HOW THE SDA HYMNALS SINCE 1886 REVEAL

THE DEVELOPING TRINITARIAN-TYPE WORSHIP

OF THE SDA PIONEERS WHILE E.G. WHITE
WAS STILL ALIVE!!

By Derrick Gillespie

*Second edition: June, 2020

(Edited, revised, and expanded)

--- “Prove all things” ---

 INTRODUCTION:
As a ‘follow up’ of sorts to my earlier written booklet called “A Catholic SDA Hymnal? Reviewing so-
called Catholic Influence on the [1985] SDA Hymnal- A Balanced SDA Perspective” (click the link to get
your own free copy) I am now pleased to share with you (in this 2nd edition) a deeper study into the
matter of how what SDA pioneers sang from their hymnals after 1888 and before 1915 (when E.G.
White died) reveal their gradual acceptance of The Trinity or The threefold Godhead (but a tailored
version involving “the three holiest beings in heaven”, as chief SDA pioneer E.G. White expressed it).
For years SDA members have been bombarded with propaganda from “offshoot” and certain
“independent” ministries peddling the falsehood that it was after E.G. White and all the early pioneers
of SD Adventism died that Trinitarian-type sentiments became OFFICIALLY accepted among Adventists.
How often have we heard these dissidents proclaiming that SDAs eventually worshipping the Holy
Spirit as a person and as a member of the Trinity, that this all developed after Mrs White and most
of the pioneers died off? It’s time to “prove all things”, and to test those charges by comparing the
real facts of SDA history with those accusations! What are the reals facts? Well, between the years
1886 and 1915, SDAs officially published major songbooks which were officially vetted by a General
Conference (GC) Committee of SDA pioneers (including pioneers who previously expressed strong anti-
Trinitarian sentiments), and it is quite eye-opening that those hymnals showed a gradually increasing
volume of Trinitarian type songs, and yet not one pioneer is on record objecting to them being in those
hymnals (including E.G. White). What hymnals am I talking about? They are as follows:

1. The Seventh-day Adventist Hymn and Tune Book for Use in Divine Worship (1886, 1888, & 1893
versions)
2. Christ in Song (1900 and 1908 versions)

All these song books listed above are considered the song books of the SDA pioneers; vetted, edited,
compiled, and published by SDA pioneers themselves via the Review and Herald publishing house of
SDAs. Now one would think that if the SDA pioneers had continued to totally reject all Trinitarian-type
sentiments about the Godhead (as they are admittedly on record doing before the 1890s), then official
pioneering SDA hymnals or songbooks --- involving SDA pioneers sitting in GC committees in the
selection of songs that E.G. White herself would have sung—they should show no Trinitarian type
songs listed. But what is irrefutably true is that the converse is the case, and this fact alone debunks
those “accusers of the brethren” who claim that it was only after the pioneers died off that Trinitarian
sentiments became ‘officially’ accepted among mainstream SDAs!! Let’s delve into the true facts, and
you will discover for yourself, dear reader, who is telling the truth. Feel free to check the facts am
about to give for yourself online, or by way of the actual books/materials am about to quote, since
originals are still available, or photocopied versions of the originals can be easily acquired online or via
the archives of the General Conference of SDAs (as well as via non-SDA digital archives online).

APPEARANCE OF SDA SONGS WORSHIPPING A THREEFOLD GODHEAD

The Seventh-day Adventist Hymn and Tune Book for Use in Divine Worship was published in 1886, and
expanded in 1888 and 1893 (as the Xeroxed cover page below shows), and was compiled by a General
Conference committee of SDA pioneers involving Uriah Smith, J.H. Waggoner, G.I. Butler, and others
who were previous to 1893 very vocal as anti-Trinitarians.
They were on record before 1893 totally against praise being directed to the Holy Spirit as a third or
distinct/separate person from, or in addition to, the Father and His Son; which is the hallmark of
what identifies an anti-Trinitarian.

Yet in the 1893 edition of the Hymns and Tunes song book under focus, we see in hymn No. 36 (on
page 16), in the section entitled “PRAISE- WORSHIP AND REVERENCE OF GOD”, a direct and personal
address to and worship of the Father and the Son (the incarnate Word) and the Holy Spirit:
The message is clear!! By 1893 SDAs were comfortably directing praise and prayer songs, FIRST, to the
Father (the “Ancient of Days”), SECOND, to the Incarnate Word (Jesus), and then, THIRDLY, as seen
clearly in verse 3, making a separate invocation of, and directing praise and prayer (in song) to “the
Spirit of power” (the “holy Comforter” who is deemed “almighty”). There was no shying away from
separately sending praise to the “Spirit of power” and acknowledging that he’s “almighty”. Now I
know some of the “accusers of the brethren” and their “offshoot” or “independent” ministries will try
to lamely explain it away and say by praising “the Comforter” the SDA pioneers were only praising
Jesus, since the Spirit is Christ himself, they would argue (the same Jesus they often deny is ever called
“almighty”). Yet from as early 1888, in that year’s 1888 edition of edition of the Hymns and Tunes
songbook, the Holy Spirit was being worshipped and praised separately this way:

In the song of worship/praise, No. 151, that was being directly addressed to the Holy Spirit (as found
on page 55 in the songbook section called “Worship- The Holy Spirit”), verse 5 of the song “Come Holy
Spirit, Come” makes plain that SDA pioneers were accepting that with a mind “free from bondage”
they would come to “know, praise and love” “the Father, the Son, AND THEE”. And of course, it is
obvious that only a “living person” (as Mrs White later referred to the Holy Spirit) can be referred to as
“thee” alongside the Father and the Son, and can become “known, loved, and praised” just as the
Father and the Son. This same song reappeared in the 1893 edition of Hymns and Tunes, and in the
very same year (1893) that the above hymn was re-published in that songbook, here is what SDA Mrs
White, Adventism’s chief pioneer said about the Spirit they were singing praise:

“The Holy Spirit is the Comforter, in Christ's name. He personifies Christ, yet
is a distinct personality.” – E.G. White, Manuscript, 1893

Now, did she number this “distinct personality” or “person” as one would
count “1, 2, 3”, just like the Father and the Son? You bet she did!! After speaking in several places of
there being “three living persons” of/in the “Eternal Godhead”, she went much further to explain
exactly what she meant by “three persons” or “three holiest beings in heaven” being “the three Great
Worthies” that she even directed prayer to. She said Christ and the Father are “one”, and that Jesus, as
“God essentially and in the highest sense”, he is “God himself”, but then she always acknowledged that
Jesus is a “distinct personality” (meaning a separate person) from the Father. And when she spoke of
the Spirit in relation to Jesus, she said the exact same thing, i.e. the Holy Spirit is “God” and is “Jesus
himself” the Comforter, but they are “distinct” in personality to be numbered “three living
personalities”; and she did this in the very period we begin to see Trinitarian-type songs appearing in
SDA songbooks; never before. In fact, the Trinitarian-type intent of what the pioneers were now
singing from their song book before 1915 becomes even more pronounced when we look at the 1900
and 1908 Christ in Song hymnal (the most popular and loved pioneering SDA song book) as written,
compiled and published by SDA pioneer F.E. Belden; a pioneer who was E.G. White’s own nephew. But
I’ll get to that shortly. But suffice it to say here that this is what totally debunks the anti-Trinitarian
offshoots and apostates from organized SD Adventism who are still trying to hold on to E.G. White
and all the SDA pioneers, while rejecting the doctrine (as developed by SDA pioneers themselves
before 1915) that the Spirit can be praised or worshipped and prayed to as a separately listed
personality. What is even more devastating to the “offshoots” and “accusers” in their lame polemic
and stance on the issues is that the very same 1893 hymnal has an entire section devoted to worship
of the Holy Spirit, entitled “WORSHIP- THE *SPIRIT” (songs 136-167), and that is after having two
separate sections for worship dedicated to the Father (songs 19-100), and another section for
worship dedicated to the “Adoration of Christ”, Jesus the Son (songs 101-135). It is even more telling
when one examines the songs dedicated to praising and addressing prayer (in songs) to the Son and
Spirit in a separate way. Very many songs in the section of the 1893 Hymns and Tunes hymnal that
was dedicated to the “Adoration of Christ”, they praise Jesus as “O Lord our God the Lamb” (No. 105),
as “my gracious Master and my God” (No. 114), as “Sovereign” (supreme), and as “the fount of life” or
“the Fountain-Head” (No. 108), just as the pioneers deemed the Father to be!! This is what normal
Trinitarians would declare in their worship of the co-equal Godhead persons, seeing that if Jesus is our
God just like the Father, then it is plain that by 1893 the pioneers were accepting and singling lustily
from their song book that it is NOT only the person of the Father who is “our God” or “the Fountain-
Head” (i.e. the highest source of life). In fact, when we look at songs dedicated to the worship of the
Spirit (in the section entitled “WORSHIP- THE SPIRIT”), song No. 141 is a revealing prayer song to the
Spirit (as seen in the photocopy below). It compellingly demonstrates why Mrs White (as recorded in a
1906 sermon) would have the freedom to offer a prayer to, quote, “the three Great Worthies” whom
she called “the three holiest BEINGS in heaven”, and the freedom to list Father, Son and Spirit
separately; indicating to whom she was praying when she needed to “call upon” who could help her.
This freedom she showed to write as she did was because by 1893 the SDA pioneers had started to
accept that prayer can be addressed to the Holy Spirit separately, just as we would direct prayer to the
Father and the Son. Note the telling words of this prayer song (No. 141) compared to No. 146, also in
this much beloved pioneering hymnal:

These are prayers (in song) to the Holy Spirit that should not sit well with previously aggressive anti-
Trinitarian pioneers , and the notion of the Spirit being (as Mrs White later phrased it) “also a divine
person” of “three living persons” in the “Eternal Godhead”, this certainly
has not gone down well with certain ‘old timers’. No wonder Mrs White
wrote in 1899, as an appeal to those resisting this truth:
“We [Adventists] need to realize that the Holy Spirit, who is as much a Person *AS [i.e. in
same way that] God is a person (!!) is walking through these grounds…He hears every
word we utter, and knows every thought of every mind”
--E.G. White- Manuscript Release, Vol. 7, pg. 299 (from an 1899 speech at Avondale College)
The foregoing appeal is indicative of the fact that some SDA pioneers were resisting the new doctrinal
developments in Adventism about the Spirit’s “distinct personality” (as E.G. White phrased it); a new
development that clearly had started to take place somewhere around 1891 or 1892, and the following
proves it. In 1892 SDA pioneers themselves were blunt about the following Trinitarian-type article from
the Presbyterian minister, Samuel Spear; an article that they SUPPORTIVELY published via their Pacific
Press publishing house (even supportively renaming it “The Bible doctrine of the Trinity”):

“…The Godhead makes its appearance in the great plan for human salvation. God in this plan is
brought before our thoughts under the personal titles of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, with diversity
in offices, relations, and actions toward men. These titles and their special significance, as used in the
Bible, are not interchangeable. The term “Father” is never applied to the Son, and the term “Son” is
never applied to the Father. Each title has its own permanent application, and its own use and sense.
The distinction thus revealed in the Bible is the basis of the doctrine of the tri-personal God… The
exact mode in which the revealed Trinity is … must be to us a perfect mystery, in the sense of our
total ignorance on the point. We do not, in order to believe the revealed fact, need to understand
this mode. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity—whether, as to its elements, taken collectively or
separately — so far from being a dry, unpractical, and useless dogma adjusts itself to the condition
and wants of men as sinners…. The truth is that God the Father in the primacy attached to Him in the
Bible, and God the Son in the redeeming and saving work assigned to Him in the same Bible, and God
the Holy Ghost in his office of regeneration and sanctification – whether considered collectively as
one God, or separately in the relation of each to human salvation—are really omnipresent in, and
belong to, the whole texture of the revealed plan for saving sinners."
- No. 90, The Bible doctrine of the Trinity, Pacific Press, 1892

Rather telling isn’t it? In fact, in 1892 and 1894 respectively (in the same period the 1893 hymnal
came out) here is what SDA pioneers said glowingly about the same Spear article quoted above:

“… We believe that it sets forth the Bible doctrine of the trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
with a devout adherence to the words of the Scripture, in the best brief way we ever saw it
presented." -Signs of the Times, Vol.18, No.22, 1892.

“…It presents the Bible view of the doctrine of the Trinity in the terms used in the Bible, and
therefore avoids all philosophical discussion and foolish speculation. It is a tract worthy of reading."
-Signs of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 29, 1894.
And so what we see, starting from 1892 with the Spear’s article, is a GRADUAL development of Adventist
thought regarding the acceptance of a “threefold” Godhead (perfectly explaining the reason for the
Trinitarian type sentiments entering the 1893 hymnal, as aforementioned). And yet this “development”
became a radical departure from traditional Trinitarian thought, because the Adventist explanation of
the Godhead has always maintained that in the Godhead the separateness or individuality of the persons
is not lost (!!). Past erroneous pioneering views rejecting the Holy Spirit’s personhood was now being
challenged by some of the pioneers themselves, so much so we see this by 1900 in the Review and Herald:

“The Jews of old said we believe in Moses and the prophets, we worship God the Father, we keep the
law, but as for this fellow Jesus of Nazareth, away with him …they could not worship the Father
acceptably and refuse his representative, his only begotten Son.... We [SDA pioneers in the year 1900]
make a like mistake today. [Click the link to see more of the pioneers admitting their mistake]. We cry
“Jesus only,” “Christ in you,” We worship the Father and the Son, but we do not give the place of power
and authority to their representative, the blessed Holy Ghost…we preach fear for our creed and the truth
if he is made known and received…God help us if to-day we are no wiser than were those Jews...”
---Review and Herald, January 16, 1900, Vol. 77, No. 3, pg. 35, 36

This would explain Mrs White’s later monumental 1906 admission to there being “three holiest beings in
heaven” that she offered prayer to, despite earlier (in 1901) affirming them collectively as “God”, and as
collectively being our “Father”, who all “pledged” to and henceforth subsequently “receive” us as “sons
and daughters” upon our baptism (a matter some, especially the modern anti-Trinitarians in Adventism,
find hard to come to grips with even today):

"God says, [notice after this whom she means says this] "Come out from among them, and be ye
separate, . . . and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you,
and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." [Now notice carefully] This is the
pledge of [not one person, but] the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit [i.e. the *pledge to receive and
be “a Father” to you]; made to you if you will keep your baptismal vow, and touch not the unclean
thing… In order to deal righteously with the world, as members of the royal family, children of the
heavenly King, Christians must feel their need of a power, which comes only from the [three]
heavenly agencies that have pledged themselves to work in man's behalf. After we have formed a
union with the great THREEFOLD POWER [singular; collective], we shall regard our duty toward the
members of God's family with a sacred awe.” -E.G. White, Signs of the Times, June 19, 1901

Earlier, in 1881, she had already referred to them collectively as the Lord that we must all praise:
"...let us [SDAs] consecrate to *Him ["the Lord" our God] all that we are, and all
that we have, and then may we all unite to swell the songs, “Praise God, from whom all blessings
flow; Praise *him, all creatures here below; Praise *him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son,
*AND Holy Ghost ---E.G. White, Review and Herald, January 4, 1881
Let’s now see what happened to the hymnody of SDA pioneers at the end of the 1890s, and before
1915. Keep reading. You will discover more evidence related to what you have read so far.

FURTHER PIONEERING INCLUSION OF TRINITARIAN-TYPE WORSHIP SONGS IN SDA HYMNALS:

After the pioneers introduced certain songs in the 1893 song book entitled “The Seventh-day Adventist
Hymn and Tune Book for Use in Divine Worship, the General Conference Committee vetted and passed
for official publishing what became the most popular and well known song book of the SDA pioneers,
namely “Christ in Song” (the 1900 and 1908 versions), as written and compiled by the nephew of E.G.
White, brother F.E. Belden (later even fully managed by the GC filled with pioneers). The 1890s to
the early 1900s “acceptance” of Trinitarian-type sentiments explains why Trinitarian-type hymns could
be freely added to the SDA hymnal after the 1890s and the early 1900s (i.e. years before the 1915
death of E.G. White), in line with SDA theology that the Church gradually grew into even while Mrs
E.G. White was alive. Proof? The 1900 and 1908 SDA hymnal called “Christ in Song”, as compiled by
SDA pioneer F.E Belden (*click link to see original), had the following Trinitarian-type song being sung
by SDAs for the first time DURING MRS. WHITE’S TIME--addressing directly the personal and divine
Holy Spirit-- as well as pointedly and explicitly praising “the Eternal Three” as explicitly identified and
listed:
No. 296 (Praise ye the Father) in the SDA “Christ in Song” of 1900 (verse 3):
“Praise ye the Spirit, Comforter of Israel, Sent of the Father and the Son to bless us. Praise ye the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit— Praise ye the Eternal Three!”

As said before, prayer songs directly addressed to the Spirit as a “distinct personality” (from the Father
and the Son) and as one who is “also a divine person” (EGW) is a Trinitarian-type practice, and praising
Father, Son and Spirit as the separately named “Eternal Three” is inescapably Trinitarian-type worship.
And we see clearly that the SDA pioneers already had this Trinitarian-type of worship captured in the
1900 “Christ in Song” Hymnal (15 years before the death of E.G. White). In fact, in the 1908 version
of “Christ in Song” (a Hymnal Mrs White would have also sung from), there is a section of the
Contents called “Praise to *the Trinity” (on page 6), with three distinct Trinitarian songs listed there
(Nos. 470, 377, & 354), and this fact effectively debunks the “accusers” claiming that, quote, “Never
before [1985] in any SDA Hymnal was there an entire section of hymns dedicated to THE TRINITY”!! See
the real truth proving otherwise in the actual Xeroxed/photocopied page overleaf (see the left side
of page 6, just left of the column with sections dealing with “Evening Hymns”, “The Rest Day”
[Sabbath] and “Sabbath School” songs).
This later or post-1888 addition of more Trinitarian-type songs to this SDA hymnal was a natural and
logical outgrowth of the new doctrinal development during Mrs White’s time. Pity the “accusers of the
brethren” would not research more carefully before bringing their accusations, and misinforming the
public as well.

Ever remember that [1] the term “trinity” (a synonym of “trio”), and [2] the doctrines (in their
rudimentary form) of the personal Holy Spirit, as well as [3] the Trinity consisting of an “Eternal Three”
who are worthy of equal praise/worship, these teachings all pre-dated the Roman Catholic Church by
several centuries (a doctrine it did not “invent” but inherited from early Christians, when it came on
the scene after the fourth century), and so it is not Roman Catholic “liturgy” alone to speak of the
“Trinity”, but rather it is very Christian in every way (matters not the dissenters or detractors). I have
written much about the reality of anti-Trinitarian dissidents in Adventism or apostates from Adventism
continuing to “kick against the pricks” as it concerns Trinitarianism in the tailored form in Adventism
(*click the link to see). Some of their “accusative” sentiments are being adopted by even certain
bonafide Trinitarian SDAs, and these sentiments can only be seen for what they are--groundless!—
once we are armed with the proper knowledge of Church history and what the Bible really teaches
about the Godhead of “the three holiest beings in heaven” (as E.G. White expressed it). See a solid
library of literature I have prepared to arm any SDA to answer these anti-Trinitarians (*click link).

As I close, I cannot but help but join with our SDA pioneers and sing song No. 470 from their own 1908
song book, “Christ in Song” (seen overleaf as directly photocopied from that pioneering SDA
songbook):
Now, only desperate dishonesty, denominational heresy or utter blindness would have any SDA trying
to explain it away or deny its collective worship of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit by the SDA
pioneers; a song sung both before and after the pioneers accepted that the Holy Spirit is “a person”
among “the three living persons” of “the Trinity” or “the triune” Godhead (terms they gradually grew
to accept in later years, as evidenced below, just as they accepted that Jesus is our “God himself”, but
as a separate person from His Father):

“It was the Son of God alone who could present an acceptable sacrifice. GOD HIMSELF
became man, and bore all the wrath that sin had provoked….”
---Ellen G. White, Youth’s Instructor, 31st August, 1887

“…when Jesus declared Himself to the Jews to be I AM, He revealed Himself as the
Jehovah of the Old Testament, the God of Abraham manifested in human flesh. This is quite in
harmony with the name announced by the prophet Isaiah to be given to the virgin-born son,
and by Inspiration applied to Jesus of Nazareth; "They shall call His name Immanuel; which is, being
interpreted, God with us." Matt. 1:23. But the fact that the Jesus of the New Testament is the
Jehovah of the Old Testament must not be understood as eliminating the Father, or as a denial of the
Godhead-- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Since the finite cannot comprehend the infinite, it were vain
to attempt an analysis of the Godhead, or to liken the perfect union of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to
a triumvirate of men or even of angels. Neither must we think of the three distinct persons of the
Godhead as subject to any of the limitations to which men are subject. To Nicodemus the Saviour
said, "No one hath ascended into heaven, but He that descended out of heaven, even the Son of
man, who is in heaven." John 3:13.
There was the divine Word made flesh, subject to the limitations of humanity, as a man just as
dependent upon the Father as we are dependent upon Him; and yet, as a divine Being, still one with
the Father in heaven, as declared in John 17:23. Believe it we must, but explain it, or even fully
comprehend it, we cannot; and until we can, we should tread reverently as we approach the subject
of the being and nature of the triune God. This identification of Jesus of Nazareth with Jehovah of the
Old Testament opens up a fertile field of study and encouragement. …When we are tempted to
doubt the power of Jesus to save us from sin and from sinning, we may call to mind that it was as
Jehovah that He delivered His people from the bondage of Egypt and brought them into the
Promised Land.”
---W.W. Prescott (SDA pioneer), The Saviour of the World, pg. 17

“...God’s great plan is clear and logical. There is *A TRINITY, and in it there are three
personalities [or three individuals]…. These divine persons are associated in the work of
God…But this union is not one in which *individuality is lost…There is indeed a
divine trio, but the Christ of that Trinity is not [initially] a created being as the angels- He was
the “only begotten” of the Father…”
-----Robert Hare, Australasian Union Conference Record (SDA pioneering periodical,
July 19, 1909

CONCLUSION?
As we can clearly see, the SDA pioneering hymnals evolved DURING MRS WHITE’S LIFESTIME to
reflect key doctrinal changes that took place within the same time frame. Enough said. I rest my
case!!

-------------------------------------------------------THE END----------------------------------------------------------------

Derrick Gillespie is a trained teacher in the Social Sciences, History, and Geography, and remains a
member of the SDA Church in Jamaica and a lay evangelist for SDAs.
(Contact Info: ddgillespie@live.com OR https://www.facebook.com/derrick.gillespie)