The Trinity and Adventism, Part I - Pastor Nelson Mercado

JESUS, THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
Series: The Son of God

#Trinity, #SDA, #Adventism, #Antritrinitarian, #antitrinity #Son of God, #Begotten

[rushhire]

He disfellowships a guy for rejecting the trinity, and then turns around and admits there are multiple trinities.

[andrewwhite]

And I saw that when God said to his Son, Let us make man in our image, Satan was jealous of Jesus. He wished to be consulted concerning the formation of man. { 1SG 17.1 }

Notice, according to what Ellen White was shown, that God was speaking to someone else, specifically to his only begotten Son, whom was begotten in the express image of his Father. This is why God said "us" and not "me" in Genesis 1:26.

Before Christ came in the likeness of men, he existed in the express image of his Father. { YI December 20, 1900, par. 4 }

A complete offering has been made; for “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, ”—not a son by creation, as were the angels, nor a son by adoption, as is the forgiven sinner, but a Son begotten in the express image of the Father’s person, and in all the brightness of his majesty and glory, one equal with God in authority, dignity, and divine perfection. In him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. { ST May 30, 1895, par. 3 }

Thus Christ was begotten in the express image of his Father BEFORE he came in the likeness of men.

His [Satan's] object in thus doing is to weaken the force of the influence of the church upon the world and make of none effect the prayer of Christ. The burden of that prayer was that His disciples might be one as He was one with the Father; the oneness so close that, although two distinct beings, there was perfect unity of spirit, purpose, and action. The mind of the Father was the mind of the Son. { 3LtMs, Lt 1, 1882, par. 1 }

So we see two separate beings here: the Father and the Son. Thus in Genesis 1:26 one being is speaking to another being, as opposed to the idea of a triune being speaking in the plural because of being made up of three persons.

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:

“In him was life; and the life was the light of men” ( John 1:4). It is not physical life that is here specified, but immortality, the life which is exclusively the property of God. The Word, who was with God, and who was God, had this life. Physical life is something which each individual receives. It is not eternal or immortal; for God, the Life-giver, takes it again. Man has no control over his life. But the life of Christ was unborrowed. No one can take this life from Him. “I lay it down of myself” ( John 10:18), He said. In Him was life, original, unborrowed, underived. This life is not inherent in man. He can possess it only through Christ. He cannot earn it; it is given him as a free gift if he will believe in Christ as His personal Saviour. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” ( John 17:3). This is the open fountain of life for the world. { 1SM 296.2} [This article appeared in The Signs of the Times, April 8, 1897.]

She says, we too can have life "original, unborrowed, underived". This life was in Jesus. "For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;" John 5:26. And likewise this life can be given to us.

Through Solomon Christ declared: “The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, 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;....” { ST August 29, 1900, par. 14 }

So according to Ellen White, Jesus was begotten of the Father before the earth was created, as we see in Proverbs 8. Thus the Son isn't co-eternal with the Father.

It is not safe to catch the spirit from another. We want the Holy Spirit, which is Jesus Christ. {Lt66-1894.18}

Let the brightest example the world has yet seen be your example, rather than the greatest and most learned men of the age, who know not God, nor Jesus Christ whom he has sent. The Father and the Son alone are to be exalted. { YI July 7, 1898, par. 2 }

God and Christ alone know what the souls of men have cost. { ST January 13, 1909, par. 8 }

In the beginning the Father and the Son had rested upon the Sabbath after Their work of creation. { DA 769.2}

Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally; therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He should leave them, go to His father, and send the Holy Spirit to be His successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent. { 14MR 23.3 } and { Present Truth (UK) May 30, 1895, par. 7 }

In describing to His disciples the office work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus sought to inspire them with the joy and hope that inspired His own heart. He rejoiced because of the abundant help He had provided for His church. The Holy Spirit was the highest of all gifts that He could solicit from His Father for the exaltation of His people. The Spirit was to be given as a regenerating agent, and without this the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail. The power of evil had been strengthening for centuries, and the submission of men to this satanic captivity was amazing. Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the Third Person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fullness of divine power. It is the Spirit that makes effectual what has been wrought out by the world's Redeemer. It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given His Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress His own character upon His church. { DA 671.2 }

In Webster's 1828 Dictionary we have:
Person:
6.Character of office.
How different is the same man from himself, as he sustains the person of a magistrate and that of a friend.

So when speaking of the "third person of the Godhead" (by the way "third person" isn't in caps in the 1898 original printing) at the beginning of the paragraph she mentions the office work of the Holy Spirit. So just like a judge can be one person while on the bench and another person while having dinner with his friends, Jesus is one person in heaven and another person while guiding the church on earth, in the sense that these are two different offices or duties, one as our high priest in heaven and one as our comforter on earth.

The reason why the churches are weak and sickly and ready to die, is that the enemy has brought influences of a discouraging nature to bear upon trembling souls. He has sought to shut Jesus from their view as the Comforter, as one who reproves, who warns, who admonishes them, saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” { RH August 26, 1890, par. 10 }

The Saviour is our Comforter. This I have proved Him to be. { 7LtMs, Ms 20, 1892, par. 6 }

to be

[revelation]

At 20 mins, the question is asked what is the difference between bigotten and created. To create means that you make something that is different from yourself. Begotten means that what is brought forth is of the same substance as oneself. In Genesis it is very clear that animals bring forth after their kind. So God brings forth someone who is divine. Man brings forth someone who was human.

A baby is begotten. A painting is made (created).

[DonjohnsonBG]

Those who don’t believe in the Trinity doctrine are not Anti-Trinitarians they are Non-Trinitarians one who don’t believe it. Adventists don’t believe Sunday is the Sabbath would you call yourself a Anti-Sunday keeper or one who don’t keep Sunday thus a non Sunday keeper😁

[derekriethmeier]

Amen, pastor. Thank you for bringing this up. I have dealt with members that don't believe in the Trinity, and I have found that there is no evidence you can give them that will ever satisfy them because their mind has been set.