The Forgotten Pillar

The Full Divinity of the Messiah

Before we continue on, we must make something very clear. We have studied so far from the Bible through the lens of the Spirit of Prophecy that God is a bodily person, for His Son is the express image of His person, and we were made in that same image. We have seen that this means that the Spirit is not God personally, but it also means that the Son, who is His own personal being, is not God personally. But this in nowise means that the Messiah does not have the nature of God. The distinction is made plain at the beginning of the Gospel of John. Here is a literal translation of it:

In the beginning was the Word: and the Word was with the God; but the Word was God *essentially. The same was in the beginning with the God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.

— John 1:1-4
* Ellen White adds this word in her commentary on this verse, as we will see later.

This text says a lot. First, there is a distinction between “God” and the Messiah, “the Word,” who was with Him; in the Greek, there is a definite article before that first “God,” denoting that this is the personality of God. But the Messiah is not Him personally; rather, the Messiah is everything that God is in essence—no definite article with that second “God,” and “God” (theos) coming before “the Word” (logos) in the Greek, together showing quality rather than personality. Thus, the Word “is the representative of God to man” (E.G. White, Youth’s Instructor, 7/20/1899) since He has all the qualities of God, being one with Him “in nature, in character, and in purpose” (Great Controversy, p. 493).

Genesis 1:1-3—on which John 1:1-3 is a commentary—calls the One who did the creating “God” rather than “the Word,” and John is simply explaining why. So, the second “God” is still referring to the Father, as it always does with that title, just as Ellen White says, “Jesus Christ is our heavenly Father. Jesus Christ is the Father with us,” and clarifies immediately who the personality of God is: “God is the Father” (E.G. White, Manuscript 141, 1908).

So, the text clearly says that all things were made by the Word, yet the first verse of Genesis says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” And we know this is a single person because of the personal pronouns and context of Verse 27: “God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him.” There is no contradiction. It was God who created all things in mind. In other words, it was His idea, and He gets the glory for it, just as a man who invents something gets the credit for the invention, even though many other humans may materially produce the creation in factories.

It was His Son who created all things in Word, for He is called in John “the Word.” God spoke through His Son who represents Him. A person’s word expresses what is in his mind; hence, the Word expresses what is in the mind of God. Yet words are still not actions, but communications which can produce actions by the hands of laborers. So “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (v. 2)—the Spirit being the mysterious active agent. So, God created everything, but through His Son’s Word, causing the immediate creative activity of His Spirit. “The Head of the Messiah is God” (1 Cor. 11:3), who is the Source of all things, and the Messiah is the divine channel.

But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto Him; and one Lord Jehoshua the Messiah, through whom are all things, and we through Him.

— 1 Corinthians 8:6

Again, God is personally identified as the Father; the Messiah is our Lord, or Master, since He has a closer relation to us having taken our nature. He is the very essence of God—in nature, character, and purpose—but God is still a person, yea the One being represented in communication (the Word).

The Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, is truly God in infinity, but not in personality.

— E.G. White, Manuscript 116, 1905

Our heavenly Father is the God of the universe, and Christ is the divine Son, the One equal with the Father.

— E.G. White, Manuscript 49, 1906

Some think that God is plural due to the Hebrew word “Elohim,” with the ‘-im’ suffix designating plurality. However, plurality is often used in Hebrew when it is not numerical plurality for various reasons. In this case, it is plurality of majesty—a concept that has been used in various cultures for royalty. It is similar to how in English we capitalize names and titles of Deity, but Hebrew did not have capital letters, so it uses grammatical plurality instead.

But what about a couple of other Scriptures that we have not looked at that seem to call the Messiah ‘God’?

Here is the first one:

And of the angels He saith, “Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire.” But unto the Son He saith, “Thy Throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy Kingdom.” “Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.”

— Hebrews 1:7-9

Another thing that we must understand about the Hebrew word ‘elohim’ is that it is used for other dignitaries besides Deity. Here is an example, again in the King James Version:

God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; He judgeth among the gods. How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? … I have said, “Ye are gods.”

— Psalm 82:1, 2, 6

Notice, the King James has “gods,” but it is clearly speaking of the judges that ruled over Israel. The word ‘elohim’ is used that way in the Torah for them as well.

Therefore, when it is used in the 45th Psalm—the source text for the passage in Hebrews 1—it is only a term that Jehovah uses in the sense of rulership, with the context being His Son’s position on the Throne of His Kingdom. A better translation of ‘elohim’ in Psalm 45 and Hebrews 1 would then be ‘Ruler’. In fact, the next verse in Hebrews 1 shows that God is the God of His ruling Son—”even Thy God.” It could never be said of God that He has a God.

The next text also must be understood according to its context:

Then saith He to Thomas, “Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing.” And Thomas answered and said unto Him, “My Lord and my God!”

— John 20:27-28

Thomas did not believe He had seen the Lord Jehoshua until He had touched Him. But then why did he also say “my God“? Again, we must look at the context.

The previous conversation Thomas had had with the Lord, and the follow-up with Philip, is recorded in John 14:

Thomas saith unto Him, “Lord, we know not whither Thou goest. How know we the way?” Jehoshua saith unto him, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by Me. If ye had known Me, ye would have known My Father also: from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him.” Philip saith unto Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” Jehoshua saith unto him, “Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. How sayest thou, ‘Show us the Father?’ Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I say unto you I speak not from Myself: but the Father abiding in Me doeth His works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me … Yet a little while, and the world seeth Me no more; but ye shall see Me: because I live, ye shall live also. In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.”

— John 14:5-11, 19-20

In John 20, after the resurrection, Thomas was acknowledging that He not only was seeing the Lord Jehoshua but also “God,” His Father, just as He had prophesied before His crucifixion. In fact, it was prophesied in Isaiah 9:6 that He would be called “Mighty God.” Is the Son of God personally the “Mighty God“? No. But because He is the Representative of God, the Father, in that He is in the nature and character of the Father and speaks only His words, as the Father’s Spirit dwells in Him perfectly. He is Immanuel—God (the Father) with us.

Hence, in that representative sense, He is called the Mighty God; however, He is not Himself that Mighty God. When we worship the Son of God, we are really worshiping the Father that is in Him, and through Him, for He is the Way to the Father. He represents God so perfectly that He is called ‘God‘, such as the many times He spoke with patriarchs and prophets of old the very words of God under the Name Jehovah.

Being made so much better than the angels … He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than they.

— Hebrews 1:4

Thou shalt fear Jehovah thy God; and Him only shalt thou serve.

— Deuteronomy 6:13

The man Christ Jesus was not the Lord God Almighty, yet Christ and the Father are one. The Deity did not sink under the agonizing torture of Calvary, yet it is none the less true that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” [John 3:16]

— E.G. White, Manuscript 140, 1903

The Father, whom we worship through the Son, could not die, but He could give His Son to die. But why is God called His Father? What does this title mean? And how can the Messiah still have full divinity, having life in Himself just as God does? This is what we must examine. First, let us hear Jehoshua speak for Himself:

Then said they to him, “We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, ‘If God were your Father, ye would love Me: for I proceeded forth from God, and am come; for neither have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.”

— John 8:41-42

The Greek word for “proceeded forth” is ‘exerchomai’, which, according to Strong’s, means ‘to issue’. And here are the applicable definitions that Webster’s gives for ‘issue’ that also mean ‘proceed’: “to pass or flow out; to proceed, as from a source; as, water issues from springs; blood issues from wounds; sap or gum issues from trees; light issues from the sun”; “to proceed, as progeny”; “to be produced.” And Strong’s says that the word ‘ek’, translated to ‘from’, denotes “origin (the point whence motion or action proceeds)”.

Also, in John 3:16, quoted in Sister White’s previous statement, the word ‘monogenes’—a contraction of ‘mono’ (only) and ‘ginomai’ (begotten)—is used to describe Jehoshua before He was given to the human race. The second Greek word is of much interest. Strong’s defines it as “to cause to be (gen -erate) that is (reflexively) to become (come into being),” and Thayer primarily defines it as “to become, i.e. to come into existence, begin to be, receive being” and also “to be made.” So, indeed He has an origin, and we learned in John 8 what His origin is.

The origin of the Messiah is His Father; He was made of His Father’s own essence, making the two equivalent in nature, which the Jews well-knew and is why they charged Him of blasphemy. Sister White brings this out as well in her commentary:

In calling God “His own Father” [He] had declared Himself equal with God. John 5:18, R. V. The whole nation of the Jews called God their Father, therefore they would not have been so enraged if Christ had represented Himself as standing in the same relation to God. But they accused Him of blasphemy, showing that they understood Him as making this claim in the highest sense.

— E.G. White, Desire of Ages, p. 207

While they were thus wavering between doubt and faith, Jesus took up their thoughts and answered them: “Ye both know Me, and ye know whence I am: but I am not come from Myself; and He that sent Me is true, whom ye know not.” They claimed a knowledge of what the origin of Christ should be, but they were in utter ignorance of it. If they had lived in accordance with the will of God, they would have known His Son when He was manifested to them.

— Ibid., p. 457

The Messiah being begotten of His Father in the highest sense proves that He is fully divine, or equal with God, because it makes Him the very substance of God—the only being in all the universe that has this equality with God; hence, why He is God’s only-begotten Son and why He was already the Son before God sent Him.

A complete offering has been made; for “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son”—not a son by creation, as were the angels, nor a son by adoption, as is the forgiven sinner, but a Son begotten in the express image of the Father’s person, and in all the brightness of His majesty and glory, one equal with God in authority, dignity, and divine perfection. In Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

— E.G. White, Signs of the Times, 5/30/1895

Thus, His original birth was in His pre-incarnate life, and this is expressed in the Old Testament as well:

Through Solomon Christ declared:
“Jehovah made Me—
the Beginning of His way—
for His works.
From eternity I was poured forth,
from the beginning, before the earth was.
When there were no depths I was brought forth;
when there were no fountains abounding with water.
Before the mountains were settled,
before the hills was I brought forth.” Prov. 8:22-25

— E.G. White, Signs of the Times, 8/29/1900
[Scripture translation from ASV, Brenton, YLT & Lange]

His being poured forth (a literal translation) denotes that He was “made so much better than the angels” (Heb. 1:4) from the Father’s own substance, thus making Him fully divine; it is also a word used for pouring out a libation sacrifice—the Father pouring out of Himself the One who would eventually be sacrificed in doing the works of redemption.

Notice how it says, “from eternity, from the beginning.” There is only one beginning. It is the same beginning that we saw in Genesis 1 and John 1. Revelation 3:14 likewise calls the Messiah “the beginning of the creation of God.” Proverbs 8—a much earlier Scripture—reveals that the beginning was for the works of God. Thus, the Messiah should not be considered part of God’s creation, but rather the beginning of it—that is, the origin of it. Unlike the creation, coming after Him, He was made from the very substance of God; hence, “the first born of heaven, and the only begotten of the Father, filled with all the treasures of eternity” (E.G. White, Letter 101, 1896). He was the first being to ever be born and the only to be begotten of God Himself; but most importantly, in Him was all of eternity—that is, all of creation, being its Beginning.

He was the only-begotten Son of God, who was one with the Father from the beginning. By him the worlds were made.

— E.G. White, Signs of the Times, 5/28/1894

He who had been in the presence of the Father from the beginning, He who was the express image of the invisible God, was alone able to reveal the character of the Deity to mankind.

— E.G. White, Ministry of Healing, p. 422

Eternity has a beginning,
and the beginning is the begetting.

Hence, the Messiah is called “the Father of Eternity,” for He is the source of it all. This does not mean that God Himself has a beginning, but there is no history before the beginning. There can only be an ageless realm, and I think of it being above (rather than before) the eternal realm that we are in, for God “inhabiteth eternity” (Isaiah 57:15)—that is, He dwells in every moment of time at once. But this is not the case for man.

[God] hath set eternity in their heart, yet so that man cannot find out the work that God hath done from the beginning even to the end.

— Ecclesiastes 3:11

We can understand the realm of eternity, since it consists of time, yet we cannot even find out all of the history of God’s work even in this half-finite realm; only in God looking from His vantage point above can all of history be seen. I say “half” because the infinity part is not in the past but in the future, for death—the only hindrance to life—will be destroyed; thus, nothing will be able to stop time from going forward.

Many today define ‘eternity’ as without beginning or end, but this is not what the word originally meant from Plato to Philo in Greek philosophical history and from Old to New Testament in biblical history (based on its usage in many passages of Scripture). This is documented very well by the scholar Heleen M. Keizer in her shorter work called “Eternity Revisited” based on her longer work “Life Time Entirety.”—both dealing with the historic usage of the Greek word ‘aion’ (equivalent to eternity), which simply means entirety of life in time. It can either mean the time of a person’s life or the totality of all life throughout time.

This is very close to the meaning of the Hebrew word ‘olam’, with its most literal meaning being “concealed, that is, the vanishing point; generally time out of mind (past or future) that is (practically) eternity” (Strong’s). Practically, it means any indefinite (concealed) period of time or the totality of all time, which has a beginning—like a horizon. There is a reality beyond the horizon for God, but it is completely unknown and undiscoverable to creation.

Do the writings of Ellen White indicate an eternity with a beginning? Absolutely! In the following quotes, it is made evident that God and His Son entered into covenant with each other so that ever after that beginning, it was past tense, hence an eternal reality as far as they were concerned.

The covenant of mercy was made before the foundation of the world. It has existed from all eternity, and is called the everlasting covenant.

— E.G. White, Signs of the Times, 6/12/1901

The terms of this oneness between God and man in the great covenant of redemption were arranged with Christ from all eternity….

— Ibid., 8/24/1891

All our thoughts and imaginations will not alter in the least any part of the plan of redemption devised from all eternity.

— Ibid., 2/5/1894

This would not work for an eternity with no beginning, which would forbid them from having ever first entered into covenant to save the world at the very beginning of it, so that the completed state of the planned covenant could exist for the entirety of eternity.

The idea of an eternity without beginning originates in neo-platonism (a form of gnostic occult), which was already in development in the apostolic days but became widespread to nearly universal afterward. The central idea of it was platonic immateriality in which God—anciently called “the One”—is an essence, and, through such church “fathers” as Origen and Tertullian, it came to be believed that this immaterial God consisted of three persons dwelling in an eternity without beginning or end and that cannot die; the immortal soul came from the same immaterial principle.

The Bible teaches that the Messiah’s birth is what began eternity; He was the Beginning of all things, for the purpose of God to work out creation, and then, through the plan of redemption, re-creation.

Our Saviour was also born twice after His original birth—first in God begetting Him in Mary, and second in God begetting Him from the dead:

In His incarnation he gained in a new sense the title of the Son of God. Said the angel to Mary, “The power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” While the son of a human being, Christ became the Son of God in a new sense.

— E.G. White, Manuscript 22, 1905

God … hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, “Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee.”

— Acts 13:33

If the Messiah was begotten a second and third time, why could He not be begotten a first time, since His life has always existed but only changes forms in His births? How do we know that His life has always existed? It is because He was not begotten as humans are from their parents, with their lives having a beginning of existence. The Messiah originally proceeded directly out of the Father, which means that His life is the very life of God, who always exists—the Great I Am.

Does this mean that the Son of God, poured into this realm of eternity, knows all things. No. He is “endowed with the attributes of God” (below); but this does not mean that His personality has no origin or that He is omniscient like God, who in His wisdom placed limits even on His only-begotten Son. He, unlike Satan, never coveted the higher realm of omniscience (often portrayed as the all-seeing eye in satanic artwork) but lovingly submitted to His Father at all times.

God informed Satan that to His Son alone he would reveal His secret purposes.

— E.G. White, 1 Spirit of Prophecy, p. 22

Christ … presents to us that which is made known to Him by the Father. Although endowed with the attributes of God, He receives His instruction from the Father.

— E.G. White, Manuscript 22, 1905

Jesus left all this for us, that He not only became an exile from the heavenly courts, but for us took the risk of failure and eternal loss.

— E.G. White, Desire of Ages, p. 131

“God … knoweth all things” (1 John 3:20), but if the Son of God knew all things, He would not have need of being revealed things, and there would have been no risk from His perspective. However, existing in the nature of God, He does have access into the mind of God, for He “searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:10). This is how He was able to bear all the sins from Adam to his generation on the cross within but a few hours. It is why He was the only One who could enter the councils of God, and not Satan, for only He had the nature and mind of God to be able to experience what God does in that mysterious realm beyond ours. This is what made Satan jealous; and it is a lesson for us that we should never try to pierce into the mysteries of God.

Christ the Word, the Only Begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father—one in nature, in character, and in purpose—the only being in all the universe that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God.

— E.G. White, Great Controversy, p. 493

Christ was the only begotten Son of God, and Lucifer, that glorious angel, got up a warfare over the matter, until he had to be thrust down to the earth.

— E.G. White, Manuscript 86, 1910

To teach that the life of the Messiah has a beginning are going beyond what is divinely inspired. Only His personality had a beginning, which was not born of Mary but born of God.

God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, liable to physical infirmities, tempted in all points like as we are. He was the Son of the Living God. His personality did not begin with His incarnation in the flesh.

— E.G. White, Letter 77, 1894

His life is not borrowed or derived, as the lives of the created or adopted sons of God are. He is not a creature made of creation matter like we are. The Messiah was made from the very material of His Father, making Him self-existent, since that is what the nature of God is!

The Eternal Father, the unchangeable one, gave His only begotten Son, tore from His bosom Him who was made in the express image of His person, and sent Him down to earth to reveal how greatly He loved mankind.

— E.G. White, Review and Herald, 7/9/1895

For as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself.

— John 5:26

Though sin had produced a gulf between man and his God, divine benevolence provided a plan to bridge that gulf. And what material did He use? A part of Himself. The brightness of the Father’s glory came to a world all seared and marred with the curse, and in His own divine character, in His own divine body, bridged the gulf and opened a channel of communication between God and man. The windows of heaven were opened, and the showers of heavenly grace in healing streams came to our benighted world. O what love, what matchless, inexpressible love!

— E.G. White, Letter 36a, 1890

For a whole list of Ellen White quotes on the Messiah being made of God Himself, click here. 

Now, we can better understand the quotes that speak of the divinity of the Son, and yet can maintain monotheism, for though He was personally derived from His Father in being begotten, the life—the essence—He was given to have “in Himself” (Jn. 5:26) is permanently His own (unborrowed) such that He, like His Father whome He was made in the express image of, does not depend on another for life (underived); that is what makes Him God in essence but not in personality. And this life in Him is the origin, or fountain, of our eternal life.

Still seeking to give a true direction to her faith, Jesus declared, “I am the resurrection, and the life.” In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived. “He that hath the Son hath life.” 1 John 5:12. The divinity of Christ is the believer’s assurance of eternal life.

— E.G. White, Desire of Ages, p. 530

In Jesus is our life derived. In Him is life that is original, unborrowed, underived life. In us there is a streamlet from the fountain of life. In Him is the fountain of life. Our life is something that we receive, something that the Giver takes back again to Himself.

— E.G. White, Letter 309, 1905

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace.

— Isaiah 9:6

Does this mean there are two Gods? Not by any means.

I and My Father are one.

He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father…
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?

— Jehoshua, John 10:30; 14:9-10

Never should we destroy the mysterious oneness of the Father and the Son in trying to hold to their distinction of personalities; both are true.

Believing that Jehoshua is truly the only-begotten Son of God is the only way He can be divine, for God is a person—the Father. Therefore, the Messiah, as an independent personality, had to have come from Him to have the very nature of God and be divine. But this happened before everything else in the universe ever happened, at the threshold between timelessness and time, because if the personality of Jehoshua created all things, then He had to have created all eternity—first as the origin of it, and second as actively creating all things in it.

“Without Him was not anything made that was made.” If Christ made all things, he existed before all things. The words spoken in regard to this are so decisive that no one need be left in doubt. Christ was God *essentially, and in the highest sense. He was with God from all eternity, God over all, blessed forevermore. The Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, existed from eternity, a distinct person, yet one with the Father.

— E.G. White, Review and Herald, 4/5/1906

*Essentially:

“By the constitution of nature”

— Webster’s Dictionary, 1828

In speaking of His pre-existence, Christ carries the mind back through dateless ages. He assures us that there never was a time when He was not in close fellowship with the eternal God.

— E.G. White, Signs of the Times, 8/29/1900

There is no contradiction between the Messiah being begotten and yet eternal; the two realities are in perfect harmony, making the Messiah fully divine—the eternal Son of God.

We can believe all that the Scriptures say of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and yet not believe the strange and contradictory ideas which men wish to convey by the term triune God. We can believe that the Son of God was with the Father before the world was; that by Him the Father made the worlds; that He made Him equal with Himself, calls Him God, saying, “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever;” that Christ is the everlasting Father of all His children, the redeemed; and that He and His Father are one in creation, redemption, and all their work; and yet not believe that the two are only one person. The Son is an object of worship, because the Father has made Him such. “Let all the angels of God worship Him.” Therefore, in worshiping and honoring the Son, we worship and honor the Father.

— R.F. Cottrell, Review and Herald, 4/22/1880

This raises the issue of worship. Whom do we worship? If we are worshiping both the Father and the Son does this mean we are not worshiping one God? No, and here are a few Scriptures that will explain this for us:

God … hath in these last days spoken unto us in His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person…

— Hebrews 1:1-3

Jehoshua saith … he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, “Show us the Father“?

— John 14:9

And this is the life eternal: that they should know Thee, the only true God, and whom Thou hast sent, Jehoshua the Messiah.

— John 17:3

In biblical theology, the Messiah is always the channel of God, expressed in the Greek word ‘dia’, which is correctly translated to through and is frequently used in reference to the Messiah in relation to His Father. God does all things through His Son, who is His express image—the only image of God we should ever worship, for it is the express, or exact, image, or likeness, of Him. Therefore, in worshiping the Son—the express image of God—we worship the Father—the One whom the image perfectly displays and the One whose glory, or character, is represented. When we see the Son, we are seeing the glory of God, and we adore Him. In fact, He is the only Way we can worship God:

Jehoshua saith unto him, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but through Me.”

— John 14:6

God has chosen to reveal Himself through His Son, which is why He sent Him, but the Bible never warrants us to worship the Son apart from the Father, who is the only God in the truest sense. This is because the Father has no God, but He is His Son’s God. 

Jehoshua saith … “I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God.”

— John 20:17

It is in this sense that the Messiah said these words:

“My Father is greater than I.”

— John 14:28

Here is another Scripture that brings out His subjection to His Father, in the context of the new earth after the destruction of sin:

And when all things shall be subdued unto Him [God], then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him [God] that put all things under Him [Christ], that God may be all in all.

— 1 Corinthians 15:28

The Messiah always made known the nature of His work. It was never to exalt Himself, that He should be worshiped apart from His Father. His entire purpose has always been that “the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). This is in line with the most foundational truth in all the Scriptures:

Hear, O Israel: Jehovah is our God, Jehovah alone: and thou shalt love Jehovah God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

— Deuteronomy 6:4-5

Unless we can explain this Scripture in a biblical way, we will never be able to convert people from a large proportion of the world’s population: Jews and Muslims. And we ourselves will be deceived in who we worship and be confused in our prayers. We are to worship Jehovah alone—through His Son. Jehovah is continually described as a person in the Bible, with personal pronouns, like ‘He’ and ‘Him’.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, is truly God in infinity, but not in personality.

— E.G. White, Manuscript 116, 1905

The Messiah is fully divine but is not God Himself—”of whom are all things” (1 Cor. 8:6). He is the Channel. He inherits from the Source. He was given the Name Jehovah as His inheritance, as He shares the same nature and character of God in full divine equality:

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him [Christ Jesus], and given Him a Name which is above every name: that at the Name of Jesus” (Jehovah is Salvation) “every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

— Philippians 2:9-11

Why did God exalt His Son? That He Himself would be glorified. Why? Because the heart of God is expressed in His Son. God could not do what His Son could. He could not die, for God cannot die. He could not obey, as He has no one to obey. He could not humble Himself to become a human babe, for God changes not (Mal. 3:6). But He could express all of these things of His own heart in His Son! 

O, the glories of God! We cannot even comprehend. It is beyond us. We can only look and live. We are to look to Jehoshua—His express image. Then we can learn the precious glories of perfect obedience and humility.

How, then, are we to be saved? “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,” so the Son of Man has been lifted up, and everyone who has been deceived and bitten by the serpent may look and live. “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John 1:29. The light shining from the cross reveals the love of God. His love is drawing us to Himself.

— Desire of Ages, p. 175

And as we see the love of God, we will know Him. We will worship Him in His Son, and we will be complete. It is the only way we can have fullness of joy and purpose. Please don’t let any false theory rob you of this. The Bible is simple. God is a person, and we worship Him through His Son; there is no other God, and no other way.

Does the Messiah, like God, need to see all the future to be divine? No. It would spoil the plan of salvation if He did. He would know everything as there would be no risk and His service could not be that of willing voluntary trust and submission. Their counsels together would be all in vain, for they would both know the results and no plans would be necessary.

We should never make human rules to define the things of God. We should not limit Him. We should not make any rule that says that the Messiah must have no source and have full foreknowledge in order to be divine; it is unbiblical. Satan could inspire such a thought, because he, who is not divine, was not allowed in the counsels; and, moreover, he does not want the Messiah to be divine, which is why he seeks to destroy the divinity of the Messiah in every false religion.

But on the other hand, we should not say that there was a time before even the distinct personality of Jehoshua existed, or that the Father ever dwelt alone without a Son, for we have no knowledge of the ageless realm. Eternity covers all that could ever be considered time. And what exists beyond or outside of that is a mystery.

What we do know is that God and His Son are both material persons existing together in time, interacting with us, but just how they can omnisciently interact with all of space and time, through the infinite Spirit of God, is a mystery. God and His Son are personal, and we can relate with them; and we can also relate with time. That is what God has made known to us. Let us be content with what He has been pleased to reveal to us and not try to pierce into His secrets as Satan has, and as he would like us to do, for he has inspired many to believe a specious error that denies the personality of God.