We commence a new cycle of thirteen lessons on the study of God. The “Godhead” is a Good News Bible teaching (Rom. 1:20, Col. 2:9). The 1888 message focuses our attention upon the one nature of the three persons of the Godhead as agape (1 John 4:8). The knowledge that we have of God is by His initiative of revelation. Agape is the source of faith which is given to every man (Gal. 5:6). So we have the capacity to know with the mind and believe with the heart there is one God composed of three beings (John 10:38).
If we trace God’s agape-love back before time and creation, before God’s desire to make humans in His image, there existed love within the family of the Godhead. The Father has always had a Son to love from eternity, and the Son has always expressed His love of the Father by choosing to subordinate Himself to the Father. The Holy Spirit loves the Father and the Son and likewise does the Father and the Son love the Holy Spirit.
We are to understand the divine family not from our understanding of family relationships where a son is generated by a father and mother and thus subordinate to the parents. Rather we are to understand the relationship of the three divine persons as revealed in Scripture. Three beings are equal in that they are co-eternal and each of them individually is the fullness of the Godhead (John 1:1-3). [1] But they are one God by virtue of their agape, which is expressed in a mutual subordination to one another. There is no independence or domination of one member over another, for such assertion of individuality over the others is not in Their nature.
Jesus taught His disciples the correct way to pray, “Our Father which art in heaven” (Matt. 6:9). He was a Comforter to His followers during His earthly ministry, and nearing His departure He promised to send them “another Comforter” to be with them (John 14:16). “Another” links the Holy Spirit with Himself. He has just told the disciples that He, Jesus, must “go” and leave them. So this new Comforter will be to them all that Jesus has been to them. Therefore they must not feel like “orphans.” “I will come to you,” He says (vs. 18). The Holy Spirit is not identical with Jesus for He is “Another”; they are two Persons of the Godhead—the Son and the Holy Spirit, but still they are One, for it is “I [who] will come to you” (John 14:16-18).
Millions of Muslims are prejudiced against Christianity because they think Christians believe in three gods because of the commonly understood doctrine of the “Trinity.” Our Lesson observes “the word Trinity doesn’t appear in the Bible”; however, it goes on to insist that “the doctrine of the Trinity” is Scriptural. [2] The statement is made, “Today the church has taken a firm stand on the doctrine.” [3] “The Trinity” has become official doctrine in the “Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists.” [4] As “the trinity” is defined in “the fundamental beliefs” it reads: “There is one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a unity of three coeternal Persons.” [5] The Lesson defines the Trinity as “God is One and composed of three “Persons. ...” [6]
The non-biblical term “trinity” introduces an element of confusion into the teaching of the Godhead. Ellen White never used the word and neither did the 1888 messengers Jones and Waggoner.
It is obvious that the church and its scholars desire to declare their agreement with “Christianity” on the doctrine of the trinity. It is apologetically stated by the Lesson that “some early Adventists struggled with the doctrine of the Trinity.” [7]