41_The Godhead Part 3-Jerry Finneman

This presentation is part of "What is the 1888 Message?" Series. We hope you find this to be a great aid in your study of the Bible and the great theme of righteousness by faith.

[everlastinggospel]

Here are a couple of statements from Ellen White.

“In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived.”
Desire of Ages pg. 530

“Here is where the work of the Holy Ghost comes in, after your baptism. **You are baptized in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.** You are raised up
out of the water to live hence-forth in newness of life--to live a new life. You are born unto God, and you stand under the sanction and the power of the three holiest Beings in
heaven, who are able to keep you from falling. You are to reveal that you are dead to sin; your life is hid with Christ in God. Hidden ‘with Christ in God’—wonderful transformation.
This is a most precious promise. When I feel oppressed and hardly know how to relate myself toward the work that God has given me to do, I just call upon the three great Worthies, and say: You know I cannot do this work in my own strength. You must work in me, and by me, and through me, sanctifying my
tongue, sanctifying my spirit, sanctifying my words, and bringing me into a position where my spirit shall be susceptible to the movings of the
Holy Spirit of God upon my mind and character. And this is the prayer that every one of us may offer.”
1 Sermons and Talks 367-368

"The lapse of time has wrought no change in Christ's parting promise to send the Holy Spirit as His representative." Acts of the Apostles pg.50

"The **Godhead was stirred with pity for the race, and the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit* gave Themselves to the working out of the plan of redemption." Counsels on Health pg. 222

"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." Desire of Ages pg. 671

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


Of the Spirit Jesus said, “He shall glorify Me.” The Saviour came to glorify the Father by the demonstration of His love; so the Spirit was to glorify Christ by revealing His grace to the world. The very image of God is to be reproduced in humanity. The honor of God, the honor of Christ, is involved in the perfection of the character of His people. DA 671.3


“When He [the Spirit of truth] is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” The preaching of the word will be of no avail without the continual presence and aid of the Holy Spirit. This is the only effectual teacher of divine truth. Only when the truth is accompanied to the heart by the Spirit will it quicken the conscience or transform the life. One might be able to present the letter of the word of God, he might be familiar with all its commands and promises; but unless the Holy Spirit sets home the truth, no souls will fall on the Rock and be broken. No amount of education, no advantages, however great, can make one a channel of light without the co-operation of the Spirit of God. The sowing of the gospel seed will not be a success unless the seed is quickened into life by the dew of heaven. Before one book of the New Testament was written, before one gospel sermon had been preached after Christ's ascension, the Holy Spirit came upon the praying apostles. Then the testimony of their enemies was, “Ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine.” Acts 5:28. DA 671.4


Christ has promised the gift of the Holy Spirit to His church, and the promise belongs to us as much as to the first disciples. But like every other promise, it is given on conditions. There are many who believe and profess to claim the Lord's promise; they talk about Christ and about the Holy Spirit, yet receive no benefit. They do not surrender the soul to be guided and controlled by the divine agencies. We cannot use the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is to use us. Through the Spirit God works in His people “to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13. But many will not submit to this. They want to manage themselves. This is why they do not receive the heavenly gift. Only to those who wait humbly upon God, who watch for His guidance and grace, is the Spirit given. The power of God awaits their demand and reception. This promised blessing, claimed by faith, brings all other blessings in its train. It is given according to the riches of the grace of Christ, and He is ready to supply every soul according to the capacity to receive. DA 672.1

"Again and again we shall be called to meet the influence of men who are studying sciences of satanic origin, through which Satan is working to make a **nonentity of God and of Christ**. The Father and the Son each have a **personality**. Christ declared, “I and My Father are one.” Yet it was the Son of God who came to the world in human form. Laying aside His royal robe and kingly crown, He clothed His **divinity** with humanity, that humanity through His infinite sacrifice might become partakers of the divine nature, and escape the corruption that is in the world through lust."—Testimonies For The Church 9:68 (1909).



I am instructed to say, The sentiments of those who are searching for advanced scientific ideas are not to be trusted. Such representations as the following are made: “The Father is as the light invisible: the Son is as the light embodied; the Spirit is the light shed abroad.” “The Father is like the dew, invisible vapor; the Son is like the dew gathered in beauteous form; the Spirit is like the dew fallen to the seat of life.” Another representation: “The Father is like the invisible vapor; the Son is like the leaden cloud; the Spirit is rain fallen and working in refreshing power.” Ev 614.1

All these spiritualistic representations are simply nothingness. They are imperfect, untrue. They weaken and diminish the Majesty which no earthly likeness can be compared to. God cannot be compared with the things His hands have made. These are mere earthly things, suffering under the curse of God because of the sins of man. The Father cannot be described by the things of earth. The Father is all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and is invisible to mortal sight. Ev 614.2

The Son is all the fullness of the Godhead manifested. The Word of God declares Him to be “the express image of His person.” “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Here is shown the personality of the Father. Ev 614.3

The Comforter that Christ promised to send after He ascended to heaven, is the Spirit in all the fullness of the Godhead, making manifest the power of divine grace to all who receive and believe in Christ as a personal Saviour. There are **three living persons of the heavenly trio**; in the name of these **three great powers**—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—those who receive Christ by living faith are baptized, and these powers will co-operate with the obedient subjects of heaven in their efforts to live the new life in Christ.—Special Testimonies, Series B, 7:62, 63. (1905).

[BrightBeamsMission]

Those who seek to remove the old landmarks are not holding fast; they are not remembering how they have received and heard. Those who try to bring in theories that would remove ***the pillars*** of our faith concerning the sanctuary, or concerning ***the personality of God or of Christ, *** are working as blind men. They are seeking to bring in uncertainties and to set the people of God adrift, without an anchor. {Ms62-1905}

In regard to the book Living Temple, I have been instructed by the heavenly messenger that some of the reasoning in this book is untrue, and that this reasoning would lead astray the minds of those who are not thoroughly established on ***the foundation principles*** of present truth. It introduces that which is naught but speculation in regard to ***the personality of God*** and where His presence is. No one on this earth has a right to speculate on this question. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us, and to our children forever.” {Lt232-1903}

Extreme views of “God in nature” undermine ***the foundation truths of the personality of God and the ministration of angels***. A confused mass of spiritualistic ideas takes the place of faith in a personal God. I take no stock whatever in some of the principles that are now being advocated. {Lt271b-1903}

But it has been a most trying thing to see made of no effect the Word of the Lord in cautions and warnings regarding students not going to Battle Creek to obtain their education. The college was taken out of Battle Creek; yet students are still called there, and there they become indoctrinated with the very sentiments regarding ***the personality of God and Christ*** that would undermine ***the foundation of our faith***. The sanctuary question, which means so much to the heavenly family and to the believers on earth, has been made as nothingness. This has been presented to me as that which would be done. We must vindicate the truth. {Lt72-1906}

Some are to depart from the faith. Where are they? Who are they? Who is departing from the faith laid down, ***the very foundation*** that we were on a whole century ago? We are on the very same ***foundation***; we have the same evidence, and we worked on it day and night, to know in regard to the sanctuary question, and in regard to ***the personality of God, and of Christ, *** and of all these subjects. {Ms138-1906}

The Trinity doctrine denies: the faith of Jesus (since it makes the Holy Spirit someone other than Christ who alone can give us the faith to overcome sin), the atonement (since it is not believed that the divine Son of God died on the Cross, only humanity), the sanctuary (since it is believed that God is everywhere rather than confined to the sanctuary in heaven), the personality of God (since God is one personality and not three and He is a being not an "essence" floating around the universe), and the ministry of angels (since it is the angels that bring the Holy Spirit to us and if God is everywhere there is no use for angels).

[BrightBeamsMission]

Please compare these statements:

God is everywhere by virtue of His omniscience … God is in heaven. This we are taught in the Lord’s prayer. “Our Father which art in heaven.” Matt. vi, 9; Luke xi, 2. (James White, Personality of God, 3-4) -- this whole booklet should be read, as well as Canright's articles with the same title, so that we know what Sister White means by the "Personality of God."

The cause of the fall of Babylon is thus stated: “she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication” (Rev. 14:8) … There is but one thing that this can refer to, viz., false doctrine … A few instances of her corruption of the truths of the Bible must suffice … 2. The doctrine of the Trinity which was established in the church by the council of Nice, a. 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 might well cause every believer in that doctrine to blush. (J.N. Andrews, Review and Herald, 3/6/1855)

The expression of the Apostle, “they shall be turned from the truth unto fables, ” is worthy of especial attention. We will here briefly notice some of the popular fables of the age … Here we might mention the Trinity, which does away the personality of God, and of His Son Jesus Christ. (James White, Review and Herald, 12/11/1855)

He who denies the personality of God and of His Son Jesus Christ, is denying God and Christ. “If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.” If you continue to believe and obey the truths you first embraced regarding the personality of the Father and the Son, you will be joined together with Him in love. There will be seen that union for which Christ prayed just before His trial and crucifixion. (Ellen White, Review and Herald, 3/8/1906)

Please notice that Sister White uses the same language that the pioneers used 50 years prior. They were against Trinitarianism, which all the Christian churches were teaching with the exception of the Christian Connection. Why? Because it destroyed the "personality of God." How? In at least a couple of ways, first because it makes God into three personalities rather than just one (the Father), and second because it makes God everywhere instead of just in heaven since God the Holy Spirit of the Trinity is everywhere when the Bible says that God is in heaven.