Key Trinity Facts and Pioneering

SDA Quotes the Dissident SDA Anti-

Trinitarians Won’t Share With You!!

A Revealing 2019 Expose by Derrick Gillespie.

Those SDAs who come under the bewitching and deceptive influence of the anti-Trinitarian
dissidents in our midst will never be told by the dissidents many of the facts seen in this
booklet. Prepare to have your eyes opened!! Share this FREE booklet far and wide!
 CONTENTS

Fact 1: SDA pioneers did accept and teach a triune God or triune
Jehovah between 1876 and 1915………………………………………………..page 3

Fact 2: SDA pioneers accepted a “biblical” version of the Trinity before

1915 but they always rejected the Roman Catholic Trinity………….page 9

Fact 3: SDA pioneers long before 1915 saw Jesus as “co-eternally” and
“co-equally” “the only true God”, and as “God the Son”……………page 21

Fact 4: SDA pioneers long before 1915 changed their views on the Holy
Spirit not being a third or separate personal being ……………………page 35

*Fact 5: The Bible does prove three personal Godhead beings or “three
living persons” of divinity…………………………………………………………..page 43

Fact 6: Early Christians taught a Trinity long before the Papacy rose
after the fourth century, but not the creedal Catholic Trinity…….page 45

Fact 7: The Dissident SDA Anti-Trinitarians are Confused………….page 51

Further Study and Appendices………………………………………………….page 56

“REPEAT THE WORDS OF THE PIONEERS” ---E.G. White, Review and Herald, May 25, 1905

“PROVE ALL THINGS, HOLD FAST THAT WHICH IS GOOD” --- 1 Thessalonians 5:21 (Bible)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 FACT 1:
The SDA pioneers, from as early as 1876 (perhaps earlier) but long
before 1915, started to teach that our God is “threefold” or “triune”,
and that God’s name is the “threefold name” of “the Father, the Son
and the Holy Spirit”… or the singular name of “the triune Deity”!!!

"In the former dispensations God was known by such appellations as, The Lord God,
The Almighty God, The I Am, and The Jehovah God. But in the ordinance of baptism
(according to the gospel commission), in which ordinance we take upon us the *NAME of
the God we worship, *HE is known as the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Now if this be the
truth, as it most certainly is, then it follows that to believe and confess this truth is to
answer a good conscience toward God... when we are baptized in the *NAME of the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, *AS the true and living God, our Creator, Preserver, and Saviour,
we at once and forever renounce and separate ourselves from every kind and species of
idolatry and false worship."
--Review and Herald, March 16, 1876, pg. 82

"...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

"... as the church on earth is working by the direct command and agency of three distinct
personages in heaven for the increase of the heavenly family, in whose name shall we
adopt them into this family ? [i.e. via baptism] "In the *NAME of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost." Matt. 28:19."
---"THE TRINITY", Signs of the Times, October 15, 1890, pg. 315

“... in the course of the lessons as opportunity occurs you will impress upon the children the
relation in which they stand to God the Father as their Creator; to *God the Son (!!!) as their
Redeemer; and to God the Holy Ghost (!!!) as their Sanctifier."
---E.J. Waggoner, The Present Truth (pioneering SDA periodical), Feb. 15, 1894, pg. 101

"...we [SDA pioneers] want the truth because it is truth, and we reject error because it is
error, regardless of any views we [SDA pioneers] may formerly have held, or any
difficulty we may have had, or may now have, when we view the Holy Spirit as a person.
Light is sown for the righteous. Satan's scheme is to destroy all faith in the personality of
the Godhead, — the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,—also in his own personality...Let us
beware lest Satan shall lead us to take the first step in destroying our faith in the
personality of this person of the Godhead,—the Holy Ghost."
--- R.A. Underwood – “The Holy Spirit a Person”,
Review and Herald, Vol. 75, No. 20,
May 17, *1898, pg. 310.

“Do the Scriptures warrant praise to and worship of the Holy Sprint? ...in the formula for
baptism, the name “Holy Ghost,” or” Holy Spirit,” is associated
with that of the Father and the Son. And if the name can be used thus, why could it not
properly stand as a part of the same *TRINITY in the hymn of praise, “Praise Father, Son
and Holy Ghost”?”
-- Uriah Smith (“U.S.”), In the Question Chair, Review and Herald, 1896, Vol. 73, No. 43, pg.
685

"Let Him [the Holy Spirit] make you know, beloved, how surprisingly beautiful are the
blended personalities of our *TRIUNE God manifested by the personal presence of the
Holy Ghost.”
---“Blended Personalities”, Review and Herald, Vol. 77, April 3, 1900, pg. 210

“In the afternoon, at 3: 30 I conducted a singular baptismal service in the home of a sick
sister who, although bedridden, anxiously desired a burial with Christ. A bath tub was
procured, and after a straight talk on the necessity of baptism and salvation through it, I
buried Sister Jennie Bagley in the *NAME of the TRIUNE Deity....."
---J. K. Humphry, Atlantic Union Gleaner (pioneering SDA periodical), August 2, 1905,
Vol. 4 (No. 30), pgs. 357-8

*NOTE: The word "triune" as applied to divinity simply meant

the following to the SDA pioneers (as the 1828 Noah Webster’s Dictionary of American
English of their time made plain):
"TRIUNE---Three in one; an epithet applied to God, to express the
unity of the Godhead in a trinity of persons."
http://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/Triune

"We art children of a Father with "all comfort" in his holding; Jesus [the Man] is our "Elder
Brother" and his blood for us he gave; while the Holy Ghost, "the Comforter," each heart by
truth is molding. So the great, *TRIUNE JEHOVAH is omnipotent to save; he is building
mansions" for us... as children, we obey him. And the "image" and the 'likeness" lost, by
grace shall be restored"
----Signs of the Times, January 6, 1904, Vol. 30 (No. 1), pg. 1

“The universal Sovereign cast man in the image of the Godhead, the Trinity…”
---The Oriental Watchman, Vol. 16, No. 8, August, 1913, pg. 233

"May we all in glory praise the TRIUNE through endless days.”

—The Present Truth, March 23, 1905, Vol.21 (No. 12) p.183

“The ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper are two monumental pillars, one
without and one within the church. Upon these ordinances Christ has inscribed the *NAME
of the true God….Baptism is a most solemn renunciation of the world. Those who are
baptized in the threefold *NAME of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, at the very
entrance of their Christian life declare publicly that they have forsaken the service of Satan
and have become members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King."
---E.G. White, Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 6, 1900, pg. 91

"By our baptismal pledge we avouched and solemnly confessed the Lord Jehovah as our
Ruler. We virtually took a solemn oath, in the *NAME of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost, that henceforth our lives would be merged into the life of these three
great agencies, "
---E.G. White, Manuscript 67, 1907
"After we have formed a union with the great threefold Power [or the triune Sovereign
or Ruler; singular], 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

"God is worshipped because *He is Creator; and God means the Godhead, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit; for all are mentioned as having part in creation."
---The Present Truth (pioneering SDA periodical), Vol. 29, No. 48. Nov. 27, 1913, p. 757

“... the Godhead is composed of three personal *BEINGS and these three are one. The
oneness of the Godhead must, then, consist not in personality, but in some other kind of
oneness. Let us apply the Bible idea of oneness of *individuals to the Godhead, and see if it
will contradict the possibility of three or more individuals being called one. We have two
visible institutions in this world that are Bible illustrations of God's idea of oneness,
marriage and the church.”
---Review and Herald, Vol. 89; Dec. 19, 1912; No. 51, pg. 5

"...as to the Being of God,—the Godhead,—Divinity as revealed in the Father, the Word
(the Son), and the Holy Spirit, we [SDAs] believe and teach just what the Bible says, and
nothing else. No man can by searching find out God. No creature can understand the
Almighty to perfection. The finite mind cannot comprehend infinity..."

---E. J. Waggoner, The Present Truth for 1902 - Vol. 18 - No. 06, pg. 83

"...when there were no worlds; no created being, not even an angel; in fact, there were
only three *beings — God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; these three
persons in the Godhead"
---- Review and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 1. Jan 1, 1901. No., 2409; pg. 2

“The Holy Spirit united with the Father and the Son to create the world, as He still unites
with them to save each soul, — three glorious persons in one only God over all, blessed
for ever…”
-- The Present Truth, Vol. 16, No. 26, June 28, 1900. pg. 411

"Paganism, popery [the Papacy], and infidelity fail entirely to either rightly know or truly
represent the ever-living God. It is left for pure Protestantism to proclaim to the world the
true God consisting of three persons but of one spirit and aim"
--The Signs of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 24, June 12, 1911; p. 371.372

“The Person by whom God will judge the world is Jesus Christ, God-Man. The second
Person in THE *Trinity, that same Person of Whom we read in our Bibles...was born of the
Virgin Mary…”
--The Present Truth, 1908, Vol. 24, No. 51-52, pg. 812

“… the Godhead is composed of three personal *beings, and that these three are one. The
oneness of the Godhead must, then, consist not in personality, but in some other kind of
oneness.
Let us apply the Bible idea of oneness of *individuals to the
Godhead, and see if it will contradict the possibility of three
or more individuals being called one.
We have two visible institutions in this world that are Bible
illustrations of God's idea of oneness, marriage and the church.”
---“The Trinity”, Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 89;
Dec. 19, 1912; No. 51, pg. 5

"There are three living persons [or real separate beings] in the heavenly trio; in the name
of these three great powers [or rulers]—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—those
who receive Christ by living faith are baptized, and those powers will co-operate with the
obedient subjects of heaven in their effort to live the new life of Christ"
---E.G. White, Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 7, 1905, pgs. 62, 63

"The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one and receive worship. Each one
represents all the other members of the *Trinity... [but] Gabriel was only an angel
bearing a message from the great *Trinity of heaven, and could not receive worship [Rev.
19:10; Rev. 22:8-9]"

---S.N. Haskell, The Bible Training School (pioneering SDA periodical), November 1907, No.
6, pg. 94

"It is evident that the Holy Spirit is one of the *Trinity, and fully represent God [the
Father] and Christ, and the *Trinity; and appears in any form or shape, or without form or
shape, as best answers the purpose of God"

---S.N. Haskell, The Bible Training School, 1910, Vol. 9, No. 7, pg. 13

“When we have accepted Christ, and in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit have pledged ourselves to serve [i.e. reverence, honor, worship and obey; see
Joshua 24:15; Psalm 100:2] God, the Father, Christ, *AND the Holy Spirit --the three
dignitaries [or royal beings]and powers of heaven--pledge themselves that every facility
shall be given to us if we carry out our baptismal vows to "come out from among them, and
be . . . separate, . . . and touch not the unclean thing.”
----E.G. White, Manuscript 85, 1901

"As the saints in the kingdom of God are accepted in the beloved [i.e. accepted through
Jesus in Paradise], they hear: “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world.” And then the golden harps are touched, and the
music flows all through the heavenly host, and they fall down and worship the Father and
the Son *AND the Holy Spirit."
---E.G. White, Manuscript 139, 1906.

"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… 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 [in prayer], and say: You know I cannot do this work in
my own strength. You must work in me, and by me, and through me… And this is the
prayer that every one of us may offer. [Keeping in mind that it’s only to who is our God or
is the Godhead we should pray to]
---E.G. White, Manuscript, 95, 1906

“...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 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

“Seventh-day Adventists believe [now] in ... the Divine *TRINITY. This Trinity consists of
the Eternal Father… the Lord Jesus Christ… [and] the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the
Godhead”
---F. M. Wilcox (chief editor), *Review and Herald, October 9, 1913

“…the Godhead, or *TRINITY, consists of the Eternal Father, a personal, spiritual Being,
omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, infinite in wisdom and love; the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of the Eternal Father, through whom all things were created and through whom
the salvation of the redeemed hosts will be accomplished; the Holy Spirit, the third person
of the Godhead, the great regenerating power in the work of redemption…We [Adventists]
recognize the divine Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each possessing a
distinct and separate personality, but one in nature and in purpose, so welded together
in this infinite union that the apostle James speaks of them as "one God." James 2:19.
This divine unity is similar to the unity existing between Christ and the believer, and
between the different believers in their fellowship in Christ Jesus…”
--- F.M. Wilcox, Christ is Very God, Review and Herald

“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 [notice hereafter who is speaking as “I” and “the Almighty” here], and ye
shall be my sons and daughters, saith [or pledges] 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

"There is a loose habit of thought prevalent among Christians which so separates the
gospel dispensation from the one preceding it that one would almost conclude that the very
nature of the Godhead was changed at that time. But it is not so. In the very first chapter of
Genesis we have revealed the great *TRIUNE God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. … It
needs only the inspired interpretation of the New Testament to fill out this picture and
reveal to us Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working together to bring light, harmony, and
order out of the darkness and chaos of the beginning. See John 1:1-5; Heb. 11: 3."

---The Oriental Watchman (pioneering SDA periodical) Vol. 13 (No. 12), Dec. 1910, p.13

"...the Creator is the only Being worthy to receive worship....God is worshipped because
He is Creator; and God means the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; for all are
mentioned as having part in creation ." --The Present Truth, Vol. 29, No. 48. Nov. 27,
1913, p. 757
 BOTTOMLINE? DON'T BE FOOLED!!
The SDA pioneers from as early as in the 1870s began to see God as a
GROUP of "distinct" or SEPARATE "personages" or "beings" sharing
one name as the "triune Deity" or "triune Jehovah". Yes! EVEN
BEFORE 1888, but especially after 1888, THE SDA PIONEERS STARTED
TO SEE GOD AS A GROUP, A SPECIE OF *SEPARATE *BEINGS, A
"TRINITY" OF SEPRATE "PERSONAGES", OR A *"TRIUNE" DIVINITY,
DESPITE SOMETIMES TOGETHER (JUST LIKE MAN; GEN. 6:3, 5-7)
THEY’RE CALLED A GENERIC "HE" OR "HIM” (AND THEY WORSHIPED
GOD OR DIVINITY AS A GROUP FROM THE 1840s, EVEN BEFORE THAT
POST-1870 DEVELOPMENT, AS ALL PIONEERING HYMNALS PROVE)!
Thus when the dissident SDA anti-Trinitarians on the fringes of the SDA Church try to
mislead you with quotes from the earliest pioneers like James White and others who died
before 1888 (James White died in 1881, for instance), i.e. quotes which totally opposed the
idea of "three living persons" or three separate beings comprising the "Eternal Godhead" or
“our triune God”, just point them to the foregoing pre-1915 PIONEERING quotes, and even
much more which can be seen in greater detail in the free booklet seen at the link below.
https://www.scribd.com/document/61757754/Part-2-Pro-Trinity-SDA-Pioneering-
Statements
The details within the free booklet linked above clearly indicate how the SDA pioneers
THEMSELVES made a CHANGE in their own Godhead teachings just before and especially
after 1888, but all before the 1915 death of Mrs. White, or before the theological
involvement or activities of LeRoy Froom in the 1920s and thereafter; Leroy Froom
was the man born in 1890 and so was just still a teenager (and not yet a theologian)
just before 1915…the man whom the dissidents like to falsely accuse of “imposing”
Trinity views on Adventism. These pre-1915 and pre-Leroy-Froom CHANGES in
pioneering thinking, James White for instance would not have been able to see them while
alive (even certain new utterances from his own wife which corrected some of his earlier
utterances) since he had already died in 1881; CHANGES which accepted a Trinity but not
the Catholic version!
OBJECT LESSON?

When we allow the SDA pioneers to tell the full story (their own story),
the big picture becomes clear. Let’s now delve into their own reasons
for always rejecting the Roman Catholic-type Trinity but not the biblical
Trinity of SEPARATE “living persons” or real BEINGS!!

FACT 2:
The SDA pioneers ALWAYS opposed and REJECTED the Roman
Catholic explanation or version of the Trinity or the triune God, but
they did not always deny that there is a “trinity” or “trio” of three
separate living BEINGS all together called “God” or “the triune
Jehovah” or “the triune Deity”; of “God the Father, God the Son and
God the Holy Spirit”. Many SDA pioneers came to accept before 1915
the non-traditional “trinity” or “trio” concept of three separate divine
beings (as quote after quote earlier proved); a teaching which was in
contrast to the Catholic Trinity of a singular three-headed being. Now
because the pioneers rejected the Roman Catholic explanation of the
Godhead, initially some of the earliest pioneers totally rejected not
just the expressions “trinity”, “triune God”, “God the Son” and “God
the Holy Ghost”, but even the idea of there being “three living
persons” of divinity, or even that there was a “third person of the
Godhead” of “three persons” in the Godhead, and this is commonly
what the dissident anti-Trinitarians will quote (not the pioneers’ later
acceptance of these same expressions before 1915). But if one looks
carefully at the DATES of the pioneering quotes which totally opposed
these expressions it will become clear that the vast majority of them
came BEFORE 1888 or BEFORE the 1890s and the first decade after
1900. Here now (in a contrasting table format) is proof of that reality
and of the pioneers themselves changing their own views in some
ways before 1915 (keep an eye on the dates or years of these pre-
1888 anti-Trinity quotes compared to the post-1888 but pre-1915 pro-
Trinity ones):
 PRE-1888 ANTI-TRINITY QUOTES
“The Trinity, or the triune God, is
unknown to the Bible; and I have
entertained the idea that doctrines which
require words coined in the human mind to
express them, are coined doctrines.”
— R.F. Cottrell, Review and Herald, June 1,
1869
“It is not very consonant with common
sense to talk of three being one, and one
being three. Or as some express it, calling
God “the Triune God,” or “the three-one-
God.” If Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are
each God, it would be three Gods… The
word Trinity nowhere occurs in the
Scriptures…”
--- J.N. Loughborough, Review and Herald,
November 5, 1861
“The Bible says nothing about the trinity.
God never mentions it, Jesus never named
it, the apostles never did. “Now men dare
to call God, Trinity, Triune, etc… the
Bible never uses the phrases, 'Trinity,'
'triune God,' 'three in one,' 'the holy three,”
'God the Holy Ghost….Trinitarians
contradict this [Mark 2:29-32] by saying
that the Son and Holy Ghost are just as
much the true God as the Father is...”
— D.M. Canright, Review and Herald,
August 29, 1878
“As fundamental errors, we might class
with this counterfeit Sabbath other
errors which Protestants have brought
away from the Catholic church, such as
sprinkling for baptism, the trinity, the
consciousness of the dead and eternal life
in misery… can it be supposed that the
church of Christ will carry along with her
these errors till the judgment scenes
burst upon the world? We think not.”
— James White, Review and Herald,
September 12, 1854, p. 36
POST-1888 AND PRE-1915 QUOTES
"Let Him [the Holy Spirit] make you know,
beloved, how surprisingly beautiful are the
blended personalities of our *TRIUNE God
manifested by the personal presence of the
Holy Ghost.”
---Review and Herald, Vol. 77, April 3,
1900, pg. 210
"The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are
one and receive worship. Each one
represents all the other members of the
*Trinity...[but] Gabriel was only an angel
bearing a message from the great *Trinity of
heaven, and could not receive worship [Rev.
19:10; Rev. 22:8-9]"
---S.N. Haskell, The Bible Training School,
November 1907, No. 6, pg. 94
"...when there were no worlds; no created
being, not even an angel; in fact, there were
only three *beings — God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; these three
persons in the Godhead"
---- Review and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 1. Jan 1,
1901. No., 2409; pg. 2
“In the very first chapter of Genesis we have
revealed the great *TRIUNE God, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. "And let us make man in
our image… It needs only the inspired
interpretation of the New Testament to fill out
this picture and reveal to us Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit working together to bring light,
harmony, and order out of the darkness and
chaos of the beginning. See John 1:1-5; Heb.
11: 3."
---The Oriental Watchman (pioneering SDA
periodical) Vol. 13 (No. 12), Dec. 1910, p.13
"...the Creator is the only Being worthy to
receive worship....God is worshipped
because He is Creator; and God means the
Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; for all
are mentioned as having part in creation ."
---The Present Truth (SDA periodical), Vol. 29,
No. 48. Nov. 27, 1913, p. 757
“Seventh-day Adventists believe [now] in ...
the Divine *TRINITY. This Trinity consists of
“If Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are each
God, it would be three Gods; for three
times one is not one, but three…”
--J.N. Loughborough, Review and Herald,
November 5, 1861
“Much stress is laid on Isa. 9:6, as
proving a trinity, which we have before
quoted, as referring to our High Priest who
shed his blood for us. The advocates of
that theory will say that it refers to a
trinity because Christ is called the
everlasting Father. But for this reason,
with others, we affirm that it can have no
reference to a trinity. Is Christ the Father in
the trinity? If so, how is he the Son? or if he
is both Father and Son, how can there be a
trinity? for a trinity is three persons. To
recognize a trinity, the distinction
between the Father and Son must be
preserved. Christ is called “the second
person in the trinity;” but if this text
proves a trinity, or refers to it at all, it
proves that he is not the second, but the
first. And if he is the first, who is the
second? It is very plain that this text has no
reference to such a doctrine.”
— J.H. Waggoner, The Atonement In The
Light Of Nature And Revelation, 1884, pgs.
167-169
the Eternal Father… the Lord Jesus Christ…
[and] the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the
Godhead”
---F. M. Wilcox (chief editor), *Review and
Herald, October 9, 1913
“... in the course of the lessons as opportunity
occurs you will impress upon the children the
relation in which they stand to God the Father
as their Creator; to *God the Son (!!!) as their
Redeemer; and to God the Holy Ghost (!!!) as
their Sanctifier."
---E.J. Waggoner, The Present Truth (UK),
February 15, 1894, p. 101
“...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 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
“The Person by whom God will judge the
world is Jesus Christ, God Man. The second
Person in the Trinity, that same Person of
Whom we read in our Bibles, Who was born of
the Virgin Mary…”
--The Present Truth, 1908, Vol. 24, No. 51-52,
pg. 812
*NOTE THIS 1919 PIONEER CONFESSION:
"I was in the same place that Brother
Daniells was, and was taught
the same things by authority [of the earliest
pioneering SDA Church], that Christ was the
beginning of God's creative work, that to
speak of the third person of the
Godhead or of the trinity was heretical..."
--- W.W. Prescott, July 6, 1919 Bible Conference.
The foregoing quotes placed side by side for contrasting effect show the clearest picture that in
the 1850s, 1860s, 1870s and 1880s, there was strong opposition to the Trinity and its related
expressions among SDA pioneers, but by the late 1870s sentiments began to change and
especially after 1888 into the 1890s and the first decade of the 1900s WHILE MRS E.G. WHITE
WAS STILL ALIVE, and the pioneers themselves started to accept a “trinity” or “triune God”,
but of separate individual BEINGS ---“God the Father”, “God the Son” and “God the Holy
Spirit”---in contrast to the Roman Catholic Trinity of one Being with three heads in one, or
three persons fused in one undivided substance or undivided organism. What became clear
then was that the real problem the pioneers always had with the Catholic Trinity (and what
they would forever oppose) was the way the Catholics and the other professing “Protestant”
Churches explained the Trinity, *as seen depicted in a Catholic painting on the left below.
Being ALWAYS AND FOREVER OPPOSED TO THIS EXPLANATION they were careful to ever speak
of separate BEINGS when they eventually accepted what they themselves called “the Bible
doctrine of the Trinity” (as first seen in the Samuel Spear “triune God”, “tri-personal God” or
“Trinity” document of 1889, which they supportively published and publicly lauded it in 1892
and 1894 respectively).

Here following, in the pioneers’ own words, was their problem with
the way Catholics and others explained the Trinity or the Godhead,
despite they themselves accepted a version of the Trinity later on
(only half of this story is ever told by the dissidents in Adventism).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 THE GRADUALLY DEVELOPED PIONEERING SDA CONCEPT OF THE GODHEAD:

To Mrs. E.G. White, the leading SDA pioneer, the spiritual and functional “oneness” of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as “three living persons” comprising the one “eternal
Godhead” was inescapable. But she maintained they were all SEPARATELY “living persons”,
seeing that a living person is always separate from another as an individual, even when
grouped with others. Thus on behalf of true SDAs she clearly expressed what the Godhead is:

Thus to true SDAs (despite all the present-day obfuscations of the dissidents in our midst) the
word “Godhead” is not just a word meaning “divinity”, but it also means the closely knit
GROUP of the three divine persons, and to truly have any one of those divine persons in our
lives is to have all three, and to worship or pray to one was to worship and pray to all three,
since they are “one” in a spiritual and functional way. Proof of this true SDA belief?

“There are three living persons of the heavenly trio. In the name of these three powers [or
rulers],--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, those who receive Christ by living faith are
baptized … "He that believeth in the Son, hath the Father also." He who has continual faith in
the Father and the Son has the Spirit also. The Holy Spirit is his comforter, and he [the true
believer] never departs from the truth.
---E.G. White, The Bible Training School, March 1, 1906

"...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
That’s plain!! To E.G. White (representing true Seventh-day Adventism) the oneness of these
three was so close that the Son was “God himself” in a manner of speaking (just as she spoke of
the Holy Spirit being “Jesus himself”), yet they were separate beings or truly “living persons” all
called “God”; not one undivided being or substance with three heads fused on one body (as
Catholic paintings depicted the Catholic version of the Godhead; *see the painting below).

"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. This problem, How could God be
just and yet the justifier of sinners? baffled all finite intelligence. A divine person alone could
mediate between God [i.e. the divine specie] and man [the human specie]”
---Ellen G. White, The Youth Instructor, Aug. 31, 1887

"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… 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 [in prayer], and say: You know I cannot do this work in my own strength.
You must work in me, and by me, and through me… And this is the prayer that every one of us
may offer. *Keeping in mind that it’s only to who is our God or is the Godhead we should pray
to] ---E.G. White, Manuscript, 95, 1906

Other SDA pioneers at the time echoed this unity of thought existing among most of the
pioneers before Mrs. White died in 1915:

“God means the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; for all are mentioned as having part in
creation ." ---The Present Truth, Vol. 29, No. 48. Nov. 27, 1913, p. 757

“The Holy Spirit united with the Father and the Son to create the world [see Psalm 104:30] as
He still unites with them to save each soul — three glorious persons in one only God over all,
blessed for ever…” -- The Present Truth, Vol. 16, No. 26, June 28, 1900. pg. 411
"The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one and receive worship [see Rev. 14:6-7]. Each
one represents all the other members of the *Trinity... "
---S.N. Haskell, The Bible Training School (pioneering SDA periodical),
November 1907, No. 6, pg. 94

“… the Godhead is composed of three personal *beings, and ….these three are one. The
oneness of the Godhead must, then, consist not in personality [i.e. they being one person or one
personal being], but in some other kind of oneness. Let us apply the Bible idea of oneness of
*individuals to the Godhead, and see if it will contradict the possibility of three
or more *individuals being called one. We have two visible institutions in this world that are
Bible illustrations of God's idea of oneness, marriage and the church.”
---“The Trinity, Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 89;
Dec. 19, 1912; No. 51, pg. 5

"...when there were no worlds; no created being, not even an angel; in fact, there were only
three *beings …. three persons in the Godhead"
---- Review and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 1. Jan 1, 1901. No., 2409; pg. 2

NOTE: The following picture depicting three separate but personal entities of the Godhead is
a reasonable illustration of the SDA pioneer’s post-1888 version of the Trinity of the Godhead
(with the Father and the co-equal Son ---surrounded by angels--- separately seated on the
same throne, and with the “sevenfold” Spirit in the “emblematic” form of a dove being
depicted as ever before God’s throne; ready to be sent out as the omnipresent
Representative of the Godhead).

THE PROBLEM THE SDA PIONEERS HAD WITH THE TRADITIONAL TRINITY EXPLANATION

“Respecting the [Catholic] trinity, I concluded that it was an impossibility for me to believe that
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, was also the Almighty God, the Father, [as] one and
the same being.” — Joseph Bates, The Autobiography Of Elder Joseph Bates, 1868, pg. 204

In the Xeroxed pre-1888 Review and Herald article seen next (over page) there we see clearly another
SDA pioneer objecting to the TRADITIONAL Trinity doctrine teaching that the Father, Son and Spirit are
“one person” or one personal Being with no body parts; with all three being non-individual “persons”
united as one undivided substance:
To the Catholics the “three persons” formed one individual God-being, which in effect formed
one person; not three separate beings, and this is further objected to in this pioneering quote:

“To believe that [Catholic] doctrine [OF THREE PERSONS FORMING ONE UNDIVIDED BEING],
when reading the scripture we must believe that God sent himself into the world, died to
reconcile the world to himself, raised himself from the dead, ascended to himself in heaven,
pleads before himself in heaven to reconcile the world to himself, and is the only mediator
between man and himself….This doctrine of the [Catholic] trinity was brought into the church
about the same time with image worship, and keeping the day of the sun, and is but Persian
doctrine remodeled. It occupied about three hundred years from its introduction to bring the
doctrine to what it is now [in 1861]. It was commenced about 325 A. D., and was not completed
till 681.”
--J.N. Loughborough, Review and Herald, November 5, 1861
“Is Christ the Father in the [Catholic] trinity? If so, how is he the Son? or if he is both Father and
Son, how can there be a trinity? for a trinity is three [separate] persons. To recognize a [true]
trinity, the [true] distinction between the Father and Son must be preserved…”
— J.H. Waggoner, The Atonement In The Light Of Nature And Revelation, 1884, pgs. 167-169

Notice the consistent SDA pioneering opposition to the “three persons in one person” idea,
since the Catholics insist that the “orthodox” Trinity does not include three separate Godhead
BEINGS, but rather is one Being with three heads in one, as it were, (just as a trident or three-
teeth fork is one fork, but it has three teeth fused). Here following are more eye-opening
quotes from the SDA pioneers, before they accepted the Biblical version of the Trinity later on:

“That one person is three persons, and that three persons are only one person, is the doctrine
which we claim is contrary to reason and common sense. The being and attributes of God are
above, beyond, out of reach of my sense and reason, yet I believe them: But the doctrine I object
to is contrary, yes, that is the word, to the very sense and reason that God has himself
implanted in us. Such a doctrine he does not ask us to believe. A miracle is beyond our
comprehension, but we all believe in miracles who believe our own senses. What we see and
hear convinces us that there is a power that effected the most wonderful miracle of creation.
But our Creator has made it an absurdity to us that one person should be three persons, and
three persons but one person; and in his revealed word he has never asked us to believe it. This
our friend thinks objectionable...” --- R.F. Cottrell, Review and Herald, July 6, 1869

“What a contradiction of terms is found in the language of [the Catholic] Trinitarian creed: “In
unity of this *Godhead are three persons, of one substance [i.e. with three faces fused ON ONE
NECK] power, and eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.” There are many things that
are mysterious, written in the word of God, but we may safely presume the Lord never calls
upon us to believe impossibilities. But creeds often do.”
— A.J. Dennis, Signs of the Times, May 22, 1879

*The Catholic Trinity is one personal being operating as three “personas”, or wearing three
“masks”; a concept borrowed from pagan Greek philosophy. This idea SDAs firmly REJECTED!
 NOTICE HOW THE PIONEERS DIFFERENTIATED THE TRUE TRINITY AFTER THE 1870s

“In the fourth and fifth centuries many absurd views were set forth respecting *the Trinity-
views that stood at variance with reason, logic, and Scripture... [BUT] ...the enemy [Satan]
gladly leads to what appears to be a more rational, though not less erroneous idea – that
there is no trinity, and that Christ is merely a created being. But God’s great plan is clear and
logical. There is *A TRINITY, and in it there are three personalities [or three individuals]…We
have the Father described in Dan. 7:9, 10…a personality surely…In Rev. 1:13-18 we have the
Son described. He is also a personality… The Holy Spirit is spoken of throughout Scripture as a
personality. 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 a
created being as the angels- He was the “only begotten” of the Father…”
-----Robert Hare, Australasian Union Conference Record, July 19, 1909

“We [Adventists] understand the Trinity, as applied to the Godhead, to consist of the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit ... These supreme BEINGS [plural] we cannot comprehend or
measure…There is certainly nothing incongruous in the idea of the Spirit being a personal
representative, hence saying that the Spirit' is the representative of the Father and Son does
not deny his personality...He [the Spirit] occupies in our minds an exalted place with Deity …as
a supreme BEING” --- Bible Echo & Signs of the Times (Australia), Vol. 7, April 1, 1892, pg. 112

“A [true] Trinity is three persons. To recognize [admit to] a trinity [the true type], the
distinction [or separateness] between the Father and Son must be preserved.”
-J.H. Waggoner, 1884, The Atonement, pgs. 167-169

“…the Godhead, or *TRINITY, consists of the Eternal Father, a personal, spiritual Being,
omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, infinite in wisdom and love; the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of the Eternal Father, through whom all things were created and through whom the
salvation of the redeemed hosts will be accomplished; the Holy Spirit, the third person of the
Godhead, the great regenerating power in the work of redemption…We [Adventists]
recognize the divine Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each possessing a distinct
and separate personality [or individuality], but one in nature and in purpose, so welded
together in this infinite union that the apostle James speaks of them as "one God." James
2:19. This divine unity is similar to the unity existing between Christ and the believer, and
between the different believers in their fellowship in Christ Jesus…”
--- F.M. Wilcox, Christ is Very God, Review and Herald

“ [Among Arians and Trinitarians at Nicea in 325 A.D.] … although it was admitted on
both sides that the Son of God has a distinct person and existence, and “all acknowledged
that there is one God in A TRINITY of persons, yet, from what cause I am unable to divine,
they could not agree among themselves, and therefore were
never at peace … There was no dispute about [not the ‘opinion’,
or ‘teaching’, but about] the *FACT of there being A TRINITY; it was
about the nature of the Trinity.” ---A.T. Jones, The Two Republics,
1891, pg. 333
 Now, in 1892 the pioneers of the SDA Church, via the Pacific Press publishing house,
supportively published a non-SDA Trinity article written by the Trinitarian minister of the
Trinitarian Presbyterian Church, Samuel Spear; the SDA pioneers themselves renamed and
entitled it “The Bible Doctrine of the Trinity”…obviously admitting publicly that there is
indeed a biblical version of the Trinity that was acceptable to them!!

It was clearly a Trinitarian article penned by Samuel Spear, who preferred to stay away from
certain mystical Catholic speculations about the “triune God” (this Trinitarian “triune” term the
SDA pioneers initially omitted from the article when first publishing it, despite later adopting
the term themselves; proving Spear’s article was a Trinitarian article at its core, or at least in all
the basics). The following quote from it is telling (i.e. as taken from the very portions the SDA
pioneers supportively published unaltered in 1892):

"...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...This doctrine... is not a system of tri-theism, or the doctrine of three Gods, but is the
doctrine of one God subsisting and acting in three persons, with the qualification that the
term “person,” though perhaps the best that can be used, is not, when used in this relation, to
be understood in any sense that would make it inconsistent with the unity of the Godhead,
and hence not to be understood in the ordinary sense when applied to men. Bible trinitarians
are not tritheists. They simply seek to state, in the best way in which they can, what they
regard the Bible as teaching.

Our Saviour [Jesus], in prescribing the formula to be observed in baptism, directed that converts
to Christianity should be baptized “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost.” Matt. 28:19. Here we have the distinct element of threeness in three personal titles of
the Godhead; and while this implies some kind of distinction between the persons thus
designated, the language places them all on the same level of divinity. The baptismal formula,
as given by Christ, is a strong argument in favor of this distinction; and yet no trinitarian ever
understood Christ as here asserting or implying anything inconsistent with the essential unity of
the Godhead....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 [of there being a Trinity], 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. Paul said to the Ephesians that there is “one Spirit, even
as ye are called in one hope of your calling,” and then added that there is “one Lord,” Jesus
Christ, connecting with him “one faith” and “one baptism,” and then, ascending to the climax of
thought, added again that there is “one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all,
and in you all.” Eph. 4:4-6. What Christian head or heart will object to this statement of the
Trinity?... 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….
Content with the revealed facts, and spiritually using them, he has no trouble with them. He
does not attempt metaphysically to analyze the God he worships [as Catholics seek to do] but
rather thinks of him as revealed in His word, and can always join in the following Doxology:
“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!”
---The Bible Doctrine of the Trinity, No. 90, 1890, Pacific Press

The foregoing quote explains quite nicely what growing numbers of SDA pioneers were
prepared to accept and support after 1888 (and long before 1915 when Mrs. White died), and it
also indicates what the word “trinity” or “trio” when correctly defined truly meant to them
after 1888 (since they used both words interchangeably). And MOST IMPORTANTLY, it
indicates why the Roman Catholic version of the “trinity” doctrine, seeking to explain the
Godhead persons as not being personal individual beings (but rather one three-faced
undivided substance or organism), would forever be a problem to SDA pioneers even when
they eventually accepted the basic truth about “the Bible doctrine of *THE Trinity”.
In the year 1894, this same Spear Trinity article speaking supportively of the “triune God”, or
which presented a "tri-personal God" and deemed/defended "bible trinitarians" as "not tri-
theists", it was again glowingly endorsed in the following words:

“This tract of 16 pages is a reprint of an article in the New York Independent, by the late
Samuel Spear, D.D. It presents the Bible view of the *doctrine of the Trinity [not just the
"trinity" group] 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, May 28, 1894.

Notice the words "the *DOCTRINE of the Trinity" in the supportive pioneering quote above, and
recognize the SDA pioneers were endorsing not just the term "trinity", as some dissidents in
Adventism today would want you to believe, but the "BIBLE *DOCTRINE of the Trinity", but
only when correctly explained without philosophical and mystical speculations (as was
evident in the Spear Trinitarian article). That’s an irrefutable reality which several dissidents in
Adventism go to extremes to deny and cover it up!! But while they will not tell the full story,
this free booklet in your hands, dear reader, is now doing so without fear or favor. Ready now
for more facts the dissidents are not fully sharing with the public? Read on!
 FACT 3:
The SDA pioneers gradually (not initially) came to accept Jesus the
Messiah (or Yeshua ha Masiach) as “the only true God” right
alongside his Father, as “co-equal” with God the Father, as “the Lord
our God” alongside his Father, as “God the Son”, as “Almighty God”
alongside God the Father, as “the Highest” or “the Sovereign of
heaven” (i.e. “the Most High”), as “the Infinite”, as “the Self-existent
One” or “the I Am” (i.e. “Jehovah”) who existed “from all eternity”
past, as “he who was, is, and is to come” just like his Father, and they
accepted him as even being properly called “God himself” right
alongside his Father ….despite always teaching that he was pre-
incarnately “begotten”, just like Trinitarians have always taught!!!

Many who come under the bewitching and deceptive influence of the anti-Trinitarian dissidents
in our midst will never be told this truth by the dissidents, i.e. that our SDA pioneers eventually
accepted Jesus as “the only true God” right alongside his Father (proving that they eventually
accepted that more than one divine person is “the only true God”; our God). Well, here
following (on the next page) is our very own E.G. White speaking in 1905 (in a document
published while she was still alive) about who Jesus will really and truly be recognized as in the
earth made new (I quoted it from a Xeroxed original publication, just in case the dissidents try
to say her unpublished manuscript was tampered with after she died):
As seen in the highlighted portions of the original publication above (read the entire column on the right), she
plainly expressed that the saved *in heaven or Paradise (by then they would be fully knowing the real truth
about God) will recognize Jesus a certain way as a result of the true evangelistic witness to them by true believers
here and now (take careful note of her words under the Holy Spirit’s guidance):
"The redeemed will meet and recognize those whose attention they have directed to the
uplifted Saviour [i.e. Jesus; John 3:14]. What blessed converse they have with these souls! "I
was a sinner," it will be said, "without God and without hope in the world, and you came to me,
and drew my attention to the precious Saviour *as my only hope. And I believed in Him. I
repented of my sins, and was made to sit together with His saints in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus." Others will say: "I was a heathen in heathen lands. You left your friends and
comfortable home, and came to teach me how to find *Jesus and believe in *Him [Jesus] *AS
*THE ONLY TRUE GOD. I demolished my idols and worshiped God, and now I see Him face to
face. I am saved, eternally saved, ever to behold Him whom I love. I then saw Him only with the
eye of faith, but now I see Him as He is. I can now express my gratitude for His redeeming
mercy to Him who loved me and washed me from my sins in His own blood."

---E.G. White, Review and Herald, Vol. 82, No. 1, Jan. 6, 1905

*Note: The same genuine E.G. White quote appeared in Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 6
(1900), pg. 311, and the statement cannot be explained away because of the following:

Mrs. White further depicts Jesus himself declaring “I am the Lord [or Jehovah] thy God”:

"Jesus is attractive. He is full of love, mercy, and compassion. He proposes to be our friend, to
walk with us through all the rough pathways of life. He says to us, I [Jesus] AM THE LORD THY
GOD [see John 20:28-29 with Exo. 20:1-2]; walk with Me, and I will fill thy path with light. Jesus,
the Majesty of heaven, proposes to elevate to companionship with Himself those who come to
Him with their burdens, their weaknesses, and their cares.“ ---E.G. White, Lift Him Up, pg. 98

Amazingly she further declared about Jesus our Lord and our God who’s equally “the true God”:

"One name ALONE is to be exalted by us—the name of Christ. He who bears this name has visited this
earth...His name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The
Prince [Ruler] of Peace.” I have plain messages to bear. The name of the Lord must be exalted among
His people." ---E.G. White, Letter 347, 1904 [*Thus Matt. 4:10 takes on greater meaning. See it]

"Christ ALONE is to be exalted. “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own
blood,” let every eye be directed, and praise from every heart ascend. (Revelation 1:5.) ....Christ
dwelling in the soul is a wellspring of joy...“For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity,
whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble
spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”
---E.G. White, Christ's Object Lessons, pg. 162

[*Note: Never forget that Jesus himself said while a condescended human: "Matt 4:10… Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."…clearly he was referring to himself ]

Now the reason you would not be told the above quoted facts by the dissidents troubling the
SDA Church (with some even feeling that to worship Jesus as our God is to make him an “idol”
in the Father’s place) it’s the fact that that it would immediately upset the applecart of their
so-called “one true God Movement”, since it would immediately debunk their falsehoods as
“heretics” in Adventism SDAs; “heretics” vociferously claiming that only one person or being in
heaven is our God or the only true God (i.e. the Father of Jesus only). But, surprise, surprise!!
Our God, the only true God, is the Father (John 17:3), but also Jesus his Son (John 20:28-29),
and obviously also the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:17 with 2 Sam. 23:2-3) who represents them
both invisibly everywhere.

Now in the same period in which Mrs. White began to declare Jesus as “the only true God” and
had him declaring himself (in her “inspired” writings) to be our God right alongside his Father,
other SDA pioneers confirmed that Jesus was rightfully called “the true God” and “God the
Son”, but obviously as a separate being alongside the Father (explaining the need for the
expression “God the Son” as a means of his personal differentiation from God the Father):

“….when we are baptized in the *NAME of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost *AS the true and
living God, our Creator, Preserver, and Saviour, we at once and forever renounce and separate
ourselves from every kind and species of idolatry and false worship."
--Review and Herald, March 16, 1876, pg. 82

“God the Father speaks to *God the Son (!!), and says, “Thy throne, Of God,”. And further the
Father says to the Son, “Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth;
and the heavens are the works of thine hands.” And when he brought him into the world, he
said, “Let all the angels of God worship him.” This is he who died for us…the most excellent
Saviour of sinners, “Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince
of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6." --- Signs of the Times May 28, 1885, pg. 326

“.. in the course of the lessons as opportunity occurs you will impress upon the children the
relation in which they stand to God the Father as their Creator; to *God the Son (!!!) as their
Redeemer; and to God the Holy Ghost (!!!) as their Sanctifier."
---E.J. Waggoner, The Present Truth (pioneering SDA periodical), Feb. 15, 1894, pg. 101

"The Third Angel’s Message embraces Sinai and Calvary; the law of God and the gospel of C
hrist; God the Father and *God the Son (!!). And when this message ends, the work of God for t
he salvation of men - the mystery of God - will be finished."
---Adventist Review, October 16, 1900, pg. 664
"...when there were no worlds; no created being, not even an angel; in fact, there were only
three beings — God the Father, God the Son (!!) and God the Holy Spirit; these three persons
in the Godhead.” ----Review and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 1. Jan. 1, 1901. No., 2409; p. 2

Notice that all of the above quoted expressions by the SDA pioneers were before Mrs. White
called Jesus “the only true God” in 1905, and it’s interesting that even in the 1893 SDA
pioneering hymnbook, “Hymns and Tunes”, all the SDA pioneers collectively sang:

"What EQUAL honors shall we bring to thee [Jesus], O Lord our *God the Lamb [or the Son]..."
---Song No. 105, Hymns and Tunes (SDA pioneering hymnbook), 1893 edition
And speaking of pioneering SDA hymnbooks, its is a fact of SDA history that cannot be
disproved that the SDA pioneers themselves sang praises to, quote, “the Trinity”, in their 1908
“Christ in Song” hymnbook, as compiled by Mrs. White’s own nephew, F.E. Belden, and vetted
by the SDA pioneers themselves while Mrs. White was still alive! Telling, isn’t it? In the
photocopy below, see the left column of the sample “Trinity” page (page 6), as taken from this
1908 hymnal that the dissidents troubling the SDA Church won’t tell you about:

And song 377 sung by the pioneers in “Praise to the Trinity” in 1908, it had the pioneers
singing this way to “the Trinity” when they sang the song “Praise ye the Father”:

“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!”
---No. 377 (“Praise ye the Father”) in the SDA “Christ in Song” pioneering
denominational hymnal of 1908 (verse 3)

Now all of this effectively debunks the dissidents in present-day Adventism, who, because of
their limited knowledge or lack of sufficient research, they falsely accuse the modern SDA
Church of so-called “introducing” Trinitarian expressions like “God the Son” and “Trinity”, and
so-called “introducing” the worship of the Holy Spirit into the Church only after Mrs. White and
the other pioneers died off. Yet, surprise, surprise!! As all earlier pre-1915 quotes proved, the
PIONEERS THEMSELVES DID while Mrs. White was very much alive, and with no recorded
objection from her. That's the ORIGINAL pioneering "1 Cor. 8:6 Movement" (as some of the
dissidents are calling it online these days) telling it like it really is, as it gradually came to fully
understand the issues of who “the Deity” (or God) really is, and the true worship of the Deity!!
The pioneers of the 1863-formed “1 Cor. 8:6 Movement” did come to realize, for instance, that if
Deut. 6:4 says “The Lord our God is one Lord”, and if 1 Cor. 8:6 speaks of Jesus as the “one Lord” it is
actually proof of the divine Godhead persons being together the one Lord and the one God of the
Bible (not two or three “Lords”, or two or three “Gods”). They fully came to understand gradually that
it is the case that Jesus being the “one Lord” this does not exclude the Father as being our Lord, just as
the Father being the one God does not exclude Jesus from being our God, since they are “one” in
function and nature (not the same in person).

In fact that is precisely why Mrs. White’s testimony about Jesus in the following ways gradually
laid the foundation for SDA pioneers gradually coming to accept and worship the Father, the
Son and the Holy Spirit as the “three beings” of “the Trinity”. Her testimony of Jesus is plain:

MRS WHITE TESTIMONY ABOUT JESUS BEING “THE ONLY TRUE GOD”:

1. Jesus is CO-EQUAL with his Father!

"It was to save the transgressor from ruin that he [Jesus] who was *CO-EQUAL with God,
offered up his life on Calvary..." [*Remember only Trinitarians historically declared this fact,
and earlier pioneers like J.H. Waggoner (in *1884) denied Jesus as “co-equal” with his Father]
--- E.G. White, Review and Herald, June 28, 1892
2. Jesus is co-equally “the Lord our God” and “the true and living God” alongside his Father!
“He says to us, I [Jesus] AM THE LORD THY GOD [see John 20:28-29]; walk with Me, and I will
fill thy path with light. Jesus, the Majesty of heaven, proposes to elevate to companionship with
Himself those who come to Him with their burdens, their weaknesses, and their cares.”
---E.G. White, Lift Him Up, pg. 98

"Enoch was a representative of Christ as surely as was the beloved disciple John. Enoch walked
with God, and he was not, for God took him...That God who walked with Enoch was our Lord
and Saviour, Jesus Christ. He was the light of the world then [see Psalm 27:1], just as He is in
1895 [as well as in *2019 and beyond]." ----E.G. White, Letter 119, 1895
"The three Hebrews [Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego] were called upon to confess *CHRIST
[our Lord and our God] in the face of the burning fiery furnace. It cost them something to do
this, for their lives were at stake. These youth, imbued with the Holy Spirit, declared to the who
le kingdom of Babylon their faith, -- that He [Christ] whom they worshiped was THE ONLY TRUE
AND LIVING GOD. The demonstration of their faith on the plain of Dura was a most eloquent pr
esentation of their principles.“ ---E.G. White, Youth Instructor, July 12, 1904

"The name of God [Jehovah, I AM], given to Moses to express the idea of ETERNAL PRESENCE
[past, present and future], has been claimed as his OWN [John 8:58,59] by this Galilean Rabbi
[Jesus]. He had announced HIMSELF [not just his Father] to be the Self- Existent One [i.e. the
Jehovah God] …"
---E.G. White, Desire of Ages, 1898, pgs.469-470

"What a Saviour we have! [*see Isaiah 43:10-11] It was he [Jesus] that revealed himself to
John on the Isle of Patmos, and proclaimed, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." None
but just such an ever-living, mighty God, could pay the ransom to save sinners from going
down into the pit of death." ---E.G. White, Review and Herald, February 18, 1896
NOTE: Other pioneers who accepted “the Trinity” before 1915 came to affirm the same truth of
Jesus being he “who was, is, and is to come” (i.e. he’s fully eternal as “the I Am”). Example?

"There is nothing higher than Christ. He is, and was, and is to come [i.e. He’s “the Almighty”
who’s fully eternal or infinite in existence just like the Father+; the very Son of God, equal in
power and nature to God himself. His coming to this earth was God manifest in the flesh, in
all of his fullness." *That’s why he’s “God in the highest sense” said Mrs. White]
---S.N. Haskell, Review and Herald, May 26, 1891, pg. 330

3. Jesus is co-equally worshiped as “the Almighty”!

"The crowning glory of Christ´s [Jesus] attributes is His holiness. The angels bow before *Him
[Jesus] in adoration, exclaiming, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord *God Almighty." Revelation 4:8. *It’s
only logical, since that’s what it mean’s to be “co-equal” with God]. He is declared to be glorious
in His holiness. Study the character of God. By beholding Christ, by seeking Him in faith and
prayer, you may become like Him.”
---E.G. White, Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students pg. 402

4. Jesus was co-equally the Law-giver (declaring “thou shalt have no other gods before me”)!

"It was Christ who spoke the law from Mount Sinai [commanding us to have no other God
before him]. The authority by which He spoke was expressly His own; yet it was the authority
of the Father *also. The Son of God cannot be separated from His Father.... “I and my Father a
re one.” — E.G. White, Manuscript 58, 1900, pg.33

"One name ALONE is to be exalted by us—the name of Christ. He who bears this name has
visited this earth...His name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The
everlasting Father, The Prince [Ruler] of Peace.” I have plain messages to bear. The name of
the Lord must be exalted among His people." ---E.G. White, Letter 347, 1904

Compare her saying:

“Jehovah, the eternal, self-existent, uncreated One, Himself the source and sustainer of all, is
alone entitled to supreme reverence and worship. Man is forbidden to give to any other
object the first place in his affections or his service.”
---E.G. White, Sons and Daughters of God, pg. 56

[*Note: Never forget that Jesus himself said: "Matt 4:10… Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God
and him only shalt thou serve”. Since Jesus is called Jehovah God alongside the Father, then,
just like the Father, only Christ Jesus is to be exalted as our God. The “oneness” of divinity
applies in this instance too, i.e. as it applies to the first commandment regarding who we are to
see as our God. That’s why the Holy Spirit is our God as well (not just the Father and the Son),
since he is worshipped equally with the Father and the Son whom he equally represents and
from who he cannot be separated…as we have already seen Mrs. White repeatedly affirming].
5. Jesus is co-equally “the Highest” (the Most High or “the Deity”), or “the Sovereign *or
supreme being] of heaven” right alongside his Father!

"The Highest [or Most High], who was with the Father before the world was [i.e. Jesus himself]
submitted to humiliation; He clothed His divinity with humanity that He might lift up the
lowly.“ --E.G. White, Letter 71, 1898 [*This clearly means that more than one divine person in
heaven is deemed "the Highest" or "the Sovereign" or "the Deity" or the "Supreme Being"]
"The burning bush, in which *Christ appeared to Moses, revealed God. The symbol chosen for
the representation of *THE Deity was a lowly shrub, that seemingly had no attractions. This
enshrined the Infinite. The all-merciful God [i.e. Jesus] shrouded His glory in a most humble ty
pe, that Moses could look upon it and live. So in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire
by night, God [i.e. Jesus himself; 1 Cor. 10:1-5] communicated with Israel, revealing to men His
will, and imparting to them His grace. God's glory was subdued, and His majesty veiled, that the
weak vision of finite men might behold it. So Christ was to come in "the body of our humiliation
" ----E.G. White, Desire of Ages, 1898, pg. 23
"...the Son of God was the acknowledged SOVEREIGN [or the Supreme Being] of Heaven, one
[i.e. equal and “inseparably” united] in power and authority with the Father."
--E.G. White, Great Controversy, 1888, pg. 495
“The consecration, the vital piety and humility which God requires, does not exist [among many
church-goers today]. Self is exalted, and Jesus, the blessed and *only Potentate,
[see 1 Tim. 6: 13-16] the Mediator between God and man, does not work with them. Satan’s
insinuations are credited...” ---E.G. White, Manuscript Release, Vol. 21, pg. 455

6. Jesus is co-equally called “God himself” and co-equally “the Source of all life”
“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
"The second temple was not honored with the cloud of Jehovah's glory, but with the living
presence of One in whom dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily [i.e. Jesus] --who was GOD
*HIMSELF manifest in the flesh [1 Tim. 3:16]…"
--- E.G. White, Great Controversy, 1911, pg. 24
"...let Jesus, in His love and mercy, be revealed as the crucified Saviour, and from many once
unwilling lips will be heard the acknowledgment of Thomas, “My Lord and *my God.” [*It’s
logical since only Jehovah God himself is our Saviour, the Saviour, as said plainly in Isaiah 43:10-
11] ---E.G. White, Desire of Ages, 1898, pg. 808

“Christ is the source of light, the *fountain [the highest point of origin] of life.”
----E.G. White, Manuscript Release, Vol. 20, pg. 130

“Represent before a world laden with corruption the blessedness of true education. The
weary, the heavy-laden, the broken-hearted, the perplexed--point them to Christ, the source of
all strength, *all life, all hope.” ---E.G. White, Review and Herald, January 16, 1913
7. Jesus was PRE-INCARNATELY “begotten” or “brought forth” of God yet still he was always
in existence as a separate and co-equally “self-existent” being “from all eternity”!

1905
“If Christ made all things, He existed before all things. The words spoken in regard to this are so
decisive that no one need be left in doubt. Christ was God essentially, and in the highest sense. He was
*with God from *all eternity [thus always in existence], God over all, blessed forevermore. The Lord
Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, existed from eternity, a distinct person, yet one with the Father. He
was the surpassing glory of heaven. He was the commander of the heavenly intelligences, and the
adoring homage of the angels was received by Him as His right. This was no robbery of God. “The Lord
possessed me in the beginning of his way,” He declares, “before his works of old. I was set up from
everlasting *but like God’s own wisdom he always was with and possessed by God; not originating after
“the all-wise God”+, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was
brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were
settled, before the hills was I brought forth: while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor
the highest part of the dust of the world…. Proverbs 8:22-27”
–E.G. White, Selected Messages, pg.247

1900
“Christ is the pre-existent, *self-existent [not originated by another] Son of God.... In speaking
of his pre-existence, Christ carries the mind back through dateless ages. He assures us that
there never was a time when He was not in close fellowship with the eternal God. He to
whose voice the Jews were then listening had been with God as one brought up with Him.
—E.G. White, Signs of the Times, Aug. 29, 1900. [*See “self existent” in the 1828 Webster’s ]

1890
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The
same was in the beginning with God.” John 1:1, 2. Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God,
was one with the eternal Father—one in nature, in character, in purpose… His “goings forth
have been from of old, from everlasting.” Micah 5:2. And the Son of God declares concerning
Himself: “The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was
*set up *from everlasting.... When He appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by
Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.
Proverbs 8:22-30” ---E.G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, 1890, pg. 34

1895
“God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son – not a son by creation [as when
his human “servant”-nature was created on earth], 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 [This was from eternity and not when he was born on earth,
since on earth he BECAME a human *creature not equal with God as Man, but a “servant” to
him with less powers than even angels…as Mrs. White herself testified]”.
-E.G. White, Signs of the Times, May 30, 1895
1910
“Angels were expelled from heaven because they would not work in harmony with God. They fell from
their high estate because they wanted to be exalted. They had come to exalt themselves, and they
forgot that their beauty of person and of character came from the Lord Jesus. This fact the angels
would obscure [long before Jesus came to earth], that Christ *was [not ‘will become’ but “WAS”] the
only begotten Son of God, and they came to consider that they were not to consult Christ. One angel
[LUCIFER] began the controversy and carried it on until there was rebellion in the heavenly courts
among the angels….” – E.G. White, April, 1910

1905
“In His incarnation He gained in a new sense the title of the Son of God [or he became God’s Son in a
different way, and so was God’s Son a second time]. Said the angel to Mary, “The power of the Highest
shall overshadow thee; therefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the
Son of God”. While the Son of a human being, He became the Son of God in a new sense. Thus He
stood in our world—the Son of God, yet allied by birth to the human race [as the Son of Man].
---E.G. White, Special Testimonies, August 2, 1905

[*Note: The above quote explains why the other pioneers declared over and over that Jesus
was “begotten” *twice, despite, paradoxically, Jesus had no beginning of existence as a person;
see Hebrews 7:3]

1906
"Christ was God essentially, and IN THE HIGHEST SENSE. He was with God from *all eternity,
God over all, blessed forevermore. The Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, existed from
eternity, a distinct person, yet one with the Father. He was the surpassing glory of heaven. He
was the commander of the heavenly intelligences, and the adoring homage of the angels was
received by him as his right. This was no robbery of God. “The Lord POSSESSED me in the
beginning of his way,” he declares, “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; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were
settled, before the hills was I BROUGHT FORTH; while as yet he had not made the earth, nor
the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was
there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth.” There are light and glory in the
truth that Christ was one with the Father before the foundation of the world was laid. This is
the light shining in a dark place, making it resplendent with divine, original glory. This truth,
INFINITELY MYSTERIOUS in itself, explains other mysterious and otherwise unexplainable
truths, while it is enshrined in light, unapproachable and INCOMPREHENSIBLE. “Before the
mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even
FROM EVERLASTING TO EVERLASTING, THOU [Jesus] ART GOD.”
---E.G. White, Review and Herald, April 5, 1906

The foregoing quotes all coming after 1888, and representing what true SDAs should teach are
plain. They agree with all the Trinitarians outside of Adventism that Jesus was indeed begotten
from eternity, or “before all time” (see the Nicene Creed, for instance). The truth is, the
teaching that Jesus was pre-incarnately “begotten” or “brought forth” from eternity is not an
anti-Trinitarian teaching only, as the dissidents love to mislead people to think. It is a truth
taught by both Trinitarians in history as well as by *some anti-Trinitarians. The SDA pioneers
taught this truth both *before and *after they accepted and taught their version of “the
Trinity”…a truth most SDAs today have been led to reject by our modern pastors/seminarians!
Now it is also true that the SDA pioneers did initially teach that Jesus had a beginning as the
PRE-INCARNATELY “begotten” Son of God (a reality easily proven by very many quotes which
the dissidents do have evidence on their side about that fact). Here’s one example from the
Review and Herald Editor, Uriah Smith, in 1898, speaking of Jesus’ begetting from eternity:

But just as the pioneers gradually matured doctrinally to change their views in other areas (as
we have seen so far in this booklet in your hands) they also gradually adjusted their views about
Jesus the “begotten Son”. They all died *still teaching (without ever changing) that he was
“begotten” or “brought forth” of the Father from eternity (not just on earth when he was
“begotten” a second time), but they gradually admitted that this truth does not mean he did
not exist always as God’s “co-existent” or “co-eternal” and “self-existent” Son (and this is
another fact the dissidents will not share with you, i.e. the full story, dear reader, even as they
*correctly insist that Jesus was “begotten” of God from eternity). Proof of the adjusted views?

1907
"The divine Son involves the eternity of his being, *co-existent [i.e. coetaneous or coeval] and
co-equal with his Father, and standing next to the Father, and being the agent, the
representative of the Father, so that every revealing of God in his work *in *every *way has
been through his eternal Son."
---Review and Herald, January 17, 1907, Vol. 84, No. 3, pg. 4

1911
" The words of the wise man [Solomon] will aid us to understand this theme as far as the finite
mind can reach. Of Christ, under the personification of wisdom, he says: "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 world was made, . . . when he prepared the heavens, I was there . .
. when he appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by him, as one brought up with
him and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him." Prov. 8 :22-30. To this agree the
words of the Psalmist, "Lord, thou has been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the
mountains were brought forth or thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from
everlasting, to everlasting, thou art God." Ps. 90: 2. Observe the expression used here to
describe the *infinity of Christ, "from everlasting to everlasting. " In other words, FROM THE
EVERLASTING ETERNITY OF THE PAST TO THE EVERLASTING ETERNITY OF THE FUTURE" [Note:
"infinity" has no limit in length of existence…and that’s why Jesus is called the “Infinite One” by
Mrs. White on behalf of true SDAs]
--The Oriental Watchman, Vol. 14, No. 1, January 11, 1911, pg. 14

1911
“...Christ is understood and portrayed by all the Old Testament writers.... [as] not a Christ
whose beginning dated from his birth in human form amid the humble surroundings of a
Judean stable, but one who was everlasting, all-powerful, and *co-existent with the Father;
not a son merely of Joseph the carpenter, but the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth."
---The Oriental Watchman, Vol.14, January, 1911; No. 1; pgs. 13-14

1919
“…the Son is *co-eternal with the Father [i.e. he existed "from all eternity" past just like the
Father]. That does not prevent His being the only-begotten Son of God….There is no
contradiction to say that the Son is co-eternal with the Father, and yet the Son is the only-
begotten of the Father.”
----W. W. Prescott, Report of the 1919 Bible Conference for July 2nd, pg. 20

*Note: The foregoing quotes evidence a marked change in thought among pioneers. SDA
pioneer J.M. Stephenson, for instance, in 1854 (Review and Herald, December 5, 1854, pgs.
123, 124) denied that Jesus could even be deemed “coetaneous” (or “co-existent”) with the
Father, or be properly deemed an “eternal Son” or as a “self-existent Son”, but we see clearly
that later on the pioneers (influenced by ongoing bible study, and Mrs. White’s ministry, no
doubt) they gradually came to accept that Jesus was in existence “from *all eternity”; and
remember “all” simply means “all”, and “eternity” simply means without beginning…thus Jesus
always was in existence). No wonder a well known pioneer eventually said the following,
despite still believing in the pre-incarnately begotten Son (as Trinitarians in history always did):

1920
“Evidently in an Eternal Father and an Eternal Son the ideas of older and younger can have no
place. As we lift up the conception of Sonship out of time into eternity, these elements of it,
ever present in human fathers and sons, at once disappear. When they fall away, does any
conception essential to our idea of son ship remain? Yes.... plainly embodied in John 5:26, and
in other express assertions from the lips of Christ describing his own relation to God.”
---W. W. Prescott, The Doctrine of Christ: A Series of Bible Studies for Use in Colleges
and Seminaries, 1920, page 20

1929
“As the absolute Son, He, who 'in the beginning was with God, and was God,' was begotten
before times eternal...." ---W.W. Prescott, Signs of the Times, Jan 8, 1929
1936
"It was Satan's scheme to become equal with Christ; but this could never be, for Christ was
[in his pre-incarnation] the only begotten of the Father, the same essence as God, and hence
God the Son. Lucifer, although created next to Christ in position, was nevertheless a created
being and did not and could not partake of the essence of the Godhead. Christ was the one who
brought Satan into existence. Satan's great enmity is against Christ, and he falsely accuses the
Son, his own creator, for all the misfortune that he has brought upon himself by his own pride
and rebellion."
--- Signs of the Times, July 14, 1936, Vol. 63, pg. 12

1948
"The third verse [of Hebrews 1] presents Christ as "being the brightness of his [God's] glory."
The participle "being" is an expression of eternal, timeless existence, and has the same sense
as "was" in John 1: 1, "In the beginning was the Word." The Word is Christ. (Verse 14) He did
not come into existence in the beginning. In the beginning He was. When He came to this
world He became flesh. He had not previously been flesh. By way of contrast He did not
become the brightness of the Father's glory. He always was. **Just as God’s wisdom has
always existed along with him; never having a beginning after God; Proverbs 8:1, 22-31] This
constitutes the essential and eternal ground of His personality. "Brightness" is variously
translated outshining, out raying, reflection. It has the same relation to God's glory as the rays
of the sun have to the sun. The rays cannot be separated from the sun, nor the sun from its
rays. The two are inseparable. So with the Father and the Son."
----M.L. Andreasen, The Book of Hebrews, 1948

*Note: Just in case it be argued by the dissidents that the last quote above (from the pioneer
M.L. Andreasen) makes Jesus and the Father the same being/entity (like the sun and its
inseparable rays), ever remember that even Mrs. White (who believed they are separate as
beings) she made plain: “The Son of God cannot be separated from His Father...“I and my
Father are one”(E.G. White, Manuscript 58, 1900, pg.33). And using almost the same ‘sun and
it’s glory’ analogy she said the following while using controversial Trinitarian-type language:

“….because he loved the world He [God the Father] sent his Son into the world that divinity
clothed with humanity might touch humanity, while divinity lays hold of infinity. Though sin had
produced a gulf between man and his God, divine benevolence provided a plan to bridge that
gulf and what material did he use? A part of himself, the brightness of the Father’s glory [i.e.
Jesus] came to a world all seared and marred with the curse, and in his own divine character,
in his own divine body, bridged the gulf, and opened a channel of communication between
God and man” --- E.G. White, Letter 36a to J.S. Wasburn, Sept. 18, 1890

“The words of Christ were full of deep meaning as he put forth the claim that he and the Father
were of one substance, possessing the same attributes." [*Note: The Trinitarian Nicene Creed
used the same “of one substance” language to describe Jesus in relation to the Father, but
despite they are separate beings to Mrs. White she still borrowed and used that controversial
expression] ---E.G. White, Signs of the Times, November 27, 1893

The unassailable point is that in nature, action and function they are united as if one thing is in
operation (*see 1 Cor. 12:4-6, 11 in light of the “one body” but “several (distinct) members”
illustration in that chapter). In the M.L. Andreasen quote above it’s simply imagery being used
to illustrate the Godhead’s “oneness” in eternity as equally “infinite” beings of equal eternal
existence; it’s not saying that the Father and Son are one personal entity. The famous SDA
pioneer Uriah Smith’ also said it best about the Father and the Son and how they are
“inseparable”:
"Inseparable from the Father in the creation of all things, inseparable from him in the
ordaining of law and the establishing of government through all his glorious realms, he
[Jesus] is not to be separated from him in the awe-inspiring scenes of Sinai.…This union
between the Father and the Son does not detract from either, but strengthens both. Through
it, in connection with the Holy Spirit, we have all of Deity [or all of God, since the word “Deity”
when capitalized simply means God].”
---Uriah Smith, Looking Unto Jesus, 1898, pg. pgs. 17-18

Notice above that even Uriah Smith, before his 1903 death (despite not as advanced as other
pioneers in thought in some things), he had begun to deem "all of Deity" (or all of God) as
forming a "trinity" that's all together worshiped (as he himself admitted in 1896), or, as the
Sign of the Times of Dec. 15, 1890 puts it, comprised of a heavenly group of "three distinct
PERSONAGES" but bearing one NAME (singular). In 1898 Uriah Smith described "all of Deity"
(or God) as "the union between the Father and the Son" "in connection with the Holy Spirit"
and he (just like Mrs. White) amazingly (as seen quoted earlier in this booklet) he defended the
worship of the Holy Spirit in the doxology "Praise God from whom all blessings flow...praise
Father, Son and Holy Ghost" (a doxology sung among early SDAs from as early as the 1840s).

And notice three most crucial things here. First, Uriah Smith knew full well that the word
"trinity" when applied to the Godhead meant "three persons" of divinity united, not just two,
yet he personally applied the word to the Godhead in 1896, but, notice, he only did that after
1888 just as SDAs gradually started to adjust their Godhead doctrine. Second, he also knew
that the word "Deity" when capitalized means God or Jehovah our God, and yet he did not
refrain after 1888 from describing "all of Deity" or all of who God is as a "trinity" of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit united, and he affirmed all three were worthy of praise as
members of "the same trinity"; inclusive of the Holy Spirit. Third, notice that (as indicated
earlier) Mrs. White freely affirmed the song "Praise God from who all blessings flow, praise
*HIM all creatures...praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost". Notice that the word "HIM" in the
doxology did not stop at only the Father of Jesus, but it included the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit in that united "HIM". That’s their “inseparability” in worship for you!!

I think our pioneers started to embrace the truth of the real eternal “inseparability” or
functional “oneness” of our triune God (but of separate *BEINGS) much earlier than some do
realize, despite it took some time for them to work out the details (some earlier than others)
about the distinct personality and true nature of the "three BEINGS" involved... i.e. "three
LIVING persons" of the “eternal Godhead” who are all worshipped or served as Jehovah our
eternal God, since, as Jesus himself said in Matthew 4:10, only who is our eternal God we
should worship or serve in this sense, and remember only God is eternal! And obviously the
pioneers realized that to worship God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit (separate eternal beings
of divinity of the one “eternal Godhead”) this was them obeying the first of the Ten
Commandments (Exodus 20:3); not disobeying it, as some (the misguided dissidents)
mistakenly believe. No wonder then that by the early 1900s (i.e. before 1915 when Mrs.
White died) the SDA pioneers in union with Mrs. White herself were increasingly and freely
speaking about the "three beings" of the one “eternal Godhead” or of “the great threefold
power”, and not just about two beings of the worship-worthy Godhead. But how did they
gradually (admittedly, some pioneers before others) work out “three beings” of the Godhead
after, admittedly, in earlier years only believing in two beings?

Let’s now delve into how they changed their views before 1915 (i.e. while Mrs. White was till
alive) to teach that the Holy Spirit is the third personal being of the Godhead (another key side
of the story the dissidents will never share with the public).

Fact 4:

SDA pioneers long before 1915 changed their views on the Holy Spirit
not being a third or separate personal being.
"It seems strange to me now [in 1898], that I ever believed that the Holy Spirit was only an
influence, in view of the work He does...we [SDA pioneers] want the truth because it is truth,
and we reject error because it is error, regardless of any views we [SDA pioneers] may
formerly have held, or any difficulty we may have had, or may now have, when we view the
Holy Spirit as a person. Light is sown for the righteous. Satan's scheme is to destroy all faith in
the personality of the Godhead, — the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,—also in his own
personality...Let us beware lest Satan shall lead us to take the first step in destroying our faith
in the personality of this person of the Godhead,—the Holy Ghost." --- “The Holy Spirit a
Person”, Review and Herald, Vol. 75, No. 20, May 17, *1898, pg. 310.

This above quoted 1898 admission by a pioneer is a vital piece of the puzzle, shedding light on
why previously anti-Trinitarian pioneers shifted (some before others) after 1888 and before
1915 to believing in “three beings” of the Godhead, or what they themselves called “the
Trinity” (as quote after quote revealed at the very start of this booklet). It is easily proven that
initially the pioneers believed in only two beings of the Godhead, and that even to believe in
“the third person of the Godhead” of “three living persons”, or to believe in a “trinity” (no
matter the explanation furnished) was considered “heretical” and a “fundamental error”.
Again, notice this honest confession from a pioneer:

"I was in the same place that Brother Daniells was, and was taught the same things by
authority [of the earliest pioneering SDA Church], that Christ was the beginning of God's
creative work, that to speak of the third person of the Godhead or of the trinity was
heretical..." --- W.W. Prescott, July 6, 1919 Bible Conference.

At the 1919 Bible Conference none of the other pioneers in attendance challenged or denied
this confession. None! Why? Because it was true! Pioneers like Uriah Smith and J.M.
Stephenson in earlier years went as far as declaring Jesus a “created” being (Uriah Smith,
thankfully, later recanted, as he grew in knowledge). It is also true that they earlier rejected the
idea of “the third person of the Godhead” because it was always, historically, a Trinitarian
expression connected to “the trinity”. And that’s why if you search the writings of Mrs. White,
for instance, you will see no reference to “the third person of the Godhead” or to “three
living persons” of “the eternal Godhead” until after 1888, i.e. during the 1890s and after
1900. In fact, it was from non-SDA Trinitarian writers (like Boardman and Cumming) that
Mrs. White borrowed several of her Trinitarian-type expressions, and published them only
after 1888; expressions such as “three living persons”, “third person of the Godhead”, and “in
him [Jesus] was life, original, unborrowed, underived”, since anti-Trinitarian writers never
historically used these expressions in her time. Check it out for yourself, dear reader!

So what really caused these significant changing views among SDA pioneers? The famous 1888
Minneapolis (USA) General Conference was the trigger. First, the pioneers were forced by Bible
truth (presented by pioneers A.T. Jones and E.J. Waggoner) to confront the “righteousness by
faith” bible principle and its connection to Christ as our God being the only source of that
righteousness. And though controversial as a General Conference, it made the pioneers start to
reexamine their teachings in certain things. Immediately after that Mrs. White is on record
saying:
“In Minneapolis [at the 1888 General Conference] God gave precious gems of truth
to His people in new settings. This light from heaven by some was rejected with all the
stubbornness the Jews manifested in rejecting Christ, and there was much talk about standing
by the old landmarks. But there was evidence they knew not what the old landmarks were.
There was evidence and there was reasoning from the word that commended itself to the
conscience; but the minds of men were fixed, sealed against the entrance of light, because
they had decided it was a dangerous error removing the "old landmarks" when it was not
moving a peg of the old landmarks, but they had perverted ideas of what constituted the old
landmark”
---E.G. White, Counsel to Writers and Editors, pg. 30 (taken from “the 1888 Materials”)

Primarily the controversial issue at the 1888 Minneapolis General Conference was about the
law and righteousness, but it unavoidably touched on the Godhead issues as well, which
gradually led to further reexamination of the Bible regarding the law, righteousness and the
Godhead, and it’s interesting that in that very same post-1888 period where SDA pioneers
started to, for the first time, increasingly speak supportively about “the Trinity”, Mrs. White
is on record saying the following in 1892:

“There is no excuse for anyone in taking the position that there is no more truth to be
revealed, and that all our expositions of Scripture are without an error. The fact that certain
doctrines have been held as truth for many years by our people, is not a proof that our ideas
are infallible. Age will not make error into truth, and truth can afford to be fair....There are
those who oppose everything that is not in accordance with their own ideas, and by so doing
they endanger their eternal interest as verily as did the Jewish nation in their rejection of
Christ. The Lord designs that our opinions shall be put to the test, that we may see the necessity
of closely examining the living oracles to see whether or not we are in the faith. Many [i.e. SDA
pioneers in 1892] who claim to believe the truth have settled down at their ease, saying, "I am
rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." --E.G. White, Review and Herald,
December 20, 1892 .
Can you imagine, dear reader, Mrs. White is here telling the SDA pioneers just after 1888
(nearly fifty years after the founding of the Advent Movement) that they didn’t necessarily
have everything correctly worked out doctrinally [*click this link to see Mrs. White quoting
non-SDA *Trinitarian authors], and that they didn’t necessarily have all truths already
hammered out, but allowance should be made even then for new light to come. And then
notice that it was primarily after that Mrs. White begun to introduce new light on not just the
Law, and on salvation through faith, but also on the Godhead having “three living persons”,
etc. It’s as plain as the nose on your face, dear reader, and as bright as the sun!! No one can
cover it up!! That’s why the vast majority of the Trinitarian-type quotes came after 1888...
i.e. into the 1890s and the early 1900s. It was a period of doctrinal changes! Notice in the next
table the dates of the CONTRASTING pioneering quotes which contested/corrected earlier
pre-1888 views about there not being “three persons” or “three beings” of/in the Godhead:

THE HOLY SPIRIT NOT A THIRD BEING THE HOLY SPIRIT A THIRD BEING

“The Holy Spirit is not a person. In all our
prayers we naturally conceive God as a
person, and of the Son as a person; but
whoever conceive of the Holy Spirit as
being a person, standing there beside the
Father and equal with Him? Such a
conception never enters any one’s mind…
The simple truth is that God is a real
person, in bodily form; and the Holy Spirit
is truly the spirit of God, A DIVINE
INLUENCE proceeding from the Father and
also from the Son as their POWER,
ENERGY, etc. The Bible never in any case
calls the Holy Spirit a person, though it
frequently does both the Father and the
Son”.
-D.M. Canright, the Holy Spirit, Signs of the
Times, Vol. 4, July 25, 1878
“Respecting this Spirit [the Holy Spirit], the this work in my own strength. You must
Bible uses expressions which cannot be
harmonized with the idea that it is a
person like the Father and the Son. Rather may offer. *Keeping in mind that it’s only to
it is shown to be *A DIVINE INFLUENCE [a
thing] from them both… Usually it is spoken
of in a way to show that it cannot be a
person, like the Father and the Son… If it
were a person, it would be nothing strange “The Holy Spirit is the Comforter, in Christ’s
for it to appear in bodily shape; and yet
when it has so appeared, that fact has
been noted as peculiar. Thus Luke 3:22
says: ‘and the Holy Ghost descended in a
bodily shape like a dove”.
--Uriah Smith, The Review, Oct. 28, 1890
“We need to realize that the Holy Spirit,
who is *AS much a person as God is a
person, is walking through these grounds.
---E.G. White—Manuscript 66, 1899
“The Holy Spirit is a person … The Holy Spirit
has a personality, [or individuality] … He
must also be a divine person….” -- E.G.
White, Manuscript 20, 1906.
“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… 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
work in me, and by me, and through me…
And this is the prayer that every one of us
who is our God we should pray to]
----E.G. White, Manuscript, 95, 1906
name. He personifies Christ [or
impersonates him], yet is a distinct
personality [or separate individual].….”
---E.G. White, Manuscript 93, 1893

Now, it is plain that all SDA pioneers didn’t arrive at the truth at the same time about “three
[individual] beings” of the Godhead, or that the Holy Spirit is a third individual being of the
Godhead. Some did before others (William White, M.C. Wilcox, J.S. Washburn, and a few others
didn’t agree even after 1915), but discussions were well underway among the pioneers
themselves long before 1915 when Mrs. White died, and even after, as seen here:

QUESTION: “Some [in Adventism] say the Holy Spirit is a person; others [in Adventism] say He
is personality; and others, a power only. Till how long should this be a matter of discussion?”
---M.C. Wilcox, Questions and Answers, Volume 2, 1919, Pacific Press, pgs. 36, 37,

Naturally it would mean that different pioneers had different takes on the issue (even M.C.
Wilcox himself, who personally felt the Holy Spirit did not have “individuality”) and so it is best
to see what the main SDA pioneer, Mrs. White, guided the church towards adopting after 1888.

Now if (and am here only using quoted expressions from Mrs. White ) the Holy Spirit, in the
“heavenly trio”, is “as much a person as God is a person”, and is not just the literal person or
personality of the Father Himself or the Son Himself, but rather (according to her) is himself
“also a divine person” and “a distinct personality” who “represents” and “personifies” (or
imitates) whom he “represents”, then it is understandable why she chose the much stronger
labeling than some SDA pioneers cared to use at the time, and repeatedly used the words
“three persons” so often after 1888, and even spoke of “the three holiest beings in heaven”
being the object of her prayers for help. This is understandably the only logical NUMERIC
labeling which results from that reasoning from Mrs. White. And to make her meaning clearer
she went even further by endeavoring to indicate what kind of persons these three are, by
using the expression “three living personalities/persons” (i.e. indicating real or genuine
persons, and not metaphorical or figurative ones, since a living person is a separate personal
being from others in a group). She concluded therefore that they are “the three holiest beings
in heaven”. That is quite unambiguous in meaning when the dictionary is objectively consulted
and honestly used regarding “a personality” being defined (even in her time) as a person with
individuality (see the 1828 Noah Webster’s Dictionary).

Shockingly however, today the non-Trinitarian dissidents in Adventism even go as far as

denying that Mrs. White actually spoke or wrote certain words (sometimes whole paragraphs)
as documented in the released manuscripts, and they selectively cherry pick what aspects of
her writings they willingly accept…obviously those writings having her eventually calling the
Holy Spirit a “being” are the very ones they CONVENIENTLY reject. But I cannot but say that to
teach the Spirit’s semi-personality but non-individuality would make the Holy Spirit as much a
personal non-entity as traditional Trinitarians were teaching about the Father and Son being
“personalities” in the Godhead who, however, are non-individualistic as persons. No wonder
Mrs. White broke free from this kind of sophistry, and was way ahead of other SDA pioneers,
by simply teaching “three holiest beings in heaven”. Plain and simple… and quite irrefutable if
you ask me. No wonder these words from her are so vehemently denied or resisted by “anti”
and “non- Trinitarians” in SD Adventism today. They totally obliterate their viewpoints on the
Holy Spirit’s personhood.

Many of the other pioneers understood exactly what Mrs. meant by “three persons”, and so
they unambiguously testified in the following way right alongside her before 1915, as
evidenced in the following actual original documents:
 --The Present Truth, Vol. 13, No. 1, Jan. 7, 1897, pg. 8
(*Quoted as seen in the original pioneering documents before 1915)

--Columbia Union Visitor; Vol. 16, No. 27, July 5, 1911, p.6
(*Quoted as seen in the original pioneering documents before 1915)
 ---The Bible Training School, No. 6, Nov, 1907, p. 93
(*Quoted as seen in the original pioneering documents before 1915)

---The Union Conference Record, December 31, 1906, Vol. 10, No. 26, pgs. 1-2
(*Quoted as seen in the original pioneering documents before 1915)
 ---Review and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 50, December 15, 1910, p. 8
(*Quoted as seen in the original pioneering documents before 1915)

The foregoing is but a small sample of quotes from originals to show that while Mrs. White was
alive the pioneers themselves were evidencing the shift in their views; that there are indeed
“three beings” of the Godhead because the Holy Spirit is indeed a real and separate individual
being from the Father and the Son. The anti-Trinitarian dissidents will not share this historical
truth with you, dear reader, either because they are ignorant of the full story, or they are either
covering it up and lying, or twisting the facts to mislead. But now the full story is out, right here
before your eyes, dear reader; that after 1888 Mrs. White, for the first time, depicted the Holy
Spirit as a "holy being" among all the persons or beings in heaven, and she designates him as
among (but separate from) the angels in front of God's throne; ever ready to be sent as a
messenger or representative. Proof? Notice her own published writings while still alive:

MRS WHITE CALLS THE HOLY SPIRIT A PERSONAL “HEAVENLY BEING”

"...the unceasing interest of *heavenly *BEINGS – all are enlisted in behalf of man‘s
redemption"---E.G. White, Steps to Christ, 1892, pgs. 20-21

Who are these "BEINGS" she was referring to as "enlisted” on behalf of man‘s redemption?
Considering that usually only living persons or beings are referred to as "enlisted",
(See: http://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/Enlist) now notice carefully, in the *lines
directly preceding this statement, the list of "heavenly BEINGS” that she intended to highlight
(inserts in brackets and emphases are mine):

"… [1] The Savior‘s *Jesus‘+ life and death and resurrection, [2] the ministry of angels, [3]
the pleading of the *SPIRIT, [4] the Father working above and through all…"
– E.G. White, Steps to Christ, 1892, pgs. 20-21

Now notice that she separated all "enlisted" "heavenly beings" by a comma, including the Holy
Spirit, and notice that the same Mrs. White who made plain elsewhere that the Holy Spirit is
not the angels, here in this following post-1888 quote she lists him among angels (but as a
separate “holy being” ready to be sent out):
"The Bible shows us God in His high and holy place…SURROUNDED by …holy *BEINGS, all
waiting to do His will. Through these messengers He is in active communication with
every part of His dominion. By His *SPIRIT [one of the "Holy beings" which are "before His
throne"; Rev. 1:4-5] He is everywhere present. Through the agency of [1] His *SPIRIT and [2]
His angels [all "Heavenly beings", according to Mrs. White], He ministers to the children of
men".
---E.G. White- Ministry of Healing, 1903, pg. 417

Having considered that WHILE ALIVE Mrs. White had already published in 1892 that the Holy
Spirit is one of the "heavenly beings" who was "enlisted" for man‘s redemption, now notice
carefully the above quote from 1903. In the quote just read, she focused on the "holy BEINGS"
who SURROUND the throne of God, who represent Him, and who minister on His behalf. Who
does she immediately mention here among them? The Holy Spirit! The same Holy Spirit who
is described by the Bible as the "sevenfold‘ Spirit" “before His [God‘s] throne” in Revelation
1:4-5...a matter Uriah Smith (the noted pioneer) fully explained in his 1897 book, Daniel and
the Revelation (i.e. explaining that the Holy Spirit is in front of God's throne as a "he", and
“he's” sending greetings to the Church alongside the Father and Son, and being equally the
source of grace, peace and other divine blessings coming from the Deity). Thus Mrs. White at
times calling the Holy Spirit Jesus “himself”, is easily explained as a simple language style,
similar to her calling Jesus “God himself”, yet she elsewhere makes plain that the distinct
personality of the Son “personifies” and “represents” the Father in his own person, just as the
distinct personality of the Holy Spirit “personifies” and “represents” the Son in his person!
Enough said, but I will allow pioneer A.T. Jones and two other SDA pioneers to have the final
word, as they say it better than I ever could about what pioneers came to believe before 1915
(i.e. while LeRoy Froom, born in 1890, was just still a *boy/youth and not yet a theologian):

"...the Holy Spirit IS A PERSON. This great truth is not recognized, indeed it is NOT believed, by
more than a very few even of Christians [some SDA pioneers at the time included]....The Holy
Spirit is a Person, ETERNALLY A DIVINE PERSON. And he must be ALWAYS RECOGNIZED and
spoken of as a Person, or he is not truly recognized or spoken of at all...the Scriptures make
perfectly plain the truth that the Holy Spirit is, none other than a living, speaking, divine, and
eternal person. Exactly *AS Christ is a person and *AS God is a person..."
---A.T. Jones, Medical Missionary, March 27, 1907, pg. 98

“From the figures which are brought out in Revelation, Ezekiel, and other Scriptures, and from
the language which is used in reference to the Holy Spirit, we are led to believe he is
something more than an emanation from the mind of God. He is spoken of as a personality
[or individual being], and treated as such. He [the Holy Spirit] is included in the apostolic
benediction [2 Cor.13: 14], and is spoken by our Lord [Jesus] as acting in an INDEPENDENT
and PERSONAL capacity as Teacher, Guide, and Comforter. He is an object of *VENERATION
[worship] and is A [singular] Heavenly INTELLIGENCE [or heavenly being], everywhere present,
and is always present [thus was always in existence; Heb. 9:14].”
---G.C. Tenny- “To Correspondents”, Review& Herald, June 9, *1896, pg. 362

“... the Godhead is composed of three personal *BEINGS and these three are one. The oneness
of the Godhead must, then, consist not in personality, but in some other kind of oneness. Let us
apply the Bible idea of oneness of *individuals to the Godhead, and see if it will contradict the
possibility of three or more individuals being called one. We have two visible institutions in this
world that are Bible illustrations of God's idea of oneness, marriage and the church.” -
--Review and Herald, Vol. 89; Dec. 19, 1912; No. 51, pg. 5

Now, so far, I have shown irrefutably that SDAs today believing in a Godhead “Trinity” of
“three beings”, it was not a teaching imposed on Adventism after the pioneers died off, as
the dissidents falsely claim. But while Mrs. White remained alive the pioneers themselves
showed the change. But is it Biblical to teach “three beings” of the Godhead? Its now time to
allow the final and ultimate authority, the Bible, to speak! Does it prove it by the “line upon
line” principle?? Let’s now proceed to find out.

Fact 5:
The Bible does prove three personal Godhead beings or “three living
persons” of divinity!!
I will readily and honestly admit that the expressions “three living persons”, “third person of the
Godhead”, “trio”, and “trinity” are nowhere in the Bible, but I am convinced that once the “line
upon line”, “here a little, there a little” approach to Bible study is conducted then the Bible
does prove them to be valid Godhead expressions (i.e. rightly defined in the proper non-
Catholic way)

BIBLICAL SUPPORT FOR THE POST-1888 AND PRE-1915 DOCTRINAL CHANGES IN ADVENTISM!!

The Bible is the final authority on any doctrine in Adventism, and when I carefully and
objectively consult it, I see clearly that the SDA pioneers were indeed biblical after 1888, and
thus my faith is settled and secure. How do we BIBLICALLY know there is a "trinity" or “trio” or a
group of three separate divine persons/beings united, as listed and mentioned in Matthew
28:19? Here's how:

a] If the Father and his “sent” Son are separate beings (Gen. 1:26; Prov. 30:4; John 1:1-3, 14),
they therefore could not both be the one Holy Spirit literally at the same time. If the one
OMNIPRESENT Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:4; Psalm 139:7-10) is owned by both the Father and the Son
*at the same time (Rom. 8:9), and Scripture is replete with the Holy Spirit being depicted as
personal (e.g. Acts 13:2-4 and Eph. 4:30), and is listed separately from Father and Son in very
many Scriptures (e.g. Matthew 28:19, Hebrews 9:14 and 1 Cor. 12:4-6), and

b] If both Jesus and the Father equally SENDS the Spirit to us (e.g. John 14:26, John 15:26 and
John 16:7), and

c] If a "sent" and a "sender" (like the Father sending His Son) must logically be personally
separate (it would be absurd otherwise, *unless one is a "Jesus only" or "Sabellian" believer),
and

d] If both Father and Son could not send themselves (that too would be absurd), and

e] If the Father is *never sent by Jesus, since the Father is *not subject to or led ("Headed") by
Jesus, but both Jesus and the Spirit are owned by the Father, and both speak/act in response
to the Father who leads them both, and sends them both, and

f] If the Holy Spirit intercedes (Romans 8:26-27) to the Father for us in our praying (not in
human priestly function as the Jesus the slain Lamb, or the one Mediator does, but the Spirit
influences our prayers while he resides in our hearts/minds on Jesus’ behalf, and God reads
the mind of the Spirit in us to know what is meant when we pray by his influence), and

g] If the Father could not intercede to himself (that would be equally absurd), and only a
person "intercedes", then:
*THE ONLY LOGICAL CONCLUSION WHICH SATISFIES *ALL THE RULES OF LOGIC *AT THE SAME TIME IS THAT THE
OMNIPRESENT HOLY SPIRIT IS A PERSONAL"REPRESENTATIVE" OWNED BY BOTH FATHER AND SON, AS A THIRD AND
SEPARATE PERSON! IN THAT ROLE HE CAN BE SENT BY BOTH AS THEIR OMNI-PRESENT 'EMISSARY', AND NONE BE SEEN AS
RIDICULOUSLY SENDING THEMSELVES (AS SABELLIANS OR 'JESUS ONLY' PROPOPONENTS BELIEVE)!! AND THUS WE CAN SEE
WHY BOTH FATHER AND SON WHO SAID, "WE WILL COME TO YOU AND MAKE OUR ABODE WITH YOU",
"COMES"*REPRESENTATIONALLY THROUGH THE AGENCY OF THE SPIRIT AS IF THEY THEMSELVES ARE LITERALLY PRESENT!
THE SPIRIT CAN ALSO INTERCEDE TO THE FATHER FOR US, BUT *ONLY IN OUR PRAYING, AS HE RESIDES IN OUR
HEARTS/MINDS, AND IT WOULD MAKE PERFECT SENSE ALL AROUND, SINCE THE FATHER WOULD NOT BE RIDICULOUSLY
SEEN AS INTERCEDING TO HIMSELF.THESE CRUCIAL FACTS IRREFUTABLY PROVE THE *NECESSITY OF THE DISTINCTLY LISTED
HOLY SPIRIT BEING *NUMERICALLY A "THIRD" OR SEPARATE PERSONAL BEING IN THE GODHEAD; A GODHEAD OF FATHER,
SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT-- ALL BEARING ONE "NAME" (SINGULAR) AND ALL WORKING IN UNISON, AS 1 COR. 12:4-6,11
CLEARLY SHOWS---AND DESPITE UNITED THEY'RE DISTINCTLY PERSONAL, THUS INDICATING WHY MATTHEW 28:19 LISTS
THEM SEPARATELY IN JESUS’ OWN WORDS!! WHO KNOWS THE TRUTH BETTER THAN JESUS HIMSELF SENT TO REVEAL IT TO
US?" Finally, since the distinct and personal Holy Spirit represents the very presence of the
Father and the Son (see 2 Sam 23:2-3; Acts 5:3-5; 2 Cor. 3:17, 18), then it is impossible to
praise or worship Father and Son and not praise or worship the Spirit!!
The preponderance of biblical evidence is clear for me, despite others (including the
dissidents in Adventism) may reject the “line upon line” principle proving the truth!
 Fact 6:
Early Christians taught a Trinity long before the Papacy rose after the
fourth century, but not the creedal Catholic Trinity!

The vast majority of the earliest Christian writers from the first and second centuries revealed their
Bible-based faith in accepting that Jesus was not only distinct from His Father as a person, or as His
only begotten Son before the incarnation, but that He is also our God in highest nature just like His
Father and the Holy Spirit, who all together deserve equal honor in the sense of highest worship! In
addition they fiercely rejected any viewpoint that sought to make Jesus and His Father the same
person, as Sabellius did in second century. In addition they showed that the word "trinity" was not
coined by the Papacy that came long after, but it was known and accepted by several of the
Christian writers long *BEFORE the Papacy was even conceived. Here following, as a matter of
historical record, are just some examples of the occurrence of the teaching and the term written
long before any Roman Catholic existed after the fourth century [emphases supplied]:

100 A.D. “We have also a physician, the Lord our God, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son and
Word, before time began…” – Ignatius, Letter to the Ephesians

100 A.D. “I…entreat you to use Christian nourishment only, and abstain from herbage of a
different kind; I mean heresy... For there are some vain talkers and deceivers, not Christians…some
of them say that the Son is a mere man, and that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are but the same
person…”
-Ignatius, The Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians, Chapter 6
100 A.D.
“Wherefore also the Lord, when He sent forth the apostles to make disciples of all nations,
commanded them to ‘baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,’
not unto one [i.e. one person, as in Sabellian ‘modalism’] having three names, nor into three
[persons] who became incarnate, but into three [persons] possessed of *EQUAL HONOR”.
- Ignatius, Letter to the Ephesians, Chapter 2

150 A.D.
“…with respect to the most true God, the Father of righteousness and temperance and the other
virtues, who is free from all impurity... both Him [the Father], and the Son …and the prophetic
Spirit, we worship and adore, knowing *them in reason and truth, and declaring without grudging
to every one who wishes to learn, as we have been taught.”
- Justin Martyr- First Apology, Chapter 6

150 A.D “We will prove that we worship him [Jesus] reasonably; for we have learned that that he
is the Son of the true God Himself, that he holds a second place, and the Spirit of prophecy a third
*place+ …”
-Justin Martyr, First Apology, chapter 13

150 A.D “God begot before all creatures …a certain rational [self willed] power from himself, and
whom the Spirit calls…sometimes the Son, sometimes Lord and Word… this Offspring who was
truly brought forth from the Father, was with the Father before all the creatures, and the Father
communed with him… Someone [the pre-incarnate Jesus] *numerically distinct from Himself, and
also a rational being…”
- Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, Chapters 61 and 62

150 A.D "And of old He [Jesus] appeared in the shape of fire and in the likeness of an Angel to
Moses [hence he pre-existed]… And that which was said out of the bush to Moses, ‘I AM THAT I AM,
the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, and the God of your fathers’ this
signified that even though dead [i.e. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob]… they are men belonging to Christ
Himself”

“…the Spirit of prophecy rebukes them [Jews], and says, "Israel doth not know Me, my people have
not understood Me." And again, Jesus, as we have already shown, while He was with them, said,
"No one knoweth the Father, but the Son; nor the Son but the Father, and those to whom the Son
will reveal Him." The Jews, accordingly, being throughout of opinion that it was the Father of the
universe who spake to Moses, though He who spake to him was indeed the Son of God [hence he
pre-existed], who is called both Angel and Apostle, are justly charged, both by the Spirit of
prophecy and by Christ Himself, with knowing neither the Father nor the Son. For they who affirm
that the Son is the Father [i.e. they are the same person], are proved neither to have become
acquainted with the Father, nor to know that the Father of the universe has a Son; who also,
being the first-begotten Word of God, is even God [as natural sons are what their father is in
nature]. And of old He [Jesus] appeared in the shape of fire and in the likeness of an angel to Moses
and to the other prophets…”
- Justin Martyr, First Apology, Chapter 63

150 A.D.
“I praise you [the Father] for all things, I bless you, I glorify you, along with the everlasting and
heavenly Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, with whom, to you AND the Holy Spirit be glory both
now, and to all coming ages. Amen!”
–Polycarp of Smyrna, Martyrdom of Polycarp, Chapter 14
177 A.D.
“Who, then, would not be astonished to hear men who speak of God the Father, and of God the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and who declare both their power in union and their distinction in
order, called atheists? Nor is our teaching in what relates to the divine nature confined to these
points…”
-Athenagoras – A Plea for the Christians, Chapter 10, [entitled] *“Christians Worship the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit”

180 A.D.
“The THREE days [separate entities], which were before the luminaries [i.e. the fourth day Creation
of sun, moon, etc.], are types [symbols] of the *Trinity [*‘triavdo’- Greek], of God [the Father], and
His Word [Jesus], and His Wisdom [Spirit]. And the fourth [day] is the type [symbol] of man, who
needs light…”
- Theophilus of Antioch, Chapter 15, Of the Fourth Day, To Autolycus

N.B. Here the word “trinity” (it’s synonym “trio”) is being used by a Christian writer (in Greek
expression) long before the Papacy arrived after Constantine. Hence it is a blatant falsehood the
Papacy ‘coined’ the word as it relates to the Godhead doctrine after the fourth century. “Triavdo"
(Greek for trinity or trio) is the earliest recorded Christian use of this word. The use Theophilus
makes of it is familiar. He does not lug it in as something novel: "types of the Trinity," he says,
illustrating an accepted Greek word being used by several other Christian writers at the time; he
was not introducing a new one.

180 A.D.
“Christ Himself, therefore, together with the Father, is the God of the living, who spoke to Moses,
and who was also manifested to the fathers [thus he pre-existed]”
-Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 4, Chapter 5, Section 2

180 A.D.
“No one of the sons of Adam is…*absolutely [i.e. in the highest sense] called God, or named Lord.
But that He is Himself in His own right, beyond all men who ever lived, God, and Lord, and King
Eternal, and the Incarnate Word, proclaimed by all prophets, the apostles, and by the [personal]
Spirit Himself…”
- Irenaeus - “Irenaeus Against Heresies”, Chapter 19

“The Father is truly Lord [*despite there is ‘one Lord Jesus Christ’+, and the Son truly Lord. The Holy
Spirit has fitly designated them by the title of Lord… Referring to the destruction of the Sodomites,
Scripture says, ‘then the LORD [Jehovah] rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah fire and
brimstone from the LORD [another Person also called LORD, or Jehovah] out of Heaven’. For it here
points out that the Son, who had also talking with Abraham [Gen 18:1] had received power to
judge the Sodomites… And this [next scripture text also] does declare the same truth: ‘thy throne O
God is forever [*Heb. 1:8, 10]… For the Spirit designates both [of them, Father and Son] by the
name of God [i.e. Jehovah]”
– Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 3, Chapter 6

190 A.D.
“The Divine Word… is truly manifest *Deity [supremely God]. He is… EQUAL to [or with] the Lord of
the universe, because He was His Son.” –Clement of Alexandria, Fragments, Part 1, section 3

"There was then, a Word importing an unbeginning eternity; as also the Word itself, that is, the Son
of God, who being, by equality of substance, one with the Father, is eternal and uncreated."
-Clement of Alexandria, Fragments, Part I, section III
"His Son Jesus, the Word of God, is our Instructor…. He is God and Creator."
-Clement of Alexandria, Instructor, Book I, ch. 11

190 A.D.
“[regarding Matt. 28:19] I understand nothing else than the Holy *TRINITY *Greek, ‘triavdo’ or
“trio”+ to be meant; for the third is the Holy Spirit, and the Son is the second, by whom all things
were made according to the will of the Father [the first Person]”.
-Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, Book 5, Chapter 14

DID THE EARLY CHRISTIANS BELIEVE JESUS PRE-EXISTED ETERNALLY?

100 AD
"Jesus Christ . . . was with the Father before the beginning of time, and in the end was revealed. . .
Jesus Christ . . . came forth from one Father and is with and has gone to one [Father] . . . God, who
has manifested himself by Jesus Christ his Son, who is his eternal Word, not proceeding forth from
silence, [Jesus thus having no beginning as when a speaker begins a speech from the point of
getting up from his silence] and who in all things pleased him that sent him"
-Ignatius, Letter to the Magnesians, 6-8.

180 AD
"But the Son, eternally *co-existing with the Father, [thus co-eternal] from of old, even from
everlasting, yea, from the beginning, always reveals the Father to Angels, Archangels, Powers,
Virtues..."
-Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book II, ch. 30, section 9

*190 A.D.
“When he [John] says: ‘what was in the beginning’ *1 John 1:1], he touches upon the generation
without beginning of the Son, who is co-equal with the Father. [The word+ ‘Was’ therefore is
indicative of an eternity without a beginning, just as the Word Himself, that is, the Son, being one
with the Father, in regard to equality of substance, is eternal and uncreated. That the Word always
existed is signified by the saying: ‘In the beginning was the Word’ [John 1:1]”
-Clement of Alexandria (*190 A.D.), Fragment in Eusebius History, Book 6, Chapter 140

N.B.*Thus Origen, 185-254 A.D., who would be just five years old in 190 A.D. when the above
quoted was written, is not properly credited by some theologians for first teaching the truth of
the co-eternality (“same age”) of Jesus Christ with His Father. It was a Bible truth (*Micah 5:2; 1
Jon 1:1, 2) being taught by Christians long before him. Below we see fully what Clement of
Alexandria shared with other Christians long before Origen wrote in the third century:

“That which was from the beginning; which we have seen with our eyes; which we have heard.”
Following the Gospel according to John, and in accordance with it, this Epistle also contains the
spiritual principle. What therefore he says, “from the beginning,” the Presbyter [John] explained to
this effect, that the beginning of generation [of the Son] is not separated from the beginning of the
Creator. For when he says, “That which was from the beginning,” he touches upon the generation
without beginning of the Son, who is co-existent with the Father. There was, then, a Word
importing an unbeginning eternity; as also the Word itself, that is, the Son of God, who being, by
equality of substance, one with the Father, is eternal and uncreated. That He was always the
Word, is signified by saying, “In the beginning was the Word.” But by the expression, “we have
seen with our eyes,” he signifies the Lord’s presence in the flesh, “and our hands have handled,” he
says, “of the Word of life.” He means not only His flesh, but the virtues of the Son, like the sunbeam
which penetrates to the lowest places, - this sunbeam coming in the flesh became palpable
[tangible] to the disciples…“And we show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and
was manifested unto you.” He [John] signifies by the appellation of Father, that the Son also
existed always, without beginning.” - ibid

235 A.D.
"God the Father, found and creator of all things, who alone knows no beginning, who is invisible,
immeasurable, immortal, and eternal, is one God. Neither his greatness nor his majesty nor his
power can possibly be--I should not say exceeded, for they cannot even be equaled. From him . . .
the Word was born, his Son. . . . And the latter, since he [Jesus] was born of the Father, is always in
[i.e. eternally united with] the Father. And I indeed say always . . . He that exists before all time
must be said to have been in the Father always, for he that exists before all time cannot be
spoken of in relation to time. . . . Assuredly, he [the Son] is God, proceeding from God, causing, as
Son, a second person after the Father, but not taking away from the Father the fact that God is one"
- Novatian - (Treatise on the Trinity, 31).

*Notice Novatian’s title of his early work, appearing long before the Papacy even originated after
the fourth century…i.e. his “Treatise on the Trinity”]

WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN HISTORICALLY (CONCLUSION)?

Despite the earliest Christians historically believed in one God the Father, they saw no conflict in
their beliefs about Jesus being “absolutely” called “God”, “the LORD” or “Jehovah” in name, and
“equal” with the Father as “the Deity”, simply because He was, as another separate Person, the Son
of God. This is precisely how the Jews (John 10:30-33) understood Jesus’ Son-ship, that is, it was a
claim to equality with the Father, not a claim to being the Father Himself. The Jews did understand
God the Father to be one person (!!), but never fully understood the fact that God has a distinctly
*divine Son, despite the clear hints given to it in Proverbs 30:4 and Gen. 1:26. But God revelation
was progressive, and so the revelation of Jesus to them in the New Testament (Heb. 1:1-3) sadly
became a “STUMBLING STONE" to many! And until they come to accept the second step in the
revelation of the Godhead they would henceforth forever have a problem with the Father of the
Son they faithfully served as monotheists in the Old Testament (2John 2:23; John 17:3).This new
revelation does not in any way destroy what monotheism is, since to be the Son of God does not
make Jesus the person of Father Himself, or make Him another or second "God the Father"!! And
it is precisely upon this premise that the earliest PRE-PAPAL reference to a “Trinity” was made;
not that Jesus is Himself the Father, or that he and the Holy Spirit is another independent
Almighty God. The ongoing mistake of some anti-Trinitarians (not all) and, ironically, the mistake
of some modern Trinitarians too is failure to recognize this historical fact. THE TIME HAS COME
TO CLEAR THE AIR!! Here is the simple truth.

The one “true God”, the Father, is, by His very nature, revealed in and worshipped through His
Eternal Son (his perfect eternal “image” in every way, even in being called our God like him), and
he i.e. God the Father (and His Son) is present everywhere by His personal Holy Spirit (his
omnipresent invisible Representative). Think it through carefully. There is only one (1) God, THE
FATHER (a singular "Him"), not two or three of Him, but He has told us that he is known through
and approached through His co-equal Son, and is manifested everywhere by His distinct and
personal Holy Spirit. That’s why God spoke as "us" from the very beginning, since He could not
deny whom he is united with in the threefold Godhead. That's all!! See Genesis 1:26-8, Gen. 3:22;
Gen. 11:7 and Isaiah 6:3 with Matthew 28:19 and 1 Cor. 12:4-6, 11.
This was the teaching of the earliest Christians *long before the Papacy and Roman Catholicism was
born in the fourth century after Constantine became “Christian” (signaling the early conception of
Roman Catholicism or Papacy that later was fully birthed after the fourth century). The historical
evidence is undeniable, at least to one who is honest with himself after reading this presentation!!
The Christians nearest the Bible apostles taught a triad, but denied a plurality of Gods. The idea of
‘gods’ in the Godhead is one of Satan’s first lies told on earth. This lie, recorded distinctly in Genesis
3:5, because he knew that more than one Person in the Godhead is properly called “GOD” (Gen.
3:22; 2 Thess.2:4), but also knowing that a misunderstanding of *the unity is what would cause us
to falsely see Them either as separate ‘gods’ or worse, as a monstrous ‘three headed’ individual
being (organism). This lie or counterfeit is found in almost all ancient religions of the world, simply
because, by his knowledge of the real truth, Satan was able to plant the ‘seed of misunderstanding’.
Why is there such a coincidence of ‘divine threes’ in counterfeit religions? Evidently it was by
Satan’s influence (himself knowing the truth about the true Godhead of “constituent Persons”) that
these ancient pagan religions unwittingly recognized that truly there is a plurality of persons in the
Godhead, but unfortunately the persons are either seen as ‘gods’, or God is seen as a personal
being (personality) with three forms or faces fused on one neck! Why? Satan likes to counterfeit or
caricature the truth to cast doubt, and ridicule it!!
No Christian should therefore seek to promote these pagan lies, or on the other hand go to the
other extreme of unwittingly opposing “all that is called God” (2 Thessalonians 2:4; notice the
collective word “all”) in the Persons of the Father, his Son, and their personal Holy Spirit, simply
because he cannot understand how, when the Three are spiritually united in the Godhead, its
simply 1x1x1 = 1(one) God (since the Son and the Spirit are “of” the one God), and 1+1+1= 3
persons of divinity (since the Father, Son and Spirit they are really distinct persons). Its never
1+1+1=3 (three) gods, since the Bible is consistent from beginning to end that there is one God,
despite a compound unity of divine persons operate as God AS IF one body (a united “he”); just as
the Church does operate as one body (a united “she”), as seen in 1 Cor. 12:4-6, 11, or just as all of
humanity is called a united “he” in Gen. 6:3, 5-7 and all of Israel (a nation of many persons) is called
a united “he” in Deut. 32:8-18 !!

Do you notice the plural/collective word “all” in 2 Thess. 2:4, speaking of “all that is called God”?
And can you then see why God chose the human family of two persons initially, but also with the
complete family (with the offspring or seed from the unity of the first two persons filling the
earth, as seen in Gen. 1:26-28), to illustrate the Godhead of one God the Father, yet inseparably
united with His Son, and with both united producing their personal Holy Spirit who fills all things?
Can you see too why God, who knows that LOVE is a fellowship principle, and also knowing that
for the statement “God is love” to be true then he could not picture Himself in isolated aloneness
as the only divine being, but as working in harmony with others divine like himself? Thus from
the very beginning he said “let us”; not ‘let me do this or that’, or ‘I will’, etc.
And can you then see why God used the human family, the first earthly institution of love, as the
model “imaged” after him to demonstrate on earth His love and the nature of the Godhead? See
again Romans 1:19-20. That’s what the early Christians captured in their expressions about the
Trinity, long before the Papacy arose centuries later. This writer can do nothing more than say,
Amen!!

What you do, dear reader, with this truth now revealed to you is up to you, but at least you
cannot say you were not exposed to what is the real truth about the Trinity in the history of the
Christian Church….including in the history of the SDA Adventist Church before 1915. No need to
be confused like the dissidents in Adventism, since we can harmonize all the data and see the big
picture.

Let’s now in the last of the seven “facts” to be revealed in this booklet look at how and why the
dissidents are confused. Go on to the next page.
 Fact 7:

The Dissident SDA Anti-Trinitarians are Confused!!!!

With all that you have seen in the foregoing pages of this booklet in your hands, dear reader, it
is quite plain therefore that the anti-Trinitarian dissidents either within Seventh-day Adventism,
or on the fringes of the SDA Church--- dissidents daily troubling the Church with their largely
false accusations regarding the Trinity---THEY ARE QUITE CONFUSED!!

Here are a few examples demonstrating how confused they are (this is not an exhausted list,
since they deny, cover up, twist, and are confused about so much) :

1. They are confused about the Holy Spirit:

One segment of the dissident SDA anti-Trinitarian Movement says "the third person of the God
head" is SATAN (!!!), while another group in that same Movement say "the third person of the
Godhead" is Jesus (!!!), while yet another group among them say there is no "third person".
One group admit there are "three persons" who are really two, while another set says there are
no "three persons", and another set amazingly admit that there are "three holiest beings" of
the Godhead, but that they are not really three literal personal beings, since the "third holy
being" is not a "being" like the other two!! And yet it’s the same Movement of dissidents which
seeks to chastise others (Trinitarians) about "confusion" in their midst????? What a laugh!! "He
who lives in a glass house...."
The dissident SDA anti-Trinitarians use twisted 'logic' in order to seek to confuse people with
the false notion that Jesus is literally "two persons" in one. They argue that him having two
distinct natures with their own individuality translate into him being two persons. It’s plain they
fail to realize that the word "nature" and the word "person" are totally different words, and
mean two totally different things. Mrs. White made plain that Jesus has two distinct natures
with their own individuality or one not being the other (i.e. the divine and the human)
inseparably welded in ONE PERSON, Jesus Christ; it’s not about two persons in one person (like
the Catholics teach)!! Big difference!! Try as they might, they can't fool people who study for
themselves and take word meanings to be just what they mean!!
They strive their hardest to deny the importance of worshiping the Holy Spirit co-equally with
the Father and the Son, and yet their own beloved Sister White declared:

...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 song, “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 (SDA periodical), January 4, 1881

“When we have accepted Christ, and in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit have pledged ourselves to serve [i.e. reverence, honor, worship and obey; see
Joshua 24:15; Psalm 100:2] God, the Father, Christ, *AND the Holy Spirit --the three dignitaries
and powers of heaven--pledge themselves that every facility shall be given to us if we carry
out our baptismal vows to "come out from among them, and be . . . separate, . . . and touch
not the unclean thing.” ----E.G. White, Manuscript 85, 1901

"As the saints in the kingdom of God are accepted in the beloved [or Paradise] , they hear:
“Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world.” And then the golden harps are touched, and the music flows all through the
heavenly host, and they fall down and worship the Father and the Son *AND the Holy Spirit."
---E.G. White, Manuscript 139, 1906.

“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… 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… And this is the prayer that every one of us may
offer. *Keeping in mind that it’s only to who is our God we should pray to+
---E.G. White, Manuscript, 95, 1906

Now, in order to ‘escape’ Mrs. White saying the above, the dissidents try to say, WITHOUT ONE
OUNCE OF EVIDENCE EXCEPT BLIND ASSUMPTIONS AND SPECULATION, that her writings and
utterances as quoted above were tampered with!! Its plain denial of the undeniable, and a
Satan-inspired attempt to “make of non-effect” “the testimonies”, as was prophesied to be
“the last great deception” that will be rampant among SDAs!!

2. They are confused about LeRoy Froom and about Kellogg’s “alpha heresy”

They accuse LeRoy Froom (an SDA theologian who became active in the mid to late 1920s) of
so-called “introducing” “Trinity” concepts into the SDA Church, despite he was born in 1890,
and so was just either a boy/youth and not yet a theologian when the pioneers themselves in
the 1890s and the decade before 1915 fully expounding on the Trinity as three separate beings
being our God…evidencing that LeRoy Froom was too late on the scene in 1913, for instance, to
be able to influence the F.M. Wilcox declaration of fundamentals in October, 1913, that “SDAs
believe in the Trinity”!!

In addition, they think it was Dr. Kellogg’s “alpha heresy” (of 1900-1905) that introduced Trinity
concepts into the SDA Church simply because he expressed that he came to believe in the
Trinity, yet they never ever stop to realize that many of the other pioneers had come to believe
the same in the two decades after 1888, and that when Mrs. White chastised him, she did NOT
mention the Trinity he came to believe in as the problem, but him interweaving *PANTHEISTIC
ideas into the Trinity of “three living persons”….leaving other SDA pioneers to recognize, just
like Mrs. White did that:

"This we [SDAs] call pantheism of the most revolting type —a confounding of the third person
of the blessed *Trinity with a secretion of the nerves." [Or confounding him with inanimate
things of nature]
----Review and Herald, Vol. 77, No. 49; October 2, 1900, p. 627

The dissidents fail to realize that Mrs. White, while chastising Kellogg, she re-affirmed the
“three living persons” of the Godhead to be three beings (she did not deny them), since a
“living person” is separate from others in a group, as other SDA pioneers testified in the same
time decade:
“There are three beings in the Godhead: God, the Father; Jesus Christ, the Word; and the
Holy Spirit. "These three are one." …Canst thou by searching find out God?"
---Review and Herald, Vol. 87; December 15, 1910; No. 50; p. 8

"The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one and receive worship. Each one represents all
the other *members of the *Trinity...[but] Gabriel was only an angel bearing a message from
the great *Trinity of heaven, and could not receive worship [Rev. 19:10; Rev. 22:8-9]"
---S.N. Haskell, The Bible Training School, November, 1907, No. 6, pg. 94

3. They are confused about Jesus as our God and Saviour, and about his utterances while a
condescended human (“a servant” or SLAVE; Philippians 2:7) speaking as our human Model

Many of the dissidents think that Jesus is just “God” in nature, not co-equally our God in rank
alongside the Father (or “God the Son”), and that to deem and worship him as our God, or as
“God Almighty” just like the Father is to make him an “idol” replacing the Father… totally
missing Mrs. White acknowledging that angels in heaven worship him as “Almighty” (since that
is what it means to be “co-equal” with his Father), and missing the point that his unity with God
the Father as such is he bringing glory to the Father as such); not him overshadowing or
replacing him at all. Those who do come to recognize him as our God, because of the
irrefutable evidence presented to them, they fail to realize that if they refuse to accept three
persons (the Father and Son and their personal Holy Spirit) united as one God in function,
then they are really polytheists or worshippers of two Gods, i.e. by failing to and refusing to
unite them as “one” in function as our God; not one in person!

In addition, they try so hard to preach that they accept Jesus as “divine”, yet in their
confusion they simultaneously do so much to use his utterances while a Man--- i.e. while a
condescended and “CREATED” human “servant” or “slave” to his Father (Philippians 2:7)
whose powers were lesser than that of the angels--- in order to make him lesser than our God
and our Saviour, just like the Father (see Titus 2:13-14); all the while forgetting that only a
being who is called Jehovah our God can be called the Savior as Jesus is, since only Jehovah or
the Lord is the one Saviour (see Isaiah 43:10-11). They also forget that as the God-Man he is
simultaneously, as it were, the Creator (as the Son of God) and a creature (as the son of Man;
the Messiah) in one person. They even forget that because Jesus is called “God’ in the
capitalized form of the word, then he is “God in the highest sense”…. to be even called “God
himself” just like the Father; he’s not “God” in a secondary sense!

4. They are confused about word meanings

For example, when they come to recognize by irrefutable evidence that SDA pioneers did
accept a version the Trinity, they try to argue for “when a trinity is not the trinity”, as if all cows
or sheep must be of the same specie or breed, and a Trinity cannot differ in explanation from
the Catholic version. How lame! In addition, when they are forced to recognize that the Holy
Spirit is a “representative” of Jesus as a “distinct personality” or “individual being” in and of
himself, they deny that the words “a personality” mean an individual person or being even in
Mrs. White’s time (despite what the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary of American English of Mrs.
White’s time says). The also try to make the word “representative” conveniently mean two
differing things when it suits them, so as to have two persons forming one being (i.e. the two
persons of Jesus the Man and the Holy Spirit), and Jesus himself being his own “representative”
just as the Catholics and sabellian modalists teach! Also, when they are forced to recognize
that Jesus existed as a “distinct” being “from all eternity” they deny that “eternal” here means
having no beginning or end, and they forget what the word “all” means in the expression “from
all eternity”. They also totally ignore Jesus being called “the Infinite One”, forgetting that an
“infinite” being CANNOT have limits in his existence!
And the list of words they are confused about and twist/deny goes on and on….

5. They are confused about the pronoun “he” in the Bible

The dissidents behave as if God can never be called “he” and AT TIMES (not always) it can mean
the divine persons united in action, function and nature, and yet Man whom God is “imaged”
in, is pictured AT TIMES (all over the Bible) as a composite “he” comprised of separate beings.

6. They are confused about SDA and general Church history before and after the Papacy as it
concerns the Trinity and how to harmonize the data correctly

This has been the burden of this booklet, and I have already adequately demonstrated their
confusion is this regard!

7. They are confused about aspects of the Bible’s message and the ‘big picture’ in it

This, also, has been the burden of this booklet, and I have already adequately demonstrated
their confusion is this regard!

In summary, let me say the following:

HOW DISSIDENT ANTI-TRINITARIANS IN SD ADVENTISM TWIST WORD MEANINGS, PARABLES

AND FACTS; CAUSING DECEPTION! BEWARE!!

After over twenty years (since 1998) of interacting intensely with the material and arguments of
the dissident and vocal anti-trinitarians within or on the fringes of SD Adventism, one striking re
ality has stood out for me: THEY ARE SKILLFUL AT TWISTING WORD MEANINGS, FACTS, AND
ACCOUNTS, WHICH ULTIMATELY MISLEAD.
1. They decry some Godhead related words/expressions they say are not in the bible but
themselves use very many Godhead-related and other unrelated expressions also not in the
bible, e.g. “the heavenly trio”, “three living persons”, “third person of the Godhead”,
“investigative judgment”, “the remnant church”, etc…all of which must be deduced from
Scripture

2. They claim only the person of the Father of Jesus is our God, yet Jesus himself and God the
Father himself declare otherwise in John 20:28-29 and Hebrews 1:8, 10 and they both affirmed
Jesus to be our God (not just "God" or "divine" in nature) even after Jesus became human (and
thus for the first time was found worshiping the Father as his God, since he is now a Model Man
as one of us).
3. They claim that Jesus being “begotten” or “brought forth” of the Father this means that as a
divine person he had a beginning of existence at some point after the Father and was formed as
God after the Father, yet the bible in Hebrews 7:3 and Isaiah 43:10-11 point blank says Jesus
has no beginning of days as God's Son, nor was any Creator God-being formed after God the
Father. In addition, all over the Bible the divine things Jesus is compared with in parable (like
the wisdom, the power, the life, the arm of the Lord, etc.) they have no beginning of
existence but are from everlasting and are co-existent with God's own existence from all
eternity past...underscoring why Jesus as an eternal person he is called "the first and the last"
(Rev. 2:8) just like the Father; never called "the second" anywhere in the entire bible!!!
Nowhere!!!

4. They claim that the Daniel 2 vision of the stone cut out of a mountain without hands proves
Jesus had a beginning as coming from the Father, yet Daniel 2:44-45 proves that the stone was
about Gods kingdom ruled over by Jesus, and has nothing to do with his begetting, but about
God's earthly kingdom coming out of and compared to his larger dominion of the entire
universe.

5. They claim the Spirit is not a separate person or being and is nowhere worshipped in the
Bible, yet the evidence proving otherwise is all over the bible (hundreds of times) and in the
confessions of the SDA pioneers, staring them in the face, but they don't see it because their
eyes are wide shut...yes, wide shut.

6. They claim they support the writings of Mrs. White in Adventism, but they regularly twist and
deny her words about divinity. And when certain aspects of her inspired interpretation of
Scripture does not suit them they then resort to either saying her writings were fabricated or
that they will only accept Scripture "as it reads" and not outside sources...which is dissident
code for saying they trust their own reading, viewpoints and preconceived ideas over/above
the "testimonies" and it’s affirmations about what Scripture *means as given through her by
the Spirit, the very author of the Scriptures themselves!! Yet in very many other areas they
accept Mrs. White's utterances of 'special revelation' on other subjects, where not one word of
her statements is directly found in Scripture. How ironic, and how hypocritical!

7. They claim to have “no guile” in their mouths, but their twisted and inconsistent use of
historical facts and words related to divinity prove the opposite. This is clearly observed in their
hypocritical rejection of the post-1888 and pre-1915 utterances of their own SDA pioneers
supporting a 'tailored' version of the Trinity (of *three separate eternal *BEINGS), and is also
seen in their inconsistent and limited use of the Godhead-related words-- e.g. "three",
"threefold", "persons", "personalities", "beings", "equal", "eternal", "from everlasting", "from
all eternity", “self-existent”, “the I Am”, "the Godhead", "representative", "represent", "one",
"himself", "him", "he", "God", etc., etc.; the list is almost endless.
As I close, I cannot but point out to you, dear reader, the sad traits observed in many
(not all) of the SDA dissidents who daily act as “accusers of the brethren” and are
 now “protestors” against the plain truth. Many of the dissidents sadly display the
following traits (as *quoted from Lazarus Castang):

Let’s pray for them that God will humble them and release them from the chains of self-
deception that they have allowed themselves to be in. I am certainly doing so myself
(i.e. praying for them), even as I do what Isaiah 58:1 calls me to do, i.e. lift up my voice
like a trumpet, and, speaking fearlessly and frankly, but with the deepest love for all
concerned, show my people in Zion where they are going wrong….i.e. living in denial
and refusing to accept historical and biblical truth when it becomes evident!!! I also
pray that those of us on the Trinitarian side recognize the much-neglected and denied
truth as *ALWAYS TAUGHT BY OUR SDA PIONEERS (i.e. BEFORE AND AFTER 1888 AND
1915) about “the only begotten Son” who was “brought forth” from all eternity of the
Father’s own substance, since many of us on the Trinitarian side of the debate are as
stubborn as those on the anti-Trinitarian side to accept all truth when it becomes
plain.

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

*Further Study and Appendices

To do your own further study into the issues, dear reader; see the links below to my published
material online, dealing with every and all issues raised by the “confused” anti-Trinitarian
dissidents in our midst:

Link 1: to my Facebook page with dozens of articles addressing the controversial issues (visit
and scroll to view the very many questions answered and opposing arguments debunked):
https://www.facebook.com/derrick.gillespie

Link 2: to my free downloadable booklets (e-books in PDF) dealing with the issues in specific
and greater detail (join the scribd.com website-- it’s free -- and start downloading at the link
below):
https://www.scribd.com/uploads

________________________________________________________________________________
 ---A PUBLICATION OF DERRICK GILLESPIE’S “REMNANT RESISTANCE” ONLINE MINISTRIES---

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

____________________