SHOULD YOU PRAY TO THE HOLY SPIRIT??

gillespie9669

-AN OPEN LETTER TO THE “PRESENT TRUTH” INDEPENDENT MINISTRIES-

SHOULD YOU PRAY TO THE HOLY SPIRIT?

(The Reality May Surprise You!)

Dear brother Beachy,

This is the second letter of what, I hope, will be a series written in response to your November 2002 publication of “Present Truth”. My first letter in this series responded to your first three (3) questions posed in the article: “Do You Believe in the Trinity?” I hope it was received in the right spirit, and no offence was taken. I simply felt that, as fellow laborers with Christ, we must, at all times, be willing to give the reason for the hope within us, and why we believe what we believe, even if it means disagreeing with your brethren at times.

In that first letter I responded to your basic thesis, which ultimately ‘robs’ Jesus of His full eternal existence, which should not be done simply because one rightly accepts His “begotten” nature. The Bible, and “Spirit of Prophecy” see no conflict in these two truths, that (1) He was “begotten” in Heaven, and that (2) He is also fully eternal, as “a distinct Person”, regardless of how logic may resist their compatibility. Which aspect of the nature of the Persons in the Godhead can logic fully explain (whether their 'eternality', omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, or immutability)?

One “brought forth” or “begotten”, or whose “goings forth” is “from everlasting” did not become the Son of God at a specific time (Heb 7:3), in the “dateless ages” of eternity, but has been from all eternity!! Since “from everlasting” has no beginning, then the Father and Christ (God’s wisdom in symbol; Proverbs 8:1, 22-31)) are both “from all eternity” (compare Psalms 93:2 with Micah 5:2, and confirm Mrs. White’s endorsement of this doctrine in Review and Herald, April 5, 1906). That is Bible truth! Faith accepts it; logic and science will be humbled before it. Doubt will try to ask, “How is this possible?” while limiting Jesus’ 'eternality'. Read again Job 11:7-9. God was not made in man’s image, to conform to all the laws that govern his earthly experience; it is Man who is just a faint reflection of the Godhead’s image.

Now let me address the last two (2) questions in the series, which deal directly with the place of the Holy Spirit in our lives, His nature, and role in, according to the words of E.G. White, the “Eternal Godhead” (of which to be a part of implies so many profound truths, in and of itself).

Questions 10-11 in your afore mentioned article asked of Trinitarians:

“Do you pray to the Holy Spirit? If not, why neglect Him? If so, where is your Biblical example?” and “Does the Holy Spirit have a spirit of His own?”

“You are baptized in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. You are raised up out of the water to live henceforth in newness of life--to live a new life. You are born unto God, and you stand under the sanction and the power of THE THREE HOLIEST *BEINGS IN HEAVEN, who are able to keep you from falling... When I feel oppressed, and hardly know how to relate myself toward the work that God has given me to do, I just *CALL UPON THE THREE GREAT WORTHIES, and say; You know I cannot do this work in my own strength. You must work in me, and by me and through me, sanctifying my tongue, sanctifying my spirit, sanctifying my words, and bringing me into a position where my spirit shall be susceptible to the movings of the Holy Spirit of God upon my mind and character. And this is the prayer that every one of us may offer. . .”

-E.G. White, Manuscript Release, Vol.7, pgs. 267, 268 (Ms 95, 1906, pp. 8-12, 14-17; "Lesson from Romans 15," October 20, 1906.)

The foregoing is the testimony of true Adventism, in the words of Mrs. White. This clearly shows the example of Mrs. White calling simultaneously upon the “the Three Holiest Beings” or, “the Three Great Worthies” in prayer!! Does the Bible support this? The Bible again speaks plainly and directly. The problem is that too many refuse to accept either the “oneness” of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son, or His also evident distinction in the mode of operation of the Godhead. Follow me closely.

The Bible says: as spoken by our Lord Jesus when He was a man, “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24), or “God is spirit” (as indicated by some translations, e.g. R.S.V.) It also says: “The Lord is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:17,18), or “Jehovah is the Spirit”, as spoken by Paul when Jesus was now recognized as the “one Lord”. Thus, automatically, in praying to either the Father or Christ (both called “the Holy One”), whether in church, or by the riverside on a Sabbath, “according to the commandment” (Acts 16:13,14, and Luke 23:56), or daily at my bedside, I am praying to the “Eternal Spirit”, manifested by the presence of the “third Person of the Godhead” (in the words of our Adventist forerunner, Mrs. Ellen G. White). See 1 John 1:1-2, about Jesus being an “Eternal” Person (even being called an “it”, in context of course), who was “with the Father”, “from everlasting”, but was manifested as a man. He who is also called “God” (John 20:28,29) returned to the spirit world with a “glorified [human] body” (Philippians 3:20,21), as the “last Adam”, a “life giving Spirit” (1Cor. 15:45, R.S.V.).

But my main point is, the Bible did not need to state the obvious, that in worshipping God, I am automatically worshipping “SPIRIT”, or “the Spirit”. Even Baal worshippers could never hope to worship nothing more than STONE- Baal itself in substance, standing in their temples.

The Old Testament Bible did not specifically tell the Jews of old to worship a Father and a Son, before Jesus came to earth, because this they automatically did, in worshipping Jehovah, “Lord of the world” the “Eternal Spirit”(according to the old Jewish hymn). To them “Michael” (the pre-incarnate Christ) was a literal angel, not one who is “God essentially and in the highest sense”. Why do you think they now (still today in Judaism) refuse Jesus as “Lord”? They never fully understood the “us” of Gen. 3:22, and still don’t (without accepting the truths of the New Testament, e.g. John 1:1).

The Bible needed to tell humans to worship Jesus, the man (see Acts 10:25,26), because even the angels (Heb. 1:6) needed to know that His incarnation made no difference about Him being equal with the Father, as God’s Son (John 10:30,31,33), even if He was (for a while) “made a little lower than the angels” in Heavenly glory and power (Heb.2: 7).

Thus my “Biblical examples”, in worshipping the “Spirit of God” (the representative presence of the Father and the Son) are many, because anywhere and everywhere God, the “Eternal Spirit”, is worshipped, in the Bible, my example is undeniably evident. Why deny the obvious, and sink one’s self into unnecessary difficulties?

I really wonder how you at “Present Truth” worship “God the Mighty” (Psalms 50:1-6, in the original language), a spirit Father, “Everlasting Father”, without worshipping His Spirit (Him in omnipresent substance) present in Church each Sabbath (See Acts 13:2-4, 13-15). This you ‘ignorantly’ (unwittingly) do, if your Christian sincerity is real.

If as you claim, the Holy Spirit, the “third Person of the Godhead”, is not a separate or “third” personality, but is “the being of God [the Father] Himself”, in actual personality, then that should give you even more cause to accept the Holy Spirit as being of one substance (spirit) with the Father, since “God is Spirit” (spirit in ‘body’, and in being); not a material body with a spirit in it, like He made man. If heavenly or “celestial bodies” (1 Cor. 15:40) are of pure spirit, nothing known on earth, then I will be humble enough to say that you and I are simply “treading upon holy ground” in this matter of the nature of spirit. I will not even try to describe the nature of spirit, that is, what it is, because it is a matter no human being knows anything about. That is why it was said by another that “what” (not “who”) the Holy Spirit is, really, is a “mystery” (E.G. White, Acts of the Apostles, pgs. 51,52). But what is revealed I will boldly declare!! Is there a mystery about the “who” of the Spirit, in terms of distinct personality? Well, let us see.

Mrs. White, like myself, accepted the distinct personalities expressed in Heb. 9:14, Matthew 28:19, and 1 Corinthians 12:4-6. At one place she said: “The Lord [which could be either the Father, or Christ, the ‘one Lord’] will speak through His messengers…[they] are powerful and efficacious only as God, the Eternal Spirit (!!) shall work upon their hearts” (E.G. White, 1888 Materials 1039). Did she understand this to mean only one Person, or even the two who share the title “Lord” extending Themselves omni-presently? Well, why did she represent true Adventists in saying that: “There are three [3] living [literal] personalities of the Heavenly Trio [not ‘Duo’]” (E.G. White, Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 7, *1905, pgs. 62,63; cited in Evangelism, pgs. 614,615).

How easy it would be to for her to just simply say that the two Divine Personalities reaching out in a personal way (omni-presently) is what the Holy Spirit is (if that was her view). But there still would never be a “trio” of “personalities”, in just the same a mad man could never be seen as having “two personalities in a psychotic duo”, because one person remains simply that: one person! Two personalities can never make three.

So where in the Bible did she get the warrant to make the distinction, even calling the third personality the “third Person of the Godhead”? Where did Isaiah get his theology in the Old Testament, to be declaring that two others in this “Trio” “sent” the Redeemer in Isaiah 48:16, that is, “the Lord God and His Spirit”? Why make this distinction in Heaven on the occasion of the Redeemer being “sent”? And notice it was the One who was to be “sent” who prophetically said this through Isaiah. That’s where his theology came from!! From Jesus Himself!!

Now clearly, Mrs. White was not confused (just like Isaiah), and thus in the later pioneering years, after the Review and Herald (the official Adventist magazine) put out the following statement, she evidently affirmed (in 1905) a “Trio” of “three living Personalities” in the “Eternal Godhead”, not just in the Christian’s salvation experience, but yes, in the Godhead (!!), of which only one “Godhead” is known in the Bible!!

The Pacific Press Publishing Association (of pioneering Adventists) had already published (unabridged) in 1892 that: [‘The Bible Doctrine of the Trinity’] “is not a system of tri-theism [belief in three Gods] but is the doctrine of One God subsisting and acting in three Persons (“The Bible Doctrine of the Trinity”, Samuel T. Spear, Pacific Press, March, 1892).

The Review and Herald subsequently published in 1900 that: [The Holy Spirit is] “one with and sent by the Father and the Son…He [the Holy Spirit] would make us know His personality, but ever in living connection with Christ…Let Him [the Spirit] make you know, beloved, how surprisingly beautiful are the blended personalities of [now notice very carefully] our *TRIUNE GOD (!!), manifested by the personal presence of the Holy Ghost” (The King’ Messenger, “Blended Personalities”, Review and Herald, Vol. 77, April 3, 1900, pg. 210).

Is there any conflict of pioneering ideas at this juncture (between 1892 and 1905)? Certainly! It is evident that there would be conflict with earlier expressions of certain pioneers in the earlier ‘formative’ years of the church!! Mrs. White, who admitted to “errors in our older literature” (Selected Messages, Vol. 1, pg. 165), was not later fearful of saying that “ the Holy Spirit is a free working, [1 Cor. 12:11] independent agency” (The Faith I Live By, pg. 52), that is, the “third” of “three Great Agencies” (S.D.A. Bible Commentary, Vol. 6, pg.1102).

Was this an isolated or singular statement? No!! This was simply her way of affirming pioneer G.C. Tenny’s honest admission in 1896 that: “He [the Holy Spirit] is something more than an emanation from the mind of God [contrary to what was said by other pioneers before]…He is included in the apostolic benediction [2 Cor. 13:14], and is spoken by our Lord [Jesus] as acting in an independent and personal capacity as Teacher, Guide, and Comforter [John 16:13,14]. He [the Holy Spirit] is an object of veneration [from Latin, ‘venerari’-to worship] and is a [singular] heavenly intelligence, everywhere present and is always present…” (-G.C. Tenny, “To Correspondents”, Review and Herald, Vol. 73, June 9, 1896, pg. 362).

Notice very carefully Tenny’s reference to the now accepted “veneration” of the Holy Spirit!! And notice now Mrs. White’s later endorsement of this revolutionary statement, by stating in 1901 (five years after) that: “When we have accepted Christ, and…have [or should have] pledged ourselves to serve [venerate, obey, worship-Joshua 24:14,15 and Matt. 4:10] God, the Father, Christ, *and [thirdly] the Holy Spirit, the three Dignitaries…of Heaven pledge Themselves that every facility will be given us…”

(-E.G. White, Manuscript 85, 1901). Now if that is not reference to plain personal distinction of a “Trio” of Heavenly “Dignitaries”, and a reference to, and endorsement of all “three” being “served” (or venerated in the spiritual sense) then I don’t know what is. Who is it that I should “serve” (worship and obey) in the spiritual sense? Only One who is called “God” or “Lord” by the Bible!! Who does the Bible call “God” or “Lord”? The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!! And yet “there is one God, the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ”, and “ the Lord is the Spirit” (I Cor. 8:6 and 2 Cor. 3:17). That’s how the Bible plainly reads. I don’t need anyone to read it for me. I am called upon to “prove all things” (for myself), and the evidence is overwhelming, and confirmed in the writings of Mrs. White!!

Your only recourse at “Present Truth”, it would seem to me, is to stop supporting Ellen White as the ‘spokesperson’ for Adventism!! Her theology seriously embarrasses you, that is, if you support her corrective statements (correcting earlier pioneers), and if you consider many of the parallel statements of her pioneering contemporaries in her later years (from 1892-1915). And if you stop supporting her (and the organized S.D.A. church) where does this leave you in the scheme of unfolding truth that was gradually embraced by the “remnant” (Rev. 12:17) of God over time? But moving on.

Now, if Mrs. White represented true Adventists in the later pioneering years, in saying “ the Holy Spirit has a personality”, and “is as much a Person as [just like] God is a Person” (Manuscript 66, 1899, speech at Avondale College, Australia); that He is “the third Person of the Godhead”, of “of three living [literal] personalities”, then what say you about her not (even once) just simply saying that the Holy Spirit is just the Father and Son splitting their personalities (‘split-personalities’), like what a psychotic does (as some of your supporters would have me believe)? See Isaiah 40:18, 25 regarding the comparisons we apply to God. Clearly this ‘inspired’ founder of Adventism (Mrs. White) has gone to a lot of trouble to say otherwise.

What say you of the Scriptures, which give the Holy Spirit a “mind” (Rom. 8:27), a personality who makes reference to Himself as “Me” and “I” (in the eyes of the Bible writers and apostles- Acts 13:2-4 and Heb. 3:7-10), a “spirit” body and form (Ezek. 8:1-5), and a “will” (1 Cor. 12:11), while clearly treating Him as the third personality of the “three living personalities of the heavenly trio” (according to Mrs. White)?

Also, if the word “spirit” (“pneuma”, Greek) has various secondary meanings, including ‘mind’, ‘personality’, and ‘will’, then I leave you to try and solve the mysteries of the Godhead, in judging whether or not the Holy Spirit has a mind of His own, or shares the mind of Christ and the Father, in a way unknown to man (see 1 Cor 2:16; Isaiah 40:13,14; Rom. 11:33,34; Rom. 8:27 with Job 11:7-9).

In closing, I must say that it is true that the “neuter” (non-gender) form of the word “Spirit” in the New Testament, when it is accompanied by the pronoun “He” (as in the words of Jesus in John 14 and 16), this is no single proof of the Spirit’s personality or personal distinction, so we must look elsewhere (as you rightly said) for support of the view that the Spirit is a “Third” and distinct Person. Since even a child or babe is referred to as “it”, and even Jesus, as “the Eternal Life”, in a certain context, is called “it”(See 1 John 1:1-2), this should therefore mean that the subject of the personality of the Holy Spirit (who admittedly is called “it” at times) presents some language difficulties, but is not beyond understanding.

However, some have ‘played’ upon these “it” references to the Spirit, with the result being a corruption of the Scriptures. Thus to some, the Holy Spirit is simply the Father in actual personality, but as truthful as that may sound, it therefore means, by extension, that the Father (being the “third Person”, the Spirit) “will not speak of Himself” (John 16:13,14), or “by His own authority”, but only what He “hears” (from whom? Himself?), about Jesus, in order to “glorify” Jesus, who “sends” Him!

By extension it also means that if the Holy Spirit is actually Jesus in personality, then it means that Jesus has actually returned, since Pentecost, and is actually present in personality, as Himself, but just in Spirit form. He is also here as a “Representative” of Himself as “another Comforter” (“allos Paracletos”, Greek). And while He is here as the “representative” of Himself He has no authority to “speak of Himself” (independently), but will, as Himself in actuality (yet ‘representationally’), “glorify” Himself (John 16:14), but speaking only what He “hears” from the Father (with the Father also hearing from another). Oh what a tangled web we weave…

Thus there is no real (“living”) “Heavenly Trio” of “three living personalities” in the “Eternal Godhead”, where the presence of One (John 14:16-18) is the representative presence of all, but rather a Divine “Duo” (ditheism), splitting their shared spirit’s like what a psychotic does to his personality, that is, multiply it!!

Thus also, when Jesus said in Revelation 22: 16 that “I have sent mine angel” (a spirit being), to John on Patmos, He was obviously confused because He Himself had already “come” and was actually here on earth all along (John 14:16-18), as Himself in personality, just that He was in the Spirit form. What a twisting of Scripture!! Does this sound like theology I would wish to embrace? Hardly!!

If the Bible says that Jesus’ first coming was similar to the idea of “God [the Father being] with us”, that is, “God… in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself”, why can it not mean the same about the Spirit representing the Father and the Son, who could thus both say “we will come to you” (through the Holy Spirit)? Mrs. White expresses it better than I could by saying: “It is through [not ‘as’, but ‘through’] the Spirit that Christ dwells in us” (E.G. White, The Faith I Live By, pg. 57), and “In this sense [not ‘in this form’, but ‘in this sense’] He would be nearer to them [His disciples] than if He had not ascended on high” (E.G. White, Desire of Ages, 1898, pgs. 668-669).

The same way the Creation was done by the Father, not as, but through Christ, who did it, not as, but through the Holy Spirit, the same is being done in redemption!

If the Bible says that Jesus had not come as a man to “speak of Himself” or independently of the Father, but by His Father’s authority He would speak of the Father, in order to “glorify” only the Father who “sent” Him (thus clearly showing their separateness of personalities) why should the rules suddenly change for the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit also does the same, as “another Comforter”(John 16:13, 14), that is, He “glorifies” His Sender, Jesus and the Father (John 16:7; 14:26)!

And it is in this that you find your proof of the Holy Spirit’s distinction.

Why did Jesus use “allos” (“another” in Greek), which usually means distinction of individuals or entities, when He could have used “heteros” (in Greek) to show difference of form or mode, if He only meant that He Himself would return as the Spirit in actual personality, literally, but just in another form. But the words “another Comforter”, both in Greek and English clearly illustrate Jesus’ meaning- a distinction, as in Isaiah 48:16, was intended.

This is the same Spirit seen in vision in Heaven separately “before His throne” (Rev. 1:4), in symbol as the “sevenfold Spirit”, not on the throne, because He was meant to be seen as a separate personality while being all over the universe, manifesting the exact attributes of the Father and Son. His role is not to sit on the throne, but to be everywhere, on the Father and Son’s behalf! Satan did not covet the Holy Spirit’s place in the Godhead because he could never be like the Spirit, that is, omni-present!

Being exactly like Jesus (as Jesus is like the Father), The Spirit’s “Representative” presence means that the Father and Son could say: “we will come to you” (John 14:18,23). That is why I can “serve” the Spirit, and reverence Him equally as I would the Father and the Son, because He is, in the earlier quoted words of Mrs. White, “God, the Eternal Spirit” (confirm her teaching in Acts 5:2-4).

That is why I can fully support Mrs. White’s theology that “the Comforter whom Christ promised to send is the Spirit in all the fullness [Col.2: 9] of the Godhead. [Immediately adding] There are three living Personalities of the Heavenly Trio”. This was wisely done to prevent us confusing the personalities in the “Trio”. Therefore, she further presses home the truth that: “No circumstances can separate us from the Heavenly Comforter [the Holy Spirit]. Wherever we are, wherever we may go He is always there, One [some-‘One’, not ‘something’] given in Christ’s place, to act in His stead” (E.G. White, That I May Know Him, pg. 171). Who is this “One given”; the Father in actual personality giving Himself? No! The Father and Son in the Person of the Holy Spirit reconciling the world ... “How beautiful are the blended personalities of our Triune [not ‘Bi-une’] God, manifested by the personal presence of the Holy Ghost” (Review and Herald, *1900)

Much more could be said, on this subject, but for more please see Chapter 5 (“Landmark No. 5”), and pages 52-54, of my book “Indisputable Facts about the Trinity Doctrine in Adventism” which I have also sent to you. At another time I will show you how the apostolic Church of the first and second centuries revealed in their doxologies, their veneration of the Holy Spirit. But for now, I say, God bless you.

Yours sincerely,

Brother Derrick Gillespie
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Derrick Gillespie (First labelled "SDA", THEN, "Pseudo-SDA", and then "Impolite". What label next?)