Had Christ “Sinned” He would have been personally liable to face our fate:
“Could Satan in the least particular have tempted Christ to sin, he would have bruised the
Saviour’s head . . . Had the head of Christ been touched, the hope of the
human race would have perished. Divine wrath would have come upon Christ as
it came upon Adam.” (SDA BC, vol. 5, p. 1131). Yet Christ did not sin. “We should have no
misgivings in regard to the perfect sinlessness of the human nature of
Christ.” (Ibid).
Many people do not accept the
fact that Christ could, and did, in fact become a human being. We don’t like
to consider such a prospect. We think that if we accept this fact that we are
making Christ nothing more than “one of us.” We think that acknowledging this
truth would somehow lessen the
Glory of the person of Jesus Christ. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Christ demonstrated the nature of
God perfectly—in His humanity. As “One” who was once fully God, Christ
condescended to become a man and to pass over the ground that we must tread.
“Although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a
thing to be grasped, but [Literally] emptied Himself, taking the form of a
bond-servant . . . being made in the likeness of men.” (Phil. 2:6, 7).
Through complete dependence and surrender to His heavenly Father He never
broke from God and
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never sinned. In His perfect humanity He took on our sin and paid the penalty for our
transgression. And in His humanity
He pleads before the Throne of God His
merits on our behalf. By acknowledging the humanity of Christ we do not make Christ one like “us”—we
acknowledge that Christ has made
it possible for us to be “One like
“Him.” Rather than being uncomfortable with Christ’s humanity,
we should be in “awe” of it, and embrace it.
The condescension on the part of Christ—in becoming “man”—involved an inestimable cost to Christ and to His
Father. The person of Christ would
never again enjoy the “Oneness”
with His Father that He once
enjoyed. The “man” Jesus Christ would no longer be equal with the Father but would instead be subjected to Him. It is only in this light that we can understand
the statement of the prophet: “The man Christ Jesus was not the Lord God
Almighty.” (MS #140 [SDA BC, vol. 5, p. 1129]). The man Jesus Christ would forever be our example in dependence and trust in God. Christ has united Himself
with us in such an intimate and real way
that, “He is not ashamed to call us brethren.” (Heb. 2:11). Through His
sacrifice, Christ has not only restored us to a proper standing with God; but
has made it possible for us to partake
of His divine nature in such a real
and intimate way that we are to be “joint heirs” with Him, living and reigning with
Him—sharing His throne, His Kingdom, His divine nature!
Traditionally, Christianity has
taken one of three options in explaining Christ’s nature—none of which fully
reveals the truth. They are:
1. Christ was fully human and thus a created bring (Arianism).
2. Christ was fully divine and not one of us
(Catholicism).
3. Christ was fully human and fully divine in the same person
(the view of most Protestants, including Seventh-day Adventists).
But here is the problem: If we
make Christ “altogether human, such an
one as ourselves” we leave ourselves without a Savior. “ . . . the life of an angel could not pay the debt.” (Early
Writings, p. 150). “In all the universe there was but one who could, in
behalf of man, satisfy its [the Law’s] claims . . . . only one equal with God
could make atonement for its transgression. None but Christ could redeem fallen
man from the curse of the law and bring him again into harmony with Heaven.”
(PP, p. 63, par. 2). If we make Christ fully divine (of divine nature alone), we
leave ourselves without hope—for
we do not possess this divine nature
within ourselves. “The humanity of
the Son of God is everything
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to us. It is the golden chain
that binds our souls to Christ, and through Christ to God. This is to be our
study. Christ was a real man.” (The Youth’s Instructor, Oct. 13, 1898 [SDA BC
vol. 7a, p. 443, par. 1]). “Christ did not make believe to take human nature;
He did verily take it. He did in reality possess human nature.” (RH, April 5,
1906, par. 4). Even if we combine the
two concepts and make Jesus fully human but maintaining His own divine power in His human form,
we are still left with a Savior who is unlike
ourselves, and who could not be “tempted in all things, as we are.” (Hebrews
4:15). “If we had to bear anything which Jesus did not endure, then upon this
point Satan would represent the power of God as insufficient for us.
Therefore Jesus was “in all points tempted like as we are.’ Heb 4:15. He
endured every trial to which we are subject. And He exercised in His own
behalf no power that is not freely offered to us. As man, He met temptation,
and overcame in the strength given Him from God.” (DA p. 24, par. 2). “Our
Saviour relied upon His heavenly Father for wisdom and strength to resist and
overcome the tempter. The Spirit of His Heavenly Father animated and
regulated His life.” (The Youth’s Instructor, February, 1, 1873). The “Truth”
about Christ’s humanity and His divinity, and how they are combined, must lie beyond any of these positions.
In the person of Jesus Christ
(“God with us”) we are faced with a divine “dichotomy” and a “paradox”
of enormous proportions! The solution to understanding this paradox is in
understanding that Christ’s divinity and His humanity were combined on two levels. We are told that in order
to understand the mystery of the incarnation we must understand “the dual character of His [Christ’s] nature.” (DA p. 507,
par. 1). When Christ was incarnated He
implanted His brought forth self into the womb of Mary-thus
combining divinity with humanity
and retaining His divine character. “In His
human nature He maintained the purity of His divine character.” (The Youth’s
Instructor, June 2, 1898 [SDA BC, vol. 7a; p. 454, par. 4]). As part of this retained divine nature, He never had
the propensity to sin—only the
possibility of choosing to sin. “ . . . our Saviour took humanity, will all
its liabilities. He took the nature of man, with the possibility of yielding
to temptation.” (DA, p. 117, par. 2). “He could have sinned; He could have
fallen, but not for one moment was there in Him an evil propensity.” (Letter
#8, 1895. [SDA BC, vol. 5, p. 1128]). Christ was of “divine” origin when He was incarnated and this He could in no way deny, give
up, or “part” with. He was the Son of God.
However, in accomplishing the
incarnation, Christ could not retain
all the attributes of His divinity. It simply was not possible.
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These attributes included the
attributes of His “Omnipresence,” “Omniscience,” and “Omnipotence.” Christ
could not simply “clothe” or “veil” these powerful divine attributes as if
they were things He stuck in His pockets to be kept out of our sight. For
example: Had Christ been “omniscient” in His humanity but simply concealing
it, He could not have said that He
did not know the hour or the day of His second coming without being dishonest. It is also quite clear
that Christ, in His humanity, was not Omnipresent and could only be “present”
with those in His immediate physical proximity (and this remains the case for the person
of Christ now in heaven).
Had Christ been Omnipotent in His
humanity (and simply hiding it) He would have been “lying” when He claimed
that He could do “nothing” of Himself and that it was His Father” abiding in
Me who does His works.” (See Jn. 5:19 & Jn. 14:10).
So whatever Ellen White meant
when she said that Christ “clothed His divinity with humanity” (7T, p. 221,
par. 2) she could not have meant
that He retained these attributes
of His divinity within the person
of His humanity for in His humanity He “was not the Lord God Almighty.”
Still, these divine attributes require “personality”
and embodiment in a person. Can
you imagine Omnipresence void of a personal being (wouldn’t that be nonsensical and meaningless)?—Omniscience
without the mind of a personal being?—Omnipotence
without the constraint of the personality, intelligence and character, of an
actual being? The idea is ludicrous. We are faced with the fact that these
attributes of Christ’s divinity could
not be brought with Him into His
incarnated state, and also with the fact that these attributes of His
divinity could not “die” with
Christ—for Divinity cannot “die”—and must exist as a individual, part from the man Jesus Christ. “When Christ was
crucified, it was His human nature that died. Deity did not sink and die;
that would have been impossible.” (Letter #280, 1904 [SDA Bible Commentary,
vol. 5, p. 1113]). The man Jesus
Christ, in His Humanity, died. The
divine Spirit of Christ (His own divine Spirit nature) did not die. As I pointed out earlier, it
would require an impossible stretch of the imagination to believe that
Christ’s divine Spirit nature would go on living without some sort of personality
and intelligence! If His divinity
(Spirit) went on living without some kind of personality it would be nothing
more than a mindless power and
this would deny the testimony of the Scriptures: “He who
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Searches
the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for
the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:27).
What
we are left with is the reality that Christ yielded up His divine attributes
as part of His sacrifice for mankind. The person through whom these
attributes would be maintained could not be the person of Jesus Christ in His
“brought forth” or “incarnated” form (His humanity). And this is where we find the “Holy Spirit” coming
into play. Through the Holy Spirit ( a fitting title for the divine
attributes of Christ, His divine
attributes would ever remain alive
and would be used to impart Christ’s life and righteousness to all those who
accept Him as their Savior. “The influence of the Holy Spirit is the life of Christ in the
soul. We do not now see Christ and speak to Him, but His Holy Spirit is just
as near us in one place as another. It works in and through every one who
receives Christ. Those who know the indwelling of the Spirit reveal the
fruits of the Spirit, --love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith.” (Bible Echo, June 17, 1901, par. 6).
Christ
“yielded up” His Spirit as a gift to us. Christ had been “brought
forth” from the Father prior to the creation and had separated from His Spirit (fully divine form) at the time in
order to “mediate” between the Father and all free-moral beings. Christ effectively became two beings at this time. Christ still
maintained command of His Spirit
and would use His Spirit power to
create the earth and mankind (See PP, p. 36, par. 2). But when He became fully incarnated as a human being,
Christ’s incarnated self was completely separated from His Spirit self. He would no longer
exercise His own divine power. Incarnated into His human nature, He would be completely dependent upon the Father for His power. In His incarnated human form, Christ was totally dependent upon His Father’s Spirit: “our Saviour relied upon His heavenly Father for wisdom and
strength to resist and overcome the tempter. The Spirit of His Heavenly
Father animated and regulated His life. He was sinless.” (The Youth’s
Instructor, February 1, 1873). Christ—in His humanity—had
literally “emptied Himself” (Phil. 2:7) of His own divine power. When Christ died on the Cross this separation became irreversibly final. When He declared:
“It is finished!” (Jn. 19:30), Christ was not only speaking of His human sacrifice on our behalf; He was
also speaking of His spiritual sacrifice—He
“gave up His Spirit.” (Jn. 19:30). Luke 23:46 states that Christ said: “Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT
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MY SPIRIT.” Ellen says that, “Christ commended His spirit
into the hands of His Father.” (2T, p. 211, par. 1). To “commit” or “commend” something to another
means: to “entrust, or give in charge for care” – “To consign (for
preservation).”[44]
When Christ commended His Spirit
to the care of His Father, He was parting with His own divine Spirit form forever with the intent that it
would be given to us—to dwell in us—to enable us to be partakers of the (His) divine nature. It was the only
way that Christ could accomplish the reproduction of His character in us.
Our trying to imitate His
character can never accomplish this. Only through His Spirit, abiding in us, can we be made partakers of the divine
nature and have His character reproduced in
us. Consider what a sacrifice
He has made that we may be called the Sons and Daughters of God!!
Christ maintained His “divinity” in
character and origin in His human
form, and He maintained His
“divinity” in power and
Godlikeness in His “Holy Spirit “
form. These would, of necessity, exist in the form of two persons (the man and the Spirit) but
they both are of the same being, Jesus Christ. In this
sense, Jesus has not “parted” with
His divinity in either case! But
His divinity has certainly changed.
Taken as a whole, these two forms
of His being constitute the blending
of humanity with divinity, but not quite in the way that we normally teach
it.
Christ did “part” with His divine Spirit when He became man, but He did not part with His divine character,
origin, or birthright. Christ in His divine humanity, had taken upon Himself the “Sin” of the entire world
and He suffered the separation
that sin makes between man and God. “Christ suffered upon the
cross. He bore the sins of the whole world upon Him. He was separated from
His Father and great bloody sweat came from His brow and moistened the sod of
Gethsemane” (Northern Illinois Recorder, August 17, 19098, par. 14). Christ
suffered “the second death, which is the full and final penalty for the
transgressor of the law of God.” (1T, p. 533, par. 1). And that “second death” is
“the opposite of everlasting life” (SOP vol. 4, p. 364, par. 2). In other
words, Christ would never again
exist eternally as God (that is,
with His Own divinity residing within Himself). Christ would forever be a partaker of His Father’s Spirit (divinity), but He
would not retain
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His own divine Spirit. Christ’s human nature would forever
exist separate from His divine Spirit
nature Christ was actually giving up the true Oneness He had enjoyed with the Father in the beginning when
He had been “with God” and when He had been truly and fully “God.”
Christ would never again
experience the same existence He
had once had with the Father. He would be forever human. Christ had suffered
as a man, as a man He would die, as a man He would be resurrected, as a man He intercedes for us in the
courts of heaven, as a man He will
return to this earth, and as a man
He will exist with us throughout eternity (see 1 Cor. 15:24-28).
In His
humanity, Christ became dependent
upon His Father for the divine power
to overcome Sin and to redeem the human race. He partook of His Father’s divine nature just as we must partake of His divine nature, which He has shed for us. He became God in His Humanity
by partaking of His Father’s divine nature (Spirit). This is the only way that He could provide us
with a perfect example of what we must do to become partakers of the
divine nature, without doing (or using) something that we are incapable of
doing. “He overcame in human nature, relying upon God for power.”
(The Youth’s Instructor, April 25, 1901[SDA BC, vol. 7a, p. 447, par. 2]).
“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.” (ST, August 2, 1905.
[SDA BC 7a, p. 449, par. 3]). Christ came as a “man” to show us what we, as men, can do
through dependence upon divine power.
“Christ’s overcoming and obedience is that of a true human
being . . . When we give to His human nature a power that it is not possible
for man to have in his conflicts with Satan, we destroy the completeness of
His humanity . . . The obedience of Christ to His Father was the same
obedience that is required of man. Man cannot overcome Satan’s temptations without
divine power to combine with his instrumentality. So with Jesus Christ, He
could lay hold of divine power [not His own but His Father’s] . . . The Lord
Jesus came to our world, not to reveal what a God could do, but what a man
could do, through faith in God’s power to help in every emergency. Man is,
through faith, to be a partaker in the divine nature, and to overcome every
temptation wherewith he is beset. . . Jesus, the world’s Redeemer, could only
keep the commandments of God in the same way that humanity can keep them.”
(MS #1, 1892 [SDA BC, vol. 7, p. 929]).
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Through
complete dependence upon His heavenly Father, Christ has walked the same
ground that we must walk and has given us an example of how we may overcome through His power and be partakers of His divine nature and Spirit.
We are told
that when Christ’s “Humanity died: [His] divinity
did not die.” (Youth’s Instructor, August 4, 1898, par. 1). That “divinity” is what became what we refer to as the “third
person of the Godhead”—the Holy Spirit. Christ would retain His human nature throughout eternity and His Spirit, He
“yielded up” to His Father to be given
to us that we might become
partakers of Christ’s divine nature and
literally become the “sons of God.” “Because you are sons, God has sent forth
the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Galatians
4:6).
Through His
Spirit (which He has given for us)
Christ imparts to us His character,
His righteousness, and makes it
possible for us to be a partaker of His
divine nature (next chapter). These two
aspects of His nature—human and Spirit—comprise the whole of which, makes
possible our reconciliation to God. In taking our human nature and in
partaking of the Father’s divine nature Christ has shown us how humanity is to be united with God. In separating
from His Spirit and in giving it to us He has actually enabled us to be united with God. By becoming human God has laid
hold of the human race and united with it. By giving us His Spirit, Christ
has empowered us to lay hold of
God and to become like Him. “Christ was the representative
of humanity. He had laid aside his glory, stepped down from his throne,
clothed his divinity with humanity, that with his human arm He might encircle
the race, and with his divine arm reach the throne of the Infinite. He took
upon Him the nature of man, and was tempted in all points like as we are. As
a man He supplicated at the throne of God, beseeching his Father to accept
his prayer in behalf of humanity; and to his earnest petition the heavens
were opened. Never before had angels listened to such a prayer, and the glory
of the Majesty of heaven shone upon Him, and words of love and approval
assured Him of the acceptance of his petition as man’s representative. God
accepted the fallen race through the merits of Christ.” (Periodicals: The
Messenger, December 15, 1892, par. 2). “We can come off victorious; for
through Christ we can be partakers of the divine nature, having “escaped the
corruption that is in the world through lust.” . . . When we had nothing to
recommend us to God, Christ gave his life for us. With his long human arm he
encircles the race, while with his divine arm he grasps the throne of the
infinite. Thus finite man is united with the infinite God. The world, divorced
from God by sin, has
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been
restored to favor by the sacrifice of his Son. With his own body the Saviour
has bridged the gulf that sin has made.” (General Conference Bulletins, April
8, 1901, par. 13. This explains the necessity for, ad the essence of, the
“dual nature” of Christ’s character and nature, or form.
It is my
belief that when Ellen White (and the Bible for that matter) make a distinction between the person of Jesus and the person of the Holy Spirit, that they
are doing so in the understanding that the incarnated Jesus (who retains
His human form before the throne of God in Heaven) and the His Holy Spirit (which retains His “Spirit” form both in
heaven and upon this earth) now exist as two individual entities. How else
are we to comprehend the words of Jesus in John 1:3? “This is eternal life,
that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have
sent.” Is Jesus saying that He isn’t truly GOD? The answer is “Yes” and the answer is “No.” Jesus was truly and fully God—“in the beginning.” But when He was “brought forth”
prior to the Creation, that existence began to change in a very real and substantive
way. The Father has never changed in form, substance or
character. Jesus did change. Jesus
was “brought forth”—He was incarnated—and in so doing He became both a human
and a Spirit. It was not possible
for Jesus to accomplish the incarnation and
retain all of His “divine”
attributes (His Omnipresence, Omnipotence, and His Omniscience). His humanity would posses none of these attributes (Just as our humanity does not possess them).
His divinity (or Spirit nature)
would continue to possess these divine attributes—but would exist apart from the person of Christ’s
humanity and would therefore not be the fullness
of Christ by itself.[45]
These two parts make up the
complete person of Jesus
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Christ, but
neither of them alone is truly God in the fullest and truest
sense. Christ has a “human”
personality and a divine “Spiritual”
personality. These two exist
as separate individuals, but
together comprise the totality of the person of Jesus
Christ. Neither of these
individuals alone posses the totality
of Christ’s Oneness as God. Only the Father maintains His true and original existence as God. And I believe that this [is] what Jesus meant when He said: “This is eternal life, that they may know You the only true
God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
We
may speak of Jesus as a person and
speak of the Holy Spirit as a person, but we must never separate the two from Christ—for it can never be so. Christ sacrificed Himself—body and Spirit in
order to redeem us. The person of
Jesus Christ must be understood in this light. It is He who has provided His
Spirit “as a regenerating agency,” a “reconciling influence and a power that
takes away sin.” (RH, May 19, 1904, par. 3)—and He has done so at an
“enormous” and “eternal” cost to Himself. “Christ was treated as we deserve,
that we might be treated as HE deserves . . . He suffered the death which as
ours, that we might receive the life which was His. ‘With His stripes we are
healed.” (DA, p. 25, par. 2).
I
understand that this is a difficult
thing to be understood—that Christ (God Himself) would sacrifice Himself so
completely that He would become human
(forever to retain that nature and forever subservient to His Father), and in
so doing would also sacrifice His
divine Spirit nature on our behalf in order that we might become One with
Him—accepted of the Father—brothers and sisters of Christ. It is beyond human
reasoning and beyond the heart of man. But it is in this mystery that we find our hope and our salvation.
For
those of you who still have
trouble accepting that the Holy Spirit is Christ’s literal Spirit and that Christ effectively became two persons (human and Spirit)
in order to save us; please consider these words of inspiration:
“The
Holy Spirit is Himself [Christ] divested of the personality of humanity and
independent thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by
His Holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent.” (MS
#1084 [MR, vol. 14, p. 23, par. 3]).
“He might have helped His human nature to withstand the
inroads of disease by pouring from His divine nature vitality and undecaying
vigor
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to the human. But He humbled Himself to man’s nature . . . God
became man!” (RH, Sept. 4, 1900. [SDA BC 7a, p. 452, par. 4]).[46]
“The influence of the Holy Spirit is the life of Christ I the
soul. We do not now see Christ and speak to Him, but His Holy Spirit is just
as near us in one place as another. It works in and through every one who
receives Christ. Those who know the indwelling of the Spirit reveal the
fruits of the Spirit,--love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith.” (Bible Echo, June 17, 1901, par. 3).
“A healthy Christian is one who has Christ formed within, the
hope of glory . . . . He who has sound faith finds that Christ is the life of
the soul, that he is in him as a well of water springing up unto everlasting
life, and he delights to conform every power of the soul to the obedience of
his Lord. The Holy Spirit with its vivifying influence ever keeps such a soul
in the love of God.” (RH, December 11, 1894, par. 2).
“Jesus is waiting to breathe upon all his disciples, and give
them the inspiration of his sanctifying spirit, and transfuse the vital
influence from himself to his people . . . Christ is to live in his human
agents, and work through their faculties, and act through their capabilities.
Their will must be submitted to his will, they must act with his spirit, that
it may be no more they that live, but Christ that liveth in them. Jesus is
seeking to impress upon them the thought that in giving his Holy Spirit he is
giving to them the glory which the Father has given him, that he and his
people may be one in God.” (ST, October 3, 1892, par. 4).
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“Christ gives them the breath of His own Spirit, the life of
His own Life.” (DA, p. 827, par. 3).
“The Holy Spirit is the breath of 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.” (DA, p. 805, par. 3).
“They have one God and one Saviour; and one Spirit—the Spirit
of Christ—is to bring unity into their ranks.” (9T, p. 189, par. 3).
“Christ has made every provision for us to be strong. He has
given us His Holy Spirit, whose office is to bring to our remembrance all the
promises that Christ has made, that we may have peace and a sweet sense of
forgiveness. If we will be keep our eyes fixed on the Saviour and trust in
His power, we shall be filled with a sense of security; for the righteousness
of Christ will become our righteousness.” (My Life Today, p. 45, par. 5).
In Christ, through Christ,
Christ in us! Christ has made it possible for God to be “over all and through
all and in all.” (Eph. 4:6). May we never forget that: “The great gift of
salvation has been placed within our reach at an infinite cost to the Father
and the Son. To neglect salvation, is to neglect the knowledge of the Father
and of the Son whom God hath sent in order that man might become a partaker
of the divine nature, and thus, with Christ, an heir of all things.” (RH,
March 10, 1891, par. 2).
I would
encourage you to read what I consider to be Ellen White’s single-most revealing essay on “The
Spirit” of Christ, which may be found in Appendix “E” of this book. It is a
very precious message for our time and summarizes much of what I have tried
to expound in this book. Namely, that Christ became a man in order to Justify
us—He “became a life giving Spirit.” (1 Cor. 15:45) in order to Sanctify us. The nature of His
sacrifice is far beyond what we have traditionally acknowledged and the
implications of this sacrifice have been ignored and unrealized by His
people. Because we have failed to understand the fullness of Christ’
sacrifice (physical and Spiritual)
we have failed to fully comprehend the significance and magnitude of the
truth that Christ has literally given His
Spirit to us in order that we may actually become . . . .
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Chapter 10
Summary
1.
God is not pleased that we have become “satisfied” with our
present enlightenment and that we are “so far behind our privileges.” (RH,
October 8, 1889, par. 2). He is not pleased that we have been measuring Him
“or His truth by our finite understanding, or by our preconceived opinions.”
(Ibid).
2.
God would have us understand the fullness of Christ’s
sacrifice for us—including the sacrifice of His “Spirit” (“the life of His
own life.” [DA p. 8, 827, par. 3]).
3.
Christ truly became human, and in His humanity He lived a life
of perfect obedience to the Father. Through complete surrender to His Father
and through complete dependence upon His Father for divine strength, Christ
partook of His Father’s divine nature (“In His humanity He was a partaker of
the divine nature.” [ST, August 2, 1905]). Christ has given us a perfect
example of how we are to depend upon Him and how we are to be partakers of
His divine nature—His Spirit.
4.
Christ became human and united His humanity with the divine
nature of His Father. By so doing, He not only left us an example of what we
may become by partaking of His divine nature, He has actually grafted
humanity into the Godhead.
5.
The Holy Spirit is “His own Spirit, the life of His own life.”
“He has given us His Holy Spirit” and “if we will but keep our eyes fixed on
the Saviour and trust in His power . . . The righteousness of Christ will
become our righteousness.” (My Life Today, p. 45, par. 5).
6.
“The great gift of salvation has been placed within our reach
at an infinite cost to the Father and the Son.” (RH, March 10, 1891, par.
2)—and “at an inconceivable cost to the Son of God.” (ST, January 6, 1887,
par. 3).
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Chapter
11
_________________
Partakers of the
Divine Nature
“Grace
and Peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;
seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life
and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own
glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and
magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine
nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.” (2 Pet.
1:2-4).
“Oh,
that those who have so little spiritual life would realize that eternal life
can be granted only to those who become partakers of the divine nature . . .”
(9T, p. 188).
“Through the Spirit the
believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature.” (RH, May 19, 1904, par.
3).
Both the Bible and the Spirit
of Prophecy make it very clear that the Holy Spirit is in fact Christ’s Spirit and not
some abstruse, obscure, non-descript third person of the Godhead. However,
proving that the Holy Spirit is Jesus’ Spirit is meaningless if we don’t understand the significance of Christ’s sacrifice in the giving of His Spirit. Why would Christ sacrifice His
Spirit? For what purpose did He
make this sacrifice? “Without the Spirit of God, a
knowledge of His word is of no avail. They theory of truth, unaccompanied by
the Holy Spirit, cannot quicken the soul or sanctify the heart. One may be
familiar with the commands and promises of the Bible; but unless the Spirit
of God sets the
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truth home, the character
will not be transformed. Without the enlightenment of the Spirit, men will
not be able to distinguish truth from error, and they will fall under the
masterful temptations of Satan.” (Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 408, par. 3).
Most Christians have at least
some understanding of the necessity of Christ’s death on the Cross. They
realize that Christ came to pay the penalty
for sin on our behalf and that His death has made it possible for us to
be reconciled to God and restored to a right standing with Him. Most
Christians believe that Christ’s death has granted us eternal life. But his
is not the truth. Christ’s death
has made it possible for us to
gain eternal life, but His death has not insured our attaining it. Christ
“died” for all men (1 Jn. 2:2; 2 Cor. 5:14; 1 Pet. 3:18)—yet “all men” are not going to be saved! There are
going to be many people who believe that they are “Christians”
who shall never enter into His Kingdom (See Mat. 7:21-23). Many of these
people will have believed (even accepted) that Christ died for their sins but
will remain unchanged by the
fact—they will refuse to be transformed
into His likeness and He will declare to them: “I never knew you, depart from
Me.” (Ibid). Sadly, there will be many Seventh-day Adventists in this group
(see Rev. 3:14-17).
The truth is that
“Justification” is simply not enough.
It would be enough if you were to die immediately after your acceptance of
Christ’s substitutionary death on your behalf (like the thief on the cross)
but this is never going to be enough for those who continue living or who
will be alive at His Second coming. There has to be something more in the
life of the believer than justification.
Christ said that we must be “born again.” He taught that there must be a new life created within us transforming us into His image: “There must be a power working from within, a new life from
above, before man can be changed from sin to holiness. That power is Christ.
His grace alone can quicken the lifeless faculties of the soul, and attract
it to God, to holiness.” (ST, May 28, 1902, par. 3). We must “grow in the grace . . . .
until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the
Son of God, to a mature man [‘Perfect man’ KJV], to the measure of the stature
which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” (2 Pet. 3:18; Eph. 4:13). This process of growth—having
Christ formed within us—is called Sanctification,
and is an absolute necessity for
our receiving Eternal Life. Both
justification (the forgiveness of sins) and sanctification (the removal of sin) are essential in the
life of the believer. Justification was accomplished at the Cross, when
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Christ took on our sins and
paid the penalty for our transgression. This work of Christ is “laid to our account”
through the simple act of accepting Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf—without
any work of our own being
involved.
Sanctification, however, is
not the work of a moment—it is the work of a lifetime. It is still Christ’s work, but it is accomplished
in the life of the believer throughout their lifetime. It is the ongoing process of Christ’s work in
our minds and in our hearts that transforms
us into His image and enables us to live a life of obedience and victory.
This work of Christ (sanctification) is imparted
to us (not just laid to our account)—that is, it is implanted in us in a
way that is both very real and
very powerful. The words of
inspiration have summarized this truth beautifully: “The righteousness by
which we are justified is imputed. The righteousness by which we are
sanctified is imparted. The first is our title to heaven; the second is our
fitness for heaven.” (RH, June 4, 1895, par. 7). Both are the Lord’s doing: “both our title to
heaven [justification] and our fitness for it [Sanctification] are found in
the righteousness of Christ.” (DA, p. 300, par. 1).
HOW the Lord accomplishes both
of these things is explained through the mystery of the incarnation—through our Lord’s sacrifice in literally giving His Life for us. In taking our
humanity and dying in our place, He has accomplished the first
(Justification). In sacrificing
His Spirit for us, He accomplishes the second (Sanctification).
Christ came in order that we
might have “eternal life,” (Jn. 3:16, 36) but “eternal life can be granted
only to those who become partakers of the divine nature.” (9T, p. 188). This
was Christ’s ultimate purpose in
sacrificing both body and soul (Spirit) for us (“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, Jesus gave to man the highest good that heaven could bestow.” (RH,
May 19, 1904; par. 1.)). “Christ expects that men will become partakers of
His divine nature while in this world.” (5T, p. 731, par. 1). We know that it is “Through the Spirit [that] the believer becomes a partaker of
the divine nature.” (RH, May 19, 1904, par. 3) and so, if Christ expects us to partake of His divine nature and partaking of
His divine nature is accomplished through the “Spirit,” we can be reasonably
sure that the “Spirit” that implants Christ’s divine nature in us is, in
fact, Christ’s Spirit. “Christ gives them the
breath of His own Spirit, the life of His own Life.” (DA, p. 827, par. 3).
“The Holy Spirit is the breath of life in the soul. The
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impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of
Christ. It imbues the receiver with the attributes of Christ.” (DA, p. 805,
par. 3).
Now maybe it is just me, but
doesn’t it seem just a little bit ludicrous to think that some other member
of the Godhead (someone other than
Christ) would be responsible for imparting the “attributes of Christ” in us?
Christ is not dead! Both His
humanity and His divinity are very much alive. Why would anyone other than Christ be needed to impart Christ’s nature, Christ’s attributes, Christ’s character, Christ’s
victory, Christ’s power, or Christ’s life in us? Why would someone,
anyone, other than Christ be needed to make His sacrifice efficacious? Christ
promised that He would “come”
to us—that He would not leave us “comfortless”—that He would be here “in our
midst”—that He would be “with” us “always, even unto the end of
the world.” (Jn. 14:18; Mat. 18:20 cf. Joel 2:27; Mat. 28:20 [KJV]). How
could anyone but Christ make His presence a reality for us?
If our eternal destiny hinges
on our being partakers of the divine nature, then we need to understand clearly what it means to be “partakers of
His divine nature!” (5T, p. 731, par. 1). Does being a partaker of His
divine nature mean that we will simply become “good” people? Does it mean
that we are only to become “nice,” honest, loving, trustworthy people? No! It
means much more than that!
Certainly we will be all of these things because God is all of these things.
But God is much more than just a nice, loving person—and we are to become like Christ in ways that go far
beyond being honest, or trustworthy, or even loving and nice.
When Christ was here on this
earth, He was very nearly stoned to death for claiming to be God You can read
about this in John 10:24-38. The Jews were very angry with Jesus because He claimed to be “One” with the Father (vs. 30) and “The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him.” (vs. 31). Christ asked them for which
good work they were stoning Him (vs. 32), and they replied: “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and
because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.” (vs. 33). Jesus’ response to them is
not only interesting; it is also
full of meaning and truth (a truth that we have been reticent to believe).
Jesus said: “Has it not been written in your Law, “’I SAID, YOU ARE GODS.”
(VS. 34).
Christ’s mission to redeem man
involves much more than simply “forgiving” us our sins. Christ’s
purpose in sacrificing Himself
goes far beyond that. Christ sacrificed Himself not only to restore
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man to his original image, but to “recreate” man in His image. Christ intends to elevate
man to a state above that of even the most glorious angels in heaven! “ . . . Christ gave u His life for the human race. This
sacrifice was offered for the purpose of restoring man to his original
perfection; yea, more. It was offered to give him an entire transformation of
character, making him more than a conqueror. Those who in the strength of
Christ overcome the great enemy of God and man, will occupy a position in the
heavenly courts above angels who have never fallen.” (General Conference Bulletin,
April 1, 1899, par. 2). “That Christ should take human nature, and by a life
of humiliation elevate man in the scale of moral worth with God; that he
should carry His adopted nature to the throne of God, and there present His
children to the Father, to have conferred upon them an honour exceeding that
conferred upon the angels—this is the marvel of the heavenly universe, the
mystery into which angels desire to look. This is love that melts the
sinner’s heart.” (Australasian Union Conference Record, June 6, 1900, par.
15). So what stately position and
honor could be conferred upon man that would make them above angels who have never sinned? Christ intends that we shall literally become “sons of
God” (not merely one of His creations—Rom. 8:14, 19; 9:26; Gal. 3:26, 4:6;
Mat. 5:9; Lk. 20:36). He designs that we shall “be a counterpart of God.”
(Healthful Living, p. 10, par. 2). The Father intends that we shall be
“joint—heirs with Christ.” (Rom. 8:17)—reigning
with Christ (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 20:6) and sitting with Him upon His Throne! (Rev. 3:21).
Christ intends to so fully
recreate Himself in His people that they will be elevated to a status equal to His own—the incarnated
Christ. This is not my idea—it is
the position set forth in the Scriptures. Paul said: “If ye be
Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
(Gal. 3:29 KJV). Remember, however, that Paul
also made it clear that “the promises” were made to Abraham’s “seed”—not “as in many, but in
one”—Christ Jesus (See Gal. 3:16). By becoming a “partaker of the divine
nature”—by allowing Christ to recreate and reproduce Himself in us—we become part of that “seed” (which is Christ Jesus) to whom the promises were given, and thus we
become “heirs according to the promise.” According to the Word of God, by
partaking of the divine nature, we are to attain “the measure
of the stature of fullness of Christ”—and through Christ, “a perfect man.”
(Eph. 4:13 KJV). This will be the experience
of the remnant people of God.
I know that there are those
who will read into this statement more
than is intended and so, I will qualify it with this explanation:
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We shall ever be indebted to Christ
for making a way possible for us to be forgiven and for the power to be like Him. There will never come a time when this will not
be so and in this way Christ shall forever be supreme. Still, the fact remains that Christ will have a
“remnant” who will so totally be partakers of His nature that they will literally
be like Him. They will be included in the councils of God and will be
responsible with Christ for
carrying out the Father’s Will and for executing His commands. This group
will be, in the eyes of the Angels, the redeemed, and the unfallen worlds—rulers
with Christ throughout the
universe. We shall not be “God”—we
will never be independently divine—but
we will so fully partake of
Christ’s divine nature that we shall be like Him—a perfect blending of the
human and the divine. “In Christ”
we shall participate in all the privileges that are His—including being able
to “see God” face to face! (Rev. 21:22-24).[47]
The prophet says that: “God
has adopted human nature in the person of His Son, and has carried the same
into the highest heaven.” (DA, p. 25, par. 3). She does not say that God has
adopted the human race—like we
might “adopt” a child into our family. She says, “God has adopted human
nature in the person of His Son.” That means that “GOD” has taken the form of human nature in the person of Jesus Christ.
God became “man” in Jesus Christ,
and as a result, through the impartation of Christ’s divine nature, man may
become a member of the Godhead.
In Matthew 22:2-14 we find a marriage ceremony described that is
about to take place. Commenting on this marriage in the book Christ’s Object Lessons, Ellen White
states: “By the marriage is represented the union
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of humanity with divinity.” (COL, p. 307, par. 1). This describes Christ’s union of His humanity with divinity, which He has
now made it possible for us to experience through our marriage to Him—through our partaking of His divine nature. “Divinity and humanity were united in Christ, that he might
reveal to us God’s purpose, and bring man into close communion with himself.
This union will enable us to overcome the enemy; for through faith in Christ
we shall have divine power.” (RH, December, 6, 1892, par. 2.
The marriage analogy is really
a very good one for describing what our place and function will be when we
are married to Christ through partaking of His divine nature. We can look
back to the Garden of Eden for a deeper understanding of how this marriage is
supposed to work. When Christ married Adam and Eve, it was His intent that
Eve (Adam’s wife) would be in every way Adam’s equal. Adam was her husband, and as such commanded final
responsibility and authority over the family, but Eve was his equal in
fulfilling the purposes and the “Will” of God for the human family. So it is
with us when we are married to Christ. He
is our husband and holds final responsibility and authority over us, and
yet—we are His bride, His wife, His equal—a partner with Him in the administration of all of His creations. We are
responsible to our husband, but we have also been given responsibility for His family, and share in the duty and honor of that privilege. What honor is this! If that doesn’t thrill your heart then some is desperately wrong!
But with that honor comes great responsibility—“From everyone who has been given much, much will be required.”
(Luke 12:48). The husband, and the family,
can never be dishonored. Our love
and allegiance must always be to our husband—Christ Jesus. Any infidelity, and whoring after our own selfish desires, will never be tolerated. Our loving submission and obedience
to Him, “with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow,” (James
1:17) will ever be the evidence that we have been partakers
of His divine nature and that we honor Him as our husband, Lord, and Father
of all. Christ intends that we shall be so fully partakers of His divine
nature that we shall be in every way what He has become—we shall be “Gods” (John 10:34). He has made it
possible for us to be grafted into the
Godhead!
Many of you may be “gasping” at this point—thinking that
I have completely overstepped my bounds—that I am being
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“presumptuous”—that this is unthinkable! We don’t like to talk of
such things—but why? This is a marvelous truth! Hard to comprehend, to be
sure, but it is truth nonetheless I am acutely aware that: “Truth lies close
to the track of presumption.” (Letter 8, 1895 [SDA BC, vol. 5, p. 1128]), but
does that mean that we should not approach the truth? Remember that it is “the Truth” that lies close to the track of presumption, and we must
dare to know the truth even though
there is some danger involved—for “the truth will make you free.” (John
8:32). We do not need to fear the truth—we
need to fear presumption and error—but let’s not get so fearful of
presumption that we fear to approach the truth!
Could we become so afraid of error
that we will not embrace the truth when it I staring us in the face? And if
we do not embrace the truth, does
our enemy not overcome us? We must
embrace the truth and leave off
the error. We must let the truth empower
us, and leave the error for the Son’s of perdition—for those who would rather
be damned than come to the light.
We are to be grafted into the
Godhead and we are to partake
fully of the divine nature—with all
that that entails.
“Though he presented infinite
truth, he left many things unsaid that he might have said, because even his
disciples were not able to comprehend them . . . Jesus was the Life giver,
the Teacher sent of God to provide salvation for a lost world, and to save
men in spite of all Satan’s temptations and lying deceptions. He himself was
the gospel. In his teachings he clearly presented the great plan devised for
the redemption of the race. Divinity had united with humanity for the purpose
of uniting humanity with divinity, that through Christ man might become a
partaker of the divine nature.” (RH, July 7, 1896, par. 5.
Let me illustrate another way,
and leave you with a balanced and
“inspired” view of this truth. We
are told “Error draws its life from the truth of God.” (RH, October 22, 1895,
par. 3). When the Devil told Eve that she would be like God—there was truth in that statement. The devil
was saying the same thing that Jesus is saying. The problem is that the Devil
blended this truth with error and
deception. While he was telling the truth when he said “you will be like
God.” (Gen. 3:5), he was suggesting that the way Eve was to become like God was through disobedience—through separation
from God!! What a Lie! What
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a preposterous idea! “You will
become like God by separating from Him, by not trusting Him; ignore what He says and trust in yourself.”
Hogwash! This was never the way
God intended to accomplish this!
Our minds, our thoughts, and
our actions are to be brought into subjection
to the mind of Christ. When this becomes a reality for us, Christ will subject all things to us—in Him. Paul
made it clear that the one to whom all things are “subjected” is beholding (or in subjection themselves) to the One who has put all things in
subjection to him (see 1 Cor. 15:27). This was true for Christ, and it is
true for us. Therefore, there will never
come a time when we will not be
beholding to, and in subjection to
Christ! The “equality” that we are to have with Christ is derived
from Christ, and this will always be
the case, so there can be no talk of our being
Christ (or God) inherent in and of
ourselves. The fact that God has
made provision for us to be partakers
of His divine nature does not mean that we are God. It means that God intends to share His “being” with us—a reality that leaves us forever beholding to Him. We can only
“partake” of that which already exists
and of that which is offered to
us. So while we are to be partakers of His divine nature and thereby raised
to the status of Christ, and therefore “Gods”—we shall never be Christ and we shall never be God. Rather, it will be “Christ in us” that will be our only boast
to honor.
The Devil knew that God intended man
to become a partaker of His divine nature in such a way as to elevate man
above all God’s other created beings. This is why he hates man so much, and why he has sought to
prevent this from happening. When the Devil came to Eve in the garden, he did
not try to deny the truth that man was to become “like God,” be he did try to prevent man from realizing this honor by introducing a false way for them to achieve this. He deceived man, caused his fall,
and brought upon him the curse of death (everlasting destruction).
When Satan realized that
Christ was to offer Himself in man’s place and would continue to make man a
partaker of the divine nature, he was furious and he set out to prevent
Christ from accomplishing His mission. He has continually sought to get man to depend upon himself and upon his
own works to gain his acceptance with God whatever favors that acceptance
might bring. And he has continued to propagate the rules of his own
government—“self” exaltation. The
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same lie he used for Eve, he has used for God’s remnant people,
only in a different form. And, sadly, he has been very successful with it. He
has caused many of us to reject the idea that we are literally to be
“partakers” of Christ’s nature by getting us to view His Word and His
promises through the eyes of our own
wisdom. He has told us that we shall be a partaker of the divine nature—we
shall be like Christ (which is true),
but he has suggested that the way
we are to do this is through our own
efforts, through our own strength,
through our own obedience—that is,
through our own works!
Tragically, many of us have
swallowed this lie hook-line-and sinker. The truth is that we can only receive the righteousness of Christ
and be partakers of His Holy Spirit by coming into close communion with Him,
day by day, hour by hour, and moment by moment. Our relationship with Him is what qualifies us to be a partaker of His divine nature—not our
attempts at behavior modification. Our very motives must be changed and brought into alignment with those of
Christ. As we come to have an intimate
relationship with Him, He abides in
us through His Spirit and sin is driven out. “In all who
submit to His power the Spirit of God will consume sin.” (DA, p. 107, par.
4). “So long as we are united to Him by faith, sin has no more dominion over
us.” (DA, p. 123). Behaviors, then, become the
fruit of our relationship with Him—not the other way around.
We can only be prepared and qualified to receive power and glory
through a complete surrender to
the Will of God in which “self” is lost and our focus is solely upon the person of Christ. Our mind, our thoughts and our will, must be brought into
the subjection of Christ. There can be no thread of self-will or
self-interest left in us. And the only
thing that can enable us to “lose self” and qualify us to partake of the glory and the power of God is the
“righteousness of Christ.” His righteousness alone will enable us to wield the glory and the power that God
wishes to grant us. Only Christ’s righteousness can insure that we will
forever and always use the gift of God’s power for the sole benefit of others. Only Christ’s righteousness
can keep “self” in check and enable us to use the power of God to His glory.
So, exactly how are we to appropriate the gift of Christ’s righteousness?
Must we work hard at achieving it?
Are we to try to reproduce it through our own efforts? Have we only to imitate
it? BEWARE THE DEVIL!
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“The Christian’s life is not a modification or improvement of
the old, but a transformation of nature.” (DA, p. 172).
“There are those who profess to serve God, while they rely upon
their own efforts to obey His law, to form a right character, and secure
salvation. Their hearts are not moved by any deep sense of the love of
Christ, but they seek to perform the duties of the Christian life as that
which God requires of them in order to gain heaven. Such religion is worth
nothing. When Christ dwells in the heart, the soul will be so filled with His
love, with the joy of communion with Him, that it will cleave to Him; and in
the contemplation of Him, self will be forgotten. Love to Christ will be the
spring of action . . . A profession of Christ without this deep love is mere
talk, dry formality, and heavy drudgery.” (SC, p. 44, par. 2).
“He who is trying to become holy by his own works in keeping
the Law, is attempting an impossibility . . . It is the grace of Christ
alone, through faith that can make us holy . . . Obedience is not a mere
outward compliance, but the service of love . . . the service and allegiance
of love—is the true sign of discipleship . . . It is faith, and faith only
that makes us partakers of the grace of Christ, which enables us to render
obedience. We do not earn our salvation by our obedience; for salvation is
the free gift of God, to be received by faith . . . obedience is the fruit of
faith.” (SC, p. 60, 61).
“It is impossible for us, of ourselves, to escape from the pit
of sin in which we are sunken. Our hears are evil, and we cannot change them
. . . Education, culture, the exercise of the will, human effort, all have
their proper sphere, but there they are powerless. They may produce an
outward correctness of behavior, but they cannot change the heart, they
cannot purify the springs of life. There must be a power working from within,
a new life from above, before men can be changed from sin to holiness. That
power is Christ. His grace alone can quicken the lifeless faculties of the
soul, and attract it to God, to holiness.” (SC, p. 18).
“ . . . the one who depends upon his own wisdom and power is
separating himself from God. Instead of working in unison with Christ, he is
fulfilling the purpose of the enemy of God and man.” (DA, p. 209).
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“Some who come to God by
repentance and confession do not accept the forgiveness he has promised. They
do not see that Jesus is an ever-present Saviour; and they are not prepared
to commit the keeping of their souls to him, relying upon him to perfect the
work of grace begun in their hearts. They lose sight of the fact that Jesus
came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. While some think
they are committing themselves to God, there is a great deal of
self-dependence. There are conscientious souls that trust partly to God, and
partly to themselves. The do not look to god to be kept by his power, but
depend upon watchfulness and the performance of certain duties for acceptance
with him. There are no victories in this kind of faith. Such persons toil to
o purpose; their souls are in continual bondage, and they find no rest until
their burdens are laid at the feet of Jesus.” (RH, June 17, 1884; par. 1, 2
[1SM, p. 353, par. 3]).
“The effort to earn salvation
by one’s own works inevitably leads men to pile up human exactions as a
barrier against sin. For, seeing that they fail to keep the law, they will
devise rules and regulations of their own to force themselves to obey. All
this turns the mind from God to self.” (MB, p. 123).
So what does all this mean?
Does it mean that we have nothing to do but sit around and wait for Christ to
give us the victory, impart His
grace and righteousness to us, and pour out His Spirit upon us? No! We have a
work to do; we have a battle to
fight. Sitting around hoping and waiting for Christ to pour out His Spirit
upon us and make us partakers of His divine nature is an insult to Christ and to His sacrifice on our behalf. We have the
hardest work we could ever be called upon to perform. “For our struggle is not against a human opponent, but against
rulers, against authorities, against cosmic powers in the darkness around us,
against evil spiritual forces in the heavenly realm.” Eph. 6:12,
International Standard Version). Our battle is not a physical
battle but a spiritual one, and
this is the hardest of all battles to fight. Sometimes I wish it were a physical battle, I think that
that would be easier for me. But our battle is against a Spiritual foe—a foe
of great cunning, deception and power—and we require divine help if we are ever going to hope to come out victorious. Our
battle lies in connecting to, and staying
connected to, the source of our help!
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Now call me naïve, or week, or
anything else you want, but I find it extremely
difficult to surrender fully
to Christ. I have found it very difficult to maintain a meaningful spiritual relationship with a God that I
cannot “see.” I have found it a real struggle
to listen to Christ—to discern His voice—and, by faith, to do the things He has
told me to do. I have found it hard to discipline
myself to spend the kind of time with Him that allows me to know for sure that He is walking with
me through my life’s struggles. I have found it difficult to consistently remain in an attitude
where, in every situation, I am asking my Lord: “What wilt
thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6 KJV). How about you?
How much time do you spend with Jesus each day? How often do you talk with
Him, and how hard do you try to really
listen to what He is saying to you? Can you say that you are completely surrendered to Christ? Or
do you find yourself trying to wage the war on your own? How much of you does the Lord really have? What do you find occupying most of
your thoughts? Where do you find yourself spending most of your time? What is
your highest priority? What gives
you your greatest joy? Is it
Christ? Or is it something else?
This is no game we are playing
here. This is Life or Death—Eternal Life or Eternal Death! If we are ever going to hope to be partakers of
Christ’s divine nature, we had better get serious about the battle! We had better get to the point where we
“Know” Christ and not just about Christ. We had better get to
the point where we are “so sensitive to Holy
influences, that the slightest whisper of Jesus will move our souls, till He
is in us, and we in Him, living by the faith of God.” (ST, March 23, 1888.
[3SM, p. 355]). If we are ever going to get
out of this mess of a world that we are in, we had better get serious about our relationship with the only person who
can get us out of here alive—our Lord, our Savior, our God—Jesus Christ. We
don’t have to be Bible scholars,
but we had better know what Christ
has told us in the past—and what He is telling us today. We need His
righteousness. We need His Holy
Spirit. We need to become
partakers of His divine nature!
“The work of overcoming is not a joyless work; no, indeed. It
means communication with heaven. You can go to God in prayer, you can ask,
and receive; you can believe, hanging your helpless soul on Christ. It means
that humanity can work the will and ways of God. Humanity and divinity are
combined for this very purpose.” (General Conference Bulletin, May 17, 1909,
par. 21).
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“In Christ, God has provided means for subduing every evil
trait and resisting every temptation, however strong. But many feel that they
lack faith, and therefore they remain away from Christ. Let these souls, in
their helpless unworthiness, cast themselves upon the mercy of their
compassionate Saviour. Look not to self, but to Christ. He who healed the
sick and cast out demons when He walked among men is still the same mighty
Redeemer. Then grasp His promises as leaves from the tree of Life: ‘Him that
cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” John 6:37. As you come to Him,
believe that He accepts you, because He has promised, You can never perish
while you do this—never.” (MH, p. 65, 66).
“Jesus is waiting to breathe upon all His disciples, and give
them the inspiration of His sanctifying Spirit, and transfuse the vital
influence from Himself to His people . . . Their will must be submitted to
His will, they must act with His Spirit that it may be no more they that
live, but Christ that liveth in them. Jesus is seeking to impress upon them
the thought that in giving His Holy Spirit He is giving to them the glory
which the Father hath given Him.” (Letter 11b, 1892 [MR, Vol. 4, p. 334]).
Will you
accept this honor and this privilege? Will you accept this challenge?
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Chapter 11 Summary
1. We may become “partakers of the divine nature.” (2 Pet. 1:4).
2. We must become partakers of the divine nature: “eternal life can be granted
only to those who become partakers of the divine nature . . .” (9T, p.
188).
3. We become partakers of the
divine nature “Through the Holy Spirit.” (RH, May 19, 1904, par. 3).
4. Christ has “Justified” us in
the eyes of God through His death on the Cross, where He paid the penalty for
our transgression. This “Justification” is imputed (put to our account) when we receive Christ as our Savior
through faith. However, Justification is not enough to insure believers will
attain eternal life. There has to be something more done for us and in us before we will be granted eternal
life. That “something” is Sanctification.
5. Sanctification, the removal of sin from the life of the
believer, is accomplished by Christ through His Holy Spirit. Christ
sacrificed His “Spirit” (separated from it permanently) for us in order that
it might be given to us as a “divine power to overcome all hereditary and
cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress His own character upon the
church”—“With His Spirit Christ sends a reconciling influence and a power
that takes away sin.” (RH, May 19, 1904).
6. In Christ we have been provided the means by which we may obtain pardon
and by which we may overcome the
Tempter and be victorious. Christ intends that we shall become free from sin in our lives—that we shall
become perfect—by partaking of His divine nature (His Spirit).
7. Christ intends that we will be
more than victorious. He intends that we shall be elevated to a status above that of the angels who never
fell. He intends to elevate us to a status equal with Himself.
8. Through the incarnation, Christ became human. In His humanity He
partook of His Father’s divine nature and thus: God the Father “adopted human
nature in the person of His Son.” (DA, p. 25). By this action, Christ grafted humanity into the Godhead. By becoming “partakers of
His [Christ’s] divine
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nature” we
are considered “Sons” of God and we too are to be grafted into the Godhead.
9.
Our Work is to develop such an intimate relationship with
Christ that He will be enabled to transform our characters into His own. All
those who have this intimate relationship with Christ will be enabled to
fully partake of the power of His Holy Spirit.
10.
Those who partake fully of Christ’s divine nature (receive the
Latter Rain) will “reign” and rule with Christ.
11.
The choice is ours. We are the ones who will decide our own
destinies—either by accepting the provision that Christ ahs made in order
that we may become partakers of His divine nature and be granted eternal
life—or by refusing to allow Him to perform this work in us and receive
eternal death.
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Chapter 12
_________________
Implications
“The end is near. We have not
a moment to lose. Light is to shine forth from God’s people in clear, distinct
rays, bringing Jesus before the churches and before the world. God will give
additional light, and old truths will be recovered and replaced in the
framework of truth; and wherever the laborers go they will triumph. As
Christ’s ambassadors, they are to search the Scriptures to seek for the
truths that have been hidden beneath the rubbish of error, and every ray of
light received is to be communicated to others. One interest will prevail,
one subject will swallow up all others, Christ our Righteousness. This is
life eternal, “That they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent.” “Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his
wisdom, neither let the mighty mean glory in his might, let not the rich man
glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth, glory I this, that he
understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exerciseth loving
kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I
delight saith the Lord.” (The Paulson Collection of E.G. White Letters, p.
342, par. 2).
It is my hope that you will finish this chapter yourself—that
you will go out and buy yourself a notebook or a journal and that you will
add addendum after addendum to this chapter, and to this book. It is
impossible for me to realize or cover all of the implications of the truths
about the Godhead, the plan of redemption, and the Holy Spirit in this book
(much less in this final chapter). I will list some of the most important
implications of this study, as I see them,
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but I encourage you to add
your own to those covered here. For you preachers and teachers out there,
there is an inexhaustible mine of information you can bring forth from all of
this to the people of your flock! God says: “My people are destroyed for lack
of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6). We must bring this vital knowledge to them. This
book will only “open the door”—it will be up to you to walk through it and
discover all that is on the other side! With that said, here are the most
pressing implications of all of this as I see it.
Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be
forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven.
Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever
speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this
age or in the age to come.” (Matt. 12:31-32).
If you were the Devil and your
goal was to entice me into “sin,” which sin would you be most interested in getting
me to commit—one that can be
forgiven or one that can’t be
forgiven? Wouldn’t you focus most of your efforts, and try the hardest, to get me to commit the sin
that God will not forgive? Of
course you would, and so would the Devil. Satan has ever sought to get us to
commit the Sin against the Holy Spirit and he would like to keep us from
understanding what that sin is so that we will be more likely to commit it.
So exactly what is the sin against the Holy Spirit?
The specific sin against the Holy Spirit, according to Jesus, is that
of “Blasphemy.” What is blasphemy?
The Bible gives us only two definitions of blasphemy: (1) You commit
blasphemy when you speak against God,
either in an irreverent way or in
a way that denies the truth about God (speaking a lie about God). For example: anyone who denies that Jesus is the
Christ, is committing blasphemy—“Who is the liar but the one who denies that
Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father
and the Son.” (1 Jn. 2:22). (2) You commit blasphemy when you claim to be God—or if you claim that something
is God when it is not. That is what got Jesus into so much trouble with the
Jews—not that Jesus committed
blasphemy, but that they thought He
did: “The Jews answered Him, ‘For a good work we do not stone You, but for
blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.” (Jn.
10:33).
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Seventh-day Adventists have
long taught that we commit blasphemy (the sin against the Holy Spirit) when
we refuse to be led of God—when we refuse to yield to the promptings of the
Holy Spirit—effectively placing ourselves
above God (making ourselves
God)—and this is an absolutely correct description of “blasphemy against the
Spirit.” However, we seem to be blind to the fact that there is another way that we can commit
blasphemy against the Spirit, which involves our denying the truth about the Spirit (and therefore
about God). “The sin of
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit does not lie in any sudden word or deed; it
is the firm determined resistance of truth and evidence.” (MS #30, 1890 [SDA
BC, vol. 5, p. 1093]). The Devil has been very successful in getting us to commit this blasphemy against the Spirit,
and we shall see why this cunning
deception is so fatal in a moment.
Perhaps you, like myself, have
been frustrated because you never
knew how you were to relate to the
Holy Spirit. I knew that I needed Him, but I never really knew who He was. I knew that all the
evidence indicates that the Holy Spirit is
God, but since the Bible never tells us to pray to Him, or to worship
Him, or includes Him in the councils of God or the Throne of God, I never
really understood how I was to relate to Him. The Bible and the Spirit of
Prophecy both make it abundantly clear that we are to worship the Father and
the Son. Jesus Himself said: “This is eternal life, that they may know You,
the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (Jn. 17:3). 1 John
2:22 (quoted earlier) says that one is the antichrist “who denies the Father
and the Son.” We find the Holy Spirit nowhere mentioned in this regard. We
only find the Holy Spirit described as the active agent of our acceptance and worship of God. Yet the Bible refers
to the Holy Spirit as a person,
and an extremely important person
at that. We know that we need the
Holy Spirit in order to overcome sin and to be fitted for heaven. We are told
that we must have the “Early” and
the Latter Rain” contained in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but we have
never really understood what we
were actually praying for! Instead, we have blundered along in a state of confusion regarding the nature of the
Holy Spirit, His purpose and how we are to relate to Him—and this confusion
has suited the Devil just fine. In fact, he has seized upon this confusion
and ambiguity regarding the nature
of the Holy spirit and has used this to get us to unknowingly commit the sin
(blasphemy) against the Holy Spirit.
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The Devil really doesn’t care how he gets us to turn away from God
and from His Truth, so long as he can get us to do it. He knows that Christians are not going to overtly worship him (Satan), so he
has invented all kinds of counterfeits—other
things—to take the place of
Christ. He knows that if he can convince us to look to someone other than Christ for our hope and
our salvation, that he has got us in his pocket and has secured our fate.
This is what he has done in propagating the orthodox teachings of the Trinity
doctrine. Through the doctrine of the Trinity, Satan has introduced someone other than Christ into the
plan of salvation of mankind. He has done this very cleverly and almost
imperceptibly—keeping his deception very
close to the truth so as not to have it discovered and readily discerned.
Here is how he has done this.
He would have us believe that
the Holy spirit is, and has always
been, the third member of the Godhead. He would have us accept the Holy
Spirit as someone other than
Christ. He knows that if he can keep us believing that the Holy Spirit is
someone other than Christ that, in effect, he is successful in getting us to deny Christ, and to deny the most
important part of His sacrifice for us. He knows that if he can keep us
believing that the Holy Spirit is someone other than Christ, that he can prevent the outpouring of Christ’s Holy Spirit and thus delay
(or prevent) his doom. It is really a very masterful deception! Through our
belief in the traditional Trinity doctrine he actually has gotten us to
believe that we are rendering faithful
service and obedience to God
when, in fact, we are doing the very opposite—we are going after “other
Gods.” He has gotten us to worship a lie. Satan knows that we must worship
God “in Truth” (Jn. 4:23, 24) and
he is exalting in the fact that he has gotten us to pray both to and for a figment of our imaginations (that which is not Truth). He has gotten us to create another God in the person of the Holy
Spirit when, in reality, the Holy Spirit is not another but is
Christ Jesus. It is my firm belief that Jesus is speaking to us today, and is
saying: “Turn to my reproof, Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will
make my words known to you.” (Prov. 1:23. See also: Joel 2:28, 29; Isa.
44:1-6; Acts 2:17-21).
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Consider how far our belief in the Trinity
doctrine has taken us:
George
Knight, a professor and prominent SDA theologian makes this startling
confession in Ministry Magazine, October
1993—“Most of the founders of Seventh-day Adventism would not be able to join the church today if they had to
subscribe to the denomination’s fundamental beliefs. More specifically, most would not be able to agree to belief
number 2 which deals with the doctrine of the Trinity.” [Emphasis mine].
William
Johnson, Editor of the Adventist Review, wrote in the
January 6, 1994 issue that—“Adventist beliefs have changed over the years. Most startling is the teaching regarding
Jesus Christ. Many of the pioneers, including James White, J. N. Andrews,
Uriah Smith and J. H. Waggoner, held to an Arian or semi-Arian view. That is,
that the Son at some point in time, before the creation of our world, was
generated by the Father. The Trinitarian
understanding of God, now part of our fundamental beliefs, was not generally held by early
Adventists. Even today, a few do not subscribe to it.” [used by
permission—Emphasis mine].
The pioneers of Adventism
believed that Jesus was “brought forth” from the Father—and while their
understanding of this may have been imperfect, God never directed Ellen White to rebuke them for believing this. In
fact, Jesus Himself stressed that this belief is important and necessary, and
pronounced the blessing of the Father’s love upon those who believe this
truth: “In that day
you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will request of the
Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have
loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father.” (Jn. 16:26,
27). “I proceeded forth and have come from God.” (Jn. 8:42). Our pioneers may not have
understood the full implications of this belief but they were on the right
track and God never rebuked them for it. How would you like to be a pastor of
one of our churches today and be forced to deny baptism and membership to people
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Like James White, J. N. Andrews,
Uriah Smith, J. H. Waggoner and others because they did not believe in the orthodox Trinitarian understanding of
God? Sound preposterous? It happens.
There are basically three
reasons, as I see it, that inhibit our ability to secure the outpouring of
the Holy spirit in full measure. They are:
1.
We do not recognize and/or acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is Christ’s Spirit—that it is His divine nature, which He sacrificed on our behalf in order that
we might become partakers of the divine nature, overcome the sin which so
easily besets us, and become like Him.
2. We are not fully surrendered to Christ and are
therefore unfit to receive His
divine Spirit. There is tremendous power in the Holy Spirit and unless we are
completely surrendered to
Christ—willing to do His will—that
power would destroy us and others.
3. We are not asking Christ for His Holy Spirit! We are currently asking for something that is
not His or His to give.
Any one—or any combination of these—inhibits God’s ability to give us
the Holy Spirit and has prevented
us from receiving Christ’s Holy Spirit in the power and the fullness of the
Latter Rain.
When our attitudes and beliefs
towards God are out of kilter, we severely
limit God’s ability to communicate effectively with us. God will not force our wills. He will not compel
us to understand or believe Him. We must choose
to do this. When our approach and attitude toward God is in error, or when we
are not living up to the light we already have, He cannot give us additional
light, understanding or power. It is our attitude
toward God that determines how much of His grace he is able to impart to us.
We must come to the point where we are humble, teachable and desiring of the
things He wishes to impart to us (even if it means giving up some cherished
belief). “When God’s
people are at ease, and satisfied with their present enlightenment, we may be
sure that He will not favour them. It is His will that they should be ever
moving forward, to receive the increased and ever increasing light that is
shining for them. The present attitude of the church is not
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pleasing to God. There has
come in a self—confidence that has led them to feel no necessity for more
truth and greater light.” (5T, pp. 708, 709). God will
have a people who seek a right
relationship with Him and will allow
Him to impart knowledge and power to us—but we must accept the light that He gives us in order for this to happen.
Greater light concerning the
sacrifice of Christ will be revealed
and understood by God’s people
before the end comes. The truth about the Holy Spirit is an essential
component of the sacrifice of
Christ and the plan of redemption—and it will
be understood as such. But it will only be revealed and realized by those
who desire more light and more
truth from God—By those who are aware of their utter depravity and
helplessness, and who feel their enormous need for the righteousness of
Christ-By those who are willing to
be led, and molded, and transformed by the truth as it is in Jesus—cost be what it may.
Seventh-day Adventists have
been given the privilege and responsibility of proclaiming the last warning
message to be given to the world (the three angel’s messages). This message
not only includes the message that “the hour of His judgment has come” and a
warning about accepting the “mark of the Beast” (Rev. 14:7-9), it includes a
warning against accepting the “wine” (doctrines) of Babylon. These doctrines,
according to the Bible, are those of “confusion”
and are the teaching of men. Through our acceptance of the Orthodox doctrine
of the Trinity, handed down to us by the Catholic Church (the “Beast”), we
have inadvertently accepted the wine of Babylon and it has had a tremendously negative effect on our
ability to accurately proclaim the real
message contained in the three angel’s messages. Here is why:
“The theme of greatest
importance is the third angel’s message, embracing the messages of the first
and second.” (Evangelism, p. 196,
Letter 97, 1902). This means that the
“third angel’s message” includes the messages of the first and second angels
and that they all contain a “theme of greatest importance.” What is this “theme” of great importance? What is the real message of the third
angel? “Justification
by faith [Righteousness by faith, or the message of “Christ our
Righteousness”] . . . is the third angel’s message in verity” (RH, April 1,
1890, par. 8). “The time of test is just upon
us, for the loud cry of the third angel has already begun in the revelation
of the righteousness of Christ, the sin-pardoning Redeemer. This is the
beginning
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of the light of the angel
whose glory shall fill the whole earth.” (RH, November 22, 1892, par. 7). “The
message of Christ’s righteousness is to sound from one end of the earth to
the other to prepare the way of the Lord. This sis the glory of God, which
closes the work of the third angel.” (6T, p. 19).
“Christ our Righteousness” is the
last glorious message that is to be proclaimed to our dying planet. Sounds
simple enough doesn’t it? We certainly teach this don’t we? Haven’t we
stressed the importance of being “born again,” of having “Christ formed
within”—of being “in Christ” and of having “Christ in us?” We have, but here
is the catch: “How” is this
accomplished? We have been teaching that this is accomplished by the work of
the Holy Spirit (and this is correct), BUT we teach that the Holy Spirit is
someone other than Christ. So, in effect, what we are teaching (through the
orthodox view of the Trinity) is that the “Spirit” that is responsible for
enabling us to partake of Christ’s
divine nature and is to reproduce Christ’s
character in us—effectively allowing Christ
to “abide in us” and making
His sacrifice effectual—is someone
other than Christ Himself! Does that make any sense to you at all? The fact
is that this teaching directly contradicts the plain teaching of the
Scriptures and the Spirit of Prophecy: for “there is salvation in no one else
. . . there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by
which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12).
“All power is given into His
hands, that He may dispense rich gifts unto men, imparting the priceless gift
of His own righteousness to the helpless human agent. This is the message
that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel’s message,
which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring
of HIS SPIRIT in large measure.” (Testimonies to Ministers, p. 92). Are we really so naïve as to
believe that God will bless our
refusal to accept the truth
that the Holy Spirit is the “Spirit of Christ?” Can we really
expect Christ to honor us with the
outpouring of His Spirit while we
are clinging to, and defending, a doctrine that denies this and has come to us straight out of the confusion of
Babylon? This is the most serious
of questions—especially at this moment in history.
There is a growing desire and
movement within our church right now for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
That is a good thing. But we must ask ourselves why we desire the
“outpouring.” Could we be coveting the glory and power of God as the
disciples
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Once did—seeking position,
authority and personal honor? Could we be coveting a “feeling” and an experience
that will prove that we are
accepted and blessed of God? Such motives completely unfit us for the honor of the calling in Christ Jesus and leave
us completely vulnerable to the deceptions of the Devil. Our desire for the
outpouring of the Spirit must be
coupled with a desire to understand
the truth about the Holy Spirit and all that it entails. Paul said that
when we pray, especially in regards to the Holy Spirit and its manifestation
in our lives, that we should pray with our “minds” and with our
“understanding” also (See 1 Cor. 14:15)—not as one blindly asking for what we
know not. As long as we remain in confusion
about the Holy Spirit, we can be sure that the Devil will be glad to step in
with a counterfeit outpouring of the Spirit (his own spirit!) and will
deceive many.
In fact, we are told that this
is going to be the case at the end of time. You can read about it in the book
“Early Writings” in the chapter entitled “End of the 2300 Days,” pages 54-56.
Here you will find a description of two very different groups of people. One
group has understood clearly that
Jesus’ work was not completed at
the cross—that He still had the work of Sanctifying
a people for Himself and that he had an investigative judgment to perform.
These people understand clearly the work that Christ has been doing (and how He has been doing it) and have
followed His movements through the heavenly Sanctuary. These people
understand that Christ is not only our substitute and Savior, they will also
understand that He is much more than that—they will understand Him to be
their Creator and “Father” (both
by his initial act of creation and
by his “re-creation” through the new birth experience). With this
understanding: “Those who rose up with Jesus would send up their faith to Him
in the holiest and pay, ‘My Father, give us Thy Spirit.’ Then Jesus would
breathe on them the Holy Ghost. In that breath was light, power, and much
love, joy, and peace.” (EW, p. 55).
The second group of people did
not understand Christ’s work of sanctification and judgment. They have not
followed Him through His work in the Heavenly Sanctuary and, while desiring the “holy Spirit,” are
completely unprepared to receive it. Because
they do not understand Christ’s
work, they are deceived into
worshiping Satan and receiving his counterfeit.
Here is how Ellen Describes
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this group of obviously
sincere, yet deceived people: “I turned to look at the company who were still
bowed before the throne; they did not know that Jesus had left it. Satan
appeared to be by the throne, trying to carry on the work of God. I saw them
look up to the throne, and pray, ‘Father, give us Thy Spirit.’ Satan would
then breathe upon them an unholy influence; in it there was light and much
power, but no sweet love, joy, and peace. Satan’s object was to keep them
deceived and to draw back and deceive God’s Children.” (Ibid. p. 56).
Truth matters! Coveting the things of God is a good thing if it s done with understanding—if it is done with the Spirit
of Wisdom and Truth! Satan has
always wanted to be the third
member of the Godhead and he is accomplishing this in the minds and
experience of many people. Following the great awakening of 1844 (the end of
the 2300 days), there was a revival that
took place in many denominations. Those who did not understand and/or accept Christ’s
sacrifice and work for us began to be deceived by a host of manifestations of
the devil’s spirit. During this time there was the mysterious “knocking”
involving the Fox sisters, the “quaking” of the Quakers, the manifestation of
the false gift of tongues and many, many false doctrines introduced
(Dispensationalism, Jehovah Witnesses, Mormonism, Evolution, etc.). All of
these things happened just following the true spiritual enlightenment of
Christ’s work in 1844. Isn’t it extremely likely that even greater false
manifestations will take place at the very close of Christ’s work when His Spirit is about to be poured out
in full measure in fulfillment of His promise found in Joel 2:28? What
“Spirit” we will partake of will be decided in great measure by what we understand and accept the Holy Spirit to be! Will we understand and accept it to
be Christ’s Spirit, or will we
fall prey to the devil’s counterfeit?
Christ denied Himself in ways
we have only begun to acknowledge and comprehend (much less appreciate). Christ always sought to
give glory to His Father. We must have the same motive—to give glory to
Christ. Christ sacrificed Himself in
order to save us. Christ laid aside the power of His own divine nature
(Spirit) in order that we may overcome as He overcame and be granted eternal
life in Him. We are called to deny ourselves,
and work as He did, for the good and salvation of others. Christ has not left
us alone to accomplish this. He
has given us His Holy Spirit, and
through this gift He has promised to
impart His own divine nature
to us what we
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may be transformed into His image and do the works of God. What a puny sacrifice we are called to
make—to give up our sin, our selfish desires, to love our fellow man, and to be
co-workers with Christ! What a puny sacrifice
is ours, when compared to that of Christ’s! It takes my breath away! How must
we respond to the privilege that is ours through Christ’s sacrifice?
God will have a people who
will honor His Son. He will have a
people who understand and appreciate the eternal sacrifice that
has been made in order to redeem them—a sacrifice that has come at an
“infinite cost to the Father and the Son.” (RH, March 10, 1891, par. 2) and
“at an inconceivable cost to the Son of God” (ST, January 6, 1887, par. 3).
God will have a people who will not deny
Christ or His Spirit, and who will
accept the provision that has been made in order that we may become partakers of His divine nature. That “provision” is
the Holy Spirit of Christ. “Christ expects that men will become partakers of
His divine nature while in this world.” (5T, p. 731, par. 1), and He has
given us “His own Spirit, the life of His own life.” (DA, p. 827, par. 3) in
order that we may actually do this. But He can never give us His Spirit until we acknowledge it as
such, and until we ask Him for it.
Too many of us are praying for something for which we have no knowledge. The time has come for
God’s Remnant people to reclaim this important truth—to place it firmly into
its proper place—giving Christ the honor, glory and respect He deserves by
acknowledging and accepting the wonderful sacrifice of His Spirit on our
behalf. When we do this, we enable God to accomplish His work in us. God will
have a people who not only “know the Truth” but who will be empowered and set free by it.
It is extremely interesting to
me to notice what was going on in the church when the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit happened the first time, and when it very nearly happened again in
1888. When the early church gathered in the upper room, their focus was totally on Christ and what He had
done—they recognized much more fully the sacrifice that Christ had made—they
now knew who He was and what He had actually done—and they
earnestly repented and asked
Christ to fill them with His grace and power. It was then that the Holy Spirit was poured out in special measure. In
1888, our church’s focus began to
center on Christ and Christ alone—people were repenting of their sins and were seeking for
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Christ to fill them with His righteousness—asking for His power to overcome sin and form a
righteous character within them. The Holy Spirit began to be poured out once again, but then halted as we lost our focus and became embroiled
in a host of other issues. It is my sincere belief that the “power” that is
missing as we have attempted to recreate and proclaim the 1888 message, is
the truth about Christ’s Holy
Spirit. Christ cannot impart His righteousness to us until we understand that
He is the one doing it!
Until we regain our focus on Christ and His righteousness—until we understand the sacrifice of Christ in
giving His Spirit to us that we
may become partakers of His divine
nature, imparting His life and
His righteousness to us—we will
never experience the Latter Rain which is to be poured out in full measure.
Christ literally became one with
us, in order that we may literally become
one with Him. When we finally accept this truth, we will be enabled to become
“partakers” of His divine nature and become the Sons and Daughters of God as no other beings in history have had
the privilege.
Then, the same words that were spoken by the Father to Christ, will be spoken of us
also: “YOU ARE MY
SON, TODAY I HAVE BEGOTTEN YOU.” And again, “I WILL BE A FATHER TO HIM AND HE
SHALL BE A SON TO ME.” (Heb. 1:5). To which of the Angels has God granted the privilege of
partaking in the sufferings of Christ? To which of the Angels has He granted
the privilege of being called “Son?” To which of the Angels has He promised
to reign in His kingdom? Upon which of the Angels has He promised to “pour
out” His Spirit? Behold what manner of Love the Father has given unto us—that
we may actually partake of Christ’s divine nature and be called the “Sons and
Daughters of God!”
“Man’s salvation depends upon
his receiving Christ by faith. Those who will not receive Him lose eternal
life because they refused to avail themselves of the only means provided by
the Father and the Son for the salvation of the perishing world.” (MS #142
[SDA BC, vol. 7, p. 931]). The “Only means” that the Father and the Son have provided—is
the Spirit of Christ. By Christ, through Christ, Christ in us—the hope of
glory! This is to be the theme song of the remnant people of God. “One interest will prevail,
one subject will swallow up every other,--Christ our righteousness.” RH,
December 23, 1890, par. 19).
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“Jesus is waiting to breathe
upon all His disciples, and give them the inspiration of His sanctifying
Spirit, and transfuse the vital influence from Himself to His people . . .
Their will must be submitted to His will, they must act with His Spirit that
it may be no more they that live, but Christ that liveth in them. Jesus is
seeking to impress upon them the thought that in giving His Holy Spirit He is
giving to them the glory which the Father hath given Him.” (Letter 11b, 1892
[MR, vol. 4, p. 334]).
It is time for the people of
God to wake up! The fullness of the incarnation of Christ is not yet
complete. HE has yet to reproduce
Himself in His people—He has yet to incarnate His Spirit into you and I and
us into Himself. Will we let Him do this? “May the Lord help us to die to self and be born again, that
Christ may live in us, a living, active principle, a power that will keep us
holy . . . God knows what you can be. He knows what divine grace can do for
you if you will be partakers of the divine nature.” (9T, p. 187, par. 4 &
p. 188, par. 2).
Do You?
Page 184 (is a blank page).
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Appendix “A”
____________________
The
“Oneness” Doctrine & Jesus’ Divinity
The “Oneness” doctrine, boiled down, states that there is only One
true God and that He has manifested Himself in different ways—through the
“Father” figure, the “Son” figure, and the “holy Spirit” figure. Proponents
of this doctrine believe that all three of these “manifestations” are all the same
being—manifested in different forms at different times.
This doctrine is not only
completely unbiblical, it is also dangerous and confusing. There are MANY
Scriptures that dispel this myth and it is not necessary to go into a total refutation of this theory here.
Suffice to say that the Scriptures teach that there is “God the Father” (Col.
1:3) and “God the Son” (Mark 1:1). And while Jesus made numerous statements
that He and the Father are “ONE,” He in no
way suggested that He and the Father were the “SAME” person.
In John 17:3 we read Jesus’
words “This is eternal life, that they may know thee the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” Many have
seized upon this statement as “proving”
that there is only ONE true God (a
God made up of only ONE person) and
that Jesus is not a separate, individual member of the Godhead. This is a
terrible misuse of this text. It ignores all the “us’s” and the “ours” used
to describe God’s creation of man (see Gen. 1:26). It presupposes that the
“Father) manifested as a man here on earth, and that the “Holy Spirit” is the
Father’s Spirit manifested after Christ ascended to heaven. There are insurmountable problems with this
view.
Page 186
First, it ignores the fact
that the Bible teaches that “God” (the Father) created this earth through the
agency of His Son (Jn. 1:1-4; Heb. 1:1, 2; Col. 1:15-17). If I contact you
through another person, I may be the one communicating the message I wish to
have conveyed but it is someone else who is delivering it. The same is true
in the creation; the Father created this earth through someone else, His
Son—Jesus Christ.
Second, it ignores the fact
that Jesus is the operative agent in (the God of) the Old Testament (see
Chapter 7 of this book). It is Christ who was speaking and acting here, not
the Father, and this was before God was supposedly manifested in the person
of Christ. How could Christ be the one operating throughout the Old Testament
if He had not been manifested as Christ?
Third, there are many
instances where we find more than one person manifested as “God” at the same
time. We have instances where there is a voice proclaiming Jesus to be His
(God’s) Son (Mat. 3:17 & Mat. 17:5). Where did this voice come from? Was
Jesus a ventriloquist? The Bible clearly teaches that the “voice” came from
heaven while the person of Jesus Christ was clearly here on this earth. Also,
Christ prayed to His Father. What sense would that make if Jesus was the
Father manifest as the Son? I suppose one could argue that Jesus was only
giving us an example of how we are to pray, but that ignores the fact that
Jesus petitioned His Father for things such as His deliverance (Mat. 26:39).
It also ignores the fact that Christ Himself said that His Father was
“greater than I” (Jn. 14:28) and that He (Christ) could do nothing of Himself
but only those things that the Father directed and empowered Him to do. We
also find that the Father has committed all judgment to the Son. How does
that compute if the Son and the Father are the same being?
Finally, this doctrine
effectively destroys Christ as our “Savior” because if Christ was the Father
(if there is only ONE divine entity) then He could not actually pay the
penalty for our sin—for the penalty for sin is death. If Christ was the
manifestation of the One and only divine entity, then His death would have
meant the end of God or, at best, was only an elaborate theatrical display.
If Jesus and the Father are the same person then we would have to declare
that they both “DIED” ON THE CROSS—WHICH WOULD HAVE LEFT
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the universe subsisting by
itself, with no God to uphold the Laws of Nature or the universe or the lives
of men. It simply cannot be.
The “Oneness” doctrine may
make sense to the minds of some, but the student and believer of the
Scriptures will immediately recognize that it makes no sense at all—and that
it denies the clear teachings of the Bible and Christ Himself.
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Appendix “B”
_____________________
Identifying
Marks of the
Little Horn
& the Beast Powers
1. Would come up from the ten
horns in Europe. [Dan. 7:8] (Huruli-in part of Italy; Vandals-North Africa;
Ostrogoths-Italian; Visogoths-Spanish; Suevi-Portuguese; Lombards-in part of
Italy; Alamanni-Germans; Brigundians-Swiss; Franks-French; Anglo
Saxons-English).
2. Would come up after them. They
were already established. [Dan. 7:24].
3. Would uproot three horns
(kingdoms—the Huruli 493 AD, Vandals 534 AD, and finally the defeat of the
Ostrogoths in 538 AD). [Dan. 7:8, 24].
4. Would be different from other
kingdoms (a “Religio-Political” Power: it would receive worship and would
exercise Civil political power). [Dan. 7:24 & Revelation 13:3, 4, 8].
5. Would be the leading power.
[Dan. 7:20].
6. “Dragon” would give the Beast
his “seat and authority.” [Rev. 13:2] Note: “Dragon” often refers to Satan
but it also refers to Political Rome—see Rev. 12:4, 9; Ezekiel 22:2-4; and
Mat. 2:13-16.
7. Would sit on “seven
mountains.” [Rev. 17:9]. “It is within the city of Rome, called the city of
seven hills, that the entire area of Vatican State proper is now confined.”
(The Catholic Encyclopedia, Thomas Neslon, 1976, s.v. “Rome”).
8. Would speak great words
against God. [Dan. 7:25; Dan. 8:12, 24, 25; Rev. 13:1, 5, 6]. Please note
Bible definitions
Page 189
of
“blasphemy” in Mark 2:7 & John 10:33 and see section on “Blasphemous
Quote.”
9. Would make war on the Saints
and would be identified in the Scriptures as the power that would persecute
them for “a time, times, and a dividing of times (1260 years). [Dan. 7:25
& Rev. 13:7; Rev. 12:13-17].
10.
Would think to change God’s Law. [Dan. 7:25]. “The Pope can
modify divine law.” (Prompta Bibliotheca, Papa, art. 2.). “The Pope has the
power to change times, to abrogate laws, and to dispense with all things,
even the precepts of Christ.” (Decretal De Translat, Episcap, Cap.).
11.
Would rule for 1260 years before receive a “deadly” wound that
would “heal.” [Dan. 7:25; Rev. 12:6; Rev. 13:5]. Note: 3 ½ Times, 42 months,
and 1260 days—ALL equal 1260 years. Look at Roman History and you will see
some significant events taking place in 538 AD and in 1798 AD. In 538 AD
“Vigilius . . . ascended the papal chair under the military protection of
Belisarious.” (History of the Christian Church, vol. 3, p. 327). This
happened under a decree from Emperor Justinian, making the bishop of Rome
head over all churches, the definer of doctrine and the corrector of
heretics. “In 1798 AD he (General Berthier) . . . made his entrance into
Rome, ABOLISHED THE PAPAL GOVERNMENT and established a secular one.”
(Encyclopedia Americana, 1941 edition). 538 AD-1798 AD equals exactly 1260
years! Interestingly, the United States (Lamblike beast) was officially
recognized by France as an independent power in 1798.
12.
Would receive a “deadly wound” that would “heal.” [Rev. 13:3].
See above quote.
13.
Its “Dominion” would be taken away and will be “utterly
destroyed”—without hands (will be the work of God—at His second coming).
[Dan. 2:45; Dan. 7:25].
14.
This power is also called “Mystery Babylon” the “Mother of
Harlots” and is clothed in scarlet and purple. The Roman Catholic Church
claims to be the “Mother Church” and has colors of scarlet and purple. It
also claims that Peter himself referred to Rome as “Babylon.” “Eusebius
Pamphilius, writing about 303, noted that ‘it is said that Peter’s first
epistle . . . was
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Composed at
Rome itself; and that he himself indicates this, referring to the city
figuratively as Babylon” (Karl Keating, Catholicism and Fundamentalism: The
Attack on “Romanism” by “Bible Christians, “Kgnatius Press, 1988, p. 200). [see
1 Pet. 5:13].
Page 191
Blasphemous
Quote
“Give no belief to
false words: because there will first be a falling away from the faith, and
the revelation of the man of sin, the son of destruction, Who puts himself against
all authority, lifting himself up over all which is named God or is given
worship; so that he takes his seat in the Temple of God, putting himself
forward as God.” 92 Thes. 2:3, 4). “And he shall speak great words against
the most High . . . and think to change times and laws.” (Dan. 7:25).
“The pope is of so great
dignity and so exalted that he is not a
mere man, but as it were God, and the vicar of God . . . . The pope is of
such lofty and supreme dignity that,
properly speaking, he has not been established in any rank of dignity, but
rather has been placed upon the very
summit of all ranks of dignities . . . . The pope is called most holy because he is rightfully presumed to be such . . . . The pope alone is deservedly called by the name ‘most holy’ because he
alone is the vicar of Christ . . . . ‘He is likewise the divine monarch and
supreme emperor, and king of kings.’
. . . . Hence the pope is crowned with a triple crown, as king of heaven and of
earth and of the lower regions . . . . Moreover the superiority and the power
of the Roman Pontiff by no means pertain only to heavenly things, to earthly
things, and to things under the earth, but are even over angels, than whom he is greater . . . . So that if it were
possible that the angels might err in the faith, or might think contrary to the
faith, they could be judged and
excommunicated by the pope . . . . For he is of so great dignity and power
that he forms one and the same tribunal
with Christ . . . The pope is as it were God on earth, sole sovereign of the
faithful of Christ, chief king of kings, having plenitude of power, to whom has
been instructed by the omnipotent of God direction not only of the earthly but
also of the heavenly kingdom . . . . The pope is of so great authority and
power that he can modify, explain, or
interpret even divine laws.”—Lucius Ferraris, Prompto Bibliotheca, art.
“Papa,” II, vol. 6, pp. 26-29.
Page 192
[Lucius Ferraris was “an
18th century canonist of the Franciscan Order. He was also professor,
provincial of his order, and consultor of the Holy Office. He is the author of
the “Prompta Bibliotheca canonica, juridical, moralis, theological, neconon
ascetica, polemica, rubricistica, historica,” a veritable encyclopedia of
religious knowledge. A new edition was published at Rome in 1899 at the press
of the Propaganda in eight volumes, with a volume of supplements, edited by the
Jesuit, Bucceroni, containing several dissertations and recent and important
documents of the Holy See. This supplement serves to keep up to date the work
of Ferraris, which will ever remain a precious mine of information . . .” First
edition appeared in 1746, the Fourth edition dates to 1763, A. VAN HOVE
contributing author).] THE CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA—AN INTERNATIONAL WORK OF
REFERENCE ON THE CONSTITUTION, DOCTRINE, DISCIPLINE, AND HISTORY OF THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH, EDITED BY: CHARLES G. HERBERMANN, Ph.D., LL.D.; EDWARD A.
PACE, Ph.D, D.D.; CONDE B PALLEN, Ph.D., LL.D.; THOMAS J SHAHAN, D.D.; JOHN J.
WYNNE, S.J.; ASSISTED BY NUMEROUS COLLABORATORS: IN FIFTEEN VOLUMES.
Page 193
Appendix “C”
______________________
“Michael” the
Archangel IS Christ
Some maintain that since Michael is called an angel
(Archangel), and since “angels are created
beings, that Michael could not possibly be Christ—for Christ was not created, but has existed from eternity.
And while it is true that Christ was not created and has existed from eternity
(John 1:1-3, 10, 14; 6:38; 17:5, 24; Col. 1:15-17; Micah 5:2), Christ obviously
linked Himself with the angels. In Job 38:7 He calls the created angels
“morning stars” and in Rev. 22:16 He calls Himself the “morning star.” Could it
be that the term “angel” could refer to something other than the created beings
of angels?
The word “angel” is used in the
Scriptures in Two ways. One as a name (or Label) used to describe the created beings of angels (just as
“human” is used as a name to describe us). And second: As a descriptive phrase used to describe
their work (function). The word
“angel” means “messenger” or
“agent.” Thus, when the word angel is used to describe Jesus as the
“Archangel”—it is used in the sense of His work
or function and NOT as a name or
label of a created being.
That Christ is often referred to as an “angel” can be
substantiated by a host of texts: Jesus is called the “angel of the Lord,” (Ex.
3:2), “the angel of God,” (Ex. 14:19), the “angel of His presence,” (Isa.
63:9), the “messenger of the
covenant,” (Mal. 3:1), “angel,” (Ex. 23:20), “Mine angel,” (Ex. 23:23), and
“His angel,” (Dan. 3:28).
The “angel of the Lord” who came
to Gideon (Judges 6:11-22) is called “Lord” in verse 14. In Judges 2:1 the
“angel of the Lord” says “I will
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never break My covenant with you”—only the Lord
can establish and maintain His “covenant.” Manoah said that he had “seen God”
(Judges 13:22) when the “angel of the Lord” appeared to him (Judges 12:3-21).
The angel who came to Joshua (Zech. 3:1-10) causes sin to pass away and gives
righteousness—only God can do
these things. When the angel appeared to Jacob (Hosea 12:4) Jacob said that he
had “seen God face to face” (Gen. 32:30). The “angel of His presence” (Isa.
63:9) “saved” and “redeemed”—which only God can do. “Mine angel” (Ex. 23:23)
could pardon transgression—which
only God can do (Mk. 2:7).
Obviously, the term of “angel” is used in the scriptures to refer to more than the “created” beings of
angels—it is used to describe our Lord Jesus.
Christ is the commander and
leader of the angelic host. In Joshua 5:14, 15 He is called the “captain of the host of the Lord.”
Serving in this capacity does not in any way detract from Christ’s deity or make Him a created being. The
fact that Joshua worshipped Him is proof that the captain of the host was
the Lord and not one of the created angels, for angels are not to be worshipped (Col. 2:18; Rev. 19:10; 22:8, 9) but, rather,
worship Christ themselves (Heb. 1:6). A careful comparison of Scripture shows
that the “prince of princes” (Dan. 8:25), the “prince of the host” (Dan. 8:11),
“Michael your prince” (Dan. 10:21, Michael “the great prince” (Dan. 12:1), and
“Messiah the prince” (Dan. 9:25)—ALL
refer to the same being—the Lord Jesus Christ (see also Acts 3:14, 15; 5:30,
31; Rev. 1:5)! The being who appeared to Daniel in Dan. 10:5, 6 is obviously Christ, because the
description of Him is the same as that of Christ found in Rev. 1:13-15. This
being is called “Michael” in Daniel 10:13, 21.
Jude 9 calls Michael “the
archangel.” The fact that Christ is indeed the supreme messenger for God the
Father, and that He is the “captain” and “prince of the host,” makes the
descriptive title of “archangel” especially appropriate and meaningful. In Jude
9 we find Michael (the archangel) disputing with the devil over the body of
Moses. The Devil, and only the
Devil, had the right and the authority to dispute with Christ over
the body of Moses because he had usurped
the world when he caused the fall of Adam. The Devil rightly became the “god of
this world” (2 Cor. 4:4) and the “prince of this world (John 12:31; 14:30)
through this action. He, and he alone
could dispute with Christ over the body of Moses. Likewise,
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Christ alone had the right to dispute with the Devil over the body of
Moses because He was man’s creator
and is man’s redeemer. Christ has
the ultimate authority with which to contend with the Devil over the Salvation
or Damnation of anyone. No created angel has the power or
authority to give or to decide life or death. Christ alone has this authority
and power.
In Jude 1:9 we see a battle
being waged between Michael and Satan over the body of Moses. In this
dispute Michael rebukes the devil—He
did not enter into controversy with
the Devil with some long, drawn out argument, but with His Authority as God. “But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with
the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against
him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!’” There are some who
say that if this is the Lord
disputing here, that He would not say “The Lord
rebuke you,” but that He would simply say “I rebuke you.” These people
would be wrong. In Zechariah 3:1-6 we find another dispute between “the Angel of the Lord” and Satan, this time
concerning Joshua. Here is what is described about this encounter in verses one
and two: “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing
at his right hand to accuse him. The LORD
said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you,
Satan! Indeed, the LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a
brand plucked from the fire?”
The simple Truth is that no CREATED being, angel or otherwise,
would have the Authority or the Right to dispute with the Devil about
anyone’s soul. Only one who has the authority of God could do that. So anytime
that we see Michael battling against
Satan (as in Dan. 10:21 and Dan. 12:1) we KNOW that it is Christ, not a created angel. How do we know that for
sure? How do we know that Michael the
“archangel” is not a created being
and that He is indeed God?
The fact that “Michael” the
archangel (first and foremost in knowledge, power and authority, and leader of
the heavenly host) and our Savior Jesus Christ are one and the same, is clearly
shown by the power and authority (which is Christ’s
alone) being exhibited and manifested in the same event but under two different “titles.” The occasion is
the Second Coming and the event is the raising of the dead. Notice 1
Thessalonians 4:16, 17: “For the Lord
Himself
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will descent from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel and
with the trumpet of God, and the dead in
Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall
always be with the Lord.”[48] Here the dead are raised
by the “voice of the archangel” (Michael). In John 5:27-29 the apostle declared
that it is the voice of Jesus that
raises the dead. This makes perfect sense because ONLY THE LORD CAN RAISE THE DEAD. If it is the voice of the
archangel that raised the dead, and it
is the voice of Jesus that raises the dead—then the voice must be the voice of
the same person, the person of Jesus
Christ. Only the Lord has the right and
the authority to dispute with the
Devil, and only the Lord can be Michael the Archangel.
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Appendix “D”
______________________
E.G. White—“New Light” Quotes
“There are mines of truth yet to be discovered.” (5T 704).
“We have only the glimmerings of
the rays of the light yet to come to us.”
(RH, June 3, 1890).
“There are old, yet new truths still to be added to the treasures of
our knowledge.” (RH, February 25, 1897).
“Investigation of every point
that has been received as truth will repay the searcher: He will find precious
gems. And in closely investigating every jot and tittle which we think is
established truth, in comparing Scripture with Scripture, we may discover errors in our interpretation of Scripture.” (RH,
July 12, 1898, par. 15).
“The fact that certain doctrines
have been held as truth for many years by our people is not proof that our ideas are infallible.” (RH, December 20, 1892,
par. 1).
“We cannot hold that a position
once taken, an idea once advocated, is not, under any circumstances, to be
relinquished. There is but One Who is infallible—He Who is the Way, the Truth,
and the Life.” (Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, p. 105, par. 2).
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“When God’s people are at ease,
and satisfied with their present enlightenment, we may be sure that He will not favour them. It is His will that
they should be ever moving forward, to
receive the increased and ever
increasing light that is shining for them.” (5T, pp. 708, 709).
“We have many lessons to learn, and many, many to unlearn. God and heaven alone are infallible. Those who think that they
will never have to give up a cherished
view, never have occasion to change an opinion, will be disappointed.” (RH,
July 26, 1892).
“Among the different
denominations there seems to be a determination developing to bind the
consciences of their members. They are building up barriers about their own
sects, and forming a purpose to listen to nothing outside of their own
doctrines. They are restricting themselves from hearing anything new, or any
doctrine presented by any other people than those who belong to their own
church.” (ST, August 27, 1894).
“New Light will ever be revealed on the word of God to
him who is in living connection with the Sun of righteousness . . . The
diligent seeker for truth will find precious rays of light yet to shine forth from the Word of God . . . Many gems are yet scattered that are to be gathered
together to become the property of the remnant people of God . . . Let no one come to the conclusion that
there is no more truth to be revealed . . . There is no excuse for anyone
in taking the position that there is no more truth to be revealed . . . We are not safe when we take the position
that we will not accept anything else than that upon which we have settled as
truth.” (Counsels on Sabbath School Work, p. 34).
“We are to know more than we do at the present time. We are to comprehend the deep things of God. There are themes to
be dwelt upon which are worthy of more than a passing notice. Angels have
desired to look into the truths which are revealed to the people who are searching God’s Word and with contrite hearts
praying for wisdom, for greater lengths and breadths and
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heights of that knowledge which
God alone can give . . . . as we near the closing scenes of this earth’s
history still more wonderful
representations will be made. We need to study the Scriptures with humble,
contrite hearts. Those who will devote their powers to the study of God’s Word,
and especially the prophecies referring to these last days, will be rewarded by
the discovery of important truths.”
(Ms 75, 1899, pp. 4, 5. [Untitled Manuscript, May 11, 1899]—may be found as
Manuscript release #54 in Manuscript Releases, Vol. 1, pp. 195-196).
“In the Scriptures thousands of gems of truth lie hidden
from the surface seeker. The mine of truth is never exhausted. The more you search the Scriptures with humble
hearts, the greater will be your interest, and the more you will feel like
exclaiming with Paul: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and
knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding
out!” Every day you should learn something new from the Scriptures. Search them
as for hid treasures, for they contain the words of eternal life. Pray for
wisdom and understanding to comprehend these holy writings. If you would do
this you would find new glories in the word of God; you would feel that you had
received new and precious light on subjects connected with the truth, and the
Scriptures would be constantly receiving a new value in your estimation.” (5T,
p. 266).
“Every soul must look to God
with contrition and humility, that He may guide and lead and bless. We must not trust to others to search the
Scriptures for us. Some of our leading brethren have frequently taken their
position on the wrong side; and if God would send a message and wait for these
older brethren to open the way for its advancement, it would never reach the
people. These brethren will be found in this position until they become
partakers of the divine nature to a greater extent than ever they have been in
the past.” (GW, 1913, p. 303).
“We must not think, ‘Well, we
have all the truth, we understand the main pillars of our faith, and we may
rest on this knowledge.’ The truth is an advancing
truth, and we must walk in the increasing
light.” (RH, March 25, 1890).
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“It is a fact that we have the
truth, and we must hold with tenacity to the positions that cannot be shaken;
but we must not look with suspicion upon any new light which God may send, and
say, “Really, we cannot see that we need any more light than the old truth
which we have hitherto received, and in which we are settle[ed]. While we hold
to this position, the testimony of the True Witness applies to our cases its
rebuke, “And knowest not that thou are wretched, and
miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Those who feel rich and increased
with goods and in need of nothing, are in a condition of blindness as to their true condition
before God, and they know it not.” RH, August 7, 1894, par. 2.
“The Lord has made His people
the repository of sacred truth. Upon every individual who has had the light of
Present truth devolves the duty of developing
that truth on a higher scale than it has hitherto been done.” (MS #27,
1897).
“At no period of time has man
learned all that can be learned of the word of God. There are yet new views of truth to be seen, and much
to be understood of the character and attributes of God,--his benevolence, his
mercy, his long forbearance, his example of perfect obedience. “And the Word
was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of
the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” This is a most
valuable study, taxing the intellect, and giving strength to the mental
ability. After diligently searching the word, hidden treasures are discovered,
and the lover of truth breaks out in triumph. Without controversy great is the
mystery of godliness: ‘God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit,
seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received
up into glory.’ ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who,
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made
himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made
in the likeness of men.” (Special Testimonies on Education, 1897, p. 147, par.
2).
“Whenever the people of God are
growing in grace, they will be constantly obtaining a clearer understanding of His word. They will discern new light and beauty in its sacred truths. This has been
true in the history of the church in all ages, and thus will
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continue to the end. But as real
spiritual life declines, it has ever been the tendency to cease to advance in
the knowledge of the truth. Men rest satisfied
with the light already received from God’s word, and discourage any further investigation of the Scriptures. They become
conservative, and seek to avoid
discussion . . . When no new questions are started by investigation of the
Scriptures, when no difference of opinion arises which will set men to
searching the Bible for themselves, to make sure that they have the truth,
there will be many now, as in ancient times, who will hold to tradition, and worship they know not what.” (5T, pp.
706-707).
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Appendix “E”
______________________
The Promise of the Spirit
May 19, 1904
The Promise of the Spirit
Mrs. E. G. White
“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. {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 1}
In the
gift of the Spirit, Jesus gave to man the highest good that heaven could
bestow. The Saviour looked on humanity, and saw that it was under the power of
the prince of darkness; but he saw also that there was hope for human beings
because there was power in the divine nature successfully to contend with evil
agencies. With glad assurance he said, "Now is the judgment of this world:
now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men unto me." {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 2}
The
Spirit was given as a regenerating agency, and without this the sacrifice of
Christ would have been of no avail. The power of evil had been strengthening
for centuries, and the submission of man to this satanic captivity was amazing.
Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the third
person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the
fullness of divine power. It is the Spirit that makes effectual what has been
wrought out by the world's Redeemer. 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. {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 3}
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Christ
said of the Spirit, "He shall glorify me." As Christ glorified the
Father by the demonstration of his love, so the Spirit was to glorify Christ by
revealing to the world the riches of his grace. The very image of God is to be
reproduced in humanity. The honor of God, the honor of Christ, is involved in
the perfection of the character of his people. {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 4}
At the
cost of infinite sacrifice and suffering, Christ has provided for us every
essential to success in the Christian warfare. The Holy Spirit brings power
that enables man to overcome. It is through the agency of the Spirit that the
government of Satan is to be subdued. It is the Spirit that convinces of sin,
and, with the consent of the human being, expels sin from the heart. The mind
is then brought under a new law,--the royal law of liberty. {RH, May 19, 1904
par. 5}
The
Spirit works in us by bringing to mind, vividly and often, the precious truths
of the plan of redemption. We should forget these truths, and for us God's rich
promises would lose their efficiency, were it not for the Spirit, who takes of
the things of God, and shows them to us. Our hearts are warmed by the
contemplation of Jesus and his love, and we long to speak to others the
comforting assurances that have been brought to our minds. {RH, May 19, 1904
par. 6}
It is the
privilege of every son and daughter of God to have the indwelling of the
Spirit. If those who know the truth would love and fear the Lord alway, if they
would abide in Christ, they would have moral and spiritual power. The grace of
Christ would be in them as a well of water, springing up unto everlasting life,
and would flow from them as streams of living water. {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 7}
The
Spirit illumines our darkness, informs our ignorance, and helps us in our
manifold necessities. But the mind must be constantly going out after God. If
worldliness is allowed to come in, if we have no desire to pray, no desire to
commune with him who is the source of strength and wisdom, the Spirit will not
abide with us. Those who are unbelieving do not receive the rich endowment of
grace that would make them wise unto salvation, patient, forbearing, quick to
perceive and appreciate heavenly ministrations, quick to discern Satan's
devices, and strong to resist sin. God can not do his mighty work for them because
of their unbelief. {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 8}
Christ
has promised the gift of the Spirit to his church, and the promise belongs to
us as much as to the first disciples. But like
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every other promise, it is given on conditions.
There are many who believe, and profess to claim the Lord's promise; they talk
about Christ and about the Holy Spirit, yet receive no benefit. They do not
surrender the soul to be guided and controlled by the divine agencies. We
cannot use the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is to use us. Through the Spirit God
works in his people "to will and to do of his good pleasure." But
many will not submit to this. They want to manage themselves. This is why they
do not receive the heavenly gift. Only to those who wait humbly upon God, who
watch for his guidance and grace, is the Spirit given. {RH, May 19, 1904 par.
9}
Christ
declared that the divine influence was to be with his followers to the end. But
the promise is not accepted and believed by God's people; therefore its fulfillment
is not seen. The promise of the Spirit is a matter little thought of; and the
result is only what might be expected,--spiritual drought, spiritual weakness,
spiritual declension and death. Minor matters occupy the attention, and the
divine power that is necessary for the growth and prosperity of the church, and
which would bring all other blessings in its train, is lacking, though offered
in its infinite plentitude. {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 10}
Just so
long as the church is satisfied with small things will it fail of receiving the
great things of God. Why do we not hunger and thirst after the gift of the
Spirit, since this is the means by which we are to receive power? Talk of it,
pray for it, preach concerning it. The Lord is more willing to give the Holy
Spirit to us than parents are to give good gifts to their children. {RH, May
19, 1904 par. 11}
If our
workers realized the responsibility resting upon them, would they enter the work
without cherishing a deep sense of its sacredness? Should we not see the deep
movings of the Spirit of God upon the men who present themselves for the
ministry? For the baptism of the Holy Spirit, every worker should be offering
his prayer to God. Companies should be gathered together to ask for special
help, for heavenly wisdom, that they may know how to devise and execute.
Especially should men pray that God will baptize his missionaries with the Holy
Spirit. {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 12}
There is
no limit to the usefulness of one who, putting aside self, makes room for the
working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart, and lives a life wholly consecrated
to God. If men will endure the necessary discipline, without complaining or
fainting by the way,
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God will teach them hour by hour, and day by day. He
longs to reveal his grace. If his people will remove the obstructions, he will
pour forth the waters of salvation in abundant streams through human channels.
If men in humble life were encouraged to do all the good they could do, if
restraining hands were not laid upon them to repress the zeal, there would be
one hundred workers for Christ where now there is one. {RH, May 19, 1904 par.
13}
God takes
men as they are, and educates them for his service, if they will yield
themselves to him. The Spirit of God, received into the soul, will quicken all
its faculties. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the mind that is devoted
unreservedly to God develops harmoniously, and is strengthened to comprehend
and fulfil the requirements of God. The weak, vacillating character becomes
changed to one of strength and steadfastness. Continual devotion establishes so
close a relation between Jesus and his disciples that the Christian becomes
like him in mind and character. Through a connection with Christ he will have
clearer and broader views. His discernment will be more penetrative, his
judgment better balanced. {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 14}
The
presence of the Holy Spirit with God's workers will give the presentation of
truth a power that not all the honor or glory of the world could give. The
Spirit furnishes the strength that sustains striving, wrestling souls in every
emergency, amid the unfriendliness of relatives, the hatred of the world, and the
realization of their own imperfections and mistakes. {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 15}
A union
of divine and human endeavor, a close connection first, last, and ever, with
God, the source of all strength,--this is absolutely necessary in our work.
{RH, May 19, 1904 par. 16}