Signs of the Times November 17, 1914; pg 714 “Question Corner”
Source Link: https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/ST/ST19141117-V41-45.pdf
48 — VARIOUS TEXTS ON THE DEITY
[questions]
I. How are we to understand the following scriptures : Ps. 90:2 ; Isa. 42:8; I Cor. 8 : 6; Deut. 6:4?2. Can we conclude, from Rev. 3 : 14 and Col. I: 15, that our Lord Jesus had a beginning, and there was a time when God the Father was alone? T. A. Z.
[answer]
I. Some of these scriptures are so plain that it seems as though we could have no question concerning them at all. The one in Psalms would seem to apply to our Lord. The term used is not “Jehovah,” but Adonai, which, without question, is applied to Christ; and this is the One whom Moses is addressing. He declares, “Even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.” And this is in harmony with Micah 5: 2. Isa. 42:8 evidently has reference to God. It is Jehovah Himself who speaks : “I am Jehovah, that is My name; and My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise unto graven images.” That is the very family name of the Godhead. Sometimes our Lord is called Jehovah. This is emphatically true in Jer. 23: 6. In verse 5 He is called the Branch. “In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is His name whereby He shall he called : Jehovah our righteousness.”
I Cor. 8 : 6 presents before us the agencies by which the earth is created, the relative positions of the two Persons : “To us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him.” The same thought is expressed in John t : 1-3 and in Col. 1 : 16,— that all the creation was wrought through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Deut. 6:4 is simply an expression of the unity of the Godhead: “Jehovah our God is one Jehovah.” Many times, when mention is made of God, it simply implies the Godhead. Of course there is absolute unity in that, just as truly as though there were but one Person; and therefore it is spoken of as one. Our Lord’s prayer in John 17 indicates the same thing : “As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee.” And then He prays that the same unity may exist among His followers.
2. Yes, some do conclude, from Rev. 3: 14, that there was a time when the Son did not exist, save in the all-comprehending purpose and potency of God. And yet there are others who still hold — and there is nothing to the contrary in the text — that the beginning of the creation of God means the One in whom the creation began, as declared in Col. I: 17, “And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” The finite can not grasp the infinite. Let this suffice, — that our. Lord is God with the Father from the “days of eternity”; that “He is before all things, and in Him all things consist,” and He brings to all those who believe in Him the plenitude of the power of the Deity according to our needs.
Of course, sometimes the expression, such as is used in Col. 1: 15, “the First-born,” refers to preeminence rather than to priority. God calls Ephraim His first-born, although Manasseh was the first-born. He calls Israel His first-born, while Esau was the first-born of Jacob. That is, God had adopted these as such. They became preeminent because of character. So Jesus is called the First-born of the dead, and is preeminent above them all, and only by His power do all the others live.
Note: some regard the bolded portions of Wilcox’s answers above to be conveying similar sentiments as modern SDA’s trinitarian doctrine wherein the description of one God according to the church’s official Fundamental Beliefs is defined as “unity of three co-eternal persons”.
Please review MC Wilcox’s thoughts on the personality of God in the two article links below:
The Holy Spirit — Excerpt from “Questions and Answers Vol. I By Milton C. Wilcox, Pacific Press 1911