The Alpha & Omega

[CherylG]

In reading the book Selected Messages Book 1 by Ellen White, I find the chapter 24 "The Alpha and the Omega"

and Chapter 25 "The Foundation of our Faith" very interesting. 

In 1903 J H Kellogg had written a book called The Living Temple which had pantheistic teachings in it about God.

Ellen White warned him and others about the false theories in his book and said:

"I have been instructed to warn our people; for many are in danger of receiving theories and sophistries that undermine the foundation pillars of the faith."  {1SM 196.4}    

 

The Alpha Now Seen 

"Be not deceived; many will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. We have now before us the alpha of this danger. The omega will be of a most startling nature."  {1SM 197.4}

 

Alpha Presented in "Living Temple" 

"I am instructed to speak plainly. "Meet it," is the word spoken to me. "Meet it firmly, and without delay." But it is not to be met by our taking our working forces from the field to investigate doctrines and points of difference. We have no such investigation to make. In the book Living Temple there is presented the alpha of deadly heresies. The omega will follow, and will be received by those who are not willing to heed the warning God has given."  {1SM 200.1}

"The Omega WILL FOLLOW, and WILL BE RECEIVED" by those not wanting to listen to God's warnings.

Mrs White goes on to talk about the foundation of our faith in chapter 25.

"As a people, we are to stand firm on the platform of eternal truth that has withstood test and trial. We are to hold to the sure pillars of our faith. The principles of truth that God has revealed to us are our only true foundation. They have made us what we are. The lapse of time has not lessened their value. It is the constant effort of the enemy to remove these truths from their setting, and to put in their place spurious theories. He will bring in everything that he possibly can to carry out his deceptive designs. But the Lord will raise up men of keen perception, who will give these truths their proper place in the plan of God."  {1SM 201.2}  

"I have been instructed by the heavenly messenger that some of the reasoning in the book Living Temple is unsound, and that this reasoning would lead astray the minds of those who are not thoroughly established on the foundation principles of present truth. It introduces that which is nought but   speculation in regard to the personality of God and where His presence is." {1 SM 201,202}

So the J Kellogg's belief on "the personality of God and where His presence is"   is the Alpha or beginning of deadly heresy. 

"Living Temple contains the alpha of these theories. I knew that the omega would follow in a little while; and I trembled for our people. I knew that I must warn our brethren and sisters not to enter into controversy over the presence and personality of God. { 1SM 203}

She goes on to say:

"The enemy of souls has sought to bring in the supposition that a great reformation was to take place among Seventh-day Adventists, and that this reformation would consist in giving up the doctrines which stand as the pillars of our faith, and engaging in a process of reorganization. Were this reformation to take place, what would result? The principles of truth that God in His wisdom has given to the remnant church, would be discarded. Our religion would be changed. The fundamental principles that have sustained the work for the last fifty years would be accounted as error. A new organization would be established. Books of a new order would be written. A system of intellectual philosophy would be introduced. The founders of this system would go into the cities, and do a wonderful work. The Sabbath of course, would be lightly regarded, as also the God who created it. Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the new movement. The leaders would teach that virtue is better than vice, but God being removed, they would place their dependence on human power, which, without God, is worthless. Their foundation would be built on the sand, and storm and tempest would sweep away the structure. " {1SM 204-205}  

 If the Alpha is a false understanding on the personality of God and where His presence is: 

Question 1:What is the Omega?

Question 2: What does everyone think about the last quoted statement from 1SM 204-205 ?

 

 

    

                                                                  

[Gustave]

Dr. Kellogg was a militant anti-Trinitarian.

The denomination used Dr. Kellogg's writing / debate skills to argue that the Trinity was the wine of Babylon.

Dr. Kellogg however came to believe in the Doctrine of the Trinity - & that the Holy Spirit WAS God.

SDA teaching at that time & prior was absolute that God the Father, Lucifer & Michael the archangels all had bodies of flesh - with all the organs, members & parts of perfect "men".

The Holy Spirit was taught to be a presence OF God the Father - similar to flatulence - therefore "IT" lacked a "personality" ( i.e. a body of flesh ).

Dr. Kellogg asserting that something without a body of flesh, bones and organs could be God WAS PANTHEISM according to the Pioneers & Ellen White.

This is literally saturated in the SDA publications of the time.

The omega is simply the acceptance of the Trinity by Seventh-day Adventists.

In speaking of the P.O.G. doctrine as handed down from the Pioneers Ellen offers a most serious warning:

"He who denies the personality of God and of his Son Jesus 'Christ, is denying God and 'Christ. " If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father." If you continue to believe and obey the truths you first embraced regarding the personality of the Father and the Son, you will be joined together with him in love. There will be seen that union for which Christ prayed just before his trial and crucifixion". Ellen White / Review & Sabbath Herald March 8, 1906

 

 

[Gustave]

The following was written by Dr. Kellogg PRIOR to his coming to accept the Doctrine of the Trinity - he was "in the circle of trust" at this point:

"The only grounds upon which our reviewer could be justified in making such a statement would be the supposition on his part that we believe in the doctrine of the trinity ; but he very well knows, from positions taken and arguments used in previous articles, that we do not agree with him on this subject any better than on that of the nature of the soul. We believe in but one Deity, God, who is a unity, not a compound 'being. We think the Bible as well as common sense sustains this view."

&

"Says Eld. W., "'His trinitarianism' seems to shackle him much." We repel the charge of "trinita­rianism" without  the slightest  hesitation.  We  do not believe in a triune God, as before remarked.  And we will not, as did  our  reviewer in a former  article, leave the reader in doubt aa to our position on this point.  We are utterly at a loss to comprehend how our re­viewer  could  have  blundered  so  strangely: as  to  sup­pose us to share in so gross an error as w believe the orthodox doctrine of the trinity."

 

 

In the Living Temple book Dr. Kellogg was speaking of "GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT" - Dr. Kellogg's crime was that he claimed something without a body of Flesh could be God - this was considered within Adventism to be "pantheism". Kellogg was removed from membership shortly after that.

[CherylG]

Hi Gustave,

I agree with what you have written. Thanks for the extra information.  Some of the quotes you provided I did not have.

If the Alpha is a false understanding on the personality of God and where His presence is:  Then the Omega would have to be a continuation of the same topic and has become what our church believes today. As the years advance from the Alpha the Omega is still a gross heresy. This is why Ellen White warned us. 

 

[CherylG]

The following is a letter A. G. Daniells to Ellen White’s son,                                                                                                                         “Ever since the council closed I have felt that I should write you confidentially regarding Dr Kellogg’s plans for revising and republishing ‘The Living Temple’… He (Kellogg) said that some days before coming to the council, he had been thinking the matter over, and began to see that he had made a slight mistake in expressing his views. He said that all the way along he had been troubled to know how to state the character of God and his relation to his creation works… He then stated that his former views regarding the trinity had stood in his way of making a clear and absolutely correct statement; but that within a short time he had come to believe in the trinity and could now see pretty clearly where all the difficulty was, and believed that he could clear the matter up satisfactorily. He told me that he now believed in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; and his view was that it was God the Holy Ghost, and not God the Father, that filled all space, and every living thing. He said if he had believed this before writing the book, he could have expressed his views without giving the wrong impression the book now gives. I placed before him the objections I found in the teaching, and tried to show him that the teaching was so utterly contrary to the gospel that I did not see how it could be revised by changing a few expressions. We argued the matter at some length in a friendly way; but I felt sure that when we parted, the doctor did not understand himself, nor the character of his teaching. And I could not see how it would be possible for him to flop over, and in the course of a few days fix the books up so that it would be all right.” — (Letter: A. G. Daniells to W. C. White. October 29, 1903. pp. 1, 2)

* Kellogg thought to revise the book with his new understanding of the Trinity, which was not the understanding or belief of the SDA church members.

Note that Daniells wrote this letter to W C White 29th October 1903, and now look what Ellen Wrote in 1904

 "It will be said that Living Temple has been revised. But the Lord has shown me that the writer has not changed, and that there can be no unity between him and the ministers of the gospel while he continues to cherish his present sentiments. I am bidden to lift my voice in warning to our people, saying, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked" (Galatians 6:7)." {1SM 199.3}  

 

**God showed Ellen White that Kelloggs new belief in the Trinity was not correct and that the Trinity did not explain the ideas written in kelloggs book the Living Temple.

 

"We are God's commandment-keeping people. For the past fifty years every phase of heresy has been brought to bear upon us, to becloud our minds regarding the teaching of the Word--especially concerning the ministration of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, and the message of Heaven for these last days, as given by the angels of the fourteenth chapter of Revelation. Messages of every order and kind have been urged upon Seventh-day Adventists, to take the place of the truth which, point by point, has been sought out by prayerful study, and testified to by the miracle-working power of the Lord. But the waymarks which have made us what we are, are to be preserved, and they will be preserved, as God has signified through His Word and the testimony of His Spirit. He calls upon us to hold firmly, with the grip of faith, to the fundamental principles that are based upon unquestionable authority. " {1SM 208.2}  

 

[CherylG]

The Omega belief is leading to other practices which are not Biblical,  Such as praying and worshipping the Holy Spirit.

There is no scriptural authority for this. It is being taught in our colleges an churches that this is acceptable now.

2 Pastors in our local church told my husband and I that they pray to the Holy Spirit directly. 

 

 

[Gustave]

On ‎3‎/‎6‎/‎2017 at 4:12 PM, CherylG said:

Hi Gustave,

I agree with what you have written. Thanks for the extra information.  Some of the quotes you provided I did not have.

If the Alpha is a false understanding on the personality of God and where His presence is:  Then the Omega would have to be a continuation of the same topic and has become what our church believes today. As the years advance from the Alpha the Omega is still a gross heresy. This is why Ellen White warned us. 

 

That's exactly what Ellen White meant when she said "The Omega"

Please don't misunderstand me - I'm Catholic, obviously believe in the Doctrine of the Trinity. I've compiled a large amount of material on the anti-Trinity position of Ellen White and the Pioneers directly from the Archives of the General Conference, in fact masses of it.

Those SDA's who believe Ellen White rejected the Trinity are correct - she absolutely did reject it. I would say in the same breath however that she was dead wrong in her position. The SDA's who agree that the Trinity is the centerpiece of the Christian Faith are correct - it is that important because on it hangs everything.

 

 

 

[B/W Photodude]

You could check this comment on page 4 of the pdf file. I am not sure why she would have written "Holy Spirit, third person of the Godhead" if she did not believe in the Holy Spirt.

http://www.whiteestate.org/issues/The-Trinity.pdf

[Gustave]

Easily answered B/W photodude

 

Signs of the Times, 1912, Vol 39 # 32

3829 — Is The Holy Spirit A Personality?

Question:
Can't we say that the Holy Spirit is a
personality, as long as the personal pronoun
is attributed to it? T. A. Z.

Answer:
The use of the personal pronoun is not of itself proof that the Holy Spirit is a personality, and yet the work of the Spirit is the work of a personality. By the Spirit both the Father and the Son come personally to every soul that receives the Spirit. In that wonderful sense which no human being can comprehend, the Spirit comes to each soul as a personality. And yet it does not have what we would call human personality of being in one place only at one time, that is, such personality as has our Lord Himself — in one place as He is in no other place. The Holy Spirit may be in any number of places at one and the same time, bringing the special presence of God in each of those places. In the office of the "Signs of the Times" there are fourteen different telephones all connecting with the manager. The manager may connect all these with him at one and the same time. He could issue a general order so that the foreman of each department could hear his voice at the same time. In a way he is personally present in every department. Every department hears his voice. The marvelous invention of the telephone makes him present in fifteen different places at the same time. So it is that God's Spirit makes the Father and the Son present in as many different places as God may direct, at one and the same time. We know somewhat of the working. We understand how it is to some extent of the Lord's ways and methods. We see the effects, but we know almost nothing of the nature and the power that Infinity uses to communicate with man. Let us be willing to leave it there. In some instances the Spirit is represented as the great life of God. In some it is spoken of as a power that is poured out and shed forth. To the individual it comes as the representative of the personal God. Therefore it may be spoken of as a personality, and looking at it from another view-point, as not a personality

Revew and Herald, Sept 6, 1892

Is God a Spirit?

Question:
If God is a spirit (John 4:24) and at the same time a person (Dan 7:9) would not the same reasoning prove that the Holy Spirit is a PERSON as referred to in John 4: 26?

Answer:
NO - For God is elsewhere described and represented as a Person; but the Holy Spirit is not. The fact that the Holy Spirit is personified John 14 and thus spoken of as acting in a personal and individual manner does NOT prove it to be a person any more than the fact that love is spoken of in 1 Cor 13 as performing certain acts and exercising certain emotions, prove that charity or love is

[Gustave]

For by His Holy Spirit.

&

Holy Spirit of God

Note who the author is.

[Gustave]

Ellen believed that the alpha was SDA's "flirting" with the Trinity Doctrine & the Omega was acceptance of it.

[JoeMo]

On 3/7/2017 at 7:45 PM, Gustave said:

The SDA's who agree that the Trinity is the centerpiece of the Christian Faith are correct - it is that important because on it hangs everything.

 

I am NOT of the opinion that the Trinity is the centerpiece of our faith.  To me, the resurrection is.  It does appear that the earliest creed of the apostolic church centered on this:

" For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance^[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas,^[b]and then to the Twelve. ⁶ After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, ⁸ and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born." (1 Cor. 15:3-8)

"But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. ¹⁵ More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. "(1 Cor. 15: 12-16)

Incidentally, Paul's letter to the Corinthians is one of the oldest NT manuscripts in existence.  the oldest ones found are dated to 40 AD at the latest.

The early martyrs died because they proclaimed Christ as God; and the resurrection was the undeniable proof of that fact.  No one was martyred because they believed (or didn't believe) in a Trinity.

Nowhere in the Bible does anyone pray directly to the Holy Spirit or worship the Spirit.  True, they worship "in the Spirit"; but they never worship the Spirit.  To me, that is the example we should follow - to pray to the Father through Christ in the spirit and for the spirit; but not to the Spirit.  Why not "to" the Spirit?  Because (IMHO) the spirit is NOT a Person; it is a power.

[Gustave]

58 minutes ago, JoeMo said:

I am NOT of the opinion that the Trinity is the centerpiece of our faith.  To me, the resurrection is.  It does appear that the earliest creed of the apostolic church centered on this:

 

 

WITH the Understanding that Jesus was God Almighty, just as much as the Father is God Almighty & the Holy Spirit is God Almighty.