DEBUNKING TERRY HILL ON THE SPEARS TRINITY ARTICLE THE SDA

PIONEERS SUPPORTIVELY PUBLISHED IN 1890. By Derrick Gillespie

HOW CAN SOMEONE LOOK AT THE FOLLOWING QUOTE FROM THE SPEAR ARTICLE AND
COME TO THE AMAZING CONCLUSION THAT THE AUTHOR WAS NEITHER TRINITARIAN, NOR
SPEAKING OF THE TRINITY, AS YOU HAVE SADLY SAID AND DONE TERRY HILL?

"To the Corinthians the apostle said: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.
Amen. 2 Cor; 13:14. Who finds fault with the Trinity of the Godhead as
set forth in this benedictive prayer? To the same church he also said: But
to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in
Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him. I
Cor. 8:6. The phrase of whom are all things, and we in Him, as applied to
the one God the Father, and the phrase by whom are all things, and we
by Him, as applied to the one Lord Jesus Christ, differ from each other;
and this difference in the preposition used implies a distinction between
God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father appears in this
language as the primal source, and Christ appears as the medium. So,
also, the apostle said to the Ephesians And be ye kind one to another,
tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christs sake hath
forgiven you. Eph. 4:32. Here the forgiveness comes from God, who is one
of the personalities of the Trinity, but it comes for Christs sake, and
through Him, who is another personality in the same Trinity. Who has
any objection to the doctrine as thus appearing? Who cavils with it when he
asks the Father to forgive him for Christs sake?

The truth is that God the Father in the primacy attached to Him in the
Bible, and God the Son in the redeeming and saving work assigned to Him
in the same Bible, and God the Holy Ghost in his office of regeneration
and sanctification whether considered collectively as one God, or
separately in the relation of each to human salvationare really
omnipresent in, and belong to, the whole texture of the revealed plan for
saving sinners. In this plan there is nothing superfluous, and nothing that is
not adapted to the felt wants of man. The simple-minded Christian, when
thinking of these wants, and contemplating the divine Trinity, as he finds it
in the Bible, has no difficulty with the doctrine. It is a light to his thoughts,
and a gracious power in his experience. Content with the revealed facts,
and spiritually using them, he has no trouble with them. He does not
attempt metaphysically to analyze the God he worships, but rather thinks of
him as revealed in His word, and can always join in the following Doxology:
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!

Praise Him, all creatures here below!

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host!

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!

It is only when men speculate outside of the Bible and beyond it, and seek
to be wiser than they can be, that difficulties arise; and then they do arise
as the rebuke of their own folly. A glorious doctrine then becomes their
perplexity, and ingulfs them in a confusion of their own creation. What they
need is to believe more and speculate less."

Samuel T. Spear, 1889

PROOFS THAT THE AUTHOR WAS

TRINITARIAN:

1. Firstly, it must be observed that the author of the above quote was the
famous writer Rev. Samuel T. Spear, who was a bona fide ordained
minister of the Presbyterian Church in America for very many
years. The Presbyterian Church was and has remained a
Trinitarian Church. Spear never had any internal wrangling with his
Church over an acceptance of what he terms "the divine" Trinity until
the day he died. This is the first clue that the above quote is about
nothing less than, according to the author, basic and unexplained
Trinitarianism as it appears in the Bible; not according to the explained
ontological Trinity of the Papacy. This is why this article was adopted
by SD Adventism as THEN representative of what Adventism had
come to believe in 1892 (despite it's staunch anti-Trinitarianism of the
past), and hence Adventism even re-titled the article as "The Bible
Doctrine of the Trinity". Rather telling isn't it? Thus the reason why 21
years after this event in Adventism the chief editor of Adventism's
Review and Herald declared in no uncertain terms that:

"Seventh-day Adventists [now] believe in the divine Trinity..." - F.M.

Wilcox, Oct. 1913

2. Spear, the author in the above quote, even supportively quotes the
words of a traditional Trinitarian song, which no TRUE anti-Trinitarian
church would ever allow to be sung in it's worship services and said to
be addressed to the Trinity or three divine persons!!"Praise God from
whom all blessings flow, praise Him all creatures here below" is what
the song announces. But which "God" is the "Him" in reference to that
Spear has no problem with praising. "Praise Father, Son and Holy
Ghost" is the answer in the same song!! Only Trinitarianism regards
"God" as Father, Son and Holy Ghost together and proceeds to call all
three "Him", and not "them"; just like how Man is generically and
collectively called "him" despite distinct persons are involved (compare
Psalm 8:4-8 with Gen. 3:22-24 and Gen. 5:1,2). Spear then goes on to
freely use the traditional Trinitarian expressions "God, the Son", and
"God, the Holy Ghost" as further proof he is a Trinitarian plain and
simple (if even he prefers to not speculate about matters not revealed).
Spear then capsules his FULL COMFORT with the three considered as
the one God when he said:

"The truth is that God the Father in the primacy attached to Him in the
Bible, and God the Son in the redeeming and saving work assigned to Him
in the same Bible, and God the Holy Ghost in his office of regeneration and
sanctification whether considered collectively as one God, or separately
in the relation of each to human salvationare really omnipresent in, and
belong to, the whole texture of the revealed plan for saving sinners. In this
plan there is nothing superfluous, and nothing that is not adapted to the felt
wants of man."

This is Trinitarianism plain and simple. Need I say more? But I will.

3. 2 Cor. 13:14 has always been one of the prime 'proof text's used by
Trinitarians to establish "a Trinity of the Godhead", and Samuel Spear
asks who would ever object to this being a Trinitarian text? Obviously
only one who does not believe it does indicate three persons in the one
Godhead, or someone who is an anti-Trinitarian would object to its use
this way. This is further proof that the author is IRREFUTABLY a
Trinitarian who has no issue with the basic Biblical data that could be
appealed to in order to establish "a Trinity of the Godhead" (as Spear
puts it).

4. The author then shows his full comfort in the fact that Jesus is
subordinate to (i.e. led by and answerable to) the Father who holds a
certain "primacy", with him being the "medium" of all the blessings
coming from the Father as "Head". Trinitarianism, probably more than
any other doctrine, has been attacked for preaching what is called
subordinationism. Historical Trinitarians have always seen a certain
"primacy" in the Father, despite equally accepting that Jesus is equal in
nature to Him. No one who has properly studied historical documents on
Trinitarianism would ever deny this. This is further proof that the author
has no problems with the basic tenets of Trinitarianism.

5. Finally, the author shows that his only objections to any teaching on
what he deems the Biblical Trinity is to "METAPHYSICALLY
speculate beyond what the Bible speaks about directly. This shows that
Spear clearly believed that one can be a Trinitarian without of
necessity accepting how the Papacy painstakingly explains the
oneness of the Godhead, for instance. This does not in any way denies
that the author accepts what he still calls "a Trinity of the Godhead". In
fact in the article he defend biblical Trinitarians as not tri-
theists, despite they believe in a triune God or a tri-personal
God introduced under the titles of Father, Son and Holy Spirit!!
That is no way a non-Trinitarian premise, as you seek to mislead your
readers, Terry Hill; only one seeking to rescue the true Biblilcal Trinity
from human speculation!!

CONCLUSION:

And remember, the leading above quote was just a very small portion of
the whole article which wreaks all over with Trinitarian language and
Trinitarian undertones. Was Samuel Spear a Trinitarian? You bet!!
Only someone who dabbles in sophistry, or has painful issues he
cannot bring himself to accept about Adventism's history of
accepting basic Trinitarainism before 1915, would deny the MORE
THAN OBVIOUS!! Like the Sabbath doctrine, Adventism initially
used the writings of an outsider to be the starting point to help in
establishing the Trinitarian teaching among it's ranks. That is the
truth plain and simple. None can hold the truth captive to their puny
surmisings for too long.

Derrick Gillespie is a trained teacher in the Social Sciences, History, and Geography, and remains a
member of the SDA Church in Jamaica and a lay evangelist for SDAs.
(Contact Info: ddgillespie@live.com OR https://www.facebook.com/derrick.gillespie