Question: What did Ellen White teach about the personality of the Holy Spirit?
Answer: (by Teresa Wilde and Trent Wilde)
The answer to this question is closely connected with another question we’ve already answered: “What is the early SDA doctrine of the Personality of God?” (Please read this article. It’s very short and provides the basis for the answer to the question at hand.) In that short article, this is what we showed: The early SDA doctrine was that for God to be a person means He’s a strictly material being with a body, parts, and passions, occupying both space and time. When Ellen made statements like, “God is a person,” “God has a personality as verily as has Christ,” and “He is a personal being,” she was saying God is a strictly material being. With that in mind, let’s read a few of her statements affirming the personality of the Holy Spirit:
The Holy Spirit … personifies Christ, yet is a distinct personality. ” {Ms93-1893.8}
Evil had been accumulating for centuries, and could only be restrained and resisted by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead,… {Lt8-1896.2}
… we need to realize that the Holy Spirit, who is as much a person as God is a person, is walking through these grounds, unseen by human eyes,” {Ms66-1899.11}
When you gave yourself to Christ, you made a pledge in the presence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit —the three great personal dignitaries of heaven. “Hold fast” to this pledge. {Ms92-1901.5}
The Holy Spirit has a personality, else He could not bear witness to our spirits and with our spirits that we are the children of God. He must also be a divine person, else He could not search out the secrets which lie hidden in the mind of God. {Ms20-1906.32}
There are three living persons of the heavenly trio. In the name of these three powers,—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, those who receive Christ by living faith are baptized, and these powers will cooperate with the obedient subjects of heaven in their efforts to live the new life in Christ. {Bible Training School, March 1, 1906, par. 2}
From these quotes, it’s clear that Ellen taught that the Holy Spirit is a person distinct from both the Father and the Son. But not only that, she even made it a point to specify that the Holy Spirit is “as much a person as God is a person.” And when you know that Ellen taught that for God to be a person means that He’s a strictly material being, this makes her teaching on the personality of the Holy Spirit very explicit – the Holy Spirit is a person, which is to say the Holy Spirit is a strictly material being. This teaching is very much in line with the early SDA view of the Godhead. They emphasized that the Father and the Son could not be two personalities of the One Being that is God. Instead, they taught that the Father and the Son are two distinct Beings. Likewise, when Ellen White declared that the Holy Spirit is a person, she wasn’t saying that the Holy Spirit is a third personality of the One Being that is God; no, she was saying the Holy Spirit is a distinct person — a distinct material being.
You are baptized in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. … You are born unto God, and you stand under the sanction and the power of the three holiest beings in heaven, who are able to keep you from falling. {Ms95-1906.29}
How much do you know about this third person of the Godhead? If it’s important to have a relationship with Jesus and his Father — two of the three holiest beings in heaven that can keep us from falling — isn’t it just as important to get to know this third being who is also able to keep us from falling? To learn more about who the Holy Spirit is, please see our studies at the following link.
