I have a question?

daro2096 said:

Ask yourself one question. Why have the oldest manuscripts survived? The answer is nobody used them because they were corrupted so they didn't wear out. There was no printing press back then. They were hand copied. If you were using a Bible everyday it would wear out sooner or later so you would make copies. This is why there is no early manuscripts that contain 1 John 5:7 as in the KJV.

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MichaelTheeArchAngel said:

Matthew 3:16. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." I know a parabol when I see one. John 1:18
No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known. /// And even this scripture John 1:18 that I have quoted here is not translated correctly. The point being, is that your reading a parabol. No man other than Jesus has seen God. Throughout scripture we are told that God is Holy and He is a Spirit.

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daro2096 said:

I have already shown you that the hebrew word for God Elohiym is in the plural form. If God was singular they would have used YHWH.

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mjona3 said:

What is wrong with that?

JM

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MichaelTheeArchAngel said:

Originally the Adventist church did not support the trinitarian doctrine, because it was introduced by the Catholic Church into scripture. Also it is propogated by secret societies. But as more baptist came into the Adventist Church it was re-established. Now my question is: The document that states Ellen white believed in trinitarism, was it produced before Ellen's death, or after.

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Conclusion

Part 1 of this study noted that the 1946 General Conference session was the first to officially endorse belief in the Trinity,[83] just 100 years after James White's strong rejection of that idea in the 1846 Day-Star. This change was not a simple reversal. The evidence is that Ellen White agreed with the essential positive point of James's belief, namely that "the Father and the Son" are "two distinct, litteral [sic], tangible persons." Subsequent evidence shows that she also agreed with James's negative point: that the traditional, philosophical concepts held by many trinitarians did "spiritualize away" the personal reality of the Father and the Son.[84]

Soon after this she added the conviction, based on visions, that both Christ and the Father have tangible forms. She progressively affirmed the eternal equality of Christ and the Father, that Christ was not created, and by 1888, that an adequate concept of the atonement demands the full and eternal Deity of Christ. Only in the 1890s did she become aware of the full individuality and personhood of the Holy Spirit, but when she did, she referred to the Holy Spirit in literal and tangible terms much like those she had used in 1850 to describe the Father and the Son.[85] By 1905, she explicitly declared her belief in three divine persons united in one God.

This confirms the fourfold hypothesis with which this article opened. First, E. R. Gane's characterization of Ellen White as a "trinitarian monotheist" is accurate regarding her mature concept of God, from 1898 onward. She never, however, used the term "Trinity" to describe her belief about God. Perhaps the closest she came was her use of the phrase "heavenly trio."[86] A likely reason why she consistently shunned the term "Trinity," even after she had embraced certain aspects of trinitarian teaching, is the second hypothesis: that she had become aware of two varieties of trinitarian belief, one that she embraced and one that she vehemently rejected. An uncritical use of the term "Trinity" might appear to endorse philosophical concepts to which she was diametrically opposed.

This seems especially plausible in light of the third hypothesis, that as she endorsed conceptual steps toward a biblical trinitarianism, her developing understanding exerted a strong influence on other Adventist writers, leading eventually to a substantial degree of consensus in the denomination.

Fourth, the method by which the early Adventists sought to separate the biblical elements of trinitarianism from the elements derived from tradition, was to completely disallow tradition as a basis for doctrine, and struggle through the long process of constructing their beliefs on the basis of Scripture alone. In doing so, they virtually retraced the steps of the NT church in first accepting the equality of Christ with the Father, and second, discovering Their equality and unity with the Holy Spirit as well. In the process, their theology showed temporary similarities to some of the historical heresies, particularly Arianism. Their repudiation of tradition as doctrinal authority was costly in terms of the ostracism they endured as perceived "heretics," but their dependence on Scripture brought them eventually to what they believe is a more biblical view of the Trinity.[87] A controversial corollary is the conviction that the classical formulation of the Trinity doctrine, resting as it does on Greek philosophical presuppositions of timelessness and impassibility, is simply incompatible with a thoroughly biblical theological system.[88]

Not an objective observer, but a systematic theologian deeply involved in the development of the Adventist doctrine of God, Fernando Canale has written extensively on the distinction between a theology based on Greek philosophical presuppositions, and one based on biblical presuppositions.[89] He argues that

In a very real sense, Adventist emphasis on Scriptures as the sole source of data for executing theology has given theological reflection on God a new and revolutionary start. Systematically distrustful and critical of traditional theological positions, Adventists were determined to build doctrines on the basis of Scripture alone. The difficulties implicit in this fresh approach may account for the scant number of Adventist statements on the doctrine of God.[90]

Canale makes a strong case for his contention that because Adventists, "departed from the philosophical conception of God as timeless" and "embraced the historical conception of God as presented in the Bible," they were enabled to develop a genuinely biblical view of the Trinity.[91]

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