A VALUABLE GIFT
One of the greatest gifts given to us by
our Creator is the gift of logical thought. It is this quality which
separates us from the dumb animals and gives us the right to be labeled
as “higher beings” along with the angels. God has not given us this
faculty of reason and logic in the expectation that we would not use it.
Like every other faculty given to man, this one is also a reflection of
the nature and qualities of God Himself, and as such is a precious gift
which God gave us to be exercised. It surely would be one of the great
signs of something fundamentally wrong and contrary to the will of God
if a matter should arise on which we should be told, “on this matter you
are not to think. Logic and reason are not to be exercised here. All
that you need to do is to accept what you have been told by others, even
if it is diametrically opposed to reason and good sense.” Ellen White
expressed this individual right to think and to reason logically as a
fundamental duty of every Christian and something which every person
should be trained and encouraged to do.
“Every human being, created in the image of God, is
endowed with a power akin to that of the Creator— individuality, power
to think and to do. The men in whom this power is developed are the men
who bear responsibilities, who are leaders in enterprise, and who
influence character. It is the work of true education to develop this
power, to train the youth to be thinkers, and not mere reflectors of
other men’s thought. Instead of confining their study to that which men
have said or written, let students be directed to the sources of truth,
to the vast fields opened for research in nature and revelation. Let
them contemplate the great facts of duty and destiny, and the mind will
expand and strengthen. Instead of educated weaklings, institutions of
learning may send forth men strong to think and to act, men who are
masters and not slaves of circumstances, men who possess breadth of
mind, clearness of thought, and the courage of their convictions.” {Ed
17-18}
SHALL WE THINK?
Shall we think? Shall we be reasonable? Shall we be logical? On every
matter the answer seems to be “yes” except on the question of the
Trinity. Here, in fact, it seems that not even our fundamental duty to
search the scriptures, comparing one passage with another is to be
exercised. Often we hear the words, “we cannot understand God. God is a
mystery. The secret things belong to God. We should not seek to
understand the nature of God.” Of course, when this is translated what
it really means is, “you are to accept the doctrine of the Trinity
without question. You are to ignore those Bible passages which are
diametrically opposed to such a teaching. On this matter you are to
accept the traditions of the Church which have existed for the past 1600
years and it is dangerous to try to study and to believe the Bible on
this matter. Here, you need the help of theologians who are the only
ones able to understand these things.” The truth is that the
contradictions of the doctrine of the trinity, or, the triune God, or
the three-in-one godhead (as some prefer to term it), is so full of
illogical and unscriptural contradictions that the only way in which it
is possible to maintain a belief in it is by discouraging individual and
careful study of the matter. Men must be trained to be reflectors of
the thoughts of other men.
In this brief article we focus on
one of the glaring inconsistencies in the Seventh-day Adventist version
of the Trinity. It is the belief that Jesus Christ is the almighty God,
while at the same time he is Michael the archangel.
ARE JESUS & MICHAEL THE SAME?
There is ample evidence to support the truth that Michael the archangel
is Jesus Christ. Let us examine a few facts which clearly identify
Michael with Jesus.
1. Michael is “the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people.” (Daniel 12:1)
2. In speaking to Daniel, Gabriel refers to Michael as “your prince.” (Daniel 10:21)
3. There is only one heavenly being referred to as a prince or “the
great prince” in the book of Daniel. This must be the same person
referred to as the “prince of the host” in Dan 8:11 where it says of the
little horn, “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.” In verse 25 of Daniel 8 this same person is
called the “Prince of princes.” Again, in Daniel 9:25 we find that Jesus
is referred to as “the Messiah, the prince.” It is clear that in the
book of Daniel the references to “the prince, the great prince, the
prince of the host, the prince of the covenant and Michael your prince,
all have reference to the same person, who is Jesus Christ.
4. Furthermore, in Jude 1:9 Michael is
referred to as the archangel. He is the only archangel mentioned in the
Bible. The misconception of popular Christianity that there are several
archangels has been immortalised in the lines of songs such as, “praise
him, praise him, highest archangels in glory.” However, such an idea has
no basis in Scripture. The Bible only speaks of one archangel, and this
person is called Michael. There is further evidence that this person is
to be identified with Jesus Christ
when we discover that
when Jesus returns the second time it will be with the shout of the
archangel (1 Thess. 4:16). Since there is only one archangel and Jesus’
voice is the voice of the archangel, then it is evident that Jesus is
the archangel.
The discovery that Jesus is Michael the
archangel does not in any way make the angels equal to Christ. The term
“archangel” indicates one who is chief over the angels, and not merely
an angel who has been elevated to a position over the others. The
superior status of Jesus is indicated in the titles, “The prince of
princes,” “The prince of the host,”. and “the great prince.”
ARE GOD AND MICHAEL THE SAME?
On the other hand however, while it is plain that Michael is a Being
who is superior to the angels, it is equally plain that Michael is one
who is subordinate to God and not equal to God in authority. The very
name “Michael” is weighted with meaning and is very instructive. The
word means literally, “who is like God,” and signifies one who is like
God. In every reasonable approach to comprehension it is as plain as day
that if a person is like another person, then he cannot be the same
person that he is like. The word “like” signifies that they are similar,
but not the same. The very relationship which we find between fathers
and sons.
In Jude 1:9 we find a record of an event which illustrates the fact that the authority of Michael is not equal to that of God.
(Jude 1:9) Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he
disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing
accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
Here we find that
Michael (the pre-advent Jesus Christ) had come to raise Moses from the
dead. The devil apparently presented himself to resist Michael,
evidently with the argument that Moses had died as a sinner, no ransom
had yet been provided for him and therefore God had no right to bring
him back from the dead. Notice what it says about Michael: He did not
rail against Satan. He did not dismiss him from his presence
contemptuously. He did not Himself exercise personal authority in
countering Satan’s opposition. Instead, he called upon One whom He quite
clearly recognised as being a higher authority than himself. His
counter to Satan was, “the Lord rebuke thee.” Why did he not say, “I
rebuke thee” if his authority was equal to that of the Father?
AN EMBARRASING PARADOX
When all the evidence is examined and assessed in a reasonable and
logical way it is evident that Michael is a being who is not equal to
God in authority, though he is Lord of the angels and superior to them.
This cannot be denied and most Trinitarians, in consequence of this fact
have rejected the truth that Michael is the heavenly name of Jesus
Christ, in spite of all the evidence which clearly indicates that they
are one and the same. Seventh-day Adventists on the other hand have
taught from the very beginning of their history that Michael the
archangel is Christ.
When the pro-trinitarian party led by
LeRoy Froom went through all the literature of Adventism deleting and
changing in an effort to destroy all evidence that the church was once
anti-trinitarian, they either overlooked this “problem” of Michael, or
else they decided that it was too deep rooted to eradicate and decided
to leave it alone in the hope that it would be unnoticed. You see, the
mass of Seventh-day Adventists were able, on the whole, to accept the
doctrine of the Trinity back in the 1930s when it was introduced into
the beliefs of the church. However, the same people would have rebelled
if the authority of Ellen White had been openly rejected by the church
and since Ellen White indicates that Michael is Christ over and over
again, there was no way that the deleters could remove this teaching
from the church.
Today, the doctrine of Michael remains in a
Trinitarian Seventh-day Adventist church as an embarrassing paradox.
Careful examination will convince any thinking person that the two
things cannot both be true. Jesus cannot be Michael the archangel, while
at the same time God Himself. The lame explanation of “mystery” has
continued to satisfy willfully ignorant men, enslaved by
denominationalism, trained to be mindless reflectors of other men’s
thoughts. However, it must be clear to the person who dares to think
that the word “mystery” is just a word used to prevent reasonable
thought on a issue which can only be resolved in one way.
