Today in God’s church it is proposed that if you hold to a different belief than what is stated in one of the 28 creeds or seek to live a peculiar life then you are a fanatic or an extremist. I take the position that some of the fundamental beliefs and practices in the church today **ARE** the extreme. They are extremely worldly and extremely Babylonian. Let me demonstrate this by sharing about the “alpha” and “omega” of apostasy, how they came into the church and how the various fruits are seen today.

First of all, Kellogg’s pantheistic teaching regarding the personality of God in nature used the Bible and Sister White to uphold his view. His application of these were missapplied and misinterpreted.

“I knew that I must warn our brethren and sisters not to enter into controversy over the presence and personality of God. The statements made in “Living Temple” in regard to this point are incorrect. The scripture used to substantiate the doctrine there set forth, is scripture misapplied.

I am compelled to speak in denial of the claim that the teachings of “Living Temple” can be sustained by statements from my writings. There may be in this book expressions and sentiments that are in harmony with my writings. And there may be in my writings many statements which, taken from their connection, and interpreted according to the mind of the writer of “Living Temple,” would seem to be in harmony with the teachings of this book. This may give apparent support to the assertion that the sentiments in “Living Temple” are in harmony with my writings. But God forbid that this sentiment should prevail.” SpTB02 53.3

What specific writings of Sister White did Kellogg and others misapply?

Extreme views of “God in nature” undermine the foundation truths of the personality of God and the ministration of angels. A confused mass of spiritualistic ideas takes the place of faith in a personal God. I take no stock whatever in some of the principles that are now being advocated. Lt271b-1903.3

“God in Nature” is a chapter in the book education. This was the basis for Kellogg’s pantheistic teachings.

“I have never intended to teach anything except what Sister White teaches in the books have named, and everything which you or anybody else will point out to me which is not in harmony with what Sister White has written in the chapters “God in Nature” and “Science and the Bible” in her work on Education, I will immediately repudiate as error. ” Kellogg to GI Butler Feb 21, 1904

So Kellogg bases His view on those two chapters or at least He points to them as evidence that He is in harmony with the SOP. Notice what he says next.

Prof. Prescott says “Sister White says the same thing you say, but does not mean the same thing you mean when she says it.!” Kellogg to GI Butler Feb 21, 1904

Does Sister White Say the Same thing? Here is what she says in the chapter “God in nature”.

“Not by its own inherent energy does the earth produce its bounties, and year by year continue its motion around the sun. An unseen hand guides the planets in their circuit of the heavens. A mysterious life pervades all nature—a life that sustains the unnumbered worlds throughout immensity, that lives in the insect atom which floats in the summer breeze, that wings the flight of the swallow and feeds the young ravens which cry, that brings the bud to blossom and the flower to fruit.” Ed 99.1

“The heart not yet hardened by contact with evil is quick to recognize the Presence that pervades all created things. ” ED pg 100

Here is what Kellogg says in the book Living Temple.

“The manifestations of life are as varied as the different individual animals and plants, and parts of animated things. Every leaf, every blade of grass, every flower, every bird, even every insect, as well as every beast or every tree, bears witness to the infinite versatility and inexhaustible resources of the one all-pervading, all-creating, all-sustaining Life.” JH Kellogg, living Temple pg 16

“Intelligence is one of the forces of the universe, one of the manifestations of the all-pervading life which created and creates, animates and sustains.” living temple 396

“Calculate the number of blades of grass in an acre, and in a square mile, and remember that every one is a witness to the active presence of the one infinite, abounding Life.” LT 16

Sister white says there is a “life” or “presence” that pervades all nature. Kellogg spoke of an “all pervading life” “presence” and “intelligence”.

Prescott was correct when He says that they were saying “the same thing” or very similar.

The question is, does she “mean” the same thing as Kellogg. Apparently not, if she categorizes his understanding as an “extreme view” and she was called by God to “meet it”.

This illustrates the deceptive nature and highlights the reason that so many were deceived and caught up into the Kellogg apostasy and why so many worldly loving Adventist today are equally caught up in the omega deception.

They were not students of the Bible or of the SOP as they should have been. Neither are we and unfortunately, men and women today are conditioned to look to other men and women instead of inspiration to study for themselves. Before we go further, I want to encourage you along these lines with a statement in the great controversy.

“It is the first and highest duty of every rational being to learn from the Scriptures what is truth, and then to walk in the light and encourage others to follow his example. We should day by day study the Bible diligently, weighing every thought and comparing scripture with scripture. With divine help we are to form our opinions for ourselves as we are to answer for ourselves before God. GC 598.2”

Ignorance will not be an excuse when we have had every opportunity to search and know for ourselves what the truth is.

Continuing on with Kellogg. There is another vital piece of information. After the 1903 Autumn council where his teachings and book was blocked by the incredible providence of God, he came to a realization as to why.

“He then stated that his former views regarding the Trinity had stood in his way of making a clear and absolutely correct statement, but that within a short time he had come to believe in the Trinity and could now see pretty clearly where all the difficulty was, and believed that he could clear the matter up satisfactorily.

He told me that he now believed in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, and his view was that it was God the Holy Ghost, and not God the Father, that filled all space, and every living thing…” A.G. Daniells to W.C. White. Oct 29. 1903. p1.2.

Just the day before this letter was dated there was another one sent from Kellogg to GI Butler.

“As far as I can fathom, the difficulty which is found in ‘The Living Temple’, the whole thing may be simmered down to the question: Is the Holy Ghost a person? You say no. I had supposed the Bible said this for the reason that the personal pronoun ‘he’ is used in speaking of the Holy Ghost.

Sister White uses the pronoun ‘he’ and has said in so many words that the Holy Ghost is the third person of the Godhead. How the Holy Ghost can be the third person and not be a person at all is difficult for me to see.” – Letter from John Harvey Kellogg to G. I. Butler. Oct 28. 1903.

He didn’t believe in a trinity but had come to that understanding in a short time. He is trying to give the appearance that He has changed His views and is trying to harmonize them with the SOP.

He never really gave up the idea that God is an essence pervading all nature. It simply morphed into a diffent perspective.

****Here is the point****

Kellogg’s former view was the denominational view. This was that God is the Father, Christ is the Son of God and the Spirit of God is the omnipresence of the Father and Son. In the book the living temple, Kellogg emphasizes the Spirit of God (the Father) as an all-pervading Presence/Life. He also downplays the idea that God is a real person and has a physical form and abides in a sanctuary in heaven.

(He does this by arguing that God’s form is so big that we cannot understand Him and that nature is the revelation given to us to understand Him. He does not deny that God and Jesus have a “form” but that those forms are simply present because of man’s necessity to have an object to worship.)

The Controversy was in reality over the Father and His Spirit. Notice what Sister White says:

“The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever.” Deuteronomy 29:29. The revelation of Himself that God has given in His word is for our study. This we may seek to understand. But beyond this we are not to penetrate. The highest intellect may tax itself until it is wearied out in conjectures regarding the nature of God, but the effort will be fruitless. This problem has not been given us to solve. No human mind can comprehend God. None are to indulge in speculation regarding His nature. Here silence is eloquence. The Omniscient One is above discussion. MH 429.3

The problem is today when many read this they do not understand the context or background. They simply apply their current understanding to this text, which is that the “Omniscient One” is in reality three persons. This is not what sister white “means”

“The Father, the omniscient One, created the world through Christ Jesus. Christ is the light of the world, the way to eternal life. He, the anointed One, God gave to make an atonement for the sins of the world.” 4MR 59 (This is originally addressed to JH Kellogg in letter 253, 1903)

It seems clear to me in studying this topic that Ellen White understood Kellogg to be denigrating the Heavenly Father and His Son by saying that the Spirit is what pervades all nature. This was done by what I call “over-personalizing” the Spirit. Taking the personhood of the Spirit to an extreme.

Kellogg had rejected the denominational view of the Father & Son/Spirit connection, accepted the trinity, and made the Spirit a “separate entity” other than the Father’s & Son’s Spirit. Before we get into what SOP evidence Kellogg used to justify his belief we need to ask an important question.

Where did Kellogg get his pantheistic views?

“May God deliver His people from the scientific sophistries and underworkings of Dr. Kellogg. He has no respect for the truth for this time and is deceived, deluded, enslaved. The work to be done will not be advanced by the help of any such spirits. The work of God will not be entrusted to his hands. God does not acknowledge the need of scientific theories of Satan to forward His sacred work.” Ms63a-1906.12

Kellogg was studying scientific theories that originated with Satan. He undoubtedly received them not from the Bible or the SOP but from outside the Adventist faith.

So, what did He use to justify this separation and his newfound trinitarian belief, which justifies his pantheistic belief?

“Sister White uses the pronoun ‘he’ and has said in so many words that the Holy Ghost is the third person of the Godhead. How the Holy Ghost can be the third person and not be a person at all is difficult for me to see.” – Letter from John Harvey Kellogg to G. I. Butler. Oct 28. 1903.

The third person statements of Ellen White. The same third person statements are used today by our brethren to uphold the belief that the Holy Spirit is a third being. The Holy Spirit is a person or personality but not in the same way as the Father and Son. To hold to the idea of the Holy Spirit as a third being is an “extreme view” of the third person statements made by sister White and the fact that Kellogg used the same statements should cause all Adventist to reconsider the matter.

Let’s recap. Kellogg misapplied the chapter “God in nature” and took an “extreme” view of what the SOP said. Prescott claimed that “she said the same thing but meant something different” (paraphrase). When cornered to give up his belief Kellogg did the same thing again with her writings! This time he took an “extreme view” of the third person of the Godhead. How do I know this?

Ellen White’s very own Son had this to say about particular views on the Holy Spirit that were coming in around the 1930’s

“The statements and the arguments of some of our ministers in their effort to prove that the Holy Spirit was an individual as are God the Father and Christ, the eternal Son, have perplexed me and sometimes they have made me sad. One popular teacher said “We may regard Him, (the Holy Spirit) as the fellow who is down here running things.” Carr to WC White Jan 24, 1935

It made WC White sad that popular ministers were making the Holy Spirit out to be an individual (person) in the same way that God the Father and Christ are.

Apparently to do so would be an “extreme view”.

One popular minister at the time. LE From wrote a book on the very subject in 1928, called “the coming of the Comforter”. In it he puts forth the idea that the Holy Spirit is a third being (person). Where did He get this belief?

“May I here make a frank personal confession? When, back between 1926 and 1928, I was asked by our leaders to give a series of studies on the Holy Spirit, covering the North American union ministerial institutes of 1928, I found that, aside from priceless leads found in the Spirit of Prophecy, there was practically nothing in our literature setting forth a sound Biblical exposition in this tremendous field of study. There were no previous pathfinding books on the question in our literature. I was compelled to search out a score of valuable books written by men outside of our faith—those previously noted—for initial clues and suggestions, and to open up beckoning vistas to intensive personal study. Having these, I went on from there. But they were decided early helps. And scores, if not hundreds, could confirm the same sobering conviction that some of these other men frequently had a deeper insight into the spiritual things of God than many of our own men then had on the Holy Spirit and the triumphant life. It was still a largely obscure theme.” – Movement Of Destiny. p. 322

These “priceless leads” were statements on the “third person of the Godhead” made by Ellen White and were combined with the theories of men from outside of the faith. No wonder Froom pandered to the evangelicals in the evangelical conferences of the 1950’s. He had been reading their writings and accepting their teachings for years!

These “priceless leads” were conveniently compiled into the book evangelism around the time of 1948. The problem with the book evangelism is not these statements. It is what is left out that is the problem. Evangelism gives only a one-sided imbalanced view.

The major issue is not so much that both Kellogg and Froom accepted theories from men outside of the Faith. That is bad enough. The biggest issue is that they mingled these errors with the truth and then turned around and taught the people that they were in harmony with Bible Adventism.

The problem is that today in God’s church many leaders, scholars, theologians, pastors, teachers, etc. mingle the truth given to us that was revealed with the error that comes from Babylon. Sister White warned of doing this.

“The light of truth which God designs shall come to the people of the world at this time is not that which the world’s men of learning are seeking to impart; for these men in their research often arrive at erroneous conclusions and in their study of many authors become enthused with theories that are of satanic origin. Satan, clothed with the garb of an angel of light, presents for the study of the human mind subjects that seem very interesting, and which are full of scientific mystery. In the investigation of these subjects, men are led to accept erroneous conclusions and to unite with seducing spirits in the work of propounding new theories which lead away from the truth.

There is danger that the false sentiments expressed in the books that they have been reading will sometimes be interwoven by our ministers, teachers, and editors with their arguments, discourses, and publications, under the belief that they are the same in principle as the teachings of the Spirit of truth. The book Living Temple is an illustration of this work, the writer in its support declaring that its teachings are the same as those found in the writings of Mrs. White. Again and again we shall be called to meet the influence of men who are studying sciences of satanic origin, through which Satan is working to make a nonentity of God and of Christ.” Ms23-1908.13

****That is how the SDA church came to accept an extreme view concerning the Holy Spirit and which in turn led to a train of heresies and apostasy. The Kellogg controversy was the “alpha” seed that was planted at the turn of the century (1900’s). That seed grew imperceptibly and sprung up through Froom. It has since grown into full maturity (evangelical conferences) and we now see the fruits of mingling the truth with error from men not of our faith.

Some of these fruits are womens ordination, pro lgbt movement in the churches, feminism, social justice, seeker friendly services, rock music, games, sports, drug medications in hospitals, abortions in our institutions, accredidation in our schools, and much more.

Because of the apostasy that has gained wide acceptance and the ignorance of how it came in, those who long to follow Bible truth and the writings of Sister white are labeled “extreme”.

A righteous holy life will always be extreme to those that love the world. May God help us to be extreme in this regard.