Harvestime
Books
VANCE FERRELL
Defending
the
Godhead
HB–906
Defending the Godhead
by Vance Ferrell
Published by Harvestime
Books
Altamont, TN 37301 USA
Printed in the United States of America
Cover and Text Copyright © 2005
This book deals with a most solemn subject,
which is deserving of our careful attention and
respect. It is one which we must approach with
humility and reverence; for we are here dealing
with a topic of deepest sacredness—the most
profound Beings in the universe: the Godhead.
Additional copies of this book are available at
extremely low
cost, in small boxful quantities. You will want
to share copies of
this book with friends and relatives.
Write to Harvestime
Books, Altamont, TN 37301. When you write,
ask for a copy of our “Missionary Book Order
Sheet,” containing
low-cost boxful prices of this book and others,
such as Great
Controversy, Ministry of Healing, Christ’s
Object Lessons, Bible
Readings, etc.
Cover: It is in the sky that we view the
awesome majesty of what Deity can produce.
“The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm
19:1).
On the cover is the immense supernova
remnant in Vela, which extends over an area at
least 35o in diameter. It
can only be seen from the
southern hemisphere.
Throughout eternity, as they journey to distant
planets, the redeemed will be able to view vast
numbers of such spectacular objects.
3
1 - In the Beginning 6
Preparing for the Crisis 6 / The Eternal, Divine
Son of God 13
/ The Primary Problem Passage about Christ 19 /
The Second
Problem Passage about Christ 22 / The Third
Problem
Passage about Christ 24 / The Eternal
Self-existent Holy
Spirit 25 / Three Problem Passages about the
Holy Spirit 33
/ Matthew 28:19-20 39
2 - Introduction to the Controversy
over the Godhead 43
3 - Scripture Facts about the True
Godhead 47
The Three Persons in the Godhead 47 / In the
Bible 48 / In
the Spirit of Prophecy 50 // The Divinity of
Christ 59 / In the
Bible 59 / In the Spirit of Prophecy 60 // The
Eternity of
Christ 60 / In the Bible 60 / In the Spirit of
Prophecy 61 //
The Humanity of Christ 62 / In the Bible 62 / In
the Spirit of
Prophecy 63 // The Divinity of the Holy Spirit
66 / In the
Bible 66 / In the Spirit of Prophecy 67
4 - The Roman Catholic Teaching
about the Trinity 71
(What they actually teach)
5 - Our Pioneers Opposed the Trinity
Error 79
(What they actually wrote)
CONTENTS
4 Defending the Godhead
6 - Our Doctrinal Statements 87
The 1889 Doctrinal Statement 87 / The 1931
Doctrinal
Statement 88 / The 1980 Doctrinal Statement 90 /
The
Trinity Song 93
7 - Additional Bible Facts about the
Divinity of Christ 94
Twenty-four Bible Proofs that Christ is Fully
God 94 / Fifty-two
more Bible Evidences that Christ is fully Divine
96
8 - Additional Bible Facts about the
Eternity of Christ 105
Fourteen Bible Proofs that Christ has Existed
Forever 105
9 - The Divinity and Eternity of Christ
in the Spirit of Prophecy 112
10 - Special Topics about Christ 119
The Death and Resurrection of Christ 120 / The
Relationship
of Christ to the Angels 121 / Who Should We Pray
To? 122 /
The Godhead Will Share Their Life with Us 123
11 - The Divinity of the Holy Spirit in
the Bible 126
Personality 126 / Deity 129 / Symbols 131 /
Other Activities
133 / Additional Information 134 / 1 John 5:7
136 /
Deuteronomy 6:4 138 / The Nature of the Oneness
140
12 - The Divinity of the Holy Spirit in
the Spirit of Prophecy 142
5
13 - The Charter Passages about the
Holy Spirit 153
The Charter Statement in the Spirit of Prophecy
153 / “He” in
the Charter Passages in the Bible 158 / The
Greek of those
Passages 159
14 - Pronouns for the Holy Spirit 161
Pronouns for the Holy Spirit in the New
Testament 161 / The
Pronoun, “He,” in Desire of Ages 163 / The
Pronoun, “He,” in
Other Spirit of Prophecy Quotations in this Book
163 / More
on Pronouns for the Holy Spirit 164
15 - A Pattern of Deception 165
16 - The Danger of Rejecting the Holy
Spirit 170
Reasons Offered for Rejecting the Holy Spirit’s
Existence 170
/ Ellen White Reproved Those Who Denied the Holy
Spirit’s
Existence 172 / The Sin against the Holy Spirit
174
17 - Important Counsels 176
Do Not Discard the Bible 176 / Do Not Discard the
Spirit of
Prophecy 178 / Beware of So-called “New Light”
188
18 - Religions which Deny the Deity of
Christ and the Holy Spirit 191
Arians and Unitarians 192 / Jehovah’s Witnesses
193 /
Worldwide Church of God 196 / Unity School of
Christianity
196 / Spiritualists and Psychics 197 / Mormon
Deities 200 /
Mohammed’s Teaching about Deity 201 / Other
Muslim
Teachings 202
Contents
6 Defending the Godhead
——————————————
— CHAPTER ONE —
IN THE
BEGINNING
PREPARING FOR THE CRISIS
Far, far back
into time we shall go. Past the creation
of our world.
Farther still. Past the fall of Lucifer,
the creation of
angels, and entire worlds. Back
to the
beginning.
But how can
there be a beginning? There can’t be.
With the
existence of the Godhead, there can be no
beginning. Yet
in human language, that is how we must
describe it.
“In the
beginning, God created the heaven and the
earth” (Gen. 1:1). The point when
God created this or
that was only its beginning. Yet there was
time before
that. Time for
the Godhead to think and plan.
For everything
was planned. We find such exquisite
design in
everything about us, from the greatest
galaxy to the
tiniest diatom. It all took careful planning.
Salvation took
planning too.
This book is
about the Godhead. It is written to
explain the
Bible/Spirit of Prophecy truth about the
Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit,—and to dispel false notions
about Them. (In
this book, “Godhead” is considered
a plural word; so “They” and “Them”
are used as
their personal
pronouns.)
The Godhead is
so majestic, so glorious, so over7
whelmingly wonderful—that They do not deserve the
way finite human
minds try to put Them in little categories,
limit Their
powers, reduce Their abilities, and
shorten Their
existence.
Thankfully, we
have an abundance of Bible/Spirit
of Prophecy
truth about the Godhead. (You will probably
find more of it
in this book than in any other you
have ever read.)
But,
unfortunately, there are a remarkable number
of errors about
the Godhead. This book will help
you understand
the basic flaws in those theories and
the Scripture
evidence disproving them.
There appears to
be conflicting points which are
seemingly
difficult to resolve. The Son is submissive
to the Father;
yet He is equal with Him. He comes obediently
from the Father;
yet He is fully God. He is said
to be “begotten”;
yet He has existed forever.
The Holy Spirit
is sometimes sent by the Father;
yet, at other
times, He is sent by the Son. He is a Spirit
of love; yet He
is an actual being. We are never told to
pray to Him; yet
He is fully God. He is the newly sent
Comforter; yet
He has existed eternally.
How can we
reconcile all this? What is the answer?
Here is the
primary cause of this seeming confusion
in human minds: People confuse the nature of
the Godhead with Their work. Learning about the individual
mission of each
member to save mankind, we
are tempted to
imagine that Their individual activities
and work for
mankind explain the nature and inner
attributes of each of Them.
Yet we are
limited by our language. So in identifying
each member of
the Godhead, in this book we will
speak of Them as
the Father, the Son or Christ, and
the Holy Spirit.
The problem here is that these names
identify Their
work, not Their nature.
Preparing for the Crisis
8 Defending the Godhead
In nature, each one is
fully divine, fully God, selfexistent,
equal in every
way to each of the others, and
totally eternal—both
past and future.
And what is Their work? Well, to better understand
that, we need to
return to an earlier time.
As we journey
back through dateless ages, we finally
arrive at the
time when there was nothing. Except
the Godhead.
And They were
thinking.
They had a lot
to think about; but, fortunately,
thinking and
totally accurate conclusions come easily
to Them, more
quickly than the flash of an instant.
You see, even
though They had not made any creatures
yet, They knew
that a rebellion was coming. They
knew all about
it.
“God had a
knowledge of the events of the future,
even before the
creation of the world. He did not
make His
purposes to fit circumstances, but He allowed
matters to
develop and work out. He did not
work to bring
about a certain condition of things,
but He knew that
such a condition would exist. The
plan that should
be carried out upon the defection
of any of the
high intelligences of heaven—this is the
secret, the
mystery which has been hid from ages.
And an offering
was prepared in the eternal purposes
to do the very
work which God has done for
fallen humanity.”—6 Bible Commentary, 1082.
“The Godhead was stirred with pity for the race,
and the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit gave
Themselves to
the working out of the plan of redemption.”—
Counsels on Health, 222.
That future
rebellion against the divine government,
from start to
finish, would be the single great crisis of
the ages. Entire
worlds would be endangered. Many
angels would be
lost. Many humans would be saved to
9
take their
place.
The Godhead had
much to think about. What
should be done
to save the most angels and men? What
should be done
to eternally protect the entire universe—
so everyone
would be so convinced of the love
and goodness of
the Godhead, that sin would never
arise again?
In that most
distant past, far beyond the reach of
men and angels,
the decision as to what to do was
worked out. And
would you not expect a thought-out
plan? If the
tiniest objects of nature, in design and function,
are carefully
designed, would you not expect that
the rescue of
the universe from rebels would also be
taken care of?
It was a carefully thought-out “plan.” It
is the plan of
redemption.
“Let those who
are oppressed under a sense of
sin remember
that there is hope for them. The salvation
of the human
race has ever been the object
of the councils
of heaven. The covenant of
mercy was made
before the foundation of the world.
It has existed
from all eternity, and is called the everlasting
covenant. So
surely as there never was a
time when God
was not, so surely there never was
a moment when it was not the delight of the eternal
mind to manifest
His grace to humanity.”—7 Bible
Commentary, 934.
“The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the
three holy
dignitaries of heaven, have declared that
They will
strengthen men to overcome the powers
of darkness. All the facilities of heaven are pledged
to those who by
their baptismal vows have entered
into a covenant
with God.”—5 Bible Commentary,
1110.
It is wonderful
to be loved. And the quotation above
(also see 7BC 934) reveals that long ago, in “the councils
of heaven,” the
Godhead was intent on saving you.
Preparing for the Crisis
10 Defending the Godhead
They love you
deeply. As far back as has been the existence
of the Godhead—and they have existed forever.
Through all that
time, they have been planning to
save you!
That plan had to
include convincing the entire universe
that the Deity
is pure love. Yet there was an immense
hurdle standing
in the way of that objective.
How can massive
power and an immeasurable mind
show frail
creatures, such as angels and people, the
other side of
the Godhead—Their inner nature of utter
sweetness,
kindliness, and tender love?
This was an
important problem. But the Godhead
can easily solve
all problems. We will next consider
how this was
done:
At this point,
it should be mentioned that this chapter
is given to
connect all the facts given us in Scripture
about the nature
and activities of the Godhead,
and the
apparently conflicting statements regarding
their nature and
work. It is given to defend the best
Friends I shall
ever have, who do not deserve to have
two-thirds of
Them excluded from eternity past and
one-third from
existence!
And it nicely
connects the pieces of the puzzle together,
especially when
we recognize that the confusion
in some minds is
primarily caused when men assume
that the
activities of the Godhead reveal Their
nature!
Returning now to
that distant past.
The three
members of the Godhead had to figure
out a way to
solve three inherent problems:
The first problem was that the Godhead had such
immense power,
authority, and intellect. —The angels,
the inhabitants
of the other worlds, and humans on
earth would have
a difficult time relating to Them and
11
loving Them.
Although I like the little wild animals
which live
around my country home, they live in constant
fear of me.
Recognizing that I seem to have immense
abilities and
power which they cannot begin to
understand, they
are apprehensive.
The Godhead
recognized that They would later face
this same
problem when They created such greatly subordinate
beings. How
could They express the great
depth of Their
love for those creatures and convince
them of it?
The second problem was the fact that there were
three in the
Godhead. It is difficult to identify with three
leaders. Think
about that for a moment. (For example,
how would fallen
man go about praying to three Gods?)
There was need
for a special pattern, so humans would
look to one
sovereign God as Lord of all in their lives.
The third problem was that each of the members
of the Godhead
needed a definite name by which Their
creatures could
identify and partly understand them.
Keep in mind
that each was fully divine with all the
powers of the
other two; yet They needed separate
names.
While each
member of the Godhead, being infinite,
had all power,
each maintained a position and did a
work which was
different than the others.
This was not
difficult to do, since one was already
the supreme One.
Another was the beloved Son. The
third was the
Holy Spirit.
Their positions
and actions would solve each of
the three
problems mentioned above.
The answer to the first problem: It appears that
one took the
form of an angel (later becoming a man).
And, in doing
so, He would reveal the love of the
Godhead to the
universe.
Preparing for the Crisis
12 Defending the Godhead
The answer to the second problem: One would
maintain the
supreme position; and He would become
the central One
to pray to and worship.
The answer to the third problem: The specific
position and
work of each would provide Him with a
definite name by
which He could be known.
Think not that
this was a little matter. The destiny
of men—yea, of
worlds—hung in the balance. Before
the creation
began, a plan had to be devised whereby
the universe
would understand that the charges made
in the coming
rebellion were wrong. Only a division of
Their
responsibilities, and an overmastering revelation
of the love of
the Godhead, would be able to do that.
“God is love” is
a total, absolute truth. The three
members of the
Godhead were so loving of one another,
so selfless, and
so concerned for the best welfare
of the creatures
which They would later create—
that each
willingly maintained a different position, involving
not only
different duties but also a different
appearance.
(Inspired
statements indicate that Christ did not
choose the
position of Sonship, but that He had it from
eternity. It
also appears that, rather than choosing the
headship of the
Godhead, the One we call the “Father”
always had it.)
Because of what
They selflessly did back then, you
are now able to
understand the love of God. You are
able to closely
relate to Him.
Recognizing this
love and entering into this deep
relationship of
being His little child—because of the
selfless life
and death of God’s own Son, who became
man,—you are
able to be saved. You are able to enter
into the
interactive love that the Godhead have for one
another. In
character and love you partake of divinity;
that is, the
divine attributes of character perfection that
13
They have.
It was a perfect
plan, a most thrilling plan. It was
the “plan of redemption!”
Obviously, for
each member of the Godhead to
maintain a
different position and appearance, do a different
work, and take a
different name—was selflessness
in the extreme
on the part of each of Them! The
One we call the “Father”
was the leader over all; yet He
would not be
able to save mankind and eventually be
highly exalted
as the Saviour. He would also suffer
deeply in the
sufferings and death of His Son.
The Son would
take the lowly place of a leader
among the angels
and later stoop to become a human
being; then he
would suffer pain, separation from God,
and the
crucifixion.
The “Holy Spirit”—would
probably not have been
concerned to
have His existence known until our world
was created!
(See Patriarchs and Prophets, 36, and
rest of
chapter.) From what we read in the Bible and
Spirit of
Prophecy, it is unlikely that the angels and
unfallen worlds
knew of His existence in those earlier
ages! (Keep in
mind that, before the false charges of
Lucifer began to
be made, the created intelligences did
not even realize
there was a law that they lived under.
There are
indications that they did not realize that
Christ was divine
until the rebellion began.)
THE ETERNAL, DIVINE SON OF GOD
From everything
we are told in the Inspired Writings,
let us consider
an example of how this suggested
solution solves
one of the problems of the Godhead,
the position of
Christ before the incarnation:
We are told that
Christ has been eternal through
all past time
and that He has been the Son of God
back into the
most distant past, not only at His incarnation.
We are told that
there never was a time when
The Eternal, Divine Son of God
14 Defending the Godhead
He was not close
to the Father. We are told that He is
the “eternal Son
of God.”
“Christ is the pre-existent, self-existent Son of
God . . In speaking of His pre-existence, Christ carries
the mind back through
dateless ages. He assures
us that there never was a time when He
was not in close
fellowship with the eternal God.
He to whose
voice the Jews were then listening had
been with God as
one brought up with Him.”—Evangelism,
615.
“He was equal
with God, infinite and omnipotent
. . He is the eternal, self-existent
Son.”—Evangelism,
615.
We are told that
the Holy Spirit has always been
a member of the
Three-part Godhead; and He is as
eternal as the
Father!
“The eternal heavenly
dignitaries—God, and
Christ, and the
Holy Spirit—arming them [the disciples]
with more than
mortal energy . . would advance
with them to the
work and convince the world
of sin.”—Evangelism, 616.
“The eternal Godhead—the
Father, the Son,
and the Holy
Ghost—is involved in the action required
to make
assurance to the human agent.”—
Upward Look, 148.
The Holy Spirit
was also involved in this planning.
From the very
beginning of concern over the
plan of
redemption and the future salvation of man,
far back in endless
eternity, the Three were at work
on the plan.
“It is the glory
of the gospel that it is founded
upon the
principle of restoring in the fallen race the
divine image by
a constant manifestation of benevolence.
This work began
in the heavenly courts . .
The Godhead was
stirred with pity for the race,
and the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit gave
15
Themselves to
the working out of the plan of redemption.
In order fully
to carry out this plan, it
was decided that
Christ, the only-begotten Son of
God, should give
Himself an offering for sin.”—Counsels
on Health, 222.
The Spirit of
Prophecy indicates that Christ apparently
was in the form
of an angel for ages after the
initial creation
of the universe. (We know that, even in
human history,
Christ at times took the form of an
angel: See SR 128, PP 419, 1BC
1095, etc.) It appears
that, at the
time that Lucifer was in the process of developing
his rebellion,
the One on the throne “made
known” to the
angels, for the first time—that Christ
was equal with
Himself.
“A special light
beamed in his [Lucifer’s] countenance
and shone around
him brighter and more
beautiful than
around the other angels; yet Christ,
God’s dear Son,
had the preeminence over all the
angelic host. He
was one with the Father before the
angels were
created. Lucifer was envious of Christ,
and gradually
assumed command which devolved
on Christ alone.
“The great
Creator assembled the heavenly host,
that He might in
the presence of all the angels confer
special honor
upon His Son. The Son was seated
on the throne
with the Father, and the heavenly
throng of holy
angels was gathered around Them.
“The Father then made known that it was ordained
by Himself that
Christ, His Son, should
be equal with
Himself; so that wherever was the
presence of His
Son, it was as His own presence.
The word of the
Son was to be obeyed as readily
as the word of
the Father. His Son He had invested
with authority
to command the heavenly host. Especially
was His Son to
work in union with Himself
in the anticipated
creation of the earth and every
The Eternal, Divine Son of God
16 Defending the Godhead
living thing
that should exist upon the earth. His
Son would carry
out His will and His purposes but
would do nothing
of Himself alone. The Father’s will
would be
fulfilled in Him.”—Story of Redemption,
13-14.
Of course, the
above two paragraphs could be interpreted
as meaning that
Christ received divinity at
that time. But
such an interpretation would contradict
the many
statements (quoted in this book) that Christ
was fully divine and had been so
throughout all past
eternity. While Christ’s
divinity was “made known” at
that time, other
Inspired passages tell us that Christ’s
divinity spans
all eternity.
“The Word
existed as a divine being, even as the
eternal Son of
God, in union and oneness with His
Father. From everlasting He was the Mediator of
the covenant . . Before men or angels were created,
the Word was
with God, and was God . . Christ was
God essentially,
and in the highest sense. He was
with God from all eternity, God over all, blessed
forevermore. The
Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Son
of God, existed
from eternity, a distinct person, yet
one with the
Father.”—1 Selected Messages, 247
(Review and Herald, April 5, 1906).
There is another
quotation which appears to be a
contradiction:
“A complete
offering has been made; for ‘God so
loved the world,
that He gave His only-begotten
Son,’—not a son by creation, as were the angels,
nor a son by
adoption, as is the forgiven sinner,
but a Son
begotten in the express image of the
Father’s person,
and in all the brightness of His
majesty and
glory, one equal with God in authority,
dignity, and
divine perfection. In Him dwelt all the
fullness of the
Godhead bodily.”—Signs of the
Times, May 30, 1895.
17
The above
statement could indicate that Christ was
actually born
into existence at some earlier time.
Yet that would
contradict other clear statements
that Christ is
eternal. Let me explain: If Christ was
actually born
out of the Father, then there was a time
when He did not
exist and He could not therefore be
eternal.
The solution appears to be this: Christ has always
been the Son of
God; and there never was a time when
He emerged from
the Father. That statement appears
to solve all the
problems about Christ’s Sonship. Not
once in the
Bible or Spirit of Prophecy is there to be
found a definite
statement that there was a time when
Christ did not
exist.
“He was equal with God, infinite and
omnipotent
. . He is the eternal, self-existent Son.”—
Evangelism, 615.
“If Christ made
all things, He existed before all
things. The
words spoken in regard to this are so
decisive that no
one need be left in doubt. Christ
was God
essentially, and in the highest sense. He
was with God
from all eternity. God over all,
blessed
forevermore. The Lord Jesus Christ, the
divine Son of
God, existed from eternity, a distinct
person, yet one with the Father.”—5 Bible
Commentary, 1126.
“The Lord Jesus
Christ, the divine Son of God,
existed from
eternity, a distinct person, yet one
with the Father.
He was the surpassing glory of
heaven. He was
the commander of the heavenly intelligences,
and the adoring
homage of the angels
was received by
Him as His right. This was no robbery
of God.”—1 Selected Messages, 247-248.
We are told that
the life that Christ had was original
with Him; that
is, it did not come from someone
The Eternal, Divine Son of God
18 Defending the Godhead
else. Nor was it
borrowed from anyone. And
it was not
derived from any
possible source.
“De-rive (de-riv’) 1. to get or obtain, as from a
source or origin
. . 2. obtain from some process of
reasoning 3. to
trace the origin of something from
or to its
source. 4. to proceed from a source.”—Macmillan
Dictionary.
“Jesus declared,
‘I am the resurrection and the
life.’ In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived.
‘He that hath
the Son hath life.’ 1 John 5:12.
The divinity of
Christ is the believer’s assurance of
eternal life.”—Desire of Ages, 530.
It was only in a
“new sense” that Christ became
the “Son of God”
at His incarnation. This is because
He had been the
Son of God prior to that time.
“In His humanity
He was a partaker of the divine
nature. In His incarnation He gained in a new
sense the title
of the Son of God. Said the angel to
Mary, ‘The power
of the Highest shall overshadow
thee: therefore
also that holy thing which shall be
born of thee
shall be called the Son of God’ (Luke
1:35). While the Son of
a human being, He became
the Son of God
in a new sense. Thus He
stood in our
world—the Son of God, yet allied by
birth to the
human race.”—1 Selected Messages,
226-227.
“Jesus claimed equal rights with God in doing
a work equally
sacred, and of the same character
with that which
engaged the Father in heaven . . The
whole nation of
the Jews called God their Father,
therefore they
would not have been so enraged if
Christ had
represented Himself as standing in the
same relation to
God. But they accused Him of blasphemy,
showing that they understood Him as making
this claim in
the highest sense.”—Desire of
Ages, 207-208.
19
“It was no
robbery with Him to act in the office of
God.”—Sons and Daughters of God, 301.
THE PRIMARY PROBLEM PASSAGE
ABOUT CHRIST
The primary Inspired passage used to disprove
the eternity of Christ is Proverbs 8:22-30. We will examine
it right now.
Upon careful
examination, we find that it is only
quoted twice in the Spirit of Prophecy:
“And the Son of
God declares concerning Himself:
‘The Lord
possessed Me in the beginning of
His way, before His works of old. I was set up
from
everlasting . . When He appointed the foundations
of the earth:
then I was by Him, as one brought up
with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing
always before
Him.’ Proverbs 8:22-30. The Father
wrought by His
Son in the creation of all heavenly
beings. ‘By Him
were all things created.’ ”—Patriarchs
and Prophets, 34 [ellipsis hers].
Four times, in
the above quotation from Proverbs,
we are told that
Christ is eternal:
• “The Lord possessed Me in the beginning
of
His way.” As long as
the Father has existed, just
so long has the
Son existed.
• “I was set up from everlasting.” The Son was
with the Father
from eternity past.
• “I was by Him,
as one brought up with Him.”
“With Him,” not “by
Him.” The Son was always
with Him (the
Father).
• “I was daily His delight, rejoicing always
before
Him.” There
never was a time when the Son
was not in
fullest unity with Him.
Here is the other Spirit of Prophecy quotation
about this passage (Prov. 8:22-27):
“The Lord Jesus
Christ, the divine Son of God,
The Primary Problem Passage about Christ
20 Defending the Godhead
existed from
eternity, a distinct person, yet one
with the Father.
He was the surpassing glory of
heaven. He was
the commander of the heavenly intelligences,
and the adoring
homage of the angels
was received by
Him as His right. This was no robbery
of God. ‘The
Lord possessed Me in the beginning
of His way,’ He
declares, ‘before His works of
old, I was set
up from everlasting, from the beginning,
or ever the
earth was. When there were no
depths, I was
brought forth; when there were no
fountains
abounding with water. Before the mountains
were settled,
before the hills was I brought
forth: while as
yet He had not made the earth, nor
the fields, nor
the highest part of the dust of the
world. When He
prepared the heavens, I was there:
when He set a
compass upon the face of the depth’
(Prov. 8:22-27).”—1 Selected Messages, 247-248.
It is highly
significant that the Proverbs passage
is quoted as evidence that Christ has “existed
from eternity, a distinct person.”—Yet there
are those who
cite this passage as their best Scripture
evidence that
Christ has not existed from eternity!
But what about
the phrase, “beginning of His way”
from Proverbs
8:22? That passage does not prove that
Christ had a beginning! It says that from the very
beginning of the
Father’s existence, Christ was with
Him! That is all it says; and we agree. “In the beginning”
(Prov. 8:22) is the best that
human language can
use to express
that Christ has been with the Father
eternally. The
same phrasing is used in two other passages:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God,
and the Word was God. The same
was in the beginning with God. All things
were
made by Him.”—John 1:1-3.
“That which was from the beginning . . the Word
21
of life.”—1 John 1:1.
There are three special words in Proverbs
8:22-30 which we want to understand better. They
are the key to the entire passage!
“The Lord
possessed Me in the beginning of His
way.”—Proverbs 8:22.
“Possessed” (8:22) indicates that
Christ was with
the Father as
far back as they both have existed—which
is forever. The
Hebrew of this word can also be translated:
“to be appointed
to a position,” or “assigned
a certain work.”
More on this below.
The next three
verses repeat themselves in the typical
style of Hebrew
poetry:
“I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning,
or ever the
earth was.”—Proverbs 8:23.
“When there were
no depths, I was brought forth:
when there were
no fountains abounding with water.”—
Proverbs 8:24.
“Before the
mountains were settled, before the
hills was I brought forth.”—Proverbs 8:25.
According to
Proverbs 8:22, the Father and Son
have always been
together. Added to this is verses 23-
25, which
indicate that at some distant time in the
past, something
important occurred. What was it?
The key words
are “set up” and “brought forth.”
Understanding
them will provide the meaning of that
event or
transaction.
“Set up” is nasak in the Hebrew.
This can mean
(1) “to pour
out,” as used in to pour out a drink offering
(1 Chron. 11:18), (2) “to set,” “to set up,” “to install,”
or “to
inaugurate.”
“Brought forth” is chil in the Hebrew,
and can
mean (1) “to
bring forth” as a child or (2) “to be
anointed.”
The Primary Problem Passage about Christ
22 Defending the Godhead
Thus we find
that “possessed” can mean “appointed
to a position”
or “assigned to a certain work.”
“Set up” can mean “to install” or “to inaugurate.” This
word, nasak (set up), is
used in a parallel passage:
“Yet have I set
My King upon My holy hill of
Zion.”—Psalm 2:6.
“Brought forth,”
in Proverbs 8:24-25, can mean
“to be anointed.”
—In Proverbs 8:22-25, we have a beautiful
unifying
pattern which explains an event in the most
distant past!
Long ago, Christ
was anointed to undertake a special
task, to carry
out a special work. Having entered
into this
agreement with the Father, they then set to
work to begin
the work of creation (described in verses
26-29).
What was that
special agreement and project?
In Their
foreknowledge, it was the covenant of redemption,
the plan of
redemption, the agreement that
Christ would
save mankind—at any cost to Himself.
They knew what
was coming; and they were prepared
to meet it.
Thus we find that Proverbs 8:22-25 does not
mean that Christ is a created being! And such a concept
would be in
violation of other Bible passages.
The message of
Proverbs 8:22 is that Christ has
existed as long
as the Father has existed; and verses
23-25 tell about
an important agreement which they
made.
THE SECOND PROBLEM PASSAGE
ABOUT CHRIST
Colossians 1:15
is cited as teaching that Christ
was created as
the first of the “creatures” and that
“creatures”
means “created beings.” Therefore Christ
is a “creature”
or “created being.” Here is the verse:
23
“Who is the
image of the invisible God, the firstborn
of every
creature.”—Colossians 1:15.
If what the
critics say this verse means is true,
then Colossians
1:15 contradicts all the Inspired statements
about the
eternity of Christ.
What does Colossians 1:15 actually mean?
“Creatures,” in
the Greek, does indeed mean “created
beings or
objects”; we all agree on that.
The question is
about the word, translated in the
King James
Version, as “firstborn.” What does that
mean?
The word in the
Greek is ðñïôïêïϖ
(protokos),
which can mean
one of two things:
(1) It can mean “the first to be born”; that is, being
first in the
family to be born rather than being
born at a later
time. Or, it can mean (2) “the one who
produces all the births.” This is the prime mover,
the one who
brings the generations into existence. In
verse 15, it
should read: “The One who brought all
creatures into
existence.”
Not only does
this agree with all the rest of Scripture,
but the very next two verses after Colossians
1:15 support
this correct meaning of protokos:
“For by Him were all things created, that are in
heaven, and that
are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be
thrones, or dominions, or principalities,
or powers; all things were created by Him,
and for Him. And
He is before all things, and by
Him all things
consist.”—Colossians 1:16-17.
It is obvious
that verses 15 and 16 are part of
one lengthy
sentence. Both speak of how Christ is
the Creator of
every created object. It is therefore
obvious that, in
verse 15, protokos cannot mean “first
of the creatures
to be born”; but it must mean “the
One who brought
all creatures into existence.”
The Second Problem Passage about Christ
24 Defending the Godhead
Colossians
1:15-17 discusses the divinity and
creatorship
status of Christ, especially the fact that
He is Creator,
Ruler, and Sustainer of all the lower
powers in heaven
and on earth. Verse 18 carries this
point on. It
states that, in addition, Christ is also Ruler
over all His
people.
THE THIRD PROBLEM PASSAGE
ABOUT CHRIST
“But to us there is but one God, the Father, of
whom are all
things, and we in Him; and one Lord
Jesus Christ, by
whom are all things, and we by
Him.”—1 Corinthians 8:6.
The above
passage must mean “There is but one
God the Father
and one Lord Jesus Christ.” (All we
did was to omit
the comma after God. As you know,
there were no
commas in the original Greek. Cf. Luke
23:43, where we
run into a similar comma problem.)
None should try
to use 1 Corinthians 8:6 in an
attempt to deny
the truth of other statements, by the
Apostle Paul,
which confirm the divinity of Christ and
the fact that He
also is fully God:
“For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the
Godhead bodily.”—Colossians 2:9.
“Who, being in
the form of God, thought it not
robbery to be equal with God.”—Philippians 2:6.
“Christ . . who is over all, God blessed for ever.
Amen.”—Romans 9:5.
“Looking for
that blessed hope, and the glorious
appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ.”—Titus 2:13.
“And without
controversy great is the mystery of
godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified
in the Spirit.”—1 Timothy 3:16.
Other Bible
writers agree; for example:
“And we know
that the Son of God is come, and
25
hath given us an
understanding, that we may know
Him that is
true, and we are in Him that is true,
even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God,
and eternal
life.”—1 John 5:20.
“For unto us a
Child is born, unto us a Son is
given, and the
government shall be upon His shoulder.
And His name
shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace.”—Isaiah 9:6.
And, of course,
there is Jesus’ own statement about
Himself:
“I am Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the
ending, saith
the Lord, which is, and which was,
and which is to
come, the Almighty.”—Revelation
1:8.
THE ETERNAL, SELF-EXISTENT HOLY SPIRIT
Next we consider
the Holy Spirit. While the eternity
of Christ is under ongoing attack, the existence
of the Holy Spirit is being totally denied!
That is indeed
unfortunate; for the work of the Holy
Spirit in our
lives is our connecting link to Heaven!
We are told that
it is not safe to speak against the
Holy Spirit:
“When men feel competent to pronounce judgment
and condemn the
Holy Spirit, they do a work
for themselves
which will be difficult to counteract.
The whole head
becomes sick, and the discernment
so weak that it
is apt to judge unrighteously.”—
4 Manuscript Releases, 358.
“We cannot render to God supreme love and
honor if we do
not recognize the Holy Spirit which
the Lord sends. The Holy Spirit represents Jesus
Christ.”—2 Manuscript Releases, 38. [Written at
the time of Kellogg’s pantheism theory.
Pantheism
also denied the Holy Spirit’s existence.]
The Eternal, Self-Existent Holy Spirit
26 Defending the Godhead
“Those who reject the Spirit of truth place
themselves under
the control of a spirit that is
opposed to the
Word and work of God.”—Sermons
and Talks, Vol. 1, 385, 387.
Later in this
book, an abundant collection of Bible/
Spirit of
Prophecy statements will be presented, which
provide even
more evidence that the Holy Spirit is an
actual
personage, the Third Person of the Godhead,
and that He has
existed from all eternity.
“The Holy Spirit . . is as much a person as God
is a person.”—Evangelism, 616.
“The Holy Spirit [is] the Third Person of the
Godhead.”—Testimonies to Ministers, 392.
The Father and
the Son work through the Holy
Spirit, to help people and to accomplish Their objectives
throughout the
universe.
“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, page 37 (Ev 617).
While the Father
and the Son work with intelligent
beings (speaking
to them, counseling, giving directions,
etc.), the Holy
Spirit works within created
beings and
within everything in Creation! An immense
number of
statements have been written about many
of the things
the Holy Spirit does! You will find 31 pages
of fine print in
Volume 2 of the EGW Index. In addition
to what He does
to bring you to Christ and help you
remain with Him,
the Holy Spirit performs many other
functions:
Physicists who
read this are well-aware of the
strange mystery
of the orbiting electrons and protons
within the atom,
which keep whirling around a central
nucleus. What
keeps them in orbit? Why do they keep
27
circling the
nucleus at immense speeds instead of slowing
down, crashing
into it or one another, or flying away?
Everything in
the universe, from rocks to living creatures,
is composed of
tiny subatomic whirling particles
around a central
nucleus.
Through the
power of divinity, billions of cells divide
every second in
your body, to replace worn-out
ones. This
amazing process is called mitosis, and is
totally
unexplainable by scientists. A similar process
occurs within
plants.
A tiny spot in
your heart (the sinoatrial node) produces
a tiny beat
which expands to an immense muscular
contraction.
Spreading through the atria, it
reaches a second
tiny node (the atrioventricular
node)—which expands
the beat throughout your heart.
If the divine
power keeping it going skipped just a few
beats, you would
be unconscious or dead. It is work
like this that
the Godhead does throughout the universe!
“It is not
because the mechanism that has once
been set in
motion continues to act by its own inherent
energy, that the
pulse beats, and breath follows
breath; but
every breath, every pulsation of the
heart is an
evidence of the all-pervading care of Him
in whom ‘we
live, and move, and have our being.’ ”—
Patriarchs and Prophets, 115 (Ed 417).
The following
summary, which I researched for a
page in a later
publication, is an example of what the
Father and Son
do through the Holy Spirit to keep
you alive,
moment by moment—the continual
production
of protein within every cell in your body:
Billions of
processes occur every second within every
square inch of your
body, requiring the direct guidance
of God.
The Eternal, Self-Existent Holy Spirit
28 Defending the Godhead
For example,
your body is composed of tiny cells—
so small that
there are 1,000 of them in an area the
size of the dot
at the end of this sentence. Here is how
protein is made within each of those cells:
Among many other
things, there are codons in your
cell DNA. The
sequence they are in determines the precise
order in which
amino acids will be linked up, so
that proteins
and enzymes (a type of protein) can be
made. There are
20 types of amino acids and over 2,000
different types
of proteins and enzymes, each with its
own complicated
structure which must be continually
manufactured—and
they are constructed with extreme
rapidity by
other tiny proteins which have no brains!
In brief, the
DNA contains the blueprint; and the RNA
uses it to make
the various proteins and enzymes.
Messenger RNA
(mRNA) copies the code from a part
of the DNA
strand (the process is called “transcription”).
The mRNA then
travels with the information over to
the ribosomes, an assembly area made of ribosomal
RNA (rRNA). Meanwhile, transfer RNA (tRNA)
in the
cytoplasm is
busily combining with exactly the right
amino acids
needed by the rRNA for the task; and then
it carries them
over to the ribosomes to be matched up
with the mRNA.
All done by particles without brains.
At the same
time, other ignorant proteins go to the
cell wall and
haul back amino acids which just entered
the DNA for this
assembly operation. Yet they do this
by themselves,
usually just the exact amount needed!
Where do those
additional amino acids come from?
Exactly the
correct number and type of amino acids
must jump off
the blood cells which are speeding by, at
a fairly fast rate,
and push through the solid wall of the
cell. (The wall
itself keeps everything not needed from
entering.) Once
inside, the amino acids are taken to the
assembly area.
All these functions are done by mindless
substances;
however, everything is done at top
29
speed, yet in
just the right way. From piles of 20 different
kinds of amino
acids, over 2,000 different—extremely
complex—proteins
and enzymes are formed,
to replace
worn-out ones.
But that is not
the end of the amazing story. As soon
as each new
protein is made, it instantly folds into an
apparently
tangled heap—but it is always in the exact
shape that the
protein should be in.
This process is
repeated trillions of times every second
in your body by
unthinking particles which, because
they do not have
nerve cells attached to your brain,
have no way of
knowing how to do anything.
Apparently, it
is the Holy Spirit which is at work
within every
plant, animal, and intelligent being in the
universe. (This
is not pantheism, which teaches that
God IS everything.)
“The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality
of humanity and
independent thereof.
He [Christ]
would represent Himself as present in
all places by
His Holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent.”—
14 Manuscript Releases, 23. (Manuscript 5a,
1895. Desire of Ages, 669-670 is similar.)
It is
well-known, by microbiologists, that there is
not enough genes
in the DNA to provide the needed
information for
all the structure and functions of the
body
(particularly all the different proteins, enzymes,
and coordinate
structures). It is the power of God—
through the Holy
Spirit—which keeps the complicated
mechanisms of
the heart, liver, brain, endocrines, and
other organs
working moment by moment.
As for the
planets, stars, and galaxies, several times
we are told that
they were made by the Father working
through the Son.
“The Creator of all worlds loves those who
give
themselves to
His service, even as He loves His
The Eternal, Self-Existent Holy Spirit
30 Defending the Godhead
Son.”—Ministry of Healing, 405.
“When the Son of
man came among men, He
brought the
intelligence of heaven with Him; for He
created the
worlds and all things that are
therein.”—3 Bible Commentary, 1143-1144.
“How can we span
the distance between the mighty
God and a
helpless child? And yet the Creator of
worlds, He in
whom was the fullness of the
Godhead bodily, was manifest in the helpless babe
in the manger.
Far higher than any of the angels,
equal with the
Father in dignity and glory, and yet
wearing the garb
of humanity!”—5 Bible Commentary,
1130.
Oh, how thankful
we can be that we have been given
the stars to
behold and study!
“God calls upon
His creatures to turn their attention
from the
confusion and perplexity around
them, and admire
His handiwork. The heavenly
bodies are
worthy of contemplation. God has made
them for the
benefit of man, and as we study His
works, angels of
God will be by our side to enlighten
our minds.”—4 Bible Commentary, 1145.
I have suggested
that it is the Holy Spirit which
works within every created object, keeping it functioning
properly. Yet
there are statements which indicate
that it is the
power of the Father or the Son which
is in charge of
the rotations of planets and stars, the
seasons, and
many other operations of nature. They
probably do it
through the Holy Spirit; but we cannot
know what the
Father and Son do directly and what
they do through
the invisible Holy Spirit, which is “everywhere
present.”
“He [Christ]
would represent Himself as present
in all places by
His Holy Spirit, as the omnipresent.”—
14 Manuscript Releases, 23.
31
“By His Spirit
He [God] is everywhere present.”—
Ministry of Healing, 417.
“He [Christ] was
the creator of all things, sustaining
worlds by His
infinite power. Angels were
ready to do Him
homage and to obey His will. Yet He
could listen to
the prattle of the infant and accept
its lisping
praise.”—5 Testimonies, 421.
“It is not because of inherent power that year
by year the
earth produces her bounties and continues
her motion round
the sun. The hand of God
guides the
planets and keeps them in position in
their orderly
march through the heavens. It is
through His
power that summer and winter,
seedtime and
harvest, day and night follow each
other in their regular succession. It is by His
word
that vegetation
flourishes, that the leaves appear
and the flowers
bloom. Every good thing we have,
each ray of
sunshine and shower of rain, every morsel
of food, every
moment of life, is a gift of love.”—
Mount of Blessing, 74-75.
We know that the
Father and Christ send messages
throughout the
universe through the angels; so they
can also have a
part in the work of caring for the vast
creation. But
because (through the Holy Spirit) both
the Father and
the Son are “everywhere present,” God
also instantly
communicates with the vast creation
through Him as
well.
“The Bible shows
us God in His high and holy
place, not in a
state of inactivity, not in silence and
solitude, but
surrounded by ten thousand times ten
thousand and thousands of thousands of holy beings,
all waiting to
do His will. Through these messengers
He is in active
communication with every
part of His
dominion. By His Spirit He is everywhere
present. Through
the agency of His
Spirit and His
angels He ministers to the children
The Eternal, Self-Existent Holy Spirit
32 Defending the Godhead
of men.
“Above the
distractions of the earth He sits enthroned;
all things are
open to His divine survey;
and from His great and calm eternity He orders
that which His
providence sees best.”—Ministry
of Healing, 417.
“He [Christ]
would represent Himself as present
in all places by
His Holy Spirit.”—14 Manuscript
Releases, 23.
As we will learn
later, Inspired statements reveal
that, while
Christ is in heaven receiving our prayers
and sending them
on to the Father who sends answers
through the
angels,—it is the Holy Spirit who works
within us to
convict us of sin and move on our minds
to cry in prayer
to our heavenly Father for help.
Since we are on
the subject of prayer, it might be
mentioned that
there are also passages which say that
it is all right
to pray to Jesus (CT 402, CG 253, MH
118). That would be
understandable, since He is also
God and able to
receive worship (Heb. 1:6).
Indeed, there
are also passages which (although
speaking about “God”)
are referring to Christ, not the
Father. Here is
just one of many examples which could
be cited:
“At the burning
bush, when Moses, not recognizing
God’s presence, turned aside
to behold the wonderful
sight, the
command was given: ‘Draw not nigh
hither: put off
thy shoes from off thy feet, for the
place whereon
thou standest is holy ground . . And
Moses hid his
face; for he was afraid to look upon
God.’ Exodus 3:5,
6.”—8 Testimonies, 284.
We know that it
was Christ who was there speaking
to Moses (DA 23, 1BC 1103); it was He who declared
His name, the I
AM, to Moses.
33
Although the
Holy Spirit works within nature to
maintain
physical functions, He also moves on human
hearts to repent
and return to God. In doing this work,
He can be
grieved and sinned against. But, even when
rejected, He
continues to keep the physical body operating
and the heart
beating.
Scripture
frequently refers to the Spirit’s working
on our minds, in
the words, “God (or Christ) sends
His Spirit to
move on our hearts.” But such phrasing
cannot mean that
the Holy Spirit does not exist. This
is because many
other statements clarify it by saying
He is the
eternal, Third Person of the Godhead. Although
a member of the
Godhead, He chooses to do
what the other
Two tell Him to do. That is the office
work He is quite
content to do. Are you and I as content
to do our work
as the Godhead are to do Theirs?
THREE PROBLEM PASSAGES
ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT
But, just now,
let us consider the root of the problem,
which is the appearance of the Holy Spirit and
the work which He does.
There is one
concept, found in three quotations,
which would
appear to teach that there is no Holy
Spirit. These are the primary ones the opposition
uses. We will consider them right now:
If you will
examine the context of each of the three
statements,
quoted below, you will find that they all
refer to the
same time period when Lucifer in heaven
was jealous of
the Son. Perhaps, in the wisdom of Divinity,
neither the
Father nor the Son had told Lucifer
about the
existence of the Holy Spirit (otherwise he
might have been
jealous of Him too!). This may be why
the Son, not the
Holy Spirit, was the center of Lucifer’s
hatred.
Why is it that, when the Father called them
Three Problem Passages about the Holy Spirit
34 Defending the Godhead
together to explain the position of the Son,
they
did not realize that He was their co-Creator?
A careful
reading of the Spirit of Prophecy gives
the impression
that, when our world was made, it was
the first time
that the entire universe had witnessed
one of the
mighty creative acts of the Deity. It is very
likely that the
entire universe (not, of course, including
our planet) had
previously been created all at one
time. Therefore, none
of the angels and other intelligent
beings were
aware of the fact that the Son had
cooperated with
the Father in bringing them into existence.
At the time that
Lucifer began his accusations
against Christ,
the created beings apparently did not
know that the
Son was their co-Creator.
Therefore, as
quoted below, the Father gathered
the “assembled
inhabitants” and explained the true position
of Christ.
We know that
Lucifer was especially upset that the
Son was involved
in the counsels of God while he, himself,
was left out.
Those counsels included the planned
creation of our
world as soon as Satan was cast out of
heaven.
Witnessing the
actual creation of our planet, by
the Father and
the Son, helped cement the fact of
Christ’s deity
in the minds of the created universe.
We are told that
the Holy Spirit was present at the event
and took part in
it. While also accomplishing other
purposes, it
seems that the creation of our world was
done to
demonstrate the awesome power and majesty
of the Godhead—at
exactly the time when the great
controversy was
about to begin in earnest and such a
clear
understanding was needed.
The creation of
our world was planned before Satan
fell (SR 20); and it occurred
immediately after he
was cast out of
heaven (SR 19). The Holy Spirit
also
35
had a part (Gen. 1:2, Ed 134).
Since the Holy Spirit was also involved in the
Creation,
why was it that He is not mentioned as taking
part in those pre-fall council meetings?
While the Father
is the recognized head of the universe,
and the special
work of Christ is to redeem
mankind,—the
Holy Spirit quietly, invisibly occupies
Himself with a
large variety of tasks. He never takes
visible form as
a material being of any kind. Not
even the “purest
light” which descended on Christ (DA
112) or the
fiery light on the heads of the apostles (Acts
2:2-3) revealed
what the Holy Spirit is or what He looks
like. Both were
only “tokens” (in fulfillment of promises
given earlier),
evidencing the Holy Spirit’s invisible
descent (DA 112,
AA 38-39).
The Father and
the Son choose to take visible form
(which, of
course, They do not need to do) while the
Holy Spirit
never reveals Himself to sight—to anyone’s
sight, and
apparently not to the angels.
It is perhaps, for
this reason, that Lucifer did not
know that the
Holy Spirit took part in the divine councils;
for he had never
seen him! He did not know the
Holy Spirit
existed. Lucifer would see the Son go in
and counsel with
the Father. But he did not see the
Holy Spirit go
in—because the Holy Spirit is never seen!
Indeed, the Holy
Spirit did not have to “go in”; for we
are told He is “everywhere
present” (MH 417).
But is not only God the Father the Creator? There
are definite
instances in the Inspired Writings where
only God
(singular) is mentioned as involved in a specific
activity, and
other times where the Father and Son
are mentioned as
doing it together; and still other instances
where the Holy
Spirit is mentioned as also
working with
them on that same activity. Therefore, all
the Inspired
passages must be considered. One ex-
Three Problem Passages about the Holy Spirit
36 Defending the Godhead
ample, among
many, would be the one just mentioned:
the creation of
our world.
We are told that
God created our world (Gen. 1:1,
Ps. 33:6-9, Isa. 45:18). But, in other passages, this
simplified
statement is amplified: The Father and Son
created
everything in the universe (Col. 1:16, John
1:3),
including our
world (Heb. 1:2, Eph. 2:10). The Holy
Spirit also was
involved (Gen. 1:2, Ed 134).
So, it was the
Lord God who created mankind (Gen.
1:27; 2:7, 21-22); yet we were created in Christ (Eph.
2:10).
I mention this
background in order to help
clarify the
following three statements:
The first quotation below: Of all “the assembled
inhabitants of
heaven,” “none but Christ” (none among
them but Christ)
could enter into the purposes of Deity:
“Before the
assembled inhabitants of heaven the
King declared
that 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.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, 36.
We know, from
other statements, that the Holy
Spirit has
existed as a separate divine person from
all eternity;
yet, at the time that the rebellion was
beginning, the
Father only told the angels about
Christ’s
divinity. He chose not to mention the Holy
Spirit. The controversy was about the position of
the Son; and that was all
that the Father discussed.
Deity does not
tell creatures all that could be told
them.
The second quotation below: Perhaps, as far as
the inhabitants
knew, there were only two beings in
all the universe
who could enter into the plans of Di37
vinity.
This is true
because the Holy Spirit never takes
any visible or conceptual form of being. He truly is
like “the wind.”
You cannot tell “whence it cometh and
whither it goeth”
(John 3:8).
The following
two statements parallel the one
quoted above. Of all the beings, or inhabitants, of the
universe, only Christ
could enter the councils of Deity.
Frankly, the Holy Spirit exists on an entirely different
realm of
existence. He is everywhere, working
within
everything. (Pantheism, in contrast, teaches that
everything is
God; in reality, this concept is radically
different.
Nothing in nature is God.)
“Christ the
Word, the Only Begotten of God, was
one with the
eternal Father,—one in nature, in character,
and in purpose,—the only being in all the universe
that could enter
into all the counsels and purposes
of God . . . In
all the councils of God, Christ
was a
participant, while Lucifer was not permitted
thus to enter
into the divine purposes.”—Great
Controversy,
493, 495.
There may appear
to be a contradiction here; but
if we view all
the statements and hide none, we arrive
at the obvious
conclusions given in this present chapter.
—And, in this
chapter, we are hiding none! (In striking
contrast, the
other side provides you with a few
Inspired
statements which seem to deny the Godhead
while omitting
the many others which support the
Godhead. For
example, not once do they mention that
the Spirit of
Prophecy repeatedly says there are three
in the Godhead.)
What I am doing
here is piecing together information
provided in the
Inspired Writings. —But please
understand that I am only doing it to counteract a
terrible deception,—the degrading error, the false
Three Problem Passages about the Holy Spirit
38 Defending the Godhead
teaching—that
one of the three does not exist and another
is not eternal!
It is my belief that we should stand
in defense of the only Three who can deliver us from
this evil world
and take us to heaven!
The third statement is like the second:
“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. ‘His name
shall be called
Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty
God, The
everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.’
Isaiah 9:6. His ‘goings
forth have been from of old,
from
everlasting.’ Micah 5:2.”—Patriarchs and
Prophets, 34.
As you can see
from the above statements, I am
not hiding from
you the most difficult objections to the
existence of the
Holy Spirit. Yet, in opposition to those
three passages,
there are a large number of passages
which, in one
way or another, say that the
Holy Spirit is
fully divine, the Third Person of the
Godhead. We must seek to reconcile the three quotations
with all the
others.
The solution
would be that the Holy Spirit has the
single, totally unique type of existence: He is always
formless, always
invisible. If we say that, then all the
statements agree
with one another; and, when we study
Scripture, that
is what we should try to do.
In the first quotation above (PP 36), the Father
declares to all
the angels gathered about the throne
and to all the
visible beings in the universe—that, of
them all, only the Son
could work closely with Him.
The Father was
saying that none of those there assembled
could enter His
counsels except the Son.
The solution to
the other two statements (in GC
493 and PP 34) is that “the only being in all the uni39
verse” would
have to be Christ. Only He, of all the
visible beings in the universe, could enter into the
counsels of the
Father.
Some may think I
am stretching the phrase in order
to reach that
conclusion; but I am not. Instead, I
am reconciling ALL the Inspired statements about the
Godhead. The
Holy Spirit does exist; and He is the
Third member of
the Godhead. We cannot let three
passages
annihilate the hundreds of passages which,
in hundreds of
ways, speak about the existence and
work of the Holy
Spirit. (Turn to the Spirit of Prophecy
Index, Vol. 2, pp. 1245-1275, and count the number
of references
that talk about Him!)
MATTHEW 28:19-20
A key text in
all of this discussion about the
Godhead is
Christ’s command in Matthew 28.
“Go ye
therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy
Ghost: Teaching them to observe
all things
whatsoever I have commanded you: and,
lo, I am with
you alway, even unto the end of the
world. Amen.”—Matthew 28:19-20.
This is an
extremely important statement, and totally
incontrovertible.
There are three Divine members
in the Godhead.
It says “and of the Holy Spirit,”
showing
He is separate
from, and equal to, the other two.
We are not
baptized in the name of angels, nor in the
name of two
members of the Godhead, but in the name
of all three. —All Three are individually named.
Those profoundly
important words (which we call
“the great
commission”) are recognized by all of us as
our “marching
orders.” The passage clearly states that
the Holy Spirit
is (1) a person. He is separate from
Christ and (2) on the same divine status with Christ
and the Father. And (3) Christians are to be bap-
Matthew 28:19-20
40 Defending the Godhead
tized into all three, not just one
or two of Them. The
phrase, “baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost” would be meaningless
if all three
facts were not true. The phrase means
we are to be
baptized into submission and obedience
to all three. To deny the Holy Spirit’s existence
is to deny your
baptismal vows. Can God be pleased
if we tell
others they need not be baptized into all
Three?
Does it not seem
that to deny the Holy Spirit’s existence
is to deny the
words of the great commission—
the work which
God assigned all of us? It is to deny
the words of God
Himself. Think hard about the implications
of doing this.
“The enemy of
souls has sought to bring in the
supposition that
a great reformation was to take
place among
Seventh-day Adventists, and that this
reformation
would consist in giving up the doctrines
which stand as
the pillars of our faith . .
Who has
authority to begin such a movement? We
have our Bibles.
We have our experience, attested
to by the
miraculous working of the Holy Spirit.
We have a truth
that admits of no compromise.
Shall we not
repudiate everything that is not in harmony
with this truth?”—1 Selected Messages, 204-
205.
How do those who are teaching that there is no
Holy Spirit deal with Matthew 28:19-20? Studying
their writings,
I have found that they reject the passage—
simply by
declaring that one so-called “church
father,” named
Eusebius, in quoting the passage only
mentioned “God”—not
“the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.” But
they are careful to not mention the fact
that all the
other church fathers quoted it the way it is
in the King
James Version.
41
They also avoid
mentioning the fact that Ellen
White quotes
Matthew 28:19-20 more than almost
any other
passage in the Bible! 96 times (not counting
duplicates) or
the fact that some of the 96 quoted,
or referred to,
it more than six times. Not including
duplications,
she quotes or refers to the passage in 31
of her books:
AA, 1BC, 5BC, 6BC, CH, ChS, CM, CS,
CT, DA, Ev, EW, FE, GC, GW, MH, ML, MM, SC, SD,
1SM, 2SM, Testimonies, Vols 1-9. Yet those trying to
eradicate the
Three-member Godhead meaning of Matthew
28:19-20 toss it
out with the statement that
Eusebius quoted
it in these words: “. . baptizing them
in the name of
God. Teaching them . .”
We might expect
such twisting of Scripture from
Eusebius. Here
are two statements about him:
“This [Sunday
law] edict required townspeople
to rest on ‘the
venerable day of the sun,’ but permitted
countrymen to
continue their agricultural pursuits.
Though virtually
a heathen statute, it was enforced
by the emperor
after his nominal acceptance
of Christianity.
“The royal
mandate not proving a sufficient substitute
for divine
authority, Eusebius, a bishop who
sought the favor
of princes, and who was the special
friend and
flatterer of Constantine, advanced
the claim that
Christ had transferred the Sabbath
to Sunday. Not a single testimony of the Scriptures
was produced in
proof of the new doctrine. Eusebius
himself
unwittingly acknowledges its falsity and
points to the
real authors of the change. ‘All things,’
he says, ‘whatever
that it was duty to do on the Sabbath,
these we have
transferred to the Lord’s Day.’ ”—
Great Controversy, 574.
“Eusebius of
Caesarea (260-340) was . . the courtier
of the Emperor
Constantine . . [who] prepared a
church history . . His work is uncritical [sloppy]
Matthew 28:19-20
42 Defending the Godhead
and ill-arranged
. . His Life of Constantine is of the
nature of a
panegyric [flattering in the extreme] and
is too favorable to the first Christian emperor.”—
Albert Henry Newman, A Manual of Church History,
p. 12.
In view of such
facts, do you want Eusebius to tell
you how Matthew
28:19-20 should be written?
Let us read that
glorious statement once more!
“And Jesus came
and spake unto them, saying,
All power is
given unto Me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore,
and teach all nations, baptizing them
in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I
have commanded you: and, lo, I am
with you alway, even unto the end of the world.
Amen.”—Matthew 28:18-20.
“The Father, AND the Son, AND the Holy Spirit”—
not “which is
the Holy Spirit.”
“In the NAME of.” What does that mean? It emphasizes
that each of the Three are specifically being
named. How can the passage be more emphatic in identifying
the Three-member
Godhead?
Thus we find in
the work of the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit a marvelous division of responsibility for
the safeguarding
of the universe and the salvation of
millions.
The Father, in giving His
beloved Son to a terrible
death, and
through the Holy Spirit impressing on
all
hearts the
extent of that love—caused the entire universe
to begin to
grasp the immense love of the Deity
for fallen man—and
for the angels and all the worlds.
It revealed the
extent to which the Godhead would go
to save Their
creatures from peril.
This most
glorious expression of love will be the
study of the
universe throughout all time to come.
43
——————————————
— CHAPTER TWO —
INTRODUCTION
TO THE
CONTROVERSY
OVER THE GODHEAD
It is now being
taught in our own ranks that
Jesus Christ is
nothing more than a high-ranking
angel,—and the
Holy Spirit does not exist at all!
In striking
contrast, the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy
clearly teach
that Christ is fully divine, existing
from eternity,
and the Holy Spirit is a distinct, separate
personage, the
Third Person of the Godhead.
Checking into
what is being taught outside our own
denomination,—I
discover that both liberals and
skeptics generally deny the divinity of Christ and
the existence of
the Holy Spirit. It is an intriguing
fact that
atheists and skeptics, solidly in Satan’s ranks,
generally deny
the divinity of both. Christian liberals
who join in the
denial include leaders in the most liberal
Protestant
churches and a majority of religion
teachers in the
major colleges, universities, and a remarkable
number of cults.
In contrast,
based on Bible evidence, conservative
Christians
generally believe in the divinity of Christ
and the Holy
Spirit.
Advent believers
have additional evidence, in the
Spirit of
Prophecy, which supports the truth that Christ
has existed
eternally as a divine being and that the
Holy Spirit is
the Third Person of the Godhead.
Introduction to the Controversy
44 Defending the Godhead
Down through the
centuries, the Bible facts
which have been
most opposed have been those
which directly
affect our salvation. Satan wants to
eradicate these
truths from our minds. Few topics can
be more
important than the full divinity and eternity
of Christ, who
is pleading on our behalf in the Heavenly
Sanctuary, and
the existence of the Holy Spirit,
who works to
bring us to repentance and guide us in
obeying God’s
Word.
God’s faithful
ones do not believe in the Catholic
“Trinity” dogma.
The term is not found in the
Bible or Spirit
of Prophecy. The Trinity error teaches
that there is
one God in three appearances. That is an
error. We do not
worship a “one-in-three” God.
Instead, we
believe that there are three fully divine,
separate persons
in the Godhead. They are not
one in person.
However They are one in character, purpose,
eternity, and
divinity.
Each member of
the Godhead has an agreedupon
position, which
requires self-sacrifice. In the
planning of
Heaven, although He deeply loves us, the
Father does not
minister to us as the Son does. The
Father is
self-effacing in this respect.
The Son is not
the supreme ruler; that task is reserved
for the Father.
The Son willingly accepts a lesser
position.
The Holy Spirit
is also self-effacing to a remarkable
degree. He comes
to us personally and helps us
while letting
all the thankfulness be given to the Father
and the Son.
Such
self-control, such willingness to “let the other
one get the
credit” is something we are not used to. We
generally do not
find such traits among men on earth
who wield great
power. We stand in awe of the great
45
love, humility—and
even servanthood—of the
Godhead. We can
now better understand Christ’s statement
to His
disciples, “He that is greatest among you
shall be your
servant” (Matt. 23:11).
It is Satan’s
studied objective to overthrow the
Godhead. Because he cannot do this, he is determined
to lead men to
disobedience and disbelief in Their very
existence.
Can you see that
there is a built-in test here?
Just as we are
tested on the Sabbath and other
truths, so we
are tested on the Godhead! Will we
humbly submit to
what God tells us in His Word, without
questioning as
Lucifer did? Will we accept God’s
truths as He
gives them, without trying to twist and
change them.
Lucifer turned himself into a devil by
imagining that
he was able to restructure heaven,
change its
government and laws, and make himself
part of the
Godhead.
If you accept
any of the teachings which are floating
around, which do
not agree with the Bible or
Spirit of
Prophecy, you are headed for trouble. In
the midst of
life’s storms and the flood of satanic deceptions
and temptations,
your grip on the life preserver
of God’s Word
has been weakened. Later, when
confronted by something else you question, you will
be more likely
to say it wasn’t written by Ellen White,
is not in the “original
Bible manuscripts,” or is not
worth believing.
Be on guard! In this life, you are on
the enchanted
ground! (EW 60, 1SM 125).
“The sophistries
regarding God and nature that
are flooding the
world with skepticism are the inspiration
of the fallen foe, who is himself a Bible
student, who
knows the truth that it is essential for
the people to
receive, and whose study it is to divert
minds from the
great truths given to prepare
Introduction to the Controversy
46 Defending the Godhead
them for what is
coming upon the world.”—8 Testimonies,
292.
“I beseech those
who are laboring for God not to
accept the
spurious for the genuine. Let not human
reason be placed
where divine, sanctifying
truth should be.
Christ is waiting to kindle faith
and love in the
hearts of His people. Let not erroneous
theories receive
countenance from the people
who ought to be
standing firm on the platform of
eternal truth. God calls upon us to hold firmly to
the fundamental
principles that are based upon
unquestionable
authority.”—8 Testimonies,
298.
There are many
things in the Word of God that we
will never fully
understand this side of heaven; yet there
is a lot we can
know. We have seen that the eternity
of Jesus Christ
and the Godhood of the Holy Spirit
are truths we
can have certainty of.
Stick with the
plain teachings of God’s Word.
You will be safe
if you do. Accept what is written in
the Inspired
Writings; and do not try to pry into matters
too deep for
you.
When God says
something, accept it. Adam and
Eve did not do
this. They believed a traveling
preacher who
came along—and they got into trouble
because of it. Do not imagine that you are smarter
than the simple
statements of the Bible. If you start
doing so, you
will be indulging in the sin of Eve. What
was her sin? She
doubted the words of God.
Acceptance of
one error will lead you to accept
still more. And
erelong you will wander away from the
Bible and the
Spirit of Prophecy.
Oddly enough,
the primary “evidence” offered by
those opposed to
the full divinity and eternity of Christ
and the Holy
Spirit—is the fact that Roman Catholics
teach the
Trinity error (which we do not believe) and
47
the fact that a
few of our early Advent writers wrote
against that
error. In reality, what we all should be
concerned about
is what does the Bible and Spirit
of Prophecy teach on this important subject? Here
it is:
——————————————
— CHAPTER THREE —
SCRIPTURAL FACTS
ABOUT
THE TRUE GODHEAD
The Bible and Spirit of Prophecy is full of
evidence
for the truth about the Godhead. A
representative
sampling is in this book.
It has seemed
best to place these Inspired quotations
into two
sections. The first, in this chapter, is a
basic collection
of a very few Bible/Spirit of Prophecy
statements on
these four points (plus a brief section
on the human
nature of Christ, which is often questioned).
The second
collection of Inspired evidence is
given later in
this book.
1 - THE THREE PERSONS
OF THE GODHEAD
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are
three distinct, divine personages. Yet They work
in such perfect unity that Their objectives and
activities are as one.
The following passages will provide you with
Scripture: The Three Persons of the Godhead
48 Defending the Godhead
a view of the interworking of these three
distinct
persons:
THE GODHEAD IN THE BIBLE
Here are 59 Scripture references about the
Godhead:
1—Several times
in the Old Testament, God
speaks of
Himself as “Us.” Note Genesis 1:26, where
the Ones who do
the creating of man are plural. Created
beings do not
create; so the “Us” can only refer to
the Godhead. Also see Genesis 11:7.
2—Eloheim is one of the
Old Testament words
for “God.” This
Hebrew word is plural (“Gods,” not
“God”). Jewish
scholars have never been able to explain
this fact.
3—The Angel of
Jehovah is mentioned several
times in the Old
Testament. This Angel is not only
identified with
the Father, but is also distinguished
from Him. (Keep
in mind that “angel” is a translation
of the word, “messenger”;
and, at certain times in the
Old Testament,
Christ was called by this term.) So we
find here a
reference to two persons of the Godhead
(Gen. 16:7-13, 18:1-21, 19:1-28, Mal. 3:1).
4—In a similar
manner, the Word (or Wisdom) is
personified;
this indicates divinity (Ps. 33:4, 6;
Prov.
8:12-31).
5—In some
passages, God is the speaker. And
He mentions both
the Messiah and the Spirit; and, in
other passages,
the Messiah is the speaker who mentions
both God and the
Spirit (Isa. 48:16).
6—In the New
Testament, we find a clearer revelation
of the Godhead.
In the Old Testament, the Redeemer
and Saviour is
Jehovah (Job 19:25; Ps. 78:35;
106:21; Isa. 41:14; 43:3, 11, 14; 47:4; 49:7,
26; 60:16).
49
In the New
Testament, this individual is clearly Jesus
(Matt. 1:21, Luke 1:76-79, 2:17, John 4:42, Gal.
3:13,
4:5, Titus 2:13-14).
7—In the Old
Testament, it is Jehovah who dwells
among Israel and
in the hearts of those that fear Him
(Ps. 135:21, Isa. 8:18, 57:15, Eze. 43:5-9, Joel
3:17-
21, Zech. 2:10-11). In the New Testament, it is the
Holy Spirit that
dwells among God’s people (Rom. 8:9,
11, 1 Cor. 3:16-17, Gal. 4:6, Eph. 2:22, James
4:5,
Eze. 43:7-9, Joel 3:17-21, Zech. 2:10-11). We are not
here defining
whom all the “Jehovah” passages refer
to.
8—The New
Testament represents God as sending
His Son into the
world (John 3:16, Gal. 4:4, Heb.
1:6, 1 John 4:9).
9—In the New
Testament, both the Father and
the Son send the
Spirit (John 14:26, 15:26, 16:7, Gal.
4:6).
10—The Father
speaks to the Son (Mark 1:11,
Luke 3:22).
11—The Son
communes with the Father (Matt.
11:25-26, 26:39, John 11:41, 12:27-28).
12—The Holy
Spirit intercedes for believers;
through Him,
they pray to God (Rom. 8:26).
13—The Father
speaks from heaven at the baptism
of the Son; and
the Holy Spirit descends in the
form of a dove (Matt. 3:16-17).
14—In the Great
Commission, Jesus mentions
the three
persons (Matt. 28:18-20).
15—In addition,
the Three are named alongside
of each other in
these passages (1 Cor. 12:4-28, 1 Peter
1:2).
16—We find “I,” “Thou,”
and “He” in several passages
which indicate
separate persons while revealing
interpersonal
relations between Them (Matt.
The Godhead in the Bible
50 Defending the Godhead
11:25-27, John 5:19-30, John 15:26).
THE GODHEAD
IN THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY
The following 41 quotations speak of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit:
The “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” are “the
Godhead,” “the
three Persons of the Godhead,” “the
three powers of
the Godhead,” “the three highest
powers in heaven
and in the universe,” “the eternal
Godhead,” “the
three holy Dignitaries of
heaven,” “the
three living Persons of the heavenly
Trio,” “the
three holiest Beings in heaven,” and “the
three great
Worthies in heaven.”
“The three powers of the Godhead have pledged
Their might to carry out the purpose that God had in
mind when He
gave to the world the unspeakable gift
of His Son.”—Review, July 18, 1907.
“The Godhead was stirred with pity for the race,
and the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit gave
Themselves to
the working out of the plan of redemption.
In order fully
to carry out this plan, it was
decided that
Christ, the only begotten Son of God,
should give
Himself an offering for sin. What line can
measure the
depth of this love?”—Counsels on Health,
222.
“The three powers of the Godhead, the Father,
the Son, and
Holy Spirit, are pledged to be their
strength and
their efficiency in their new life in Christ
Jesus.”—Australian Union Conference Record, October
7, 1907.
“We are to co-operate with the three highest
powers in
heaven,—the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost,—and these powers will work through us,
51
making us
workers together with God.”—Special
Testimonies,
Series B, No. 7, p. 51 (Ev 617).
“In the great
closing work we shall meet with perplexities
that we know not
how to deal with, but let us
not forget that the three great powers of heaven are
working, that a
divine hand is on the wheel, and that
God will bring
His purposes to pass.”—Evangelism,
65 (Manuscript 118, 1902).
“The eternal heavenly
dignitaries—God, and
Christ, and the
Holy Spirit—arming them [the disciples]
with more than
mortal energy . . would advance
with them to the
work and convince the world
of sin.”—Evangelism, 616 (Manuscript 145, 1901).
[All Three are eternal!]
“The work of
salvation is not a small matter, but
so vast that the
highest authorities are taken hold of
by the expressed
faith of the human agent. The eternal
Godhead—the
Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost—is involved in the action required to make
assurance to the
human agent.”—Upward Look, 148.
“The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the
three holy
dignitaries of heaven, have declared that
They will
strengthen men to overcome the powers of
darkness. All
the facilities of heaven are pledged to
those who by
their baptismal vows have entered into
a covenant with
God.”—5 Bible Commentary, 1110
(Manuscript 92, 1901).
“The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, powers
infinite and
omniscient, receive those who truly
enter into
covenant relation with God. They are
present at every
baptism, to receive the candidates
who have
renounced the world and have received
Christ into the
soul temple. These candidates have
entered into the
family of God, and their names are
inscribed in the
Lamb’s book of life.”—6 Bible Com-
The Godhead in the Spirit of Prophecy
52 Defending the Godhead
mentary, 1075 (Manuscript 27, 1900).
“When we have
accepted Christ, and in the name
of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit
have pledged
ourselves to serve God, the Father,
Christ, and the
Holy Spirit—the three dignitaries
and powers of
heaven—pledge Themselves that every
facility shall
be given to us if we carry out our baptismal
vows to ‘come
out from among them, and be . . separate
. . and touch
not the unclean thing.’ ”—6 Bible
Commentary,
1075 (Manuscript 85, 1901).
“Our sanctification is the work of the Father,
the Son, and the
Holy Spirit . . Have you been born
again? Have you
become a new being in Christ Jesus?
Then cooperate with the three great powers of
heaven who are working in your behalf.”—7 Bible
Commentary, 908 (Manuscript 11, 1901).
“The work is
laid out before every soul that has
acknowledged his
faith in Jesus Christ by baptism,
and has become a
receiver of the pledge from the three
persons—the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”—
6 Bible Commentary, 1074.
“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.”—Series A, No. 10, p.
37 (Ev 617).
“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, 392 (Letter 8, February 6, 1896;
Series A,
No. 10, p. 25; 10 Manuscript Releases, 63).
“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 re53
ceive 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.”—
Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 7, p. 63 (Ev 615).
“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.”—In Heavenly Places, 176 (Signs, May 10,
1910).
“The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost supply
the power that
makes him victorious in every conflict
with the prince
of darkness.”—6 Manuscript Releases,
167 (Letter 200, December 15, 1902).
“They pledge
themselves to devote their lives to
God’s service;
and the three great powers in heaven,
the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit, pledge
Themselves to cooperate with them, to work in and
through them.”—6 Manuscript Releases, 166 (Manuscript
118, October 6, 1902).
“The three highest powers in the universe are
pledged to labor
with those who will seek to save the
lost.”—Review, August 12, 1909.
“In the name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, man is laid in his watery grave, buried
with Christ in
baptism, and raised from the water to
live the new
life of loyalty to God. The three great
powers in heaven
are witnesses; They are invisible
but present.”—6 Bible Commentary, 1074 (Manuscript
57, 1900).
“If man, in
acquiring the Christian graces, works
on the plan of
addition, God has pledged Himself to
work in his
behalf upon the plan of multiplication.
‘Grace and peace
be multiplied unto you through the
The Godhead in the Spirit of Prophecy
54 Defending the Godhead
knowledge of
God, and of Jesus our Lord.’ The work
is laid out
before every soul that has acknowledged
his faith in
Jesus Christ by baptism, and has become
a receiver of the pledge from the three persons—the
Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit.”—6 Bible
Commentary,
1074 (Manuscript 57, 1900).
“At our baptism
we pledged ourselves to break all
connection with
Satan and his agencies, and to put
heart and mind
and soul into the work of extending
the kingdom of
God. All heaven is working for this
object. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are
pledged to
cooperate with sanctified human instrumentalities.
If we are true
to our vow, there is opened
to us a door of
communication with heaven,—a door
that no human
hand or satanic agency can close.”—6
Bible Commentary, 1075 (Review May 17, 1906).
“On that
occasion [baptism] we pledge ourselves,
in the presence
of the three great heavenly Powers,
to come out from
the world and be separate.”—6
Manuscript Releases 167 (Manuscript 130, October
27, 1902).
“When you took
these vows, you pledged yourself,
in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, that you would live unto God, and you have no
right to break
this pledge. The help of the three great
Powers is placed at your disposal.”—Review, June
22, 1905.
“Baptized into
the threefold name . . at the very
entrance of
their Christian life . . the Father, the Son,
and the Holy
Ghost, powers infinite and omniscient,
receive those
who truly enter into covenant relation
with God. They are present at every baptism.”—6 Bible
Commentary, 1075.
“Those who
submit to the solemn rite of baptism
pledge
themselves to devote their lives to God’s ser55
vice; and the three great powers of heaven, the Father,
the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, pledge Themselves
to cooperate
with them, to work in and through
them.”—Signs, March 11, 1903.
“The three great powers of heaven pledged
Themselves to cooperate with you in your efforts to
live the new
life in Christ.”—Review, June 15, 1905.
“As a Christian
submits to the solemn rite of baptism,
the three
highest powers in the universe—the
Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit—place Their
approval on his
act, pledging Themselves to exert
Their power in his behalf as he strives to honor
God.”—6 Manuscript Releases, 26 (Letter 53, January
26, 1904; Signs, August 16, 1905).
“The presence of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, the
three highest powers in the universe
and those in
whose name the believer is baptized,
is pledged to be
with every striving soul.”—Pacific
Union Recorder, July 2, 1908.
“The rite of
baptism is administered in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
These three
great powers of heaven pledge Themselves
to be the
efficiency of all who submit to this
ordinance, and
who faithfully keep the vow they then
make.”—6 Manuscript Releases, 27.
“When you went
down into the water and were
baptized in the
name of the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, these three great powers of heaven
pledged
Themselves to give you power and grace to
resist every
temptation to dishonor God.”—19 Manuscript
Releases, 235.
“When you gave
yourself to Christ, you made a
pledge in the
presence of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit,—the
three great personal Dignitaries
of heaven.”—7 Bible Commentary, 959 (Sons
The Godhead in the Spirit of Prophecy
56 Defending the Godhead
and Daughters of God, 351).
“No requirement
is laid upon man that Christ has
not obeyed. We
can overcome as He overcame, if we
will avail
ourselves of the help of the three great powers
of heaven, who are waiting to answer the demand
made upon Them by God’s people for power to defeat
satanic
agencies.”—Notebook Leaflets, 124.
“Let us not
forget our baptismal vow. In the presence
of the three highest powers of heaven,—the
Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit,—we have
pledged
ourselves to do the will of Him who, over the
rent sepulcher
of Joseph, declared, ‘I am the resurrection
and the life.’ ”—Review, May 26, 1904.
“There is to be
the imprint of . . the threefold
powers in the
heavenly world . . The three great
and glorious
heavenly Characters are present on the
occasion of
baptism. All the human capabilities are
to be henceforth
consecrated powers to do service
for God in
representing the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost,
upon whom they depend. All heaven
is represented
by these Three in covenant
relation
with the new
life.”—6 Manuscript Releases, 389.
“I am instructed
to say, The sentiments of those
who are
searching for advanced scientific ideas are
not to be
trusted. Such representations as the following
are made: ‘The
Father is as the light invisible; the
Son is as the
light embodied; the Spirit is the light
shed abroad.’ ‘The
Father is like the dew, invisible
vapor; the Son is like the dew gathered in beauteous
form; the Spirit
is like the dew fallen to the seat of
life.’ Another
representation: ‘The Father is like the
invisible vapor; the Son is like the leaden cloud; the
Spirit is rain
fallen and working in refreshing power.’
“All these
spiritualistic representations are simply
nothingness.
They are imperfect, untrue. They
57
weaken and
diminish the Majesty which no earthly
likeness can be
compared to. God cannot be compared
with the things
His hands have made. These are mere
earthly things,
suffering under the curse of God because
of the sins of
man. The Father cannot be described
by the things of
earth. The Father is all the
fullness of the
Godhead bodily, and is invisible to
mortal sight.
“The Son is all the fullness of the Godhead manifested.
The Word of God
declares Him to be ‘the express
image of His
person.’ ‘God so loved the world,
that He gave His
only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting
life.’ Here is
shown the personality of the Father.
“The Comforter that Christ promised to send
after He
ascended to heaven, is the Spirit in all the
fullness of the
Godhead, making manifest the power
of divine grace
to all who receive and believe in Christ
as a personal
Saviour.”—Evangelism, 614-615.
The following statements were transcribed as
Ellen White spoke them in sermons.
“You are
baptized in the name of the Father, of
the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost. You are raised up
out of the water
to live henceforth in newness of life—
to live a new
life. You are born unto God, and you
stand under the
sanction and the power of the three
holiest Beings
in heaven, who are able to keep you
from falling.”—7 Manuscript Releases, 267.
“We are ordained
unto God to bear fruit. Was this
not our
experience when we were led down into the
water and
baptized in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost? What did that mean?
—It meant that the three great Powers in heaven
were pledged to
keep us so long as we remain one
with Christ,
united to the vine.”—6 Manuscript Re-
The Godhead in the Spirit of Prophecy
58 Defending the Godhead
leases, 29 (sermon given March 10, 1908).
“You are
baptized in the name of the Father, of the
Son, and of the
Holy Ghost . . You are born unto God,
and you stand
under the sanction of the three holiest
Beings in
heaven.”—Sermons and Talks, Vol. 1, 367.
“When I feel
oppressed, and hardy know how to
relate myself
toward the work that God has given me
to do, I just
call upon the three great Worthies.”—7
Manuscript Releases, 267-268 (sermon given
October
20, 1906).
“In whose name
are we baptized? In the name of
the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost—
the three
highest powers in the heavenly courts.”—
Sermons and Talks, Vol. 2, 287 (Camp meeting
sermon
given June 27, 1907).
“We are baptized
in the name of the Father, Son,
and the Holy
Ghost, and these three great,
infinite
powers are unitedly pledged to work in our behalf if
we cooperate
with Them.”—Lift Him Up, 109 (General
Conference Bulletin, 215).
“At our baptism
we pledged ourselves to Him
[Jesus], and
received the ordinance in the name of
the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
These three
great powers of heaven pledged Themselves
to work in our
behalf, not only to begin, but to
finish our
faith.”—1901 General Conference Bulletin,
215 (talk given April 14, 1901).
How very
thankful we can be for such clear Bible/
Spirit of
Prophecy facts, so we need have no doubt
about the nature
of the Godhead! It does not consist of
one divine Person,
or even two,—but three powerful
Individuals.
We do well not
to speak negatively about either their
power or their
existence.
59
2 - THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST
Christ’s total divine nature is able to link us
to God the Father and empower us to obey the
divine law.
THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST
IN THE BIBLE
“In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God.”—John 1:1.
“Who, being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God.”—Philippians 2:6.
“Christ . . who is over all, God blessed for ever.
Amen.”—Romans 9:5.
“Looking for
that blessed hope, and the glorious
appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ.”—Titus 2:13.
“And we know
that the Son of God is come, and
hath given us an
understanding, that we may know
Him that is
true, and we are in Him that is true, even
in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and
eternal life.”—1 John 5:20.
“For unto us a
Child is born, unto us a Son is given,
and the
government shall be upon His shoulder. And
His name shall
be called Wonderful, Counselor, The
mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of
Peace.”—Isaiah 9:6.
“And without
controversy great is the mystery of
godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in
the Spirit.”—1 Timothy 3:16.
“For in Him
dwelleth all the fullness of the
Godhead bodily.”—Colossians 2:9.
The Divinity of Christ in the Bible
60 Defending the Godhead
THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST
IN THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY
“Jesus declared,
‘I am the resurrection and the life.’
In Christ is
life, original, unborrowed, underived.
‘He that hath
the Son hath life.’ 1 John 5:12. The divinity
of Christ is the
believer’s assurance of eternal
life.”—Desire of Ages,
530.
“ ‘In Him
[Jesus] was life; and the life was the light
of men.’ It is
not physical life that is here specified, but
eternal life,
the life which is exclusively the property
of God. The Word, who was with God, and who
was God, had
this life. Physical life is something which
each individual
receives. It is not eternal or immortal;
for God, the
life-giver takes it again . . But the life of
Christ was
unborrowed. No one can take this life
from Him. ‘I lay it down of Myself,’ He said. In Him
was life,
original, unborrowed, underived. This life
is not inherent
in man. He can possess it only through
Christ.”—5 Bible Commentary, 1130.
3 - THE ETERNITY OF CHRIST
According to the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy,
Christ has existed from all eternity past.
THE ETERNITY OF CHRIST
IN THE BIBLE
“But thou,
Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be
little among the
thousands of Judah, yet out of thee
shall He come
forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel;
whose goings
forth have been from of old, from
everlasting.”—Micah 5:2.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God,
and the Word was God. The same was
61
in the beginning
with God.”—John 1:1-2.
“And His name
shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace.”—Isaiah 9:6.
“Who is made,
not after the law of a carnal commandment,
but after the
power of an endless [Greek:
indissoluble] life.”—Hebrews 7:16.
THE ETERNITY OF CHRIST
IN THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY
“Christ is the
pre-existent, self-existent Son of God
. . In speaking of His pre-existence, Christ carries
the mind back through dateless ages. He assures us
that there never was a time when He was not in close
fellowship with
the eternal God. He to whose voice
the Jews were
then listening had been with God as
one brought up
with Him.”—Evangelism, 615
(Signs, August 29, 1900).
“If Christ made
all things, He existed before all
things. The
words spoken in regard to this are so decisive
that no one need
be left in doubt. Christ was God
essentially, and
in the highest sense. He was with
God from all
eternity. God over all, blessed forevermore.
The Lord Jesus
Christ, the divine Son of God,
existed from
eternity, a distinct person, yet one with
the Father.”—5 Bible Commentary, 1126.
“The Word
existed as a divine being, even as the
eternal Son of
God, in union and oneness with His
Father. From everlasting He was the Mediator of the
covenant . . Before men or angels were created, the
Word was with
God, and was God . . Christ was God
essentially, and
in the highest sense. He was with
God from all
eternity, God over all, blessed forevermore.
The Lord Jesus
Christ, the divine Son of God,
existed from
eternity, a distinct person, yet one with
The Eternity of Christ in the Spirit of Prophecy
62 Defending the Godhead
the Father. He
was the surpassing glory of heaven. He
was the
commander of the heavenly intelligences, and
the adoring
homage of the angels was received by Him
as His right. This was no robbery of God.”—1 Selected
Messages, 247-248 (Review and Herald, April
15, 1906).
“The world was
made by Him, ‘and without Him
was not any thing made that was made’ (John 1:3). If
Christ made all
things, He existed before all things.
The words spoken
in regard to this are so decisive
that no one need
be left in doubt. Christ was God essentially,
and in the
highest sense. He was with God
from all
eternity, God over all, blessed forevermore.”—
1 Selected Messages, 247.
Many additional quotations will be found later
in this book, as follows: Twenty-Four Bible Proofs
that Christ is
Fully God (p. 94). The Divinity of
Christ in the
Bible (p. 96). Fourteen Bible
Proofs
that Christ Has
Existed Forever (p. 105). The Divinity
and Eternity of
Christ in the Spirit of Prophecy
(p. 112). Special Topics
about Christ (p. 119).
4 - THE HUMANITY
OF CHRIST
His total, sinless humanity was able to obey
God’s law and, reaching down to us, give us an
example of obedience.
THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST
IN THE BIBLE
“For verily He
took not on Him the nature of angels; but
He took on Him
the seed of Abraham.”—Hebrews 2:16.
“Wherefore in
all things it behoved Him to be made like
63
unto His
brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful
high priest in
things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation
for the sins of
the people.”—Hebrews 2:17.
“And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed,
and heirs
according to the promise.”—Galatians 3:29.
“Concerning His
Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was
made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared
to be the Son of
God with power, according to the
spirit of
holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”—Romans
1:3-4.
“I Jesus have
sent mine angel to testify unto you these
things in the
churches. I am the root and the offspring of
David, and the bright and morning star.”—Revelation 22:16.
“And there shall
come forth a rod out of the stem of
Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.”—Isaiah
11:1.
“But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent
forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law.”—
Galatians 4:4.
“For what the
law could not do, in that it was weak
through the
flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.”—
Romans 8:3.
“Forasmuch then
as the children are partakers of flesh
and blood, He
also Himself likewise took part of the same;
that through
death He might destroy Him that had the power
of death, that
is, the devil.”—Hebrews 2:14.
“For we have not
an high Priest which cannot be touched
with the
feelings of our infirmities, but was in all
points
tempted like as
we are, yet without sin.”—Hebrews 4:15.
“And every
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ
is come in the
flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of
antichrist,
whereof ye have heard that it should come; and
even now already
is it in the world.”—1 John 4:3.
THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST
IN THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY
When asked to prove the correct view of the
Humanity of Christ in the Spirit of Prophecy
64 Defending the Godhead
nature of Christ from the Spirit of Prophecy,
all
you need do is open a Desire of Ages to pp. 49
and 117. It is all there. Memorize those two
numbers.
You might add Desire of Ages, 71, 311-312,
363.
There are a thousand passages which describe
the correct view of the nature of Christ. He
became
fully like us and took our fallen nature. He
was fully tempted and could have yielded. But
not once did He ever sin in thought, word, or
action.
Through His enabling grace, we too can resist
temptation, overcome, and not sin.
“The great work
of redemption could be carried
out only by the
Redeemer taking the place of fallen
Adam . . He would take man’s fallen nature.”—Review,
February 24, 1874.
“We are not to serve God as if we were not
human, but we
are to serve Him in the nature we
have, that has
been redeemed by the Son of God;
through the
righteousness of Christ we shall stand
before God
pardoned, and as though we had never
sinned.”—3 Selected Messages, 140.
“Though He had all the strength of passion of
humanity, never
did He yield to temptation to do
one single act
which was not pure and elevating and
ennobling.”—In Heavenly Places, 155.
“The soul must purpose the sinful act before
passion can
dominate over reason or iniquity triumph
over conscience.
Temptation, however strong, is never
an excuse for
sin.”—5 Testimonies, 177.
“We need not
retain one sinful propensity.”—7 Bible
Commentary, 943.
“Christ did not
make-believe take human nature;
He did verily
take it. He did in reality possess
human nature. ‘As the children are partakers of flesh
65
and blood, He
also Himself likewise took part of the
same.’ He was
the Son of Mary; He was of the seed of
David according
to human descent.”—5 Bible
Commentary,
1130.
“Think of Christ’s
humiliation. He took upon Himself
fallen,
suffering human nature, degraded and
defiled by sin. He took our sorrows, bearing our grief
and shame. He endured all the temptations wherewith
man is beset. He united humanity with divinity:
a divine spirit
dwelt in a temple of flesh.”—4 Bible
Commentary,
1147.
“Christ rendered
obedience to God, and overcame
as humanity must
overcome. We are led to make
wrong
conclusions because of erroneous views of the
nature of our
Lord. To attribute to His nature a power
that it is not
possible for man to have in his conflicts
with Satan, is
to destroy the obedience that is
required of man.
“Man cannot
overcome Satan’s temptations except
as divine power
works through humanity. The Lord
Jesus came to
our world, not to reveal what God in
His own divine
person could do, but what He could
do through
humanity. Through faith man is to be a
partaker of the
divine nature, and to overcome every
temptation
wherewith he is beset.”—Signs, April 10,
1893.
“If Christ had a
special power which it is not the
privilege of man
to have, Satan would have made capital
of this matter.
But the work of Christ was to take
from Satan his
control of man, and he could do this
only in a
straightforward way. He became a man, to be
tempted as a
man, rendering the obedience of a man.
Christ rendered
obedience to God, and overcame as
humans must
overcome.”—Signs, April 10, 1893.
“The Lord Jesus
came to our world, not to reveal
Humanity of Christ in the Spirit of Prophecy
66 Defending the Godhead
what a God could
do, but what a man could do,
through faith in
God’s power to help in every emergency.”—
3 Selected Messages, 140.
5 - THE DIVINITY
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the
Godhead. He has existed forever; and he is equal
in divinity to the other two persons of the
Godhead.
He is working to draw us to God and save
us. We should not deny His existence.
THE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
IN THE BIBLE
Here are 52 Scripture references which attest
to the full divinity of the Holy Spirit:
First, He has the attributes of divinity: He is
Omniscient
(1 Cor. 2:10-12, Rom. 11:33). He is Omnipotent (Job
33:4, 1 Chron. 29:11-12, Gen. 1:2). He is Omnipresent
(Ps. 139:7-10, John 14:17). He is Eternal (Heb. 9:14). He
is Holy (Matt. 12:32). He is Love (Gal. 5:22). He is Truth
(John 14:17, 15:26).
Second, He does the works of divinity: The Creation
(Gen. 1:2, Ps. 104:30, Job 26:13). The Birth of Christ (Matt.
1:20). The Inspiration of God’s Word (2 Peter 1:21). The
New Birth (Titus 3:5, John 3:6). Intercession (Rom. 8:26).
Ministry (John 14:16).
Third, He exhibits five attributes of a person:
He
has intellect—“The Spirit
searches all things” (1 Cor. 2:10).
He has knowledge—The Holy Spirit understands the mind
of God (1 Cor. 2:11). He has a mind—The Father knows
the
mind of the
Spirit (Rom. 8:27). He has emotions—“Grieve
not the Holy
Spirit of God” (Eph. 4:30). The Holy Spirit is
grieved when we
lie (vs. 25), are angry (vs. 26), steal, are
lazy (vs. 28), or speak
unkind words (vs. 29). He has a will
67
(Acts 16:6).
Fourth, He does ten things which a divine person
would do: He testifies—“He will bear witness of Me” (John
15:26). He helps—He is the “Comforter”
(John 14:16). He
teaches—He teaches us (John 14:26). He guides—He guides
us in our search
for truth (John 16:13). He convinces and
convicts—He convicts the
world of sin, righteousness, and
judgment (John 8:9, 16:8). He regenerates (Eze. 36:25-27,
Titus 3:5). He intercedes (Rom. 8:26, Heb. 7:25). He commands
(Acts 8:29, 39; 13:2). He sends out (Acts 13:4). He
forbids and prohibits (Acts 16:6-9).
Fifth, certain things can be done toward Him,
which
could not be done if He did not have a
personality; He
can be obeyed—In Acts 10, the
Lord told Peter to go to the
house of
Cornelius. He obeyed the Holy Spirit and went. He
can be resisted—Stephen told the Jews, about to stone him,
that they were “stiffnecked . . always resisting the Holy Ghost”
(Acts 7:51). He can be grieved—The Holy Spirit is grieved
when a person
sins (Eph. 4:30; cf. Isa. 63:10). He can be
blasphemed (Matt. 12:31-32, Mark 3:29). He can be lied
to (Acts 5:3).
Sixth, He is at times referred to in the
grammatical
masculine (John 15:26, John 16:13-14).
THE DIVINITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
IN THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY
Here are 19 of the many Spirit of Prophecy
quotations which verify the full eternity and
divinity
of the Holy Spirit:
“The eternal heavenly
dignitaries—God, and
Christ, and the
Holy Spirit—arming them [the disciples]
with more than
mortal energy . . would advance
with them to the
work and convince the world of sin.”—
Evangelism, 616.
“The eternal Godhead—the
Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost—is involved in the action required to
make assurance
to the human agent.”—Upward Look,
Divinity of the Holy Spirit in the Sp of
Prophecy
68 Defending the Godhead
148.
“The Lord Jesus acts through the Holy Spirit;
for it is His
representative.”—Messages to
Young
People, 55.
“We need to realize that the Holy Spirit, who is
as much a person
as God is a person, is walking
through these
grounds.”—Evangelism, 616
(Manuscript
66, 1899).
“The Holy Spirit is a person, for He beareth witness
with our spirits
that we are the children of
God. When this witness is borne, it carries with it its
own evidence. At
such times we believe and are sure
that we are
children of God . .
“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,
616-617 (Manuscript 20, 1906).
“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. Another spirit must
be met; for the
essence of evil was working in all ways,
and the
submission of man to this satanic captivity
was amazing.”—Testimonies to Ministers, 392.
“Christ, as
Mediator, is the great Minister in the
work of
redemption. The Holy Spirit is His representative
in our world, to
execute the divine purpose
of bringing to
fallen man power from above,
that he may be
an overcomer.”—7 Bible Commentary,
69
922.
“Those who
reject the Spirit of truth place themselves
under the
control of a spirit that is opposed to
the Word and
work of God. For a time they may continue
to teach some
phases of the truth, but their
refusal to
accept all the light God sends will after a
time place them
where they will do the work of a
false watchman . . There will always be those who are
seeking for
something new and who stretch and strain
the Word of God
to make it support their ideas and
theories.”—Sermons and Talks, Vol. 1, 385, 387
(Manuscript 125, September 4, 1907).
“The Holy Spirit unites with the powers of grace
that God has provided to turn souls to Christ.”— Review,
July 18, 1907.
“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 (Ev 617).
“By the Spirit which searches all things, even
the deep things
of God, have been revealed precious
truths which
cannot be described by pen or voice.”—
Sons and Daughters of God, 34.
“The Holy Spirit
was eagerly sought for in the
schools of the
prophets.”—12 Manuscript Releases,
147 (Manuscript 69, June 19, 1908).
“The time [after
Christ’s ascension] had now come.
The Spirit had
been waiting for the crucifixion, resurrection,
and ascension of
Christ. For ten days the
disciples
offered their petitions for the outpouring of
the Spirit, and
Christ in heaven added His intercession.”—
6 Bible Commentary, 1055.
“Cumbered with
humanity, Christ could not be in
every place
personally; therefore it was altogether for
their advantage
that He should leave them, go to His
Divinity of the Holy Spirit in the Sp of
Prophecy
70 Defending the Godhead
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
[Christ] would represent Himself as
present in all
places by His Holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent.”—
14 Manuscript Releases, 23. (Manuscript
5a, 1895. Desire of Ages, 669-670 is similar.)
“He [Christ] would intercede for them, and
would send them
His own representative, the Holy
Spirit, who would attend them in their work. This
representative
would not appear in human form,
but by faith
would be seen and recognized by all who
should believe
in Christ.”—Review, October 26, 1896.
“Christ, as
Mediator, is the great Minister in the
work of
redemption. The Holy Spirit is His representative
in our world, to
execute the divine purpose
of bringing to
fallen man power from above,
that he may be
an overcomer.”—7 Bible Commentary,
922.
“The Saviour
promised that His presence would
be always with
them. Through the Holy Spirit He
would be even
nearer to them than when He walked
visibly among
men.”—Ministry of
Healing, 104.
“Jesus had
assured them that He would send the
Comforter, as an
equivalent for His visible presence.”—
3 Spirit of Prophecy, 256.
“Why should we not expect the Holy Watcher to
come into our
schools?”—Counsels to
Teachers, 370.
[The Holy Spirit as a person walking in our
schools:
8T 62, the whole page; CT 68, 417-418.]
Many additional quotations will be found in
this book, as follows: The Divinity of the Holy Spirit
in the Bible (p. 126). The Divinity of
the Holy Spirit
in the Spirit of
Prophecy (p. 142). Special
Statements
about the Holy
Spirit (p. 153). Pronouns for
71
the Holy Spirit (p. 161).
——————————————
— CHAPTER FOUR —
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC
TEACHING
ABOUT THE TRINITY
Roman Catholicism teaches that the Son comes
out of the Father and the Holy Spirit comes from
both;—and yet there is only one God! There is no
Son apart from the Father and no Holy Spirit
apart from both. Significantly, the roots of Arianism
(Christ is not
eternal) and the no-separate-Holy Spirit
teaching both
find their source in this peculiar doctrine
which, we will
learn in the next chapter, was
vigorously
opposed by several of our pioneers.
Ironically, there are those among us today who
are teaching the basic concept of the Trinity
error—
that there is only one Being that is the eternal
God! Apart from that one God, there is no
eternal
Christ and no Holy Spirit with a separate
existence.
The term, trinitas, was first used
in the second
century by
Tertullian; but the doctrine was not formulated
until the fourth
century.
Quoted below are
21 statements, from official
Catholic
theological works, about the Trinity. You
will read about this weird error which our
pioneers
so strongly opposed:
RC: The Son
proceeds from the Father and the
Holy Spirit
proceeds out of both of Them—“The Fa-
The Roman Catholic Teaching about the Trinity
72 Defending the Godhead
ther begets the Son, and the Son proceeds from the
Father. The
Father and Son breathe forth the Holy
Ghost, and He
proceeds from Them, as from one
Source.”—“One God in Three Persons,” My Catholic
Faith: A Manual of Religion, Louis Laravoire Morrow,
Bishop of Krishnagar,
p. 30.
RC: The Father
continually copulates with Himself
and brings forth
the Son, and Their love in each
other brings
forth the Spirit—“God the Father eternally
knows Himself,
and continues to know Himself
[copula; that is,
copulates with Himself], and continues
to know Himself,
and thus continues to bring forth
the Son in a
continual birth. God the Father and God
the Son continue
to love each other, and their delight
in each other
continues to bring forth the Spirit of Love,
God the Holy
Ghost. In a similar way, fire has light and
color. As long
as there is fire, it continues to produce
light. As long
as there is fire with light, there is produced
color.”—Ibid., p. 31.
RC: There is
only one Divine Being—“There are
three Persons,
but only one Being.”—Ibid., p. 33.
RC: The Son is
not equal to the Father—“In proof
of the assertion
that many of the Fathers deny the equality
of the Son with
the Father, passages are cited from
Justin (Apol., I, xiii, xxxii), Irenaeus
(Adv. haer., III,
viii, n. 3),
Clem. Alex. (“Strom.” VII, ii), Hippolytus (Con.
Noet., n. 14), Origen (Con. Cels.,
VIII, xv).”—The Catholic
Encyclopedia, 1914 Edition, art. “The Blessed Trinity.”
RC: The Son was
created—“Expressions which
contain the
statement that the Son was created are
found in Clement
of Alexandria (Strom., V, xiv; VI, vii),
Tatian (Orat., v), Tertullian (A’Adv. Prax.’ vi; ‘Adv.
Hermong.’, xviii, xx), Origen (In Joan., I, n. 22).”—Ibid.
[If you accept the teaching that Christ has not exThe
illustration below is from p. 32 of an official
Roman Catholic book, entitled My Catholic Faith.
Notice
that their Trinity concept contains the same
basic
error that some within our own ranks are now
teaching:
(1) The Son came out of the Father, beginning
long ago; so He is not eternal. (2) The Holy
Spirit has
no separate existence, but only as He keeps
coming
out of the others. (3) God is one in person.
Do you want to teach—or even believe—the Catholic
error which our pioneer writers (see next
chapter)
so earnestly opposed?
74 Defending the Godhead
isted forever, you are a good Catholic. Beware of the
errors you accept from teachers in our ranks.]
RC: The Spirit
is only Christ’s breath—“Pneuma
is understood in
the light of John 20:22 where Christ,
appearing to the
Apostles, breathed on them and conferred
on them the Holy
Spirit. He is the breath of Christ
(John Damascene,
‘Fid. orth.’, 1, viii), breathed by Him
[Christ] into us
(Cyril of Alexandria, ‘Thesaurus’; cf.
Petav., ‘De Trin’, V, vii).”—Ibid.
RC: The divine
nature existed before the Gods
it was in—“The transition to the Latin [later Catholic]
theology of the
Trinity was the work of St. Augustine.
Western [Roman]
theologians have never departed from
the main lines
which he laid down . . and it received its
final and
classical form from St. Thomas Aquinas . .
[Augustine]
views the Divine Nature as [existing] prior
to the
personalities.”—Ibid.
RC: The “processions”
of Christ and the Holy
Spirit from the
original God find an analogy in
thought and will
being produced by the human
mind—“By indicating the analogy between the two processions
within the
Godhead and the internal acts of
thought and will
in the human mind (De Trin., IX, iii,
3; X, xi, 17),
he became the founder of the psychological
theory of the
Trinity, which, with a very few exceptions,
was accepted by
every subsequent Latin writer.”—
Ibid.
RC: The Holy
Spirit is produced by an action of
the divine will—“The doctrine of the procession of
the Holy Spirit
by means of the act of the Divine will is
due entirely to
Augustine . . He mentions the opinion
with favour in
the ‘De fide et symbolo’ (A.D. 393); and
the ‘De Trinitate’ (A.D. 415) develops it at length. His
teaching was
accepted by the West [Rome].”—Ibid.
RC: There is
only one God—“Obviously, there can
75
be only one
infinite Being, only one God. If several were
to exist, none
of them would really be infinite, for, to
have plurality
of natures at all, each should have some
perfection not
possessed by the others [which is a ridiculous
reason]. This
will be readily granted by everyone
who admits the
infinity of God, and there is no need
to delay in
developing what is perfectly clear . . If the
question, for example
be asked: Why may there not be
several
self-existing beings? The only satisfactory answer,
as it seems to
us, is this: Because a self-existent
being as such is
necessarily infinite, and there cannot
be several
infinities. The unity of God as the First Cause
might also be
inductively inferred from the unity of the
universe as we
know it, but as the suggestion might be
made, and could
not be disproved, that there may be
another or even
several universes of which we have no
knowledge, this
argument would not be absolutely conclusive.”—
The Catholic Encyclopedia,
1914 Edition,
art. “Nature and Attributes of God.” [You have
just
read typical Jesuitic
thinking. Unfortunately, there
are those even in our own ranks who accept the
same
conclusion, that there is only one Being who is
the
eternal God.]
RC: There is
only one God; and He consists of
nothingness—“God is a simple being or substance excluding
every kind of
composition [substance], physical
or metaphysical
. . Nor can accidental composition
be attributed to
the infinite since even this would imply
a capacity for
increased perfection, which the very
notion of the
infinite excludes.”—Ibid.
RC: Christ’s
humanity and divinity are only
united “hypostatically”—“His human nature and His
Divine nature
are in Jesus Christ united hypostatically,
i.e., united in the hypostasis or the person of
the Word.
This dogma has
found bitter opponents from the ear-
The Roman Catholic Teaching about the Trinity
76 Defending the Godhead
liest times of
the Church.”—The Catholic Encyclopedia,
1914 Edition, art. “Christology.”
RC: Every good
Catholic must accept that the
Holy Spirit
comes out of the Father and the Son,
and does not
have a separate existence—“He [the
Holy Spirit]
proceeds, not by way of generation, but
by way of spiration, from the Father and the Son together,
as from a single
principle. Such is the belief the
Catholic faith
demands.”—The Catholic Encyclopedia,
1914 Edition, art. “Holy Ghost.” [If you accept
the
teaching that the Holy Spirit is not the
separate, Third
Person of the Godhead, you are a good Catholic.
Beware
of the errors you accept from teachers in our
ranks.]
RC: The Holy
Spirit proceeds out of the Father
and the Son—“The Son proceeds from the Father; the
Holy Ghost proceeds
from the Father and the Son.”—
Ibid.
RC: The Holy
Spirit flows out of the Father
through the Son—“Tertullian dwells at length on the
Paraclete. The Holy Ghost, he says, proceeds from the
Father through
the Son (iv, viii in P.L., II, 182, 187);
teaching all
truth (ii in P.L. II, 179).”—Ibid.
RC: Apart from
God, the Holy Spirit has no subsistence;
i.e., He has no
separate existence—“St. Gregory
Thaumaturgus, or at least
the Ekthesis tes pisteos,
which is
commonly attributed to him, gives us this remarkable
passage (P.G., X, 933 sqq.): ‘One is God,
Father
of the living
Word, of the subsisting Wisdom . .
One the Lord,
one of one, God of God, invisible of invisible
. . One the Holy
Ghost, having His subsistence
from God . .
Perfect Trinity, which in eternity, glory,
and power, is
neither divided, nor separated . . Unchanging
and immutable
Trinity.”—Ibid.
RC: The Holy
Spirit is only the spirit of God
77
and Christ—“The Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Christ.
He is also the
Spirit of the Father. Thus St. Augustine
argues (In Joan,
tr. xcix, 6, 7 in P.L.,
XXXV, 188) . .
Just as there is
only one Father, just as there is only
one Lord or one
Son, so there is only one Spirit, who
is,
consequently, the Spirit of both [of the other two].”—
Ibid.
RC: The Holy
Ghost actually issues forth from
one, not two,
substances—“Proceeding both from the
Father and the
Son, the Holy Ghost, nevertheless, proceeds
from them as
from a single principle. The Holy
Ghost proceeds
from the two, not in so far as They are
distinct, but
inasmuch as Their Divine perfection is
numerically one.
Besides, such is the explicit teaching
of
ecclesiastical tradition, which is concisely put by St.
Augustine (De Trin., lib. V, c. xiv, in P.L.,
XLII, 921) . .
This doctrine
was defined in the following words by
the Second
Ecumenical Council of Lyons (Denzinger,
‘Enchiridion’,
1908, n. 460): ‘We confess that the Holy
Ghost proceeds
eternally from the Father and the Son,
not as from two
principles, but as from one principle,
not by two spirations, but by one single spiration.’ The
teaching was
again laid down by the Council of Florence
(ibid., n. 691), and by
Eugene IV in his Bull
‘Cantate Domino’ (ibid., n. 703 sq).”—Ibid.
RC: This mystery
is the central doctrine of
Catholic faith—“The mystery of the Trinity is the central
doctrine of
Catholic faith. Upon it are based all the
other teachings
of the Church.”—Ibid, p. 16.
RC: As good
Catholics, you must worship only
one eternal God—“Unless [people] keep this Faith
whole and
undefiled, without doubt, they shall perish
everlastingly.
And the Catholic faith is this: We worship
one God in
Trinity.”—A Practical Catholic Dictionary,
p. 32.
The Roman Catholic Teaching about the Trinity
78 Defending the Godhead
RC: Whereas Christ
proceeds from the mind of
the Father, the
Holy Spirit flows outward from His
will—“It is likewise an article of [Catholic] faith that
the Holy Ghost
does not proceed by way of generation
. . We
distinguish absolutely and essentially between
generation and spiration. St. Thomas (I, Q. xxvii), following
St. Augustine
(Do Trin., IV, xxvii), finds the explanation
and, as it were
the epitome of, the doctrine
in principle
that, in God, the Son proceeds through
the Intellect
and the Holy Ghost through the Will.”—
Ibid.
Here is a summary of what we have learned
in this chapter: Although Catholic theologians talk
about “three
Persons” in their Trinity, they do not
really
teach three persons! The Son is something God
keeps inventing
out of His own “intellect” (“eternal generation,”
it is called).
The two of them exude, or float
out, something
called “the Holy Ghost” which isn’t really
there. It is
only an expression of the “will” of God.
Over the
centuries, Catholic theologians gradually
combined pagan
concepts with a misinterpretation of
Scripture—to
present the world with a magnificent
counterfeit of the truth:
(1) A Son who is always partly
there and always
partly emerging out (“continuous generation”)
from the Father.
(2) A Holy Spirit, which has
no separate
existence, but is continually exhaled (“continuous
spiration”) from both the Father and the Son.
(3) A Father who
has less existence than His nature
and is only part
of a mixed-up “one essence.”
It is INSIDE Roman Catholic theology that we
find the seeds of the modern errors that Christ
had a beginning and is not eternal, and the Holy
Spirit does not really exist.
Is this what you
want to believe? error originated
79
by Catholic
priests—or the Bible/Spirit of Prophecy
truth that the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct
individuals who
are fully separate, fully divine, and fully
eternal?
“Our opponents
sometimes claim that no belief
should be held
dogmatically which is not explicitly
stated in
Scripture . . 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.
“Q. Do you
observe other necessary truths as taught
by the Church,
not clearly laid down in Scripture?
“A. The doctrine
of the Trinity, a doctrine the knowledge
of which is
certainly necessary to salvation, is not
explicitly and
evidently laid down in Scripture, in the
Protestant sense
of private interpretation.”—Doctrinal
Catechism, quoted in Review and Herald, August
22,
1854.
——————————————
— CHAPTER FIVE —
OUR PIONEERS
OPPOSED
THE TRINITY ERROR
The Present Truth began
publication in July 1849.
In November
1850, it was called the Second Advent
Review and Sabbath Herald; and, on August 5, 1851,
it became the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald.
From May 6,
1852, onward, 52 issues were printed
each year.
In eight
articles in 23 years (1,196 issues, con-
Our Pioneers Opposed the Trinity Error
80 Defending the Godhead
taining nearly 10,000 articles) of Reviews, between
1855 and 1877, six of our pioneers wrote against
the Trinity
doctrine of Catholicism, and defined what
it was in that
teaching that they so much opposed.
It is fortunate
that they explained why they did not
like the
Trinity. We discover that it was not the Godhead
that they were
opposed to; but it was the Trinity! There
were a few other
instances in which writers spoke
against the
Trinity doctrine of Catholicism, without
defining it; but
we can assume that it was the same
basic definition
which the six were opposed to.
To say it again:
In each instance in which the Trinity
is mentioned—and
defined—in the Review by early
Advent writers,—it
is never our Godhead teaching, as
given in the
Bible and Spirit of Prophecy that is opposed!
Not once. Therefore, it is not true that “our
pioneers were opposed to the Godhead.”
However, it
should be mentioned that there were
nine of those
early writers (some of them laymen writing
letters to the
editor) who mentioned, in passing,
that they did
not personally believe that Christ had
existed from all
eternity. —However, none of them
denied that He was the Divine Son of God.
Here, for
example, is an overview of the belief of
James White in
the divinity of Christ: In 1852, he wrote
that Christ was
not the same person as God the Father,
as the
Trinitarians teach. He rejected “the old
Trinitarian
absurdity,” that “Jesus Christ is the very
and eternal God”
(Review, August 5, 1852). So there
should be no
misunderstanding as to that statement.
The next year
James clarified it by reaffirming his full
belief in the
divinity of Christ (Review, September 8,
1853; also in Review, October 12, 1876). In 1877,
James published
an article entitled, “Christ Equal with
God” (Review, November 29, 1877). He mentioned his
81
full belief in
Christ’s divinity again near the end of his
life (Review, July 5, 1880).
The total number
of articles or letters to the
editor, which
dealt with all of the above points,
would not even
fill one issue of the Review we had
back then. Obviously, the Trinity and the eternity of
Christ were not
major concerns of our people
throughout the
nineteenth century.
In some
instances, without defining the Trinity,
those early
Advent writers wrote opposing views. Remember:
They were frail
men who had come out of
many different
churches and were not inspired. For
example, Merritt
Cornell (Review, November 23, 1862)
wrote that the
divine Christ could not have died on the
cross while J.H. Waggoner (Review,
November 10,
1863) maintained that
the divine Christ had to die.
(The question
was later clarified; see 5BC 1113.) There
were also
arguments over whether or not Christ was
eternal in the
past. Some viewed it one way and some
another.
The six who, in
the Review, defined the
Trinity that
they were
opposed to were as follows: James White
(1855, 1868,
1877), J.N. Andrews (1855), Uriah Smith
(1856), Roy F.
Cottrell (1857, 1869), J.N. Loughborough
(1861), Joseph
Bates (1868).
To that list, we
can add four other statements by
nineteenth-century
workers, which defined the Trinity
belief they
opposed—all of which were printed in books:
Joseph Bates
(1848, 1868), James White (1868), and
J.H. Waggoner (1884),
In the following
quotations, notice that it was the
three-in-one
Trinity error—the concept which made
the Deity into
nonpersons—which was attacked. Our
Bible/Spirit of
Prophecy position on three distinct, Divine
members of the
Godhead was not opposed. This
Our Pioneers Opposed the Trinity Error
82 Defending the Godhead
is important!
“Our pioneers”
did not write one word in opposition
to the
three-Person Godhead; they only wrote
against the
weird Catholic three-gods-in-one theory,
called “the
trinity.”
Here are these
eleven defining statements, seven
of them in the Review, four in books:
“John describes
One seated on a throne with a book
in His right
hand, and He distinctly saw Jesus come
up to the throne
and take the book out of the hand of
Him that sat
therein. Now if it is possible to make these
two entirely
different transactions appear in one person,
then I could
believe that God died and was buried
instead of
Jesus.”—Joseph Bates, letter to William
Miller, 1848, printed in Past and Present
Experience.
“The doctrine of
the Trinity which was established
in the church by
the Council of Nice [Nicea], A.D. 325.
This doctrine
destroys the personality of God, and His
Son Jesus
Christ.”—J.N. Andrews, Review, March 6,
1855.
“[Listing
Catholic ‘fables’:] Here we might mention
the Trinity,
which does away with the personality of
God, and of His
Son Jesus Christ, and of sprinkling or
pouring . . But
we pass from these fables to notice one
that is held
sacred by nearly all professed Christians
. . It is the
change of the Sabbath.”—James White,
Review,
February 7, 1856.
“The doctrine
called the Trinity, claiming that God
is without form
or parts; that the Father, Son and Holy
Ghost, the three
are one person.”—Uriah Smith, Review,
July 10, 1856.
“[Ridiculing the
idea of the Trinity, Cottrell compares
it with three
aspects of a person:] He proceeded
to affirm that ‘man
is a triune being,’ consisting of body,
83
soul, and
spirit. I never heard of a [true] disciple confess
faith in the
doctrine of the Trinity; but why not, if
man consists of
three persons in one person? Especially
since man was
made in the image of God. But
the image, He
[God in Genesis 1:26-27] said, was a
moral likeness.
So man may be a triune being [made
of body, soul,
and spirit], without proving that God is
[made of three
things]. But does he mean that one man
is three men? I
might say that a tree consists of body,
bark, and
leaves, and no one perhaps would dispute
it. But if I
should affirm that each tree consists of three
trees, the
assertion would possibly be doubted by some
. .”—Roy F. Cottrell, Review, November 19, 1857.
“Question [sent in by W.W. Giles of Toledo, Ohio]:
What serious
objection is there to the doctrine of the
Trinity?
“Answer [by Loughborough]: There are many objections
which we might
urge, but on account of our
limited space we
shall reduce them to the three following:
1. It is
contrary to common sense. 2. It is contrary
to Scripture. 3.
Its origin is pagan and fabulous.
“These positions
we will remark upon briefly in
their order. 1.
It is not very consonant [in agreement]
with common
sense to talk of three being one, and one
being three. Or
as some express it, calling God ‘the
Triune God,’ or ‘the
three-one-God.’ If Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost are
each God, it would be three Gods; for
three times one
is not one, but three. There is a sense
in which They
are one, but not one person, as claimed
by Trinitarians
[Notice that this extended description
is not denying
the existence or Godhead of the Father,
Son, or Holy
Spirit.] . .
“Read the
seventeenth chapter of John, and see if
it does not
completely upset the doctrine of the Trinity.
To believe that
doctrine, when reading the Scrip-
Our Pioneers Opposed the Trinity Error
84 Defending the Godhead
ture, we must believe that God sent Himself into the
world, died to
reconcile the world to Himself, raised
Himself from the
dead, ascended to Himself in heaven,
pleads before
Himself in heaven to reconcile the world
to Himself, and
is the only mediator between man and
Himself . .
“2. The word
Trinity nowhere occurs in the Scriptures
. . [He states
that 1 John 5:7 was a later addition
to the Bible,
which is true. It is not a genuine Bible
verse, and was
added in the 12th century to prove the
Trinity: “. .
and these three are one.” The passage, as
given in the
KJV, is in no Greek manuscript earlier
than the 15th
and 16th centuries! This is discussed in
more detail
later in this book.]
“3. Its origin
is pagan and fabulous. Instead of pointing
us to Scripture
for proof of the Trinity, we are
pointed [by the
Catholics] to the trident [large, 3-tined
pitchfork] of
the Persians, with the assertion that ‘by
this they
designed to teach the idea of a Trinity.”—J.N.
Loughborough, Review, November 5, 1861.
“Respecting the
Trinity, I concluded that it was an
impossibility
for me to believe that the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son
of the Father, was also the Almighty
God, the Father,
one and the same being. I said to my
father [who
believed in the Trinity], ‘If you can convince
me that we are
one in this sense, that you are my
father, and I
your son; and also that I am your father,
and you my son,
then I can believe in the Trinity.”—
Joseph Bates, The Autobiography of Elder Joseph
Bates, p. 204 (1868).
[Explaining the
meaning of “one”:] “Jesus prayed
that His
disciples might be one as He was one with His
Father. This
prayer did not contemplate one disciple
with twelve
heads, but twelve disciples, made one in
object and
effort in the cause of their Master. Neither
85
are the Father
and the Son parts of the ‘three-one God.’
They are two
distinct beings, yet one in the design and
accomplishment
of redemption.”—James White, Life
Incidents, p. 343 (1868).
“[Speaking of
the doctrine of the Triune God:] That
one person is
three persons, and that three persons
are only one
person, is the doctrine which we claim is
contrary to
reason and common sense . . Our Creator
has made it an
absurdity to us that one person should
be three
persons, and three persons but one person;
and in His
revealed Word He has never asked us to
believe it.”—Roy F. Cottrell, Review, July 6, 1869.
“The
inexplicable Trinity that makes the Godhead
three in one and
one in three, is bad enough; but that
ultra
Unitarianism that makes Christ inferior to the
Father is worse.
Did God say to an inferior, ‘Let us
make man in our
image?’ ”—James White, Review,
November 29, 1877. [Notice that James White was
careful to mention that Christ was not inferior
to the
Father.]
“Is Christ the
Father in the Trinity? If so, how is He
the Son? or if
He is both Father and Son, how can
there be a
Trinity?”—J.H. Waggoner, The Atonement
in the Light of Nature and Revelation, p. 169
(1884).
That concludes the eleven statements. Now
you know for
yourself what the pioneers were opposed
to! Not the
Godhead with Three Persons, but
the one-in-three
and three-in-one confusion, called
the “Trinity.”
Surely, we today
do not want to accept the Trinity
error, which
teaches that the Son emerged (generatos)
out of the
Father (instead of being eternally
by His side) and
a Holy Spirit which flowed out from
them (spirato) and is not a self-existent Third Person
of the Godhead.
Yet that is what some among
Our Pioneers Opposed the Trinity Error
86 Defending the Godhead
us are teaching.
Someone may ask
where I obtained my data. Individuals,
intent on
eliminating the truth of the Godhead,
have ransacked
Adventist writings from 1846 on down
to the present
time. But all they could find were a few
early Advent
writers opposed to the Trinity error.
You do not believe in the Trinity; I do not
believe
in the Trinity. —And our pioneers did not
believe in
the Trinity either!
Are we not glad
that our pioneers had enough sense
to reject the
Catholic Trinity and not oppose the Scriptural
Godhead?
If someone tells
you that we should reject the
Godhead “because
the pioneers did”—tell them that
they are
mistaken. Then hand them a copy of this book
(which is quite
inexpensive in small boxful quantities),
so they will
understand the truth about this!
It is true that
a few of our nineteenth-century believers
did not realize
that Jesus was eternal. There
were others who
did not know that the Holy Spirit existed.
Some argued one
way and others another way.
There is nothing
magical about the “pioneers.”
They were normal
people who came from all kinds
of backgrounds
and religions. Just as we have to
keep learning
today, they had to back then. Gradually,
the Spirit of
Prophecy clarified more and more
points; and our
people unified on those truths.
Unfortunately,
today many are slipping away from
our Bible/Spirit
of Prophecy foundations. The truths
that we need
today are found in the Inspired Writings,
not in books and
articles by our pioneers;—
for, at times,
they disagreed with one another.
87
——————————————
— CHAPTER SIX —
OUR
DOCTRINAL
STATEMENTS
It is with
regret that I must inform you that,
after our
nineteenth century pioneers opposed the
Trinity—a
significant portion of the Trinity concept
was gradually
slipped into our official Doctrinal
Statements!
It is likely
that those who did this either did not
know the meaning
of the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity
or they wanted
to be better recognized, by the other
churches, as “Christian.”
Fortunately,
because there are few instances of the
Trinity teaching
elsewhere in our church literature, our
leaders still
have a little time in which to return our
people to the
Scriptural teaching on this subject. The
first step in
doing this would be to remove one sentence
from our current
official Statement of Beliefs.
Here is the history of all this:
THE 1889 DOCTRINAL STATEMENT
In 1889, for the
first time, a statement of beliefs
appeared in our
SDA Yearbook.
Here are significant portions of this Statement:
“I. That there
is one God, a personal,
spiritual
being, the
creator of all things, omnipotent . . [lists
other qualities]
. . and everywhere present by his
representative,
the Holy Spirit. Psalm 139:7.
“II. That there
is one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
Our Doctrinal Statements
88 Defending the Godhead
of the Eternal
Father, the one by whom he created
all things, and
by whom they do consist . . [describes
the work of
Christ on earth and in the heavenly Sanctuary]
. .”—Fundamental Beliefs, Nos. 1 and 2, 1889
SDA Yearbook, p. 147.
This Statement
speaks of “one God” who is a
“being.” The
Statement is thus claiming that God
is one being,
when the Son and the Holy Spirit are
also God. It is
indeed strange that this wording
should appear,
when nowhere in our doctrinal literature,
back then, was
anything similar mentioned.
However, we need
to consider the time when it was
penned. As a
result of the October 1888 General Conference
Session in
Minneapolis, key church leaders in
Battle Creek
(including Uriah Smith, who controlled
Review
publications) were in an uproar over the fact
that Ellen White
had sided with A.T. Jones and E.J.
Waggoner in the
battle over righteousness by faith (obedience
by faith in
Christ to the law of God) vs. righteousness
solely by
obedience.
In 1889, the
crisis deepened as she toured the
country, winning
church members to her view of the
subject. It was
amid this atmosphere of turmoil that
Uriah Smith and
his associates decided to print the
first creed-like
statement our church ever had.
It is
significant that, in the 42 years between 1889
and 1931, that
1889 statement was only reprinted twice
after that (1905
and 1914).
THE 1931 DOCTRINAL STATEMENT
Going against
Ellen White’s statement that our
people should
rely on Scripture and not have creedal
statements as do other churches (1SM 416; cf. GC
596, 456; AA 451; TM 421), on December 30, 1930,
the Autumn
Council voted that a committee of four
should prepare a
22-point “Statement of Fundamental
89
Beliefs.” It was
first printed in the 1931 Yearbook.
In the following
quoted portion of that Statement,
you will notice
that the hints of Catholic Trinity error,
which were in
the 1889 Statement, were omitted.
The 1931
phrasing is acceptable in what it says
about the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The word,
“Godhead,” was
correctly used; but the word, “Trinity,”
was strangely linked to it! It is obvious that
the four men who
wrote that statement were ignorant
of the vast
difference between the Godhead and the
Trinity!
Historically, this 1931 statement was the first
and only time in
Seventh-day Adventist history that
the word, “Trinity,”
was used in a Statement of Beliefs.
Fortunately, it
was removed from the next Statement
of Beliefs.
In this 1931
Statement, the Holy Spirit is the “third
Person of the
Godhead.” Jesus Christ “is very God,
being of the
same nature and essence as the eternal
Father.” That is
acceptable, because it is worded “as,”
not “in.”
Here are the significant portions of the 1931
Statement
of Beliefs:
“2. 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).
“3. That Jesus Christ is very God, being of the
same nature and
essence as the Eternal Father.
While retaining
His divine nature, he took upon Him-
Our Doctrinal Statements
90 Defending the Godhead
self the nature
of the human family, lived on earth
. . [the work of
Christ on earth and later in heaven].
“8. . . This
experience [of conversion] is wrought
by the divine
agency of the Holy Spirit, who convinces
of sin and leads
to the Sin Bearer, inducting
believers into
the new-covenant relationship, where
the law of God
is written on their hearts.”—Fundamental
Beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists, Nos. 2,
3, and 8, 1931 SDA Yearbook.
The above 1931
Statement declared all three to
be divine and
three persons of the Godhead. But it
ignorantly stated that “Godhead” and “Trinity”
mean the same thing!
That Doctrinal
Statement appeared in every Yearbook
from 1931 until
1980 (and in the Church Manual
from 1932 till
1980).
THE 1980 DOCTRINAL STATEMENT
The 1980 Dallas
Session approved our present 27-
point Statement
of Beliefs, which first appeared in our
1981 Yearbook. It eliminated the word, “Trinity,”
but added an odd Trinity-like phrase:
Here are the passages dealing with the Godhead:
“[2] There is one God: Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, a unity of three co-eternal persons. God
is immortal,
all-powerful, all-knowing, above all, and
ever present. He
is infinite and beyond human comprehension,
yet known
through His self-revelation.
He is forever
worthy of worship, adoration, and service
by the whole
creation.
“[3] God the Eternal Father is the Creator,
Source,
Sustainer, and Sovereign of all creation. He
is just and
holy, merciful and gracious, slow to anger,
and abounding in
steadfast love and faithfulness.
The qualities
and powers exhibited in the Son
and the Holy
Spirit are also revelations of the Fa91
ther.
“[4] God the eternal Son became incarnate
in
Jesus Christ.
Through Him all things were created,
the character of
God is revealed, the salvation of
humanity is
accomplished, and the world is judged.
Forever truly
God, He became also truly man, Jesus
the Christ. He
was conceived of the Holy Spirit and
born . .
[activities on earth and in heaven].
“[5] God the eternal Spirit was active with
the
Father and the
Son in Creation, incarnation, and redemption.
He inspired the
writers of Scripture . .”—
Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists,
Nos. 2-5, 1981 SDA Yearbook, p. 147.
Section No. 2
says that each person of the
Godhead has the
qualities of divinity. This is a very
definite
improvement over the 1889 and 1931 Statements
which only
applied the various qualities of divinity
to God the
Father. This Statement applies them
to all three. In
addition, all three are twice called eternal,
which is in full
agreement with the Spirit of Prophecy.
That is another
major improvement. The flaw is
that, in that
first sentence, They are also called “coeternal”
and “one God.” The statement should instead
say “God the Father, God the Son, and God the
Holy Spirit are each eternal, and one in nature
and
purpose, but not in being a single person.” Such a
statement would
be in full agreement with the Bible/
Spirit of
Prophecy.
Last but not
least in importance, the 1980 Statement
of Beliefs does not include the Catholic word,
“Trinity.” The word, “Trinity,”
only appeared in the
1931 revision of
our Doctrinal Beliefs.
The men who have
ransacked Adventist literature
for instances in
which “Trinity” has been used, have,
out of thousands
of Adventist magazine articles and
Our Doctrinal Statements
92 Defending the Godhead
books, found only four other times when “Trinity”
was used by
Adventists in books or periodicals:
Arthur Maxwell,
one statement: He had close contacts
with the
Vatican. As an observer to Vatican 1, in
the early 1960s, he wrote this erroneous statement for
Leo Rosten’s book, A Guide to the
Religions of America:
“Do Seventh-day
Adventists believe in the Trinity?
They do.
Reverently they worship Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit:
three persons in one God.”—p. 136.
It is remarkable
that Maxwell said this.
Questions on Doctrine and Seventh-day Adventists
Believe, one statement
each: Those two
compromising
books were written to make our denomination
acceptable to
the other churches. Both inserted
the word, “Trinity,”
as a synonym for our belief in the
Godhead:
“Question 1.
What doctrines do Seventh-day
Adventists hold
in common with Christians in general,
and in what
aspects of Christian thought do
they differ . .?
“1. In common
with Conservative Christians and
the Historic
Protestant Creeds, we believe . . 2. That
the Godhead, the
Trinity, comprises God the Father,
Christ the Son,
and the Holy Spirit.”—Questions on
Doctrine, pp. 21-22.
“God said, ‘Let
us make man’ . . (Gen. 1:26). The
plural ‘Us’
refers to the trinitarian Godhead—God
the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.”—
Seventh-day Adventists Believe, p. 80.
Knight and Johnsson, one statement each: In
addition, we
have two other remarkable statements:
“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
93
to agree to
belief number 2, which deals with the
doctrine of the
trinity.”—George Knight, Ministry
magazine, October 1993.
“The Trinitarian
understanding of God, now part
of our
fundamental beliefs, was not generally held
by the early
Adventists. Even today a few do not
subscribe to it.”—William G. Johnsson,
Review,
January 6, 1994.
Johnsson obviously read Knight’s article; and then
he made a
similar comment on the subject. However,
neither the
word, “Trinity,” nor its meaning is generally
used by our
people. What we have here is an
effort by
certain influential men to bring the Trinity
into our church.
Even though they have slipped
it into our
Doctrinal Statement, they have not yet
brought it into
the everyday thinking of our people.
THE TRINITY SONG
I am sorry to
have to tell you; but there are folk
in our
denomination who, ignorantly or otherwise,
have slipped the
Trinity error into our most recent
official hymn
book! Here are the facts about this:
The song, Holy, Holy, Holy, written by Reginald
Heber in 1826,
originally contained the Trinitarian
error: “God in
three Persons, blessed Trinity.”
But it was
changed to “God over all who rules eternity.”
This correct
alteration is found in our 1908 Christ
in Song (No. 327) and
1941 Church Hymnal (No. 73).
That correct
version is also in our own Harvestime
Book, Time for Singing (No. 10).
Unfortunately,
the original Trinity (“God in three
Persons, blessed
Trinity”) wording was placed into our
1985 Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal (No. 73), where
it is in found
twice: in stanzas 1 and 4.
Our Doctrinal Statements
94 Defending the Godhead
——————————————
— CHAPTER SEVEN —
ADDITIONAL BIBLE
FACTS ABOUT
THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST
TWENTY-FOUR BIBLE PROOFS
THAT CHRIST IS FULLY GOD
Here are 71 Scripture references which
clearly establish the divinity of Christ:
1—Jesus Christ
is called the “Son” or “the Son
of God.” He was
the Son before He was born into this
world (John 1:14, 18; Gal. 4:4).
2—He is the “only
begotten” Son of God (John
1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9. Compare Psalm
2:7
and Luke 3:38).
3—He speaks of,
and to, God as “Father” as One
who bears a
unique relationship to Him (John 7:16-
17, Matt. 11:25-26, John 20:17).
4—He claims a
unique knowledge of God (Matt.
11:27).
5—He speaks of
Himself as “the Son of God” in
such a way that
the Jews recognized that He was
claiming
divinity, making Himself “equal to” God
(Matt. 26:63-64, John 5:18, 10:36).
6—The Sonship of Christ also applies to Him as
our Messiah and
Mediator (Matt. 8:29, 26:63-64, John
1:49, 11:27-28).
7—He is the very
image of God (2 Cor. 4:4, Col.
1:15, Heb. 1:3).
8—He is called
the “firstborn” (Col. 1:15, Heb.
95
1:6) and the “only begotten” (John 1:14, 18;
3:16,
18; 1 John 4:9).
9—The Bible
indicates an eternal sonship that
goes back,
without beginning, through all time in the
past. He had
pre-existence and equality with the Father
before He was
born into this world (Micah 5:2,
John 17:5, Col. 1:16).
10—He has life
in Himself (John 5:26).
11—He has full
divinity or deity (John 1:1, Rom.
9:5, Phil. 2:6, Titus 2:13, 1 John 5:20).
12—Divine names
are applied to Him (Isa. 9:6,
40:3, Jer. 23:5-6, Joel 2:32. Compare Acts 2:21 and
1 Tim 3:16).
13—He has
eternal existence (Isa. 9:6, John 1:1-
2, Rev. 1:8, 22:13). There never was a time when He
did not exist.
14—He has
omniscience (John 2:24-25, 21:17,
Rev. 2:23). He has all
knowledge in heaven, on earth,
and throughout
the universe.
15—He has
omnipotence (Isa. 9:6, Phil. 3:21).
16—He is
immutable (Heb. 1:10-12, 13:8). He is
utterly
unchangeable.
17—He has every
attribute the Father has (Col.
2:9).
18—He is the
Creator (John 1:3, 10; Col. 1:16;
Heb. 1:2, 10).
19—Divine
Providences come through Christ
(John 3:35, 17:2, Eph. 1:22, Col. 1:17).
20—Only God and
Jesus can forgive sin (Matt.
9:2-7, Mark 2:7-10, Col. 3:13).
21—He has a
dominant role both in the Resurrection
and Judgment of
men (Matt. 25:31-32, John 5:19-
29, 17:3-9, 2 Tim. 4:1).
22—He will have
a dominant role in the final destruction
of sin and
sinners, and the renewal of the
24 Bible Proofs that Christ is fully God
96 Defending the Godhead
new heavens and
the new earth (Heb. 1:10-12, Phil.
3:21, Rev. 21:5).
23—Honor is
ascribed to Him as to One who is
Divine and fully
God (John 5:22-23, 14:1, 1 Cor. 15:19-
28, 2 Cor. 13:5, Heb. 1:6, Matt. 28:19).
24—A basic pattern
appears to be that things come
from the Father
and through Christ (John 1:3, 10).
THE DIVINITY
OF CHRIST IN THE BIBLE
Here are an additional 52 Bible quotations
and references on this important subject:
MORE BIBLE EVIDENCE THAT
CHRIST IS FULLY DIVINE
1 - ONLY CHRIST FULLY KNOWS
GOD, THE FATHER
In some
passages, it is very obvious from the context
that the sonship of Christ directly shows that
He is divine. One such passage is John 5:18-25. Another
example is
Hebrews, chapter 1.
Jesus was
conscious of a unique relationship to
the Father. He
spoke of Him as “Father” or “My Father.”
Jesus had a
totally unique relationship to the Father.
Only God can
know God fully.
“All things are
delivered unto Me of My Father;
and no man
knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither
knoweth any man
the Father, save the Son,
and he to
whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.”—
Matthew 11:27.
Can you, by
searching, find out God? No, you can97
not, except as
He reveals Himself to you. You can only
have a partial
understanding of His nature, special
attributes, and
ways of doing things. But, according
to the above
verse, the Son knows all about the
Father. This is due to
the fact that He is totally
equal to Him. He too is God! Divinity understands
Divinity.
2 - CHRIST IS REPEATEDLY CALLED “GOD”
The deity of
Jesus Christ is clearly stated in
God’s Word.
“In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God,
and the Word was God.”—John 1:1.
The Word “was
with God.” ðñïò ôïí ôçåïí
(pro ton
theon). This shows
the closest possible association;
but “with”
clearly reveals Christ to be a being distinct
from the Father.
“And the Word
was God.” êáé ôçåïó
åí ï ëïãïò (kai
theos en o logos). Because the
subject (“Word”) has
the article and
the predicate (“God”) does not have an
article, the phrase must be translated “the Word
was God,” not “a
god.” In Greek, the absence of the
definite article
(“the”) emphasizes inherent quality;
thus the Word
partook of the essence of Deity, and
was divine in
the ultimate and absolute sense.
In the following
passage, notice that Jesus did not
reprove Thomas
for calling Him “God.” Instead, He
commended him
for his response. Would Jesus today
commend those
who try to question His full divinity?
“And Thomas
answered and said unto Him, My
Lord and my God.
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas,
because thou
hast seen Me, thou hast believed.
Blessed are they
that have not seen, and yet have
More Bible Proofs that Christ is fully God
98 Defending the Godhead
believed.”—John 20:28-29.
Bible scholars
recognize that Philippians 2:6 is a
key doctrinal
verse. First, we will quote it:
“Who, being in
the form of God, thought it not
robbery to be
equal with God.”—Philippians 2:6.
“Being” is çõðáñ÷çï (huparcho), in the Greek; and
it means to
exist. This verse speaks about the existence
of Christ.
“Form” is ìïñðçå (morphe); and it does not refer
to the outer
appearance of our word, “form.” Morphe
denotes the
essence—all the essential inner characteristics.
So this verse gives
us a view into the inner
nature of Christ’s
divinity. —And we learn that His
inner nature is
totally equal to the inner nature of
God, the Father.
“Robbery” is çáñðáãìïó (harpagmos), which means
“to grasp
something.” Christ fully knew that to be totally
like God was not
something to be sought after.
Why? Because He
already had it; He already had all
the total morphe attributes of
God.
Here are three
other passages which refer to Christ
as God.
“Christ . . who
is over all, God blessed for ever.
Amen.”—Romans 9:5.
“Looking for
that blessed hope, and the glorious
appearing of the
great God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ.”—Titus 2:13.
“And we know
that the Son of God is come, and
hath given us an
understanding, that we may know
Him that is
true, and we are in Him that is true,
even in His Son
Jesus Christ. This is the true God,
and eternal
life.”—1 John 5:20.
3 - THE DIVINE NAMES ARE APPLIED TO CHRIST
The divine names
are applied to Christ in many
99
passages,
including these:
“For unto us a
Child is born, unto us a Son is
given, and the
government shall be upon His shoulder.
And His name
shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor,
The mighty God,
The everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace.”—Isaiah 9:6.
“The voice of
him that crieth in the wilderness:
Prepare ye the
way of the Lord, make straight in
the desert a
highway for our God.”—Isaiah 40:3.
“Behold, the
days come, saith the Lord, that I
will raise unto
David a righteous Branch, and a King
shall reign and
prosper, and shall execute judgment
and justice in
the earth. In His days Judah shall be
saved, and
Israel shall dwell safely. And this is His
name whereby He
shall be called, The LORD [Yahweh!]
Our
Righteousness.”—Jeremiah 23:5-6.
“And without
controversy great is the mystery of
godliness: God
was manifest in the flesh, justified
in the Spirit.”—1 Timothy 3:16.
4 - CHRIST HAS THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES
In several
passages, Jesus Christ is shown to have
the qualities of
divinity, the divine attributes. Here are
but a few of
them:
Omniscience:
“And he said
unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all
things.”—John 21:17.
“I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts,
and I will give
unto every one of you according to
your works.”—Revelation 2:23.
Omnipotence:
“For unto us a
Child is born, unto us a Son is
given, and the
government shall be upon His shoulder.
And His name
shall be called Wonderful, Coun-
More Bible Proofs that Christ is fully God
100 Defending the Godhead
selor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace.”—Isaiah 9:6.
“Who shall
change our vile body, that it may be
fashioned like
unto His glorious body, according to
the working
whereby He is able even to subdue all
things unto
Himself.”—Philippians 3:21.
“I am Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the
ending, saith
the Lord, which is, and which was,
and which is to
come, the Almighty.”—Revelation
1:8.
“All power is
given unto Me in heaven and in
earth.”—Matthew 28:18.
(Christ’s divine
attributes of eternity and immortality
will be
discussed later.)
5 - CHRIST HAS EVERY ATTRIBUTE OF GOD
Christ has every
quality, every attribute which belongs
to the Father:
“For in Him
dwelleth all the fullness of the
Godhead bodily.”—Colossians 2:9.
6 - CHRIST DOES THE DIVINE WORKS
Jesus not only
has the divine attributes or qualities,
but He does the
things which God does.
Creator:
Jesus Christ is
the Creator! He made us. Who
are we to talk
back to Him and try to denigrate Him to
something lower
than that which He is?
“All things were
made by Him, and without Him
was not any thing made that was made . . He was in
the world, and
the world was made by Him, and
the world knew
Him not.”—John 1:3, 10.
“For by Him were
all things created, that are in
heaven, and that
are in earth, visible and invisible,
101
whether they be
thrones, or dominions, or principalities,
or powers. All
things were created by Him,
and for Him.”—Colossians 1:16.
“God . . hath in
these last days spoken unto us
by His Son, whom
He hath appointed heir of all
things, by whom
also He made the worlds . . And,
Thou, Lord, in
the beginning hast laid the foundation
of the earth;
and the heavens are the works of
Thine hands.”—Hebrews 1:1-2, 10.
“And God said,
let us make man in our image.”—
Genesis 1:26.
Lawgiver:
Jesus is the
Lawgiver. Indeed, He is above the
law (PP 63:2)! A created being could not be above
the law!
In addition, how
could the “power of an endless
[Greek:
indissoluble] life (Heb. 7:16) and the “fullness
of the Godhead” (Col. 2:9) be given to a
created being?
For Bible
passages showing that Christ is the Lawgiver,
read Deuteronomy
4:12-13, Nehemiah 9:13-14,
Exodus 20:2-17.
For Bible passages which explain that
Christ is God
who led the Israelites: See Acts 7:30-
38, 1
Corinthians 10:2-4, Isaiah 63:8-9.
Providence:
Jesus is in
charge of this world; and He is guiding
it in the great
controversy with Satan toward a
triumphant
victory over the forces of evil.
“All things are
delivered to Me of My Father; and
no man knoweth
who the Son is, but the Father;
and who the
Father is, but the Son, and He to whom
the Son will
reveal Him.”—Luke 10:22.
“The Father
loveth the Son, and hath given all
things into His
hand.”—John 3:35.
“As Thou hast
given Him power over all flesh,
that He should
give eternal life to as many as Thou
More Bible Proofs that Christ is fully God
102 Defending the Godhead
hast given Him.”—John 17:2.
“And hath put
all things under His feet, and gave
Him to be the
head over all things to the church.”—
Ephesians 1:22.
“And He is
before all things, and by Him all things
consist.”—Colossians 1:17.
“Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly
places in Christ.”—Ephesians 1:3.
The forgiveness
of sins:
It is a cardinal
principle of Scripture that only God
can forgive our
sins. Jesus forgave sins—and refused
to back down
when accused of claiming divinity by so
doing.
“Be of good
cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. And
behold, certain
of the scribes said within themselves,
This man
blasphemeth. And Jesus knowing
their thoughts
said, wherefore think ye evil in
your hearts? For
whether is easier, to say, Thy sins
be forgiven thee
or to say, Arise and walk? But that
ye may know that
the Son of man hath power on
earth to forgive
sins (then saith He to the sick of
the palsy),
Arise, take up thy bed.”—Matthew 9:2-
6.
“Why doth this
man thus speak blasphemies?
Who can forgive
sins but God only? And immediately
when Jesus
perceived in His spirit that they
so reasoned
within themselves, He said unto them,
Why reason ye
these things in your hearts? Whether
is it easier to
say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins
be forgiven thee
or to say, Arise, and take up thy
bed, and walk?”—Mark 2:7-9.
“Forbearing one
another, and forgiving one another,
if any man have
a quarrel against any; even
as Christ
forgave you . .”—Colossians 3:13.
103
The resurrection
and the judgment:
“When the Son of
man shall come in His glory,
and all the holy
angels with Him, then shall He sit
upon the throne
of His glory. And before Him shall
be gathered all
nations, and He shall separate them
one from
another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep
from the goats.”—Matthew 25:31-32 (cf. John 5:19-
29).
“For the Father
judgeth no man, but hath committed
all judgment
unto the Son. That all men
should honour
the Son, even as they honour the
Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth
not the Father
which hath sent Him.”—John 5:22-
23.
“And He
commanded us to preach unto the
people, and to
testify that it is He which was ordained
of God to be the
Judge of quick [living] and
dead.”—Acts 10:42.
“Because He hath
appointed a day, in the which
He will judge
the world in righteousness by that
Man whom He hath
ordained: wherefore He hath
given assurance
unto all men, in that He hath raised
Him from the
dead.”—Acts 17:31.
“Who shall
change our vile body, that it may be
fashioned like
unto His glorious body, according to
the working
whereby He is able even to subdue all
things unto
Himself.”—Philippians 3:21.
“I charge thee
therefore before God, and the Lord
Jesus Christ,
who shall judge the quick [living] and
the dead at His
appearing and His kingdom.”—2
Timothy 4:1.
“Of the increase
of His government and peace
there shall be
no end, upon the throne of David,
and upon His
kingdom, to order it, and to establish
it with judgment
and with justice from hence-
More Bible Proofs that Christ is fully God
104 Defending the Godhead
forth even for ever.”—Isaiah 9:7.
The final
dissolution and renewal of all things:
“And, Thou,
Lord, in the beginning hast laid the
foundation of
the earth; and the heavens are the
works of Thine
hands. They shall perish, but Thou
remainest, and they all shall wax old as doth a garment.
And as a vesture
shalt Thou fold them up,
and they shall
be changed; but Thou art the same,
and Thy years
shall not fail.”—Hebrews 1:10-12.
“Who shall
change our vile body, that it may be
fashioned like
unto His glorious body, according to
the working
whereby He is able even to subdue all
things unto
Himself.”—Philippians 3:21.
“And He that sat
upon the throne said, Behold, I
make all things
new.”—Revelation 21:5.
He receives
divine honor:
“For the Father
judgeth no man, but hath committed
all judgment
unto the Son. That all men
should honour
the Son, even as they honour the
Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth
not the Father
which hath sent Him.”—John 5:22-
23.
“Let not your
heart be troubled. Ye believe in God,
believe also in
Me.”—John 14:1.
“If in this life
only we have hope in Christ, we are
of all men most
miserable.”—1 Corinthians 15:19.
“And again . .
He saith, And let all the angels of
God worship Him.”—Hebrews 1:6.
“Go ye
therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing
them in the name
of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy
Ghost.”—Matthew 28:19.
—In every
conceivable way, Jesus Christ is fully
God; He always
has been fully God and always will be
fully God. We
have just considered 52 Bible evidences
105
that Christ is
fully God.
——————————————
— CHAPTER EIGHT —
ADDITIONAL BIBLE
FACTS ABOUT
THE ETERNITY OF CHRIST
FOURTEEN BIBLE PROOFS
THAT CHRIST
HAS EXISTED FOREVER
A SUMMARY OF 37 BIBLE VERSES
DESCRIBING CHRIST’S ETERNITY
How long has He
existed? Has there ever been
a time in the
past when He did not exist?
This is the
especially contested aspect. Men are
teaching that
Christ is a created being! But the Word
of God clearly
teaches that Christ has existed from all
eternity.
Let us briefly review the passages which teach
the eternity of Christ:
1 - Christ existed before all things. —The following
verse says He
existed before all created matter
or beings.
“And He is
before all things, and by Him all things
consist.”—Colossians 1:17.
2 - Christ was in the beginning with the Father.
—In the
beginning of what? The inference in
John 1:1 is in
the absolute beginning. God would
not be God if
there was a time when He did not
Bible Proofs that Christ Has Existed Forever
106 Defending the Godhead
exist.
“In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God,
and the Word was God. The same
was in the
beginning with God. All things were made
by Him, and
without Him was not any thing made
that was made .
. And the Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among
us . . full of grace and truth.”—
John 1:1-3, 14.
“That which was
from the beginning . . the Word
of life.”—1 John 1:1.
“The Lord
possessed Me in the beginning of His
way, before His
works of old.”—Proverbs 8:22.
3 - Christ’s goings forth have been from
everlasting
in the past. —So there never
was a time
when He did not
exist.
“But thou,
Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be
little among the
thousands of Judah, yet out of thee
shall He come
forth unto Me that is to be ruler in
Israel; whose
goings forth have been from of old,
from
everlasting.”—Micah 5:2.
4 - Christ is the very image of God. —Therefore
He has to
possess all the Father’s qualities,
including
eternity (past, present, and future).
“Who is the
image of the invisible God.”—Colossians
1:15.
“Who being the
brightness of His glory, and the
express image
[exact likeness] of His Person, and
upholding all
things by the Word of His power, when
He had by
Himself purged our sins, sat down on
the right hand
of the Majesty on high.”—Hebrews
1:3.
5 - Christ has the total fullness of all the
attributes
of God. —These attributes
would have to
include
eternity.
107
“For in Him
dwelleth all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily.”—Colossians 2:9.
6 - Christ has the total inner essence of God.
—That total
inner essence would have to include
eternity, or
Christ would not be fully God.
“Who, being in
the form of God, thought it not
robbery to be
equal with God.”—Philippians 2:6.
7 - Christ is the Everlasting Father, another
wonderful title
of our wonderful Lord and Saviour—
“For unto us a
Child is born, unto us a Son is
given, and the
government shall be upon His shoulder.
And His name
shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
The mighty God,
The everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace.”—Isaiah 9:6.
8 - Christ is forever blessed. —The blessing is
forever—forever
past, present, and future.
“Christ . . who
is over all, God blessed for ever.
Amen.”—Romans 9:5.
9 - Christ never changes. —This unchangeableness
reaches from the
most distant past to the
most distant
future. This means He is totally immutable.
“I am the Lord;
I change not.”—Malachi 3:6.
“And, Thou,
Lord, in the beginning hast laid the
foundation of
the earth; and the heavens are the
works of Thine
hands. They shall perish, but Thou
remainest, and they all shall wax old as doth a garment.
And as a vesture
shalt Thou fold them up,
and they shall
be changed; but Thou art the same,
and Thy years
shall not fail.”—Hebrews 1:10-12.
10 - Christ is not only eternal, but immortal
as well. —“Immortal” means
He is not subject to
death or
non-existent. One of the attributes of God
Bible Proofs that Christ Has Existed Forever
108 Defending the Godhead
is that there
never has been a time when He did
not, or will
not, exist—past or future.
“Immortal” means not
subject to death or nonexistent.
Immortality, not
subject to death or non-existence,
is one of the
key attributes of the Godhead. It is selfpossessed
by each of Them.
They do not owe it to one
another or to
anyone else.
The Greek word
for “immortal” is aphthartos; this
is “imperishable,”
“incorruptible.” On the divine level,
this includes
eternal life in the past as well as eternal
life in the
future.
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today,
and forever.”—Hebrews 13:8.
He was “in the
beginning with God.”
“In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God . . The same was in the beginning
with God.”—John 1:1-2.
11 - Christ has an endless, self-possessed life.
Jesus has a life
which cannot end. “Endless” includes
both past and
future.
It is the inner
quality of God that He cannot die in
the future; and
there never was a time, in the past,
when He did not
exist.
“Who is made,
not after the law of a carnal commandment,
but after the
power of an endless [Greek:
indissoluble]
life.”—Hebrews 7:16.
“In Him was
life.”—John 1:4.
No created being
can give life to another. But Jesus,
who has total,
unending life (past, present, and future)
can, and will,
impart His life to others. This impartation
of Christ’s
eternal life to His followers is stated in
many passages.
The following are but a few: John 5:40;
6:33, 40, 47;
10:10; 11:35-43, 17:2; 20:31.
109
12 - Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the
beginning
and the end. —That means He
has eternal
self-existence.
He is, and was, and is to come. He
has an existence
which spans the ages and preceded
them all.
“I am Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the
ending, saith
the Lord, which is, and which was,
and which is to
come, the Almighty.”—Revelation
1:8.
“I am Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the
end, the first
and the last.”—Revelation 22:13.
The above two
passages include the special name
of God: the I
AM. The meaning of that term is this:
One of the
attributes of God is that He is an Eternal
Presence. He has
always existed and always will exist.
He is the I AM
in the past, in the present, and in the
future. He sees
all things, He knows all things, and He
has existed
forever.
It is not enough
that Christ may be God today; He
must have always
been God in the past—or He is not
fully God!
What is Satan
desperately fighting in the age-long
great
controversy? The devil is opposed to Christ and
His law. Satan
is determined to undermine faith in
either Christ or
His law or both of them. In our time
in history, a
special battle is being fought over obedience
to the law of
God. But Satan also has agents who
are attempting
to downgrade Christ. The devil is using
them in an
attempt to topple Christ from His
throne.
13 - Christ is the I AM, the self-existent God.
—What stronger
statement could be made about
His eternity?
“And Moses said
unto God, Behold, when I come
Bible Proofs that Christ Has Existed Forever
110 Defending the Godhead
unto the
children of Israel, and shall say unto them,
The God of your
fathers hath sent me unto you;
and they shall
say to me, What is His name? what
shall I say unto
them?
“And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM.
And He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children
of Israel, I AM
hath sent me unto you.”—
Exodus 3:14.
Revelation 1:8
and 22:13 (quoted above), as well
as several “I AM”
passages in John, apply the I AM to
Christ in the
New Testament.
Who was that I
AM which spoke to Moses? It was
Christ. Acts
7:30-38 and Isaiah 63:8-13 clearly identifies
Him as Christ.
“And were all
baptized unto Moses in the cloud
and in the sea,
and did all eat the same spiritual
meat; and did
all drink the same spiritual drink;
for they drank
of that spiritual Rock that followed
them,—and that Rock was Christ.”—1 Corinthians
10:2-4.
“I AM” means the
self-existent One. This is a basic
quality of God.
He can only be self-existent if He has
existed forever.
Think about it.
Several times in
the book of John, Jesus applied
the Divine Name,
the I AM, to Himself. The Greek
phrase used is åãï åéìé (ego eimi). It means “I am” in a
special sense.
Several of the passages in John which
contain the I AM
are quoted in the following passage
in Desire of Ages:
“It was Christ who from the bush on Mount
Horeb spoke to
Moses saying, ‘I AM THAT I AM’
. . Thus shalt
thou say unto the children of Israel, I
AM hath sent me
unto you.’ Ex. 3:14. This was the
pledge of Israel’s
deliverance. So when He came ‘in
the likeness of
men,’ He declared Himself the I AM.
The Child of
Bethlehem, the meek and lowly Sav111
iour, God ‘manifest in the flesh.’ 1 Tim. 3:16. And
to us He says: ‘I
AM the Good Shepherd.’ ‘I AM the
living Bread.’ ‘I
AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life.’
‘All power is
given unto Me in heaven and in earth.’
John 10:11;
6:51; 14:6; Matt. 28:18. I AM the assurance
of every
promise. I AM; be not afraid. ‘God
with us’ is the
surety of our deliverance from sin,
the assurance of
our power to obey the law of
heaven.”—Desire of Ages, 24-25.
If Jesus is not
truly God, then you have no assurance
of deliverance
from sin and no enabling power to
obey God’s law!
14 - If He has existed from all eternity, then
He cannot have had a beginning. There never was
a time when He
was brought into existence, or created.
“. . Whose goings forth have been from of old,
from everlasting.”—Micah 5:2.
“And the Word
was made flesh, and dwelt among
us, and we
beheld His glory . . No man hath seen
God at any time;
the only begotten Son, which is in
the bosom of the
Father, He hath declared Him.”—
John 1:14, 18.
“But Jesus
answered them, My Father worketh
hitherto, and I
work. Therefore the Jews sought
the more to kill
Him, because He not only had broken
the Sabbath, but
said also that God was His
Father, making
Himself equal with God.”—John
5:17-18.
“And now, O Father,
glorify Thou Me with Thine
own self with
the glory which I had with Thee before
the world was.”—John 17:5.
“Moreover He
said, I am the God of thy father,
the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob. And
Moses hid his face; for he was afraid
Bible Proofs that Christ Has Existed Forever
112 Defending the Godhead
to look upon
God.”—Ex. 3:6 (Acts 7:30-38, 1 Cor.
10:2-4, Isa. 63:8-9 identify Him as Christ).
——————————————
— CHAPTER NINE —
THE DIVINITY AND
ETERNITY OF CHRIST
IN THE
SPIRIT OF PROPHECY
The Spirit of Prophecy teaches something far
different than the Witnesses, the spiritualists,
and
other Arians. (More on that later.)
The Spirit of Prophecy teaches what the Bible
teaches—that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour,
is fully God and has existed forever.
Here are 32 Spirit of Prophecy quotations:
“Jesus declared,
‘I am the resurrection and the life.’
In Christ is
life, original, unborrowed, underived.
‘He that hath
the Son hath life.’ 1 John 5:12. The divinity
of Christ is the
believer’s assurance of eternal
life . .
“To the Saviour’s
words, ‘Believest thou?’ Martha
responded, ‘Yea,
Lord: I believe that Thou art the
Christ, the Son
of God, which should come into the
world.’ She did
not comprehend in all their significance
the words spoken
by Christ, but she confessed
her faith in His
divinity, and her confidence that He
was able to
perform whatever it pleased Him to do.”—
Desire of Ages, 530.
113
“ ‘In Him
[Jesus] was life; and the life was the light
of men’ (John
1:4). It is not physical life that is here
specified, but immortality, the life which is exclusively
the property of
God. The Word, who was with
God, and who was
God, had this life. Physical life is
something which
each individual receives. It is not eternal
or immortal; for
God, the life-giver takes it again
. . But the life of Christ was unborrowed. No one
can take this
life from Him. ‘I lay it down of Myself,’
(John 10:18. He
said. In Him was life, original,
unborrowed,
underived. This life is not inherent in
man. He can
possess it only through Christ.”—1 Selected
Messages, 296-297 (5 Bible Commentary,
1130).
“The Word
existed as a divine being, even as the
eternal Son of
God, in union and oneness with His
Father. From everlasting He was the Mediator of the
covenant . . Before men or angels were created, the
Word was with
God, and was God . . Christ was God
essentially, and
in the highest sense. He was with
God from all
eternity, God over all, blessed forevermore.
The Lord Jesus
Christ, the divine Son of God,
existed from
eternity, a distinct person, yet one with
the Father.”—1 Selected Messages, 247 (Review and
Herald, April 5, 1906).
“The world was
made by Him, ‘and without Him
was not any thing made that was made’ (John 1:3). If
Christ made all
things, He existed before all things.
The words spoken
in regard to this are so decisive
that no one need
be left in doubt.”—1 Selected Messages,
247.
“The Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God,
existed from all
eternity, a distinct person, yet one
with the Father. He was the surpassing glory of heaven.
He was the
commander of the heavenly intelligences,
Spirit of Prophecy: Divinity/Eternity of Christ
114 Defending the Godhead
and the adoring
homage of the angels was received by
Him as His
right. This was no robbery of God.”—5
Commentary, 1126.
“He [Christ] was
equal with God, infinite and omnipotent.
He was above all
finite requirements. He
was Himself the
law in character. Of the highest angels
it could not be
said that they had never borne
a yoke. The
angels all bear the yoke of dependence,
the yoke of
obedience . . Not one of the angels could
become a
substitute and surety for the human race,
for their life
is God’s; they could not surrender it. On
Christ alone the
human family depended for their existence.
He is the
eternal, self-existent Son, on whom
no yoke had come
. . He could say that which not
the highest
angel could say—‘I have power over My
own life. I have power to lay it down, and I have power
to take it
again.” [See John 10:18]—12 Manuscript
Releases, 395 (Manuscript 101, 1897).
“In Christ were
united the divine and the human—
the Creator and
the creature. The nature of God,
whose law had
been transgressed, and the nature of
Adam, the
transgressor, meet in Jesus—the Son of
God, and the Son
of man.”—7 Bible Commentary,
926 (Manuscript 141, 1901).
“Abraham saw the
incarnate Saviour, and rejoiced
. . ‘Before Abraham was, I AM.’ Christ is the preexistent,
self-existent
Son of God.”—Signs of the
Times, August 29, 1900.
“It was Christ who from the bush on Mount Horeb
spoke to Moses saying, ‘I AM THAT I AM . . Thus
shalt thou say
unto the children of Israel, I AM hath
sent me unto
you. Ex. 3:14. This was the
pledge of
Israel’s
deliverance. So when He came ‘in the likeness
of men,’ He declared Himself the I AM, the Child of
Bethlehem, the
meek and lowly Saviour, God ‘mani115
fest in the
flesh.’ 1 Tim 3:16.”—Desire of Ages, 24.
“Jesus speaks of Himself as well as the Father
as God, and claims for Himself perfect righteousness.”—
7 Bible Commentary, 929.
“[John 3:34-36,
quoted] In this Scripture, God and
Christ are
spoken of as two distinct personalities,
each acting in
their own individuality.”—Manuscript
760, 18.
“Christ is one
with the Father, but Christ and God
are two distinct
personages. Read the prayer of Christ
in the
seventeenth chapter of John, and you will find
this point
clearly brought out. How earnestly the Saviour
prayed that His
disciples might be one with Him
as He is one
with the Father. But the unity that is to
exist between
Christ and His followers does not destroy
the personality
of either. They are to be one
with Him as He
is one with the Father.”—Review
and Herald, June 1, 1905 (5 Bible Commentary,
1148).
“The unity that
is to exist between Christ and His
followers does
not destroy the personality of either.
They are to be
one with Him as He is one with the
Father.”—Upward Look, 153 (Manuscript, 58; MH
422).
“Christ is the pre-existent, self-existent Son of
God . . In speaking of His pre-existence, Christ carries
the mind back through dateless ages. He assures
us that there never was a time when He was not in
close fellowship
with the eternal God. He to whose
voice the Jews
were then listening had been with God
as one brought
up with Him.”—Evangelism, 615
(Signs, August 29, 1900).
“He was equal with God, infinite and
omnipotent
. . He is the eternal, self-existent Son.”—Evangelism,
615 (Lift Him Up, 17).
Spirit of Prophecy: Divinity/Eternity of Christ
116 Defending the Godhead
“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. From everlasting He
was the Mediator
of the covenant, the one in whom
all nations of
the earth, both Jews and Gentiles, if
they accepted
Him, were to be blessed. ‘The Word was
with God, and
the Word was God.’ Before men or
angels were
created, the Word was with God, and
was God.”—Evangelism, 615-616 (Review and Herald,
April 5, 1906).
“[Rev 1:18-20,
quoted] These are wonderfully solemn
and significant
statements. It was the Source of
all mercy and
pardon, peace and grace, the self-existent,
eternal,
unchangeable One, who visited His
exiled servant
on the isle that is called Patmos.”—7
Bible Commentary, 955 (Manuscript 81, 1900).
“They retorted
with a sneer, as if they would prove
Jesus to be a
madman, ‘Thou art not yet fifty years
old, and hast
Thou seen Abraham?’
“With solemn dignity Jesus answered, ‘Verily,
verily, I say
unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM.’
“Silence fell upon the vast assembly. The name
of God, given to
Moses to express the idea of the
eternal
presence, had been claimed as His own by
this Galilean
Rabbi. He had announced Himself to
be the
self-existent One, He who had been promised
to Israel, ‘whose
goings forth have been from of old,
from the days of
eternity.’ Micah 5:2. Again the priests
and rabbis cried
out against Jesus as a blasphemer.”—
Desire of Ages, 469-470.
“What humility
was this! It amazed angels. The
tongue can never
describe it; the imagination cannot
take it in. The
eternal Word consented to be made flesh!
117
God became man!
It was a wonderful humility.”—5
Bible Commentary, 1127 (Review and Herald, June
15, 1905).
“Jesus claimed equal rights with God in doing a
work equally
sacred, and of the same character with
that which
engaged the Father in heaven.”—Desire of
Ages, 207.
“ ‘I am the
resurrection, and the life.’ He who had
said, ‘I lay
down My life, that I might take it again,’
came forth from
the grave to life that was in Himself.
Humanity died;
divinity did not die. In His
divinity, Christ
possessed the power to break the
bonds of death.
He declares that He has life in Himself
to quicken whom
He will.”—5 Bible Commentary,
1113 (Youth Instructor, August 4, 1898).
“ ‘His name
shall be called Immanuel . . God with
us.’ ‘The light
of the knowledge of the glory of God’ is
seen ‘in the
face of Jesus Christ.’ From the days of
eternity the
Lord Jesus Christ was one with the
Father; He was ‘the image of God,’ the image of His
greatness and
majesty, ‘the outshining of His glory.’ It
was to manifest
this glory that He came to this world.
To this
sin-darkened earth He came to reveal the light
of God’s love,—to be ‘God with us.’ Therefore it was
prophesied of
Him, ‘His name shall be called Immanuel.’
”—Desire of Ages, 19.
“Was the human
nature of the Son of Mary changed
into the divine
nature of the Son of God? No; the two
natures were
mysteriously blended in one person—
the man Christ
Jesus. In Him dwelt all the fullness
of the Godhead
bodily. When Christ was crucified, it
was His human
nature that died. Deity did not sink
and die; that
would have been impossible.”—5 Bible
Commentary, 1113 (Letter 280, 1904).
“The rich
benevolence of God gave Him to our
Spirit of Prophecy: Divinity/Eternity of Christ
118 Defending the Godhead
world; and to
meet the necessities of humanity, He
took on Him
human nature. To the astonishment of
the heavenly
host, He walked this earth as the Eternal
Word.”—Fundamentals of Christian Education,
400.
“Christ was the
Son of God; He had been one
with Him before
the angels were called into existence.
He had ever
stood at the right hand of the
Father.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, 38.
“But although
Christ’s divine glory was for a time
veiled and
eclipsed by His assuming humanity, yet He
did not cease to
be God when He became man. The
human did not
take the place of the divine, nor the
divine of the
human. This is the mystery of godliness.
The two
expressions ‘human’ and ‘divine’ were, in
Christ, closely
and inseparably one, and yet He had a
distinct
individuality. Though Christ humbled Himself
to become man, the Godhead was still His
own.”—5 Bible Commentary, 1129 (Signs, May 10,
1899).
“Christ had not
exchanged His divinity for humanity;
but He had
clothed His divinity in humanity.”—5
Bible Commentary, 1128 (Review and Herald,
October
29, 1895).
“The power of the Saviour’s Godhead was hidden.
He overcame in
human nature, relying upon God
for power.”—7 Bible Commentary, 924.
“The Roman guard
fell as dead men before the
resplendent
glory, and Christ in His Godhead shown
forth as He
burst from the tomb and rose triumphant
over death and
the grave.”—Signs, May 30,
1895.
“Christ did not
make-believe take human nature;
He did verily
take it. He did in reality possess human
nature. ‘As the
children are partakers of flesh and
119
blood, He also
Himself likewise took part of the same’
[Heb 2:14]. He
was the son of Mary; He was of the
seed of David
according to human descent. He is declared
to be a man,
even the Man Christ Jesus. ‘This
man,’ writes
Paul, ‘was counted worthy of more glory
than Moses,
inasmuch as he who hath builded the
house hath more
honour than the house’ [Heb 3:3].”—
5 Bible Commentary, 1130 (Review, April 5, 1906).
“Jesus says, ‘My
Father which is in heaven,’ as reminding
His disciples
that while by His humanity He
is linked with
them, a sharer in their trials, and sympathizing
with them in
their sufferings, by His divinity
He is connected
with the throne of the infinite.
Wonderful
assurance!”—Desire of Ages, 442.
“The Lord God
came down to our world clothed
with the
habiliments of humanity, that He might work
out in His own
life the mysterious controversy between
Christ and
Satan. He discomfited the powers of darkness.
All this history
is saying to man, I, your substitute
and surety, have
taken your nature upon Me, showing
you that every
son and daughter of Adam is privileged
to become a
partaker of the divine nature, and
through Christ
Jesus lay hold upon immortality.”—
Fundamentals of Christian Education, 379.
——————————————
— CHAPTER TEN —
SPECIAL TOPICS
ABOUT CHRIST
Here are several interesting topics, in 55
quotations
or references, about the divinity of Christ:
Special Topics about Christ
120 Defending the Godhead
THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION
OF CHRIST
“Jesus said to
Mary, ‘Touch Me not; for I am not yet
ascended to My
Father.’ When He closed His eyes in
death upon the cross,
the soul of Christ did not go at
once to heaven, as many believe, or how could His
words be true—‘I
am not yet ascended to My Father’?
The spirit of
Jesus slept in the tomb with His body,
and did not wing
its way to heaven, there to maintain
a separate
existence, and to look down upon the
mourning
disciples embalming the body from which it
had taken
flight. All that comprised the life and intelligence
of Jesus
remained with His body in the
sepulcher; and when He came forth it was as a whole
being; He did
not have to summon His spirit from
heaven. He had
power to lay down His life and to
take it up
again.”—5 Bible
Commentary, 1150-1151.
“He who died for
the sins of the world was to remain
in the tomb the
allotted time. He was in that stony
prison house as
a prisoner of divine justice. He was
responsible to
the Judge of the universe. He was bearing
the sins of the
world, and His Father only could
release Him . . Christ never committed sin, neither
was guile found
in His mouth. His body was to come
forth from the
tomb untarnished by corruption.”—
5 Bible Commentary, 1114.
“He gave His
only-begotten Son to come to earth,
to take the
nature of man, not only for the brief years
of life, but to retain his nature in the heavenly courts,
an everlasting pledge
of the faithfulness of God.”—1
Selected Messages, 258.
“To assure us of
His immutable counsel of peace,
God gave His only-begotten Son to become one of
the human
family, forever to retain His human nature
. . God has
adopted human nature in the person
121
of His Son, and
has carried the same into the highest
heaven. It is
the ‘Son of man’ who shares the throne of
the universe.”—Desire of Ages, 25.
THE RELATIONSHIP
OF CHRIST TO THE ANGELS
It is because Christ is fully God that the
angels
can bow down and worship Him.
“[In heaven,
before the fall of Lucifer] Christ, God’s
dear Son, had
the pre-eminence over all the angelic
host. He was one
with the Father before the
angels were
created.”—Story of
Redemption, 13.
“[Before His
incarnation] He was clothed with
light
and glory, and
was surrounded with hosts of heavenly
angels waiting
to execute His commands. Yet
He put on our
nature and came to sojourn among sinful
mortals.”—2 Testimonies, 215.
“[At His
incarnation] . . the Son of God, who was
made a little
lower than the angels.”—1 Testimonies,
299.
“[While on
earth] He was the creator of all things,
sustaining
worlds by His infinite power. Angels were
ready to do Him
homage and to obey His will.”—5
Testimonies, 421.
“What a scene
was this for angels to contemplate;
their glorious
Commander, sitting in a fisherman’s
boat, swayed to
and fro by the restless waves, and proclaiming
the good news of
salvation to the listening
throng.”—Desire of Ages, 244.
“All the angel
host was at His command, yet He did
not claim to be
anything great or exalted.”—2 Selected
Messages, 164.
“[After His
ascension] Jesus will . . work through
human minds by
His ministering angels.”—7 Testimonies,
167.
Special Topics about Christ
122 Defending the Godhead
“God has
appointed the angels that do His will to
respond to the
prayers of the meek of the earth.”—
Testimonies to Ministers, 484.
“Heavenly beings
are appointed to answer the
prayers of those
who are working unselfishly for the
interest of the
cause of God.
“The very
highest angels in the heavenly courts are
appointed to
work out the prayers which ascend to
God for the
advancement of the cause of God. Each
angel has a
particular post of duty, which he is not
permitted to
leave for any other place. If he should
leave, the
powers of darkness would gain an advantage.”—
4 Bible Commentary, 1173.
WHO SHOULD WE PRAY TO?
Most passages say to pray to God while some
say we can pray to Christ. Either way, the
prayers
go to Christ who hears them and then presents
them to the Father, who sends answers through
the angels. It is because Christ is fully divine
that
prayers can go to Him.
How prayer goes
to heaven: The Spirit indites
(urges) prayer
from us (GW 177); and He is brought
into meetings by
prayer (5T 281).
“Never a prayer
is offered, however faltering, never
a tear is shed,
however secret, never a sincere desire
after God is
cherished, however feeble, but the
Spirit of God
goes forth to meet it.”—Christ’s Object
Lessons, 206.
Earnest prayer
attracts the angels (MH 252). Angels
make a record of
your prayers (AA 561). Angels
are appointed to
bring your prayers to heaven (4BC
1173, TM 484). Angels bear
your prayers to God (4BC
1184).
Christ is the
medium of prayer between God and
123
man (8T 178). Christ hears every prayer (WM 80), and
is ready to hear
yours (SD 32). As your Mediator
in the
Sanctuary above,
Christ presents the prayers to the
Father (CT 241). Christ secures
acceptance of men’s
prayers by His
work as Mediator (8T 179). Christ’s
Mediatorial work
as related to prayer: EW 54-55, 32;
6BC 1078; SD 19-22; DA 667; MYP
96; CT 241. So
press your
petitions to the Father in Christ’s name (COL
148, DA 667, 833; SC 74).
Most statements
say to pray to the Father; and some
say to pray to
Christ (GC 252-253). Why? Because all
prayers go to
Christ, who hears them and shares them
with the Father.
Then answers are sent from Heaven.
We pray to the
Father in the name of Jesus (COL 148,
DA 667).
Seeking in
prayer: We should seek God in prayer
for guidance (2SM 325-326). We should seek Christ in
prayer, for a
knowledge of the truth (SC 91) and in
order to become
like Him (CT 402). Physicians should
seek Christ in
prayer before surgery (MH 118). You
should seek the
Spirit’s aid by prayer [but not by praying
to the Spirit] (TM 456), by constant
prayer (5T 243).
Replying to
prayer: God always gives that which
is best for us (GW 258, 3T 415). Christ delays
answers
to prayer to
show men the evil in their hearts (DA 200).
Committing
children in prayer: Parents should
commit children
to God in prayer (AH 536). Parents
should take
their children to Christ in prayer (CG 253).
THE GODHEAD
WILL SHARE THEIR LIFE WITH US
As we accept Christ as our Saviour and,
through His grace, are obedient to His Word, a
most wonderful process begins! The life of the Fa-
Special Topics about Christ
124 Defending the Godhead
ther flows out through Christ, through the Holy
Spirit, and into
us; then “it returns in praise and
joyous service”!
As a result (in
this life), by clinging constantly
to Christ, He
enables us to live Godly lives; and,
afterward, in
heaven, we will share in Their immortal
life throughout
all future time!
“Jesus has loved
men and has made every provision
that the
blood-bought soul shall have a new
birth, a new life derived from His own life, as the
branch derives
its life from the parent stock. ‘He
that hath the
Son hath life; and he that hath not
the Son of God
hath not life.’ Those who believe in
Christ derive
their motive power and the texture of
their characters
from Him in whom they believe.”—
Youth’s Instructor, January 10, 1895.
“In the heavenly
courts, in His ministry for all
created beings: through the beloved Son, the
Father’s life
flows out to all; through the Son it
returns, in
praise and joyous service, a tide of love,
to the great
Source of all. And thus through Christ
the circuit of
beneficence is complete, representing
the character of
the great Giver, the law of life.”—
Desire of Ages, 21.
“All who
consecrate soul, body, and spirit to God
will be
constantly receiving a new endowment of
physical and
mental power.”—Desire of Ages,
827.
“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.”—Desire of
Ages, 805.
“The scion is
engrafted into the living vine, and
fiber by fiber, vein by vein, it
grows into the vine
stock. The life of the vine becomes the life of the
branch. So the soul dead in trespasses and sins
125
receives life
through connection with Christ.”—Desire
of Ages, 675.
“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.”—Signs, October 3, 1892.
“He [the
believer] may die, as Christ died, but
the life of the
Saviour is in him. His life is hid with
Christ in God. ‘I
am come that they might have life,’
Jesus said, ‘and
that they might have it more abundantly.’
He carries on
the great process by which believers
are made one
with Him in this present
life, to be one
with Him throughout all eternity
. . At the last
day He will raise them as a part of
Himself . .
Christ became one with us in order that
we might become
one with Him in divinity.”—Maranatha,
301.
“ ‘This is the
record, that God hath given to us
eternal life,
and this life is in His Son. He that hath
the Son hath
life.’ 1 John 5:11, 12. And Jesus said,
‘I will raise
him up at the last day.’ Christ became
one flesh with
us, in order that we might become
one spirit with
Him. It is by virtue of this union
that we are to
come forth from the grave,—not
merely as a
manifestation of the power of Christ,
but because, through faith, His life has become
ours. Those who see Christ in His true character,
and receive Him
into the heart, have everlasting
life.”—Desire of Ages, 388.
The three
members of the Godhead share Their
life with one
another; and They will share it with
the redeemed.
This is eternal, undying life!
Special Topics about Christ
126 Defending the Godhead
——————————————
— CHAPTER ELEVEN —
THE DIVINITY
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
IN THE BIBLE
The divinity of the Holy Spirit is an important
subject in the Bible. Here are references to
191 Scripture passages on this important
subject:
THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
IN THE BIBLE
This is the first evidence that the Holy Spirit
is a person. He exhibits five attributes of a
person:
He has intellect—The Holy Spirit has intellect;
for “the Spirit searcheth all things” (1 Cor 2:10). The
Holy Spirit
searches the deep things of God and reveals
them to us. The
same word is used by Christ in
John 5:39; here
He says, “Search the Scriptures.”
He has knowledge—No human being can know
the thoughts of
God; but the Holy Spirit understands
the mind of God (1 Cor 2:11).
He has a mind—Just as the Holy
Spirit knows
the Father, so
the Father knows the mind of the Spirit
(Rom 8:27). This passage
clearly indicates that the
Holy Spirit has
intellect. This is because the word,
“mind” ðçñïíåìá (phronema), means “way of thinking,
mind-set, aim,
aspiration, striving” (cf. Eph 1:17).
He has emotions—As used in the Bible, it means
127
to have
feelings, awareness, and an ability to respond
to something.
Ephesians 4:30 is a command: “Grieve
not the Holy
Spirit of God.” The Holy Spirit is grieved
when we lie (vs. 25), are angry (vs. 26), steal, are lazy
(vs. 28), or speak unkind
words (vs. 29). The noun
form of the same
Greek word is used in 2 Corinthians
2:2, 5, about
the sorrowful feelings of the Corinthians
after Paul wrote
them a stern letter of reproof. Only a
person can be
grieved; a mere influence cannot be
grieved.
He has a will—The Holy Spirit
can choose and
make decisions.
He has a will. This is shown in several
passages. In
Acts 16:6, 9, for example, the Holy
Spirit exercised
His will to forbid Paul to go to one
place; and,
instead, he directed him to go to Europe
and preach.
This is the second evidence that the Holy
Spirit is a person. He does ten things which a
divine person would do:
He testifies—The promise of
Jesus was that the
Holy Spirit “shall
testify of Me” (John 15:26). In John
15:27, the same
word is used of the disciples testifying
about Christ. As
the disciples would bear witness
concerning
Christ, so the Holy Spirit would bear witness
of Christ.
He helps—Jesus promised
to send His disciples
“another
Comforter” (John 14:16). “Another” means
that the Holy
Spirit would be a helper, as Jesus was.
He teaches—Just as Christ
taught the disciples
(Matt. 5, John 8:2), so the Holy Spirit also taught them
(John 14:26). He did the same
teaching ministry and
brought the
words of Christ to their remembrance.
He guides—Jesus assured
His disciples that,
when the Holy
Spirit would come, He would guide them
in their search
for truth (John 16:13). He is a guide,
The Divinity of the Holy Spirit in the Bible
128 Defending the Godhead
escorting
willing travelers through an unknown, dangerous
country, to the
promised land of heaven.
He convinces and convicts—It was promised
that the Holy
Spirit would “reprove the world” of sin,
righteousness,
and judgment (John 16:8). The word,
“convict” (åëåã÷çï, elegcho), means to “convince someone,
point something
out to someone.” It was promised
that the Holy
Spirit would “convince all that are
ungodly among
them” (Jude 15).
He regenerates—Everyone who experiences the
new birth is
regenerated by the Holy Spirit (Eze. 36:25-
27, Titus 3:5).
He intercedes—The Holy Spirit
takes the pleadings
of the believer
and intercedes on his behalf before
Christ (Rom. 8:26, Rom. 8:34, Heb. 7:25). An inanimate
quality cannot
intercede for anyone.
He commands—The Holy Spirit
commanded that
Paul and
Barnabas be set apart for missionary work
(Acts 13:2). He told Philip
to instruct someone (Acts
8:29).
He sends out—In Acts 13:2-4,
He sent two men
out to do
missionary work.
He forbids and prohibits—In Acts 16:6-7, the
Holy Spirit
directed the apostles not to go into Asia
yet.
This is the third evidence that the Holy Spirit
is a person. Certain things can be done toward
Him, which could not be done if He did not have
a
personality:
He can be obeyed—In Acts 10, the Lord told Peter
to go to the
house of Cornelius. He obeyed the Holy
Spirit and went.
He can be resisted—Stephen told the Jews, about
to stone him,
that they were “stiffnecked . . always
129
resisting the
Holy Ghost” (Acts 7:51).
He can be grieved—The Holy Spirit is grieved
when a person
sins (Eph 4:30; cf. Isa. 63:10).
He can be blasphemed—God can be blasphemed
(Rev. 13:6, 16:9), Christ can be blasphemed (Matt.
27:39-43, Luke 23:39), and the Holy Spirit also can
be blasphemed (Lev. 24:10-16, Mark 3:29).
He can be lied to—Peter told Ananias and
Sapphira that, because of their deceit, they had lied
to the Holy
Spirit (Acts 5:3-12). Because of
that sin,
they died.
This is the fourth evidence that the Holy Spirit
is a person. He is frequently referred to in the
grammatical masculine:
The word, pneuma (Spirit), is a
naturally occurring
Greek neuter;
yet the masculine pronoun, åêåéíïò
(ekeinos, that or that
one), is used of the Holy Spirit
in a number of
passages. —Much more on this in a
later chapter in
this book (Pronouns for the Holy
Spirit).
THE DEITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
IN THE BIBLE
The Holy Spirit is divine; His Deity is clearly
taught in the Bible. If the Holy Spirit is not divine,
then there is no
Three-Person Godhead. It is of interest
that those who
deny the existence of the Holy Spirit
frequently go on
to deny the full deity and/or the preexistence
of Christ!
First, He has the attributes of divinity:
He is Omniscient—The Holy Spirit is all-knowing
(1 Cor. 2:10-12). The Holy Spirit searches the deep
things of the
Godhead (1 Cor. 2:10). This word, “deep”
The Divinity of the Holy Spirit in the Bible
130 Defending the Godhead
(bathos), describes the
knowledge of God. It is unfathomable
to man; but the
Holy Spirit understands
it (Rom. 11:33).
He is Omnipotent—The Holy Spirit is all-powerful
(Job 33:4). His omnipotence
is seen in the Creation.
In Genesis 1:2,
the Holy Spirit is seen hovering
over creation as
a hen over its young. The Holy Spirit
was used to give
life to created beings.
He is Omnipresent—The Holy Spirit is everywhere
present. In
Psalm 139:7-10, David says he cannot
flee from the
presence of the Holy Spirit. Christ
taught His
disciples that the Holy Spirit would be with
them, wherever
they might go. This would require omnipresence
(John 14:17).
He is Eternal—The Holy Spirit is called the Eternal
Spirit in
Hebrews 9:14. Through the Eternal Spirit,
Christ offered
Himself without blemish to God.
He is Holy—As with the other persons in the
Godhead, the
Third Person is holy (Matt. 12:32); He
is entirely
separate from sin (John 3:4-6).
He is Love—As with the
other members of the
Godhead, the
Holy Spirit is love; and, because of it,
He is able to
produce love in those submitted to the
rule of the
Godhead (Gal. 5:22).
He is Truth—He is the “Spirit of truth” (John
14:17, 15:26). He is the truth, as Christ is the truth
(John 14:6). The Holy Spirit
leads into truth.
Second, He does the works of divinity:
The Creation—The Holy Spirit
took part in the
Creation (Gen. 1:2). Another
description of the Creation
event is given
in Psalm 104:24-26. In verse 30,
God is said to
have done it through the Spirit. “Thou
sendeth forth
Thy Spirit, they are created” (Ps. 104:30).
Job 26:13
reveals that the Holy Spirit also created
the heavens, not
only the earth.
131
The Birth of Christ—The Holy Spirit took part
in the
incarnation of Christ (Matt. 1:20).
The Inspiration of God’s Word—As the Spirit
was present to
bring Christ, the Word, to humanity;
so He is present
to bring the Word, through inspired
prophets, to
mankind (2 Peter 1:21). The Holy Spirit’s
work, in doing
this, is similar to the Father’s work (2
Tim. 3:15-17).
The New Birth—The Holy Spirit is an active agent
in bringing men
to Christ in repentance, forsaking of
sin, and willingness
to obey God’s laws. The Holy Spirit
produces the new
birth (Titus 3:5, John 3:6); but He
does it through
the Word (1 Peter 1:22-23), which He
also helped
produce.
Intercession—The Holy Spirit is an intercessor
(Rom. 8:26), as Christ is.
The Holy Spirit pleads with
us while Christ
pleads with the Father on our behalf
(1 John 2:1).
Ministry—The Holy Spirit is our “Helper” of John
14:16. “Comforter”
is ðáñáêëåôïó
(parakletos) in the
Greek; and it
means “one called along side to help.”
At this point,
it should be noted that the Holy Spirit
comes forth, or
proceeds, from the Father (Ps. 104:30)
and the Son (John 15:26). This closeness
of relationship
between the
three should not be thought to indicate
subordination of
the Spirit to the other two. We
learned earlier
that all three are equally, fully divine;
but each has
chosen a different appearance and activity.
SYMBOLS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
IN THE BIBLE
There are symbols and representations in the
Bible, which strikingly portray the person and
The Divinity of the Holy Spirit in the Bible
132 Defending the Godhead
ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Dove—The Holy Spirit descended “like a dove” at
the baptism of
Christ (Matt. 3:16, Mark 1:10, Luke
3:22; cf. John 1:32). We are told elsewhere that it was
“a dove-like
form of purest light” (DA 112). It was in
the shape of a
dove alighting with his wings outward
and upward, but
it was not a bird.
Pledge—The Holy Spirit is given us as a pledge of
something more
to come. The Greek word is áññáâïí
(arrabon), meaning a “first installment, deposit, down
payment, or
pledge.” It obligates the contracting party
to make further
payments. Ephesians 1:14 adds to
the explanation.
Oil—The oil of Zechariah 4:1-14 is explained in
verse 6 as the
Spirit. Ordaining with oil is so the Spirit
could come upon
the person (1 Sam. 10:6, 10). The
Spirit is given
for ministry (Ex. 40:9-16, Acts 1:8). The
illuminating,
enlightening Spirit (Ex. 27:20-21, 1 John
3:20). The cleansing,
sanctifying Spirit (Lev. 8:30,
14:17, 1 Cor. 6:9-11, Rom. 8:2-3).
Fire—Fire is another symbol of the Holy Spirit
(Acts 2:3; cf. Ex. 3:2). It is cleansing, enlightening,
purifying, and
judging.
Seal—The Holy Spirit seals the believer (2 Cor.
1:22, Eph. 1:13, 4:30; cf. Matt. 27:66). Sealing indicates
ownership,
security, and authority.
Water—Water is also a symbol of the Spirit (John
7:37-38, explained in 7:39). Water, as an emblem of
the Holy Spirit,
signifies eternal life (cf. John 4:14,
7:37-38), a reception
of the Holy Spirit (Rev. 22:17,
Jer. 2:13, Isa. 55:1).
Wind—The wind represents the Holy Spirit (John
3:8); and the very
word in the Greek and Hebrew
means just that.
133
OTHER ACTIVITIES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
IN THE BIBLE
Revelation—It is the Holy Spirit which has been
the channel
through which all Inspired messages and
writings have
come to mankind from the God of heaven
(2 Sam. 23:2, Acts 4:25, Matt. 22:43, Eze. 2:2,
3:24).
Ministry and Evangelism—The Holy Spirit enables
men to aid their
fellowmen and lead them closer
to God (John 15:11-14, Acts 2).
Ability to Do Things—The Holy Spirit also enables
men to do
exploits (Judges 3:10, 11:29, 14:6),
artistic
craftsmanship (Ex. 31:2-5, 35:30-35, 1 Kgs.
7:14) and manage
governments (Num. 27:16-18, 1
Sam. 10:10, 1 Sam 16:13).
Restraining Sin—The Holy Spirit strives with
men to keep them
from plunging into sin (Gen. 6:3).
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit—The Spirit baptizes
with enabling
strength to do a necessary work,
to the degree
that they will continue to remain humble,
submitted,
obedient, and teachable to God and His
Word (1 Cor 12:13, Acts
11:13-15).
The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit—The Holy
Spirit will
dwell within those willing to receive Him
(John 14:16).
The Sealing of the Spirit—The Holy Spirit seals
men to the day
of redemption (Eph. 1:13, 4:30).
The Gifts of the Spirit—There are a variety of
gifts which a
true believer can have, but only as long
as he is
submitted to be led by God (1 Cor. 12; Rom.
12:3, 6; Eph. 4:1-2, 7, 11-13).
The Divinity of the Holy Spirit in the Bible
134 Defending the Godhead
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
ON THE HOLY SPIRIT
IN THE BIBLE
Here are additional facts about the personality
of the Holy Spirit:
1—In the Old
Testament, the term, “Holy Spirit,”
is only found in
Psalm 51:11 and Isaiah 63:10-11.
2—Some say that
the descriptions of the personality
of the Holy
Spirit in the New Testament are only
personifications.
But such an explanation would
clearly destroy
the meaning of such passages as John
14:26, 16:7-11,
Rom. 8:15-17.
3—The
characteristics of a person are ascribed
to Him, such as
intelligence (John 14:26, 15:26, Rom.
8:16).
4—The fact that
He has a will is another important
characteristic
of His personhood (Acts 16:7, 1
Cor. 12:11).
5—Yet another
characteristic of this Divine person
are His
affections (Isa. 63:10, Eph. 4:30).
6—He performs
the distinct acts of a person. He
searches,
speaks, testifies, commands, reveals, strives,
creates, makes
intercession, raises the dead, etc. (Gen.
1:2, 6:3, Luke 12:12, John 14:26, 15:26, 16:8,
Acts
8:29, 13:2, Rom. 8:11, 1 Cor. 2:10). Only a definite
person could do
all of these things; it cannot be a mere
power or
influence.
7—He stands in
such a relationship to other persons,
that His own
personality and personhood are
implied. He is
placed in juxtaposition with the apostles
(Acts 15:28), with Christ (John 16:13-14), and with
the Father and
the Son (Matt. 28:19, 1 Peter 1:1-2,
Jude 20-21).
8—There are also
passages of Scripture in which
135
the Holy Spirit
is distinguished as a person apart from
His own power (Luke 1:35, 4:14, Acts 10:38, Rom.
15:13, 1 Cor. 2:4). Yet such passages would become
redundant,
meaningless, and even absurd, if they were
explained as
indicating that the Holy Spirit were merely
“a power” or
inanimate force. In the above quoted passages,
substitute the
words, “power” or “influence,”
for the name, “Holy
Spirit,”—and see how ridiculous
the sentences
become.
9—The Deity of the
Holy Spirit is indicated by
several factors;
one is that Divine names are given to
Him (Ex. 17:7; compare 2 Peter 1:2, Heb. 3:7-9, Acts
5:3-4, 1 Cor. 3:16, 1 Tim. 3:16).
10—He also has
the attributes of the Godhead.
One example is
His omniscience (Isa. 40:13-15). He
has fullest
knowledge.
11—The Holy
Spirit is eternal (Heb. 9:14).
12—The Holy
Spirit does divine works, such as
creation (Gen. 1:2, Job 26:13, 33:4).
13—The Holy
Spirit can create and restore (Ps.
104:30).
14—The Holy
Spirit regenerates men; that is, He
works in them
the New Birth (John 3:5-6, Titus 3:5).
15—The Holy
Spirit can raise the dead (Rom.
8:11).
16—As with
Christ, divine honor is ascribed to
the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19, Rom. 9:1).
17—The Holy
Spirit both inspires and enables men
to do the tasks
assigned them (Ex. 28:3, 35:31, 1 Sam.
11:6, 16:13-14).
18—The Holy
Spirit has a part in the work of redemption
in several ways,
among which is the fact that
He prepared, or
had a part in preparing, a body for
Christ; and this
enabled Him to become a sacrifice for
sin (Luke 1:35, Heb. 10:5-7).
The Divinity of the Holy Spirit in the Bible
136 Defending the Godhead
19—At His
baptism, Christ was anointed with the
Holy Spirit (Luke 3:22).
20—The Holy
Spirit inspired the writing of Scripture;
and, in this
way, He aids in bringing the truths of
God to mankind (1 Cor. 2:13, 2 Peter 1:21).
21—By
regeneration and sanctification, the Holy
Spirit forms and
increases the body of Christ, His
Church, and
dwells in it (Eph. 1:20-23, 2:22, 1 Cor.
3:16, 12:3-31).
22—The Holy
Spirit testifies of Christ and leads
His people into
truth. —Both Christ and His truth are
very important
to the salvation of man, not only to the
glorification of
God and of Christ (John 15:26, 16:13-
14, Acts 5:32, Heb. 10:15, 1 John 2:27).
WHAT ABOUT 1 JOHN 5:7?
“There are three
that bear record in heaven: the
Father, the
Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these
three are one.”—1 John 5:7.
Nowhere else in
the book you are now reading is 1
John 5:7 quoted.
Here is why:
To the best of
our knowledge, 1 John 5:7 (which
Bible scholars
refer to as Johannine Comma) is the
only verse of
its kind in the King James Bible. Although
wholly of
Catholic origin, it slipped into Erasmus’ Greek
Text and was
used by the translators in preparing the
New Testament
portion of the King James Bible. The
present author
has spent years in Bible research and
has never found
any other inserted verse into the KJV.
“Out of one
hundred and thirteen manuscripts,
the text is
wanting [missing] in one hundred and
twelve. It
occurs in no manuscript before the tenth
century. And the
first place the text occurs in Greek,
is in the Greek
translation of the acts of the Council
of Lateran, held
A.D. 1215.”—Commentary on 1
137
John 5, Clark’s Commentary.
While at the
Seminary, I was told the name (but
do not now
recall it) of the influential Catholic bishop
in Spain who, in
the 10th century, invented the sentence
and ordered it
placed into Latin manuscripts of
1 John, which
then were being made. Shortly afterward,
it began being
included in newly made copies of
the Vulgate, the
standard Catholic Latin Bible.
Although the
sentence was in no earlier Greek Bible
manuscripts,
Erasmus was willing to include it in his
Greek text
because it was in one Greek manuscript
that he knew of:
Manuscript 15, which was a Greek
translation of a
papal council meeting found in a monastery
library in
Dublin, Ireland.
“It is now
generally held that this passage, called
the Comma Johanneum [Johannine Comma in the
English], is a
gloss [marginal commentary note] that
crept into the
text of the Old Latin and Vulgate at an
early date, but
found its way into the Greek text only
in the 15th and
16th centuries.”—A Catholic Commentary
on Holy Scripture, p. 1186.
1 John 5:7
clearly teaches the Trinity error—that
the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit consist of one Divine
individual. We do not accept
this verse as being found
in the original
manuscripts, which should not be in
the Bible. It is
intriguing that this is the same concept
taught by those
who say there is no Holy Spirit and
Christ does not
have eternal divinity. Yet they claim to
not believe in
the Trinity error—which basically teaches
the same thing,
that there is only one true God!
Because this is
an in-depth study, it should also be
mentioned that,
although 1 John 5:7 is only found in
eight Greek
manuscripts, none of which are ancient,
there are two
evidences which some believe favor the
inclusion of 1
John 5:7 as possibly genuine: First there
The Divinity of the Holy Spirit in the Bible
138 Defending the Godhead
is Cyprian’s
statement (writing about A.D. 250), commenting
on John 10:30: “The
Lord says ‘I and My Father
are one’; and
likewise it is written of the Father
and the Son and
the Holy Spirit: ‘And the three are
one.’ ”
The second is
the fact that George Lamsa, in his
translation from
the ancient Syriac Version of the New
Testament,
quotes 1 John 5:7 essentially as we have it
in the King
James Version.
WHAT ABOUT DEUTERONOMY 6:4?
“Now these are the commandments, the statutes,
and the
judgments, which the Lord (Yehweh)
your God (Eloheim) commanded to teach you, that
ye might do them
in the land whither ye go to possess
it: That thou
mightest fear the Lord (Yehweh)
thy God (Eloheim), to keep all His statutes and
His
commandments, which I command thee, thou,
and thy son, and
thy son’s son, all the days of thy
life; and that
thy days may be prolonged. Hear therefore,
O Israel, and
observe to do it; that it may be
well with thee,
and that ye may increase mightily, as
the Lord (Yehweh) God (Eloheim) of thy fathers
hath promised
thee, in the land that floweth with
milk and honey.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord (Yehweh)
our God (Eloheim) is one Lord (Yehweh).”—
Deuteronomy 6:1-4.
Someone may say,
“But Deuteronomy 6:4 says
there is only
one God, yet you are saying something
different. It is
obvious that you are not in accordance
with Scripture.”
The answer is
simple enough: We are in accordance
with all of
Scripture, not just Deuteronomy 6:4. One
verse is not to
erase all the rest of what is taught in the
Bible. In the
book you now have in hand, there are 631
139
Bible quotations
or references (including 120 Spirit of
Prophecy
quotations) which prove the divinity and eternity
of Christ and
the Godhood of the Holy Spirit. Are
we to throw all
those out because of one interpretation
of Deuteronomy
6:4? Of course not, we must prayerfully
seek to
harmonize them.
What then is the
meaning of verse 4? Here are several
facts which will
help us toward a solution:
• The word, “God,”
in that verse is in the plural. It
is Eloheim, one of the Old
Testament names for “God.”
Yahweh our Eloheim is one Yahweh.” Eloheim is plural,
like cherubim (Gen. 3:24, Ex. 25:19). Why is there
a plurality of
Deity in this, the bulwark verse of the
“one God”
concept? Jewish rabbis and scholars have
never been able
to explain it.
For example, all
through the first chapter in the
Bible, Genesis
1, Eloheim is the name of
God. Thus,
in verse 26, we
are told: “And God (Eloheim) said, Let
us make man in our image.” In
Genesis 2, the name is
Yehweh Eloheim, which still retains the plural Eloheim
as part of the
divine name.
The “oneness,”
in Deuteronomy 6:4, refers to a
unity of
purpose. For example, “The Godhead, our
Gods, is one
Godhead in unity of purpose.” The solution
to the verse
should agree with everything else in
Scripture,
including the more than 609 Bible and/or
Spirit of
Prophecy statements or references in this
present book.
“The unity that
exists between Christ and His disciples
does not destroy
the personality of either. They
are one in
purpose, in mind, in character, but not in
person. It is thus that God and Christ are one.”—
Ministry of Healing, 422.
It is
significant that, three verses earlier, Deuteronomy
6:1 says that
God gave them the law. Yet we
The Divinity of the Holy Spirit in the Bible
140 Defending the Godhead
know that the
Father and Son stood together when the
law was given!
“When the law
was spoken, the Lord, the Creator
of heaven and
earth, stood by the side of His Son,
enshrouded in
the fire and the smoke on the
mount.”—1 Bible Commentary, 1103.
—We still want to better understand this divine
oneness, which is so frequently emphasized. So
let
us consider it more closely:
THE NATURE OF THE ONENESS
Although each
member of the Godhead is a separate
being, here are
several key statements (as an
example,
speaking only about the Father and Son),
which mark all
aspects of this extreme closeness in
the life and
work of the Godhead:
“Christ . . was one with the Father before the
angels were
created.”—Story of Redemption, 13.
“Christ was the
Son of God; He had been one
with Him before
the angels were called into existence.
He had ever
stood at the right hand of the
Father.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, 38.
“From the days
of eternity the Lord Jesus Christ
was one with the
Father.”—Desire of Ages,
19.
“The Word
existed as a divine being, even as the
eternal Son of
God, in union and oneness with His
Father . . The Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Son of
God, existed
from eternity, a distinct person, yet
one with the
Father.”—1 Selected
Messages, 247
(Review and Herald, April 5, 1906).
“Christ, the
Word, the only begotten of God, was
one with the
eternal Father—one in nature, in
character, in
purpose . . ‘His name shall be called
Wonderful, Counselor,
The mighty God, The everlasting
Father, The
Prince of Peace.’ Isaiah 9:6. His
141
‘goings forth
have been from of old, from everlasting.’
Micah 5:2.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, 34.
“The authority
by which He spoke, and wrought
miracles, was
expressly His own, yet He assures us
that He and the
Father are one.”—5 Bible
Commentary,
1142.
“Christ is one with the Father, but Christ and
God are two
distinct personages . . How earnestly
the Saviour
prayed that His disciples might be
one with Him as
He is one with the Father. But
the unity that
is to exist between Christ and His
followers does
not destroy the personality of either.
They are to be
one with Him as He is one
with the Father.”—5 Bible Commentary, 1148 (Review
and Herald, June 1, 1905).
“The unity that
exists between Christ and His disciples
does not destroy
the personality of either. They
are one in
purpose, in mind, in character, but not
in person. It is
thus that God and Christ are
one.”—Ministry of Healing, 422.
The type of
oneness shared by the Father and Son
is easily
understood when we consider Jesus’ prayer
for His
disciples:
“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.”—
John 17:21.
In this section,
we have considered 191 Bible passages
which clarify
the existence of the Holy Spirit. As
far as the Bible
is concerned, He clearly is fully divine.
But now what
does the Spirit of Prophecy, which
consistently
applies greater precision and detail to any
topic under
discussion, have to say on this important
subject?
The Divinity of the Holy Spirit in the Bible
142 Defending the Godhead
——————————————
— CHAPTER TWELVE —
THE DIVINITY
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
IN THE
SPIRIT OF PROPHECY
I promise that you will not be the same after
you thoughtfully read the following quotations.
You are not likely to again be tempted to doubt
the reality of the personhood of the Holy
Spirit!
Please, my friend, do nothing, say nothing,
which will grieve the Holy Spirit from
ministering
to you! Do not accept the false report that He
does not exist!
After compiling
this section, I noticed that in
every instance
in which a pronoun for the Holy
Spirit was used
(16 times; each one is underlined),
“He,” not “it,”
was always used.
In the following passages, notice that the Holy
Spirit is
referred to as Christ’s “representative” or
“agent.” Both
terms refer to a person, not an object.
In the quotations in this chapter, He is also
called a “person”
having a “personality,” a “holy
watcher,” “helper,”
“comforter,” “guest,” visitant,”
“counselor,” “guide,”
“witness,” “captain,” and “advocate.”
—All names of a
real person, not an object
or inanimate
nothingness.
“We need to realize that the Holy Spirit, who is
as much a person
as God is a person, is walking
through these
grounds.”—Evangelism, 616
(ManSpirit
of Prophecy: Divinity of the Holy Spirit 143
uscript 66, 1899 (Ev 616).
“The Holy Spirit is a person, for He beareth witness
with our spirits
that we are the children of
God. When this witness is borne, it carries with it its
own evidence. At
such times we believe and are sure
that we are the
children of God . .
“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 our the secrets
which lie hidden
in the mind of God. “For what
man knoweth the
things of 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, 616-617
(Manuscript 20, 1906).
“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. Another spirit must
be met: for the
essence of evil was working in all ways,
and the
submission of man to this satanic captivity
was amazing.”—Testimonies to Ministers, 392.
“The Holy Spirit unites with the powers of grace
that God has provided to turn souls to Christ.”—Review,
July 18, 1907.
“By the Spirit
which searches all things, even
the deep things
of God, have been revealed precious
truths which
cannot be described by pen or voice.”—
Sons and Daughters of God, 34.
“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 (Ev
617).
“The nature of the Holy Spirit is a mystery. Men
144 Defending the Godhead
cannot explain
it, because the Lord has not revealed
it to them. Men having fanciful views may bring together
passages of
Scripture and put a human construction
on them, but the
acceptance of these views
will not
strengthen the church. Regarding such mysteries,
which are too
deep for human understanding,
silence is
golden.”—Acts of the Apostles, 52.
“Before this the Spirit had been in the world;
from the very
beginning of the work of redemption
He had been
moving upon men’s hearts. But while
Christ was on
earth, the disciples had desired no other
helper. Not
until they were deprived of His presence
would they feel
their need of the Spirit, and then He
would come.”—Desire of Ages, 669.
“The Spirit was
not then [in ancient times] given
in power because
Jesus was not yet glorified.”—1
Manuscript Releases, 364 (Manuscript 148,
October
8, 1899).
“The Holy Spirit
was eagerly sought for in the
schools of the
prophets.”—12 Manuscript Releases,
147 (Manuscript 69, June 19, 1908).
“The time [after
Christ’s ascension] had now come.
The Spirit had
been waiting for the crucifixion, resurrection,
and ascension of
Christ. For ten days the
disciples
offered their petitions for the outpouring of
the Spirit, and
Christ in heaven added His intercession.”—
6 Bible Commentary, 1055.
“The Lord Jesus acts through the Holy Spirit;
for it is His
representative.”—Messages to
Young
People, 55.
“In the days of
the Apostles, He [God] wrought
mightily for His
church through the agency of the Holy
Spirit.”—Acts of the Apostles, 53 [an “agency” is a
person; an “instrumentality” is usually an
object].
“Cumbered with
humanity, Christ could not be in
145
every place
personally; therefore it was altogether for
their advantage
that He should leave them, 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
[Christ] would represent Himself as
present in all
places by His Holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent.”—
14 Manuscript Releases, 23. (Desire of
Ages, 669-670, is similar.)
“He [Christ] would intercede for them, and
would send them
His own representative, the Holy
Spirit, who would attend them in their work. This
representative
would not appear in human form,
but by faith
would be seen and recognized by all who
should believe
in Christ.”—Review, October 26, 1896.
“Christ, as
Mediator, is the great Minister in the
work of
redemption. The Holy Spirit is His representative
in our world, to
execute the divine purpose
of bringing to
fallen man power from above,
that he may be
an overcomer.”—7 Bible Commentary,
922.
“While Jesus
ministers in the true Sanctuary
above, He is through His Holy Spirit working
through His
earthly messengers.”—Counsels on
Health, 545.
“The Saviour
promised that His presence would
be always with
them. Through the Holy Spirit He
would be even
nearer to them than when He walked
visibly among
men.”—Ministry of
Healing, 104.
“Jesus had
assured them that He would send the
Comforter, as an
equivalent for His visible presence.”—
3 Spirit of Prophecy, 256.
“And Pentecost
brought them the presence of
the Comforter, of whom Christ had said, He ‘shall be
in you’ . .
Henceforth, through the Spirit, Christ was
Spirit of Prophecy: Divinity of the Holy Spirit
146 Defending the Godhead
to abide
continually in the hearts of His children.
Their union with
Him was closer than when He was
personally with
them.”—Steps to Christ,
74-75.
“They would
realize no break in their communion,
and no
diminution of power because of the
Saviour’s
absence. While Jesus ministers in the
Sanctuary above,
He is still by His Spirit the minister
of the church on
earth . . His energizing presence
is still with
His church.”—Desire of Ages, 166.
“After His
ascension He was to be absent in person;
but through the
Comforter He would still be
with them.”—Desire of Ages, 277.
“The office of the Holy Spirit is distinctly specified
in the words of
Christ: ‘When He is come, He will
reprove the
world of sin, and of righteousness, and of
judgment.” John 16:8. It is the Holy Spirit that convicts
of sin. If the sinner responds to the quickening
influence of the
Spirit, he will be brought to repentance
and aroused to
the importance of obeying the
divine
requirements . .
“Having brought
conviction of sin, and presented
before the mind
the standard of righteousness, the
Holy Spirit
withdraws the affections from the things
of this earth
and fills the soul with a desire for holiness.
‘He will guide
you into all truth’ (John 16:13),
the Saviour
declared. If men are willing to be molded,
there will be
brought about a sanctification of the whole
being. The Spirit will take the things of God and
stamp them on
the soul. By His power the way of
life will be
made so plain that none need err
therein.”—Acts of the Apostles, 52-53.
“The influence
of the Holy Spirit is the life of Christ
in the soul. We do not see Christ and speak to Him,
but His Holy
Spirit is just as near us in one place
as in another. He works in and through every one
147
who receives
Christ. Those who know the indwelling
of the Spirit reveal the fruits of the Spirit—love, joy,
peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith.”—
12 Manuscript Releases, 261 (Manuscript 41,
1897).
“The divine
Spirit reveals its working on the human
heart. When the
Holy Spirit operates upon the
mind, the human
agent will understand the statement
made by Christ, ‘He shall receive of Mine, and shall
show it unto you.’ Subjection to the Word of God
means the
restoration of one’s self. Let Christ work
by His Holy
Spirit, and awaken you as from the
dead, and carry
your minds along with His. Let Him
employ your
faculties.”—Testimonies to
Ministers,
396.
“They are filled
with gratitude to God for the blessings
they have
received; their hearts are quickened by
love, and their
energies are strengthened to lift up others
who can never
rise without help. Taking the Bible
as their guide
and the Holy Spirit as their helper
and comforter, they find a new career opening before
them.”—6 Testimonies, 260.
“The people of
God separate from the source of
their strength;
and pride, vanity, extravagance, and display
follow. There
are idols within and idols without;
but God sends the Comforter as a reprover of sin,
that His people
may be warned of their apostasy
and rebuked for
their backsliding.”—Fundamentals
of Christian Education, 197.
“The Holy Spirit comes to the world as Christ’s
representative .
. The Holy Spirit has often come
to our schools,
and has not been recognized, but
has been treated
as a stranger, perhaps even as an
intruder. Every
teacher should know and welcome
this heavenly
Guest.”—Counsels to
Teachers, 68.
“Why should we not expect the Holy Watcher to
Spirit of Prophecy: Divinity of the Holy Spirit
148 Defending the Godhead
come into our
schools?”—Counsels to
Teachers, 370.
“The more fully
they receive the enlightenment of
the living
Spirit, the more nearly will they harmonize
in their
understanding of what is truth.”—14 Manuscript
Releases, 176 (Letter 7, June 11, 1891).
“There is, thank
God, an ever living Spirit to guide
us into all
truth.”—Testimonies to South Africa, 70.
“The Holy Spirit
puts forth its highest energies to
work in heart
and mind.”—Review, November 19,
1908.
“Have you not
been afraid of the Holy Spirit? At
times this
Spirit has come with all-pervading influence
into the school
at Battle Creek and into the
schools at other
places. Did you recognize His presence?
Did you accord
Him the honor due to a heavenly
messenger? When
the Spirit seemed to be striving
with the youth,
did you say: ‘Let us put aside
all study, for
it is evident that we have among us a
heavenly guest? Let us give praise and honor to God.’
Did you, with
contrite hearts, bow in prayer with your
students,
pleading that you might receive the blessing
that the Lord
was presenting to you?
“The Great Teacher Himself was among you. Did
you honor Him?
Was He a stranger to some of the
educators? Was
there need to send for someone of
supposed
authority to welcome or repel this Messenger
from heaven?
Though unseen, His presence
was among you. But was not the thought expressed
that in school
the time ought to be given to study, and
that there was a
time for everything, as if the hours
devoted to
common study were too precious to be given
up for the
working of the heavenly messenger?
“If you have in any way restricted or repulsed
the Holy Spirit,
I entreat you to repent as quickly
as possible. If any of our teachers have not opened
149
the door of the
heart to the Spirit of God, but have
closed and
padlocked it, I urge them to unlock the
door and pray
with earnestness: ‘Abide with me.’ When
the Holy Spirit
reveals His presence in your
schoolroom,
say to your
students: ‘The Lord signifies that
He has for us
today a lesson of heavenly import, of
more value than
our lessons in ordinary lines. Let us
listen; let us
bow before God and seek Him with the
whole heart.’
[This entire
passage is powerful, designating the
Holy Spirit as a
person. Please note that, in the
above paragraph, the other name for this person,
the “Holy Spirit,” is “the Spirit of God.” So
when
you read “Spirit of God” in the Inspired
Writings,
it means the “Holy Spirit.”]
“Let me tell you what I know of this heavenly
Guest. The Holy
Spirit was brooding over the youth
during the
school hours; but some hearts were so
cold and dark
that they had no desire for the Spirit’s
presence, and
the light of God was withdrawn. That
heavenly Visitant
would have opened all understanding,
would have given
wisdom and knowledge
in all lines of
study that could be employed to the glory
of God. The Lord’s
messenger came to convince of sin
and to soften
hearts hardened by long estrangement
from God. He came to reveal the great love wherewith
God has loved
those youth. They are God’s heritage,
and educators
need the ‘higher education’ before they
are qualified to
be teachers and guides of youth.”—8
Testimonies, 61-62.
“The greatest Teacher is represented in the
midst of us by
the Holy Spirit.”—Counsels to
Parents
and Teachers, 418.
“The Holy Spirit loves to address the youth, and
to discover to
them the treasures and beauties of
Spirit of Prophecy: Divinity of the Holy Spirit
150 Defending the Godhead
God’s Word. The promises spoken by the great
Teacher will
captivate the senses and animate the soul
with a spiritual
power that is divine.”—Christ’s Object
Lessons, 132.
“The Lord Jesus, represented by the Holy Spirit,
was in the
presence of that assembly, but they did
not discern Him.”—Testimonies to Ministers, 73.
“The Comforter is called ‘the Spirit of truth.’
His work is to define and maintain the truth. He first
dwells in the
heart as the Spirit of truth, and thus He
becomes the
Comforter. There is comfort and peace
in the truth,
but no real peace or comfort can be found
in falsehood. It
is through false theories and traditions
that Satan gains
his power over the mind. By
directing men to
false standards, he misshapes the
character. Through the Scriptures the Holy Spirit
speaks to the
mind, and impresses truth upon the
heart. Thus He exposes error, and expels it from the
soul. It is by the Spirit of truth, working through
the Word of God,
that Christ subdues His chosen
people to
Himself.”—Desire of Ages,
671.
“The Holy
Watcher from heaven is present at this
season to make
it one of soul searching, of conviction
of sin, and of
the blessed assurance of sins forgiven.
Christ in the
fullness of His grace is there to change
the current of
the thoughts that have been running in
selfish
channels. The Holy Spirit quickens the sensibilities
of those who
follow the example of their
Lord . .
“As the lesson
of the preparatory service is thus
learned, the
desire is kindled for a higher spiritual
life. To this desire the divine Witness will respond.
The soul will be
uplifted. We can partake of the Communion
with a
consciousness of sins forgiven.”—Desire
of Ages, 650-651.
151
“From the Day of
Pentecost to the present time,
the Comforter has
been sent to all who have yielded
themselves fully
to the Lord and to His service. To all
who have
accepted Christ as a personal Saviour,
the Holy Spirit
has come as a counselor, sanctifier,
guide, and
witness.”—Acts of the
Apostles, 49.
“Christ [just
before the crucifixion] looked forward
to the time when
the Holy Spirit, as His representative,
should come to
do a wonderful work in and
through His
merits; and He felt privileged to communicate
His relief to
His disciples.”—Testimonies to
Ministers, 402.
“The Holy Spirit, the representative of [the Father]
Himself, is the greatest of all gifts. All ‘good
things’ are
comprised in this. The Creator Himself can
give us nothing
greater, nothing better.”—Mount of
Blessing, 132.
“But no
distance, no circumstances can separate
us from ‘the
Comforter.’ Wherever we are, wherever
we may go, He is
there, always a presence, a person
connected with
heaven, One given us in Christ’s
place, to act in
His stead.”—2 Manuscript
Releases,
32 (Letter 89b, March 22,
1897).
“When God’s
people search the Scriptures with a
desire to know
what is truth, Jesus is present in the
person of His
representative, the Holy Spirit, reviving
the hearts of
the humble and contrite ones.”—12
Manuscript Releases, 145 (Manuscript 158, 1898).
“They are to contend with supernatural forces,
but they are
assured of supernatural help. All the
intelligences of
heaven are in this army. And more
than angels are
in the ranks. The Holy Spirit, the
representative
of the Captain of the Lord’s host,
comes down to
direct the battle.”—Desire of Ages,
352.
Spirit of Prophecy: Divinity of the Holy Spirit
152 Defending the Godhead
“The latter
rain, falling near the close of the season,
ripens the grain
and prepares it for the sickle.
The Lord employs
these operations of nature to represent
the work of the
Holy Spirit. As the dew and
the rain are
given first to cause the seed to germinate,
and then to
ripen the harvest, so the Holy Spirit is
given to carry
forward, from one stage to another, the
process of
spiritual growth. The ripening of the grain
represents the
completion of the work of God’s grace
in the soul. By the power of the Holy Spirit the moral
image of God is
to be perfected in the character.
We are to be
wholly transformed into the likeness
of Christ.”—Testimonies to Ministers, 506.
“Place your mind and will where the Holy Spirit
can reach them,
for He will not work through another
man’s mind and
conscience to reach yours.
With earnest
prayer for wisdom, make the Word of
God your study.
Take counsel of sanctified reason, surrendered
wholly to God.”—7 Testimonies, 214.
“This is the danger to which the church is now
exposed—that the
inventions of finite men shall
mark out the
precise way for the Holy Spirit to
come.”—Testimonies to Ministers, 64-65.
“We have an Advocate pleading in our behalf.
The Holy Ghost
is continually engaged in beholding
our course of
action.”—1 Selected
Messages, 96.
“Do not forget
that you have a Comforter, the Holy
Spirit, which
Christ has appointed. You are never
alone. If you
will listen to the voice that now speaks to
you, if you will
respond without delay to the knocking
at the door of
your heart, ‘Come in, Lord Jesus, that I
may sup with
Thee, and Thee with me,’ the heavenly
Guest will enter.”—Adventist Home, 350 (Letter 124,
1897).
153
——————————————
— CHAPTER THIRTEEN —
THE
CHARTER PASSAGES
ABOUT THE HOLY SPIRIT
THE CHARTER STATEMENT
IN THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY
In one special passage, which fills more than
four pages of Desire of Ages, Ellen White states
the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. There are other passages
where she
focuses on other key doctrines (for
example, DA 49
and 117, which define the human nature
of Christ). But on pp. 668 to 672, she clarifies
both the nature and work of the Holy Spirit.
In this, the
longest passage about the Holy Spirit
in Desire of Ages (and probably anywhere else in the
Spirit of
Prophecy), she comments on Christ’s charter
statements in
the Upper Room, announcing the ministry
of the Holy
Spirit.
It is of the
highest significance that in this passage
she always speaks of the Holy Spirit as a
person, as a fully divine person (“the Third
Person
of the Godhead”); and she does not once
speaks of Him as “it.” Instead, twenty-three
(23)
times she refers to the Holy Spirit as “He” or
“Him”—with a capital “H.” (The Bible passages
she is referring to calls the Holy Spirit “He”
or
“Him” eight (19) times.)
You will want to carefully read the entire
passage
for yourself: DA 668 to 672. Notice that a
The Charter Passages about the Holy Spirit
154 Defending the Godhead
key point is that Christ was leaving and He
would
send a person to take His place. The wording in
this lengthy
passage is continually about what this other
person would be
doing here on earth, not what Christ
would be doing
for them after His ascension.
Here are a few excerpts:
“Before offering
Himself as the sacrificial victim,
Christ sought
for the most essential and complete gift
to bestow upon
His followers, a gift that would bring
within their
reach the boundless resources of grace. ‘I
will pray the
Father,’ He said, ‘and He shall give you
another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever;
even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot
receive, because
it seeth Him not, neither
knoweth
Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and
shall be in you.
I will not leave you orphans: I will come
to you.’ John
14:16-18, margin.
“Before this the
Spirit had been in the world; from
the very
beginning of the work of redemption He had
been moving upon
men’s hearts. But while Christ was
on earth, the
disciples had desired no other helper.
Not until they
were deprived of His presence would
they feel their
need of the Spirit, and then He would
come.
“The Holy Spirit is Christ’s representative, but
divested of the
personality of humanity and independent
thereof. Cumbered with humanity, Christ
could not be in
every place personally. Therefore it was
for their
interest that He should go to the Father, and
send the Spirit
to be His successor on earth. No one
could then have
any advantage because of his location
or his personal
contact with Christ. By the Spirit the
Saviour would be
accessible to all. In this sense He
would be nearer
to them than if He had not ascended
on high . .
155
“At all times
and in all places, in all sorrows and in
all afflictions,
when the outlook seems dark and the
future
perplexing, and we feel helpless and alone, the
Comforter will be sent in answer to the prayer of faith.
Circumstances
may separate us from every earthly
friend; but no
circumstance, no distance, can separate
us from the
heavenly Comforter. Wherever we
are,
wherever we may
go, He is always at our right hand
to support,
sustain, uphold, and cheer.
“The disciples
still failed to understand Christ’s
words in their
spiritual sense, and again He explained
His meaning. By
the Spirit, He said, He would manifest
Himself to them.
‘The Comforter, which is the
Holy
Ghost, whom the
Father will send in My name, He shall
teach you all things.’ No more will you say, I cannot
comprehend. No
longer will you see through a glass,
darkly. You
shall ‘be able to comprehend with all saints
what is the
breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
and to know the
love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.’
Eph. 3:18, 19.
“The disciples
were to bear witness to the life and
work of Christ.
Through their word He was to speak to
all the people
on the face of the earth. But in the humiliation
and death of
Christ they were to suffer great
trial and
disappointment. That after this experience
their word might
be accurate, Jesus promised that the
Comforter should ‘bring all things to your remembrance,
whatsoever I
have said unto you.’
“ ‘I have yet
many things to say unto you,’ He continued,
‘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’ . .
The Charter Passages about the Holy Spirit
156 Defending the Godhead
“Jesus saw that
they did not lay hold of the real
meaning of His
words. He compassionately promised
that the Holy Spirit should recall these sayings to
their minds. And He had left unsaid many things that
could not be
comprehended by the disciples. These
also would be
opened to them by the Spirit. The Spirit
was to quicken
their understanding, that they might
have an
appreciation of heavenly things. ‘When He, the
Spirit of truth,
is come,’ said Jesus, ‘He will guide you
into all truth.’
“The Comforter is called ‘the Spirit of truth.’ His
work is to define and maintain the truth. He first
dwells in the
heart as the Spirit of truth, and thus He
becomes the Comforter . . Through the Scriptures the
Holy Spirit speaks to the mind, and impresses truth
upon the heart. Thus He exposes error, and expels
it from the soul. It is by the Spirit of truth, working
through the Word
of God, that Christ subdues His chosen
people to
Himself.
“In describing
to His disciples the office work of
the Holy Spirit,
Jesus sought to inspire them with the
joy and hope
that inspired His own heart. He rejoiced
because of the
abundant help He had provided for His
church. The Holy
Spirit was the highest of all gifts that
He could solicit
from His Father for the exaltation of
His people. The
Spirit was to be given as a regenerating
agent [an “agent”
is a person], 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 men 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
157
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 His church.
“Of the Spirit
Jesus said, ‘He shall glorify
Me.’ The
Saviour came to
glorify the Father by the demonstration
of His love; so
the Spirit was to glorify Christ by
revealing His
grace to the world. 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.
“ ‘When He [the Spirit of truth] is come, He will
reprove the
world of sin, and of
righteousness, and
of judgment.’ The preaching of the Word will be of no
avail without
the continual presence and aid of the
Holy Spirit.
This is the only effectual teacher of divine
truth. Only when the truth is accompanied to
the heart by the Spirit will it quicken the conscience
or transform the
life. One might be able to present the
letter of the
Word of God, he might be familiar with all
its commands and
promises; but unless the Holy Spirit
sets home the
truth, no souls will fall on the Rock
and be broken.
No amount of education, no advantages,
however great,
can make one a channel of light
without the co-operation of the Spirit of God. The sowing
of the gospel
seed will not be a success unless the
seed is
quickened into life by the dew of heaven. Before
one book of the
New Testament was written, before
one gospel
sermon had been preached after
Christ’s
ascension, the Holy Spirit came upon the praying
apostles. Then
the testimony of their enemies was,
‘Ye have filled
Jerusalem with your doctrine.’ Acts 5:28.
“Christ has
promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to
The Charter Passages about the Holy Spirit
158 Defending the Godhead
His church, and
the promise belongs to us as much as
to the first
disciples. But like 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.’ Phil.
2:13. 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. The power of God awaits their
demand and
reception. This promised blessing,
claimed by
faith, brings all other blessings in its train.
It is given
according to the riches of the grace of Christ,
and He is ready
to supply every soul according to the
capacity to
receive.”—Desire of Ages, 668-672.
“HE” IN THE CHARTER
PASSAGES IN THE BIBLE
Here are the charter Bible passages in which
Christ announces the Holy Spirit to His
disciples.
Christ calls the Holy Spirit a person; and He
repeatedly
refers to Him as “He,” not “it,”—seventeen
times in seven Bible verses!
John 14:16 “And I will pray
the Father, and He
shall give you
another Comforter, that He may abide
with you
forever.”
John 14:17 “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the
world cannot
receive, because it seeth Him not, neither
knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth
159
with you, and
shall be in you.”
John 14:26 “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.”
John 15:26 “But when the Comforter is come,
whom I will send
unto you from the Father, even the
Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He
shall testify of
Me.”
John 16:7 “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.”
John 16:13 “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.”
John 16:14 “He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive
of Mine, and
shall show it unto you.”
In the above Inspired
statements uttered by Christ
our Lord, seventeen times (in the King James Version)
the Holy Spirit
is called “He” or “Him,” not
“it.” “Whom” (masculine) is also used instead of
“which.” Christ
Himself referred to the Holy Spirit as a
person, not an
inanimate object or thing.
The Greek
pronoun in relation to gender is explained
in the next
section.
THE GREEK OF
OF THOSE PASSAGES
I decided to check into the Greek New Testament
of these special passages about the Holy
The Charter Passages about the Holy Spirit
160 Defending the Godhead
Spirit; and I made the following discoveries:
“COMFORTER” (PARACLETE) IN THE GREEK—
John 14:16-17,
26; 15:26; and 16:7, 13-14 constitute
Christ’s
announcement about the Holy Spirit, to be with
His disciples
throughout all future time. These are the
charter passages
on the Holy Spirit! As such, it is extremely
important.
In these
passages, Christ says the Holy Spirit is
a person. The Greek word used here is ðáñáêëåôïò
(parakletos). In the time when Christ was on earth,
a paraclete was a man, never an object or a woman
(some Davidians
claim the Holy Spirit is a woman).
The Greek word, paraclete, translated “comforter”
in
the KJV (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7, 13-14), means
literally “one
called alongside [to help]”—an “advocate
or intercessor
summoned to aid [in a court of law or
elsewhere].” He
had been appointed to be the One who
would comfort,
counsel, encourage, and warn those
He is leading
toward discipleship; He does not do this
only for His disciples.
Christ says that
He will send “another comforter.”
In the Greek, it
is áëëïí ðáñáêëåôïí
(allon parakleton),
not çåôåñïí ðáñáêëåôïí
(heteron parakleton). This is
important; for áëëïí ðáñáêëåôïí
is properly translated
“another
comforter of like kind with Myself [Christ]”
instead of çåôåñïí ðáñáêëåôïí,
which is “a different
kind of
comforter.” In other words, the Holy Spirit
truly is of “like
kind” with Christ. Both are fully
divine and fully
members of the Godhead.
Parakletos can be
translated as “Comforter” (a
person), but not
as “comfort” (something inanimate)
or be regarded
as the name of any abstract influence.
Ðáñáêëåôïò has to refer to
a distinct person.
Another
indication that a person is meant is the
fact that the
Holy Spirit, as Comforter, is placed in jux161
taposition with Christ as the Comforter about to depart,
to whom the same
term is applied in 1 John 2:1.
—More on the Greek of these passages in the
next chapter:
——————————————
— CHAPTER FOURTEEN —
PRONOUNS
FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT
PRONOUNS FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT
IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
PRONOUNS FOR “COMFORTER”
AND “SPIRIT”—In
many Greek
texts, çïò, hos (which, or the one which),
a masculine
relative pronoun, is used in Ephesians
1:13-14 to refer
to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is
a definite
person, not an immaterial nothingness.
Some say that
the descriptions of the personality
of the Holy
Spirit in the New Testament are only personifications.
But such an
explanation would clearly
destroy the
meaning of such passages as John 14:26,
16:7-11, Romans
8:26, etc.
You should
understand how, in the Greek language,
pronouns are
related to gender. The pronoun always,
without
exception, agrees with the noun it refers to (its
antecedent
noun). This, of course, is the same pattern
found in Spanish
and some other modern languages.
For this reason,
the pronoun following “Comforter”
ðáñáêëåôïò (parakletos in the Greek) in
John 14:16
and 16:7 is
masculine. It is supposed to be “He,” not
“it”; since the
noun refers to an actual person. In the
following
examples, the antecedent noun is underlined:
Pronouns for the Holy Spirit
162 Defending the Godhead
John 14:16 “And I will pray
the Father, and He
shall give you
another Comforter, that He may abide
with you
forever.”
John 16:7 “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.”
But the pronoun
following “Spirit” (ðíåõìá) in John
14:17, 14:26, and
15:26 is in the neuter. Therefore
the pronoun
should also be in the neuter (“it,” not
“He”). —But the
New Testament writers wrote the
masculine, not
the neuter pronoun—clearly emphasizing
the fact that
the Holy Spirit is a person, not
a thing. In the following examples, the antecedent noun
is underlined:
John 14:17 “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the
world cannot
receive, because it seeth Him not, neither
knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth
with you, and
shall be in you.”
John 14:26 “But the Comforter, which is the Holy
Ghost [Spirit], 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.”
John 15:26 “But when the Comforter is come,
whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the
Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father,
He shall testify of Me.”
That is not in accordance
with good Greek grammar;
since pneuma is a neuter word
and should be
translated “it,”
not “He.”
None should
declare that the Holy Spirit does
not exist. —For
the Greek manuscripts, the KJV,
and the Spirit
of Prophecy comments of those verses
(DA 668 to 672) only use the masculine pronoun.
163
(As mentioned
earlier, the pronoun, “He,” is used 23
times in those
four Desire of Ages pages.)
THE PRONOUN, “HE,”
IN DESIRE OF AGES
I wanted to find
out for myself what the book, Desire
of Ages, taught about the
Holy Spirit. So one afternoon
I laboriously
checked on every major statement
in that book!
Not counting DA 668 to 672, which is the
most important
passage of all, I found 64 other passages.
In not one of those 64 passages in Desire of
Ages did I find that Ellen White referred to the
Holy Spirit as “it”! Instead, in nearly every
instance,
she called Him by His name, “the Holy
Spirit,” while eight times she spoke of Him as
“Christ’s Spirit.”
In the few instances in which she did use a
pronoun to refer to Him, she used the word “He,”
not “it.” Here is an example:
“The Holy Spirit
never leaves unassisted the soul
who is looking
unto Jesus. He takes of the
things of
Christ and shows
them unto him. If the eye is kept
fixed on Christ,
the work of the Spirit ceases not
until the soul
is conformed to His image.”—Desire
of Ages, 302.
THE PRONOUN, “HE,” IN
OTHER SPIRIT OF PROPHECY
QUOTATIONS IN
THIS PRESENT BOOK
After examining
all the major passages about the
Pronouns for the Holy Spirit
164 Defending the Godhead
Holy Spirit in Desire of Ages, when this present book
was nearly
completed, I decided to again read through
all the Spirit
of Prophecy quotations in it—126 statements
in all. I wanted to see if “it” (referring to the
Holy Spirit) was
in any of them. I found that it did
not occur one
time! “He” appears a number of times;
but “it” is not
used one time. There appear to be relatively
few instances in
the Spirit of Prophecy writings
when the neuter
pronoun, referring to the Holy Spirit,
is used. The
word, “agency” (referring to the Holy
Spirit), is used
occasionally, but never “instrumentality.”
As you know, “agency”
can only refer to a person.
The word, “representative,”
is used a number of times.
That also can
only apply to a person.
MORE ON PRONOUNS
FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT
At this
juncture, the question could still be asked,
But why are
there still a few sentences in the Spirit of
Prophecy in
which the Holy Spirit is referred to as “it”
rather than “He”?
There are two reasons for this:
First, because the Holy
Spirit works so closely with
the other two
members of the Godhead in working on
the human heart,
at times God (or Christ) is mentioned
together with
the Holy Spirit in the same sentence. For
purposes of
clarification and simplicity, to keep the
sentence
shorter, it is easier to mention Him as “it”
rather than “He.”
Sample sentence: “The Holy Spirit is given by God
to help us; and,
as it moves on our hearts, it draws us
to Him.”
The other way of
writing this would be more complicated:
“The Holy Spirit
is given by God to help us;
165
and, as He, the
Holy Spirit, moves on our hearts, He
draws us to God.”
The grammatical
rule of antecedents applies here.
The pronoun must
refer to the preceding noun, or the
noun must be
repeated. But, in doing that, the sentence
can become more
complicated and difficult to
read.
Here is the second, very important
reason for the
“it” pattern.
The Holy Spirit never takes human form.
It is customary,
grammatically, to call totally nonhuman
things “it”
(neuter case rather than masculine).
Christ is in
human form; and there are statements
clearly establishing
that the Father chose to take a human-
like form (with
hands, head, and face). But the
Holy Spirit
cannot be seen and is totally devoid of appearance
or form. He is totally
nonhuman-like. So it
seems natural,
at times, to refer to Him as “it” in those
complex
sentences in which there are pronouns which
could refer to
two different antecedent nouns.
However, we have
found that, upon careful examination,
there are not
many such instances in which
“it” is used to
refer to the Holy Spirit.
——————————————
— CHAPTER FIFTEEN —
A PATTERN
OF DECEPTION
There are many
who honestly believe that there is
no Holy Spirit
and that Christ is not eternal. But there
are some who
make their living by teaching these
points; they,
unfortunately, are using deceptive ways
to convince
believers of their ideas.
A Pattern of Deception
166 Defending the Godhead
I have several
books and compilations published
by the leading
promoter of literature, attacking the eternity
of Christ and
the existence of the Holy Spirit. Like
the Jehovah’s
Witnesses, that group tries to show that
there is only
one “true God.” Christ is a lesser deity
who is not
eternal; and there is no Third Person of the
Godhead.
The primary
evidence offered by that organization
follows this
chain of reasoning: (1) The Catholic Church
teaches the
Trinity; and we do not want anything to do
with Catholic
teachings. (2) Our pioneers were opposed
to the Trinity
teaching. (3) Therefore, we should have
nothing to do
with the Trinity teaching. (4) In addition,
some Bible and
Spirit of Prophecy statements can be
interpreted as
indicating that Christ is not eternal (He
is the Son of
God) and the Holy Spirit does not exist
(He is sent from
Christ and the Father, and is as formless
as breath).
It is
consistently assumed that the Three Person
Godhead is the
same as the three-in-one Trinity error.
The fact that
both the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy
solidly teach
the Godhead truth is ignored and not
mentioned.
Instead of
candidly admitting that our “pioneers”
were actually
opposing the three-in-one and one-inthree
Trinity
foolishness, the suggestion is made that
they were
opposed to the Godhead.
Although that
organization claims to believe the
Bible and Spirit
of Prophecy, it does not dare quote
more than a few
passages from those Inspired Writings
relating to the
Godhead,—because most of God’s
Word strongly
disagrees with its teachings.
In contrast, the
book you are now reading contains
massive numbers
of quotations or references to the
Bible and Spirit
of Prophecy. We can do that because
167
we are sharing
with you the broad picture of what Scripture
actually teaches
rather than a few snippets, intended
to support a
warped viewpoint.
Here are four
special Spirit of Prophecy passages
which they cite
as evidence:
1-2 - Only the
Father and the Son were in counsel
together at the
time Satan was ejected from heaven.
Only the two of
them moved from the Holy to the Most
Holy Place in
1844. —But they ignored the wealth of
Inspired
information on the existence and Deity of the
Holy Spirit.
3 - As a
dramatic illustration of the impartation of
the Holy Spirit
that Christ was to bestow, Jesus breathed
on the
disciples. Therefore it is claimed that the Holy
Spirit is only
Christ’s breath, and nothing more. —But
they are careful
to ignore the four-page section (DA 668-
672) in the same book
which repeatedly tells how the
Holy Spirit is a
definite person, the “Third Person of
the Godhead.” To
cite the one passage (about “breath”)
as evidence that
the Holy Spirit, as a Divine Person,
does not exist
while omitting mention of the other passages
is deceptive.
4 - They cite a
passage which says that, in the gift
of the Holy
Spirit, Christ shares His life with us. Based
on that one
sentence, they conclude that the Holy Spirit
is only Christ’s
life, not a separate person. —But they
ignore the
hundreds upon hundreds of specific statements
about all that
the Holy Spirit, as Christ’s Representative,
is doing. Survey
them for yourself: 2 Spirit
of Prophecy Index, 1245-1275, is one of the largest
sections in the Three Volume Index, consisting of 31
pages and about
80 references on each page. That is
over 2,400
entries! An immense amount of information
on the nature
and activities of something that does
not exist!
A Pattern of Deception
168 Defending the Godhead
Here is an
example of their reasoning in one of
their books,
called The Spirit of Antichrist: After discussing,
throughout most
of the book, how terrible the
Catholic Trinity
is (without explaining that it is radically
different than
the truth about the Godhead), the
author implies
that it was Satan who invented the teaching
of a third
person of the Godhead. —And why? He
tells the reader
Satan did it because he wanted to be
part of the
Godhead before he was thrown out of
heaven. So he
tries to make himself the third part of
the Godhead now;
and he obtains that worship when
people believe
in the Holy Spirit! According to this confused
thinking, anyone
who believes in a Three Person
Godhead is now
worshiping Satan! With such reasoning,
who needs logic?
His proof is
that the Father and the Son met together
at the time that
Satan was kicked out (p. 15).
Hinduism has
three special gods (Brahma, Vishnu, and
Siva) among the
thousands of lesser gods (p. 17); and
the Father and
the Son moved together at the close of
the 2300 years (p. 20). —Therefore the
idea of a
Godhead is evil!
Ignoring the fact that any of us are
praying to the Holy
Spirit, the author of The Spirit of
Antichrist then says:
“What I am
saying is that it is not a light thing to
pray to a person
who does not exist. It is not a light
thing to be
praying to God in a way that is contrary
to His
revelation.”—p. 20.
Ignoring the
loads of Inspired passages which declare
that the Holy
Spirit exists and is the Third Person
of the Godhead,
that author then says:
“The Scriptures
do not teach that the Holy Spirit
is a separate
Being . . The Almighty God, the Father
of all infinity,
cannot be confined to one body or to
one place . .
This omnipresent personality [of the
169
Father], filling
the entire universe, is the Holy
Spirit.”—pp. 20-21.
Surely the
author, who professes to be an Adventist
and knows the
Bible and Spirit of Prophecy well, realizes
that He is
violating Scriptural truth when he says
such things! He
then concludes the small 22-page book
with a warning,
intended to frighten the reader—that
if anyone
believes in the Holy Spirit and a Three Person
Godhead, he will
burn in hellfire:
“We are living
in a frightening age and I am convinced
that Satan is
accomplishing his aims while
men sleep; very
subtly, but very successfully. Sadly,
most people
think they are worshiping God when
the reality is
that they don’t even know what they
are worshiping.
Satan takes advantage of this ignorance
and receives
this worship . . The majority of
those who are
called Christians are actually possessed
[demon
possessed], in this teaching, of the
spirit of
antichrist, including those who call themselves
Seventh-day
Adventists . . God wants people
who will stand
up for His truth in this time, and if
we don’t do
something soon we just might be among
the most
enlightened people in the lake of fire.”—
pp. 21-22.
According to
that author, what is it that will put
you in hellfire?
It is a belief in the Holy Spirit. Even if
you love God and
by faith in Christ obey His commandments,
if you believe
there is a Holy Spirit, God is going
to burn you in
hell.
Fortunately, we
have the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy
writings. How
thankful we are that we have them!
How wonderfully
they dispel the dark nets of satanic
delusion that
false teachers would cast upon our souls!
I cannot say it
solemnly enough:
“And he spake
unto the congregation, saying, De-
A Pattern of Deception
170 Defending the Godhead
part, I pray
you, from the tents of these wicked men,
and touch
nothing of theirs, lest ye be consumed in
all their sins.”—Numbers 16:26.
Let us now
consider what God’s Word says about
those who, like
the author of The Spirit of Antichrist
book, reject the
existence of the Holy Spirit and teach
other men to do
so.
——————————————
— CHAPTER SIXTEEN —
THE DANGER
OF REJECTING
THE HOLY SPIRIT
REASONS OFFERED
FOR REJECTING
THE HOLY SPIRIT’S EXISTENCE
Two reasons are offered for why we should
believe there is no Holy Spirit:
1 - There can be
no Holy Spirit because there were
apostate
Christians in earlier centuries who believed
there was a Holy Spirit.
2 - We can have
the “spirit of Christ.” That is the
only “holy
spirit” there is. Christ’s spirit dwells in our
hearts by faith;
and that is all the spirit there is.
The reasons are inadequate:
The first objection tells us what uninspired men
believed or did
not believe. But that is no reliable
evidence. All that matters is what the Word of God—
the Bible and
Spirit of Prophecy—actually says.
171
Roman Catholics
believe that Jesus was born,
lived, was
crucified, rose from the dead, and ascended
into heaven. Are
all those Bible facts wrong,
just because
Catholics believe them?
In contrast,
millions of godly Christians, down
through the ages
(including the Waldenses), did believe
in the divine
personhood of the Holy Spirit. And
many faithful
Christians today believe it. Why? because
it is clearly
given in Scripture.
Both the Bible
and the Spirit of Prophecy say
there is a Holy
Spirit, that He is an actual person,
and that He is
the Third person of the Godhead.
That should be
sufficient evidence. Is it safe to disbelieve
what is written?
We should accept
the plain words of Inspired
Scripture and
stop there—and not speculate. Eve
fell in the
Garden of Eden because she was trying to
probe into that
which God had not revealed instead of
obediently
accepting that which He had plainly said.
Many today are
in a similar danger.
The second objection is based on the erroneous
concept that
there is no Holy Spirit separate from
Christ’s “spirit.”
The fact that it
is called “Christ’s Spirit” in the
Spirit of
Prophecy shows it is the actual person.
Otherwise, it
would be called “Christ’s spirit” or “the
spirit of
Christ.” We are told of “Christ’s love,” etc.; but
it is not placed
in initial caps (“Christ’s Love in the our
hearts,” etc.).
The Inspired
Writings are clear that it is through
the Holy Spirit,
a separate person, that Christ dwells
in our hearts.
Of course, this is a mystery. Which of us
dares probe into
the mystery of the Godhead further
than They have
revealed themselves to us? When does
speculation
become blasphemy—or the sin against the
The Danger of Rejecting the Holy Spirit
172 Defending the Godhead
Holy Spirit?
Really now, how
brave are you? Why not accept the
Word of God as
it reads?
ELLEN WHITE REPROVED
THOSE WHO DENIED THE
HOLY SPIRIT’S EXISTENCE
1 - In 1851, there were fanatics who were
traveling
from place to place and denying the existence
of the Holy Spirit. They said there was no
Holy Spirit!
“These things
[the fact that people doubted her
visions were
from God] wounded my spirit, and
wrung my soul in
keen anguish, well-nigh to despair,
while many would
have me believe that there was
no Holy Ghost.”—Early Writings, 22 (September
21, 1851).
In 1886, she wrote these words:
“A spurious
light will be accepted in the place of
truth by some
who feel called upon to be expositors
of the
Scriptures, because of their calling or position.”—
11 Manuscript Releases, 89 (Manuscript 15,
1886).
2 - In 1891, a “brother Chapman” imagined
that he had discovered that the Holy Spirit did
not exist, that He was not a person and not a
member of the Godhead. When he wrote her for
counsel, this was Ellen White’s reply:
“Some are ever
seeking to be original, to bring
out something
new and startling, and they do not
realize as they
should the importance of preserving
the unity of the
faith in the bonds of love . .
“We are to pray
for divine enlightenment, but at
173
the same time we should be careful how we receive
everything
termed new light . .
“Your ideas . .
do not harmonize with the light
which God has
given me. The nature of the Holy
Spirit is a
mystery not clearly revealed . .
“Here is your
danger, of diverting minds from
the real issues
for this time. And you are not the
only one who
seems to be moved with ambition in
this direction.
It would not be right or prudent to
send you out as
a worker to promulgate your peculiar
ideas and thus
cause division; we have plenty of
this now. We want men of solid experience, who
will anchor
minds and not send them adrift without
chart or compass. Now, my brother, it is truth
that we want and
must have, but do not introduce
error as new
truth.”—14 Manuscript
Releases, 177-
180 (Letter 7, June 11, 1891).
3 - After 1891, an increasing amount of error
was being taught. In 1894, she wrote:
“When men feel
competent to pronounce judgment
and condemn the
Holy Spirit, they do a work
for themselves
which will be difficult to counteract.
The whole head
becomes sick, and the discernment
so weak that it
is apt to judge unrighteously.”—
17 Manuscript Releases, 174 (Letter 2, 1894).
4 - By the turn of the century, J.H. Kellogg
was nearing the time when he would unveil his
pantheistic teachings, which denied the
existence
of the entire Godhead. In 1900, she wrote:
“We need to
dwell more constantly and earnestly
upon the grace
of the Holy Spirit. This we do not
discern with our
natural eyes, yet by faith we see its
office work, and
we cannot render to God supreme
love and honor
if we do not recognize the Holy
Spirit which the
Lord sends. The Holy Spirit rep-
The Danger of Rejecting the Holy Spirit
174 Defending the Godhead
resents Jesus
Christ.”—2 Manuscript Releases, 38
(Letter 2, 1894).
THE SIN AGAINST
THE HOLY SPIRIT
5 - The sin against the Holy Spirit.
There is a sin
against the Holy Spirit (Matt.
12:31). The movings of
the Holy Spirit on the heart
can be quenched (1 Thess. 5:19), grieved away (Eph.
4:30), and blasphemed (Matt. 12:32).
It is a serious
thing to grieve away the Holy
Spirit; how much
more serious to deny that He exists!
The One upon
whom God put His Spirit (Matt.
12:18) was the One whom
the Pharisees said was working
through Satan (Matt. 12:24). God said, “I will put
My Spirit upon
Him” (Matt. 12:18); but the leaders
said, “This
fellow doth not cast out devils, but by
Beelzebub the
prince of the devils” (Matt. 12:24). That
was said after
having seen the character-changing
power of the
Holy Spirit in the hearts of men. What
greater sin is
it to declare that there is no Holy Spirit
and that those
who believe in Him—are worshiping
Satan?
We dare not willfully
reject the Spirit or, at
the prompting of Satan, declare that the Holy
Spirit does not exist!
“It is through
the medium of His Spirit that God
works upon the
human heart; and when men willfully
reject the
Spirit and declare it to be from Satan,
they cut off the
channel by which God can communicate
with them.”—5 Testimonies, 634.
(Those among us,
today, who teach that the Holy
Spirit does not
exist, are not declaring that it is of Sa175
tan. —But, as
quoted in the preceding chapter of this
book, they are declaring that those who believe in
the Holy Spirit—are of Satan and will burn in
hellfire.)
Here are additional statements on this subject
which you might want to read:
Resisting the
Holy Spirit: DA 241, SC 40, MB
93, TM 74, 5T 120, 2BC 1004, COL 56,
Rejecting the
Holy Spirit: 5T 120, 8T 292, MH
429.
The sin against
the Holy Spirit: DA 321-323.
If you want to
know the truth, go to God’s Word. “To the
law and to the
Testimony; if they speak not according to
this Word, it is
because there is no light in them” (Isa.
8:20). What do you
prefer? far-fetched theories or the Word
of God? Since
only the Godhead can save you, you had better
believe in Them!
Do not reject even one of the Divine
members. To
defend each one is to defend all three; to reject
one—is to reject how many? They have done so much for
you; should you
not be loyal to Them?
“Those who reject the Spirit of truth place themselves
under the
control of a spirit that is opposed
to the Word and
work of God. For a time they may
continue to
teach some phases of the truth, but
their refusal to
accept all the light God sends will
after a time
place them where they will do the
work of a false
watchman . . There will always be
those who are
seeking for something new and who
stretch and
strain the Word of God to make it support
their ideas and
theories.”—Sermons and Talks,
Vol. 1, 385, 387 (Manuscript 125, September 4,
1907).
QUESTIONS: Why did Christ and the Spirit of Prophecy
speak urgently
about the sin against the Holy Spirit—if
there is no Holy
Spirit? If He is not a distinct Person, why is
the phrase not
worded “the sin against the spirit of God,” or
“against God’s
spirit,” instead of “against the Holy Spirit”?
The Danger of Rejecting the Holy Spirit
176 Defending the Godhead
——————————————
— CHAPTER SEVENTEEN —
IMPORTANT
COUNSELS
DO NOT DISCARD
THE BIBLE
In view of such
clear statements from the Bible and
Spirit of
Prophecy, quoted earlier about Christ and the
Holy Spirit, it
appears that the false teachers do not
believe in the
Bible, much less the Spirit of Prophecy.
I appeal to you: Do not abandon either! You
need both the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy
in
order to remain on the pathway to eternal life!
Do
not abandon the clear teaching of God’s books in
order to please these false teachers!
“Satan summoned all his forces, and at every
step contested
the work of Christ. So it will be in
the great final
conflict of the controversy between
righteousness
and sin.
“While new life
and light and power are descending
from on high
upon the disciples of Christ, a new
life is
springing up from beneath, and energizing
the agencies of
Satan. Intensity is taking possession
of every earthly
element. With a subtlety gained
through
centuries of conflict, the prince of evil works
under a
disguise. He appears clothed as an angel
of light, and
multitudes are ‘giving heed to seducing
spirits and
doctrines of devils.’ 1 Timothy
4:1.
“In the days of
Christ the leaders and teachers of
177
Israel were
powerless to resist the work of Satan.
They were
neglecting the only means by which
they could have
withstood evil spirits. It was by
the Word of God
that Christ overcame the wicked
one.”—Desire of Ages, 257.
That is clear enough, is it not? But there is
more
to that passage:
“By their interpretation they made it [the Bible]
express
sentiments that God had never given.
Their mystical
construction made indistinct that
which He had
made plain. They disputed over insignificant
technicalities,
and practically denied the
most essential
truths. Thus infidelity was sown
broadcast. God’s
Word was robbed of its power, and
evil spirits
worked their will.
“History is repeating. With the open Bible before
them, and
professing to reverence its teachings,
many of the
religious leaders of our time
are destroying
faith in it as the Word of God. They
busy themselves
with dissecting the Word, and
set their own
opinions above its plainest statements.
In their hands
God’s Word loses its regenerating
power. This is
why infidelity runs riot and iniquity
is rife.
“When Satan has undermined faith in the Bible,
he directs men
to other sources for light and power.
Thus he
insinuates himself. Those who turn from
the plain
teaching of Scripture and the convicting
power of God’s
Holy Spirit are inviting the
control of
demons.”—Desire of Ages,
257-258.
These false
teachers are trying to get you to place
your highest
faith in their words instead of in the plain
teachings of the
Inspired Writings. If you are willing to
take the fatal
step, you invite the control of demons.
“Too wise in their own conceit to search the
Scriptures with
contrition of soul and earnest
Do not Discard the Bible
178 Defending the Godhead
prayer for divine guidance, they have no
shield
from delusion.
Satan is ready to supply the heart’s
desire, and he
palms off his deceptions in the
place of truth. It was thus that the papacy gained
its power over
the minds of men . . Every conceivable
form of error
will be accepted by those who
willfully reject the truth.”—Great Controversy,
523.
Do you see? That is exactly how Rome gained
control of men’s
minds! It sent out false teachers
with beguiling
fables. Once believed, the minds of
the hearers were
locked into an enchanted mind control.
It is dangerous
to toy with error. Flee from it!
Get away; and
take your loved ones with you! Do not
attend the
meetings of those traveling preachers!
How important it
is that we stay close to God’s
Word! Please, my
friend, do not forsake it!
DO NOT DISCARD
THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY
Just as you should not discard the Bible, you
dare not set aside the precious Spirit of
Prophecy
writings. We who know about the Spirit of
Prophecy have a responsibility to study it, obey
it, and defend it. It is equal in inspiration,
accuracy,
and authority with the Bible.
“What is it to lose life? It is when the truth is
clearly set before
us and we refuse to accept it because
a cross is
involved.”—3 Manuscript Releases,
95 (Manuscript #44, October 22, 1886).
“The devil may
lock arms with the sinner, and say,
‘Better let
things go as they are. If you confess, your
dignity will be
hurt, your influence lost.’ Thus he has
179
gained the
victory over and over again.”—Special
Testimonies, Series B, No. 7, pp. 23.
“When the power of God testifies as to what is
truth, that
truth is to stand forever as the truth. No
after
suppositions contrary to the light God has given
are to be
entertained. Men will arise with interpretations
of Scripture
which are to them truth, but
which are not
truth . . One will arise, and still another,
with new light,
which contradicts the light that
God has given
under the demonstration of His Holy
Spirit.”—1 Selected Messages, 161.
“The very last deception of Satan will be to make
of none effect
the testimony of the Spirit of God.
‘Where there is
no vision, the people perish.’ ”—1 Selected
Messages, 48.
“It will be one of the great evils that will come
to our people to
have the Scriptures taken out of
their true place
and so interpreted as to substantiate
error that contradicts the light and the testimonies
that God has
been giving us for the past half century.”—
Manuscript 760 (The Integrity of the Sanctuary
Truth).
“My brethren seem to judge me as taking positions
that are not
necessary. They do not see that
God in His own
wisdom has made revelations to
me which cannot
successfully be contradicted or
disputed . . All the oppositions or gainsayings to make
my testimony of
none effect only compels from me, by
the urgency of
the Spirit of God, a more decided repetition,
and to stand on
the light revealed with all the
force of the
strength God has given me. All the arguments
of men, all
their opposing influence, is of no
force to me. Whatever may be the position or the
doctrines of
these men, and however firm may have
been my
confidence in them heretofore, when they
Do not Discard the Spirit of Prophecy
180 Defending the Godhead
take false
positions, all their arguments against
what I know the
Lord has shown me to be truth are
vain . . Let God be true and every man a liar.
“Every word
spoken is in harmony with the living
Oracles, and it
is only wresting the Scriptures from
their true
meaning, by misapplying and misinterpreting
them and the Testimonies which God has
given
me, that this
can be gainsaid. Those who do this are
like the
impenitent Jews, who had eyes, but saw not,
ears they had,
but they heard not, neither would they
understand. Why? Lest they should be converted
and have to
acknowledge that not all their ideas
were correct.
This they were too proud to do, and
therefore
persisted in rejecting God’s counsel and
the light and
evidence which had been given. Thus
they deluded
their own souls and the souls of others.”—
13 Manuscript Releases, 238-239 (written at
Battle Creek, Michigan, January 7-9, 1890).
“When strong minded men once set their will
against God’s
will, it is not easy for them to admit
that they have
erred in judgment. It is very difficult
for such men to
come fully into the light by honestly
confessing their
sins; for Satan has great power over
the minds of
many to whom God has granted evidence
sufficient to
encourage faith and inspire confidence.
Many will not be
convinced, because they are not inclined
to confess. To resist and reject even one ray
of light from
heaven because of pride and stubbornness
of heart, makes
it easier to refuse the light
the second time.
Thus men form the habit of rejecting
light . .
“The light of
truth is constantly shining, but many
men and women
comprehend it not. And why? —Because
selfishness,
egotism, pride blind their spiritual
eyesight. Standing between them and the true light,
181
is the idol of
their own opinion.”—9 Manuscript
Releases,
298.
“Hear ye, and give ear; be not proud—for the
Lord hath spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God,
before He cause
darkness, and before your feet
stumble upon the
dark mountains, and while ye look
for light, He
turn it into the shadow of death, and make
it gross
darkness. But if ye will not hear it, my soul
shall weep in
secret places for your pride; and mine
eye shall weep
sore, and run down with tears, because
the Lord’s flock
is carried away captive.”—Jeremiah
13:15-17.
“There are some in these last days who will cry:
‘Speak unto us
smooth things, prophesy deceits.’
But this is not
my work. God has set me as a reprover
of His people;
and just so surely as He has laid
upon me the
heavy burden, He will make those to
whom this
message is given responsible for the manner
in which they
treat it. God will not be trifled with,
and those who
despise His work will receive according
to their deeds.”—4 Testimonies, 231-232.
“Let ministers
and people remember that gospel
truth ruins if
it does not save. ‘The soul that refuses
to listen to the
invitations of mercy from day to day
can soon listen
to the most urgent appeals without an
emotion stirring
his soul. As laborers with God we
need more
fervent piety and less self-exaltation. The
more self is
exalted, the more will faith in the Testimonies
of the Spirit of
God be lessened . . Those
who trust wholly
in themselves will see less and less
of God in the Testimonies of His Spirit.’ ”—5 Testimonies,
134.
“Those who have treated the light that the Lord
has given as a
common thing will not be benefited
by the
instruction presented.
Do not Discard the Spirit of Prophecy
182 Defending the Godhead
“There are those
who will misinterpret the messages
that God has
given, in accordance with their
spiritual
blindness.
“Some will yield
their faith, and will deny the truth
of the messages,
pointing to them as falsehoods.
“Some will hold them up to ridicule, working
against the
light that God has been giving for years,
and some who are
weak in the faith will thus be led
astray.
“But others will
be greatly helped by the messages.
Though not
personally addressed, they will be corrected,
and will be led
to shun the evils specified . .
The Spirit of
the Lord will be in the instruction, and
doubts existing
in many minds will be swept away.
The testimonies
themselves will be the key that
will explain the
messages given, as scripture is explained
by scripture. Many will read with eagerness
the messages
reproving wrong, that they may learn
what they may do
to be saved . . Light will dawn
upon the
understanding, and the Spirit will make an
impression on
minds, as Bible truth is clearly and
simply presented
in the messages that since 1846 God
has been sending
His people. These messages are to
find their place
in hearts, and transformations will
take place.”—1 Selected Messages, 41-42.
“In ancient
times God spoke to men by the mouth
of prophets and
apostles. In these days He speaks to
them by the
testimonies of His Spirit. There was never
a time when God
instructed His people more earnestly
than He instructs them now concerning His
will and the
course that He would have them pursue.”—
4 Testimonies, 147-148.
“If you lose confidence in the Testimonies you
will drift away
from Bible truth. I have been fearful
that many would
take a questioning, doubting posi183
tion, and in my distress for your souls I would warn
you. How many
will heed the warning? As you now
hold the Testimonies, should one be
given crossing
your track,
correcting your errors, would you feel at
perfect liberty
to accept or reject any part or the whole?
That which you
will be least inclined to receive is
the very part
most needed.”—5 Testimonies,
674.
“It is Satan’s plan to weaken the faith of God’s
people in the Testimonies. Satan knows how to make
his attacks . . The gifts are next questioned; then, of
course, they
have but little weight, and instruction given
through vision
is disregarded.”—5 Testimonies, 672.
“Next follows skepticism in regard to the vital
points of our
faith, the pillars of our position, then
doubt as to the Holy Scriptures, and then the
downward
march to
perdition. When the Testimonies,
which were once
believed, are doubted and given up,
Satan knows the
deceived ones will not stop at this;
and he redoubles
his efforts till he launches them into
open rebellion,
which becomes incurable and ends in
destruction.”—4 Testimonies, 211.
“I was shown
that many had so little spirituality
that they did
not understand the value of the Testimonies
or their real
object. They talked flippantly of
the Testimonies given by God for
the benefit of His
people, and
passed judgment upon them, giving
their opinion
and criticizing this and that, when
they would
better have placed their hands upon
their lips, and
prostrated themselves in the dust;
for they could
not appreciate the spirit of the Testimonies,
because they
knew so little of the Spirit of God.”—
5 Testimonies, 672-673.
“God sets no man to pronounce judgment on
His Word,
selecting some things as inspired and
discrediting
others as uninspired. The testimonies
Do not Discard the Spirit of Prophecy
184 Defending the Godhead
have been
treated in the same way; but God is not in
this.”—1 Selected Messages, 23.
“There are some
in Battle Creek who have never
fully submitted
to reproof. They have taken a course
of their own
choosing. They have ever, to a greater or
less degree,
exerted an influence against those who
have stood up to
defend the right and reprove the
wrong. The influence of these persons upon individuals
who come here
and who are brought in contact
with them . . is
very bad. They fill the minds of these
newcomers with
questionings and doubts in regard
to the Testimonies of the Spirit of
God. They put
false
constructions upon the Testimonies.”—4 Testimonies,
513-514.
“Some express
their views that the testimony of
Sister White
cannot be reliable. This is all that many
unconsecrated ones want. The
testimonies of reproof
have checked
their vanity and pride; but if they dared,
they would go to
almost any length in fashion and pride.
God will give
all such an opportunity to prove themselves
and to develop
their true characters.”—5 Testimonies,
673.
“I saw that the
reason why visions have not been
more frequent of
late is they have not been appreciated
by the church. The church have nearly lost their
spirituality and
faith, and the reproofs and warnings
have had but
little effect upon them. Many of
those who have
professed faith in them have not
heeded them.”—1 Testimonies, 119.
“I have been
shown that unbelief in the testimonies
of warning,
encouragement, and reproof is shutting
away the light
from God’s people. Unbelief is
closing their
eyes so that they are ignorant of their true
condition.”—5 Testimonies, 674.
“If you really
believe that the voice of God has spo185
ken to you,
pointing out your dangers, do you heed the
counsels given?
Do you keep these testimonies of warning
fresh in your
minds by reading them often with
prayerful
hearts? . . You will be held responsible for
every one of
these appeals and warnings.”—3 Testimonies,
362-363.
“There will be a
hatred kindled against the testimonies
which is
satanic. The workings of Satan will
be to unsettle
the faith of the churches in them, for
this reason: Satan cannot have so clear a track to bring
in his
deceptions and bind up souls in his delusions if
the warnings and
reproofs and counsels of the Spirit
of God are
heeded.”—1 Selected Messages, 48.
“Satan is . .
constantly pressing in the spurious—
to lead away
from the truth. The very last deception
of Satan will be
to make of none effect the testimony
of the Spirit of
God. ‘Where there is no vision,
the people
perish’ (Prov. 29:18). Satan will
work ingeniously,
in different
ways and through different agencies,
to unsettle the
confidence of God’s remnant
people in the
true testimony.”—1 Selected
Messages,
48 [see 2 SM 78 for context].
“The plain, straight testimony must live in the
church, or the
curse of God will rest upon His people
as surely as it
did upon ancient Israel because of their
sins.”—3 Testimonies, 269.
“Never was there greater need of faithful warnings
and reproofs . .
than at this very time. Satan
has come down
with great power, knowing that his time
is short. He is flooding the world with pleasing fables,
and the people
of God love to have smooth things
spoken to them . . I was shown that God’s people
must make more
firm, determined efforts to press back
the incoming
darkness. The close work of the Spirit of
God is needed
now as never before.”—3 Testimonies,
Do not Discard the Spirit of Prophecy
186 Defending the Godhead
327-328.
“My brethren,
beware of the evil heart of unbelief.
The Word of God
is plain and close in its restrictions;
it interferes
with your selfish indulgence;
therefore you do
not obey it. The Testimonies of His
Spirit call your
attention to the Scriptures, point out
your defects of
character, and rebuke your sins; therefore
you do not heed
them. And to justify your carnal,
ease-loving
course you begin to doubt whether
the Testimonies are from God. If
you would obey
their teachings
you would be assured of their divine
origin. Remember, your unbelief does not affect
their
truthfulness. If they are from God they will
stand.”—5 Testimonies, 234.
“If God has
given me a message to bear to His
people, those who would hinder me in the work and
lessen the faith
of the people in its truth are not
fighting against
the instrument, but against God.”—
5 Testimonies, 680.
“It is not the instrument whom you slight and
insult, but God,
who has spoken to you in these
warnings and
reproofs. It is hardly possible for men
to offer a
greater insult to God than to despise and
reject the
instrumentalities that He has appointed to
lead them.”—5 Testimonies, 680.
“One stood by my
side and said: ‘God has raised
you up and has
given you words to speak to the
people and to
reach hearts as He has given to no
other one. He has shaped your testimonies to meet
cases that are
in need of help. You must be unmoved
by scorn,
derision, reproach, and censure. In order to
be God’s special
instrument . . It is Satan’s special
object to
prevent this light from coming to the
people of God,
who so greatly need it amid the perils
of these last
days.’ ”—2 Testimonies, 607-608.
187
“The volumes of Spirit of Prophecy should be in
every family,
and should be read aloud in the family
circle . . The Testimonies contain
instruction which
meets the case
of all, both parents and children.”—
Sons and Daughters of God, 178.
“Parents, your
children are in danger of going contrary
to the light
given of heaven, and you should both
purchase and
read the books, for they will be a blessing
to you and
yours. You should lend Spirit of
Prophecy
to your
neighbors and prevail upon them to buy
copies for
themselves . . Many are going directly contrary
to the light
which God has given to His people,
because they do
not read the books which contain
the light and
knowledge in cautions, reproofs, and
warnings.”—4 Testimonies, 391.
“We are not to receive the words of
those who
come with a
message that contradicts the special points
of our faith.”—Counsels to Writers and Editors, 32.
“The track of
truth lies close beside the track of
error, and both
tracks may seem to be one to minds
which are not
worked by the Holy Spirit.”—1 Selected
Messages, 202.
“God is either teaching His church, reproving
their wrongs and
strengthening their faith, or He is
not. This work
is of God, or it is not. God does nothing
in partnership
with Satan. My work . . bears the
stamp of God or
the stamp of the enemy. There is
no halfway work
in the matter.”—5 Testimonies,
671.
For Bible tests of the Spirit of Prophecy, see
our book, Prophet of the End, pp. 32-45, as well
as that entire book.
Do not Discard the Spirit of Prophecy
188 Defending the Godhead
BEWARE OF
SO-CALLED “NEW LIGHT”
We are told in the Spirit of Prophecy to search
for new light. But a careful examination of the
passages reveals several important facts:
1 - The “new light” will be clearly found in God’s
Word; it will not be found in the opinions and theories
of men. Test: If the “new light” is not directly given in
the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy, it is suspect.
2 - The “new light” will be clearly stated in the
Bible, and
especially the Spirit of Prophecy (which
clarifies
inspired truth in far greater detail). Test: If
the “new light” is not plainly stated in the
Bible, and
especially the Spirit of Prophecy, reject it!
3 - The “new light” is not about novel new things
and startling
theories; it is generally about how to
deepen your
personal Christian experience with
God. Test: If the “new light” does not make you a
better person in daily life, it is not
important!
4 - The “new light” will not contradict the light
already given. Test: If the “new light” does away with
any truths already given in the Bible and Spirit
of
Prophecy, reject
it!
Consider these important Spirit of Prophecy
statements:
New light will
not contradict light earlier given
us in God’s Word—“We are not to receive the words of
those who come
with a message that contradicts the
special points
of our faith. They gather together a mass
of Scripture,
and pile it as proof around their asserted
theories. This
has been done over and over again during
the past fifty
years.”—1 Selected Messages, 161.
Thank the Lord
for the light we have in God’s
189
Word—“Upon us is shining the accumulated light of
past ages. The
record of Israel’s forgetfulness has been
preserved for
our enlightenment. In this age God has
set His hand to
gather unto Himself a people from every
nation, kindred,
and tongue. In the advent movement
He has wrought
for His heritage, even as He
wrought for the
Israelites in leading them from
Egypt.”—8 Testimonies, 115.
Abundant light
in the Spirit of Prophecy—“Abundant
light has been
given to our people in these last
days. Whether or
not my life is spared, my writings
will constantly
speak, and their work will go forward
as long as time
shall last. My writings are kept on file
in the office,
and even though I should not live, these
words that have
been given to me by the Lord will still
have life and
will speak to the people.”—1 Selected
Messages, 55.
Cling to God’s
Word—“The time has come when
we cannot depend
upon the doctrine which comes to
our ears, unless
we see that it harmonizes with the
Word of God.
There are dangerous heresies that will
be presented as
Bible doctrines; and we are to become
acquainted with
the Bible so that we may know how to
meet them.”—Evangelism, 590-591.
Looking to men
instead of to God’s Word—“When
Satan has
undermined faith in the Bible, he directs
men to other
sources for light and power. Thus he insinuates
himself. Those
who turn from the plain teaching
of Scripture and
the convicting power of God’s Holy
Spirit, are
inviting the control of demons.”—Evangelism,
591.
Beware of false
teachers—“All should become familiar
with God’s Word;
because Satan perverts and
misquotes
Scripture, and men follow his example by
presenting part
of God’s Word to those whom they wish
Beware of So-called “New Light”
190 Defending the Godhead
to lead in false
paths, withholding the part which would
spoil their
plans. All have the privilege of becoming
acquainted with
a plain ‘Thus saith the Lord.’ There
are false
shepherds who will say and do perverse things.
Children should
be so instructed that they will be familiar
with God’s Word,
and be able to know when
part of a
Scripture is read and part left unread in order
to make a false
impression.”—Evangelism, 591
(Manuscript 153, 1899).
Be careful about
what is termed “new light”—
“We are to pray
for divine enlightenment, but at the
same time we
should be careful how we receive everything
termed new
light. We must beware lest, under
cover of
searching for new truth, Satan shall divert our
minds from
Christ and the special truths for this time.
I have been
shown that it is the device of the enemy to
lead minds to
dwell upon some obscure or unimportant
point, something
that is not fully revealed or is
not essential to
our salvation. This is made the absorbing
theme, the ‘present
truth,’ when all their investigations
and suppositions
only serve to make matters
more obscure
than before, and to confuse the
minds of some
who ought to be seeking for oneness
through
sanctification of the truth.”—1 Selected
Messages,
159 (Letter 7, 1891).
God is
displeased when we listen to error—“I
was shown the
necessity of those who believe that we
are having the
last message of mercy, being separate
from those who
are daily imbibing new errors. I saw
that neither
young nor old should attend their meetings;
for it is wrong
to thus encourage them while they
teach error that
is a deadly poison to the soul and teach
for doctrines
the commandments of men. The influence
of such
gatherings is not good. If God has delivered
us from such
darkness and error, we should
191
stand fast in
the liberty wherewith He has set us free
and rejoice in
the truth. God is displeased with us
when we go to
listen to error, without being obliged
to go; for
unless He sends us to those meetings where
error is forced
home to the people by the power of
the will, He
will not keep us. The angels cease their
watchful care
over us, and we are left to the buffetings
of the enemy, to
be darkened and weakened by him
and the power of
his evil angels; and the light around
us becomes
contaminated with the darkness.
“I saw that we have no time to throw away in
listening to
fables. Our minds should not be thus
diverted, but should be occupied with the present
truth, and
seeking wisdom that we may obtain a more
thorough knowledge
of our position, that with meekness
we may be able
to give a reason of our hope from
the Scriptures. While false doctrines and dangerous
errors are
pressed upon the mind, it cannot be dwelling
upon the truth which is to fit and prepare the
house of Israel
to stand in the day of the Lord.”—Early
Writings, 124-125.
——————————————
— CHAPTER EIGHTEEN —
RELIGIONS
WHICH DENY
THE DEITY OF CHRIST
AND THE HOLY SPIRIT
All the errors about the Godhead, Christ, and
the Holy Spirit—come from the same source—
Beware of So-called “New Light”
192 Defending the Godhead
Satan,—whether it be spiritualists, the cults,
or
Rome which teaches them. That is why the errors
are so much alike!
There are many erroneous teachings which
declare that Christ is not fully God and not
eternal,
that the Holy Spirit is not fully God and not
eternal. It was Lucifer’s hatred of the Deity
that
caused him to be kicked out of heaven. That
hatred
has not lessened with the passing of the
centuries.
Here are 48 quotations, showing that many
of the churches which Satan is leading—and
teaching—uniformly reject the divinity of Christ
and the divine personhood of the Holy Spirit.
In many of these quotations, you find the
heart of the three-in-one Trinity doctrine of
Rome, as well as the error being taught by
certain
preachers among us, that there is only one
true God, out of whom comes the Son and the
Spirit.
WHAT ARIANS AND
UNITARIANS TEACH
Those who, in our time, teach that Christ is
not eternal do not like to admit that they are
Arians. But here are the facts:
Arius was a
local church leader of the Christian
church in
Alexandria, Egypt. About the year A.D. 310,
he devised a
strange, new teaching. Here it is:
Christ was
created out of nothing before anything
else was
created. Therefore He was a finite being, since
He did not
earlier exist. Through Him, God created
everything (summarized from The Manual of Church
193
History, Vol. 1, 327, by Albert Henry Newman).
In A.D. 321,
Alexander, bishop of the Alexandrian
Church, took
away Arius’ offices and ejected him from
the church. This
produced a split, which gradually
broadened.
Modern Adventist
Arians frequently go one step
further: They
deny the existence of the Holy Spirit as
well! This
places them in the same category as the
Unitarians. As
you may know, the Unitarian Church
is inhabited by
atheists who reject Christ and believe
that God is so
far away that they can sin in peace,
without worrying
about a coming judgment. After rejecting
Christ and the
Holy Spirit, they also threw out
the Bible!
Don’t let that
happen to you.
“Unitarianism—The
view that God is one person
only and which therefore denies the doctrines
of the divinity
of Christ and of the Holy Spirit (as
distinct from
the person of God), and therefore also
the doctrine of
the Godhead.”—A Dictionary of
Christian Theology, by Alan Richardson, 352.
WHAT JEHOVAH’S
WITNESSES TEACH
Like many other cults, Jehovah’s Witnesses
reject the divinity of Christ.
Some people do
not want to believe that Christ is
fully God. The
Witnesses say He is “a god”; but they
really do not
believe He is any kind of God.
“Jehovah’s
Witnesses . . believe that the son is
merely ‘a god’
by way of concession.”—Jehovah’s
Witnesses: Answered Verse by Verse, by David A.
Reed.
Religions Which Deny Christ and Holy Spirit
194 Defending the Godhead
“The justice of
God would not permit that Jesus
as a ransom be
more than a perfect man. And certainly
not God almighty
in the flesh.”—Let God Be
True, p. 87.
“Some insist
that Jesus, when on earth, was both
God and man in
completeness. This theory is
wrong.”—The Harp of God, p. 101.
“In other words,
he was the first and direct creation
of Jehovah God.”—The Kingdom is at Hand,
p. 46.
“There is only
one God . . and [Christ] the Son
had a beginning.”—From Paradise Lost to Paradise
Regained, p. 164.
Jehovah’s Witnesses also reject the divinity
of the Holy Spirit.
“The Holy Spirit is not a person and therefore
is not God.”—Let God Be True, p. 81.
“The Holy Spirit
is the invisible active force of
Almighty God
that moves his servants to do his
will.”—Let God be True, p. 108.
“As for the ‘Holy
Spirit,’ the so-called Third Person
of the Godhead,
we have already seen that it is,
not a person,
but God’s active force.”—The Truth
that Leads to Eternal Life, p. 24.
“God’s holy spirit is not a person but is God’s
active force.”—Aid to Bible Understanding, p. 1543.
During the first
of my three years in attendance at
the Seventh-day
Adventist Seminary, in Washington
D.C., prior to
entering the ministry, one day a friend
stopped by to
tell me what happened the night before.
Taking a
practicum course at the Seminary that
quarter, he had
been assigned to work under a local
pastor who told
him to work in the Rockville area,
where the
conference was trying to get a full-fledged
195
church started.
My friend had
been giving Bible studies to a family
who, at the same
time, were in contact with some
Jehovah’s
Witnesses. Uncertain which church to unite
with, and
unknown to my friend, the mother of the
home decided to
bring both groups together one
evening—and see
what they both would say to each
other.
So when my
friend arrived for the Bible study,—
he found two or
three Jehovah’s Witnesses already
there in the
living room with the mother and her family.
After speaking a
few words and uncertain what to
do next (for the
atmosphere was tense)—he said, “Before
we begin talking
together, let us pray.”
He knelt down
and began praying. Suddenly, before
he could end his
prayer, the lady who was the
Witness leader
jumped to her feet, and said, “This is
terrible! I
cannot remain here!” and hurriedly went
into the next
room, with the other Witnesses following
her.
Certain he had
done something to destroy his opportunity
to reach this
family, my friend sat down and
silently prayed
while the mother of the home rushed
into the next
room, closed the door, and began speaking
with the Witness
lady.
My friend kept
praying. Within five or ten minutes,
the Witnesses
all left the home and the mother came
back into the
living room. As I recall it now, this is
what she told my
friend:
“The woman told
me she was shocked. She said
you had
mentioned in your prayer that Jesus Christ
is God,—and she
could not stand to be in a place where
that was said!
So she has left with all her group. —
And I am now convinced that the Seventh-day
Religions Which Deny Christ and Holy Spirit
196 Defending the Godhead
Adventists are right after all!”
Soon after the
family joined the church.
TEACHINGS OF ARMSTRONG’S
WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
Prior to the changeover in the late 1980s,
which caused the WWCG
to repudiate Sabbathkeeping
and many other church doctrines, this is
what the WWCG taught
about the Deity:
“Do you really
grasp it? The purpose of your being
alive is that
finally you [will] be born into the
Kingdom of God,
when you will actually be God,
even as Jesus
was and is God. You are setting out
on a training to
become creator—to become God.”—
Why Were You Born? p. 22.
“[Prior to the
time of His Second Advent] Jesus
alone, of all
humans, has so far been saved!”—Ibid.
“God’s Holy Spirit is His life, and not a
separate
person.”—Herbert Armstrong, What Do You Mean:
Salvation? p, 19.
”It is
impossible for the Holy Spirit to be a third
person [of the
Godhead] . . That heresy denies the
true born-again
experience!”—Just What Do You
Mean Born Again? p. 13.
THE UNITY SCHOOL
OF CHRISTIANITY
With a world membership of nearly one million,
the Unity School of Christianity is the largest
gnostic cult in Christendom.
“The Father is
Principle, the Son is that Principle
revealed in the
creative plan, the Holy Spirit is the
executive power
of both Father and Son carrying out
197
the plan.”—Metaphysical Bible Dictionary, p. 629.
“All that any
human soul can ever need or desire
is the infinite
Father-Principle, the great reservoir of
unexpressed
good.”—H. Emily Cady, Lessons in
Truth, p. 11.
WHAT SPIRITUALISTS
AND PSYCHICS TEACH
What is it that the Satanists teach? Let us
read their statements. We will find that they
echo the downgrading hatred of Christ by their
father, the devil. They also wish to eliminate
the Holy Spirit, by whom we are convicted to
return in repentance to God.
“[Jesus said] I am not God . . I do not
want you
to worship me.”—Helen Shookman, A
Course in
Miracles. (Regarded as a New Age Bible, it was
written by Shookman,
as a channeler [medium],
under the direction of a spirit calling itself
Jesus).
“He [Jesus] was not God, and never
claimed to
be.”—Rodney R. Romney, Journey to Inner Space:
Finding God in Us, p. 30.
“Son of God,
First-Born . . the Second Logos or
Higher Self,—the first emanation from the Father,
the Absolute, or
the First Logos.”—Dictionary of
All Scriptures and Myths, by G.A.
Gaskell, p. 702.
(This dictionary uses the sacredly held
philosophic
writings of all religions such as Zoroaster,
Philo,
Swedenborg, Buddah,
Hermes, the Qabbalah, etc.,
in order to derive the definitions hence given—
which are mystical and spiritualistic.)
“The eternal Birth or generation of the Son or
Divine Word . .
From our proper Source, that is to
say, from the
Father and all that which lives in Him,
Religions Which Deny Christ and Holy Spirit
198 Defending the Godhead
‘there shines,’
says Ruysbroeck, ‘an eternal Ray,
which is the
Birth of the Son . . We are celebrating
the feast of the
Eternal Birth which God the Father
has borne.”—Mysticism, by E. Underhill, p. 146.
“Holy is God, the Father of all things, the One
who is before
the First Beginning.”—The Secret
Teachings of All Ages, XL, by Manly P. Hall,
33rd
Degree Mason. (Hall is quoting Hermes or Cush
who was said to be the interpreter of the
mysteries,
or basically the founder of spiritualistic
Babylonian
religion. Cush was said to be the father of
Nimrod, who founded Babylon and then based its
mystery religion upon the teachings of his
father.)
“God [the great
architect of the universe] as the
infinite Parent
of all . .”—Morals and
Dogma, 715,
by Albert Pike, 33rd Degree Mason, also The
Masonic
Report, p. 20.
“The One [God] is the term most suitable for
defining the
Absolute, since the whole precedes the
parts.”—Hall, p. XV.
“The Qabbalists [The Qabbala is Jewish
witchcraft]
conceive of the
Supreme Deity as an incomprehensible
Principle to be
discovered only through
the process of
eliminating, in order, all its recognizable
attributes. That
which remains . . is AIN
SOPH, the eternal state of Being . . all [things are]
nourished by AIN
SOPH and all with their source
in AIN SOPH, the only Immortal—whence they
came.”—Hall, p. CXVII.
“The terms
Father, Son, and Spirit are but symbols
which stand for three manifestations of God
. . God goes
forth from Himself in the Eternal Son,
returning to
Himself in the Eternal Spirit.”—
Gaskell, p. 770.
“The Father
uttered himself and all creatures in
the Word, his
Son, and the return of the Father into
199
himself includes
the like return of all creatures into
the same Eternal
Source. The logical genesis of the
Son furnishes a type of all evolution or creation;
the Son is the unity of all the works of God . .
God is in all
things, and God is all things.”—Gaskell,
p. 770.
“Holy is God,
whose will is performed and accomplished
by His own
powers which He hath given
birth to out of
Himself.”—Hall, quoting
Hermes,
the founder of the mysteries of spiritualism, p.
XL.
“[God] can
unfold His essence in a variety of existences,
which, while
they are His creatures as to
their origin, are parts of His essence as to their
contents.”—Gaskell, p. 317.
“The Absolute
[or God—the One Source of all] . .
is the beginning and final goal of the whole series
of essences which exist . . the beginning and
end of all
things.”—Gaskell, p. 317.
“Put thy trust
in the Divine Breath—the Holy
Spirit—which is
the functioning of the Absolute
[God] upon the buddhic plane.”—Dictionary of All
Scripture and Myths, Gaskell, p. 816.
“The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Godhead—
the infinite
source of all. It is the Breath of Atman,—
the infinite
power of God. It is not separate from,
but operative
through the Christ—the higher
Self.”—Gaskell, p. 366.
“Medieval
theology generally distinquished . . the
Holy Ghost [as]
being the copula [or union] between
the Father and
the Son.”—Gaskell, p. 770.
“The difference
between the Father and the Son
is this—‘The
Father’ is to express God-hidden, ‘The
Son’ is God
manifest, and the ‘Holy Ghost’
is the
knowledge of the Spirit of Truth, proceeding from
the experience
of both, as God hidden, and re-
Religions Which Deny Christ and Holy Spirit
200 Defending the Godhead
vealed.”—Gaskell, p. 770.
“In the heart of
the Trinity [or One God] the Creator
laughs and gives
birth to the child. The child
laughs back at
the Creator and together they give
birth to the
Spirit.”—Meister Eckhart,
quoted in
The Coming of the Cosmic Christ, by Matthew Fox,
pp. 218-219.
“I [Father of
All Things] order you [Son of Light]
to go forth, to
become as a guide to those who wander
in darkness,
that all men within whom dwells
the spirit of My
Mind (The Universal Mind) may be
saved by My Mind
in you, which shall call forth My
Mind in them . .
for I am the Mind of the mysteries.”—
Hall, quoting Hermes, p. XL.
THE MORMON DEITIES
Satan has implanted a variety of confusing
ideas about God in the various religions of
mankind.
Here are the Mormon deities, as mentioned
in approved Mormon books:
“As man is, our
God once was; As now God is, so
man may become.”—Lorenzo Snow (Fifth President),
quoted in Daniel Ludlow, ed., Latter Day
Prophets Speak, p. 72.
“The Prophet
[Joseph Smith] taught that our Father
had a Father,
and so on.”—Joseph Fielding
Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, Vol. I, p. 12.
Brigham Young,
second President, is quoted in
Ludlow, pp. 72-77, as saying that through eternity past,
gods have been
creating planets. They populate them
through sexual
intercourse with their goddess wives.
Then some of the
spirit children become gods themselves.
Throughout
eternity future, the same process
will continue
worlds without end.
201
MOHAMMED’S
TEACHING ABOUT DEITY
Satan hates Christ, who died to save mankind;
he hates the Holy Spirit who pleads with men to
return to God before it is too late. As you have
learned, many
different cults and non-Christian
religions are
strongly opposed to the Divinity of
Christ and the
Holy Spirit.
In researching
this subject, I came across over
a dozen places
in the Koran (Qur’an) which ridiculed
and denied the
existence of the Godhead. Here
are a few
samples:
MUSLIM TEACHINGS ABOUT THE DEITY
“They do blaspheme who say: Allah is one of
three in a
Godhead, for there is no god except one
God.”—Qur’an, Sura 5:73.
“Your Allah is
one God. In the worship of him, admit
no partner.”—Qur’an, Sura 18:110.
“Take not, with
Allah, another object of worship,
lest you should
be thrown into Hell, blameworthy and
rejected.”—Qur’an, Sura 17:39.
“What have they
partners in Godhead, who have
established for
them some religion without the permission
of Allah? Had it
not been for the Decree of
Judgment, the
matter would have been decided between
them at once.
But verily the Wrong-doers will
have a grievous
Penalty.”—Qur’an, Sura 42.21.
“USUFALI: O People of the Book [Koran]! Commit
no excesses in
your religion: Nor say of Allah aught
but the truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was no
more than a
messenger of Allah, and His Word, which
He bestowed on
Mary, and a spirit proceeding from
Him: so believe in Allah and His messengers. Say not
Religions Which Deny Christ and Holy Spirit
202 Defending the Godhead
“Godhead”;
desist; it will be better for you: for Allah is
one Allah. Glory
be to Him: for exalted is he above
having a son. To
Him belong all things in the heavens
and on earth.”—Qur’an, Sura 4:171a.
“PICKTHAL: The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was
only a messenger
of Allah, and His Word which He conveyed
unto Mary, and a
spirit from Him. So believe in
Allah and His
messengers, and say not ‘Three.’
Cease!”—Qur’an, Sura 4:171b.
“Yet they
attribute to some of His servants a share
with Him in His
divinity! Truly is man a blasphemous
ingrate avowed!”—Qur’an, Sura 43.15.
“Say: ‘Nay, but
I am commanded to be the first of
those who bow to
Allah, and be not thou of the company
of those who
join gods with Allah.’ ”—Qur’an,
Sura 6.14.
“There will then
be left no subterfuge for them but
to say: ‘By
Allah our Lord, were not those who joined
gods with Allah.’
”—Qur’an, Sura 6.23.
“Those who
believe in the Qur’an, those who follow
the Jewish
scriptures, and the Sabians, Christians,
Magians, and Polytheists,—Allah will judge between
them on the Day
of Judgment: for Allah is witness of
all things.”—Qur’an, Sura 22.17.
OTHER MUSLIM TEACHINGS
“Those who
reject the Muslim Sabbath (Friday)
will perish—“The Sabbath was only made for those
who disagreed as
to its observance. But Allah will judge
between them on
the Day of Judgment, as to their differences.”—
Qur’an, Sura 16.124.
Have nothing to
do with Christians or Jews,
because they are
evil people—“O you who believe!
Do not take the
Jews and the Christians for friends;
they are friends
of each other; and whoever amongst
you takes them
for a friend, then surely he is one of
203
them; surely
Allah does not guide the unjust people.”—
Qur’an, Sura 5:51.
Have nothing to
do with blacks—“On the day
when [some]
faces shall turn white and [some] faces
shall turn
black; then as to those whose faces turn
black: Did you
disbelieve after your believing? Taste
therefore the
chastisement because you disbelieved.
And as to those
whose faces turn white, they shall be
in Allah’s
mercy; in it they shall abide.”—Sura 3:106-
107.
Kill the
unbelievers—“So when the sacred months
have passed
away, then slay the idolators wherever you
find them, and
take them captives and besiege them
and lie in wait
for them in every ambush.”—Qur’an,
Sura 9:5).
If they resist—“The punishment of those who wage
war against
Allah and His apostle and strive to make
mischief in the
land is only this, that they should be
murdered or
crucified or their hands and their feet
should be cut
off on opposite sides or they should be
imprisoned.”—Qur’an, Sura 5:33.
Finish them off
completely—“Strive hard against
the unbelievers
and the hypocrites and be unyielding
to them; and
their abode is hell, and evil is their destination.”—
Qur’an, Sura 9:73.
Our god will
reward you for your efforts—“And
let not those
who disbelieve think that they shall come
in first; surely
they will not escape. And prepare against
them what force
you can on horses tied at the frontier,
to frighten
thereby the enemy of Allah and your enemy
and others
besides them, whom you do not know [but]
Allah knows
them; and whatever thing you will spend
in Allah’s way,
it will be paid back to you fully and you
shall not be
dealt with unjustly.”—Qur’an, Sura 8:59-
60.
Religions Which Deny Christ and Holy Spirit
204 Defending the Godhead
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