August 29–September 5 – Proclamation! Online Magazine

This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.

Lesson 10: “An Exciting Way to Get Involved”

In promoting the small-group ministry, the lesson is pointing us towards the heart of Christian fellowship. While it is good, in some ways, to be a part of a large group of people with similar beliefs, it is in small groups where we can really connect with others and learn to love and trust fellow Christians.

With that love and trust, we can learn from others and begin to depend on the insight and leading of others who are on the same journey. It can be difficult to develop trust in a setting of large groups of people where closeness is not usually possible, but the small group, over time, can become almost like a family. We can share fears, hopes, discouragement, celebrations, prayers, and needs with those we trust to pray with us and share our burdens while maintaining confidentiality.

In that, this week’s lesson has some good insight and guidance.

Unfortunately, that good insight is apparently based on a faulty and un-biblical concept of God and uses this faulty understanding to bring God down to the level of humans.

For instance:

“The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit participated in a small group ministry.”

Besides being trite, that statement clearly and without ambiguity says that the three parts of the God-head are separate beings that formed a small group to get things done.

And this;

“The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit participated in Creation together. They each had different tasks but worked together in an indivisible union. The Father was the Master Designer, the Great Architect. He carried out His plans through Jesus, as the active agent in Creation in unison with the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Again, that makes God a group of three separate persons who merely work well together.

And this:

“Small groups were God’s idea first. Though one has to be careful when using analogies in regard to many of the mysterious aspects of God, let’s use one loosely and say that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit composed the first “small group” in salvation history. They participated together in the creation of the human race and then in its redemption after the Fall.”

After rightly saying “be careful when using analogies” about God, the author then uses one that is based on a faulty and un-biblical concept of God.

This apparently comes from the Arian beginnings of the Adventist Church which denied that God is One. In fact, the early Adventists were firmly on the side that believed that God consists of three separate beings that work together so well that we can call them collectively “God”.

But that is not a Trinity; that is tritheism, a concept defined in the dictionary as:

“The doctrine that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three distinct Gods”

Although the author manages to blur the line between orthodox Trinitarianism and un-biblical tritheism, there is no clear indication that he really understands the concept of Trinity. And, although he may understand the concept of the Trinity, he is still unable to articulate it here in an Adventist publication as that would go against the Arian writings and understanding of Ellen White.

Although some of what she said (mainly in later years) about God is closer to biblical truth, much of what she said is clearly in the tritheistic camp. Statements such as this one, which is repeated in eight different places in her writings, has shaped Adventism’s understanding of Jesus:

The unity that exists between Christ and His disciples does not destroy the personality of either. They are one in purpose, in mind, in character, but not in person. It is thus that God and Christ are one. CCh 76.7

She is saying that the relationship within the God-head is the same as the relationship between Jesus and the disciples—that of different people working well together towards a common goal.

Not only does she separate the God-head, she also said that Jesus became God at some point:

The great Creator assembled the heavenly host, that he might in the presence of all the angels confer special honor upon his Son…The Father then made known that it was ordained by himself that Christ, his Son, should be equal with himself. (Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, pp. 17,18

So it is no surprise that the author of this lesson follows along with his chosen authority. But is that a correct understanding of God and the God-head? Are they three separate beings that together are called ‘God’? Or is it something different?

In an excellent article by Chris Lee, we find a very good definition of the difference:

“The term Trinity has a very specific meaning within Christianity. The word was created by the Christian Church in order to describe a specific belief. Trinity comes from the Latin word trinitas and it means “three in one”. The creation of the word “Trinity” is linked to the theological understanding of the Christian Church when forming the word. The orthodox Christian belief, then and now, is that while God exists as three distinct persons, God is still One Being. Seventh-day Adventists do not use this definition of the word (http://www.lifeassuranceministries.org/studies/trinity1.html).

He goes on to say:

“Because of these early Arian views and because of Ellen White’s conclusion that the Trinity is a “heavenly trio” … Adventists have accepted the view that Christ is “co-eternal with the Father” and “equal to the Father” without asserting the three Persons are of the same substance is Trinitarianism.”

From that we can see that the word was redefined by someone who didn’t accept the orthodox understanding of God. But should we rely on the words of someone who changes the definition of a word and then says that it means the same thing as the original word? Or on the words of someone who had their own ideas and rearranged the Bible to fit that theology instead of letting the Bible form their theology?

With our limited understanding, how can we comprehend God more than dimly (1 Corinthians 13:12)? There are quite a few things that are used in an attempt to illustrate the God-head. One of them is this diagram which perhaps comes the closest to showing the unique oneness of the Trinity:

But even that falls prey to those who want to insist that each of the three, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, are actually separate beings, and that, as a committee, they form a unit called “God”.

There are many ways by which people try to explain the Trinity, and while many of them may be close, the simple fact is that we cannot truly understand the divine while we are still limited, sinful human beings. Someday soon, when we are made perfect in heaven, then maybe we will begin to understand the mystery; until then, we must just take the Bible at its word when it says in Deuteronomy 6:4, and then repeated by Jesus in Mark 12:29:

“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!

So while salvation is possible without a complete and total understanding of God, we must do our best to form correct ideas and doctrines that don’t diverge from Scripture.

There are many places where we can read what others have written about what they learned, but even if those other sources are ones we trust, the Bible is the only truth on which we must rely and all other explanations must be altered as necessary to align with it, not the other way around.

For further reading, if you are interested, here are some short, well written articles on the subject of God and the Trinity:

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Jeanie Jura

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