The Omega of Apostasy: A spiritualization hermeneutic and making of no effect the Testimony of Jesus via Ellen White.
What do I mean by a spiritualization hermeneutic?
Well, what is spiritualization? The servant of the Lord informs us:
“The truths most plainly revealed in the Bible have been involved in doubt and darkness by learned men, who, with a pretense of great wisdom, teach that the Scriptures have a mystical, a secret, spiritual meaning not apparent in the language employed. These men are false teachers…{GC 598.3}
So, spiritualization is to take a truth of God’s Word and create doubt and darkness about it by distorting the language. It supposedly has a hidden, mystical, spiritual meaning different from what it says.
Now the word hermeneutic means a method or theory of interpretation, it is especially used when it comes to interpreting the Bible.
So, putting it all together a spiritualization hermeneutic is an approach to interpreting the Bible that creates doubt and darkness about plainly revealed Bible truth by teaching that the language has a mystical, secret, spiritual meaning not apparent in the language employed.
Now, what do I mean making no effect of the Testimony of Jesus via Ellen White? Well, that is very evident, isn’t it? Yet let me say a few more words here.
If you study the history of Adventism you will learn about a doctor named John Harvey Kellogg. He introduced and popularized panentheism and pantheistic sentiments into Adventist theology. As a part of this he did away with the form of God and made Him out to be an all pervading essence that was consciously present in all living things. This was a form of spiritualization because the Bible presents God as a bodily personage, not as an intelligent, personal essence consciously present in all living things. We will talk more about this later on in this op but, for the time being, what we need to know is that Ellen White called this error the alpha heresy. She forewarned that it would be followed by the omega heresy. Those quotes are later on in this document.
And just here I need to point out something that occurred under the alpha heresy because we should expect it under the omega heresy as well.
“And thus it has been in the case of the one who has long stood at the head of our medical work. He often declares that he has always believed the messages God has given through Sister White; and yet he has done very much to undermine confidence in the validity of the testimonies. Many have accepted so fully his version of plain messages, that the testimonies have come to have no effect on them…” {SpTB07 53.3}
“If permitted, the evil angels will work the minds of men until they have no mind or will of their own. They are led as the angels cast out of heaven were led. Under Satan’s influence these angels uttered sentiments directly opposite to loyalty to God. Thus the family of God in heaven became corrupted. And thus will it be with physicians or ministers who continue to bind up with the one who has had light, who has had warnings, but who has not heeded them. At the Oakland Conference I was forbidden to have any conversation with him. I was not to place any writings in his hands; for he would read from these writings what I had not written, bringing in his own sentiments.” {SpTB06 42.4}
Please notice that the leading proponent of the alpha heresy claimed that he always believed in the inspiration of the Testimony of Jesus via sister White but he was actually undermining confidence in them thus making them of none effect. Notice also that sister White purposefully kept her writings out of his hands because he did not properly exegete them but rather he did eisgesis. Eisegesis is when a person reads his own ideas back into a text that, if read properly, has no such idea at all.
So what I am telling you beloved is that we should expect both of these things to occur, within Adventism, under the omega heresy.
Now, let’s do a bit of history:
“A certain class who deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. This class can be no other than those who spiritualize away the existence of the Father and the Son, as two distinct, literal, tangible persons, also a literal Holy city and throne of David…. The way spiritualizers have disposed of or denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ is first using the old unscriptural trinitarian creed, viz, that Jesus Christ is the eternal God, though they have not one passage to support it, while we have plain scripture testimony in abundance that He is the Son of the eternal God” (James White, Day Star, Jan 24, 1846)
For those who may not understand this claim from James White, and how he correctly exposed a form of spiritualization, via creedal trinitarianism, let me quote from a Catholic website. Listen to how they describe the “begetting” of the Son under the doctrine of the trinity.
“THIS IS AN INTELLECTUAL “BEGETTING,“and fittingly so, as a “word” proceeds from the knower while, at the same time remaining in the knower. Thus, this procession or begetting of the Son OCCURS WITHIN THE INNER LIFE OF GOD. THERE ARE NOT “TWO BEINGS” INVOLVED; rather, two persons relationally distinct, WHILE EVER-REMAINING ONE IN BEING.” (https://www.catholic.com/…/onlin…/explaining-the-trinity)
In other words there is no material aspect to the begetting of the Son. He was not begotten of God’s substance or material as a distinct and separate bodily personage, the Father’s express image, but rather He is being continually generated within the inner life of a formless triune entity. Again, quoting our Catholic friends:
“God is spirit, and as such HE DOESN’T HAVE A BODY (Lk 24:39: “A spirit does not have flesh and bone.”). When the Bible speaks of our being made in his image, then, it doesn’t mean we’re like him physically.” (https://www.catholic.com/qa/does-god-have-a-body-like-ours)
“The Church Fathers, of course, agreed, and loudly declared the fact that God is an unchangeable, immaterial spirit who has an entirely simple (“incomposite”) nature—that is, a nature containing no parts. Since all bodies extend through space and thus can be divided into parts, IT IS CLEAR THAT GOD CANNOT HAVE A BODY.” (https://www.catholic.com/tract/god-has-no-body)
So, theorthodox conception of the trinity is clearly a doctrine of spiritualization. It does away with the tangible bodily form of God and it does away with the material begetting of His Son likewise. It makes God out to be a formless unity of 3 persons. No Seventh-day Adventist should ever fall for this heresy but, unfortunately, there are prominent leaders who believe and teach it (e.g. Max Hatton)
Now, besides trinitarianism, the early Adventist pioneers had to deal with a form of spiritualization immediately after 1844. As the early Adventist pioneers were trying to figure out their error, some of the Millerities used a spiritualization hermeneutic to do away with the literal 2nd coming. They started teaching that the 2nd coming had actually happened but it was a spiritual coming. Thus Jesus’ 2nd Advent was not considered to be a physical event with a tangible Being who would return in visible and audible glory. This is the historical context behind this next Egw quote. She was actually falsely accused of teaching that idea.
“I have frequently been falsely charged with teaching views peculiar to spiritualism. But, before the editor of the “Day Star” run into that delusion, the Lord gave me a view of the sad and desolating effects that would be produced upon the flock, by him and others, in teaching the spiritual views. I have often seen the lovely Jesus, that he is a person. I asked him if his Father was a person, and had a form like himself. Said Jesus. “I am in the express image of my Father’s Person” {ExV 64.1}
“I have often seen that the spiritual view took away all the glory of heaven, and that in many minds the throne of David, and the lovely person of Jesus had been burned up in the fire of spiritualism. I have seen that some, who have been deceived, and led into this error, would be brought out into the light of truth, but it would be almost impossible for them to get entirely rid of the deceptive power of spiritualism. Such should make thorough work in confessing their errors, and leaving them forever.” {ExV 64.2}
Moving on, in our brief overview of history, the Seventh-day Adventist church had to deal with another manifestation of this error. This is what we referred to previously as the alpha heresy, which was spearheaded by J.H. Kellogg. He taught panentheism – that God was personally present in all living things – and after being soundly rebuked for this error he adopted trinitarian doctrine to try to cover it up. Due to the fact that the nature of the Spirit is a mystery, as the third person of the Godhead, he tried to shift his view to say that it was no longer God the Father who was the conscious personal essence within all living things but rather God the Holy Ghost. The problem is that he was still placing God, as a conscious personality, within all living things. Ellen White repudiated Dr. Kellogg by upholding a landmark pillar of Adventism called the personality of God. This is the historical context for this next quote and please notice what satan was seeking to make of no effect.
“After the passing of the time, we were opposed and cruelly falsified. Erroneous theories were pressed in upon us by men and women who had gone into fanaticism. I was directed to go to the places where these people were advocating these erroneous theories, and as I went, the power of the Spirit was wonderfully displayed in rebuking the errors that were creeping in. Satan himself, in the person of a man, was working to make of no effect my testimony regarding the position that we now know to be substantiated by Scripture. Just such theories as you have presented in Living Temple were presented then. These subtle, deceiving sophistries have again and again sought to find place among us. But I have ever had the same testimony to bear which I now bear regarding the personality of God….” {4MR 57.1}
Now I am not going to get into sister White’s quotes about God but suffice it to say that she taught that God is a person, a tangible being, and He is omnipresent by His Spirit. He is not a living presence in all living things. God, as a personality, only dwells in born again humanity and unfallen angels by His Spirit.
Moving on, yet again, we are now in the present. I would suggest to you that the Seventh-day Adventist church today is now suffering under another manifestation of this same error- the doctrine of spiritualization and the making of none effect the Testimony of Jesus. This is what Egw prophesied about as the omega heresy.
“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.” {SpTB02 50.2}
“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” {SpTB02 16.2}
Now we saw near the beginning of this article that under the orthodox trinity there was spiritualization, regarding the bodily form of God. We saw also that immediately after 1844 there was spiritualization, regarding the literal 2nd coming of Christ. We saw that under Kellogg there was also spiritualization, doing away with the personality (tangible form) of God and then trying to maintain his panentheism under a mask by adopting the trinity and saying it was God the Holy Spirit in all living things. And, remember, what we saw in SpTB07 53.3 and SpTB06 42.4. He was doing that while openly claiming to believe in the Tesitmony of Jesus, via sister White, but actually making it of none effect. And she could not trust him with her writings because he would read his own sentiments into it. This is what we can expect under the omega as well.
“The very last deception of Satan will be to make of none effect the testimony of the Spirit of God. “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” [Proverbs 29:18.] Satan will work ingeniously, in different ways and through different agencies, to unsettle the confidence of God’s remnant people in the true testimony.” {6LtMs, Lt 12, 1890, par. 45}
“The enemy has made his masterly efforts to unsettle the faith of our own people in the testimonies, and when these errors come in they claim to prove all the positions by the Bible, but they misinterpret the Scriptures. They make bold assertions, as did Elder Canright, and misapply the prophecies and the Scriptures to prove falsehood. And after men have done their work in weakening the confidence of our churches in the testimonies they have torn away the barrier, that unbelief in the truth shall become widespread, and there is no voice to be lifted up to stay the force of error.” {6LtMs, Lt 109, 1890, par. 12}
This is just as Satan designed it should be, and those who have been preparing the way for the people to pay no heed to the warnings and reproofs of the testimonies of the Spirit of God will see that a tide of errors of all kinds will spring into life. They will claim Scripture as their evidence, and deceptions of Satan in every form will prevail ” {6LtMs, Lt 109, 1890, par. 13}
So under the omega what we can expect is a removal of the Testimony of Jesus, even from men and women who openly profess to believe in it. This will enable them to misinterpret the Scriptures and teach falsehood so that satanic deceptions will prevail.
Now we have been over the matter before, many times, and shown that the original demonic doctrine was an effort to hide the fact that Christ was the only begotten Son of God.
“This fact the angels would obscure, that Christ was the only begotten Son of God, and they came to consider that they were not to consult Christ. One angel began the controversy and carried it on until there was rebellion in the heavenly courts among the angels. They were lifted up because of their beauty” {25LtMs, Lt 42, 1910, par. 3}
Ellen White warned that under the omega many would depart from the faith, giving heed to demonic doctrine. This would be most startling.
“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” {SpTB02 16.2}
Sister White also warned that after her death there would be great changes
“I tell you now, that when I am laid to rest, great changes will take place.” {25LtMs, Ms 1, 1915, par. 2}
After her death there certainly was a very startling change that occurred in Adventism, particularly regarding how SDAs view Christ. The SDA church today no longer believes in a pre-incarnate only begotten Son, that is a Son who was begotten of God. This is stated to be, by the now deceased editor of the Review and Herald, a “most startling” change.
“Adventist beliefs have changed over the years under the impact of ‘present truth’. Most startling is the teaching regarding Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord…” (William G. Johnsson, Adventist Review, Jan 6, 1994, p. 10)
It is now very common to hear in Adventism that Christ was not really the only begotten Son of God. In fact, that phrase “only begotten” is often called a mistranslation.
It is said from SDA pulpits all the time that the pre-incarnate Christ was not really “begotten” or “made” or “brought forth” or “assimilated” despite the fact that the Scriptures and/or the Testimony of Jesus say that He was.
This is the new hermeneutic of Adventism – it is actually a form of spiritualization.
Let me give you an example. I have recently been dialoguing with a popular SDA evangelist. He professes to believe in the Testimony of Jesus, via Ellen White, but he did not want her writings to be used in our discussion. I disagreed with him strongly on this because, since he and I disagree about what the Scriptures mean in certain places (e.g. Proverbs 8; Micah 5:2; John 3:16; Hebrews 1, etc,…) I believe we need the objective witness of the Spirit of prophecy to help us know the right view. To make a long story short, he rejects, as non-literal, all of the statements that demonstrate that the pre-incarnate Christ was God’s Son “begotten” or “made” etc,… In his thinking this is impossible because Christ is from all eternity.
Now I tried to reach him in a different way yet the spiritualization hermeneutic negates every action verb if the context is eternal. Case and point:
“All our thoughts and imaginations will not alter in the least any part of the plan of redemption DEVISED FROM ALL ETERNITY” {ST Feb 5, 1894, par.6}
“The plan of salvation, that expresses the love, the benevolence of Jesus Christ toward man was DEVISED PRIOR TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF TIME.” {7LtMs, Lt 27, 1892, par. 20}
Now I asked him directly about these quotes:
Jason wrote: Will you say that God never devised the plan of salvation? If so, doesn’t that contradict inspiration? Truly God devised the plan but we cannot tell “when.” It is from all eternity (aka: prior to time) [End Quote]
Here is how he replied:
Ivor wrote: The plan of salvation has existed as long as God has existed. It’s “devising” was not something God did not think of before. Perhaps the word “devising” is the only word that can relate in human language the idea of creation a plan, but rest assured, the plan was not “created” or “thought of” sometime later in the existence of God. [End Quote]
Do you see what just happened here? That is a lot of smoke and mirrors to basically say that the plan was not actually devised but simply always existed. The real question here becomes why would God have His servant say it was “devised” if it was not. We are very capable, as English speakers, of understanding a sentence that says “God never devised the plan of salvation but always knew what He would do.”
Let me give you another example. This too is from a SDA minister. I asked him some questions and I will quote verbatim.
Jason wrote: 1) Did God devise the plan of salvation? [End Quote]
Michael wrote: “Answer: God always knew what He would do. So when we say “devise” if we use that word literally it would mean He came up with something He didn’t previously have in mind. When humans devise they think, they plan and they come up with ideas they previously didn’t have. But since the knowledge of God is perfect and has never lacked anything we can only use the word devise to express that the plan of Salvation is of God’s Mind. Beyond that, we have to admit that God doesn’t “devise” in the way we do. His thoughts are above our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). So we have to admit that such words when used to describe the activities of God cannot be understood literally or else their meaning would contradict God. But such words are right to use because they help us understand while at the same time are obviously not mean to express the fullness of the reality of God.” [End Quote]
Jason wrote: 2) If you say “not” then why does inspiration say He did? [End Quote]
Michael wrote: The prophets were God’s penmen not His pen! They related eternal and mysterious truths in understandable ways. In this case, as stated, one of the things to be understand is that Salvation is from God alone and from His Mind. He is its source. When the Bible speaks of the wrath or jealousy of God, these things are meant to transfer eternal truths that are beyond the meaning of those words as used when applied to people in their everyday sense [End Quote]
Let me remind you again of what sister White said:
“The truths most plainly revealed in the Bible have been involved in doubt and darkness by learned men, who, with a pretense of great wisdom, teach that the Scriptures have a mystical, a secret, spiritual meaning not apparent in the language employed. These men are false teachers…{GC 598.3}
Now why are these SDA ministers doing this? Here is my educated guess:
You see, under the omega, a spiritualization hermeneutic does away with the begotten Son of God. Even though inspiration uses clear language, like begotten, brought forth, made, assimilated – the new doctrine says “no” and it has to do away with what all of that language would normally mean.
This same hermeneutic is necessary when it comes to the “devised” plan as well. Since it is “from all eternity” then that means it is actually undevised to them. Therefore, they speculate that God was just using that word because that is the only way He can relate to us in human language.
Personally, I find this to be wrong. It goes against the plain teaching of inspiration. You see inspiration uses more language than just “devised.” Let’s look at some other quotes:
“The covenant of mercy WAS MADE before the foundation of the world. It has existed FROM ALL ETERNITY...” {ST June 12, 1901, par.7}
“The Son of God, heaven’s glorious Commander, was touched with pity for the fallen race. His heart was moved with infinite compassion as the woes of the lost world rose up before Him. But divine love HAD CONCEIVED A PLAN whereby man might be redeemed.” {PP 63.2}
“The terms of this oneness between God and man in the great covenant of redemption WERE ARRANGED with Christ FROM ALL ETERNITY...” {ST August 24, 1891, par.10}
“Christ, our Redeemer, comprehended all the necessities of man. He FORMULATED the mighty plans by which fallen man is to be uplifted from the degradation of sin” {9LtMs, Ms 39, 1894, par. 5}
“…The importance and authority of the truth in the great plan of salvation ORIGINATEDin the divine Author,…” {Lt12-1890 par.76}
Yet what happens with all of these quotes? Even though we now have “devised” and “made” and “conceived” and “arranged” and “formulated” and “originated” certain SDA ministers will still insist that the covenant plan of salvation wasn’t actually devised, made, etc,… at all.
How is this not spiritualization! Surely, it is the omega heresy.
Do you see what is happening here under the omega? And this is happening because they are trying to maintain their conception of an unbegotten 2nd person of the Godhead. If they yield the point that God and Christ actually devised, made, etc,… the plan of salvation from all eternity then they must also yield the point that God could have begotten, made, set up, brought forth, assimilated Christ from all eternity.
Now if we remove the spiritualization then we are left with a doctrine of a God who can do things, in His realm or mode of existence, prior to the creation of the universe. These are real activities, but they are not reckoned by time and thus are correctly said to be from all eternity. Thus, we have a real Son, begotten, made, brought forth, assimilated but we cannot reckon Him by time. This is the fact of His Being and one that the devil and demons opposed in heaven above. God did not let a war happen over a metaphor, or a role play, or a covenant plan of salvation. The war happened because His Son was really His only begotten and thus was the only Being who was equal to God in nature and thus He was the only One who could be equal to Him by Divine law.
I suspect our brethren fear to admit this because they erroneously think that if they do admit a begotten Son then they will be denying His full Divinity and teaching that He was created. Thus, they resort to spiritualizing away the plainest teachings in the Bible and the Sop, thinking that they are doing what is necessary to defend Christ’s Godhood. Hence the omega of apostasy is doing away with the very same truth that the demons originally opposed in heaven above – the fact that Christ was the only begotten Son of God – and they are blind to it.
