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Resources For SDAs Only Not the Trinity Nor 3 gods but One God (for SDAs) - Who is the Holy Spirit?
Resources For SDAs Only Not the Trinity Nor 3 gods but One God (for SDAs) - Who is the Holy Spirit?
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Page 8 of 8 Holy Spirit Who is the Holy Spirit?But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Romans 8: 9 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Galatians 4: 6 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; [Even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. John 14: 16- 18 Conclusion: The Holy Spirit is none other than the very Spirit of Christ which proceeded from the Father, the one God, [of whom [are] all things]. 1 Corinthians 8: 6. Does Jesus have a spirit that is separate from His Father’s spirit? Every being in the universe has his own individual spirit. Even a dog has a spirit, according to the Bible. Jesus, therefore, has His own individual Spirit. "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father" (Galatians 4:6). "For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:19). But Christ's Spirit is so submitted to God's Spirit that they can rightly be called one, just as "he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:17). It is only through the reality of this fact, that we can have fellowship with Christ as we do have fellowship with our heavenly Father. The Bible says, "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3). We do not have fellowship with the Father and Son through our bodies. Our bodies do not interact physically with the Father and the Son's bodies. Instead, we have fellowship with the Father and the Son by their Spirit. If the Son does not have His own individual Spirit, then we could not fellowship with Him in any different way that we do the Father. Thus, through this clear distinction between the Father's Spirit and the Son's spirit, we can have personal fellowship with both the Father and the Son. "Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son." (2 John 1:9). The only way we can have both the Father and the Son today is if both of them have a Spirit, for we do not have both of their bodies. Conclusion: Yes, Jesus has a separate and distinct spirit from His Father's Spirit, though it is fully submissive to the Spirit of His father. Does the Spirit of Prophecy confirm the fact that the Holy Spirit is the very spirit of Christ? Christ declared that after his ascension, he would send to his church, as his crowning gift, the Comforter, who was to take his place. This Comforter is the Holy Spirit,--the soul of his life, the efficacy of his church, the light and life of the world. With his Spirit Christ sends a reconciling influence and a power that takes away sin. In the gift of the Spirit, Jesus gave to man the highest good that heaven could bestow.{RH, May 19, 1904 par. 2} Cumbered with humanity Christ could not be in every place personally, therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He should leave them to go to His Father and send the Holy Spirit to be His successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit.E.G. White, (Manuscript Releases Volume 14 (Nos 1081-1135) MR No.1084 Christ tells us that the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, and the Comforter is the Holy Ghost, "the Spirit of truth, which the Father shall send in My name." This refers to the omnipresence of the Spirit of Christ, called the Comforter.{EGW, 14MR 179} The Saviour is our Comforter. This I have proved Him to be. {EGW, 8MR 49} As by faith we look to Jesus, our faith pierces the shadow, and we adore God for His wondrous love in giving Jesus the Comforter.{EGW, 19MR 297, 298} The reason why the churches are weak and sickly and ready to die, is that the enemy has brought influences of a discouraging nature to bear upon trembling souls. He has sought to shut Jesus from their view as the Comforter, as one who reproves, who warns, who admonishes them, saying, "This is the way, walk ye in it" {EGW, RH, August 26, 1890 par. 10} (compare with John 16:8) Let them study the seventeenth of John, and learn how to pray and how to live the prayer of Christ. He is the Comforter. {EGW, RH, January 27, 1903} Christ tells us that the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, and the Comforter is the Holy Ghost, "the Spirit of truth, which the Father shall send in My name." This refers to the omnipresence of the Spirit of Christ, called the Comforter. {EGW, 14MR 179} Let them be thankful to God for His manifold mercies and be kind to one another. They have one God and one Saviour; and one Spirit--the Spirit of Christ--is to bring unity into their ranks. {EGW, 9T 189} Jesus is seeking to impress upon them the thought that in giving His Holy Spirit He is giving to them the glory which the Father hath given Him, that He and His people may be one in God. {EGW, 2MR 36, 37} The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ. {EGW, DA 805.3} He [Christ] would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent." {EGW, 14MR 23} They have one God and one Saviour; and one Spirit--the Spirit of Christ--is to bring unity into their ranks. 9T 189. {PM 156.3} Does the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, have an independent personality? And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Ephesians 4: 30 Conclusion: The Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Christ, has an independent personality that can be grieved when we obstinately keep resisting his influences. The Holy Spirit is the Third person of the Godhead, but is at the same time the very spirit of Christ. This is the mystery of this sacred agency. How can the Spirit of Christ be an independent person? Here is what the Spirit of Prophecy says: The Holy Spirit is a free, working, independent agency. The God of heaven uses His Spirit as it pleases Him, and human minds, human judgment, and human methods can no more set boundaries to its working, or prescribe the channel through which it shall operate, than they can say to the wind, I bid you to blow in a certain direction, and to conduct yourself in such and such a manner. {FLB 52. 4} But more than that, it has not been revealed, nor is it left up to us to conjecture. The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever. Deuteronomy 29:29. About the mysterious nature of the Holy Spirit we are admonished the following: The nature of the Holy Spirit is a mystery. Men cannot explain it, because the Lord has not revealed it to them. Men having fanciful views may bring together passages of Scripture and put a human construction on them, but the acceptance of these views will not strengthen the church. Regarding such mysteries, which are too deep for human understanding, silence is golden. {AA 52.1} What is the thing that saddened William Clarence White regarding the teaching of the some of the SDA ministers about the Holy Spirit? The statements and the arguments of some of our ministers, in their effort to prove that the Holy Spirit is an individual as are God the Father and Christ, the eternal Son, have perplexed me, and sometimes they have made me sad. One popular teacher said We may regard Him, as the fellow who is down here running things. My perplexities were lessened a little when I learned from the dictionary that one of the meanings of personality was characteristics. It is stated in such a way that I concluded that there might be personality without bodily form which is possessed by the Father and the Son. There are many Scriptures which speak of the Father and the Son and the absence of Scripture making similar reference to the united work of the Father and the Holy Spirit or of Christ and the Holy Spirit, has led me to believe that the spirit without individuality was the representative of the Father and the Son throughout the universe, and it was through the Holy Spirit that they dwell in our hearts and make us one with the Father and with the Son. {Letter, W. C. White to H. W. Carr, April 30, 1935} I refuse, therefore, to solve away the mystery of the Holy Spirit, beyond what has been revealed. Some have attempted to tamper with Gods divine council and promote the Spirit of Christ to a god. This I believe is a blatant error for the following 8 reasons: 1. The Holy Spirit is never referred to as god in the Bible or the SOP. 2. It will contradict the Bible teaching of the One God. 3. No one else besides the Son participates in the counsels of the Father. " Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both." Zachariah 6: 13.It would be uncharacteristic of God the Father to exclude an entitled god from His counsels. 4. There is no mention at all of a throne dedicated to the Holy Spirit, as is the case with the Father and His Son. 5. There is not mention in the New Jerusalem of the Holy Spirit. 6. Elevating the Holy Spirit to a god is an invitation to worship a non-existent god. In such a vacuum it is Satan who creeps in, so those who worship the Holy Spirit end up worshipping Satan. See EW 56. 7. We are commanded of Christ to pray only to the Father in His name. There is no injunction to pray to the Holy Spirit. See EW 56. 8. There are only two beings that we are to worship: God and His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Holy and reverend is his name. We dishonor God when we use this word [Reverend] where it does not belong. . .The Father and the Son alone are to be exalted. {SD 58.5} If God is dishonored when we use the word \"reverend"\ on people, how is it viewed in the eyes of God when we elevate the Spirit of His Son to His equal? It is time to worship the one God in truth and spirit, and to repent of our past ignorance and blasphemies. This is our prayer to our Father, the one God, who is above all, and we lift it in the name of His only begotten son, Jesus Christ. Hits: 3958 Comments (5)
  written by afolabi samuel, November 05, 2008
 written by Kelley Alexander, November 05, 2008
Ellen G. White Estate
The Faith I Live By (195  , page 52, paragraph 2 Chapter Title: The Three Dignitaries of Heaven 1.We need to realize that the Holy Spirit . . . is as much a person as God is a person. . . . 2.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. ELLEN WHITE states here that the Holy Spirit is part of the Godhead: 3.Sin could be resisted and overcome only through the mighty agency of the third person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fullness of divine power.
written by afolabi samuel, October 15, 2008
Bless your heart Sherlene. You are indeed an honest and one of the "faithful souls" that constitute the true church in this world. Nothing could be more plainer than your contribution to the truth of the identity of the holy spirit being “the omnipresence of the spirit of Christ.” as the messenger of the Lord as stated in Manuscript Release vol.14, page 179,180.
Everything within me says Amen when I read your comments, for that is just what I believed and understand to be the whole truth of the subject. You really possess a humble and "berean" mind and I pray you keep it up and continue to defend God's truth to His honor and glory. In His love and mine, WLC Team. smilies/smiley.gif
 written by Sherlene Turner, October 03, 2008
The following is the original quote Ellen White made concerning the mystery of the Holy Spirit which is often quoted in Acts of the Apostles, p 52. That it has been edited by the publishers/authorities is immediately obvious when compared with the original statement below. Instead of being a personal rebuke and condemnation of Brother Chapman's theological 'new light', the editing of the letter tends to suggest that Ellen White stated that God has withheld information about the identity of the Holy Spirit from everyone, including her. Certainly there are SOME sacred, divine mysteries which we do not know and do not NEED to know,(such as how the Father generated His Son) but there are many things that God has revealed to us especially for our benefit. Such knowledge enhances our understanding of God's love for us, once again, through (the omnipresence of) His Son and teaches us how to overcome sin through the power of His spirit.
Ellen White, in Petoskey, Michigan, to Brother Chapman on 11 June, 1891. “I have received yours dated June 3. In this letter you speak in these words: ‘Elder Robinson does not want me to leave, but urges that I enter the canvassing field until such time as the conference can afford to employ me in some other capacity, but states positively that I cannot be sent out to present the truth to others until some points held by me are changed or modified in order that the views regarded by us as a people should be properly set forth. (p 475) He quotes as a sample, ‘My idea in reference to the Holy Ghost’s not being the Spirit of God, which is Christ, but the angel Gabriel, and my belief that the 144,000 will be Jews who will acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah. On all fundamental points I am in perfect harmony with our people; but when I try to show what seems to me to be new light on the truth, those in authority, none of whom have seemingly ever made a personal investigation of the matter, refuse to look into the Bible, but brand me as a fellow with queer ideas of the Bible….’ “Your ideas of the two subjects you mention do not harmonize with the light which God has given me. The nature of the Holy Spirit is a mystery not clearly revealed, and you will never be able to explain it to others because the Lord has not revealed it to you. You may gather together Scriptures and put your construction upon them, but the application is not correct. The expositions by which you sustain your position are not sound. You may lead some to accept your explanations, but you do them no good, nor are they, through accepting your views, enabled to do others good. It is not essential for you to be able to define just what the Holy Spirit is. Christ tells us that the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, and the Comforter is the Holy Ghost, ‘the Spirit of truth, which the Father shall send in My name.’ ‘I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:16, 17). This refers to the omnipresence of the spirit of Christ, called the Comforter…. There are many mysteries, which I do not seek to understand or to explain; they are too high for me and too high for you. On some of these points silence is golden…I hope that you will seek to be in harmony with the body…you make the mistake that many others have made, of thinking that you have new light, when it is only a new phase of error. You need to come into harmony with your brethren.… It is your duty to come as near to the people as you can…. Now, my brother, it is truth that we want and must have, but do notintroduce error as new truth.” MR 1107. Sherl45
written by Sherlene Turner, October 03, 2008
Thank you for your article. It was very interesting and easy to read.
However, in the interests of accuracy, I believe that the following information is important. In the article, the WLC author quotes the following statement from The Acts of the Apostles, p 52, "The nature of the Holy Spirit is a mystery. Men cannot explain it, because the Lord has not revealed it to them. Men having fanciful views may bring together passages of Scripture and put a human construction on them, but the acceptance of these views will not strengthen the church. Regarding such mysteries, which are too deep for human understanding, silence is golden {AA 52.1}." Do you realise that those words which Ellen White is said to have written in The Acts of the Apostles p 52 (as quoted in your WLC article), have been significantly edited? In my book, "Identifying the Unknown God,' pages 474-476, this particular quote from the Acts of the Apostles is discussed. The original statement was written in a personal letter written to Brother Chapman. The following section is taken from "Identifying the Unknown God," SDA version available for free download at www.themeofthebible.com . My comments accompany the original quote, but the most important difference between the original quote and the edited version, is that Ellen White was telling Brother Chapman (not all humanity) that God had not revealed to him certain things about the Holy Spirit, not that God had not revealed certain things to others about the spirit of God. Brother Chapman believed he had received 'special light' about the Holy Spirit and that the spirit of God was actually the angel Gabriel. Ellen White did not tell him that no-one knew the identity of the Holy Spirit, but just that God had not revealed this 'new light' to him i.e to Brother Chapman. She also revealed that Brother Chapman's personal views on this subject were totally incorrect. Identifying the Unknown God p 474-476 SDA version, www.themeofthebible.com This quotation (A.A. 51,52) was originally written in 1891, 19 years after the church’s first denominated principles of faith were published. The letter was a personal rebuke to a Brother Chapman, who was teaching that the Holy Spirit was a separate being other than the Father and Son. Brother Chapman was teaching that the Holy Spirit was the angel Gabriel. A.T. Robinson and the leading brethren at the time believed in the SDA church’s published, denominated principles of faith which declared that the Father, though a personal divine Being, existed with body and spirit (mind). The pioneers recognised that the term “the Holy Spirit” referred to the representative mind/thoughts of Christ Himself communicated by angels i.e. the means by which Divinity was present in all places at all times. The leading brethren taught that the Comforter was the spirit (mind, thoughts) of Christ Himself ministered to humanity through angels. Ellen White was pleading with Brother Chapman to accept this position held by the majority of the leading brethren at that time. In this letter she makes a definitive statement regarding her understanding of the Holy Spirit, calling the Comforter, “the omnipresence of the spirit of Christ.” Unfortunately, the editors who compiled Acts of the Apostles did not include these other statements, which make it clear “Who” the Holy Spirit is. A full copy of her letter to Brother Chapman follows in a separate post due to comment length restrictions. Sherl45
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“Under the working of the Holy Spirit the conscience will recognize a pure, high standard of righteousness that puts to shame the low, cheap ideas of the surface reader, whose mind is corrupted with sin.” {RH, August 13, 1959 par. 20}
1.We need to realize that the Holy Spirit . . . is as much a person as God is a person. . . .
This is from a talk given at Avondale School April 15, 1899. This talk was never published during Ellen White’s lifetime. Part of it was first released in 1946 with the publication of Evangelism. A further part of it was published in 1990 in Manuscript Releases, vol. 7, p. 299, and then in 1994 more of it was released in Sermons and Talks, vol. 2, pp. 136-139. The entire talk has not been published, yet from Sermons and Talks we know that the above quotation is not the full sentence.
Without surface reading:
The point that Sister White was making is seen in the context of the whole statement:
We have been brought together as a school, and we need to realize that the Holy Spirit, who is as much a person as God is a person, is walking through these grounds, unseen by human eyes; that the Lord God is our Keeper and Helper. He hears every word we utter and knows every thought of the mind. (Sermon and Talks, vol. 2, pp. 136, 137)
Ellen White was making it clear that she was not advocating that the Holy Spirit was merely some impersonal force, but the person of “the Lord God” who was constantly with them watching and listening to everything that happen. If she was trying to teach the Trinity, she failed, for the school did not adopt the Trinity doctrine and the great “weight of evidence” from her writings is clearly on the non-trinitarian side of the issue.
2.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.
Without surface reading:
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.”
The key to understanding this statement is found in Sister White’s quotation of 1 Corinthians 2:11. This text, in essence, says that only man knows his spirit and only God knows His Spirit. In other words, man is to man’s spirit as God is to God’s spirit. Nobody who properly understands the spirit of man would say that his spirit is a separate part or entity apart from him. We also use the term “spirit of Satan,” but never to say that there is another demon besides Lucifer that is separate and apart from him doing an evil work.
Elsewhere she plainly defined her understanding of the Holy Spirit:
“We want the Holy Spirit of Christ in our families.”- {RH, April 16, 1889 par. 9}
“This Comforter is the Holy Spirit,--the soul of his life, the efficacy of his church, the light and life of the world. With his Spirit Christ sends a reconciling influence and a power that takes away sin.” {RH, May 19, 1904 par. 1}
“Christ gives them the life of his life. The Holy Spirit puts forth its highest energies to work in mind and heart.” {RH, January 5, 1911 par. 6}
“The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ.” {DA 805.3}
“Christ gives them the breath of His own spirit, the life of His own life.” {DA 827}
“This refers to the omnipresence of the Spirit of Christ, called the Comforter.” {EGW, 14MR 179}
Here was her understanding:
“Let them be thankful to God for His manifold mercies and be kind to one another. They have one God and one Saviour; and one Spirit--the Spirit of Christ--is to bring unity into their ranks.” {EGW, 9T 189}
“The reason why the churches are weak and sickly and ready to die is that the enemy has brought influences of a discouraging nature to bear upon trembling souls. He has sought to shut Jesus from their view as the Comforter, as one who reproves, who warns, who admonishes them, saying, "This is the way, walk ye in it.” 16 July, 1892; MS #548, Vol 8, p 49
“The Saviour is our Comforter. This I have proved Him to be. “ MS 20, (1892) "
Dear Sister, I counsel you to prove all things and hold fast to that which is truth. Please feel free to share your concerns and questions if the above is not clear enough.
In His love and service,
WLC Team.