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THE TRINITY

OUR GOD IS ONE GOD
In Three Persons

We have a wonderful God. Below you will find links to pages on this website dealing with concepts about our God. Even though we can never fully comprehend the majesty and infinity of God, we are still to seek to KNOW HIM.

The Trinity
Do Seventh-day Adventists Believe in the Trinity?


SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS BELIEVE...
There is one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a unity of three co-eternal Persons. God is immortal, all-powerful, all-knowing, above all, and ever present. He is infinite and beyond human comprehension, yet known through His self-revelation. He is forever worthy of worship, adoration, and service by the whole creation. (Fundamental Belief #2)


History of the Trinity Doctrine
The Anti-Trinity Movement
Early Adventism

Some history on "Trintarianism".

It's beginnings come from Matthew's Gospel where Christ commands His disciples to preach the gospel and baptize in "The name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost." Matt. 28:19

The first Christians were Jews by birth and upbringing, or else they were Gentiles who knew the Jewish faith. When Jesus was accepted as Messiah and God, by people whose existing beliefs about God were based on the Old Testament, a simple confession of faith in Jesus as "Lord" or "Son of God" was enough to admit them to the Christian community. But the situation was different when the Gospel was carried to complete pagans. Not only had they to learn about Jesus as Lord and Savior, but about God the Father as well. The Christians looked to Matthews words in Matt. 28:19 where Christ commissions His apostles to "make disciples of all nations, and to baptize them into the THREEFOLD NAME.

Indeed this, three fold invocation at baptism was much discussed in the first century after Christ.

I found it rather interesting to find the earliest mentions of baptism in the early writings of the church Father's speak of the "thrice -blessed invocation". The Didache, written about the end of the first century: "Regarding baptism, baptize thus...in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit' in running water. But, if you have no running water, baptize in any other; ..but if that too is lacking, pour three times on the head ‘in the name of the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit.'"

Tertullian (160-222 A.D.)

wrote:
"He commands them to baptize into the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit..and indeed it is not once only, but three times, that we are immersed into the Three Persons, at each mention of Their names. ....We are THRICE immersed, making a somewhat ampler pledge than the Lord has appointed in the Gospel."

Hippolytus, writing in the early 200's, says: "Then he enters the water, and the presbyter, laying his hand on the candidate's head, immerses him thrice, asking him at each immersion whether he believes in the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity...

In Paul's writings, when he was invoking the fullest divine blessing wrote:
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." 2 Cor. 13:14

But the people now had a problem. They knew God as Father. They had come to know God in Christ, come to earth as a man and Saviour, yet God. They had come to know the Holy Spirit though the spiritual graces and gifts. The question was, how does this fit, with the clear pronunciations in the Bible that GOD IS ONE GOD, and that they are to worship HIM and HIM only shall they serve?

The basic formula of the Trinity is totally scriptural, but much debate and many strange ideas entered the picture as the Biblical concept of the Trinity met with the Greek thinkers and pagan philosophers. Often some very strange ideas concerning all three members were often mixed with the true.

In 180 A.D. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, tried to clarify the belief.

"The Church believes in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed by the prophets the dispensations and the coming of Christ...

Now it has been clearly demonstrated that the Word which exists from the begining with God, by whom all things were made, who was also present with the race of men at all times, according to the time appointed by the Father, has been united to his own workmanship and made passible man. ...but the Son of God did not then begin to exist since he existed with the Father ALWAYS."

But now again the charge that Christians believed in "tritheism," which is in essence the pagan system of belief in three (pagans often had more) distinct gods. But Christianity starts off with a firm belief in ONE GOD. Scripture repeatedly says there is ONE GOD, and HIM only are they to serve. So the early Christians struggled to define their beliefs.

(Turning to the Biblical Historian F. Bruce he wrote about the early years of the church:)

"We must insist that, when these early Christian thinkers undertook to find words which might give adequate expression to their belief about God, they were not philosophizing idly, or deliberately trying to make the Christian fiath difficult; they were endeavouring to do justice to the data of revelation and experience....They could not be content with the view that Father and Son and Holy Spirit were no more than aspects which God assumed and laid down alternately, On the other hand, any tendency to regard Father and Son and Holy Spirit as three Gods was ruled out by the fundamental principle that there is but one God....So they said there were three "persons," but only one "substance."...which means the "essence" or "being" of anything....God is one Being, eternally existing in the threefold relationship of Father and Son and Holy Spirit; each of these Three persons, is "the one God, thinking, willing and acting, in one of His three eternal spheres of thought, volition and activity, the indivisible Godhead."(The Spreading Flame, F.F. Bruce)

This statement was made in the 3rd century, with Tertullian as the principle "thinker" on the subject. It was actually Tertulian (160-222 A.D.) who first coined the word TRINITY more than 100 years before the "alleged" introduction of the trinity by those who ascribe it to Constantine).

However, debate went on with many different variations and oppositions developing and it wasn't until the fourth century that a "formal" declaration was made.

Some maintain the Trinty was "forced" upon people. But if you study the whole story you will see there was a lot of "force" from both sides. It was a "heavy" issue. Constantine did not formulate it at all, he just wanted to bring some kind of unity.

Over in Alexandria, Egypt, Arius was teaching that Christ the Son, was created, "the beginning of creation" Col. 1:16. He had a beginning. In opposition, Athanasius, also in Alexandra, held that the understanding developed from Irenaeus was correct, and that Christ was God incarnate in man. If He were a creature he would be a subordinate god, and in that case they were no different then any pagan polytheists.

Arius was adament in his Arain position and was causing quite a "squabble". Constantine didn't understand the "theological problem" he wrote: "O most merciful providence of God, what a wound did my ears receive when I learned that you were contending about mere words. points difficult to understand, and unprofitable in any case--squabbles, the fruit of a misused leisure."

The Alexandrians were not impressed by Constantine's letter informing them that their contention was "unworthy of men of sense".

Constantine summoned a council, which met at Nicaea in 325. There it was stated that:

"We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible; "And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten from the Father, only-begotten, that is, from the substance of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God,
begotten not made, of one substance with the Father, through Whom all things came into being,
things in heaven and things on earth,
Who because of us men and because of our salvation came down and became incarnate,
becoming man, suffered and rose again on the third day,
ascended to the heavens, and will come to judge the living and the dead;
And in the Holy Spirit.
And those that say, 'There was when he was not,' and 'before he was begotten he was not,'or those that allege, that the son of God is 'of another substance or essence'
or 'created, these the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematizes.

Aruis was banished. But Constantine discovered that many were not happy, so he called another councel in 335 at Tyre, and this time the Arian position was upheld. Now Aruis was restored and Athanasius was exiled.

All this proves is that "church and state" should never be mixed. It always results in persecution, whichever contending party was victorious in the continuing controversy of defining the Godhood, would banish the opposing bishops.

In the end the Arians lost.

Athanasius was the one who brought us the closest to the true meaning of the Trinity.

Athanasius believed: “that the WORD (Christ) was of the “same” nature as the Father. That Christ was fully God. “Christ always, the Son always; at the same time as the Father” He was not derived by “begetting” but was “ever-begotton”. If Christ had not been fully God, he said, he could not have fully saved us.

This is the Athansian Creed,

We worship One God in Trinity, and Tinity in Unity, neither confusing the Persons nor dividing the Divine Being. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit, but the Godhead of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is all one, their glory equal, their majesty co-eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son and such is the Holy Spirit; the Father uncreated, the Son uncreated and the Holy Spirit uncreated, the Father infinite, the Son Infinite and the Holy Spirit infinite, the Father eternal, the Son eternal and the Holy spirit eternal; and yet they are not three Eternals but one Eternal, just as they are not three Uncreateds, nor three Infinites, but one Uncreated and one Infinite. I the same way, the Father is Almighty, the Son almighty and the Holy Spirit Almighty, and yet they are not three Almighties but One Almighty.
Thus, the Father is God, the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods but one God.
Thus, the Father is the Lord, the Son is the Lord, and the Holy Spirit is the Lord, and yet not three Lords but One Lord.
Because, just as we are compelled by Christian truth to confess each Person singly to be both God and Lord, so we are forbidden by to say, there are three Gods, or three Lords.
The Father is from none, not made nor created nor begotten; the Son is from the Father alone, not made nor created, but begotten; the Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son, not made nor created nor begotten, but proceeding. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons’ one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.
And in this Triity there is no before or after, no greater or less, but all three Persons are co-eternal with each other and co-equal.
So that in all things, as has already been said, the Trinity in Unity, and Unity in Trinity, is to be worshipped. (Creeds, Councils and Christ, p. 209-210)
The emperor Constantus, (reigning after Constantine) was very pro-Arian, and filled the church positions with Arian priests

Altogether Athanasius was banished no less then five time, each banishment and return to Alexandria representing either a change in emperors or a shift in ecclesiasticl clique that had the emperor’s ear. At times Athanasius was so completely out of favor that he felt deserted by all. He uttered his famous defiance, “Athanasius Against the World“. He would stand alone, if need be, against the whole empire.

Now we must also mention that there were many problems developing as people try to define the Godhead:

Monarchianism-- Patripassianism
Taught that God is One Person manifested in different forms. Thus the Father himself descended into the virgin, was himself born of her, himself suffered; in fact that he himself was Jesus Christ, and is the Holy Spirit.

Whereas others taught the Sabellianism version that:
God has “three modes” of self-manifestation. Used the analogy of body, soul and spirit of man. The body is as it were the Father, the soul is the Son; while the Spirit is to the Godhead as his spirit is to a man. Used the analogy of the sun, it is one substance, but it has three manifestations, light, heat, and the orb itself. The heat is analogous to the Spirit; the light to the Son; while the Father himself is represented by the actual substance. The Son was at one time emitted, like a ray of light; he accomplished in the world all that pertained to the dispensation of the Gospel and man’s salvation, and was then taken back into heaven, as a ray is emitted by the sun and then withdrawn again into the sun. The Holy Spirit is still being sent forth into world.

We do NOT agree with the Monarchianism and Sabellianism interpretations that some have attributed to trinitarians-- no, these we cannot agree with.
Some have understood the Trinity in a way that looses the distinction of the three persons in the Godhead. It is difficult for finite minds to realy understand the distinctiveness of the three, combined with their absolute ONENESS.

Is the basic belief in the Trinity Biblical?
The terms used by the early church may be inadequate to describe God, and some of the ideas put forth were contrary to scripture, but the general understanding of the TRINITY, of ONE GOD yet three persons, is Biblical, for indeed the THREE are ONE, indivisible.
Look closely at these Bible verses:
When Christ came to this world, He came "forth from God".

John 16.27,28
"For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.
I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father."

John 10.38
But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that you may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.

The Spirit also comes "forth from God".
John 15.26
But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father,

And when the Holy Spirit comes, Christ and God the Father are also present.

John 14.16
And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter,
John 14.18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

John 14.23
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

Isaiah 9.6
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

John 14.26 "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you."

As you read through the above texts do you notice that when ONE member of the Godhead comes, ALL THREE ARE PRESENT!

The Anti-Trintiarian Movement

In America, after the revolution, there was a rise in religious circles against creeds, as well as an optimistic concept of the potential of man, with a strong trend to humanistic values. The Unitarian and Universalist movements played an important part in the religious paridigm of early 19th century. The attack on the Trinity came mainly from the Unitarian movement and grew rather strong in the New England area. There were influential thinkers who led the way, like Anglican Samuel Clarke, the Unitarian Richard Price, and Friedrich Schleiermacher, often considered the father of liberal theology who dismissed the doctrine of the Trinity as inconceivable and contradictory. They began to take the position that Christ, though less than God, was more than man--a pre-existent divine being. One phase of Unitarianism went further to the "Humanitarian" or Socinism, view that Jesus was a man with a special divine mission, but this was NOT the original view in the attack on the Trinity.

There was considerable controversy -- the "Unitarian Controversy" centering at Harvard college. One of the prominent ministers, William Channing, wrote:
"Let them learn the distinction between Trinitarianism and Unitarianism. Some suppose that Trinitarianism consists in believing in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. We all believe in these....But, the trinitarian believes that the ONE God is three distinct persons, called Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and he believes that each is truely God, and yet that the three are only one God. This is Trinitarianism. The Unitarian believes that there is but one person possessing supreme Divinity, even the Father. This is the great distinction." (Religious History of the American People, Syndney Ahlstrom)

Over the next 50 years (late 1700-early 1800) several scholars wrote books on "Reasons for Not Believing the Doctrines of the Trinitarians."

The Unitarian movement was influential in shaping the thought patterns of the people. Their doctrines were Armenian, they studied the Bible, they taught that the Holy Spirit was a divine influence, that while Jesus was a teacher and Redeemer and possessing some Divinity, yet God the Father, was the only supreme God. There were shape disagreements among them just what role Christ held.

Unitarianism, in later years, split into two factions, one holding on to essential Christianity, the other abandoning any specifically Christian orientation in favor of an ethical humanism or some "general" religious view that betters the life of the individual and society.(See Protestant Christianity, John Dillenberger)

Early Adventists

We must remember that prior to 1860 there was no such thing as the “Seventh-day Adventist Church”, nor was there a “set of doctrines” or beliefs outlined. The group who were to become Seventh-day Adventists were people from the Methodist, Baptist, Episcopalian, Unitarian, and Congregationist, etc. churches. They were actually opposed to any organization or creeds. They were held together by their common experience. They had accepted the Advent message of Miller, suffered through the great disappointment, found the answer to their disappointment in the study of the heavenly sanctuary. They held Sabbath conferences where they convened and discussed and studied the doctrines of the Sabbath and the sanctuary..

In leaving their former churches they did not automatically cast aside all their former beliefs. They came with a great diversity of views. They were strong personalities, not disposed to go along with any “crowd”. That’s what gave them the strength to stand up for the doctrines they had discovered-- the Sabbath, the Sanctuary, the second Advent, in spite of popular opposition.

Several of them came with the supposition that the Trinity was purely a papal idea, so they opposed it with the same vigour used in calling people out of Babylon. It is rather interesting that their ideas and arguments very much match the ideas put forth by William Channing, the Unitarian Leader, and are often based on nothing more than finite reasoning limiting God to the earthly father and son relationships, rather than acknowledging plain scripture and the fact that God uses human language (another example: the church as bride, God as husband) to portray eternal things.

The idea is put forth that just because the word “trinity” is not in the Bible, this makes the doctrine unscriptural. However, identifying doctrines with words not in the scripture, does not make them unscriptural if the doctrine itself is taught in the scriptures. Take the "millennium" for example.

It must also be remember that NO MAJOR DOCTRINAL TRUTH OR PROPHETIC INTERPRETATION OF THE ADVENT FAITH WAS INITIALLY INTRODUCED AMONG US THROUGH THE AGENCY OF THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY--that is, through the instrumentality of Ellen White.” The doctrines were all founded on Bible study.

The question we need to ask is this:
Does Ellen White ever concur with the attacks against the TRINITY. We know she says much against many false doctrines. If the Trinity is, as some have said, a great heresy of the Catholic Church, would she not a strongly condemn it as she does the change of Sabbath to Sunday for instance.

Yet, not once does she condone their attacks against the Trinity, she never seems to even mentions the word, Trinity or Trinitarianism. In reading her writings one comes to see that she does not OUTRIGHT tell them they are wrong in condemning the Trinity, but she, using “different words” consistently upholds the concept of the TRINITY.

During those first 10 years, many were strongly embedded in the Channing’s Unitarian style, Arian belief. To counter attack would have caused strong resistance. So she simply wrote the truth, “using other words,“ not using the word TRINITY, yet upholding it’s basic premise. It could be too, that the many controversies over the understanding of the Trinity have added implications to the term that are not favourable and she found it better to just uphold the truth in the concepts rather than the “label”.

Now just look at this quote from R.J Cottrell, July 6, 1869 in the RH

"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 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.”

Now look at this statement from a Christian historian, John Dillenburg, in “Protestant Christianity” p. 202

“In Channing (a leader in the Unitarian movement) we see a strong intellectualistic and rationalistic strain…Orthodoxy was to be rejected primarily because it seemed incompatible with the dictates of reason and rational morality”

It is pretty plain what philosophy Cortrell is appealing to-- the unitarian belief in rejecting anything that seems incompatible with human rationalistic thinking.

In reading the pioneers writings on this issue, we find they were not really unitied on how they interpreted the role of Christ.

James White found the emphasis placed by some trinitarians on the exclusive oneness of God to the exclusion of personality of the three Persons in the Godhead as being totally unBiblical. He was correct in this, for there are THREE PERSONS in the ONE GODHEAD, each with his specific role. However, James White also condemned any belief that makes Christ inferior to the Father as "worse", then the total merging of their personalities. (See RH Nov. 29, 1877) Another time he wrote: "We hold the divinity of Christ so nearly with the trinitarians that we attempt no trial here."

Obviously there was something missing in the way the Pioneers presented Christ for EGW wrote:
When Brother Waggoner brought out these ideas in Minneapolis, it was the first clear teaching on this subject from any human lips I had heard, excepting the conversations between myself and my husband. I have said to myself, It is because God has presented it to me in vision that I see it so clearly, and they cannot see it because they have never had it presented to them as I have. And when another presented it, every fiber of my heart said, Amen.--Ms 5, p. 10. (Sermon, Rome, New York, June 19, 1889.) {5MR 219.1}

Now let’s see what EGW writes dealing with the concepts of the TRINITY:
AU.1907-10-07.009
Those who have by baptism given to God a pledge of their faith in Christ, and their death to the old life of sin, have entered into covenant relation with God. The three powers of the Godhead, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are pledged to be their strength and their efficiency in their new life in Christ Jesus.

BT.1906-03-01.001 (Also in Ev. 614-615)
The Father can not be described by the things of earth. The Father is all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and is invisible to mortal sight. The Son is all the fullness of the Godhead manifested. The word of God declares Him to be "the express image of His person." "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Here is shown the personality of the Father.

BT.1906-03-01.002
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 powers,--the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, those who receive Christ by living faith are baptized, and these powers will cooperate with the obedient subjects of heaven in their efforts to live the new life in Christ.

BT.1906-03-01.006
"He that believeth in the Son, has 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 never departs from the truth.

Ev. 615
Christ is the pre-existent, self-existent Son of God....In speaking of his pre-existence, Christ carries the mind back through dateless ages. He assures us that there never was time when He was not in close fellowship with the eternal God.(Signs 09/29/1900)

Ev. 616
The eternal heavenly dignitaries--God, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit--arming them [the disciples] with more than mortal energy. (Man. 145, 1901)

Mansc. Vol 20, page 68-69.(January 22, 1989)
The Holy Spirit is a Person....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."--

Mansc. Vol. 20 page 324
The Holy Spirit is the Comforter, in Christ's name. He personifies Christ, yet is a distinct personality.

Mansc. Vol. 10 p. 63
Evil had been accumulating for centuries, and could only be restrained and resisted by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, who would come with no modified energy, but in the fullness of divine power.

Southern Watchman Feb. 23,1904
" Keep yourselves where the three great powers of heaven, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, can be your efficiency. These powers work with the one who gives himself unreservedly to God."

RH April 5, 1906, p. 8
Christ was God essentially, and in the highest sense. He was with God from all eternity, God over all, blessed forevermore.

ST.1893-11-20.005
"With what firmness and power he uttered these words. ..it seemed that divinity flashed through humanity as Jesus said, "I and my Father are one." 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."

There are more quotes from the pen of EGW showing that she believed the concepts of the TRINITY-- Three persons in ONE GODHEAD-- being ONE GOD.

So we see that EGW, whom we regard as a prophet, never aided the "anti-trinitarians" but upheld the concept of three persons in ONE Godhead. She confirms our present belief that "There is one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a unity of three co-eternal Persons."

Why did it take so long to clarify the issue? God patiently leads. The Pioneers came into Adventism with a strong anti-trinitarian background. Contrary to what people now say, EGW was not looked to as the "last word" at all. These pioneers believed what they believed scripture taught. To me the whole history shows that EGW was NOT just influenced by her associates, but was lead by God -- for she never sanctioned this "anti-trinity" doctrine which was so strong in the early days, but slowly allowed God, in His own time, to bring the church into the fullness of the truth about Himself.

It was in 1892 that a tract was published by the Pacific Press. Written by Dr. Samuel Spear and called "The Bible Doctrine of the Trinity. The tract outlined that Christ held full Diety, and was truly God in the fullest sense. It also covers the distinction between God the Father and Christ, while establishing the absolute unity of the Godhead. It notes the diversity in offices, relations, and actions towards men on the part of the Godhead. It shows the difference between Tritheists and Trinitarians. It points us back to the origin of the Trinity concept in the baptismal vows in Matthew. The one Spirit, one Lord, and one God and Father of all, the divine Trinity.

About the same time Uriah Smith also published another book, where he again voiced the concept that Christ was a "derived Being" and the Holy Spirit merely an influence and not a Person.

EGW also published her book, "The Desire of Ages". What a contrast to Smith's book! In the book she made statements, that "from the days of eternity the Lord Jesus Christ was one with the Father. DA 19, He was the incarnate God. DA 23. The Holy Spirit is identified as the "third person of the Godhead" who comes "with the fullness of Divine Power." DA 671

What a difference it would have made, if the pioneers, so zealous for truth, had they not been so entrenched in Unitarian doctrine, would have known Christ in His full Godhood. They would never have become " dry as the hills of Gilboa that had neither dew nor rain."

RH.1890-05-27.006
The third angel's message will not be comprehended, the light which will lighten the earth with its glory will be called a false light, by those who refuse to walk in its advancing glory. The work that might have been done, will be left undone by the rejecters of truth, because of their unbelief. We entreat of you who oppose the light of truth, to stand out of the way of God's people. Let Heaven-sent light shine forth upon them in clear and steady rays. God holds you to whom this light has come, responsible for the use you make of it. Those who will not hear will be held responsible; for the truth has been brought within their reach, but they despised their opportunities and privileges. Messages bearing the divine credentials have been sent to God's people; the glory, the majesty, the righteousness of Christ, full of goodness and truth, have been presented;
the fullness of the Godhead in Jesus Christ has been set forth among us with beauty and loveliness, to charm all whose hearts were not closed with prejudice. We know that God has wrought among us.


Researched by Ulrike

Sources consulted:
Ahlstrom, Sydney "A Religious History of the American People, 1972, Yale
Bainton, Roland "Christendom, Short History of Christianity", 1964, Harper/Row
Beachy, Lynnford, "Did They Believe in the Trinity?" 1996, Smyrna
Bettenson, Henry "Documents of the Christian Church" 1943, Oxford
Bruce, F.F. "The Spreading Flame, Rise and Progress of Chrisianity" 1958, Eedmans
Dillenberger, John "Protestant Chrisianity" 1988, Macmillan
Froom, LeRoy, "Movement of Destiny" 1971, R&H
Ministerial Assoc, "Seventh-day Adventists Believe" 1988, R&H
White, Ellen, "Various Books and manuscripts"


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