Trinitarian Statements
Denis Kaiser
The Reception of Ellen White’s Trinitarian Statements by Her Contemporaries (1897–1915)*
Ellen White’s Trinitarian statements attracted interest and caused responses when they appeared in print between 1896 and 1915. The visible majority of the writers who quoted or referred to her statements understood them in a Trinitarian manner. Surprisingly these writers came from various spectrums of the church in North America and Australia. A minority group quoted her statements with a subordinationist and/or modalist mindset. J. H. Kellogg’s panentheistic view constituted an exception. Most statements were of a very practical and spiritual nature, although there were also a few apologetic statements which were primarily directed against Catholicism, Christian Science, etc. When public interest in the topic seemed to vanish, Ellen White emphasized the Trinitarian position again (1904, 1908). At the occasion of her death she is credited with “exalting the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead and Christ’s representative on earth,” a claim that is supported by the factual evidence.
*老司机传媒 Seminary Studies 50, no. 1 (2012): 25–38.