Ellen G.

White and God

One, Two or Three?

Denis Fortin
Baden-Württemberg Conference
Stuttgart, Germany
July 2007
References
The content of this presentation is adapted from:
Jerry Moon. “The Adventist Trinity Debate, Part
1: Historical Overview” (AUSS [41:1] Spring
2003, 113-129); and “The Adventist Trinity
Debate, Part 2: The Role of Ellen G. White”
(AUSS [41:2] Autumn 2003, 275-292).
W. Whidden, J. Moon, J.W. Reeve. The Trinity:
Understanding God’s love, His plan of
salvation, and Christian relationships (RHPA
2002), 190-231.
Debate over the Trinity
Some Evangelical Christians are
questioning traditional Trinitarianism

Some Adventists believe church leaders

and theologians sold out the “original”
Adventist belief on the doctrine of God
for the sake of public relations and
ecumenical goodwill.
Debate over the Trinity
A brief look at the development of our
historical views on the Trinity will show
that Ellen White played an influential
role in helping us accept a biblical view
of God, without the constraints of some
unbiblical philosophical presuppositions.
Adventism and the Trinity
Three periods of development in
Adventist history:
1. Anti-Trinitarianism: 1846-1888
2. Dissatisfaction with Anti-Trinitarianism:
1888-1898
3. Paradigm shift: 1898-1915
Anti-trinitarianism: 1846-1888
During this early period, the majority of
Adventists rejected the concept of the
Trinity – at least as they understood it.

James White, J.N. Andrews, A.C.

Bourdeau, D.T. Bourdeau, R.F. Cottrell,
A.T. Jones, W.W. Prescott, J.H.
Waggoner
Joseph Bates
“Respecting the trinity, I concluded that it
was impossible for me to believe that
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the
Father, was also the Almighty God, the
Father, one and the same being.”
Reasons for rejecting Trinitarianism

1. Early Adventists did not see biblical

evidence for three persons in one
Godhead.
2. They thought the Trinity made the
Father and the Son identical.
Reasons for rejecting Trinitarianism

3. They believed the misconception that

the doctrine of the Trinity teaches the
existence of three Gods.

J.N. Loughborough: “If Father, Son, and

Holy Ghost are each God, it would be
three Gods” (1861).
Reasons for rejecting Trinitarianism
4. They believed the doctrine of the Trinity
would diminish the value of the atonement.

J.H. Waggoner (1884): Since the “everliving,

self-existent God” cannot die, then if Christ
had self-existence as God, he couldn’t have
died on the cross.
Reasons for rejecting Trinitarianism
5. The fact that Christ is called “Son of God”
and “the beginning of the creation of God”
(Rev 3:14) was thought to prove that he
must be of more recent origin than God the
Father.
6. The variety of expressions used to refer to
the Holy Spirit indicate that it could not
properly be considered a person.
Reasons for rejecting trinitarianism
Jerry Moon: “These arguments made
sense within an overall antitrinitarian
paradigm, but when that paradigm was
called into question, these points were
recognized as being capable of fitting
either interpretation. None of these is a
valid objection to the basic trinitarian
concept of one God in three Persons.”
(AUSS 41:118)
Dissatisfaction with anti-
Trinitarianism, 1888-1898
The 1888 emphasis on righteousness by
faith and the consequent exaltation of
the cross of Christ called into question
whether a subordinate, derived divinity
of Christ could adequately account for
the saving power of Christ.
Dissatisfaction with anti-
Trinitarianism, 1888-1898
Although still semi-Arian in his
perspective, in 1890 E. J. Waggoner
urged the necessity to “set forth Christ’s
rightful position of equality with the
Father, in order that His power to
redeem may be better appreciated.”
Christ “has ‘life in Himself’; He
possesses immortality in His own right.”
(Christ and His Righteousness, pp. 19-22)
Dissatisfaction with anti-
Trinitarianism, 1888-1898
Jerry Moon: “Waggoner was not yet
fully trinitarian [by 1890 when he wrote
his book Christ and His Righteousness],
but he saw clearly that a more exalted
conception of Christ’s work of
redemption demanded a higher
conception of his being as Deity.”
Paradigm shift: 1898-1915
The publication of Ellen White’s Desire
of Ages in 1898 set the stage for a
paradigm shift in the Adventist
conception of the Godhead and the
doctrine of the Trinity.
However, the shift from anti-
Trinitarianism to a biblical Trinitarianism
did not happen overnight.
The Desire of Ages (1898)
On the first page of the book, Ellen White
affirmed:
“From the days of eternity the Lord Jesus
Christ was one with the Father” (19).
The Desire of Ages (1898)
In the chapter on the resurrection of
Lazarus, in which Jesus affirms to
Martha that he is the resurrection and
the life, Ellen White states that “In
Christ is life, original, unborrowed,
underived. . . . The divinity of Christ is
the believer’s assurance of eternal life”
(530).
The Desire of Ages (1898)
In commenting on Christ’s resurrection,
Ellen White declared, “The Saviour
came forth from the grave by the life
that was in Himself” (785).
The Desire of Ages (1898)
The book included also clear statements
about the personhood of the Holy Spirit.
“Sin could be resisted and overcome only
through the mighty agency of the Third
Person of the Godhead” (671).
Ellen White’s role
Jerry Moon: “Her writings about the Godhead
show a clear progression, not primarily from
anti- to protrinitarianism, but from relative
ambiguity to greater specificity. Some of her
early statements are capable of various
interpretations, but her later statements,
1898-1906, are explicit to the point of being
dogmatic.” (AUSS 41:278)
Ellen White’s role
Jerry Moon: “Her change of view appears
clearly to have been a matter of growth
and progression, rather than reversal,
because unlike her husband and others
of her associates, she never directly
attacked the view of the Trinity that she
would later explicitly support.” (AUSS 41:278)
Ellen White’s role
From the beginning of her ministry,
Ellen White portrayed God as a
personal, literal, and tangible being, in
contrast to “spiritualizers” and deists
who viewed God as a distant,
impersonal, mystical, and ultimately
unreal being.
Ellen White’s role
Ellen White did not at first recognize
God’s Trinitarian nature, but when she
did in the 1890s and 1900s, she
described God as Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, and as real individuals.
Ellen White’s role
She emphasized their threeness as
willing, thinking, social, and relational
persons, and explained their oneness in
terms of nature, character, purpose,
and love, but not in terms of being one
person.
Ellen White’s early visions
“I saw a throne, and on it sat the Father and
the Son. I gazed on Jesus' countenance and
admired His lovely person. The Father's
person I could not behold, for a cloud of
glorious light covered Him. I asked Jesus if
His Father had a form like Himself. He said He
had, but I could not behold it, for said He, ‘If
you should once behold the glory of His
person, you would cease to exist.’ ” (EW 54)
Ellen White’s early visions
“I have often seen the lovely Jesus,
that He is a person. I asked Him if His
Father was a person and had a form like
Himself. Said Jesus, ‘I am in the express
image of My Father's person.’ ” (EW 77,
emphasis hers)
Spiritual Gifts, vol. 1 (1858)
*In her first three chapters, “The Fall of
Satan,” “The Fall of Man,” and “The Plan of
Salvation,” she mentions the Father and the
Son discussing together how to deal with
Lucifer and the fall of Adam and Eve. There
is no mention of the Holy Spirit. But in the
following chapter, “The First Advent of Christ,”
she refers to all three persons of the
Godhead in the narration of Jesus’ baptism.
“The Sufferings of Christ” (1869)
“This Saviour was the brightness of His
Father's glory and the express image of
His person. He possessed divine
majesty, perfection, and excellence. He
was equal with God.” (2T 200)
Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 2 (1877)
“The Son of God was in the form of
God, and he thought it not robbery to
be equal with God.” (2SP 10)
Letter to Waggoner and Jones
(1887)
“It was poverty that as He passed to and fro
among the subjects He came to save,
scarcely a solitary voice called Him blessed,
scarcely a solitary hand was stretched out in
friendship, and scarcely a solitary roof
proffered Him shelter. Then look beneath the
disguise, and whom do we see?--Divinity, the
Eternal Son of God, just as mighty, just as
infinitely gifted with all the resources of
power, and He was found in fashion as a
man.” (1888 Materials, 28)
Great Controversy (1888)
“Another dangerous error, is the doctrine that
denies the divinity of Christ, claiming that he
had no existence before his advent to this
world. This theory is received with favor by a
large class who profess to believe the Bible;
yet it directly contradicts the plainest
statements of our Saviour concerning his
relationship with the Father, his divine
character, and his pre-existence. It cannot be
entertained without the most unwarranted
wresting of the Scriptures. . . .
Great Controversy (1888)
“If men reject the testimony of the
inspired Scriptures concerning the
divinity of Christ, it is in vain to argue
the point with them; for no argument,
however conclusive, could convince
them. . . . None who hold this error can
have a true conception of the character
or the mission of Christ, or of the great
plan of God for man's redemption.” (GC88
524)
Great Controversy (1888)
“Before the entrance of evil, there was peace
and joy throughout the universe. . . . Christ
the Word, the only begotten of God, was one
with the eternal Father,--one in nature, in
character, and in purpose,--the only being in
all the universe that could enter into all the
counsels and purposes of God. By Christ, the
Father wrought in the creation of all heavenly
beings. . . . and to Christ, equally with the
Father, all Heaven gave allegiance.” (GC88 493)
Patriarchs and Prophets (1890)
“The Son of God shared the Father's
throne, and the glory of the eternal,
self-existent One encircled both.” (PP 36)

Later in the book, Ellen White identifies

Christ as the great I AM who spoke with
Moses on Mount Sinai, the Jehovah of
the Old Testament. (PP 366)
Special Testimonies for
Ministers and Workers (1897)
“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 fulness of
divine power.” (SpTA10 25)
The Desire of Ages (1898)
“In Christ is life, original, unborrowed,
underived. . . . The divinity of Christ is
the believer’s assurance of eternal life”
(530) and the Holy Spirit is the “Third
Person of the Godhead” (671).
Ellen White’s role
Jerry Moon:
“There is a clear progression from the
simple to the complex, suggesting that
Ellen White’s understanding did grow
and change as she received additional
light.” (AUSS 41:284)
Kellogg Crisis (1902-1907)
Dr. J.H. Kellogg theorized that the life of
every living thing – whether tree,
flower, animal, or human – had the very
essence of God within it.

His view was published in The Living

Temple (1903).
Kellogg Crisis (1902-1907)
Kellogg:
“God is the explanation of nature—not a
God outside of nature, but in nature,
manifesting himself through and in all
the objects, movements, and varied
phenomena of the universe.” (Living Temple,
p. 28)
Kellogg Crisis (1902-1907)
The problems with Kellogg’s views:
1. God dwells intrinsically in all animated
beings
2. God’s power equals his presence
3. He claimed Ellen White agreed with his
view
Kellogg Crisis (1902-1907)
Ellen White’s capstone statements on
her view of the Godhead came in
reaction to Kellogg’s pantheistic
teachings.
Letter to Teachers at Emmanuel
Missionary College (1903)
“I have some things to say to our teachers in
reference to the new book, "The Living Temple". Be
careful how you sustain the sentiments of this book
regarding the personality of God. As the Lord
represents matters to me, these sentiments do not
bear the endorsement of God. They are a snare that
the enemy has prepared for these last days. I
thought that this would surely be discerned, and that
it would not be necessary for me to say anything
about it. But since the claim has been made that the
teachings of this book can be sustained by
statements from my writings, I am compelled to
speak in denial of this claim. (continued)
Letter to Teachers at Emmanuel
Missionary College (1903)
“There may be in this book expressions and
sentiments that are in harmony with my writings.
And there may be in my writings many statements
which when taken from their connection, and
interpreted according to the mind of the writer of
"Living Temple" would seem to be in harmony with
the teachings of this book. This may give apparent
support to the assertion that the sentiments in
"Living Temple" are in harmony with my writings. But
God forbid that this opinion should prevail.” (Letter 211,
1903 in SpM 320)
Letter to Teachers at Emmanuel
Missionary College (1903)
“The new theories in regard to God and
Christ, as brought out in "The Living Temple",
are not in harmony with the teaching of
Christ. The Lord Jesus came to this world to
represent the Father. He did not represent
God as an essence pervading nature, but as a
personal being. Christians should bear in
mind that God has a personality as verily as
has Christ.” (Letter 212, 1903 in SpM 324)
Special Testimonies, B (1905)
*“I am instructed to say, The sentiments of those
who are searching for advanced scientific ideas are
not to be trusted. Such representations as the
following are made: "The Father is as the light
invisible; the Son is as the light embodied; the Spirit
is the light shed abroad." "The Father is like the dew,
invisible vapor; the Son is like the dew gathered in
beauteous form; the Spirit is like the dew fallen to
the seat of life." Another representation: "The Father
is like the invisible vapor; the Son is like the leaden
cloud; the Spirit is rain fallen and working in
refreshing power." (continued)
Special Testimonies, B (1905)
*“All these spiritualistic representations are
simply nothingness. They are imperfect,
untrue. They weaken and diminish the
Majesty which no earthly likeness can be
compared to. God can not be compared with
the things His hands have made. These are
mere earthly things, suffering under the curse
of God because of the sins of man. The
Father can not be described by the things of
earth. (SpTB07 62)
Special Testimonies, B (1905)
*“The Father is all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily, and is invisible to mortal
sight. The Son is all the fulness 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. (SpTB07 63)
Special Testimonies, B (1905)
“The Comforter that Christ promised to send after He
ascended to heaven, is the Spirit in all the fulness 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.” (SpTB07 63)
“The Word Was Made Flesh” (1906)
*“Before men or angels were created,
the Word was with God, and was God.
The world was made by Him, "and
without him was not any thing made
that was made" (John 1:3). 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.
“The Word Was Made Flesh” (1906)
*“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.” (RH April 5, 1906, also in 1SM 247-248)
Ellen White’s doctrine of the
Godhead
 She refutes the assumption that all doctrines
of the Trinity are the same and that
objections to one demands the rejection of
all.
 She rejects views that teach God is a
formless, intangible, impersonal being, or
simply a force in nature.
 She calls these views “spiritualistic theories.”
Ellen White’s doctrine of the
Godhead
 She embraces a literal, biblical view of
the Godhead—she never uses the word
Trinity.
 God includes three individual divine
personalities, who in nature, character,
purpose, and love are one.
Ellen White’s doctrine of the
Godhead
 She rejects the traditional philosophical
presuppositions of timelessness and
impassibility of God.
 Her biblical view of God sees God as
active within our time and space
limitations; he is genuinely involved in
our lives.
Acts of the Apostles (1911)
“It is not essential for us to be able to
define just what the Holy Spirit is.
Christ tells us that the Spirit is the
Comforter, "the Spirit of truth, which
proceedeth from the Father." It is
plainly declared regarding the Holy
Spirit that, in His work of guiding men
into all truth, "He shall not speak of
Himself." John 15:26; 16:13.
Acts of the Apostles (1911)
“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.
Acts of the Apostles (1911)
“The office of the Holy Spirit is distinctly
specified in the words of Christ: "When He is
come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of
righteousness, and of judgment." John 16:8.
It is the Holy Spirit that convicts of sin. If the
sinner responds to the quickening influence of
the Spirit, he will be brought to repentance
and aroused to the importance of obeying the
divine requirements. (AA 51-52)