Denis Kaiser
Some church members have surmised that the Seventh-day Adventist fundamental belief in the Trinity is of Catholic origin. They argued that as early Adventists objected to the doctrine of the Trinity, modern Adventists should return to the early Adventist view of God. However, although there is certainly an agreement in the basic concept, such members overlook two important points. They fail to comprehend the differences between the Adventist and the Catholic views of God, and they do not to fully understand the early Adventist position. The present article wants to clarify the positions of early Adventists and modern Adventists as they relate to Catholic theology.
The Catholic theology of God developed in response to Arius’ view that Christ was a created being who had a beginning (early 4th century A.D.). Their arguments operate within the parameters of Platonic Greek philosophy. Since God is perfect and perfection was defined as a state of absolute fullness, it was incomprehensible that He could change. So God had to be unchangeable, immoveable, and impassable, and, as a result, He could exist only in timelessness and spacelessness. To guarantee the full eternal divinity of Jesus, they argued that Jesus emanated (came forth, derived) from the Father in timelessness, in the eternal present, and hence possesses all attributes of divinity. Talking about the Son, the Nicean Creed (325 A.D.) therefore says: “God from God, Light from Light, etc.”1 Since, in their view, Jesus is continually generated in the eternal present / timelessness (the eternal generation of the Son), he can be continually reproduced in the host during the Catholic mass. And since Jesus’ derivation from the Father happened and continues to happen outside of time and space, no one can argue that Jesus had a beginning. Similarly, Catholics argue that the Holy Spirit emanated (came forth, derived) from the Father and the Son.2 In sum, God consists of three divine persons where two persons (Son, Spirit) derive their existence from one divine person (Father), and since this derivation occurred and occurs in timelessness, there is practically no beginning of existence.
Early Adventists objected to that concept of God for several reasons. Yet, while they rejected the Catholic idea of a Trinity, their own concept of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit still reflected to a certain degree the Catholic view. Early Adventists objected to the Trinity doctrine because (1) they did not see direct evidence for a three persons in God in the Bible; (2) they rejected an equation of the Father and the Son (Modalism), turning them into one person; (3) they rejected the idea of Tritheism—three Gods; (4) the doctrine seemed to diminish the atonement because it suggested the death of a fully divine being, which was inconceivable as the immortal God cannot die; (5) several biblical references to Jesus seemed to suggest a beginning in time; and (6) some biblical expressions about the Holy Spirit did not seem to harmonize with the idea of a person.3 Adventists themselves generally believed that the Father is the only true and eternal God. Jesus derived his existence and divinity from the Father by emanating from Him in the eternal past. The Holy Spirit was not a person but an influence that extended from the Father and the Son. As Adventists were materialists and Restorationists, they rejected notions of timelessness and spacelessness. And as Jesus’ emanation from the Father happened actually in time, they believed that Christ had a beginning. While they rejected the Arianism of Arius, the Greek philosophical assumptions of timelessness, and the basic idea of a Trinity, they nevertheless entertained several ideas akin to the Catholic notions of emanation. Like Catholics, and in agreement with the Nicean Creed, they believed in the emanation of the Son from the Father, and of the Spirit from both Father and Son.
Seventh-day Adventists today follow in the footsteps of Ellen White and many other Adventists who, beginning in the 1890s, moved away from the early Adventist rejection of the Trinity doctrine and from the idea of an emanation of the Son and the Spirit.4 Like early Adventists, modern Adventists continue to uphold materialist notions and oppose the concept of God dwelling in timelessness and spacelessness. Concerning the ideas of Jesus’ emanation from the Father and the Spirit’s emanation from both the Father and the Son, the early Adventist position resided, however, closer to the Catholic view than that advocated by modern Adventists. Yet, one may ask what happened to the reasons early Adventists put forward against the doctrine of the Trinity. (1) Seventh-day Adventists discovered abundant evidence in Scripture for three co-eternal divine persons who are so united in purpose, planning, and activities that they are truly one.5 (2) They continue to oppose ideas that blur the separate identities of the divine persons (for example, Modalism). (3) They also continue to reject the idea of Tritheism, three Gods, as they divide the intimate unity between the divine persons. (4) Ellen White stated that “two natures,” a divine nature and a human nature, “were mysteriously blended in [the] one person” Jesus. She stated that “when Christ was crucified, it was his human nature that died” because divinity could impossibly die.6 Thus it became clear that the belief in the full divinity of Christ does not diminish the doctrine of atonement. (5) Adventists further realized that Old Testament remarks about Christ’s divine sonship usually refer to his incarnation or the New Testament writers called him somewhat anachronistically “Jesus” or “Son of God” when they talked about events in the Old Testament because they truly had no other name for him than the one given to him in the New Testament. (6) They also discovered that there are a number of passages that describe the personal nature of the Holy Spirit. Thus while Adventists maintained some of the early Adventist arguments, other arguments lost their power because they discovered biblical evidence for the basic concept of a Trinity. The modern Adventist understanding of the Trinity differs from the Catholic view of God in many ways.
Nevertheless, a proper understanding of the divine oneness is a truly personal and spiritual matter that moves far beyond the disagreement or agreement with questions of mathematics. God intended the divine oneness to serve as the model for the oneness of husband and wife.7 God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness… . So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:26, 27). In the Old Testament God is described as plural and one.8 It is only in the New Testament that the divine persons are distinctly distinguished from one another. There we see that they always listen, honor, and give glory to each other instead of themselves.9 They do not serve themselves but the other one. They illustrate the character of God’s love as other-oriented love rather than self-oriented love.10 In their attitude and actions we see truly the nature of God’s law revealed, a law that implies at a deep level care for the wellbeing of the other one. They care for the wellbeing of the other one, which is truly reciprocal love. Thus in their care and beneficence for the other one they are intimately united, they are truly one. As humans, who constantly experience and witness that service goes only in one direction and submission is misused and abused, we can hardly imagine that reciprocal service would be possible in reality. In fact, such harmony and oneness can only result from the Holy Spirit’s working in our lives. If exemplified in the believers, such service to and care for the other one reflects the nature of the law and the character of Jesus.11 Such submission exerted reciprocally to one another in the church truly resembles the divine love, oneness, and harmony of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
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1 David E. Willis, Clues to the Nicene Creed: A Brief Outline of the Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2005), p. 60. See also Keith E. Johnson, Rethinking the Trinity and Religious Pluralism: An Augustinian Assessment (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2011), pp. 107-110.
2 See Johnson, Rethinking the Trinity and Religious Pluralism, pp. 110-115. Eastern Orthodox believers say that the Spirit comes forth only from the Father.
3 Jerry Moon, “The Adventist Trinity Debate, Part 1: Historical Overview,” Andrews University Seminary Studies 41, no. 1 (2003): 116-118.
4 The development of the Seventh-day Adventist understanding of the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit from the early pioneers to the mid-20th century has been abundantly researched in the last twenty years. See, for example, Woodrow Whidden, John W. Reeve, and Jerry Moon, La Trinidad (Asociación Casa Editora Sudamericana, 2008); Denis Kaiser, “La recepción de las declaraciones trinitarias de Elena G. de White por parte de sus contemporáneos,” in Elena G. de White: Manteniendo viva la vision, ed. Hector O. Martín and Daniel A. Mora (Nirgua, Venezuela: Ediciones SETAVEN, 2015), 149-165.
5 28 Fundamental Beliefs, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 2015, https://www.adventist.org/fileadmin/adventist.org/files/articles/official-statements/28Beliefs-Web.pdf (accessed June 26, 2016).
6 Ellen G. White to Ministers, Physicians, and Teachers, September 3, 1904 (Lt 280, 1904), Ellen G. White Estate, Silver Spring, MD.
7 Deut 6:4 says that God is one (echad). While this Hebrew word echad could refer to a numerical one, it may also refer to a form of close unity. Thus Gen 2:24 states that man and woman became one (echad) flesh. Similarly, Gen 34:16, 22 describes two groups of people, Israelites and Shechemites, coming together to form one (echad) people, and Gen 41:25, 26 suggests that Pharaoh’s dreams were one (echad). This intricate unity in plurality is also visible in Gen 1:26, 27 (see above) and Deut 10:17: “For the LORD your God [plural], he [singular] is God [plural] of gods [plural] and Lord [plural] of lords [plural], the great, the mighty, and the awesome God [singular], who is [singular] not partial and takes [singular] no bribe.”
8 Gen 3:5, 22; 11:5-9; 18:20-22, 33; 19:1-3, 12-29; Deut 6:4; 32:39.
9 For example, John 5:19-37; 8:14-29, 54; 10:25-30; 12:28; 13:32; 15:26; 16:13-15; 17:1-10. The submission of Jesus to the Father during his incarnation is often misunderstood as signifying a different nature or as a different hierarchical status, yet the reciprocity of their service and submission as revealed in Scripture is often overlooked.
10 In fact, self-oriented love is the antithesis of divine love because it only cares about oneself and is therefore a principle contrary to God’s character. This principles can also be referred to as sin (I want, I desire, etc.).
11 John 13-17; Matt 5:43-48; 23:8-11.