As many of you know, our Church is facing division increasingly from individuals who reject our current teachings on the Trinity (or Godhead). This has led to debate, censure, and disfellowshipment for some.
My Story
My journey started about ten years ago when my family was challenged with the belief by an individual who at one time held Adventist beliefs. What began as a question, turned into a long reading and studying journey that involved over 15,000 pages of notes by some and reading of our founders, the 1919 Bible Conference notes, the Gary Hullquist Theos series, Alex Ortega, and countless books from Jerry Moon, LeRoy Edwin Froom, and many a debate with local scholars until the subject was thoroughly exhausted.
I think perhaps initially, the reaction by local church leaders didn’t help the matter much, especially when a local church elder told a youth to leave the church if they really believed that way. The discovery of the White Estate changing pronouns from “it” to “he” and admitting such in private email and subsequently quietly correcting on their CD ROM didn’t help quell the claims by some that our beliefs had been changed. When the E.G. White Estate was hacked by an online blogger and additional quotes were found forcing additional manuscript releases, some fears were stoked and flamed online regardless of how those writings were obtained.
Without going into the litany of quotes and readings available for all to explore on their own, I will share a few realizations that made me rethink my path. The first red flag was that many in the camp rejected certain texts like 1 John 5:7 (the so called Johanine comma). They went a step further and called into doubt Matthew 28:19, as to whether this was the original reading. Ellen G. White uses Matthew 28:19 many times and never changed the wording. Something didn’t sit well with the idea that our Lord might not have provided a pure translation or protected his own words.
Perhaps the single greatest realization though, was that the founders rejected a different Trinity than is taught today. The Catholic Trinity was far more modalistic and rejected the individuality of the Godhead by suggesting 3 persons but one being. This Trinity is nothing like what is taught today and no wonder Ellen White avoided the word “Trinity” in her day. It carried far too much baggage. Perhaps even today it may be useful to avoid the term and substitute “Godhead,” the term Ellen White used, to avoid confusion with how the Catholics define their trinity. What we believe is not what our founders railed against.
Anti-Trinitarians also teach that Christ began as a distinct personality at some point in eternity past. They point to Uriah Smith’s statements among others and view Christ’s eternal life as more of a sempiternity where his eternity prior to the creation of the world is viewed as time beyond human comprehension but not necessarily in infinity. However, the little problem with this belief is that Ellen White used the words “from ALL eternity” when describing Christ’s existence before the creation of the world.
Some have criticized heavily a few of our modern teachers for suggesting that Christ or the Holy Spirit were “role playing,” as Jerry Moon put it, suggesting that Christ wasn’t really the Son of God. Yet Ellen White frequently uses the term “office,” which is a loose synonym for “role.” Christ was without a doubt the Son of God and the Word was and is God. He is equal with the father!
Regarding the Holy Spirit, most anti-Trinitarians hold, as did Ellen’s son Willie White, that Ellen taught that the spirit was Christ “without individuality”. Except that when Willie White was explaining his understanding of her words, he himself admitted he wasn’t clear on the interpretation of her words. While the Anti camp points to her three holiest beings statements as misheard stenography, many of her statements that they cling to are stenographed as well.
Many anti-Trinitarian teachers also suggest that the beliefs were changed after Ellen White died and that her contemporaries were all anti-Trinitarian. Yet, Andreason lived in her time and visited and spoke with her, and well understood how important were her words, “unborrowed” and “underrived” regarding Christ’s being.
Perhaps what has best clarified my thinking over time is that, while anti-Trinitarians claim they have some earth-shattering theology, I do not see that belief translating into more obedience and character perfection among its adherents.
Perhaps the more actionable argument in the Catholic Trinity is the unfallen nature of Christ. After Ellen White died, we did have had books of a new order. Questions on doctrine promoted a Catholic Trinitarian concept of original sin and the unfallen human nature of Christ. To me, our end time concepts like Last Generation Theology and obedience are of greater value than speculating on the nature of the Holy Spirit where Ellen White stated “silence is golden.”
I’m back.
And it’s good to be back.
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James Bowen is a member of the Seventh Day Adventist church and graduated from Southern Adventist University in 2016 with a masters degree in nursing and hails from the state of Tennessee.
