Bible Students and Seventh Day Adventist, Part 4
We continue with our comparisons of the Seventh Day Adventist beliefs and the Bible Students. We were discussing their belief in The Trinity, first with respects to The Father and presently with regards to The Son. We continue.
They continue:
“John, the disciple, says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1, 2, NKJV).
Adventists believe Jesus was co-existent with God from “everlasting to everlasting” (Psalm 90:2). Jesus, the same “Word” that “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14), is the eternal God who “inhabits eternity” (Isaiah 57:15, NKJV).
Here again we must disagree. It is expressly stated by our Lord himself, that he is THE BEGINNING of the creation of God.” (Rev 3:14) John’s statement supports this thought, viz. “In THE BEGINNING was the Word”.
What “BEGINNING” are we speaking of here, certainly not God’s beginning, for he had no beginning nor has he any ending, as stated ‘From everlasting to everlasting thou art God’ -Psa 90:2
It is the Faithful and True Witness (our Lord’s) beginning, which is referred to in Rev 3:14, the very first creation of God.
If something HAS A BEGINNING it implies that it did not exist prior to that time, this in contrast with God who HAS NO BEGINNING and who always existed.
One last remark on the subject of the Son. In keeping with their Trinity theory Adventist refer to our Lord as “God the Son”, however nowhere in scripture was our Lord EVER referred to as “God the Son”.
The Holy Spirit: “God the eternal Spirit was active with the Father and the Son in Creation, incarnation, and redemption. He is as much a person as are the Father and the Son. He inspired the writers of Scripture. He filled Christ’s life with power. He draws and convicts’ human beings; and those who respond He renews and transforms into the image of God. Sent by the Father and the Son to be always with His children, He extends spiritual gifts to the church, empowers it to bear witness to Christ, and in harmony with the Scriptures leads it into all truth.
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead, or the Trinity. He is the One who guides us into a closer walk with Christ.
The Holy Spirit is fully God, more than an influence or a force. He has the personhood and mind of God, and performs a special duty to help us connect with God the Father. The Spirit also guides us in our lives.”
Once again, we disagree with their assumption.
The Holy Spirit IS NOT a third person of some trinity, in fact it is not a person at all it is an “IT”.
IT is the divine will, power or influence (the spirit of holiness, the spirit of righteousness, the spirit of truth), which emanates through and from the Father.
This is in contrast with the spirit of Satan, the spirit of evil, of wickedness, of error, of selfishness, bitterness, envy and strife. It was this same spirit of Satan that entered into Cain, taking the place of the spirit or disposition of the Lord. Satan’s spirit in Cain was a murderous spirit.
“Grieve not the holy spirit of god whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” (Eph 4:30)
Note closely it does not state, “Grieve not the holy spirit whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption”, but rather grieve not the holy spirit OF GOD, his spirit, his holy influence in yourself, grieve it not, don’t turn it away or refuse it. Don’t allow Satan’s spirit to possess you.
See our blog post entitled, “The Holy Spirit” and “The Spirit of God”.
Before we move on to our next subject, we would like to address some comments in regards to what we have thus presented.