Dear Reader,
What mistake was made at Nice? Why was it made? The great mistake made at the ecumenical Council of Nice, was the trinity doctrine which was based on pure assumption. Because the New and Old Testament mentioned the Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost, the ecclesiastics at the Council of Nice ASSUMED that the Holy Spirit had always been a third person with the Father and the Son. This was PURELY CONJECTURE. This PURE ASSUMPTION was the great mistake of the ecumenical council at Nice.
Who comprised the ecumenical council at Nice? The same ecclesiastical leaders mentioned in Desire of Ages, 232, who, in every succeeding generation since Christ, had rejected true light proffered by the true Reformers. Those true Reformers were not represented at the ecumenical council of Nice. Why? Because the true church had gone underground into the wilderness. The true church would not partake in any such ecumenical creed.
Scripture says that God is a Spirit. Scripture says that there is One, Eternal Spirit. That One, Eternal Spirit was innate to the Father and the Son, so it did indeed exist from eternity, but there is not evidence whatsoever that the Holy Spirit existed as a separate and distinct person until after the Incarnation. Just because the Holy Spirit did indeed exist as a person after the Incarnation, is no sign or evidence that it always existed as a separate distinct person from the Father and the Son. It was merely innate to them.
Ellen White says that the Holy Spirit is the life, breath and soul of Christ. She says that the Holy Spirit became Christ's successor on earth at His Incarnation when Christ became united with humanity. She even gives the reason why the Holy Spirit of Christ's original life became His successor at His Incarnation. It was because Christ became cumbered with humanity, and could not be in every place at once, or omnipresent:
“Cumbered with humanity Christ could not be in every place personally, therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He should leave them to go to His Father and send the Holy Spirit to be His successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit.” E.G. White, (Manuscript Releases Volume 14 (No’s 1081-1135) MR No.1084.
His Holy Spirit designates a personal, possessive pronoun. Only the actual life of Christ could be His successor. Ellen White said this was the case, and the Testator Covenant demanded that this was the case, when it said that the Covenant was on no effect as long as the Testator liveth. The Testator, the Son of God, had to die to His original life. He died to that same life that made the Testament with the Father. The Son had no element of humanity as part of Him when He made the Testator agreement with the Father. It was the Testator that had to die to His original life. This the Son "laid aside" at His Incarnation, as the greatest gift that He could bestow on man.
"Christ declared that after His ascension, he would send to his church, as his crowning GIFT, the comforter, who is the Holy Spirit,--THE SOUL OF HIS LIFE, THE EFFICACY OF HIS CHURCH, THE LIGHT AND LIFE OF THE WORLD. With HIS SPIRIT Christ sends a reconciling influence and a power that takes away sin. In the gift of the Spirit, [HIS LIFE--THE SOUL OF HIS LIFE] Jesus gave to man the highest good that heaven could bestow." E.G. White, Review and Herald, May 19, 1904. Book 5, p. 42.
The Impartation of the Holy Spirit is the Impartation of the Life of Christ
"The Holy Spirit is the breath of spiritual life in the soul. The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ. It imbues the receiver with the attributes of Christ. Only those who are thus taught of God, those who possess the inward working of the Spirit, and in whose life the Christ-life is manifested, are to stand as representative men, to minister in behalf of the church." Desire of Ages, 805.
The above statement could not make it any clearer, that the impartation of the Holy Spirit is the impartation of THE LIFE OF CHRIST. It could not be stated any clearer. Yet, man will reject these direct and clear words to their damnation and to the rejection of the best gift the Son could have bestowed upon them, the very LIFE OF CHRIST.
The following statement from the Nicene Creed is half true:
"We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified."
When we Worship the Father and the Son, we also worship the Holy Ghost of Christ's original life before the Incarnation which He laid aside to give to us. By laying aside that life, He effectively "died" to it, thus satisfying the demands of the Testator Covenant:
Hbr 9:16 For where a testament [is], there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
Hbr 9:17 For a testament [is] of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
The death of Christ's humanity ALONE, on the cross, would not satisfy the death of the Testator (above), because the Testator was not in any wise human when He made the Testator agreement from the foundation of the earth.
The Holy Spirit always proceeded from the Father and the Son, because it was innate to them both. However, it was not worshipped and glorified, until Christ laid it aside at His Incarnation. It is erroneously assumed from the above statement of the Nicene Creed, that the Holy Spirit existed as a separate, distinct person eternally, when the statement clearly says that the Holy Spirit "proceeds from the Father and the Son."
The Holy Spirit did proceed from the Father and the Son from all eternity, but not as a separate and distinct person, until after the Incarnation, at which time that Holy Spirit Life, Breath and Soul of the Son was laid aside FOREVER, as a regenerating gift to us. To refuse this truth, is to refuse the greatest gift the Son could have bestowed on mankind.
Anything that denies the greatest gift, becomes the greatest heresy, and that is precisely what the trinity doctrine does and is. It is the greatest heresy known to man. It is the central doctrine of the Catholic church. Even Catholic ecclesiasticals admit that there is no precise Scriptural evidence for the trinity doctrine. That makes them more discerning, perceptive and honest, than any Adventist who maintains otherwise:
"Our opponents [Protestants] sometimes claim that no belief should be held dogmatically which is not explicitly stated in Scripture (ignoring that it is only on the authority of the Church we recognize certain Gospels and not others as true). But the Protestant churches have themselves accepted such dogmas as the Trinity for which there is no such precise authority in the Gospels..." (Life Magazine, October 30, 1950).
Here the Catholic ecclesio demonstrates more insight and honesty than the Jew James Ayars, and New Movement Adventists in general.
The Nicene Creed
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
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Br. Thomas Bushnell, BSG / tb@mit.edu