The teaching of the Trinity claims that the Father, the Son and the holy Spirit in a connected unit represent one God. Because the God of the Trinity is immortal, and Jesus is, in that view, part of that Trinity, Jesus could “not“ literally die for us on the cross. The Trinity teachers take out of context the words of Ellen White, “Divinity did not die“ as a proof that Jesus only symbolically died on the cross and remained alive in the grave. The words below make it clear that this is not true:
- “The salvation of souls was the great object for which Christ sacrificed His royal robe and kingly crown, the glory of heaven, and the homage of angels (already in heaven!), and laying aside His Divinity, came to earth to labor and suffer with humanity upon Him.” {Ellen White: Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 21. November 1907}
God’s Prophet makes it clear why the Deity did not die. Because Jesus postponed it before He came to earth! The human garment did not clothe the Divine nature but replaced it! The term is especially used as “proof” that the human body “only covered” His Divine nature. Since we know that the word of God is not against itself, let us look for what has really been told to us.
- “The Son of God Himself descended (humbled) from heaven in the garb of humanity, that He might give power to man, enabling him to be a partaker of the Divine nature, and to escape the corruption which is in the world through lust. His long, human arm encircled the race, while with His divine arm He grasped the throne of the Infinite.” {Ellen White: SpTA 10 35.4}
- “When the plan of redemption was laid, it was decided that Christ should not appear in accordance with His Divine character; for He could not then associate with the distressed and the suffering. He must come as a poor man. He could have appeared in accordance with His exalted station in the heavenly courts; but no, He must reach to the very lowest depths of human suffering and poverty, that His voice might be heard by the burdened and disappointed,..“ {Ellen White; ST, 24. June 1897}
The garment of humanity is a weak human nature, which surrounded His Divine Person. Participating of the Divine Nature certainly does not mean that it was His on Earth or that mortals received it. This means that, like Jesus, we will receive eternal life from God, if we decide to leave sin with God’s help. The long human hand means that Jesus, in His human nature, fought against sin with the last atoms of strength, and He surrounded that sin so that no one would have to sin if he chose Jesus. The long arm symbolises the same and how immeasurably great the fruits of His struggle against sin will be in eternity. He reminds us of the consequences of losing that fight.
The heavenly hand does not mean heavenly nature, because Jesus could have either only a human or only a heavenly body, but as we have read, He voluntarily took on mortal human nature. The heavenly hand means that in His prayers He constantly kept His hand raised to heaven and His Father on the throne and that He clung to Him in the depths of His faith. It symbolises Jesus’ deepest communion with His Father in every second of His earthly life, and that He received all His strength from above.
This has already been announced to us through James, who was connected to heaven through a ladder, and who, as a mortal man with the deepest faith, clung firmly to Jesus. Jesus came as a Divine Person with a mortal body, after about four thousand years of degeneration of humanity. He had a complete human body and spirit, which carried His Divine Soul – Personality. He never renounced His Deity although He left His Divine physical nature – body, and His Divine power, omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence in heaven. But His Personality was still a Divine Personality. The Apostle Paul describes the difference between the physical body, and the spiritual body:
- “There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a NATURAL BODY, and there is a SPIRITUAL BODY. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. {1 Corinthians 15:40-53}
Jesus did not cease to be a Deity or stopped having a Divine spiritual nature/ Personality when He laid down His Divine bodily nature:
- “Jesus Christ “counted it not a thing to be grasped to be equal with God (the Father).” Because divinity alone could be efficacious in the restoration of man from the poisonous bruise of the serpent, God Himself (the Father), in His only begotten Son, assumed human nature, and in the weakness of human nature sustained the character of God, vindicated His holy law in every particular, and accepted the sentence of wrath and death for the sons of men.” {Ellen White: YI, 11. February 1897}
- “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the LIKENESS of men: And being found in fashion AS a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.“ {Philippians 2:6-11}
God is an omniscient Being, and Jesus completely abandoned His Divine bodily nature to become a man, laying down his omniscience. If the holy Spirit doesn’t know everything, is he really a Divine Being? Is everything taken for granted here as well? The Bible warns us that some would deny that Jesus came literally with a complete human nature. We’ve seen this fulfilled before our eyes. Twenty years ago, no preacher would say that Jesus was not resurrected after Gabriel’s call, because “he did not” really die, because His body “was not” literally human, but only “covered” His Divine nature and body. The Apostle John calls people who give such claims servants of the antichrist:
- “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.“ {1 John 4:2,3}
This Text is part of the book First Commandment OR Trinity? – Encyclopedia of Evidences of the Old Trampled Truths of All Areas