Our upcoming Sabbath School Lessons for the second half of 2026 are now available.

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ssl 2026 second half – a treatise on the godhead

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Introduction

THE SUBJECT OF THE GODHEAD has gathered momentum in Adventism by certain parties among the independent movements who claim to uphold the pioneer platform of truth. After the disappointment of 1844, Adventism developed out of the Protestant denominations governed by their discovery of the Biblical description of the sanctuary in heaven which the Hebrew one was a copy of. Spirit of Prophecy inspiration reveals this as the groundswell of a system of truth in the following words:

“The subject of the sanctuary was the key which unlocked the mystery of the disappointment of 1844. It opened to view a complete system of truth, connected and harmonious, showing that God’s hand had directed the great advent movement and revealing present duty as it brought to light the position and work of His people.”

“But the people were not yet ready to meet their Lord. There was still a work of preparation to be accomplished for them. Light was to be given, directing their minds to the temple of God in heaven; and as they should by faith follow their High Priest in His ministration there, new duties would be revealed. Another message of warning and instruction was to be given to the church.” (The Great Controversy, pp. 423, 424.)

The system of truth was declared by Inspiration to accumulate over a period of fifty years as the movement came out of the errors inherited from their former churches. Many of the doctrines of the Protestant churches still were marred by their previous association with the papal church. As the Advent movement progressed in their discovery of that system of truth, Sunday worship was replaced by the seventh-day Sabbath; the state of the dead and the falsehood of eternal torment in hell was corrected as also many other Biblical truths and practices.

One distinctive papal doctrine, the Trinity, came to the attention of the pioneers which gradually also had to be carefully disentangled and replaced by the Biblical representation of the Godhead. As already mentioned, this among all the other clarifications of doctrine, took a period of fifty years to establish, according to the following:

“What influence is it would lead men at this stage of our history to work in an underhand, powerful way to tear down the foundation of our faith–the foundation that was laid at the beginning of our work by prayerful study of the Word and by revelation? Upon this foundation we have been building for the past fifty years.”

“Messages of every order and kind have been urged upon Seventh-day Adventists, to take the place of the truth which, point by point, has been sought out by prayerful study, and testified to by the miracle-working power of the Lord.” (Selected Messages Book 1, pp. 207, 208.)

As they rejected the papal rendition of the Trinitarian doctrine, it can be demonstrated that it took a period of time within those fifty years by prayerful study to seek out point by point the true nature of the Godhead as God signified it through His word and the testimony of His Spirit.

It is the design of this section of the Sabbath school lessons to establish point by point the Biblical truth of the Godhead that was obtained over those fifty years.

May God enlighten us by His Spirit to come into correct harmony with the pioneers of Adventism on this subject.