For Seventh-day Adventists, when considering what the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy reveal about the identity of God, His only begotten Son and His Holy Spirit, it can be a confusing journey. It is only confusing, however, if we individually lack the foundation necessary to know and understand God’s Word rightly divided that comes exclusively from diligent study guided by God’s Spirit.
Without exercising our minds to know and comprehend the Word of God we are left drifting on the sea of shallow worldly intellect and fall prey easily to false teachings and philosophies, all while deceiving ourselves that we do in fact understand spiritual things.
God has revealed Himself to mankind, but God has designed that our understanding of Him be known in submission to Him. Who is our God? Do we trust His Word? Do we require that God’s Word fit within our own limited understanding? Do we only accept God’s Word if we can prove to ourselves that God’s Word is reliable and without error? This is the whole point of life – to choose this day whom we will serve. God has revealed Himself to us on every level from nature, the written Word, the life of Christ and our own consciences. We are equipped with the capacity and obligation to either accept God’s truth or to reject it. As sinful man, we reject God’s Word by default. Our opportunity is to exercise the privilege won by Christ on the cross to exercise our own individual freewill and choose to accept God’s Word, to be reborn and restored in relationship with the Father, our Creator. Many are called, few are chosen. We control whether we are chosen or not by our freewill.
This appeal will fall flat on those who persist in rejecting the opportunity to humbly submit to and obey God’s Word preferring instead to have itching ears and follow the philosophies of men. Only a remnant will pursue and be faithful to God’s Word. There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is DEATH! It’s our choice. It’s your choice.
Seventh-day Adventists hold that it is the mission of the church and the last day present truth to proclaim the three angel’s messages, particularly the third angel’s message which is yet to be fulfilled. This message divides mankind into two groups. One group bears the seal of the true and living God. The other group bears the mark of the beast and follows the daughters of the whore of Revelation – the false churches. Which group will we be in? Just like the 10 virgins, we will sit together with both groups mingled – wheat and tares. It will only be at the moment in time at which it will be too late to change one’s choice that the reality of whether or not we have our lamps filled with oil, the truth poured out upon mankind by the Holy Spirit of God, that those who have failed to rightly divide God’s Word will realize the consequence of their choice. The door to the proverbial ark will be closed by the hand of God. The just will be just still. The unjust will be unjust still. This is important.
When considering if the early Adventist commitment to a non-trinitarian view of God is the correct inspired view of God in contrast to the present denomination’s position in full support of a trinitarian view of God, how do we individually exercise our duty to God to rightly divide His Word?
There are established and sensible methods for rightly dividing God’s Word. In general, we refer to this as hermeneutics, the derivation of meaning from words. It is here that sin-loving lazy minds willfully choose to disregard truth while simultaneously believing to understand God’s Word. It is here that false teachers manipulate God’s Word to derive understandings that are not in harmony with truth, all while using God’s Word to perpetrate verbal slight-of-hand that amazes those willing to believe a lie. Satan himself appealed to God’s Word when tempting Christ to deny His Sonship in the wilderness following Christ’s baptism. Truth is no mystery to the demons, even they believe. The question for us is, how do we incorporate God’s Word into our own lives to empower our freewill to make the right choice? The good news is that our only real choice is whether to submit to God with sincerity. We are promised to be given all that we need to walk and grow in faithfulness to God if we genuinely choose to die to sin and let God’s Spirit through Christ transform our hearts and minds. We don’t have to be intellectually sophisticated by worldly standards. You will outlive the brightest and most wealthy people who have ever lived but did not submit to God if you choose to die to sin and let Christ truly live in you.
One of the first things one must do individually is to determine how to understand God’s Word. Adventists are given counsel by Ellen White to apply the principles of biblical interpretation exercised by William Miller and known as Miller’s Rules. Key among these rules is the principle to let Scripture interpret Scripture. This is in contrast to allowing external, and typically more recent, supposed sources of intellectual expertise provide interpretive guidance. Words are given new definitions allowing for new interpretations. The Bible acts as a sword to rightly divide truth from error only when the Bible itself is used as the standard of truth. The Bible teaches that all Scripture is God breathed and good for instruction, rebukes and correction. The Bereans are cited as examples of people who faithfully confirmed information according to whether it consistently matched the written Word. If you choose to follow the teachings of someone who impresses you with their smooth tongue, nice tone and easy message, then that’s your choice. You will be held accountable for your own treatment of truth and error. It won’t help you to blame someone else for misleading you. Both the deceiver and the willfully deceived will be lost. The only thing between you and God’s truth is you and your freewill choice.
If you accept that the Bible is the true Word of God and that Ellen White was a true prophet of God who faithfully represented her message in full consistency with God’s Word, then you might be a genuine Adventist. If you have any doubts about the reliability and authority of God’s Word or of Ellen White’s inspired counsel, then you are making a dishonest declaration to identify as a Seventh-day Adventist – even if you hold a high office in the church.
A principle of God’s Word is that it does not ever change and does not ever contradict itself. This is a principle that is key to the Bible being a sword of truth. Error is exposed when found to be inconsistent with God’s Word.
Trinitarian Adventists have a huge dilemma. The trinity doctrine fails the biblical consistency test. In an attempt to overcome the inconsistencies, words are given new definitions and elaborate explanations that defy common sense are applied to give a mysterious and mystical interpretation. These efforts are absolutely essential to maintain a trinity doctrine. Some of these words include: Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Godhead, begotten vs unique, third person, etc. What the Bible speaks of literally is dismissed as figurative.
Non-trinitarians today struggle against the tide of multigenerational error and misunderstood terms. Ellen White’s use of words like ‘heavenly trio,’ ‘three persons,’ and such seem on the surface to contradict other statements. All such confusion is cleared up when each word and idea is interpreted in the context of all other inspired references to these subjects. It’s only when we cling to a false interpretation of an idea that things become inconsistent.
If the words used by Ellen White are either inconsistent with her own testimony as a whole or with Scripture, then Ellen White is a false prophet. To be a member of a church which holds a false prophet to be a true prophet is an intellectually troubling position to maintain.
The trinitarian doctrine currently held as the official belief of the Seventh-day Adventist church requires accepting certain statements by Ellen White to be true while rejecting others as well as requiring definitions of terms that defy a plain reading. If a Seventh-day Adventist is completely honest with their stated beliefs and they hold to a belief in a trinity doctrine, they should leave the denomination if they possess any integrity at all. Satan’s mission is not to destroy the denomination, but to corrupt the denomination and use it to further deceive and confuse people. It’s working. Ellen White anticipated this when she spoke of a new organization being formed that would be swept away by storm and tempest. It’s the false organization that will fail, not the true church of Christ. Ellen White tells us that the church, the true remnant body of believers, will not fail, that their ship will go through. This is consistent with the biblical account of Jesus telling all mankind that the church He established over 2000 years ago will be built upon the rock representing the truth that He is Christ the Son of the living God and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
There are at least three broad classes of people under the banner of Adventism. There are the true and faithful believers who constitute a part of God’s last true church. There are determined advocates of error and lies who seek to control the denomination and its influence on people. There are many who have, for whatever reason, not exercised their capacity to know God’s Word rightly divided for themselves and have been content to follow the leaders and teachers, false or otherwise, rather than study for themselves.
According to God through His written Word, most people, the inverse of a remnant, will be lost. According to Ellen White during her lifetime which is now quite a long time ago, not one in twenty were ready for the coming of Jesus. The statistic has more likely changed in the direction of one in twenty thousand. It is not safe to either be a false teacher or someone lazily willing to follow them. If that’s you, you will be lost. God’s true people are a remnant. God’s true people in the last days will be called from where? From the Seventh-day Adventist church? Only if the SDA church is Babylon. God will call His people out of Babylon.
Personal testimony – I was among the intellectually lazy people willing to simply comply with the social expectations of what it meant to be a good Seventh-day Adventist. I fell under the spell of the idea that I was part of the remnant church, that church that will not fail (the ship will go through). Adventists have the Sabbath truth after all. Won’t Sabbath be the last day test of faith? It has been painful because of stubborn laziness for God to get my attention, but He finally did. I am still struggling to unlearn error more than I am able to hear truth, but it’s working. The Holy Spirit is guiding me to a plain reading of God’s Word and a desire to live by it.
If God says get on the boat, then get on the boat. If God says don’t eat the fruit, don’t eat the fruit. If God says, as He did to Abraham, to kill by sacrifice your son, then take your son and sacrifice him and, like Abraham, don’t be tempted to consult with your wife. To be clear, we live by God’s written Word now and there’s nothing in there that remotely suggests sacrificing anyone, so don’t. If you hear in your head something that says to sacrifice someone, you know it’s from a false source because it’s not in harmony with God’s Word. God talked directly with Abraham and Abraham knew His voice. For Abraham, it wasn’t a question of knowing God’s Word but rather if he would do God’s Word. He did and God blessed him – and stopped him from sacrificing his son. If God says it, accept it. God says He’s a Father who has an only begotten Son. Jesus says that He is the Son of His Father. The Seventh-day Adventist church states that Jesus is not the literal Son of God. That makes both Jesus and His Father liars – if current SDA doctrine is correct.
It is not the point here to argue about what the correct doctrine should be according to God’s Word. A few points have been asserted to whet your appetite to study it for yourself. There is plenty of material available on the subject. The problem for us is that we too often don’t read the material with intellectual and spiritual responsibility. The point here is to clearly suggest that it is possible and essential for your salvation to know God’s truth on His terms. John 3:16 tells us “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” How do we read that? It is not only valid to say that ‘that whosoever believeth in him should not perish’ but is equally true that ‘that whosoever does not believe in him will perish.’ A father by definition in its most fundamental sense means to precede a child in existence. The trinity doctrine denies that Jesus is God’s Son. Is that not failing to believe in Jesus as God presents Him? Resist the urge to argue the point. Invest instead in the skills of hermeneutics. Learn how to read what the words used were meant to say. You will then either accept or reject God’s Word. We are free by the blood of Jesus to choose to accept His righteousness or to reject it, but we are not free to add to or take away from God’s Word in the slightest way. Doing so is to reject God’s Word as given, which is to reject God.
Note that God’s Word and a particular translation are not the same thing. God’s Word has been preserved in its original form sufficient to be reliable and worthy of our submission to it. Most translations require some looking back to the original texts for clarity. When the term ‘God’s Word’ is used here it means just that, the word He gave mankind through His Spirit. That same Spirit remains available to each of us continually which helps to guide us in our study of the Bible.
The bottom-line fundamental opportunity here is to choose which God you will serve. This will be evident by whether you accept His truth through His Word and by whether you obey that Word.
It’s your choice. It’s not an argument.