The winds of doctrine are blowing at a gale force in the church without a sign of abatement. The anti-trinitarian crowd, the 2520 prophecy folks, pro women’s ordination factions are all creating strife and tension within the church body as the members are being tossed to and for by these claims of present truth or a necessary progression in the church position on important “cultural issues”. As the pressure mounts each of us has to take a stand. The question is will it be on the side of a firm “it is written” or a matter of tradition, popular opinion, emotions, or simply avoiding the situation altogether?
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.” — John 10:1-5
Davidia has not been immune from these controversies. We just recently received an email from a Davidian brother inviting all Davidians to listen and pray regarding a message given by a certain Nader Mansour entitled “How Many Divine Beings?” Before we invest any time investigating the the claims of this presentation there are several questions that need to be asked.
Who is Nader Mansour?
Nader Mansour is a teacher/Bible worker for 7th Day Home Church/Restitution Ministries, which according to one of their websites (http://intheheavens.org/Brother-Nader-Mansour.html):
“An independent SDA Ministry Proclaiming the 3 angels Messages and Abiding in the Father and His Son.”
He is also associated with another website, http://www.restorationministry.com/index.html which claims:
“We are strong Bible believers and endorse ALL that the Bible teaches. The Trinity doctrine is not supported by Scripture and we have a firm and solid foundation for our Anti-Trinitarian focus.”
What is their message?
Their message has a predominate focus on the nature of the Godhead claiming that the Seventh-day Adventist teaching regarding the “trinity” is false. In so doing they retreat back to the anti-trinitarian beliefs held by many pioneers in the early Advent movement. Thus they advance that we are to worship only the Father and the Son (Jesus) and that the Holy Spirit is not the third person of the Godhead. The progression of the Adventist church from a heavy anti-trinitarian bias to its present position as listed in the church’s fundamental belief has been thoroughly reviewed by various Adventist researchers, for example:
Erwin Gane MS Thesis-The History of the Trinity and Antitrinarianism in the SDA Church
http://www.whiteestate.org/issues/the-trinity.pdf
http://www.sdadefend.com/Defend-foundation/Christ-nature/Godhd-HS-Bk.pdf
With whom is he connected or associated?
The websites that promote the ministry of Nader Mansour have links to Smyrna Gospel Ministry, Welch, WV run by Lynnford Beachy and A. Stump (http://smyrna.org/). This is a notorious independent SDA ministry that aggressively promotes their anti-trinitarian doctrine at Adventist gatherings, their own self-hosted camp meetings, via a vigorous publishing ministry, and the internet.
Is this a message that God is compelling us to take time to investigate and share with others, or is it a wind of doctrine, a snare of Satan calculated to divert the minds of present truth believers away from the divine mandate to advance the Rod message?
“I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any [man] preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.” — Galatians 1:6-10
We believe this anti-trinitarian doctrine which denies the Holy Spirit as the third person of the Godhead is inspired from beneath and a snare calculated to divert Seventh-day Adventists and now Davidian Seventh-day Adventists from hearing the divinely mandated Shepherd’s Rod message. Therefore, by conviction of the sound principles taught and found in the Rod message, we are compelled to sound the warning call about this doctrine of devils for some reasons enumerated below.
1. How can we recommend doctrinal studies from Seventh-day Adventist home church movement as they cannot possibly be teaching an unadulterated message since they do not follow and practice the Shepherd’s Rod? It is the height of unbelief to say that one believes the Rod yet does not practice what it teaches and heed its warnings about teaching only that which is published and getting our doctrine only from the golden bowl, the inspired published writings of Ellen White and Victor Houteff alone, no more, no less. For a brief compilation of all the relevant Rod references along this line that all Davidians should be familiar with, please click here: Teach That Which is Published.
2. If Nadar Mansour and the anti-trinitarians are correct that there are only two persons to the Godhead, then Victor T. Houteff is a false prophet because he published the following:
“That the Godhead, or Trinity, consists of the Eternal Father, a personal, spiritual Being, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, infinite in wisdom and love; the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Eternal Father, through whom all things were created and through whom the salvation of the redeemed hosts will be accomplished; the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, the great regenerating power in the work of redemption. Matt. 28:19.” — Fundamental Beliefs, pp. 2, 3.
Contrariwise, if Victor T. Houteff was a true prophet of God and published and taught only the Truth, then the anti-trinitarians are bearing a false message.
3. Nader Mansour and those associated with him believe that,
“We are told that “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: (Mal 4:5) It is in the truth of Elijah and his message that I have based my stand.” (from the statement of beliefs on the intheheavens.org website).
This is a direct and blatant counterfeit of the true Elijah message, i.e. The Shepherd’s Rod brought by the antitypical last day Elijah the prophet, Victor T. Houteff. Every clear minded Davidian knows this to be the case so it is remarkable that some of us would be so easily fooled by the devil’s snares and waste time listening to a stranger’s voice claiming to the the Elijah message. A strange inconsistency indeed.
4. The “intheheavens.org” claims that their ministry and its teachings about the Godhead will in their own words . . .
“It is because the shaking must come, as revealed by the prophet, and because it will be a terrible ordeal for God’s people that this ministry was formed.”
The Rod and the SOP are clear that the shaking will be “caused by the straight testimony called forth by the counsel of the True Witness to the Laodiceans.” (EW 270) This is the pure unadulterated Rod message not the counterfeit message coming from the home church movement.
We could go on with further proof why no serious minded and focused Davidian would waste their time listening to non-Rod studies and have their time diverted listening to false teachings. Multiple hours have already been spent on a Davidian Unity conference call on this subject some months back, so why is it resurrecting its ugly head once again? Time is short and we should be laboring to gather the lost sheep of Israel rather than beholding error that is being forced down. We are counseled not to attend such meetings (see EW 125). Why are we not witnessing to the home church folks about the Rod rather that have them witness to us? This is backwards and makes no sense at all. A snare of Satan no doubt.
“What, therefore, is the first and gravest danger confronting Present-truth believers today?
With the end of the long journey in view, the work was never so great, the time in which to do it never so short, and the laborers never so few, as now. Self-evident, therefore, is the fact that Satan’s supreme effort at this hour must be to cause the time to be wasted and the work to go undone.” — Answerer Book, No. 1, pp. 68, 69
AMEN, bro. Right on.
Hi,
Our study group in South Africa is also now fixated on the idea that the Holy Spirit is not the third person of the Godhead.
DS
Lord have mercy. The enemy is busy sowing seeds of confusion and winds of doctrine even in the midst to professed “present truth” believers. Yes there are some Davidians here in the US who are also straying outside of the golden bowl and bringing in man’s dung baked cakes from independent ministries who are pushing this anti-trinitarian doctrine claiming that it is what the S. D. A. taught. Below are some articles which thoroughly refute such claims and may be helpful to your efforts to awaken our brethren from their fearful deception.
http://www.scribd.com/my_document_collections/3596307
If you need we can email directly to you these documents as PDF docs that you can download and print out for sharing. Please request to our email address: upa5453@gmail.com
God bless and may you stand strong for the Truth, come what may.
In that blessed hope,
The Publishers
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead. It is the person of The Father, His spirit sent to us through His Son. God himself laid the foundation of the SDA church through his chosen ones. Brother Houteff is a chosen messenger just as Ellen White and all of God’s chosen ones are
Go in Gods truth and not mans
Hi Nader Monsour has a 501c4 this is the image of the Vatican beast he joined his church with the state sister White said in SOP vol 4 when the church joins the state she has fallen.Every independent SDA I have researched are all 501c3 which equals 5 + 1 = 6 c = x 6 x 3 = 18 = 6 + 6 + 6 so the image beast is also 666.These men quote from altered writings of sister White The Jesuits rewrote her writings her real writings can be found at Vbates dot com.He was offered millions for sister Whites books.Sister White stated Melchisdec was the Holy Spirit.When these false SDA claim the Holy Spirit is both the Spirit of the Father and Christ that’s what Rome said look up Counsel of Toledo 675 17 bishops believe the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of both this is called Consubstatiaion.
I just recently listened to some of the Nader’s teaching on this subject and others. I would not completely discount what he is trying to say. It seems our man made understanding of the Trinity comes mostly from the catholic church. I would think anything that comes from the catholic church should send up red flags. Anyway this is a subject I will myself investigate more thoroughly.
Dear Brother Troy:
True there is a Catholic counterfeit of the trinity, basically a spiritualistic version. However, if we follow God’s inspired prophets, especially Ellen White then there is no difficulty. She does not use the term “trinity” but rather the more accurate description of a “triune” Godhead comprised of three individual persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. She has much to say about this. If we stay within the hedge of inspiration then this is our safety. The trouble with Nader’s teaching is 1) he is not a prophet, 2) although his initial arguments seem logical they tend to places where we should not go, i.e., the Holy Spirit is not a person and that there are only two persons to the Godhead. This is heresy and the reason we should shun it like the plague. It will end up contradicting both Ellen White and Victor Houteff if you follow Nader and his anti-trinitarian teaching to their logical conclusion.
Where in the Bible do you see God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit? Nowhere! You mainly read about God the Father and His Son in the NT!
Abraham and Issac is a fitting picture of this relationship!
Be warned that there was one being in Heaven once upon a time who aspired to be God or the Most High!
The Trinity is his doing! As a former Catholic and a student of Bible prophecy, it is no mystery that the papacy claims to be God’s representative on earth! He is like his father Satan!
Pull out all the texts regarding Jesus and His Father and you will see it plainly in clear light that the spirit that hovered over the waters is God’s spirit and not God the Holy Spirit! Please read the Bible in its full context! The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God mutually shared by Father and Son! That is why Jesus always talked about He and His Father how they are one not three!
Remember the incident when Jesus breathed on his disciples and told them to receive the Holy Spirit? How did He do that? Because He and His Father are one and God sends His Spirit to us only through His Son. That is why Jesus said ” No one goes to the Father except through me!”
This Trinity which stems from paganism will deceive many in the last days with the papacy caliing himself God’s rep on earth and Satan impersonating Christ! Happy reading and God bless you all!
Eli, show us in the Bible where Jesus is God? Just because you were reared on the Catholic counterfeit spiritualistic version of the trinity does not automatically imply that there is not a true. Do you read and believe in the Spirit of Prophecy? What do you make of her (Ellen White’s) many references to the triune or three person Godhead and that the Holy Spirit is a person as much as is God the Father and Jesus the Son? Are you wiser than God’s last day prophets?
But unto the Son he saith,Thu throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Hebrews 1:8
“The nature of the Holy Spirit is a mystery. Men cannot explain it, because the Lord has not revealed it to them. Men having fanciful views may bring together passages of Scripture and put a human construction on them, but the acceptance of these views will not strengthen the church. Regarding such mysteries, which are too deep for human understanding, silence is golden. (Acts of the Apostle 1911)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on trinity. Regards
There are three divine persons in heaven father, son and Holy Spirit. This is what Bible say
Here is a quote from Vol. 9 Symbolic Code Nos. 1-12. page 3-4. For those who fear to investigate a claim, the SOP has some words for you…
“But in all her history, the church as a whole has never accepted a message from heaven. The call therefore comes to each individual member. Each must decide for himself. No one should allow himself to be influenced by another. And “no one has a right to shut away the light from the people. When a message comes in the name of the Lord to His people, no one may excuse himself from an investigation of its claims….It was from pursuing this very course that the popular churches were left in partial darkness, and that is why the messages of heaven have not reached them.”–Testimonies on Sabbath School Work, p. 65; Counsels on Sabbath School Work, p. 28.
“But we see that the God of heaven sometimes commissions men to teach that which is regarded as contrary to the established doctrines. Because those who were once the depositories of truth became unfaithful to their sacred trust, the Lord chose others who would receive the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, and would advocate
Vol. 9 Symbolic Code Nos. 1-12. page 4.
truths that were not in accordance with the ideas of the religious leaders. And then these leaders, in the blindness of their minds, give full sway to what is supposed to be righteous indignation against the ones who have set aside cherished fables. They act like men who have lost their reason. They do not consider the possibility that they themselves have not rightly understood the Word. They will not open their eyes to discern the fact that they have misinterpreted and misapplied the Scriptures, and have built up false theories, calling them fundamental doctrines of the faith.”–Testimonies to Ministers, pp. 69, 70.
Dear Brethren in Laodicea, take heed to this divine wisdom. Since you are already in the greatest deception, you stultify reason in your declining to investigate a claimant to truth for fear that in doing so you will be deceived. Awake, Brethren! Can you not see that study is your only salvation–your only hope of getting out of your present “sad” (Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 253), “terrible” (Id., p. 254), “fearful” (Id., p. 260) deception, and your only hope of protection in keeping you from plunging into the abyss? So study–study as never before! And you will find that this is the beginning of the very message you must have in order to clear the scales from your eyes and break the invisible, but nonetheless real, shackles of inertia and self-exaltation in which the Enemy holds you bound.”
2 camps fighting over a concept. To me, I see so much of the human ego at work, to disprove the other & exposing weaknesses on both sides. As Christians, we nvr seem to have overcome the inner person to allow truth to prevail. Sad.
Teach only the truth coming from the golden bowl, the inspired writing of Ellen White and Victor Houteff and you will have no problem understanding the three person Godhead.
Thank you for your exposé, here is an interesting addition to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpCYiPXx-QY