@HOFFMAN: Mrs. White is quite clear in her description of …

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

@HOFFMAN:

Mrs. White is quite clear in her description of the Holy Spirit as being one of the three “persons” of the Godhead. She explains that the Holy Spirit is not simply the spirit of Jesus divested from His human body as you seem to suggest. Rather, she constantly refers to the Holy Spirit as the, “third person of the Godhead”. Therefore, her use of the phrase “heavenly trio” is in fact a reference to three separate persons and personalities of the Godhead. Her 1901 and 1905 statements emphasize this point in that she affirmed, most explicitly, that the three “eternal heavenly dignitaries,” the “three highest powers in heaven,” the “three living persons of the heavenly trio,” are one in nature, character, and purpose, but not in person.

E. G. White, Manuscript 130, 1901, in Manuscript Releases, 16:205, quoted in idem, Evangelism (Washington, DC: Review and Herald, 1946), 616 (but erroneously attributed to Ms. 145, 1901); idem, Special Testimonies, Series B, no. 7 (1905), 51, 62-63, quoted in Evangelism, 617.3, 615.1.

Consider also the following statements of Mrs. White regarding the independent personhood and personality of the Holy Spirit:

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 Saviour. 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.– Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 7, pp. 62, 63. (1905)

We need to realize that the Holy Spirit, who is as much a person as God is a person, is walking through these grounds.– Manuscript 66, 1899. (From a talk to the students at the Avondale School.)

The Holy Spirit is a person, for He beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. When this witness is borne, it carries with it its own evidence. At such times we believe and are sure that we are the children of God. . . .

The Holy Spirit has a personality, else He could not bear witness to our spirits and with our spirits that we are the children of God. He must also be a divine person, else He could not search out the secrets which lie hidden in the mind of God. “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.”– Manuscript 20, 1906.

The prince of the power of evil can only be held in check by the power of God in the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit.– Special Testimonies, Series A, No. 10, p. 37. (1897)

Now, you can take on your own opinion on this particular topic, independent of the views of Mrs. White and of the SDA Church. However, it would not be honest of you to claim to represent the SDA Church while promoting views that undermine a fundamental doctrinal position of the SDA Church…

Sean Pitman
www.DetectingDesign.com

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