as part ot the GodHead?

I had one of my friends surprise me this morning, and tell me that Ellen White did not support the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. He said that her 'original' writings did not support the Holy Spirit as part of the GodHead. Well of course, I nearly fell off my chair, and we got into a deep discussion. But I thought this would be a good excercize for everyone here in the Forum. Lets see what everyone can find in 'original' writings in the Spirit of Process in which Ellen White wrote direct statements or passages that supports the Holy Spirit as part of the GodHead. My friend was adamant their were none, and we must be ready when a brother (or sister) brings questions such as these so we may allow the brother (or sister) to see the light....

By "original" do you mean manuscripts? I don't think many of us have seen the originals.

Is he saying that her books and articles have been corrupted by the editors? Or is he saying that they have been misunderstood?

If it's just an anti-compilation argument, there's "In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived." (DA 530)

After our discussion, it began to dawn on me that it was a anti-compliation view as he felt that Ellen White did not support it in the Desire of Ages, Great Controversy, Steps to Christ, etc.. But he also has a Catholic background so then we had a discussion of use of 'Trinity' versus the 'GodHead' as I have yet to hear anyone give a good understanding of how the Catholic view of the Trinity differs from the standard traditional Protestant view...

Last time I encountered this discussion, the definition of "original" was something like: "I agree with what Ellen wrote in Early Writings but I don't like what she wrote in her last decade. Therefore since I agree with what she wrote first and disagree with what she wrote later, her later work must have been corrupted by outsiders. This is obvious because Ellen would surely never write anything which would make me have to reconsider what I already made up my mind about.."

If this is the case, the whole search is futile because anything Ellen has written supporting the Holy Spirit being part of the Godhead is by default corrupted by others simply because it says that the Holy Spirit is being part of the Godhead.

That's the essence of the "corrupted by editors" crowd.

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. {DA 671.2}

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 {2SAT 136.6}

The Holy Spirit is a person; for He beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. {20MR 68.5}

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. {20MR 69.1}

The Godhead was stirred with pity for the race, and the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit gave themselves to the working out of the plan of redemption. {RH, May 2, 1912 par. 3}

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. {BTS, March 1, 1906 par. 2}


I think I know someone who lists the differences. I'll check.

In the Catholic view, the Son emanates from the Father (is continuously begotten), and the Holy Spirit emanates from both the Father and the Son. In the Protestant view, the three persons stand on their own, so to speak.

Ah yes, sorting out the Holy Spirit's personality and "the trinity": yes, we can! - and not let go of values that matter...unlike recently popular slogans!

SOP held back from fully describing the Holy Spirit but confirmed his personality as the omnipresence among us of Father and Son. Also, affirming the literal Sonship of the Son of God "from the days of eternity", correcting the RC, Nicene nonsense of 'emanation' for the properly personal, physical "only begotten" Son, who is also the not-physical-Word of God from the beginning.

Thanks to my SDA friend, Terry Hill's, website (in Bristol, England, UK) www.theprophetstillspeaks.co.uk, I've cleared up my own confusion which resulted from compilation complaints, after I began with no clear understanding. That website is the result of 8 years of part-time research and I've barely read half of it in the 2 years since it went live.

The three personalities of Father, Son and Holy Spirit are true but not the same ("personalities" (original) or "persons" (courtesy of the editors) is not the issue), unlike both RC and Protestant views Tom mentions - and SDAism today subscribes to the latter, of course.

Ellen White and her contemporaries supported neither, but upheld the divinity and personality of all three: the Father and Son as physical persons, etc - unlike Nicea's "personas" without body parts and all in one non-descript blob of substance, and the Holy Spirit as a different sort of person to them, being their omnipresence among their people and not having a body of its own. The power of the Spirit fills and sustains the created universe, but its presence indwelling us is the presence of the Father and the Son, their divine Spirit: the infinite Spirit of their divine nature.

They have physical bodies, the Spirit does not. A mystery, but so is the incarnation.

From what I read here so far, Ellen White obviously believed in the Holy Spirit, as the 3rd Person of the Godhead.

I don't think she ever used the word "Trinity" in her writings, however, she did use the word "Godhead."