Comment on What does it take to be a true Seventh-day Adventist? by Sean Pitman.

@HOFFMAN:

The Trinity and changing views over time in the SDA Church:

It is a historical fact that the understanding of our SDA Church pioneers changed over time. For example, In 1846 James White referred to “the old unscriptural trinitarian creed, viz., that Jesus is the eternal God.” (The Day Star, Jan. 21, 1846.) But in 1876 he wrote that “S. D. Adventists hold the divinity of Christ so nearly with the Trinitarians, that we apprehend no trial here.” (Review and Herald, Oct 12, 1876). And a year later he declared his belief in the equality of the Son with the Father and condemned any view as erroneous that “makes Christ inferior to the Father.” (Review and Herald, Nov. 29, 1877, p. 72.)

Consider also that in 1896 W. W. Prescott wrote,

As Christ was twice born, once in eternity, the only begotten of the Father, and again in the flesh, thus uniting the divine with the human in that second birth, so we, who have been born once already in the flesh, are to have the second birth, being born again in the Spirit …” (Review and Herald, April 14, 1896, 232.)

Twenty three years later at the 1919 Bible Conference, during a discussion on the divinity of Christ, Prescott changed his mind and admitted,

“I was in the same place that Brother Daniells was, and was taught the same things [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] by authority, and without doing my own thinking or studying I suppose [sic] I was right. But I found out something different.” (1919 Bible Conference Transcripts, July 6, 1919, 58.)

When Prescott raised the question, “Can we believe in the deity of Christ without believing in the eternity of Christ?” One of the participants answered, “I have done so for years.” To this Prescott replied,

“That is my very point — that we have used terms in that accommodating sense that are not really in harmony with Scriptural teaching.

We believed a long time that Christ was a created being, In spite of what the Scripture says. I say this, that passing over the experience I have passed over myself in this matter — this accommodating use of terms which makes the Deity without eternity, is not my conception now of the gospel of Christ. I think it falls short of the whole idea expressed in the Scriptures, and leaves us not with the kind of Savior I believe in now, but a sort of human view — a semi-human being. As I view it, the deity involves eternity. The very expression involves it. You cannot read the Scripture and have the idea of deity without eternity.” (1919 Bible Conference Transcripts, July 6, 1919, 62.)

What about the argument that only after the death of Ellen White was the Trinitarian doctrine introduced into the SDA Church?

The Comforter that Christ promised to send after He ascended to heaven, is the Spirit in all the fullness of the Godhead, making manifest the power of divine grace to all who receive and believe in Christ as a personal Savior. There are three living persons of the heavenly trio; in the name of these three great powers — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit — those who receive Christ by living faith are baptized, and these powers will co-operate with the obedient subjects of heaven in their efforts to live the new life in Christ. (EGW, Evangelism p. 614 615)

This statement from Ellen White is overwhelmingly Trinitarian. Only someone who believed the Trinity doctrine would speak of “three living persons in the heavenly trio.” Anti Trinitarians would not use such language.

Furthermore, her bold statements on the Trinity took many by surprise. M. L. Andreasen recounts,

“I remember how astonished we were when Desire of Ages was first published, for it contained some things that we believed were unbelievable; among other things the doctrine of the trinity which was not generally accepted by Adventists then.” (Quoted in Russell Holt, “The Doctrine of the Trinity in the Seventh day Adventist Denomination” Term Paper, Andrews University, 1969, 20.)

During 1909 Andreasen spent three months at Elmshaven where he was able to look at her hand written manuscripts. He wrote of this experience:

Especially was I struck with the now familiar quotation in Desire of Ages, page 530:

“In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived.” This statement at that time was revolutionary and compelled a complete revision of my former view — and that of the denomination — on the deity of Christ.(Testimony of M. L. Andreasen, Oct. 15, 1953, DF 961.)

This clearly took place long before Ellen White’s death. Thus, the charge that only after Ellen G. White’s death was the Trinity doctrine introduced into the church cannot be sustained.

But what about the argument that the Trinitarian doctrine is of Papal or Catholic origin?

Beyond the fact that not everything the Catholic Church stands for is wrong, the historical record does not support this argument. The Trinitarian doctrine was originally formulated as an official doctrine at the ecumenical Council of Nicaea in AD 325. The Council was assembled in Nicaea (Asia Minor) to deal with the Arian controversy. Of the 318 bishops only eight came from the West, the rest were from the Eastern churches where the bishop of Rome had very little influence. The bishop of Rome himself was not even present, he sent two priests to represent him. This clearly contradicts the claim that the Trinity is of Roman Catholic origin.

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com

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