Comments on the book, "W. W. Prescott" by Gilbert M. Valentine

“July 6 quite a number of delegates strongly resisted his [W. W. Prescott’s] assertion that Christ was without a beginning, was coeternal with the Father, and was therefore truly God. To say (as many Adventists did) that He had a beginning was to make Him a dependent being and therefore not equal with the Father.” “But when challenged over how to interpret the traditional subordination texts such as John 5:26 that spoke of the Father granting the Son ‘to have life in himself’ and others that used the terminology of Christ as the ‘first-born of all creation’ (RSV) and the ‘only begotten of the father,’ the professor stumbled. Adequate language eluded him.”

I am glad the above author, Gilbert M. Valentine, who wrote W. W. Prescott, kept to the truth when covering the 1919 Bible Conference. His commentary has a bad problem of skewing things. But we have the Bible, Spirit of Prophecy, and his recorded church history to unskew his commentaries. Using the above quotation and scripture I want to unskew a couple of such statements:

1) Valentine’s statement: “Christ was without a beginning, was coeternal with the Father, and was therefore truly God”. 

My comment: Christ was eternal because He was divine. There is no need to buttress Christ’s pedigree or resumé by going the other way with logic: Christ was divine because He was eternal. It’s enough that He was truly divine, period. John 1:1 says He was divine. And He was eternal, but only because He inherited eternal life from His Father, who was the sole self-existent One. Christ was self-existent also, but only because He inherited self-existence from His Father, “Him that liveth for ever and ever” (Rev. 4:10), who begat His dear Son. He inherited self-existence when He was begotten, “the only begotten of the Father” (John 1:14) in eternity past.

2) Valentine’s statement: “To say (as many Adventists did) that He had a beginning was to make Him a dependent being and therefore not equal with the Father”. 

My comment: Jesus was dependent on His Father, not only as an incarnated son of Adam, but from the very beginning. Forever has Jesus been enfolded in His Father’s love. “The only begotten Son, ... is in the bosom of the Father.” (John 1:18). “Is” signifies a state of being, a present state, an on-going state, an unchanging state.

“...turning from all lesser representations, we behold God in Jesus.… ‘I do nothing of Myself,’ said Christ; ‘the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father.’ ‘I seek not Mine own glory,’ but the glory of Him that sent Me. John 8:28; 6:57; 8:50; 7:18. In these words is set forth the great principle which is the law of life for the universe. All things Christ received from God, but He took to give. So in the heavenly courts, in His ministry for all created beings: through the beloved Son, the Father’s life flows out to all; through the Son it returns, in praise and joyous service, a tide of love, to the great Source of all. And thus through Christ the circuit of beneficence is complete, representing the character of the great Giver, the law of life.

In heaven itself this law was broken. Sin originated in selfseeking. Lucifer, the covering cherub, desired to be first in heaven.” Desire of Ages, p. 21.

Certainly, Christ is dependent. That’s the beauty of God’s dear Child. That’s the glory of the Father, shining in His Child’s face. The kingdom of God is built upon this precept. “Jesus called them unto Him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. 

But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; 

And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: 

Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matt. 20:25-28).

To rob the Son of His glory as the master Exemplar of self-forgetfulness, is to do as Satan did, who appeared to pull Jesus down from His exalted throne of self-abnegation and put Him on a throne of self-arrogation. “Yea, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down.” (Dan. 8:11).

“And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns [turreted crowns, that represent the god of fortresses, war, enslavement, forced obedience (Dan. 11:38)], and upon his heads the name of blasphemy….

And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? 

And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. 

And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven….

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. ” (Rev. 13:1, 4-6, 8).

Who is this vile king of the north? Is it not Satan himself and his earthly counterpart? And to worship a strange Jesus who was not dependent on His Father, while the true Jesus called His Father “God” (Heb. 1:9; John 20:17; Matt. 27:46), is to be worshiping and serving a false god like the vile king of the north, the god who steals worship from the “only true God” to receive it to himself. Through theological tinkering Satan fashions a theological idol; he labels it God the Father, or God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit; and then inhabits that absract god fashioned with his own artifice. And by droves the people flock to adore this lustrous god. This god doesn’t inspire or require deep repentance, anxiety over being eternally lost, or tears. He’s nice to us. “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (Rev. 13:8).

The Trinity God is just such a god of Satan’s workmanship. Each God of the Trinity God is subservient to the main God. It might even appear that the Trinity came about by 1) absorbing multiple religions that led to the formula of 1+1+1=1, that is, by blending the pagan pantheon of gods with the one monotheistic God of the Old Testament; or, 2) to have an intellectual escape from God’s chastisement of our peace by the bottomless pit, incomprehensible mystery of “one in three and three in one”. However it came, a deeper, more sinister machination is happening in the Trinity god. Each God in the Trinity—God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, is subservient to the main God, the Trinity God. So, who is the main Trinity God under whom they all serve, to whom even God the Father, Elohim Himself, is subservient? Satan. Lucifer, who said, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.... I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.” (Isa. 14:13,14).

And he has a backup place for worship, special worship, by also being the third person of the three Gods. Thus, in multitudes he is ensured a place in the heart, to confuse and manipulate the mind, and a means to enter and possess the will. And Catholic countries, where everyone is Catholic, have the worst cases of this devil possession. Yes, all the other world religions have an old religion and a new religion. As mankind lost vitality to serve Satan directly, the archaic, careless, cold-hearted, male-supremacist gods of despotic demands lost their appeal and their following, so, in order to keep the increasingly weaker nations under his power, newer religions arose sporting softer gods that met a token need of the people’s heart.

But, with the Trinity, both old and new Gods, the fading God of force and its much warmer servant who was closer to home and nevermore to leave, licentious God(dess), Satan has covered both bases of Baal and Ashtoreth. In the meantime, our Creators, God the Father and His Son Jesus with whom alone is true fellowship (1Jn. 1:3), are acknowledged but sidelined and never feared or sought out with all our heart. The Father and the Son are the Unknown God since the beginning of the fall. Baal the main Trinity god, and his wife the cozy and enabling unholy spirit Mediatrix receive the full attention and adoration of everyone everywhere you go in the world. And today, this Trinity god and his unholy spirit wife, is making deep inroads into Adventism.

Yes, like all the other world religions with the old religion cling-ons to their new religion, in Jehovah’s true religion a similar condition has reappeared, and simultaneously. The ancient monotheist God of the Apostles and Reformers, the glorious Schoolmaster under whom the Protestant world has been kept, has faded from the allegiance of the descendants of the Reformation, as it had from the Jews, 2000 years ago. This is not only because Satan found a weakening heathen audience to whom he must lessen his overwhelming ferocity, but also because Jehovah had a more matured remnant to graduate from its highly structured, interwoven with Babylonian sentiments, elementary school under Moses, to a better science of salvation with a clearer view of the Messiah.

Once again, an old, corrupted religion faded making way for a new. “In that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.” (Heb. 8:13). “The scripture hath concluded all under sin. …we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith....” (Gal. 3:22,23). The Protestants have suffered, not only under Satan’s lawless softening of the old world religions, but also under Jehovah’s biblical construct from Galatians 3 given to our apostolic forebears. Have I missed something here? Am I saying that it’s time to start another covenant?

What did I delete by the ellipsis in the above scriptures? I removed the heaven-sent counter-force to the curse of the law, the constant rejection from the loving God sought for. I omitted the solution to all the world’s problems. And now I will give the whole text.

“But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. 

But before faith came, we were kept under the Law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 

Wherefore the Law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Gal 3:22-24).

Those who are seeking out God, overturning every promise and every commandment, waiting for the love to shine forth, are soon to have the desire of their hearts. But, they must go all the way. They must renounce their Baal God who reigns over Elohim and Michael. They must utterly renounce their Ashtoreth goddess “holy” spirit of licence and crop fertility. They must do as Paul did in Romans 7, which the early church also did. We must go before the whole Law of God and sternly contrast the difference between our characters and God’s character. No more comparing ourselves to murderers and drug dealers, prostitutes and dictators. No more standing before the Law of God and saying, “Yep, I’m doing that! And Yep, I’m doing that! Check that one off! And that one, and that one!” No more coming away from the Law saying, “I’m a pretty good person!”, which is anathema to God.

Rather, let us be striving before the Law like Paul did, saying, “For we know that the Law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.” (Rom. 7:14,15). “Wherefore the Law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good…. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not…. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:12,18,24). “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” (Isa. 6:5).

“For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” (2Cor. 10:12).

So, if we will patiently follow through like the apostolic church did, great promises are in store for Protestants, the people of the Lord, the people of the Book. And a great revival has been prophesied of just prior to Jesus’ return in power and glory.

“Notwithstanding the widespread declension of faith and piety, there are true followers of Christ in these churches. Before the final visitation of God’s judgments upon the earth there will be among

the people of the Lord such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times. The Spirit and power of God will be poured out upon His children. At that time many will

separate themselves from those churches in which the love of this world has supplanted love for God and His word. Many, both of ministers and people, will gladly accept those great truths which God has caused to be proclaimed at this time to prepare a people for the Lord’s second coming….” Great Controversy, p. 464.

The above revival will be the greatest that God has ever given because it will be making the last call to a world that is about to be destroyed, in preparation for the appearing of His original eternal kingdom. This revival can be seen cryptically, crowded with symbolism, in Revelation 11:11-14.

“And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. 

And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. 

And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. 

The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.”

But, there is a counter-force acting against this soon-coming revival. The above quotation continues.

“...The enemy of souls desires to hinder this work; and before the time for such a movement shall come, he will endeavor to prevent it by introducing a counterfeit. In those churches which he can bring under his deceptive power he will make it appear that God’s special blessing is poured out; there will be manifest what is thought to be great religious interest. Multitudes will exult that God is working marvelously for them, when the work is that of another spirit. Under a religious guise, Satan will seek to extend his influence over the Christian world.” Ibid. p 464.

How can Satan stop the revivals of Almighty God? The devil has done this for thousands of years simply by gaining access to His children’s love and adoration. What does the fallen, carnal heart love the most? Self. By a religion of pride and self-love the trail of fallen children of God goes all the way back to Eve and Adam.

Today Satan already has the religion and its god to supplant the only true religion and its only true God. The supplanting religion is the religion that eschews the Law, the Schoolmaster that shames us and sends arrows of conviction against our case-hardened pride and self-love. And the Law is the Law of the God of Abraham. The Law is the Ten Commandments that Paul labeled to be much more than works oriented, “Do this! Do that!” “OK. Done. Now I am right with God.” To Paul it was a given, for all to assume, that the Law is “spiritual” (Rom. 7:14), that those moral commands of the Law cut deep into the motives and hidden agendas, “dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12).

But, the new false revival spreading over the Protestant world evades the condemnation, the curses, of the Law. The new religion rejoices in the first part of the Galatians 3 promise of God’s reconciled Spirit, justification, pardon, and peace with God. But, because they reject a God of Law they twist the second part of the Galatians 3 promise, as follows.

“But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:25,26).

The modern churches have accepted a falsehood that Paul taught that once we are forgiven, then we are no longer under the rule of God’s Law. That is not at all what Paul meant. He was teaching that the condemnation of a broken Law is removed because Christ is now mediating between it and us, the long period of the Law’s grinding boiled us down to child-likeness, for our willingness and strength to obey. Paul was saying that the Law was no longer to be a stern accuser because the Spirit of Christ would be dwelling in our heart and faculties (but that doesn’t work when we turn again to our own vomit, to willingly backslide into the sins from which Jesus delivered us). The Law with all of its jurisdiction, remains in tact and immutable. In the new covenant, the Law is written in our hearts, after so long a time of oppression by the accuser of the brethren. Now our faith in Christ leads to the faith of Christ, His perfect faith (Gal. 2:16). Faith, yielding the will to God’s will, leads to happy obedience to His Law with all the blessings that result, for we are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ with whom we have a very tight bond.

Then Paul confirms the true meaning of his gospel with an illustration. The heir, while young, is treated just like a commoner, except is under stern supervision for 16 years of education. Then comes the internship with its father, the king, president of the company, patriarch of the family plantation. Finally, when the father decides his child has internalized his training, he begins to place him in strategic positions.

This is what salvation does for us. We were street urchins outside the walls of the heavenly Jerusalem. Jesus goes out and sees our destitution, saying, “I want to adopt you.” He gets us cleaned up and dressed right. He gives us years of Bible study and experiences that build our trust in Him. We learn the laws of His Father’s kingdom so that we can be “faithful in all His house, as a servant.” (Heb. 3:5). In all the ups and downs the Law is indelibly written in our hearts. With David and Jesus we say, “O how love I Thy Law! It is my meditation all the day [long]!” (Psa. 119:97). So we are put in key places of His church.

Once we are so exalted and so privileged by Jesus, should we then think to say in our hearts, “Now that I’m freed from poverty and the dangers of the streets. I have been loved and nurtured; I am healthy in body, heart, and spirit. Therefore I will repay all of God’s kindnesses by dispensing with the Law that He has put in my heart. Let us eat and drink and play around, for tomorrow we die!”? That would be preposterous! That would be utmost egregious! Utmost grievous and worthy of instant divine retribution. In reality, we couldn’t do it. That would be impossible! We feel an obligation for life to be perfectly loyal to God in every way.

“Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth Him that begat loveth Him also that is begotten of Him. 

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments. 

For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous. 

For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” (1Jn. 5:1-4).

The born-again soul will possess loyalty to God that would be never-ending. He would say, “I love my Master,... and he shall serve Him for ever.” (Exo. 21:5,16).

But, to prevent such powerful loyalty and obedience and great revival, Satan has implanted an ensnaring doctrine that the Law was revoked at the cross. By this error millions, even billions, cannot be justified, and have peace with God through His reconciled Spirit. The schoolmaster Law brings us to Christ for justification. How can the Law be omitted? Omit the first step of the justification process and the whole process ceases to exist. But millions, even billions, are celebrating a salvation that doesn’t conform to the Bible order.

And who is the God in charge of this heinous religion that will preempt Jehovah’s holy Latter Rain revival and distract billions from being ready for Jesus to return? It is the universal, unbiblical, contrary to the doctrine of Ellen G. White and all of the Adventist pioneers, ecumenical, Sun God of Nimrod and Semiramis, Trinity God over God the Father and over His only-begotten eternal Son, who will pour His Father’s wrath without mixture over the beast’s Trinity God, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone forever and ever.