Proudly Trinitarian or no?

The Universe goes beyond the Milky Way galaxy
Edwin Hubble’s arrival at Mount Wilson, California, in 1919 coincided roughly with the completion of the 100-inch (2.5 m) Hooker Telescope, then the world’s largest telescope. At that time, the prevailing view of the cosmos was that the universe consisted entirely of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Study says every star has planets By Jason Palmer

“Every star twinkling in the night sky plays host to at least one planet, a new study suggests.
That implies there are some 10 billion Earth-sized planets in our galaxy. Using a technique called gravitational microlensing, an international team found a handful of exoplanets that imply the existence of billions more. The findings were released at the 219th American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting, alongside reports of the smallest “exoplanets” ever discovered.”
The inhabitants of the place were of all sizes; they were noble, majestic, and lovely. They bore the express image of Jesus, and their countenances beamed with holy joy, expressive of the freedom and happiness of the place. Early Writings EGW p40

 

BBC Science and environment news
A team of physicists at Cornell University has created a wrinkle in time. Actually, it’s more like a teeny tiny moth hole in time. Inside it, things can occur that are entirely un-detectable, at least to ordinary observers. It’s as if they never happened…
“It is not enough time to steal a painting from a museum,” Fridman said, joking. He added that there might nevertheless be practical uses of the technology.
This phenomenon, known as “temporal cloaking,” is the latest addition to a world that once existed only in children’s literature and science fiction — a place where objects are invisible and events are unrecorded. The physics community let out a small gasp six years ago when researchers reported the first successful “spatial cloaking,” in which light is bent around an object in a way that makes it disappear from view. …By David Brown, Published: January 4 …..

Of course the military have been playing with invisibility for some time so that that which seems impossible is becoming true before our very eyes. 

The technology also gives us never before seen glimpses of God……yet we know so very little- today we see as common thought– the very ideas of Aristotle cosmology through Jesuit priest Georges Lemaître’s big bang theory.  Evolutionary idea perpetuated through Catholic Greek philosophy. So we ask the question that God asks of man as found here in Job-
Job 38:2 Who [is] this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? 38:3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. 38:4 Where wast thou when I laid the founda-tions of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret [things belong] unto the LORD our God: but those [things which are] revealed [belong] unto us and to our children for ever, that [we] may do all the words of this law.
Can you who are born and created find out the mysteries of eternity?
Can one who has never seen other worlds or been to another galaxies find out His ways? In the beginning did God expand the universe for the creation of this world? What does it mean to go into a never ending space and reach the other side? In other words our speculations are finite or small minded, without understanding on things God has never made plain.
The revelation of Himself that God has given in His Word is for our study. This we may seek to understand. But beyond this we are not to penetrate. The highest intellect may tax itself until it is wearied out on conjectures regarding the nature of God, but the effort will be fruitless. This       problem has not been given us to solve. No human mind can comprehend God. None are to indulge in speculation regarding His nature. Here silence is eloquence. The Omniscient One is above discussion .
The law of God– the law of the universe
Ps 19:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork.
19:2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.
19:3 [There is] no speech nor language, [where] their voice is not heard.
19:4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
19:5 Which [is] as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, [and] rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
19:6 His going forth [is] from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
19:7 The law of the LORD [is] perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD [is] sure, making wise the simple.The law of the heavens declare the perfection and laws of God for man– converting the heart.

Divinity
The revelation of Himself that God has given in His Word is for our study. This we may seek to understand. But beyond this we are not to penetrate. The highest intellect may tax itself until it is wearied out on conjectures regarding the nature of God, but the effort will be fruitless. This problem has not been given us to solve. No human mind can comprehend God. None are to indulge in speculation regarding His nature. Here silence is eloquence. The Omniscient One is above discussion. E. G. White, The Ministry of Healing p. 429.
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons (Greek: ὑποστάσεις): the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. The doctrines of Arius, denying that Jesus was of the same substance as God and holding instead that he was only the highest of the orders of created beings.
JAMES WHITE: The greatest fault we can find in the Reformation is, the Reformers stopped reforming. Had they gone on, and onward, till they had left the last vestige of Papacy behind, such as natural immortality, sprinkling, the trinity, and Sunday-keeping, the church would now be free from her unscriptural errors. (James White, February 7, 1856, Review & Herald, vol. 7, no. 19, page 148, par. 26) Did James White have to do an about face on this statement? Was this a misadventure from the Protestant stance on the Trinity? Was this a teaching brought from James’s past connection with the Christian Connection church.
Jehovah’s witnesses comes from the millerite movement and from the time of the disappointment, heavily influenced by the post disappointment advent movement….. 

“Jehovah’s Witnesses believe Christ to be divine in nature but do not believe him to be Almighty God. They believe Jesus had a prehuman existence as God’s first Created being and that he was the “master worker” through whom God created everything in existence. At this time he was indeed “divine” or “godlike” in nature. While on earth however, the Witnesses hold that human and not a “god-man” (part human part God). They believe he was the perfect human son of God of divine origins but fully human equal to the perfect man Adam. Since his resurrection they hold that Jesus is a mighty, glorious divine spirit, incorruptible and immortal but still subordinate to his Father. “ Source: Watchtower Sept 15, 1961

“Most of the founders of Seventh-day Adventism would not be able to join the church today if they had to subscribe to the denomination’s Fundamental Beliefs. More specifically, most would not be able to agree to belief number 2, which deals with the doctrine of the trinity.” (Ministry, Oct., 1993, p. 10).
“Adventist belief’s have changed over the years under the impact of ‘present truth’. Most startling is the teaching regarding Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord…… the Trinitarian understanding of God, now part of our fundamental beliefs, was not generally held by the early Adventists.” – Adventist Review, Jan 6, 1994. p.10.
I will ask this question– what is special about the teaching of the Trinity amongst SDA or having gone full circle did they simply arrive again at that which protestants had already believed?
My soul is much burdened, for I know what is before us. Every conceivable deception will be brought to bear upon those who have not a daily, living connection with God. 1MCP therefore the Lord has establish his people since 1844 in the pillars of our faith.
IF WE ARE THE LORD’S APPOINTED MESSENGERS, WE SHALL NOT SPRING UP WITH NEW IDEAS AND THEORIES TO CONTRADICT THE MESSAGE THAT GOD HAS GIVEN THROUGH HIS SERVANTS SINCE 1844 . AT THAT TIME MANY SOUGHT THE LORD WITH HEART AND SOUL AND VOICE. THE MEN WHOM GOD RAISED UP WERE DILIGENT SEARCHERS OF THE SCRIPTURES [Ellen G. White: The Early Elmshaven Years Volume 5 1900-1905, page 425]
The following are just a few of many examples of the pioneer’s comments on the trinity.
J.H. WAGGONER “The great mistake of Trinitarians, in arguing this subject, seems to be this: They make no distinction between a denial of a Trinity and a denial of the divinity of Christ. They see only the two extremes, between which the truth lies; and take every expression referring to the pre-existence of Christ as evidence of a Trinity. The Scriptures abundantly teach the pre-existence of Christ and his divinity; but they are entirely silent in regard to a Trinity.” The Atonement, 1872 Ed, chapter 4, “Doctrine Of A Trinity Subversive Of The Atonement” p. 165.
J.N. LOUGHBOROUGH “The word Trinity nowhere occurs in the Scriptures. The principal text supposed to teach it is 1 John 5:7, which is an interpolation. Clarke says, ‘Out of one hundred and thirteen manuscripts, the text is wanting in one hundred and twelve. It occurs in no MS. 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 Latern, held A.D. 1215.’-Com. on John 1, and remarks at close of chap.” Review and Herald, Nov. 5, 1861.
J.B. FRISBIE “We will make a few extracts, that the reader may see the broad contrast between the God of the Bible brought to light through Sabbath-keeping, and the god in the dark through Sunday-keeping. Catholic Catechism Abridged by the Rt. Rev. John Dubois, Bishop of New York. Page 5. ‘Q. Where is God? Ans. God is everywhere. Q. Does God see and know all things? A. Yes, he does know and see all things…Q. Are there more Gods than one? A. No; there is but one God. Q. Are there more persons than one in God? A Yes; in God there are three persons. Q. Which are they? A. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Q. Are there not three Gods? A. No; the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, are all but one and the same God’…These ideas well accord with those heathen philosophers…We should rather mistrust that the Sunday God [the Trinity] came from the same source that Sunday-keeping did.” Review and Herald, Feb. 28, 1854, The Sunday God, p.50.
J.N.ANDREWS “That God is the fountain and source of immortality is plain from the statement of Paul. He speaks thus of God the Father: ‘Who only hath immortality, dwell-ing in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen nor can see; to whom be honor and power everlasting; Amen.’ 1 Tim. 6:16. This text is evidently de-signed to teach that the self existent God is the only being who, of himself, possesses this wonderful nature. Others may possess it as derived from him, but he alone is the fountain of immortality. “Our Lord Jesus Christ is the source of this life to us. ‘For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.’ John 5:26. ‘As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.’ John 6:57. The Father gives us this life in His Son. ‘And 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; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.’ 1Jn 5:11,12. These Scriptures do clearly indicate that Christ is the source of endless life, and that those only have this who have Christ.” Review and Herald, Jan. 27, 1874 p.52.
Thanks to your kindness we ,can rest our minds and bodies. I am so grateful, my words come short to how happy and thankful to God and you for this wonderful blessing ,you have bestowed upon us…I will never forget ,how you let God use you, to remind me
Me that keeping faith and hope alive are worthed…Once again thank you so much.
D.M. CANRIGHT “Text: ‘But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things.’ 1 Cor.8:6… “At the time when the Bible was written, nearly the whole world had adopted either Polytheism or Pantheism. Polytheism taught that there were many gods…In opposition to that, Moses and the prophets set forth the grand fact that this doctrine of many gods was a lie, and that there was but one God, Jehovah the living God… “‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.’ Dt. 6:4. Here we strike the key-note of the doctrine of the Deity. ‘The Lord our God is ONE Lord.’ Not many, not a thou-sand, not a hundred, not ten, not three, but only ONE-one God… [Ex. 20:3; Dt. 4:35; 2Sam. 7:22; 2Kings 19:15; Neh. 9:6; Psa. 86:10; Isa. 43:10; Isa 44:6,8; Isa. 45:5,22; quoted] No comments of ours can make these declarations plainer. There is just one eternal God and no more,-one who is the Author and Father of all things.“Turning to the New Testament, we find the same doctrine taught just as plainly as in the Old. Neither Moses nor the prophets ever set forth the unity of God more strongly than Jesus himself. He taught it and reiterated it many times. Thus he says: ‘The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel: The lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul…And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth; for there is one God; and there is none other but he.’ Mark 12:29-32. “The scribe said, ‘There is one God, and there is none other but he.’ To this declaration Jesus assented. ‘And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.’ John 17:3 Jesus says his Father is the only true God. But Trinitarians contradict this by saying that the Son and Holy Ghost are just as much the true God as the Father is… [1 Cor. 8:4-6 quoted] “Says the great apostle, ‘There is none other God but one,’ and ‘there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things.’ He tells us who this one God is. It is not the Holy Ghost; it is not Jesus Christ, but it is the Father. Gal. 3:20; 1 Tim. 1:17.
There is, then, only one wise God. 1 Tim. 2:5; Dt. 6:4. Those who are familiar with the Bible will see that I have selected only a few of the plainest texts upon this doctrine. How the doctrine of the Trinity, of three Gods, can be reconciled with these positive statements I do not know. It seems to me that nothing can be framed which more clearly denies the doctrine of the Trinity, than do the Scriptures above quoted.
“And then the Bible never uses the phrases, ‘Trinity,’ ‘triune God,’ ‘three in one,’ ‘the holy three,” ‘God the Holy Ghost,’ etc. but it does emphatically say there is only one God, the Father. And every argument to prove three Gods in one person, God the Fa-ther, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, all of them of one substance, and every way equal to each other, and all three forming but one, contradicts itself, contradicts reason, and contradicts the Bible… “God is self-existent, and the source and author of all things,-of angels, of men, of all the worlds,-of everything. Thus Paul says, ‘For of him and through him and to him, are all things; to whom be glory forever. Amen.’ Rom. 11:36. “He is the source of all life and immortality. Thus, speaking of the Father, Paul says, ‘Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.’ 1 Tim. 6:16. Notice that this glorious God is the only one who, in himself, possesses immortality. That is, he is the fountain-head, the source of all life and immortality… “‘For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in him-self.’ John 5:26. This statement is unequivocal. The Father has life in himself, and in his great love for his Son he bestows the same gift upon him; but it will be no-ticed that the Father is the one from whom the gift came… “How carefully Paul dis-tinguishes between the Father and the Son. He says, ‘The Father, of whom are all things,’ and ‘Jesus Christ, by whom are all things.’ The Father is the source of every-thing. Jesus is the one through whom all things are done. All the authority, the glory, and the power of Christ he received from his Father…
It is interesting that Ellen White does not use the word trinity– is that significant or is it so as to avoid controversy.
The pioneers of the Seventh– Day Adventist church did not believe in the Trinity but rather like Washburn called the teaching of the Trinity a hideous monster.
J.S. Washburn (1863-1955; a retired Adventist minister and contemporary of Ellen White — He was converted by J. N. Andrews at 11, baptized by James White at 12 and began preaching Ad-ventism at 21), “The doctrine of the trinity is a cruel, heathen monstrosity, removing Jesus from His true position of Divine Saviour and mediator….This monstrous doctrine transplanted from heathenism into the Roman, papal church is seeking to intrude its evil pres-ence into the teachings of the Third Angel’s Message.”
In 1941, the Baptismal Vow was revised to include the trinitarian statement (LeRoy E. Froom contributed to this revision as he did to the book questions on doc-trine.) ‘Further debate broke out between Andreasen and Froom in February 1957 after Froom published an article on the atonement in Ministry magazine. In this article Froom argued that the atonement was a “full and complete sacrifice.’
The power of divinity was in a commandment keeping people– the power to keep the commandment was in the Divinity of Christ also. But you say we are a commandment keeping people! Are we really? Are we following the great commission to save souls, is the worship to God one of reverence or contemporary convenience? Did we not in rejecting the humanity and divinity of God reject God himself by a power in the life to transform?
Desmond Ford has brought forward into SDA circles a forensic Christ– whose merits one relies on but the merits of Christ are not invested to us– in essence the gospel of Protestantism which was gathering strength out of the great darkness of erroneous teachings. Genesis 3:17…. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed [is] the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat [of] it all the days of thy life; Man would have a role to play. A not so easy role in his salvation. A role that would make him dig deep in hard ground, not the conventional life of the world with a foot in both the visions and experiences of the world and a view of a superman figure with powers beyond us—that was a nice read but really that’s about where it ends. Hebrews 2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like 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.
The Divinity of The Father and the Son was spelt out at Mount Sinai.
The Divinity of Jesus is the power of God to uplift humanity.
“A belief in this doctrine (the Godhead) is very important. Indeed, it cannot be too strongly insisted upon. Jesus even declares that the knowledge of this truth is necessary to eternal life. ‘And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.’ John 17:3. “We must know the Father as the only true God. Then there is no true God besides the Father. But we must also know his Son Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. How simple and plain is this doctrine, and how abundantly sustained by the Holy Bible.” Review and Herald, Aug. 29, 1878;
The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders [E.J.] Waggoner and [A. T.] Jones. This message was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. It presented justification through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God. {LDE 200.1}
E.J. WAGGONER “Christ and His Righteousness.” “We are mindful of Paul’s words, that ‘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 Cor. 8:6); just as we have already quoted, that it was by Him that God made the worlds. All things proceed ulti-mately from God, the Father; even Christ Himself proceeded and came forth from the Father…” Christ and His Righteousness p. 19.
Elder L.E. Froom declares, “An increasing stream of literature setting forth the clear principles and provisions of Righteousness by Faith continued to flow from our publishing houses following 1888 – conspicuously that of Dr. E. J. Waggoner’s The Righteousness of Christ (1890), a 98-page Pacific Press book setting forth his precise teaching and phrasing at Minneapolis, based upon shorthand reports of Jessie F. Moser, taken down at the Confer-ence, which book was likewise reprinted in Australia in 1893, and then in Continental Europe in Hamburg and Basel as well.” Eternal Verities Trium-phant, p. 61. This book appeared with at least three different, yet synony-mous titles, The Righteousness of Christ, Christ and His Righteousness (in Australia), and Christ Our Righteous-ness (in England).
In the book Christ and His Righteousness, we find chapters such as
How shall we consider Christ?
Is Christ a created being?
A.T. JONES 1890 “Again, speaking of the appearing of Jesus Christ, the Word says: ‘In His times He shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see.’ 1 Tim. 6:15-16. Christ has brought this immortality to light…Now as immortality is to be sought for, and as God is the only one who has it, and as Christ is the only one who has brought it to light, it follows that immortality must be sought of God, through Christ.” Bible Questions and Answers Concerning Man, pp. 3-4.
“Some early Adventists struggled with the doctrine of the Trinity. Today, the church has taken a firm stand on the doctrine. How does this change over time reveal to us the unfolding nature of truth? In your own experience, how have you grown in your understanding of truth? What beliefs did you once hold that, today, you no longer accept?” ‘Glimpses of God’ Sabbath school quarterly 2012. This statement can be a little misleading. Has the church taken a firm stand? In truth? Those that follow anything similar to the pioneers of the SDA church would be disfellowshiped. Do we understand such teachings and attitude as progressive. The pioneers were strong anti– trinitarians.
Do we have a right to question the person, divinity and humanity of Christ? Yes ,it is by these means of controversy that our minds and are brought to focus on important issues. It is by controversial means that the Sabbath truth will come to the forefront for the world to consider and by that which Satan causes controversy on Biblical matters we should see the battle for the most important matters that when unraveled presents marvelous light.
Why would the nature of God be under controversy in a people who claim to be God’s own? Answer is, the nature and the thoughts and feelings of man are at variance with God. The reality is that man does not want to be like Christ or has never realised that his thoughts and feeling are at variance with God and could be otherwise. 2 Timothy 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. The power can be denied for it was never realised and experienced by faith– fullness.
Before His death the Saviour was deeply anxious for His disciples to understand for what purpose His divinity was united to humanity. He came to the world to display the glory of God, that man might be uplifted by its restoring power. God was manifested in Him that He might be manifested in them. DA 665. The power of the Holy Spirit is denied through a denial of the humanity or divinity of Christ through which the power of the gospel is extended to us, to be over comers as He was an over comer while on earth.
Divinity– could only uplift the fallen nature of man, whose nature is in rebellion against his own creation.
(This rebellion is evident in all the war and chaos world wide. With amazement heavenly intelligences saw the soon result of the fall– Gen 4:10 And God said to Cain, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood Abel crieth unto me from the ground.)
How Christians speak with derision against such a point as the humanity of Christ connected to his Divinity is both amazing and Satanic in origin. So where there is smoke there is fire. The very weapon against demonic forces that would rescue men and women from their fallen condition, has its key in the divinity and humanity of Christ. A revelation of these attributes is what gives us an appreciation of who God is and follows on to conversion.
The doctrine of the Trinity which was established in the church of Rome by the council of Nicea. d. 325. This doctrine destroys the personality of God, and His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. The infamous measures by which it was forced upon the church, which appear upon the pages of ecclesiastical history– J N Andrews
Thus it is, as given in the words of Cardinal Gibbons:— We affirm that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Word of God, who in His divine nature is, from all eternity, begotten of the Father, consubstantial with Him, was in the fullness of time again begotten, by being born of the virgin, thus taking to himself from her maternal womb a human nature of the same substance with hers. {January 15, 1901 AT Jones ARSH 40}
As far as the sublime mystery of the incarnation can be reflected in the natural order, the blessed Virgin, under the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, by communicating to the Second Person of the adorable Trinity, as mothers do, a true human nature of the same substance with her own, is thereby really and truly His mother.”—”Faith of Our Fathers,” pages 198, 199. {January 15, 1901 AT
Jones, ARSH 40}
Now put these two things together. First, we have the nature of Mary defined as being not only “very different from the rest of mankind,” but “more sublime and glorious than all natures;” thus putting her infinitely beyond any real likeness or relationship to mankind as we really are.
Next, we have Jesus described as taking from her a human nature of the same substance as hers.
From this theory it therefore follows as certainly as two and two make four, that in His human nature the Lord Jesus is “very different” from mankind; indeed, His nature is not human nature at all, but divine.
That is the Roman Catholic doctrine concerning the human nature of Christ. But Catholic faith is not the faith of Christ; it is the faith of Antichrist.{January 15, 1901 AT Jones, ARSH 40}
You ask what we teach about the Trinity. Inasmuch as we find no such expression in the Scriptures, we do not teach anything about it. But as to the Being of God,-the Godhead,-Divinity as revealed in the Father, the Word (the Son), and the Holy Spirit, we believe and teach just what the Bible says, and nothing else. No man can by searching find out God. No creature can understand the Almighty to perfection. The finite mind cannot comprehend infinity. Therefore, in discussions about the Trinity, about the nature of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, are manifestations of gross presumption. {February 6, 1902 EJW, PTUK 83.12}
The Trinity of Roman Catholic teaching is a vague misconception. The mother of God is a falsehood that destroys what the divinity of Christ should mean to us. It takes away the meaning of the The Word or God made flesh and abandons us to the role of priests chosen to intercede with one altogether different from ourselves.
Many Seventh-Day Adventists are divided on the nature of Christ– His divine and human nature. The result must only be a confused concept of matters of salvation and the gospel.
In the Christian/ Jewish realm the Father and His authority was never under dispute nor was it in heaven. But Lucifer claimed an equal right with the Son. “I will be like the most High Isaiah 14:14
’ I would suggest that to a greater extent, the Old and New Testament is a record of the Divinity– OT and Humanity– NT of Jesus Christ. Jesus identifies Himself to Moses and then in the New Testament times as ‘I AM’
“All through the pages of sacred history, where the dealings of God with His chosen people are recorded, there are burning traces of the great I AM….All the communion between heaven and the fallen race has been through Christ….Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last.” (GAG 43) Whatever we read about Yahweh in the Old Testament we are reading about Christ. In Isaiah 40:28 Yahweh is “the everlasting God,” “the Creator of the ends of the earth.” PP 367
The Father identifies Jesus at His baptism as my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Matthew 3:17
Ps 2:7 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou [art] my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
Heb 1:4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
1:5 For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Fa-ther, and he shall be to me a Son?
1:6 And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.
The term and concept of the Trinity, first introduced by theologians in the third century, was catapulted into the limelight at the Council of Nicaea, 325 AD. The Emperor Constantine gathered the religious leaders of the world in an effort to achieve unity on the nature of the Godhead.
In the Roman Rite Mass, the Latin text of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, with “Deum de Deo” (God from God) and “Filioque” (and from the Son), phrases absent in the original text, was previously the only form used for the “profession of faith”
Some evangelical and other Christians consider the Nicene Creed helpful and to a certain extent authoritative, but not infallibly so in view of their belief that only Scripture is truly authoritative.[25][26]Other groups, such as the Church of the New Jerusalem, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses explicitly reject some of the statements in the Creed.[27][28][29][30] Where do Seventh-Day Adventists stand on this?
“Assembling under the sanction of a united church and state, that famous gathering commanded the submission of believers to new doctrines. The burning question of the decades succeeding the Council of Nicaea was how to state the relations of the Three Persons of the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Council had decided, and the papacy had appropriated the decision as its own. The personalities of the Trinity were not confounded, and the substance was not divided. The Roman clergy claimed that Christianity had found in the Greek word homoousios (in English, consubstantiality) an appropriate term to express this relationship.
“Then the papal party proceeded to call those who would not subscribe to this teaching, Arians, while they took to themselves the title of Trinitarians. An erroneous charge was circulated that all who were called Arians believed that Christ was a created being. This stirred up the indignation of those who were not guilty of the charge. “It will be interesting to examine for a moment this word, this term, which has split many a church and has caused many a sincere Christian to be burned at the stake. In English the word is‘consubstantial,‘ connoting that more than one person inhabit the same substance without divi-sion or separation. The original term in Greek is homoousios, from homos, meaning ‘identical,’ and ousia, the word for ‘being.’
“However, a great trouble arose, since there are two terms in Greek of historical fame. The first homos, meaning ‘identical,’ and the second, homoios, meaning ‘similar’ or ‘like unto,’ had both of them a stormy history. The spelling of these words is much alike. The difference in meaning, when applied to the Godhead, is bewildering to simple-hearted believers. Nevertheless, those who would think in terms of homoiousian, or ‘similar,’ instead of homoousian, or ‘identical,’ were promptly labeled as heretics and Arians by the clergy.” Wilkinson, Truth Triumphant, pp. 91,92.
Benjamin Wilkinson in a letter to Dr. T.S. Teters 1936, “Replying to your letter of October 13 regarding the doctrine of the Trinity, I will say that Seventh Day Adventists do not, and never have accepted the dark, mysterious, Catholic doctrine of the Trinity.”
Council of Nicaea stated-
“But those who say: ‘There was a time when he was not;’ and ‘He was not before he was made;’ and ‘He was made out of nothing,’ or ‘He is of another substance’ or ‘essence,’ or ‘The Son of God is created,’ or ‘changeable,’ or ‘alterable’—they are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic Church.]
They said that the Godhead consists of three personalities and one essence or substance, using very philosophical terms.” or Platonic terms. THERE APPEARS TO BE TRUTH IN THIS STATEMENT but is the trinity expressed by the Roman church true?
A lesson in Divinity and our role—equality under submission
Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; be-cause I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
An apparent contradiction-
A woman has a different role in life though equal with a male both are under the bonds of love yet both have very different roles to play. This is a very different concept to that of the world. Ps 82:6 I have said, Ye [are] gods; and all of you [are] children of the most High.
Ephesians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 5:24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so [let] the wives [be] to their own husbands in every thing. 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:
Expansion- New and distinct order
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. {FLB 47.2}
All the communion between heaven and the fallen race has been through Christ. It was the Son of God that gave to our first parents the promise of redemption. It was He who revealed Himself to the patriarchs. Adam . . . understood the gospel. . . . {FLB 47.3}
Divinity was showing Himself to an unfallen universe through the example of those whom He made after His own image.
John 1:3 All things were made by him (Jesus); and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Col 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or domin-ions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Pioneers of the SDA said that Christ was a created being. Is this a true statement?
Expansion– E G white’s comment on the meaning of begotten
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 di-vine perfection. In him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. {ST, May 30, 1895 par. 3} Arian view??????
The union of divinity with humanity brings to the fallen race a value which we scarcely comprehend. The human and the divine were united in Christ, in order that he might rep-resent those who should believe in him.
The Father gave to the Son all power and authority to create the uni-verse– there is one God who created the universe– Jesus Christ but there is more to this. Philippians 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, not only equal but as we just saw in Colossians created all things without which the heavens and earth have no existence.
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image
2:7 And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground
Expansion-
The Father and Son had a plan, through Christ that plan was executed
In the beginning, God was revealed in all the works of creation. It was Christ that spread the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth. It was His hand that hung the worlds in space, and fashioned the flowers of the field. “His strength setteth fast the mountains.” “The sea is His, and He made it.” Psalm 65:6; 95:5. It was He that filled the earth with beauty, and the air with song. And upon all things in earth, and air, and sky, He wrote the message of the Father’s love. {DA 20.1}
Circuit of life, the tide of love
Divinity was His right given to Him through the Father– He has life in Himself– the life given to us by the Father was through Christ.
Jesus declared, “I am the resurrection, and the life.” In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, un-derived. “He that hath the Son hath life.” 1 John 5:12. The divinity of Christ is the believer’s as-surance of eternal life
All things Christ received from God (the Father), but He took to give. So 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. {DA 21.2}
Philippians 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, not only equal but as we just saw in Colossians created all things without which the heavens and earth have no existence.
Job 38:28 Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?
Genesis 5:4 And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:
John 10:30 I and [my] Father are one.
10:31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever be-lieveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Exodus 3:14 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.
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. “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 depths” (Proverbs 8:22-27). {LHU 16.4}
Expansion- The Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, existed from eternity, a distinct per-son, 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. {1SM 247.4}
“He was equal with God, infinite and omnipotent”
There are light and glory in the truth that Christ was One with the Father before the foundation of the world was laid. This is the light shining in a dark place, making it resplendent with divine, original glory. This truth, infinitely mysterious in itself, explains other mysterious and otherwise unexplainable truths, while it is enshrined in light unapproachable and incomprehensible (RH April 5, 1906).
God exists outside the human concept of time, but also inside of time.
Christ’s life on earth was in fulfillment of the plan that had existed from the days of eternity. 5BC chapter 1
Paradox– how could Christ exist from eternity yet begotten of the Father? Human reason-ing comes in here to explain but is mere speculation
Deut 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God [is] one LORD: The Jews rejecting Jesus, rejecting the Holy Spirit say there is one God and no Christ. The Jehovah’s witnesses say there is one God Jehovah and that is the Father.
There are light and glory in the truth that Christ was one with the Father before the foun-dation of the world was laid. This is the light shining in a dark place, making it resplen-dent with divine, original glory. This truth, infinitely mysterious in itself, explains other mysterious and otherwise unexplainable truths, while it is enshrined in light, unap-proachable and incomprehensible. (Selected Messages, book 1, pp. 247, 248).
“In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived.” (DA 530) “Christ is the pre-existent, self-existent Son of God….He assures us that there never was a time when He was not in close fellowship with the eternal God….He is the eternal, self-existent Son.” (Ev 615) “From all eternity Christ was united with the Fa-ther.” (5BC 1115) “Christ was God essentially, and in the highest sense. He was with God from all eternity.” (RH April 5, 1906) Is this not a paradox!
What is that light and glory then? Is there a glimpse? I would sug-gest there is no wisdom or help in this knowledge except we seek to stand in moral independence, free from sin, in the strength of a character moulded after the divine similitude.
Zech 3:8 I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH. “A Son begotten in the express image of the Father’s person” ST May 13 1895
Before the entrance of sin among the angels: 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. By Christ, the Father wrought in the creation of all heavenly beings.–The Great Controversy, p. 493.
Attributes of Christ-
 Eternal—unknown quantity and unfathomed by mortals. This 20th century revealed some of this in the exploration of space
 Self-existent— It is God who supplies the daily needs of all His creatures. . . . {1MCP 247.4} he needs no other to supply his existence for life is in Himself
 Pre-existent– He lived before all creation existed
 Begotten– given some rendering of the meaning by came forth
Came forth– came from the Father . Waggoner says He is begotten, not created. As to when he was begotten is not for us to inquire nor could our minds grasp it if we were told. John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath de-clared [him]… But the point is that Christ is a begotten Son and not a created subject. Christ and His Righteousness by E J Waggoner p29
One with the Father—> a very crude presentation of this concept is the budding of a micro-organism. We really cannot say or comprehend time and space before planets and earth and space existed. Human birth is a limited representation for the great ‘I AM.’
Another paradox—How can God be a Spirit if He is a person and has a throne. John 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Holy Spirit is both the Spirit of the Father and of Christ– to explain the Holy Spirit as far as Christ himself did as the wind John 3:8 and by His attributes is as far as we can go John 14
The Holy Spirit communicates with a million perhaps greater than we could contemplate minds personally in conversation. The Spirit also came forth from the Father and the Son. The Father and the Son can communicate with creation through the Spirit and cre-ate. If the Spirit was not a person how could He thus converse with us. While Christ laid aside His divinity He did so to share it with us for our uplifting, therefore he said I will pray the Father that he may send you another comforter.
Publish the truth, do not publish error. Do not try to explain in regard to the person-ality of God. You cannot give any further explanation than the Bible has given. Hu-man theories regarding Him are good for nothing. Do not soil your minds by study-ing misleading theories of the enemy. E. G. White, Counsels to Writers and Edi-tors (Nashville, Tennessee: Southern Publishing Association, 1946), pp.93, 94. Cit-ing Letter 179, 1904.
Revelation 10:4 And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.
The group Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) touted a 1994 statement, “The Gift of Salvation,” in which several prominent Roman Catholics affirmed “justification by faith alone.”
The long debate over how Protestants should view the Roman Catholic Church has received sev-eral jolts of intensity in the past 15 years. The group Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) touted a 1994 statement, “The Gift of Salvation,” in which several prominent Ro-man Catholics affirmed “justification by faith alone.” The unofficial statement predated an official agreement be-tween the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation in 1999, called “The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.” The church allowed that anathemas the Council of Trent delivered in the mid-1500s do not apply to Protestants who agree with the joint declaration.
Righteousness by faith alone? Catholics affirm? Doesn’t quite sound right does it
Has not there been ongoing controversy over the issue justification by faith in the church, from where do these influences come? Righteousness by faith alone is often a misconception and all misconceptions must inevitably lead us back to Rome.
Is this the righteousness and faith or the Saviour we place our faith in? I say no but only by a Saviour whose nature was blended with ours that we maybe uplifted, that transformation might take place.
The fiery darts of the enemy are aimed right at the very foundation of the end time message- ‘the everlasting gospel’.
1 John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: be-cause many false prophets are gone out into the world.
4:2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
4:3 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. Note the NIV and many other Bibles state ‘every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is from God..’ However a critical point is missing.
Now put these two things together. First, we have the nature of Mary defined as being not only “very different from the rest of mankind,” but “more sublime and glorious than all natures;” thus putting her infinitely beyond any real likeness or relationship to man-kind as we really are.
Not All Evangelicals and Catholics Together
Protestant debate on justification is reigniting questions about Rome.
Next, we have Jesus described as taking from her a human nature of the same sub-stance as hers.
From this theory it therefore follows as certainly as two and two make four, that in His human nature the Lord Jesus is “very different” from mankind; indeed, His nature is not human nature at all, but divine.
That is the Roman Catholic doctrine concerning the human nature of Christ. But Catholic faith is not the faith of Christ; it is the faith of Antichrist.{January 15, 1901 AT Jones, ARSH 40}
It was Mary’s linage that connected Christ with man’s fallen nature. The Trinity of Catholic teaching is to place trust in a divine mother Mary and a divine Son Jesus through the mediation of a human priest.
Our mediator the Bible tells us is through a priest divine but touched by the feelings and thoughts of our weakness as fallen humans yet never entering into sin or the propen-sities that come with participation in sin.
Hebrews 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as [we are, yet] without sin.
Jesus is to be our perfect example, His faith was obedient to the will of the Father.
QUESTION
Is there one God or is there two or three? Psalms 82;1 God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.
One God the Father– then who is Christ?- ‘my servant the branch’- AN EXTENSION OF HIS PERSON ,YET HIS OWN PERSON.
Then is Christ God? Yes ,through Christ the Father created all things. Our existence be-longs to Christ. Shall we say that Christ is any less than the Father when He created all that exists?
This is my Son in whom I AM well pleased.
Was Christ brought to view in the Old Testament? He lead Israel in their wanderings etc —His death was illustrated by Abraham and Isaac.
Genesis 22:10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
22:11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here [am] I.
22:12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only [son] from me.
22:13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind [him] a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
The Holy Spirit who then is He? Another branch of the Father AND Son. The details of the Holy Spirit are not given.
There is one God– The Father– the source of all
There is only one who has created all – Jesus Christ
There is one who communicates constantly between all intelligences– The Holy Spirit
Then who are we? Psalms 82:6 I have said, Ye [are] gods; and all of you [are] chil-dren of the most High. Those that join the divine nature of Jesus are given life everlast-ing life and judgement. They have been given that right through the righteousness of Christ.
The special light given to John which was expressed in the seven thunders was a delineation of events which would tran-spire under the first and second angels’ messages. It was not best for the people to know these things, for their faith must neces-sarily be tested. In the order of God most wonderful and ad-vanced truths would be proclaimed. The first and second angels’ messages were to be proclaimed, but no further light was to be revealed before these messages had done their specific work. This is represented by the angel standing with one foot on the sea, proclaiming with a most solemn oath that time should be no longer. {7BC 971.6}
Further light cannot be given until we be ready to accept, proclaim and advance. How can we advance if we reject-
 The humanity and divinity of Christ
 The gospel
 The avenue for advancement, the health message
These have been substituted by-
A Christ that has a divine nature and therefore is altogether different from our own. This is a road leading to Rome.
A people living the perfect will of God, without sin and without a mediator just prior to Christ’s return, is graphically portrayed by E G White in the book Great Controversy, yet many members say this is a false teaching amongst many Seventh Day Adventists. Detractors in the church say its a false teaching of Historical Adventists, then why not say it is a false teaching of E G White. At root of the problem is faith, self and ones own ideas con-cerning inspiration.
Moral excellence has not been sought by following Christ’s instruction to find for the families and the future a rural retreat. The home may even be in a rural location but the wickedness of the city is beamed in through the air waves and thus the thoughts and feeling are imbued that are not of Christ.
The gospel presented is often lip service to acknowledge a change of nature is necessary but in reality it is behaviour modification. The service of heart for the church and the world is not as it ought to be.
The health message– a test of the faith of God’s people is ad-ministered through allopathic medicine– the very avenue that E G White warned against. How can the three angels message about
The creator be expounded through an international drug com-pany? It says nothing of a Saviour and His healing means
At the heart of the gospel is the nature of God
Roman Catholic practice emphasises the divinity of Christ with salvation by works and penance. The Eucharist- ‘The Catholic Church teaches that when the bread and wine are consecrated in the Eucha-rist, they cease to be bread and wine, and become, respectively, the body and blood of Christ, each of which is accompanied by the other and by Christ’s soul and divinity.’
Protestantism practice emphasises the divinity of Christ and salvation by faith in Christ alone
Seventh-day Adventist are divided as a people between a protestant belief and historical belief.
The Pioneers of whom E G White belongs emphasised the divinity and humanity of Christ as part of the gospel message to perfect His people and make them ready for translation.
I would suggest the reason for the shifting is on the heart of the matter– our belief in Christ and the application of that in the life.
In vision I saw two armies in terrible conflict. One army was led by banners bearing the world’s insignia; the other was led by the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel. Standard after stan-dard was left to trail in the dust, as company after company from the Lord’s army joined the foe, and tribe after tribe from the ranks of the enemy united with the commandment-keeping people of God. An angel flying in the midst of heaven put the standard of Emmanuel into many hands, while a mighty general cried out with a loud voice: “Come into line. Let those who are loyal to the commandments of God and the testimony of Christ now take their position. Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean, and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters. Let all who will, come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” {CET 228.1}
The SON came forth from the Father
The Father gave to the SON
The SON took to give
The SON breathed forth
The Holy Spirit took to give to us –therefore He speaks not of Himself
John 6:13 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.
16:14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show [it] unto you.
I saw that God had especially guarded the Bible; yet when copies of it were few, learned men had in some instances changed the words, thinking that they were making it more plain, when in reality they were mystifying that which was plain, by causing it to lean to their established views, which were governed by tradition. But I saw that the Word of God, as a whole, is a perfect chain, one portion linking into and ex-plaining another. True seekers for truth need not err; for not only is the Word of God plain and simple in declaring the way of life, but the Holy Spirit is given as a guide in understanding the way to life therein revealed. {EW 220.2} http://www.calltorepent.com/trinity/
Publish the truth, do not publish error. Do not try to explain in regard to the personality of God. You cannot give any further ex-planation than the Bible has given. Human theories regarding Him are good for nothing. Do not soil your minds by studying misleading theories of the enemy.1
On the other hand, she indicated that there are certain truths on the nature of God revealed in the Bible which are available to those who prayerfully seek to understand them:
The revelation of Himself that God has given in His Word is for our study. This we may seek to understand. But beyond this we are not to penetrate. The highest intellect may tax itself until it is wearied out on conjectures re-garding the nature of God, but the effort will be fruitless. This problem has not been given us to solve. No human mind can comprehend God. None are to indulge in speculation regarding His nature. Here silence is eloquence. The Omniscient One is above discussion.2
There are light and glory in the truth that Christ was One with the Father before the foundation of the world was laid. This is the light shining in a dark place, making it resplendent with divine, original glory. This truth, infinitely mysterious in itself, explains other mysterious and otherwise unexplainable truths, while it is enshrined in light unapproachable and incomprehensible.5
Thus the oneness between the Father and the Son is declared to be a myste-rious union not yet explained to mortals
“I and my Father are one.”
It might be asked of the Arian how Christ could be inferior to the Father and yet be “all the fullness of the Godhead manifested.” gane
But turning from all lesser representations, we behold God in Jesus. Looking unto Jesus we see that it is the glory of our God to give. “I do nothing of Myself,” said Christ; “the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father.” “I seek not Mine own glory,” but the glory of Him that sent Me. John 8:28; 6:57; 8:50; 7:18. In these words is set forth the great principle which is the law of life for the universe. All things Christ received from God, but He took to give. So 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. {DA 21.2}
In the beginning, God was revealed in all the works of creation. It was Christ that spread the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth. It was His hand that hung the worlds in space, and fashioned the flowers of the field. “His strength setteth fast the mountains.” “The sea is His, and He made it.” Psalm 65:6; 95:5. It was He that filled the earth with beauty, and the air with song. And upon all things in earth,
No More Night The timeless theme, Earth and Heaven will pass away. It’s not a dream, God will make all things new that day. Gone is the curse from which I stumbled and fell. Evil is banished to eternal hell. No more night. No more pain. No more tears. Never crying again. And praises to the great “I AM.” We will live in the light of the risen Lamb. See all around, now the nations bow down to sing. The only sound is the praises to Christ, our King. Slowly the names from the book are read. I know the King, so there’s no need to dread. No more night. No more pain. No more tears. Never crying again. And praises to the great “I AM.” We will live in the light of the risen Lamb. See over there, there’s a mansion, oh, that’s prepared just for me, Where I will live with my savior eternally. No more night. No more pain. No more tears. Never crying again. And praises to the great “I AM.” We will live in the light of the risen Lamb. All praises to the great “I AM.” We’re gonna live in the light of the risen Lamb.Proudly Trinitarian or no?
The Universe goes beyond the Milky Way galaxy
Edwin Hubble’s arrival at Mount Wilson, California, in 1919 coincided roughly with the completion of the 100-inch (2.5 m) Hooker Telescope, then the world’s largest telescope. At that time, the prevailing view of the cosmos was that the universe consisted entirely of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Study says every star has planets
By Jason Palmer
Every star twinkling in the night sky plays host to at least one planet, a new study suggests.
That implies there are some 10 billion Earth-sized planets in our galaxy.
Using a technique called gravitational microlensing, an international team found a handful of exoplanets that imply the existence of billions more.
The findings were released at the 219th American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting, alongside reports of the smallest “exoplanets” ever discovered.
The inhabitants of the place were of all sizes; they were noble, ma-jestic, and lovely. They bore the express image of Jesus, and their countenances beamed with holy joy, expressive of the freedom and happiness of the place. Early Writings EGW p40
BBC Science and environment news
A team of physicists at Cornell University has created a wrinkle in time. Actually, it’s more like a teeny tiny moth hole in time. Inside it, things can occur that are entirely un-detectable, at least to ordinary observers. It’s as if they never happened…
“It is not enough time to steal a painting from a mu-seum,” Fridman said, joking. He added that there might nevertheless be practical uses of the technology.
This phenomenon, known as “temporal cloaking,” is the latest addition to a world that once existed only in children’s literature and science fiction — a place where objects are invisible and events are unrecorded. The physics community let out a small gasp six years ago when researchers reported the first successful “spatial cloaking,” in which light is bent around an object in a way that makes it disappear from view. …By David Brown, Published: Janu-ary 4 …..so we have glimpses of God
Yet we know so very little- today we see as common thought– the very ideas of Aristotle cos-mology through Jesuit priest Georges Lemaître’s big bang theory. Evolutionary idea per-petuated through Catholic Greek philosophy. So we ask the ques-tion that god asks of man as found here in Job-
Job 38:2 Who [is] this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowl-edge? 38:3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. 38:4 Where wast thou when I laid the founda-tions of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret [things belong] unto the LORD our God: but those [things which are] revealed [belong] unto us and to our children for ever, that [we] may do all the words of this law.
Can you who are born and created find out the mysteries of eternity?
Can one who has never seen other worlds or been to another galaxies find out His ways? In the beginning did God expand the universe for the creation of this world? What does it mean to go into a never ending space and reach the other side? In other words our speculations are finite or small minded, without understanding on things God has never made plain.
The revelation of Himself that God has given in His Word is for our study. This we may seek to understand. But beyond this we are not to penetrate. The highest intellect may tax itself until it is wearied out on conjectures regarding the nature of God, but the effort will be fruitless. This prob-lem has not been given us to solve. No human mind can comprehend God. None are to indulge in speculation regarding His nature. Here silence is eloquence. The Omniscient One is above dis-cussion .
The law of God– the law of the universe
Ps 19:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork.
19:2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.
19:3 [There is] no speech nor language, [where] their voice is not heard.
19:4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
19:5 Which [is] as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, [and] rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
19:6 His going forth [is] from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
19:7 The law of the LORD [is] perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD [is] sure, making wise the simple.
The law of the heavens declare the perfection and laws of God for man– converting the heart.
Divinity
The revelation of Himself that God has given in His Word is for our study. This we may seek to understand. But beyond this we are not to penetrate. The highest intellect may tax itself until it is wearied out on conjectures regarding the nature of God, but the effort will be fruitless. This problem has not been given us to solve. No human mind can comprehend God. None are to indulge in speculation regarding His nature. Here silence is eloquence. The Omniscient One is above discussion. E. G. White, The Min-istry of Healing p. 429.
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons (Greek: ὑποστάσεις): the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. The doctrines of Arius, denying that Jesus was of the same substance as God and holding instead that he was only the highest of the orders of created beings.
JAMES WHITE: The greatest fault we can find in the Reformation is, the Re-formers stopped reforming. Had they gone on, and onward, till they had left the last vestige of Papacy behind, such as natural immortality, sprinkling, the trinity, and Sunday-keeping, the church would now be free from her unscriptural errors. (James White, February 7, 1856, Review & Herald, vol. 7, no. 19, page 148, par. 26) Did James White have to do an about face on this statement? Was this a misadventure from the Protestant stance on the Trinity? Was this a teaching brought from James’s past connection with the Christian Connection church.
Jehovah’s witnesses comes from the millerite movement and from the time of the disappointment, heavily influenced by the post disappointment advent movement.
“Jehovah’s Witnesses believe Christ to be divine in nature but do not believe him to be Almighty God. They believe Jesus had a prehuman existence as God’s first Created being and that he was the “master worker” through whom God created everything in existence. At this time he was indeed “divine” or “godlike” in nature. While on earth however, the Witnesses hold that human and not a “god-man” (part human part God). They believe he was the perfect human son of God of divine origins but fully human equal to the perfect man Adam. Since his resurrection they hold that Jesus is a mighty, glorious divine spirit, incorruptible and immortal but still subordinate to his Father. “ Source: Watchtower Sept 15, 1961
“Most of the founders of Seventh-day Adventism would not be able to join the church to-day if they had to subscribe to the denomination’s Fundamental Beliefs. More specifically, most would not be able to agree to belief number 2, which deals with the doctrine of the trin-ity.” (Ministry, Oct., 1993, p. 10).
“Adventist belief’s have changed over the years under the impact of ‘present truth’. Most star-tling is the teaching regarding Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord…… the Trinitarian understand-ing of God, now part of our fundamental beliefs, was not generally held by the early Adventists.” – Adventist Review, Jan 6, 1994. p.10.
I will ask this question– what is special about the teaching of the Trinity amongst SDA or having gone full circle did they simply arrive again at that which protestants had already believed.
My soul is much burdened, for I know what is before us. Every conceivable deception will be brought to bear upon those who have not a daily, living connection with God. 1MCP therefore the Lord has establish his people since 1844 in the pillars of our faith.
IF WE ARE THE LORD’S APPOINTED MESSENGERS, WE SHALL NOT SPRING UP WITH NEW IDEAS AND THEORIES TO CONTRADICT THE MESSAGE THAT GOD HAS GIVEN THROUGH HIS SERVANTS SINCE 1844 . AT THAT TIME MANY SOUGHT THE LORD WITH HEART AND SOUL AND VOICE. THE MEN WHOM GOD RAISED UP WERE DILIGENT SEARCHERS OF THE SCRIPTURES [Ellen G. White: The Early Elmshaven Years Volume 5 1900-1905, page 425]
The following are just a few of many examples of the pioneer’s comments on the trinity.
J.H. WAGGONER “The great mistake of Trinitarians, in arguing this subject, seems to be this: They make no distinction between a denial of a Trinity and a denial of the divin-ity of Christ. They see only the two extremes, between which the truth lies; and take every expression referring to the pre-existence of Christ as evidence of a Trinity. The Scriptures abundantly teach the pre-existence of Christ and his divinity; but they are en-tirely silent in regard to a Trinity.” The Atonement, 1872 Ed, chapter 4, “Doctrine Of A Trinity Subversive Of The Atonement” p. 165.
J.N. LOUGHBOROUGH “The word Trinity nowhere occurs in the Scriptures. The princi-pal text supposed to teach it is 1 John 5:7, which is an interpolation. Clarke says, ‘Out of one hundred and thirteen manuscripts, the text is wanting in one hundred and twelve. It occurs in no MS. 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 Latern, held A.D. 1215.’-Com. on John 1, and remarks at close of chap.” Review and Herald, Nov. 5, 1861. | back |
J.B. FRISBIE “We will make a few extracts, that the reader may see the broad contrast between the God of the Bible brought to light through Sabbath-keeping, and the god in the dark through Sunday-keeping. Catholic Catechism Abridged by the Rt. Rev. John Dubois, Bishop of New York. Page 5. ‘Q. Where is God? Ans. God is everywhere. Q. Does God see and know all things? A. Yes, he does know and see all things…Q. Are there more Gods than one? A. No; there is but one God. Q. Are there more persons than one in God? A Yes; in God there are three persons. Q. Which are they? A. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Q. Are there not three Gods? A. No; the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, are all but one and the same God’…These ideas well accord with those heathen philosophers…We should rather mistrust that the Sunday God [the Trinity] came from the same source that Sunday-keeping did.” Review and Herald, Feb. 28, 1854, The Sunday God, p.50.
J.N.ANDREWS “That God is the fountain and source of immortality is plain from the statement of Paul. He speaks thus of God the Father: ‘Who only hath immortality, dwell-ing in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen nor can see; to whom be honor and power everlasting; Amen.’ 1 Tim. 6:16. This text is evidently de-signed to teach that the self existent God is the only being who, of himself, possesses this wonderful nature. Others may possess it as derived from him, but he alone is the fountain of immortality. “Our Lord Jesus Christ is the source of this life to us. ‘For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.’ John 5:26. ‘As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.’ John 6:57. The Father gives us this life in His Son. ‘And 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; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.’ 1Jn 5:11,12. These Scriptures do clearly indicate that Christ is the source of endless life, and that those only have this who have Christ.” Review and Herald, Jan. 27, 1874 p.52.
Thanks to your kindness we ,can rest our minds and bodies. I am so grateful, my words come short to how happy and thankful to God and you for this wonderful blessing ,you have bestowed upon us…I will never forget ,how you let God use you, to remind me
Me that keeping faith and hope alive are worthed…Once again thank you so much.
D.M. CANRIGHT “Text: ‘But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things.’ 1 Cor.8:6… “At the time when the Bible was written, nearly the whole world had adopted either Polytheism or Pantheism. Polytheism taught that there were many gods…In opposition to that, Moses and the prophets set forth the grand fact that this doctrine of many gods was a lie, and that there was but one God, Jehovah the living God… “‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.’ Dt. 6:4. Here we strike the key-note of the doctrine of the Deity. ‘The Lord our God is ONE Lord.’ Not many, not a thou-sand, not a hundred, not ten, not three, but only ONE-one God… [Ex. 20:3; Dt. 4:35; 2Sam. 7:22; 2Kings 19:15; Neh. 9:6; Psa. 86:10; Isa. 43:10; Isa 44:6,8; Isa. 45:5,22; quoted] No comments of ours can make these declarations plainer. There is just one eternal God and no more,-one who is the Author and Father of all things.
“Turning to the New Testament, we find the same doctrine taught just as plainly as in the Old. Neither Moses nor the prophets ever set forth the unity of God more strongly than Jesus himself. He taught it and reiterated it many times. Thus he says: ‘The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel: The lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul…And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth; for there is one God; and there is none other but he.’ Mark 12:29-32. “The scribe said, ‘There is one God, and there is none other but he.’ To this declaration Jesus assented. ‘And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.’ John 17:3 Jesus says his Father is the only true God. But Trinitarians contradict this by saying that the Son and Holy Ghost are just as much the true God as the Father is… [1 Cor. 8:4-6 quoted] “Says the great apostle, ‘There is none other God but one,’ and ‘there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things.’ He tells us who this one God is. It is not the Holy Ghost; it is not Jesus Christ, but it is the Father. Gal. 3:20; 1 Tim. 1:17.
There is, then, only one wise God. 1 Tim. 2:5; Dt. 6:4. Those who are familiar with the Bible will see that I have selected only a few of the plainest texts upon this doctrine. How the doctrine of the Trinity, of three Gods, can be reconciled with these positive statements I do not know. It seems to me that nothing can be framed which more clearly denies the doctrine of the Trinity, than do the Scriptures above quoted.
“And then the Bible never uses the phrases, ‘Trinity,’ ‘triune God,’ ‘three in one,’ ‘the holy three,” ‘God the Holy Ghost,’ etc. but it does emphatically say there is only one God, the Father. And every argument to prove three Gods in one person, God the Fa-ther, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, all of them of one substance, and every way equal to each other, and all three forming but one, contradicts itself, contradicts reason, and contradicts the Bible… “God is self-existent, and the source and author of all things,-of angels, of men, of all the worlds,-of everything. Thus Paul says, ‘For of him and through him and to him, are all things; to whom be glory forever. Amen.’ Rom. 11:36. “He is the source of all life and immortality. Thus, speaking of the Father, Paul says, ‘Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.’ 1 Tim. 6:16. Notice that this glorious God is the only one who, in himself, possesses immortality. That is, he is the fountain-head, the source of all life and immortality… “‘For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in him-self.’ John 5:26. This statement is unequivocal. The Father has life in himself, and in his great love for his Son he bestows the same gift upon him; but it will be no-ticed that the Father is the one from whom the gift came… “How carefully Paul dis-tinguishes between the Father and the Son. He says, ‘The Father, of whom are all things,’ and ‘Jesus Christ, by whom are all things.’ The Father is the source of every-thing. Jesus is the one through whom all things are done. All the authority, the glory, and the power of Christ he received from his Father…
It is interesting that Ellen White does not use the word trinity– is that significant or is it so as to avoid controversy.
The pioneers of the Seventh– Day Adventist church did not believe in the Trinity but rather like Washburn called the teaching of the Trinity a hideous monster.
J.S. Washburn (1863-1955; a retired Adventist minister and contemporary of Ellen White — He was converted by J. N. Andrews at 11, baptized by James White at 12 and began preaching Ad-ventism at 21), “The doctrine of the trinity is a cruel, heathen monstrosity, removing Jesus from His true position of Divine Saviour and mediator….This monstrous doctrine transplanted from heathenism into the Roman, papal church is seeking to intrude its evil pres-ence into the teachings of the Third Angel’s Message.”
In 1941, the Baptismal Vow was revised to include the trinitarian statement (LeRoy E. Froom contributed to this revision as he did to the book questions on doc-trine.) ‘Further debate broke out between Andreasen and Froom in February 1957 after Froom published an article on the atonement in Ministry magazine. In this arti-cle Froom argued that the atonement was a “full and complete sacrifice.’
The power of divinity was in a commandment keeping people– the power to keep the commandment was in the Divinity of Christ also. But you say we are a commandment keeping people! Are we really. Are we following the great commission to save souls, is the wor-ship to God one of reverence or contemporary convenience? Did we not in rejecting the human-ity and divinity of God reject God himself by a power in the life to transform.
Desmond Ford has brought forward into SDA circle a forensic Christ– whose merits one relies on but the merits of Christ are not invested to us– in essence the gospel of Protestantism which was gathering strength out great darkness of erroneous teachings. Genesis 3:17…. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed [is] the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat [of] it all the days of thy life; Man would have a role to play. A not so easy role in his salvation. A role that would make him dig deep in hard ground, not the conventional life of the world with a foot in both the visions and experiences of the world and a view of a superman figure with powers beyond us—that was a nice read but really that’s about where it ends. Hebrews 2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like 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.
The Divinity of The Father and the Son was spelt out at Mount Sinai.
The Divinity of Jesus is the power of God to uplift humanity.
“A belief in this doctrine is very important. Indeed, it cannot be too strongly insisted upon. Jesus even declares that the knowledge of this truth is necessary to eternal life. ‘And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.’ John 17:3. “We must know the Father as the only true God. Then there is no true God besides the Father. But we must also know his Son Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. How simple and plain is this doctrine, and how abundantly sustained by the Holy Bible.” Review and Herald, Aug. 29, 1878;
The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious mes-sage to His people through Elders [E.J.] Waggoner and [A. T.] Jones. This message was to bring more promi-nently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacri-fice for the sins of the whole world. It presented justifi-cation through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God. {LDE 200.1}
E.J. WAGGONER “Christ and His Righteousness.” “We are mindful of Paul’s words, that ‘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 Cor. 8:6); just as we have already quoted, that it was by Him that God made the worlds. All things proceed ulti-mately from God, the Father; even Christ Himself proceeded and came forth from the Father…” Christ and His Righteousness p. 19.
Elder L.E. Froom declares, “An increasing stream of literature setting forth the clear principles and provisions of Righteousness by Faith continued to flow from our publishing houses following 1888 – conspicuously that of Dr. E. J. Waggoner’s The Righteousness of Christ (1890), a 98-page Pacific Press book setting forth his precise teaching and phrasing at Minneapolis, based upon shorthand reports of Jessie F. Moser, taken down at the Confer-ence, which book was likewise reprinted in Australia in 1893, and then in Continental Europe in Hamburg and Basel as well.” Eternal Verities Trium-phant, p. 61. This book appeared with at least three different, yet synony-mous titles, The Righteousness of Christ, Christ and His Righteousness (in Australia), and Christ Our Righteous-ness (in England).
In the book Christ and His Righteousness, we find chapters such as
How shall we consider Christ?
Is Christ a created being?
A.T. JONES 1890 “Again, speaking of the appearing of Jesus Christ, the Word says: ‘In His times He shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords; who only hath immor-tality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see.’ 1 Tim. 6:15-16. Christ has brought this immortality to light…Now as immor-tality is to be sought for, and as God is the only one who has it, and as Christ is the only one who has brought it to light, it follows that immortality must be sought of God, through Christ.” Bible Questions and Answers Concerning Man, pp. 3-4.
“Some early Adventists struggled with the doctrine of the Trinity. Today, the church has taken a firm stand on the doctrine. How does this change over time reveal to us the unfolding nature of truth? In your own experience, how have you grown in your understanding of truth? What beliefs did you once hold that, today, you no longer accept?” ‘Glimpses of God’ Sabbath school quarterly 2012. This statement can be a little misleading. Has the church taken a firm stand? In truth? Those that follow anything similar to the pioneers of the SDA church would be dis-fellowshiped. Do we understand such teachings and attitude as progressive. The pioneers were strong anti– Trinitarians.
Do we have a right to question the person, divinity and humanity of Christ? Yes ,it is by these means of controversy that our minds and are brought to focus on important issues. It is by controversial means that the Sabbath truth will come to the forefront for the world to consider and by that which Satan causes controversy on Biblical matters we should see the battle for the most important matters that when unravelled presents marvellous light.
Why would the nature of God be under controversy in a people who claim to be God’s own? Answer is,”the nature and the thoughts and feelings of man are at variance with God. The reality is that man does not want to be like Christ or has never realised that his thoughts and feeling are at variance with God and could be otherwise. 2 Timothy 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. The power can be denied for it was never realised and experienced by faith– full-ness.
Before His death the Saviour was deeply anxious for His disciples to understand for what pur-pose His divinity was united to humanity. He came to the world to display the glory of God, that man might be uplifted by its restoring power. God was manifested in Him that He might be manifested in them. DA 665. The power of the Holy Spirit is denied through a denial of the humanity or divinity of Christ through which the power of the gospel is extended to us, to be over comers as He was an over comer while on earth.
Divinity– could only uplift the fallen nature of man, whose nature is in rebellion against his own creation.
(This rebellion is evident in all the war and chaos world wide. With amazement heavenly intelligences saw the soon result of the fall– Gen 4:10 And God said to Cain, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood Abel crieth unto me from the ground.)
How Christians speak with derision against such a point as the humanity of Christ connected to his Divinity is both amazing and Satanic in origin. So where there is smoke there is fire. The very weapon against demonic forces that would rescue men and women from their fallen condition, has its key in the divinity and humanity of Christ. A revelation of these attributes is what gives us an appre-ciation of who God is and follows on to conversion.
The doctrine of the Trinity which was established in the church by the council of Nicea. d. 325. This doctrine destroys the personality of God, and his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. The infamous measures by which it was forced upon the church, which appear upon the pages of ecclesiastical history– J N Andrews
Thus it is, as given in the words of Cardinal Gibbons:— We affirm that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Word of God, who in His divine nature is, from all eternity, begot-ten of the Father, consubstantial with Him, was in the fullness of time again begotten, by being born of the virgin, thus taking to himself from her maternal womb a human nature of the same substance with hers. {January 15, 1901 AT Jones ARSH 40}
As far as the sublime mystery of the incarnation can be reflected in the natural order, the blessed Virgin, under the overshadow-ing of the Holy Ghost, by communicating to the Second Person of the adorable Trinity, as mothers do, a true human nature of the same substance with her own, is thereby really and truly His mother.”—”Faith of Our Fathers,” pages 198, 199. {January 15, 1901 AT
Jones, ARSH 40}
Now put these two things together. First, we have the nature of Mary defined as being not only “very different from the rest of mankind,” but “more sublime and glorious than all na-tures;” thus putting her infinitely beyond any real likeness or relationship to mankind as we really are.
Next, we have Jesus described as taking from her a human nature of the same substance as hers.
From this theory it therefore follows as certainly as two and two make four, that in His hu-man nature the Lord Jesus is “very different” from mankind; indeed, His nature is not human nature at all, but divine.
That is the Roman Catholic doctrine concerning the human nature of Christ. But Catholic faith is not the faith of Christ; it is the faith of Antichrist.{January 15, 1901 AT Jones, ARSH 40}
You ask what we teach about the Trinity. Inasmuch as we find no such expression in the Scriptures, we do not teach anything about it. But as to the Being of God,-the Godhead,-Divinity as revealed in the Father, the Word (the Son), and the Holy Spirit, we believe and teach just what the Bible says, and nothing else. No man can by searching find out God. No creature can understand the Almighty to perfection. The finite mind cannot comprehend infinity. Therefore, in discussions about the Trinity, about the nature of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, are manifestations of gross presumption. {February 6, 1902 EJW, PTUK 83.12}
The Trinity of Roman Catholic teaching is a vague misconception. The mother of God is a falsehood that destroys what the divinity of Christ should mean to us. It takes away the meaning of the The Word or God made flesh and abandons us to the role of priests chosen to intercede with one altogether different from ourselves.
Many Seventh-Day Adventists are divided on the nature of Christ– His divine and human nature. The result must only be a confused concept of mat-ters of salvation and the gospel.
Another denial of divinity, we find in transla-tions- 1 John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
Though Seventh Day Adventist support the doctrine of the trinity, they accept various Bi-bles that do not support their teachings. NIV omits the above passage from its Bible.
“The Father’s person I could not behold, for a cloud of glorious light cov-ered him. I asked Jesus if his Father had a form like himself. He said he had, but I could not behold it, for said he if you should once behold the glory of his person you would cease to exist.” Periodical to the little remanet scat-tered abroad.
Text book of the universe– controversy over divine right
In the Christian/ Jewish realm the Father and His authority was never under dispute nor was it in heaven. But Lucifer claimed an equal right with the Son. “I will be like the most High Isaiah 14:14
’ I would suggest that to a greater extent, the Old and New Testament is a record of the Divinity– OT and Humanity– NT of Jesus Christ. Jesus identifies Himself to Moses and then in the New Testament times as ‘I AM’
“All through the pages of sacred history, where the dealings of God with His chosen people are recorded, there are burning traces of the great I AM….All the communion between heaven and the fallen race has been through Christ….Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last.” (GAG 43) Whatever we read about Yahweh in the Old Testament we are reading about Christ. In Isaiah 40:28 Yahweh is “the everlasting God,” “the Creator of the ends of the earth.” PP 367
The Father identifies Jesus at His baptism as my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Matthew 3:17
Ps 2:7 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou [art] my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
Heb 1:4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
1:5 For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Fa-ther, and he shall be to me a Son?
1:6 And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.
The term and concept of the Trinity, first introduced by theologians in the third century, was catapulted into the limelight at the Council of Ni-caea, 325 AD. The Emperor Constantine gathered the religious leaders of the world in an effort to achieve unity on the nature of the Godhead.
In the Roman Rite Mass, the Latin text of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, with “Deum de Deo” (God from God) and “Filioque” (and from the Son), phrases absent in the original text, was previously the only form used for the “profession of faith”
Some evangelical and other Christians consider the Nicene Creed helpful and to a certain extent authoritative, but not infallibly so in view of their belief that only Scripture is truly authoritative.[25][26]Other groups, such as the Church of the New Jerusalem, The Church of Jesus Christ of Lat-ter-day Saints, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses explicitly reject some of the statements in the Creed.[27][28][29][30] Where do Seventh-Day Adventists stand on this
“Assembling under the sanction of a united church and state, that famous gathering commanded the sub-mission of believers to new doctrines. The burning question of the decades succeeding the Council of Nicaea was how to state the relations of the Three Persons of the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Council had decided, and the papacy had appropriated the decision as its own. The personali-ties of the Trinity were not confounded, and the sub-stance was not divided. The Roman clergy claimed that Christianity had found in the Greek word homo-ousios (in English, consubstantiality) an appropriate term to express this relationship.
“Then the papal party proceeded to call those who would not subscribe to this teaching, Arians, while they took to themselves the title of Trinitari-ans. An erroneous charge was circulated that all who were called Arians believed that Christ was a created being. This stirred up the indignation of those who were not guilty of the charge. “It will be interesting to examine for a moment this word, this term, which has split many a church and has caused many a sincere Christian to be burned at the stake. In English the word is‘consubstantial,‘ connoting that more than one person inhabit the same substance without divi-sion or separation. The original term in Greek is homoousios, from homos, meaning ‘identical,’ and ousia, the word for ‘being.’
“However, a great trouble arose, since there are two terms in Greek of historical fame. The first homos, meaning ‘identical,’ and the second, homoios, meaning ‘similar’ or ‘like unto,’ had both of them a stormy history. The spelling of these words is much alike. The difference in meaning, when applied to the Godhead, is bewildering to simple-hearted believers. Nevertheless, those who would think in terms of homoiousian, or ‘similar,’ instead of homoousian, or ‘identical,’ were promptly labeled as heretics and Arians by the clergy.” Wilkinson, Truth Triumphant, pp. 91,92.
Benjamin Wilkinson in a letter to Dr. T.S. Teters 1936, “Replying to your letter of October 13 regarding the doctrine of the Trinity, I will say that Seventh Day Adventists do not, and never have accepted the dark, mysterious, Catholic doctrine of the Trinity.”
Council of Nicaea stated-
“But those who say: ‘There was a time when he was not;’ and ‘He was not before he was made;’ and ‘He was made out of nothing,’ or ‘He is of another substance’ or ‘essence,’ or ‘The Son of God is created,’ or ‘changeable,’ or ‘alterable’—they are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic Church.]
They said that the Godhead consists of three personalities and one essence or substance, using very philosophical terms.” or Platonic terms. THERE APPEARS TO BE TRUTH IN THIS STATEMENT but is the trinity expressed by the Roman church true?
A lesson in Divinity and our role—equality under submission
Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; be-cause I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
An apparent contradiction-
A woman has a different role in life though equal with a male both are under the bonds of love yet both have very different roles to play. This is a very different concept to that of the world. Ps 82:6 I have said, Ye [are] gods; and all of you [are] children of the most High.
Ephesians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 5:24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so [let] the wives [be] to their own husbands in every thing. 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:
Expansion- New and distinct order
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. {FLB 47.2}
All the communion between heaven and the fallen race has been through Christ. It was the Son of God that gave to our first parents the promise of redemption. It was He who revealed Himself to the patriarchs. Adam . . . understood the gospel. . . . {FLB 47.3}
Divinity was showing Himself to an unfallen universe through the example of those whom He made after His own image.
John 1:3 All things were made by him (Jesus); and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Col 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or domin-ions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Pioneers of the SDA said that Christ was a created being. Is this a true statement?
Expansion– E G white’s comment on the meaning of begotten
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 di-vine perfection. In him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. {ST, May 30, 1895 par. 3} Arian view??????
The union of divinity with humanity brings to the fallen race a value which we scarcely comprehend. The human and the divine were united in Christ, in order that he might rep-resent those who should believe in him.
The Father gave to the Son all power and authority to create the uni-verse– there is one God who created the universe– Jesus Christ but there is more to this. Philippians 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, not only equal but as we just saw in Colossians created all things without which the heavens and earth have no existence.
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image
2:7 And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground
Expansion-
The Father and Son had a plan, through Christ that plan was executed
In the beginning, God was revealed in all the works of creation. It was Christ that spread the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth. It was His hand that hung the worlds in space, and fashioned the flowers of the field. “His strength setteth fast the mountains.” “The sea is His, and He made it.” Psalm 65:6; 95:5. It was He that filled the earth with beauty, and the air with song. And upon all things in earth, and air, and sky, He wrote the message of the Father’s love. {DA 20.1}
Circuit of life, the tide of love
Divinity was His right given to Him through the Father– He has life in Himself– the life given to us by the Father was through Christ.
Jesus declared, “I am the resurrection, and the life.” In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, un-derived. “He that hath the Son hath life.” 1 John 5:12. The divinity of Christ is the believer’s as-surance of eternal life
All things Christ received from God (the Father), but He took to give. So 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. {DA 21.2}
Philippians 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, not only equal but as we just saw in Colossians created all things without which the heavens and earth have no existence.
Job 38:28 Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?
Genesis 5:4 And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:
John 10:30 I and [my] Father are one.
10:31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever be-lieveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Exodus 3:14 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.
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. “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 depths” (Proverbs 8:22-27). {LHU 16.4}
Expansion- The Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, existed from eternity, a distinct per-son, 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. {1SM 247.4}
“He was equal with God, infinite and omnipotent”
There are light and glory in the truth that Christ was One with the Father before the foundation of the world was laid. This is the light shining in a dark place, making it resplendent with divine, original glory. This truth, infinitely mysterious in itself, explains other mysterious and otherwise unexplainable truths, while it is enshrined in light unapproachable and incomprehensible (RH April 5, 1906).
God exists outside the human concept of time, but also inside of time.
Christ’s life on earth was in fulfillment of the plan that had existed from the days of eternity. 5BC chapter 1
Paradox– how could Christ exist from eternity yet begotten of the Father? Human reason-ing comes in here to explain but is mere speculation
Deut 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God [is] one LORD: The Jews rejecting Jesus, rejecting the Holy Spirit say there is one God and no Christ. The Jehovah’s witnesses say there is one God Jehovah and that is the Father.
There are light and glory in the truth that Christ was one with the Father before the foun-dation of the world was laid. This is the light shining in a dark place, making it resplen-dent with divine, original glory. This truth, infinitely mysterious in itself, explains other mysterious and otherwise unexplainable truths, while it is enshrined in light, unap-proachable and incomprehensible. (Selected Messages, book 1, pp. 247, 248).
“In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived.” (DA 530) “Christ is the pre-existent, self-existent Son of God….He assures us that there never was a time when He was not in close fellowship with the eternal God….He is the eternal, self-existent Son.” (Ev 615) “From all eternity Christ was united with the Fa-ther.” (5BC 1115) “Christ was God essentially, and in the highest sense. He was with God from all eternity.” (RH April 5, 1906) Is this not a paradox!
What is that light and glory then? Is there a glimpse? I would sug-gest there is no wisdom or help in this knowledge except we seek to stand in moral independence, free from sin, in the strength of a character moulded after the divine similitude.
Zech 3:8 I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH. “A Son begotten in the express image of the Father’s person” ST May 13 1895
Before the entrance of sin among the angels: Christ the Word, the only-begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father, –one in nature, in character, and in purpose,–the only be-ing in all the universe that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God. By Christ, the Father wrought in the creation of all heavenly beings.–The Great Controversy, p. 493.
Attributes of Christ-
 Eternal—unknown quantity and unfathomed by mortals. This 20th century revealed some of this in the exploration of space
 Self-existent— It is God who supplies the daily needs of all His creatures. . . . {1MCP 247.4} he needs no other to supply his existence for life is in Himself
 Pre-existent– He lived before all creation existed
 Begotten– given some rendering of the meaning by came forth
Came forth– came from the Father . Waggoner says He is begotten, not created. As to when he was begotten is not for us to inquire nor could our minds grasp it if we were told. John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath de-clared [him]… But the point is that Christ is a begotten Son and not a created subject. Christ and His Righteousness by E J Waggoner p29
One with the Father—> a very crude presentation of this concept is the budding of a micro-organism. We really cannot say or comprehend time and space before planets and earth and space existed. Human birth is a limited representation for the great ‘I AM.’
Another paradox—How can God be a Spirit if He is a person and has a throne. John 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Holy Spirit is both the Spirit of the Father and of Christ– to explain the Holy Spirit as far as Christ himself did as the wind John 3:8 and by His attributes is as far as we can go John 14
The Holy Spirit communicates with a million perhaps greater than we could contemplate minds personally in conversation. The Spirit also came forth from the Father and the Son. The Father and the Son can communicate with creation through the Spirit and cre-ate. If the Spirit was not a person how could He thus converse with us. While Christ laid aside His divinity He did so to share it with us for our uplifting, therefore he said I will pray the Father that he may send you another comforter.
Publish the truth, do not publish error. Do not try to explain in regard to the person-ality of God. You cannot give any further explanation than the Bible has given. Hu-man theories regarding Him are good for nothing. Do not soil your minds by study-ing misleading theories of the enemy. E. G. White, Counsels to Writers and Edi-tors (Nashville, Tennessee: Southern Publishing Association, 1946), pp.93, 94. Cit-ing Letter 179, 1904.
Revelation 10:4 And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.
The group Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) touted a 1994 statement, “The Gift of Salvation,” in which several prominent Roman Catholics affirmed “justification by faith alone.”
The long debate over how Protestants should view the Roman Catholic Church has received sev-eral jolts of intensity in the past 15 years. The group Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) touted a 1994 statement, “The Gift of Salvation,” in which several prominent Ro-man Catholics affirmed “justification by faith alone.” The unofficial statement predated an official agreement be-tween the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation in 1999, called “The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.” The church allowed that anathemas the Council of Trent delivered in the mid-1500s do not apply to Protestants who agree with the joint declaration.
Righteousness by faith alone? Catholics affirm? Doesn’t quite sound right does it
Has not there been ongoing controversy over the issue justification by faith in the church, from where do these influences come? Righteousness by faith alone is often a misconception and all misconceptions must inevitably lead us back to Rome.
Is this the righteousness and faith or the Saviour we place our faith in? I say no but only by a Saviour whose nature was blended with ours that we maybe uplifted, that transformation might take place.
The fiery darts of the enemy are aimed right at the very foundation of the end time message- ‘the everlasting gospel’.
1 John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: be-cause many false prophets are gone out into the world.
4:2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
4:3 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. Note the NIV and many other Bibles state ‘every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is from God..’ However a critical point is missing.
Now put these two things together. First, we have the nature of Mary defined as being not only “very different from the rest of mankind,” but “more sublime and glorious than all natures;” thus putting her infinitely beyond any real likeness or relationship to man-kind as we really are.
Not All Evangelicals and Catholics Together
Protestant debate on justification is reigniting questions about Rome.
Next, we have Jesus described as taking from her a human nature of the same sub-stance as hers.
From this theory it therefore follows as certainly as two and two make four, that in His human nature the Lord Jesus is “very different” from mankind; indeed, His nature is not human nature at all, but divine.
That is the Roman Catholic doctrine concerning the human nature of Christ. But Catholic faith is not the faith of Christ; it is the faith of Antichrist.{January 15, 1901 AT Jones, ARSH 40}
It was Mary’s linage that connected Christ with man’s fallen nature. The Trinity of Catholic teaching is to place trust in a divine mother Mary and a divine Son Jesus through the mediation of a human priest.
Our mediator the Bible tells us is through a priest divine but touched by the feelings and thoughts of our weakness as fallen humans yet never entering into sin or the propen-sities that come with participation in sin.
Hebrews 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as [we are, yet] without sin.
Jesus is to be our perfect example, His faith was obedient to the will of the Father.
QUESTION
Is there one God or is there two or three? Psalms 82;1 God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.
One God the Father– then who is Christ?- ‘my servant the branch’- AN EXTENSION OF HIS PERSON ,YET HIS OWN PERSON.
Then is Christ God? Yes ,through Christ the Father created all things. Our existence be-longs to Christ. Shall we say that Christ is any less than the Father when He created all that exists?
This is my Son in whom I AM well pleased.
Was Christ brought to view in the Old Testament? He lead Israel in their wanderings etc —His death was illustrated by Abraham and Isaac.
Genesis 22:10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
22:11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here [am] I.
22:12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only [son] from me.
22:13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind [him] a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
The Holy Spirit who then is He? Another branch of the Father AND Son. The details of the Holy Spirit are not given.
There is one God– The Father– the source of all
There is only one who has created all – Jesus Christ
There is one who communicates constantly between all intelligences– The Holy Spirit
Then who are we? Psalms 82:6 I have said, Ye [are] gods; and all of you [are] chil-dren of the most High. Those that join the divine nature of Jesus are given life everlast-ing life and judgement. They have been given that right through the righteousness of Christ.
The special light given to John which was expressed in the seven thunders was a delineation of events which would tran-spire under the first and second angels’ messages. It was not best for the people to know these things, for their faith must neces-sarily be tested. In the order of God most wonderful and ad-vanced truths would be proclaimed. The first and second angels’ messages were to be proclaimed, but no further light was to be revealed before these messages had done their specific work. This is represented by the angel standing with one foot on the sea, proclaiming with a most solemn oath that time should be no longer. {7BC 971.6}
Further light cannot be given until we be ready to accept, proclaim and advance. How can we advance if we reject-
 The humanity and divinity of Christ
 The gospel
 The avenue for advancement, the health message
These have been substituted by-
A Christ that has a divine nature and therefore is altogether different from our own. This is a road leading to Rome.
A people living the perfect will of God, without sin and without a mediator just prior to Christ’s return, is graphically portrayed by E G White in the book Great Controversy, yet many members say this is a false teaching amongst many Seventh Day Adventists. Detractors in the church say its a false teaching of Historical Adventists, then why not say it is a false teaching of E G White. At root of the problem is faith, self and ones own ideas con-cerning inspiration.
Moral excellence has not been sought by following Christ’s instruction to find for the families and the future a rural retreat. The home may even be in a rural location but the wickedness of the city is beamed in through the air waves and thus the thoughts and feeling are imbued that are not of Christ.
The gospel presented is often lip service to acknowledge a change of nature is necessary but in reality it is behaviour modification. The service of heart for the church and the world is not as it ought to be.
The health message– a test of the faith of God’s people is ad-ministered through allopathic medicine– the very avenue that E G White warned against. How can the three angels message about
The creator be expounded through an international drug com-pany? It says nothing of a Saviour and His healing means
At the heart of the gospel is the nature of God
Roman Catholic practice emphasises the divinity of Christ with salvation by works and penance. The Eucharist- ‘The Catholic Church teaches that when the bread and wine are consecrated in the Eucha-rist, they cease to be bread and wine, and become, respectively, the body and blood of Christ, each of which is accompanied by the other and by Christ’s soul and divinity.’
Protestantism practice emphasises the divinity of Christ and salvation by faith in Christ alone
Seventh-day Adventist are divided as a people between a protestant belief and historical belief.
The Pioneers of whom E G White belongs emphasised the divinity and humanity of Christ as part of the gospel message to perfect His people and make them ready for translation.
I would suggest the reason for the shifting is on the heart of the matter– our belief in Christ and the application of that in the life.
In vision I saw two armies in terrible conflict. One army was led by banners bearing the world’s insignia; the other was led by the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel. Standard after stan-dard was left to trail in the dust, as company after company from the Lord’s army joined the foe, and tribe after tribe from the ranks of the enemy united with the commandment-keeping people of God. An angel flying in the midst of heaven put the standard of Emmanuel into many hands, while a mighty general cried out with a loud voice: “Come into line. Let those who are loyal to the commandments of God and the testimony of Christ now take their position. Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean, and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters. Let all who will, come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” {CET 228.1}
The SON came forth from the Father
The Father gave to the SON
The SON took to give
The SON breathed forth
The Holy Spirit took to give to us –therefore He speaks not of Himself
John 6:13 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.
16:14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show [it] unto you.
I saw that God had especially guarded the Bible; yet when copies of it were few, learned men had in some instances changed the words, thinking that they were making it more plain, when in reality they were mystifying that which was plain, by causing it to lean to their established views, which were governed by tradition. But I saw that the Word of God, as a whole, is a perfect chain, one portion linking into and ex-plaining another. True seekers for truth need not err; for not only is the Word of God plain and simple in declaring the way of life, but the Holy Spirit is given as a guide in understanding the way to life therein revealed. {EW 220.2} http://www.calltorepent.com/trinity/
Publish the truth, do not publish error. Do not try to explain in regard to the personality of God. You cannot give any further ex-planation than the Bible has given. Human theories regarding Him are good for nothing. Do not soil your minds by studying misleading theories of the enemy.1
On the other hand, she indicated that there are certain truths on the nature of God revealed in the Bible which are available to those who prayerfully seek to understand them:
The revelation of Himself that God has given in His Word is for our study. This we may seek to understand. But beyond this we are not to penetrate. The highest intellect may tax itself until it is wearied out on conjectures re-garding the nature of God, but the effort will be fruitless. This problem has not been given us to solve. No human mind can comprehend God. None are to indulge in speculation regarding His nature. Here silence is eloquence. The Omniscient One is above discussion.2
There are light and glory in the truth that Christ was One with the Father before the foundation of the world was laid. This is the light shining in a dark place, making it resplendent with divine, original glory. This truth, infinitely mysterious in itself, explains other mysterious and otherwise unexplainable truths, while it is enshrined in light unapproachable and incomprehensible.5
Thus the oneness between the Father and the Son is declared to be a myste-rious union not yet explained to mortals
“I and my Father are one.”
It might be asked of the Arian how Christ could be inferior to the Father and yet be “all the fullness of the Godhead manifested.” gane
But turning from all lesser representations, we behold God in Jesus. Looking unto Jesus we see that it is the glory of our God to give. “I do nothing of Myself,” said Christ; “the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father.” “I seek not Mine own glory,” but the glory of Him that sent Me. John 8:28; 6:57; 8:50; 7:18. In these words is set forth the great principle which is the law of life for the universe. All things Christ received from God, but He took to give. So 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. {DA 21.2}
In the beginning, God was revealed in all the works of creation. It was Christ that spread the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth. It was His hand that hung the worlds in space, and fashioned the flowers of the field. “His strength setteth fast the mountains.” “The sea is His, and He made it.” Psalm 65:6; 95:5. It was He that filled the earth with beauty, and the air with song. And upon all things in earth,
No More Night The timeless theme, Earth and Heaven will pass away. It’s not a dream, God will make all things new that day. Gone is the curse from which I stumbled and fell. Evil is banished to eternal hell. No more night. No more pain. No more tears. Never crying again. And praises to the great “I AM.” We will live in the light of the risen Lamb. See all around, now the nations bow down to sing. The only sound is the praises to Christ, our King. Slowly the names from the book are read. I know the King, so there’s no need to dread. No more night. No more pain. No more tears. Never crying again. And praises to the great “I AM.” We will live in the light of the risen Lamb. See over there, there’s a mansion, oh, that’s prepared just for me, Where I will live with my savior eternally. No more night. No more pain. No more tears. Never crying again. And praises to the great “I AM.” We will live in the light of the risen Lamb. All praises to the great “I AM.” We’re gonna live in the light of the risen Lamb.Proudly Trinitarian or no?
The Universe goes beyond the Milky Way galaxy
Edwin Hubble’s arrival at Mount Wilson, California, in 1919 coincided roughly with the completion of the 100-inch (2.5 m) Hooker Telescope, then the world’s largest telescope. At that time, the prevailing view of the cosmos was that the universe consisted entirely of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Study says every star has planets
By Jason Palmer
Every star twinkling in the night sky plays host to at least one planet, a new study suggests.
That implies there are some 10 billion Earth-sized planets in our galaxy.
Using a technique called gravitational microlensing, an international team found a handful of exoplanets that imply the existence of billions more.
The findings were released at the 219th American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting, alongside reports of the smallest “exoplanets” ever discovered.
The inhabitants of the place were of all sizes; they were noble, ma-jestic, and lovely. They bore the express image of Jesus, and their countenances beamed with holy joy, expressive of the freedom and happiness of the place. Early Writings EGW p40
BBC Science and environment news
A team of physicists at Cornell University has created a wrinkle in time. Actually, it’s more like a teeny tiny moth hole in time. Inside it, things can occur that are entirely un-detectable, at least to ordinary observers. It’s as if they never happened…
“It is not enough time to steal a painting from a mu-seum,” Fridman said, joking. He added that there might nevertheless be practical uses of the technology.
This phenomenon, known as “temporal cloaking,” is the latest addition to a world that once existed only in children’s literature and science fiction — a place where objects are invisible and events are unrecorded. The physics community let out a small gasp six years ago when researchers reported the first successful “spatial cloaking,” in which light is bent around an object in a way that makes it disappear from view. …By David Brown, Published: Janu-ary 4 …..so we have glimpses of God
Yet we know so very little- today we see as common thought– the very ideas of Aristotle cos-mology through Jesuit priest Georges Lemaître’s big bang theory. Evolutionary idea per-petuated through Catholic Greek philosophy. So we ask the ques-tion that god asks of man as found here in Job-
Job 38:2 Who [is] this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowl-edge? 38:3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. 38:4 Where wast thou when I laid the founda-tions of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret [things belong] unto the LORD our God: but those [things which are] revealed [belong] unto us and to our children for ever, that [we] may do all the words of this law.
Can you who are born and created find out the mysteries of eternity?
Can one who has never seen other worlds or been to another galaxies find out His ways? In the beginning did God expand the universe for the creation of this world? What does it mean to go into a never ending space and reach the other side? In other words our speculations are finite or small minded, without understanding on things God has never made plain.
The revelation of Himself that God has given in His Word is for our study. This we may seek to understand. But beyond this we are not to penetrate. The highest intellect may tax itself until it is wearied out on conjectures regarding the nature of God, but the effort will be fruitless. This prob-lem has not been given us to solve. No human mind can comprehend God. None are to indulge in speculation regarding His nature. Here silence is eloquence. The Omniscient One is above dis-cussion .
The law of God– the law of the universe
Ps 19:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork.
19:2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.
19:3 [There is] no speech nor language, [where] their voice is not heard.
19:4 Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
19:5 Which [is] as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, [and] rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
19:6 His going forth [is] from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
19:7 The law of the LORD [is] perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD [is] sure, making wise the simple.
The law of the heavens declare the perfection and laws of God for man– converting the heart.
Divinity
The revelation of Himself that God has given in His Word is for our study. This we may seek to understand. But beyond this we are not to penetrate. The highest intellect may tax itself until it is wearied out on conjectures regarding the nature of God, but the effort will be fruitless. This problem has not been given us to solve. No human mind can comprehend God. None are to indulge in speculation regarding His nature. Here silence is eloquence. The Omniscient One is above discussion. E. G. White, The Min-istry of Healing p. 429.
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons (Greek: ὑποστάσεις): the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. The doctrines of Arius, denying that Jesus was of the same substance as God and holding instead that he was only the highest of the orders of created beings.
JAMES WHITE: The greatest fault we can find in the Reformation is, the Re-formers stopped reforming. Had they gone on, and onward, till they had left the last vestige of Papacy behind, such as natural immortality, sprinkling, the trinity, and Sunday-keeping, the church would now be free from her unscriptural errors. (James White, February 7, 1856, Review & Herald, vol. 7, no. 19, page 148, par. 26) Did James White have to do an about face on this statement? Was this a misadventure from the Protestant stance on the Trinity? Was this a teaching brought from James’s past connection with the Christian Connection church.
Jehovah’s witnesses comes from the millerite movement and from the time of the disappointment, heavily influenced by the post disappointment advent movement.
“Jehovah’s Witnesses believe Christ to be divine in nature but do not believe him to be Almighty God. They believe Jesus had a prehuman existence as God’s first Created being and that he was the “master worker” through whom God created everything in existence. At this time he was indeed “divine” or “godlike” in nature. While on earth however, the Witnesses hold that human and not a “god-man” (part human part God). They believe he was the perfect human son of God of divine origins but fully human equal to the perfect man Adam. Since his resurrection they hold that Jesus is a mighty, glorious divine spirit, incorruptible and immortal but still subordinate to his Father. “ Source: Watchtower Sept 15, 1961
“Most of the founders of Seventh-day Adventism would not be able to join the church to-day if they had to subscribe to the denomination’s Fundamental Beliefs. More specifically, most would not be able to agree to belief number 2, which deals with the doctrine of the trin-ity.” (Ministry, Oct., 1993, p. 10).
“Adventist belief’s have changed over the years under the impact of ‘present truth’. Most star-tling is the teaching regarding Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord…… the Trinitarian understand-ing of God, now part of our fundamental beliefs, was not generally held by the early Adventists.” – Adventist Review, Jan 6, 1994. p.10.
I will ask this question– what is special about the teaching of the Trinity amongst SDA or having gone full circle did they simply arrive again at that which protestants had already believed.
My soul is much burdened, for I know what is before us. Every conceivable deception will be brought to bear upon those who have not a daily, living connection with God. 1MCP therefore the Lord has establish his people since 1844 in the pillars of our faith.
IF WE ARE THE LORD’S APPOINTED MESSENGERS, WE SHALL NOT SPRING UP WITH NEW IDEAS AND THEORIES TO CONTRADICT THE MESSAGE THAT GOD HAS GIVEN THROUGH HIS SERVANTS SINCE 1844 . AT THAT TIME MANY SOUGHT THE LORD WITH HEART AND SOUL AND VOICE. THE MEN WHOM GOD RAISED UP WERE DILIGENT SEARCHERS OF THE SCRIPTURES [Ellen G. White: The Early Elmshaven Years Volume 5 1900-1905, page 425]
The following are just a few of many examples of the pioneer’s comments on the trinity.
J.H. WAGGONER “The great mistake of Trinitarians, in arguing this subject, seems to be this: They make no distinction between a denial of a Trinity and a denial of the divin-ity of Christ. They see only the two extremes, between which the truth lies; and take every expression referring to the pre-existence of Christ as evidence of a Trinity. The Scriptures abundantly teach the pre-existence of Christ and his divinity; but they are en-tirely silent in regard to a Trinity.” The Atonement, 1872 Ed, chapter 4, “Doctrine Of A Trinity Subversive Of The Atonement” p. 165.
J.N. LOUGHBOROUGH “The word Trinity nowhere occurs in the Scriptures. The princi-pal text supposed to teach it is 1 John 5:7, which is an interpolation. Clarke says, ‘Out of one hundred and thirteen manuscripts, the text is wanting in one hundred and twelve. It occurs in no MS. 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 Latern, held A.D. 1215.’-Com. on John 1, and remarks at close of chap.” Review and Herald, Nov. 5, 1861. | back |
J.B. FRISBIE “We will make a few extracts, that the reader may see the broad contrast between the God of the Bible brought to light through Sabbath-keeping, and the god in the dark through Sunday-keeping. Catholic Catechism Abridged by the Rt. Rev. John Dubois, Bishop of New York. Page 5. ‘Q. Where is God? Ans. God is everywhere. Q. Does God see and know all things? A. Yes, he does know and see all things…Q. Are there more Gods than one? A. No; there is but one God. Q. Are there more persons than one in God? A Yes; in God there are three persons. Q. Which are they? A. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Q. Are there not three Gods? A. No; the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, are all but one and the same God’…These ideas well accord with those heathen philosophers…We should rather mistrust that the Sunday God [the Trinity] came from the same source that Sunday-keeping did.” Review and Herald, Feb. 28, 1854, The Sunday God, p.50.
J.N.ANDREWS “That God is the fountain and source of immortality is plain from the statement of Paul. He speaks thus of God the Father: ‘Who only hath immortality, dwell-ing in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen nor can see; to whom be honor and power everlasting; Amen.’ 1 Tim. 6:16. This text is evidently de-signed to teach that the self existent God is the only being who, of himself, possesses this wonderful nature. Others may possess it as derived from him, but he alone is the fountain of immortality. “Our Lord Jesus Christ is the source of this life to us. ‘For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.’ John 5:26. ‘As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.’ John 6:57. The Father gives us this life in His Son. ‘And 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; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.’ 1Jn 5:11,12. These Scriptures do clearly indicate that Christ is the source of endless life, and that those only have this who have Christ.” Review and Herald, Jan. 27, 1874 p.52.
Thanks to your kindness we ,can rest our minds and bodies. I am so grateful, my words come short to how happy and thankful to God and you for this wonderful blessing ,you have bestowed upon us…I will never forget ,how you let God use you, to remind me
Me that keeping faith and hope alive are worthed…Once again thank you so much.
D.M. CANRIGHT “Text: ‘But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things.’ 1 Cor.8:6… “At the time when the Bible was written, nearly the whole world had adopted either Polytheism or Pantheism. Polytheism taught that there were many gods…In opposition to that, Moses and the prophets set forth the grand fact that this doctrine of many gods was a lie, and that there was but one God, Jehovah the living God… “‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.’ Dt. 6:4. Here we strike the key-note of the doctrine of the Deity. ‘The Lord our God is ONE Lord.’ Not many, not a thou-sand, not a hundred, not ten, not three, but only ONE-one God… [Ex. 20:3; Dt. 4:35; 2Sam. 7:22; 2Kings 19:15; Neh. 9:6; Psa. 86:10; Isa. 43:10; Isa 44:6,8; Isa. 45:5,22; quoted] No comments of ours can make these declarations plainer. There is just one eternal God and no more,-one who is the Author and Father of all things.
“Turning to the New Testament, we find the same doctrine taught just as plainly as in the Old. Neither Moses nor the prophets ever set forth the unity of God more strongly than Jesus himself. He taught it and reiterated it many times. Thus he says: ‘The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel: The lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul…And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth; for there is one God; and there is none other but he.’ Mark 12:29-32. “The scribe said, ‘There is one God, and there is none other but he.’ To this declaration Jesus assented. ‘And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.’ John 17:3 Jesus says his Father is the only true God. But Trinitarians contradict this by saying that the Son and Holy Ghost are just as much the true God as the Father is… [1 Cor. 8:4-6 quoted] “Says the great apostle, ‘There is none other God but one,’ and ‘there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things.’ He tells us who this one God is. It is not the Holy Ghost; it is not Jesus Christ, but it is the Father. Gal. 3:20; 1 Tim. 1:17.
There is, then, only one wise God. 1 Tim. 2:5; Dt. 6:4. Those who are familiar with the Bible will see that I have selected only a few of the plainest texts upon this doctrine. How the doctrine of the Trinity, of three Gods, can be reconciled with these positive statements I do not know. It seems to me that nothing can be framed which more clearly denies the doctrine of the Trinity, than do the Scriptures above quoted.
“And then the Bible never uses the phrases, ‘Trinity,’ ‘triune God,’ ‘three in one,’ ‘the holy three,” ‘God the Holy Ghost,’ etc. but it does emphatically say there is only one God, the Father. And every argument to prove three Gods in one person, God the Fa-ther, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, all of them of one substance, and every way equal to each other, and all three forming but one, contradicts itself, contradicts reason, and contradicts the Bible… “God is self-existent, and the source and author of all things,-of angels, of men, of all the worlds,-of everything. Thus Paul says, ‘For of him and through him and to him, are all things; to whom be glory forever. Amen.’ Rom. 11:36. “He is the source of all life and immortality. Thus, speaking of the Father, Paul says, ‘Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto.’ 1 Tim. 6:16. Notice that this glorious God is the only one who, in himself, possesses immortality. That is, he is the fountain-head, the source of all life and immortality… “‘For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in him-self.’ John 5:26. This statement is unequivocal. The Father has life in himself, and in his great love for his Son he bestows the same gift upon him; but it will be no-ticed that the Father is the one from whom the gift came… “How carefully Paul dis-tinguishes between the Father and the Son. He says, ‘The Father, of whom are all things,’ and ‘Jesus Christ, by whom are all things.’ The Father is the source of every-thing. Jesus is the one through whom all things are done. All the authority, the glory, and the power of Christ he received from his Father…
It is interesting that Ellen White does not use the word trinity– is that significant or is it so as to avoid controversy.
The pioneers of the Seventh– Day Adventist church did not believe in the Trinity but rather like Washburn called the teaching of the Trinity a hideous monster.
J.S. Washburn (1863-1955; a retired Adventist minister and contemporary of Ellen White — He was converted by J. N. Andrews at 11, baptized by James White at 12 and began preaching Ad-ventism at 21), “The doctrine of the trinity is a cruel, heathen monstrosity, removing Jesus from His true position of Divine Saviour and mediator….This monstrous doctrine transplanted from heathenism into the Roman, papal church is seeking to intrude its evil pres-ence into the teachings of the Third Angel’s Message.”
In 1941, the Baptismal Vow was revised to include the trinitarian statement (LeRoy E. Froom contributed to this revision as he did to the book questions on doc-trine.) ‘Further debate broke out between Andreasen and Froom in February 1957 after Froom published an article on the atonement in Ministry magazine. In this arti-cle Froom argued that the atonement was a “full and complete sacrifice.’
The power of divinity was in a commandment keeping people– the power to keep the commandment was in the Divinity of Christ also. But you say we are a commandment keeping people! Are we really. Are we following the great commission to save souls, is the wor-ship to God one of reverence or contemporary convenience? Did we not in rejecting the human-ity and divinity of God reject God himself by a power in the life to transform.
Desmond Ford has brought forward into SDA circle a forensic Christ– whose merits one relies on but the merits of Christ are not invested to us– in essence the gospel of Protestantism which was gathering strength out great darkness of erroneous teachings. Genesis 3:17…. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed [is] the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat [of] it all the days of thy life; Man would have a role to play. A not so easy role in his salvation. A role that would make him dig deep in hard ground, not the conventional life of the world with a foot in both the visions and experiences of the world and a view of a superman figure with powers beyond us—that was a nice read but really that’s about where it ends. Hebrews 2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like 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.
The Divinity of The Father and the Son was spelt out at Mount Sinai.
The Divinity of Jesus is the power of God to uplift humanity.
“A belief in this doctrine is very important. Indeed, it cannot be too strongly insisted upon. Jesus even declares that the knowledge of this truth is necessary to eternal life. ‘And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.’ John 17:3. “We must know the Father as the only true God. Then there is no true God besides the Father. But we must also know his Son Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. How simple and plain is this doctrine, and how abundantly sustained by the Holy Bible.” Review and Herald, Aug. 29, 1878;
The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious mes-sage to His people through Elders [E.J.] Waggoner and [A. T.] Jones. This message was to bring more promi-nently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacri-fice for the sins of the whole world. It presented justifi-cation through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God. {LDE 200.1}
E.J. WAGGONER “Christ and His Righteousness.” “We are mindful of Paul’s words, that ‘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 Cor. 8:6); just as we have already quoted, that it was by Him that God made the worlds. All things proceed ulti-mately from God, the Father; even Christ Himself proceeded and came forth from the Father…” Christ and His Righteousness p. 19.
Elder L.E. Froom declares, “An increasing stream of literature setting forth the clear principles and provisions of Righteousness by Faith continued to flow from our publishing houses following 1888 – conspicuously that of Dr. E. J. Waggoner’s The Righteousness of Christ (1890), a 98-page Pacific Press book setting forth his precise teaching and phrasing at Minneapolis, based upon shorthand reports of Jessie F. Moser, taken down at the Confer-ence, which book was likewise reprinted in Australia in 1893, and then in Continental Europe in Hamburg and Basel as well.” Eternal Verities Trium-phant, p. 61. This book appeared with at least three different, yet synony-mous titles, The Righteousness of Christ, Christ and His Righteousness (in Australia), and Christ Our Righteous-ness (in England).
In the book Christ and His Righteousness, we find chapters such as
How shall we consider Christ?
Is Christ a created being?
A.T. JONES 1890 “Again, speaking of the appearing of Jesus Christ, the Word says: ‘In His times He shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords; who only hath immor-tality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see.’ 1 Tim. 6:15-16. Christ has brought this immortality to light…Now as immor-tality is to be sought for, and as God is the only one who has it, and as Christ is the only one who has brought it to light, it follows that immortality must be sought of God, through Christ.” Bible Questions and Answers Concerning Man, pp. 3-4.
“Some early Adventists struggled with the doctrine of the Trinity. Today, the church has taken a firm stand on the doctrine. How does this change over time reveal to us the unfolding nature of truth? In your own experience, how have you grown in your understanding of truth? What beliefs did you once hold that, today, you no longer accept?” ‘Glimpses of God’ Sabbath school quarterly 2012. This statement can be a little misleading. Has the church taken a firm stand? In truth? Those that follow anything similar to the pioneers of the SDA church would be dis-fellowshiped. Do we understand such teachings and attitude as progressive. The pioneers were strong anti– Trinitarians.
Do we have a right to question the person, divinity and humanity of Christ? Yes ,it is by these means of controversy that our minds and are brought to focus on important issues. It is by controversial means that the Sabbath truth will come to the forefront for the world to consider and by that which Satan causes controversy on Biblical matters we should see the battle for the most important matters that when unravelled presents marvellous light.
Why would the nature of God be under controversy in a people who claim to be God’s own? Answer is,”the nature and the thoughts and feelings of man are at variance with God. The reality is that man does not want to be like Christ or has never realised that his thoughts and feeling are at variance with God and could be otherwise. 2 Timothy 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. The power can be denied for it was never realised and experienced by faith– full-ness.
Before His death the Saviour was deeply anxious for His disciples to understand for what pur-pose His divinity was united to humanity. He came to the world to display the glory of God, that man might be uplifted by its restoring power. God was manifested in Him that He might be manifested in them. DA 665. The power of the Holy Spirit is denied through a denial of the humanity or divinity of Christ through which the power of the gospel is extended to us, to be over comers as He was an over comer while on earth.
Divinity– could only uplift the fallen nature of man, whose nature is in rebellion against his own creation.
(This rebellion is evident in all the war and chaos world wide. With amazement heavenly intelligences saw the soon result of the fall– Gen 4:10 And God said to Cain, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood Abel crieth unto me from the ground.)
How Christians speak with derision against such a point as the humanity of Christ connected to his Divinity is both amazing and Satanic in origin. So where there is smoke there is fire. The very weapon against demonic forces that would rescue men and women from their fallen condition, has its key in the divinity and humanity of Christ. A revelation of these attributes is what gives us an appre-ciation of who God is and follows on to conversion.
The doctrine of the Trinity which was established in the church by the council of Nicea. d. 325. This doctrine destroys the personality of God, and his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. The infamous measures by which it was forced upon the church, which appear upon the pages of ecclesiastical history– J N Andrews
Thus it is, as given in the words of Cardinal Gibbons:— We affirm that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Word of God, who in His divine nature is, from all eternity, begot-ten of the Father, consubstantial with Him, was in the fullness of time again begotten, by being born of the virgin, thus taking to himself from her maternal womb a human nature of the same substance with hers. {January 15, 1901 AT Jones ARSH 40}
As far as the sublime mystery of the incarnation can be reflected in the natural order, the blessed Virgin, under the overshadow-ing of the Holy Ghost, by communicating to the Second Person of the adorable Trinity, as mothers do, a true human nature of the same substance with her own, is thereby really and truly His mother.”—”Faith of Our Fathers,” pages 198, 199. {January 15, 1901 AT
Jones, ARSH 40}
Now put these two things together. First, we have the nature of Mary defined as being not only “very different from the rest of mankind,” but “more sublime and glorious than all na-tures;” thus putting her infinitely beyond any real likeness or relationship to mankind as we really are.
Next, we have Jesus described as taking from her a human nature of the same substance as hers.
From this theory it therefore follows as certainly as two and two make four, that in His hu-man nature the Lord Jesus is “very different” from mankind; indeed, His nature is not human nature at all, but divine.
That is the Roman Catholic doctrine concerning the human nature of Christ. But Catholic faith is not the faith of Christ; it is the faith of Antichrist.{January 15, 1901 AT Jones, ARSH 40}
You ask what we teach about the Trinity. Inasmuch as we find no such expression in the Scriptures, we do not teach anything about it. But as to the Being of God,-the Godhead,-Divinity as revealed in the Father, the Word (the Son), and the Holy Spirit, we believe and teach just what the Bible says, and nothing else. No man can by searching find out God. No creature can understand the Almighty to perfection. The finite mind cannot comprehend infinity. Therefore, in discussions about the Trinity, about the nature of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, are manifestations of gross presumption. {February 6, 1902 EJW, PTUK 83.12}
The Trinity of Roman Catholic teaching is a vague misconception. The mother of God is a falsehood that destroys what the divinity of Christ should mean to us. It takes away the meaning of the The Word or God made flesh and abandons us to the role of priests chosen to intercede with one altogether different from ourselves.
Many Seventh-Day Adventists are divided on the nature of Christ– His divine and human nature. The result must only be a confused concept of mat-ters of salvation and the gospel.
Another denial of divinity, we find in transla-tions- 1 John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.
Though Seventh Day Adventist support the doctrine of the trinity, they accept various Bi-bles that do not support their teachings. NIV omits the above passage from its Bible.
“The Father’s person I could not behold, for a cloud of glorious light cov-ered him. I asked Jesus if his Father had a form like himself. He said he had, but I could not behold it, for said he if you should once behold the glory of his person you would cease to exist.” Periodical to the little remanet scat-tered abroad.
Text book of the universe– controversy over divine right
In the Christian/ Jewish realm the Father and His authority was never under dispute nor was it in heaven. But Lucifer claimed an equal right with the Son. “I will be like the most High Isaiah 14:14
’ I would suggest that to a greater extent, the Old and New Testament is a record of the Divinity– OT and Humanity– NT of Jesus Christ. Jesus identifies Himself to Moses and then in the New Testament times as ‘I AM’
“All through the pages of sacred history, where the dealings of God with His chosen people are recorded, there are burning traces of the great I AM….All the communion between heaven and the fallen race has been through Christ….Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last.” (GAG 43) Whatever we read about Yahweh in the Old Testament we are reading about Christ. In Isaiah 40:28 Yahweh is “the everlasting God,” “the Creator of the ends of the earth.” PP 367
The Father identifies Jesus at His baptism as my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Matthew 3:17
Ps 2:7 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou [art] my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
Heb 1:4 Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
1:5 For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Fa-ther, and he shall be to me a Son?
1:6 And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.
The term and concept of the Trinity, first introduced by theologians in the third century, was catapulted into the limelight at the Council of Ni-caea, 325 AD. The Emperor Constantine gathered the religious leaders of the world in an effort to achieve unity on the nature of the Godhead.
In the Roman Rite Mass, the Latin text of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, with “Deum de Deo” (God from God) and “Filioque” (and from the Son), phrases absent in the original text, was previously the only form used for the “profession of faith”
Some evangelical and other Christians consider the Nicene Creed helpful and to a certain extent authoritative, but not infallibly so in view of their belief that only Scripture is truly authoritative.[25][26]Other groups, such as the Church of the New Jerusalem, The Church of Jesus Christ of Lat-ter-day Saints, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses explicitly reject some of the statements in the Creed.[27][28][29][30] Where do Seventh-Day Adventists stand on this
“Assembling under the sanction of a united church and state, that famous gathering commanded the sub-mission of believers to new doctrines. The burning question of the decades succeeding the Council of Nicaea was how to state the relations of the Three Persons of the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The Council had decided, and the papacy had appropriated the decision as its own. The personali-ties of the Trinity were not confounded, and the sub-stance was not divided. The Roman clergy claimed that Christianity had found in the Greek word homo-ousios (in English, consubstantiality) an appropriate term to express this relationship.
“Then the papal party proceeded to call those who would not subscribe to this teaching, Arians, while they took to themselves the title of Trinitari-ans. An erroneous charge was circulated that all who were called Arians believed that Christ was a created being. This stirred up the indignation of those who were not guilty of the charge. “It will be interesting to examine for a moment this word, this term, which has split many a church and has caused many a sincere Christian to be burned at the stake. In English the word is‘consubstantial,‘ connoting that more than one person inhabit the same substance without divi-sion or separation. The original term in Greek is homoousios, from homos, meaning ‘identical,’ and ousia, the word for ‘being.’
“However, a great trouble arose, since there are two terms in Greek of historical fame. The first homos, meaning ‘identical,’ and the second, homoios, meaning ‘similar’ or ‘like unto,’ had both of them a stormy history. The spelling of these words is much alike. The difference in meaning, when applied to the Godhead, is bewildering to simple-hearted believers. Nevertheless, those who would think in terms of homoiousian, or ‘similar,’ instead of homoousian, or ‘identical,’ were promptly labeled as heretics and Arians by the clergy.” Wilkinson, Truth Triumphant, pp. 91,92.
Benjamin Wilkinson in a letter to Dr. T.S. Teters 1936, “Replying to your letter of October 13 regarding the doctrine of the Trinity, I will say that Seventh Day Adventists do not, and never have accepted the dark, mysterious, Catholic doctrine of the Trinity.”
Council of Nicaea stated-
“But those who say: ‘There was a time when he was not;’ and ‘He was not before he was made;’ and ‘He was made out of nothing,’ or ‘He is of another substance’ or ‘essence,’ or ‘The Son of God is created,’ or ‘changeable,’ or ‘alterable’—they are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic Church.]
They said that the Godhead consists of three personalities and one essence or substance, using very philosophical terms.” or Platonic terms. THERE APPEARS TO BE TRUTH IN THIS STATEMENT but is the trinity expressed by the Roman church true?
A lesson in Divinity and our role—equality under submission
Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; be-cause I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
An apparent contradiction-
A woman has a different role in life though equal with a male both are under the bonds of love yet both have very different roles to play. This is a very different concept to that of the world. Ps 82:6 I have said, Ye [are] gods; and all of you [are] children of the most High.
Ephesians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 5:24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so [let] the wives [be] to their own husbands in every thing. 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:
Expansion- New and distinct order
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. {FLB 47.2}
All the communion between heaven and the fallen race has been through Christ. It was the Son of God that gave to our first parents the promise of redemption. It was He who revealed Himself to the patriarchs. Adam . . . understood the gospel. . . . {FLB 47.3}
Divinity was showing Himself to an unfallen universe through the example of those whom He made after His own image.
John 1:3 All things were made by him (Jesus); and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Col 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or domin-ions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Pioneers of the SDA said that Christ was a created being. Is this a true statement?
Expansion– E G white’s comment on the meaning of begotten
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 di-vine perfection. In him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. {ST, May 30, 1895 par. 3} Arian view??????
The union of divinity with humanity brings to the fallen race a value which we scarcely comprehend. The human and the divine were united in Christ, in order that he might rep-resent those who should believe in him.
The Father gave to the Son all power and authority to create the uni-verse– there is one God who created the universe– Jesus Christ but there is more to this. Philippians 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, not only equal but as we just saw in Colossians created all things without which the heavens and earth have no existence.
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image
2:7 And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground
Expansion-
The Father and Son had a plan, through Christ that plan was executed
In the beginning, God was revealed in all the works of creation. It was Christ that spread the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth. It was His hand that hung the worlds in space, and fashioned the flowers of the field. “His strength setteth fast the mountains.” “The sea is His, and He made it.” Psalm 65:6; 95:5. It was He that filled the earth with beauty, and the air with song. And upon all things in earth, and air, and sky, He wrote the message of the Father’s love. {DA 20.1}
Circuit of life, the tide of love
Divinity was His right given to Him through the Father– He has life in Himself– the life given to us by the Father was through Christ.
Jesus declared, “I am the resurrection, and the life.” In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, un-derived. “He that hath the Son hath life.” 1 John 5:12. The divinity of Christ is the believer’s as-surance of eternal life
All things Christ received from God (the Father), but He took to give. So 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. {DA 21.2}
Philippians 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, not only equal but as we just saw in Colossians created all things without which the heavens and earth have no existence.
Job 38:28 Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?
Genesis 5:4 And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:
John 10:30 I and [my] Father are one.
10:31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever be-lieveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Exodus 3:14 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.
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. “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 depths” (Proverbs 8:22-27). {LHU 16.4}
Expansion- The Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, existed from eternity, a distinct per-son, 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. {1SM 247.4}
“He was equal with God, infinite and omnipotent”
There are light and glory in the truth that Christ was One with the Father before the foundation of the world was laid. This is the light shining in a dark place, making it resplendent with divine, original glory. This truth, infinitely mysterious in itself, explains other mysterious and otherwise unexplainable truths, while it is enshrined in light unapproachable and incomprehensible (RH April 5, 1906).
God exists outside the human concept of time, but also inside of time.
Christ’s life on earth was in fulfillment of the plan that had existed from the days of eternity. 5BC chapter 1
Paradox– how could Christ exist from eternity yet begotten of the Father? Human reason-ing comes in here to explain but is mere speculation
Deut 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God [is] one LORD: The Jews rejecting Jesus, rejecting the Holy Spirit say there is one God and no Christ. The Jehovah’s witnesses say there is one God Jehovah and that is the Father.
There are light and glory in the truth that Christ was one with the Father before the foun-dation of the world was laid. This is the light shining in a dark place, making it resplen-dent with divine, original glory. This truth, infinitely mysterious in itself, explains other mysterious and otherwise unexplainable truths, while it is enshrined in light, unap-proachable and incomprehensible. (Selected Messages, book 1, pp. 247, 248).
“In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived.” (DA 530) “Christ is the pre-existent, self-existent Son of God….He assures us that there never was a time when He was not in close fellowship with the eternal God….He is the eternal, self-existent Son.” (Ev 615) “From all eternity Christ was united with the Fa-ther.” (5BC 1115) “Christ was God essentially, and in the highest sense. He was with God from all eternity.” (RH April 5, 1906) Is this not a paradox!
What is that light and glory then? Is there a glimpse? I would sug-gest there is no wisdom or help in this knowledge except we seek to stand in moral independence, free from sin, in the strength of a character moulded after the divine similitude.
Zech 3:8 I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH. “A Son begotten in the express image of the Father’s person” ST May 13 1895
Before the entrance of sin among the angels: Christ the Word, the only-begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father, –one in nature, in character, and in purpose,–the only be-ing in all the universe that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God. By Christ, the Father wrought in the creation of all heavenly beings.–The Great Controversy, p. 493.
Attributes of Christ-
 Eternal—unknown quantity and unfathomed by mortals. This 20th century revealed some of this in the exploration of space
 Self-existent— It is God who supplies the daily needs of all His creatures. . . . {1MCP 247.4} he needs no other to supply his existence for life is in Himself
 Pre-existent– He lived before all creation existed
 Begotten– given some rendering of the meaning by came forth
Came forth– came from the Father . Waggoner says He is begotten, not created. As to when he was begotten is not for us to inquire nor could our minds grasp it if we were told. John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath de-clared [him]… But the point is that Christ is a begotten Son and not a created subject. Christ and His Righteousness by E J Waggoner p29
One with the Father—> a very crude presentation of this concept is the budding of a micro-organism. We really cannot say or comprehend time and space before planets and earth and space existed. Human birth is a limited representation for the great ‘I AM.’
Another paradox—How can God be a Spirit if He is a person and has a throne. John 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Holy Spirit is both the Spirit of the Father and of Christ– to explain the Holy Spirit as far as Christ himself did as the wind John 3:8 and by His attributes is as far as we can go John 14
The Holy Spirit communicates with a million perhaps greater than we could contemplate minds personally in conversation. The Spirit also came forth from the Father and the Son. The Father and the Son can communicate with creation through the Spirit and cre-ate. If the Spirit was not a person how could He thus converse with us. While Christ laid aside His divinity He did so to share it with us for our uplifting, therefore he said I will pray the Father that he may send you another comforter.
Publish the truth, do not publish error. Do not try to explain in regard to the person-ality of God. You cannot give any further explanation than the Bible has given. Hu-man theories regarding Him are good for nothing. Do not soil your minds by study-ing misleading theories of the enemy. E. G. White, Counsels to Writers and Edi-tors (Nashville, Tennessee: Southern Publishing Association, 1946), pp.93, 94. Cit-ing Letter 179, 1904.
Revelation 10:4 And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.
The group Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) touted a 1994 statement, “The Gift of Salvation,” in which several prominent Roman Catholics affirmed “justification by faith alone.”
The long debate over how Protestants should view the Roman Catholic Church has received sev-eral jolts of intensity in the past 15 years. The group Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) touted a 1994 statement, “The Gift of Salvation,” in which several prominent Ro-man Catholics affirmed “justification by faith alone.” The unofficial statement predated an official agreement be-tween the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation in 1999, called “The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.” The church allowed that anathemas the Council of Trent delivered in the mid-1500s do not apply to Protestants who agree with the joint declaration.
Righteousness by faith alone? Catholics affirm? Doesn’t quite sound right does it
Has not there been ongoing controversy over the issue justification by faith in the church, from where do these influences come? Righteousness by faith alone is often a misconception and all misconceptions must inevitably lead us back to Rome.
Is this the righteousness and faith or the Saviour we place our faith in? I say no but only by a Saviour whose nature was blended with ours that we maybe uplifted, that transformation might take place.
The fiery darts of the enemy are aimed right at the very foundation of the end time message- ‘the everlasting gospel’.
1 John 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: be-cause many false prophets are gone out into the world.
4:2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
4:3 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. Note the NIV and many other Bibles state ‘every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is from God..’ However a critical point is missing.
Now put these two things together. First, we have the nature of Mary defined as being not only “very different from the rest of mankind,” but “more sublime and glorious than all natures;” thus putting her infinitely beyond any real likeness or relationship to man-kind as we really are.
Not All Evangelicals and Catholics Together
Protestant debate on justification is reigniting questions about Rome.
Next, we have Jesus described as taking from her a human nature of the same sub-stance as hers.
From this theory it therefore follows as certainly as two and two make four, that in His human nature the Lord Jesus is “very different” from mankind; indeed, His nature is not human nature at all, but divine.
That is the Roman Catholic doctrine concerning the human nature of Christ. But Catholic faith is not the faith of Christ; it is the faith of Antichrist.{January 15, 1901 AT Jones, ARSH 40}
It was Mary’s linage that connected Christ with man’s fallen nature. The Trinity of Catholic teaching is to place trust in a divine mother Mary and a divine Son Jesus through the mediation of a human priest.
Our mediator the Bible tells us is through a priest divine but touched by the feelings and thoughts of our weakness as fallen humans yet never entering into sin or the propen-sities that come with participation in sin.
Hebrews 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as [we are, yet] without sin.
Jesus is to be our perfect example, His faith was obedient to the will of the Father.
QUESTION
Is there one God or is there two or three? Psalms 82;1 God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.
One God the Father– then who is Christ?- ‘my servant the branch’- AN EXTENSION OF HIS PERSON ,YET HIS OWN PERSON.
Then is Christ God? Yes ,through Christ the Father created all things. Our existence be-longs to Christ. Shall we say that Christ is any less than the Father when He created all that exists?
This is my Son in whom I AM well pleased.
Was Christ brought to view in the Old Testament? He lead Israel in their wanderings etc —His death was illustrated by Abraham and Isaac.
Genesis 22:10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.
22:11 And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here [am] I.
22:12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only [son] from me.
22:13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind [him] a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
The Holy Spirit who then is He? Another branch of the Father AND Son. The details of the Holy Spirit are not given.
There is one God– The Father– the source of all
There is only one who has created all – Jesus Christ
There is one who communicates constantly between all intelligences– The Holy Spirit
Then who are we? Psalms 82:6 I have said, Ye [are] gods; and all of you [are] chil-dren of the most High. Those that join the divine nature of Jesus are given life everlast-ing life and judgement. They have been given that right through the righteousness of Christ.
The special light given to John which was expressed in the seven thunders was a delineation of events which would tran-spire under the first and second angels’ messages. It was not best for the people to know these things, for their faith must neces-sarily be tested. In the order of God most wonderful and ad-vanced truths would be proclaimed. The first and second angels’ messages were to be proclaimed, but no further light was to be revealed before these messages had done their specific work. This is represented by the angel standing with one foot on the sea, proclaiming with a most solemn oath that time should be no longer. {7BC 971.6}
Further light cannot be given until we be ready to accept, proclaim and advance. How can we advance if we reject-
 The humanity and divinity of Christ
 The gospel
 The avenue for advancement, the health message
These have been substituted by-
A Christ that has a divine nature and therefore is altogether different from our own. This is a road leading to Rome.
A people living the perfect will of God, without sin and without a mediator just prior to Christ’s return, is graphically portrayed by E G White in the book Great Controversy, yet many members say this is a false teaching amongst many Seventh Day Adventists. Detractors in the church say its a false teaching of Historical Adventists, then why not say it is a false teaching of E G White. At root of the problem is faith, self and ones own ideas con-cerning inspiration.
Moral excellence has not been sought by following Christ’s instruction to find for the families and the future a rural retreat. The home may even be in a rural location but the wickedness of the city is beamed in through the air waves and thus the thoughts and feeling are imbued that are not of Christ.
The gospel presented is often lip service to acknowledge a change of nature is necessary but in reality it is behaviour modification. The service of heart for the church and the world is not as it ought to be.
The health message– a test of the faith of God’s people is ad-ministered through allopathic medicine– the very avenue that E G White warned against. How can the three angels message about
The creator be expounded through an international drug com-pany? It says nothing of a Saviour and His healing means
At the heart of the gospel is the nature of God
Roman Catholic practice emphasises the divinity of Christ with salvation by works and penance. The Eucharist- ‘The Catholic Church teaches that when the bread and wine are consecrated in the Eucha-rist, they cease to be bread and wine, and become, respectively, the body and blood of Christ, each of which is accompanied by the other and by Christ’s soul and divinity.’
Protestantism practice emphasises the divinity of Christ and salvation by faith in Christ alone
Seventh-day Adventist are divided as a people between a protestant belief and historical belief.
The Pioneers of whom E G White belongs emphasised the divinity and humanity of Christ as part of the gospel message to perfect His people and make them ready for translation.
I would suggest the reason for the shifting is on the heart of the matter– our belief in Christ and the application of that in the life.
In vision I saw two armies in terrible conflict. One army was led by banners bearing the world’s insignia; the other was led by the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel. Standard after stan-dard was left to trail in the dust, as company after company from the Lord’s army joined the foe, and tribe after tribe from the ranks of the enemy united with the commandment-keeping people of God. An angel flying in the midst of heaven put the standard of Emmanuel into many hands, while a mighty general cried out with a loud voice: “Come into line. Let those who are loyal to the commandments of God and the testimony of Christ now take their position. Come out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean, and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters. Let all who will, come up to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” {CET 228.1}
The SON came forth from the Father
The Father gave to the SON
The SON took to give
The SON breathed forth
The Holy Spirit took to give to us –therefore He speaks not of Himself
John 6:13 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.
16:14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show [it] unto you.
I saw that God had especially guarded the Bible; yet when copies of it were few, learned men had in some instances changed the words, thinking that they were making it more plain, when in reality they were mystifying that which was plain, by causing it to lean to their established views, which were governed by tradition. But I saw that the Word of God, as a whole, is a perfect chain, one portion linking into and ex-plaining another. True seekers for truth need not err; for not only is the Word of God plain and simple in declaring the way of life, but the Holy Spirit is given as a guide in understanding the way to life therein revealed. {EW 220.2} http://www.calltorepent.com/trinity/
Publish the truth, do not publish error. Do not try to explain in regard to the personality of God. You cannot give any further ex-planation than the Bible has given. Human theories regarding Him are good for nothing. Do not soil your minds by studying misleading theories of the enemy.1
On the other hand, she indicated that there are certain truths on the nature of God revealed in the Bible which are available to those who prayerfully seek to understand them:
The revelation of Himself that God has given in His Word is for our study. This we may seek to understand. But beyond this we are not to penetrate. The highest intellect may tax itself until it is wearied out on conjectures re-garding the nature of God, but the effort will be fruitless. This problem has not been given us to solve. No human mind can comprehend God. None are to indulge in speculation regarding His nature. Here silence is eloquence. The Omniscient One is above discussion.2
There are light and glory in the truth that Christ was One with the Father before the foundation of the world was laid. This is the light shining in a dark place, making it resplendent with divine, original glory. This truth, infinitely mysterious in itself, explains other mysterious and otherwise unexplainable truths, while it is enshrined in light unapproachable and incomprehensible.5
Thus the oneness between the Father and the Son is declared to be a myste-rious union not yet explained to mortals
“I and my Father are one.”
It might be asked of the Arian how Christ could be inferior to the Father and yet be “all the fullness of the Godhead manifested.” gane
But turning from all lesser representations, we behold God in Jesus. Looking unto Jesus we see that it is the glory of our God to give. “I do nothing of Myself,” said Christ; “the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father.” “I seek not Mine own glory,” but the glory of Him that sent Me. John 8:28; 6:57; 8:50; 7:18. In these words is set forth the great principle which is the law of life for the universe. All things Christ received from God, but He took to give. So 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. {DA 21.2}
In the beginning, God was revealed in all the works of creation. It was Christ that spread the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth. It was His hand that hung the worlds in space, and fashioned the flowers of the field. “His strength setteth fast the mountains.” “The sea is His, and He made it.” Psalm 65:6; 95:5. It was He that filled the earth with beauty, and the air with song. And upon all things in earth,
No More Night The timeless theme, Earth and Heaven will pass away. It’s not a dream, God will make all things new that day. Gone is the curse from which I stumbled and fell. Evil is banished to eternal hell. No more night. No more pain. No more tears. Never crying again. And praises to the great “I AM.” We will live in the light of the risen Lamb. See all around, now the nations bow down to sing. The only sound is the praises to Christ, our King. Slowly the names from the book are read. I know the King, so there’s no need to dread. No more night. No more pain. No more tears. Never crying again. And praises to the great “I AM.” We will live in the light of the risen Lamb. See over there, there’s a mansion, oh, that’s prepared just for me, Where I will live with my savior eternally. No more night. No more pain. No more tears. Never crying again. And praises to the great “I AM.” We will live in the light of the risen Lamb. All praises to the great “I AM.” We’re gonna live in the light of the risen Lamb.