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VOLUME 14, ISSUE 1
D E P A R T M E N T S
Adventism EXAMINED with Rick Barker
Fundamental Belief #5. The Holy Spirit
God the eternal Spirit was active with the Father and the Son in Creation, incarnation, and redemption. He inspired the writers of Scripture. He filled Christ’s life with power. He draws and convicts human beings; and those who respond He renews and transforms into the image of God. Sent by the Father and the Son to be always with His children, He extends spiritual gifts to the church, empowers it to bear witness to Christ, and in harmony with the Scriptures leads it into all truth. (Gen. 1:1, 2; Lk. 1:35; 4:18; Acts 10:38; 2 Pet. 1:21; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 4:11, 12; Acts 1:8; Jn. 14:16-18, 26; 15:26, 27; 16:7-13.) —Seventh-day Adventists Believe, p.69.
Seventh-day Adventists often struggle with the idea of God as spirit and with the Holy Spirit in particular. Those familiar with the range of teachings in Adventism must acknowledge that there remains controversy within the Adventist church, despite the Fundamental Belief statement, as to whether the Holy Spirit is a person in the Godhead or only a force. I believe that this confusion stems from an overall confusion in Adventism regarding the nature of spirit.
Adventists deny that we have immaterial spirits within us, spirits that are separate from our bodies. This denial creates great obstacles in understanding the nature and role of the Holy Spirit in verses such as Romans 8:16: “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Adventists are intensely indoctrinated into the idea that “spirit” only means breath or is only a metaphor for the human mind. As a result, it is hard for Adventists to think biblically when talking about the Holy Spirit. In Adventist minds, He is just as unreal as their own spirits.
Seventh-day Adventists believe in the gifts of the Spirit in theory; however, in practice they generally emphasize only one spiritual gift after the first century: the prophetic legacy of Ellen White. Furthermore, by referring to Ellen White and her writings as the “Spirit of Prophecy”, they have given Ellen White the title and role of God, since the Holy Spirit is the one and only true Spirit of prophecy! Giving a mortal the title belonging only to God is blasphemy.
Adventists have a unique view of what the inspiration of the Holy Spirit means. This view is based solely on the writings of Ellen White, not on scriptural passages, and is summarized as God inspiring the writer rather than the words. Moreover, this view insists that the resulting words are not only imperfect but must contain error. This false understanding of inspiration substantially diminishes the role and power of the Holy Spirit.
Adventists have denied some of the key roles of the Holy Spirit, including obscuring the fact that the Holy Spirit is the seal of God given as the promise of our inheritance. Instead, Adventists have taught for over a century that the seal of God is the Sabbath. While Adventist apologists will obfuscate with double-talk about the Sabbath being the sign of the seal rather than the seal itself, their baptismal study guides, evangelism seminars, and Ellen White’s writings still say Sabbath is the seal. Not only does this teaching replace the Holy Spirit with the Sabbath, but it also strips the Holy Spirit of His role as a guarantee.
How reliable is a guarantee from God? God says that by placing His Spirit in us He is bearing witness that we are His children (Rom 8:15-17) and guaranteeing our inheritance (Eph 1:14; I Cor 1:22). God’s seal is an unbreakable promise guaranteed by giving us Himself. By contrast, the Adventists’ imitation seal is a human act—Sabbath keeping—and not until the second coming will Adventists know if their seal was reliable.
Seventh-day Adventists give their prophet the name for the Holy Spirit, and they assign His role as God’s Seal to the Sabbath. These unbiblical doctrines reveal that Adventism has a confused theology regarding the Holy Spirit. †
Copyright 2013 Life Assurance Ministries, Inc., Casa Grande, Arizona, USA. All rights reserved. Revised April 3, 2013. Contact email: proclamation@gmail.com
Rick Barker is a native of Southwestern Ohio and facilitates a weekly Bible study for former and transitioning Adventists in the Dayton, Ohio, area. Rick graduated from Andrews University in 1987 and received a Masters degree from the University of Dayton. Rick and his wife Sheryl formally left the Adventist chuch in 2004. Prior to this they had been active in the Miamisburg and Wilmington, Ohio, churches.
