Gospel Sounders Rekindling Reformation Ministry

A closer look at what Kellogg believed

A closer look at what Kellogg believed – A Case study of what he meant rather than what people think he meant

 

A Little History of 1893-1906

My quest for truth has led me to examine closely the history of our movement. A sad thing has happened among us that “the only thing we learn from history is that we do not learn”. This I would pray that it be not our position. We should learn and not repeat the mistakes. The crisis of the “Living temple” and succeeding story starts somewhere and that’s where I would like us to start.

 

I will not go in the background of the demise of Kellogg parents and Ellen White charge of responsibility to take of him. That is addressed in so many places. I would like just to give a synopsis of the events that led up to his beliefs. First up, we have the 1888 Minneapolis Session that ends in division and people taking sides. Things starts to develop and another group develop, the Kellogg camp. Due to their manipulating of things, the Lord would not tolerate it and the Sanitarium burns in February 18, 1902 and the Publishing House December 30 same year. Living Temple was published in 1903. All these fires are connected to the book Living Temple and its scientific theories which undermine the presence and personality of God. Below are the quotes in their chronological order and what was happening. During the fires the plates of the Living Temple were destroyed in 1902 prior to its release. The Lord didn’t want anything of that sought to come from our houses but eventually it came out in 1903 by defiance of the Lord’s instructions.

 

The Lead up story: 1893-1901

• If the Echo office was to mean no more to our people than a secular publishing house, if it was to be conducted on the same principles as were other business institutions, then it was not wise to invest so much means in establishing the office. It would have been less expense to hire our printing done by outside parties.–Lt 23a, 1893.

• How much longer will God bear with your perversity? Unless there is a reformation, calamity will overtake the publishing house, and the world will know the reason. I have been shown that there has not been a turning to God with full purpose of heart. The Lord is dishonored in the institutions erected for His honor. The marked disregard of God’s commandments in the publishing house has placed its impress on the workers. God asks, Shall I not judge for these things? I saw heavenly angels turning away with grieved countenances. God has been mocked by your hardness of heart, which is continually increasing. According to their responsibility will be the punishment of those who know the truth and yet disregard God’s commands. {Lt138-1901}

• You have given matter containing Satan’s sentiments into the hands of the workers, bringing his deceptive, polluting principles before their minds. The Lord looks upon this action on your part as helping Satan to prepare his snare to catch souls. God will not hold guiltless those who have done this thing. He has a controversy with the managers of the publishing house. I have been almost afraid to open the “Review,” fearing to see that God has cleansed the publishing house by fire. {Lt138-1901}

• The five thousand dollars which would be used in erecting the addition to the Review and Herald should be invested in the work in other places. {Lt138-1901}

• I feel a terror of soul as I see to what a pass our publishing house has come. The presses in the Lord’s institution have been printing the soul-destroying theories of Romanism and other mysteries of iniquity. This is taking all sacredness from the Office. The managers are loading the guns of the enemy and placing them in their hands, to be used against the truth. How does God regard such work? In the books of heaven are written the words, Unfaithful stewardship. Thus God regards the publication of matter which comes from Satan’s manufactory—his hellish, scientific delusions. {Lt138-1901}

• Remember it’s only “The Living Temple” that Ellen White referred to as advanced science [Read the whole of {Ms63a-1906} about how Kellogg had been chosen and how now he had turned from the Lord to pursue the wisdom of the men in the world and bring in the supposed “Advanced Scientific Theories”]

• The Office must be purged of this objectionable “matter”. I have a testimony from the Lord for those who have placed such matter in the hands of the workers. God holds you accountable for presenting to young men and young women the fruit of the forbidden tree of knowledge. Can it be possible that you have not a knowledge of the warnings given to the Pacific Press on this subject? Can it be possible that with a knowledge of them you are going over the same ground, only doing much worse? It has often been repeated to you that angels of God are passing through every room in the Office. What impression has this made on your minds? {Lt138-1901} quotes on the word matter added my me for emphasis. A brief mention of the destruction of the Pacific Press is in {Ms45-1906} and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Press_Publishing_Association

 

• The Lord has instructed me that those who cannot see the wickedness of co-operating with Satan by publishing his falsehoods might better seek some work in which they will not ruin our youth, body and soul. {Lt138-1901}

• It is high time that we understood what manner of spirit has been controlling matters at the Review and Herald Office for years. I am horrified to think that the most subtle phase of spiritualism should be placed before the workers, and that in a way calculated to confuse and perplex the mind. Be assured that Satan will follow up the advantage thus given him. {Lt138-1901}

• The Review and Herald Office has been defiled as the temple was defiled, only the result has been tenfold more disastrous. Overturning the tables of the moneychangers, Christ drove the sheep and cattle from the precincts of the temple saying, “It is written, My Father’s house shall be called a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves.” Worse even than the defilement of the temple has been the defilement of the publishing house by the printing of matter which should never have been placed in the hands of the workers in God’s institution. {Lt138-1901}

• God’s law has been transgressed, His cause betrayed, and His institution made a den of thieves. The work of printing and circulating stirring appeals for the truth, which should have been placed first, to which the time and the talent of the workers should have been devoted, has received little or no attention. The commercial work, some of it of a most objectionable character, has gradually assumed the supremacy. This work has absorbed the energies which should have been devoted to the publication of literature of the purest quality and the most elevating character. Time has been wasted, talent misapplied, and money misappropriated. The work which ought to have been done has been left undone. Satan’s sentiments have been exalted. His theories have been printed by presses which should have been used to prepare the truth of God for circulation. Men have coveted promotion when their principles were under the ban of God’s displeasure. Loss is infinitely better than dishonorable gain. {Lt138-1901}

 

The Burning of Sanitarium and Review: 1902 – [1903]

Dr. Kellogg was offered the suggestion of writing a simple book on physiology and health-care that could be sold by colporteurs, he jumped at the opportunity and wrote “The Living Temple,” with its Hinduistic sentiments. Working rapidly, Kellogg dictated the contents of the book to a secretary who then typed it out. Soon the book had been typeset at the nearby Review and Herald office, and galley proofs of “The Living Temple” were handed to W.W. Prescott to look at. He was shocked and took them to Elder W.A. Spicer. Now, it just so happened that Elder Spicer had been for many, years a missionary in India-and when he read Kellogg’s book, he was astounded. Here was Hindu pantheism right in front of him, and slated to be printed soon and sent out to the four winds for reading and selling by Seventh-day Adventists across North America! But when questions came to Kellogg or his associates about the matter, they replied that it was “advanced light” for the Church, and that should settle the matter. The book was no problem to Kellogg’s associates for he had been grinding these ideas into their minds for several years. Waiting for Kellogg’s return to town from a business trip, Spicer then made an appointment to visit with him at his large home. Spicer later wrote up the afternoon discussion:

 

How the Spirit of Prophecy Met a Crisis: Memories and Notes of the “Living Temple” Controversy by W. A. Spicer

• “Where is God?’ I was asked. I would naturally say, He is in heaven; there the Bible pictures the throne of God, all the heavenly beings at His command as messengers between heaven and earth. But I was told that God was in the grass and plants and in the trees.

• “Where is heaven?” I was asked. I had my idea of the center of the universe, with heaven and throne of God in the midst, but disclaimed any attempt to fix [locate] the center of the universe astronomically. But I was urged to understand that heaven is where God is, and God is everywhere-in the grass, in the trees, in all creation. There was no place in this scheme of things for angels going between heaven and earth, for heaven was here and everywhere. The cleansing of the sanctuary that we taught about was not something in a faraway heaven.”

 

Summarizing his afternoon conversation with Dr. Kellogg, Elder Spicer said this:

• “I knew well enough that there was nothing of the Advent message that could fit into such a philosophy. As I had listened, one light after another of the gospel message seemed to be put out. Religious teaching that to me was fundamental was set aside.”

 

It should be remembered that the apostasy of Kellogg and Ballenger in the 1903-1905 crisis was termed the “alpha” of apostasy. “Living Temple contains the alpha of these theories. I knew that the omega would follow in a little while; and I trembled for our people” {1SM 203.2}. She warned that “The omega will be of a most startling nature”. {Lt263-1904}. Keep in mind that the “alpha” involved both by Kellogg and by Ballenger-a repudiation of our basic Sanctuary Message: a two apartment actual building in heaven, with Jesus as our High priest in that Sanctuary from A.D. 31 on down to 1844 in the first apartment, and from 1844 onward to the close of probation in the second, as he carries out the final atonement in connection with an examination of the records of all who have professed faith in Him down through the ages (the Investigative Judgment) [see “Great Controversy, chapters 23-24, 28 for the clearest, most accurate portrayal of this extremely important doctrine). A careful study of both aspects of this twin apostasy of 1903-1905 will disclose that both denied these basic truths. The “new theology” in our day denies it also, and many of our young pastors no longer believe in a two-apartment sanctuary in heaven or in several other of the above stated points of tithe ministry of Christ within it. Ask your pastor and see what he has to say on the Sanctuary Message. And why is this so important? “The foundation of our faith which was established by so much prayer, such earnest searching of the Scriptures, was being taken down pillar by pillar. Our faith was to have nothing to rest upon—the sanctuary was gone, the atonement was gone” {Ms46-1904}. When there is no sanctuary, there is no atonement, there is no salvific work hence no remedy for sin.

 

The General Conference Confronts Apostasy – By Russell R. Standish, Colin D. Standish

It had been hoped that in connection with the destruction of the book plates in the Review and Herald fire, Dr. Kellogg would abandon the matter of publishing The Living Temple. But instead he sent the manuscript to a commercial printer in Battle Creek. Three thousand copies of the book were printed and began to make their way among Seventh-day Adventists. In due time in the summer of 1903 a copy of The Living Temple arrived at Elmshaven, but Ellen White did not look at it. In September of that year she was compelled to speak out plainly against these errors. “I have some things to say to our teachers in reference to the new book, “The Living Temple“. Be careful how you sustain the sentiments of this book regarding the personality of God. As the Lord represents matters to me, these sentiments do not bear the endorsement of God. They are a snare that the enemy has prepared for these last days. I thought that this would surely be discerned, and that it would not be necessary for me to say anything about it. But since the claim has been made that the teachings of this book can be sustained by statements from my writings, I am compelled to speak in denial of this claim.” {Letter 211, 1903}

 

When the messages were read at the Council in Washington, Dr. Kellogg responded favorably, saying that he accepted the testimony and that he would modify the wording in The Living Temple dealing with theological matters. But his statements were rather erratic and changeable. His attitude alternated, and it finally turned out that the doctor never really changed.

 

Subsequent Concerns 1904-1906

• These sentiments have had an effect on our people everywhere. Some think it strange that I write, “Do not send your children to Battle Creek.” I was instructed in regard to the danger of the worldly influence in Battle Creek. I have written hundreds of pages regarding the danger of having so large a sanitarium, and of calling so many young people together in one place. The young people in Battle Creek are in danger. They will come in contact with error. Years ago I did not think that they would meet these errors right in the sanitariums; but when Living Temple came out, and some of our ministers told me that there was in it nothing but what I had been teaching all my life, I saw how great the danger was. I saw that blindness had fallen upon some who had long known the truth. I pray that the Lord will open the eyes of these ministers, that they may see the difference between light and darkness, and between truth and error. {Ms46-1904}

• My Instructor said, “This in no case must be.” They have had warnings in the past over and over again, for eighteen or twenty years, but have not fully heeded these warnings. There are those who have had no heart in the matter of moving out of Oakland, but have been opposing their resistance to the instructions that have been given; and their unbelief has strengthened with the spirit of opposition to the movement. The Lord’s message was, “Out of the cities; break up the continual temptation to engage in commercial business, which has been such a great injury to the work.” A failure to heed the messages given, and repeated for years, has been a decided injury to the souls of many.–MS 57, 1906.

• All heaven is interested in the work in which we are engaged. We must do a solid, not a superficial, work. I am grieved when I see our printing offices doing so much commercial work, virtually saying to the world, “Bring your work to us; we will do it for you.” We have more work for the Lord than we can possibly perform. There is much to be done that we will overlook unless we are baptized with the Holy Spirit. We desire that commercialism shall be purged from every office.–MS 73, 1906.

 

Someone may interject, ok, so Sanitarium was burned Feb 18, 1902; if the other materials were written in 1906-7 which was 4 yrs after, then which Sanitarium or judgments was she referring to when she said, “His judgments will be executed”?

 

Let it not be forgotten that Kellogg in rebellion had gone against the advice and was again rebuilding these building so a warning of the future in view of the past was being issued. Notice:

 

• Let the General Conference offices and the publishing work be moved from Battle Creek. I know not where the place will be, whether on the Atlantic Coast or elsewhere. But this I will say, Never lay a stone or a brick in Battle Creek to rebuild the Review Office there. God has a better place for it. He wants you to work with a different influence, and connected with altogether different associations from what you have had of late in Battle Creek. {GCB, April 6, 1903 par. 11}

 

The statements were made just after the publication of Living Temple while the Great Controversy sat dead in the publishing house receiving little attention instead of being circulated. She lamented

 

• I feel very grateful to my heavenly Father that He has heard the prayers offered in my behalf. I am not in the least discouraged. But I feel very sorry that the books which should be finding ready sale are lying on the office shelves. These books contain the light that the people need. May the Lord move upon many of our young men to enter the canvassing field as canvassing-evangelists. By the canvassing work the truth is presented to thousands that otherwise would not hear it. Our time for work is short. Many, very many, need the “quickly” in them, to lead them to arouse and go to work. The Lord calls for workers just now. {Lt21-1902}

• While at St. Helena, again and again it has been revealed to me that there was not a correct state of things at Mountain View; that there were present the very conditions that made it essential for the publishing work to be removed from Oakland. [THE ORIGINAL WEST COAST PRINTING HOUSE IN OAKLAND WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1874. BECAUSE OF GROWING WORK AND THE PROBLEMS CREATED BY THE CITY ENVIRONMENT, THE PUBLISHING HOUSE WAS MOVED TO MOUNTAIN VIEW IN 1904. THE DESTRUCTIVE FIRE OF JULY 20, 1906, EFFECTIVELY SETTLED THE PROBLEM OF COMMERCIAL PRINTING.] I saw that in the working out of human ideas and plans there was a disregarding of the light God had given in the past to correct existing evils. There is danger that the experience of the past will be repeated. The men who are serving in the management of the work can just as surely swerve the work into lines of commercialism as in the past. {Ms57-1906}

• Years ago, when I was in Battle Creek, I was much distressed that Great Controversy should lie idle on the shelf. For two years it was held back, that Bible Readings might have more attention. All that I could say did not change the course of those who had control of the canvassing work. They treated me as if I were a child. If at that time I had appealed to the people, asking for agents to handle my books, and promising to supply them, it would have been in the order of the Lord; but now things have changed. There is not now a studied, determined effort to hold back the books that are of the most importance. We are planning to bring out many books, and for the pioneer in our work to make any move now that would create confusion would not be wise. We must not bring any discouragement on our publishing houses at this critical period in their experience. {Lt70-1907}

• This condition of things has been created in our conference and churches under a RELIGIOUS CLOAK which existed in the world. Confederacies have been formed to make THEIR SHOWING STAND OUT AS SUPERIOR, and they have gained the name of having done a large work in their responsible positions of trust. They flatter themselves that they were doing God service when they were ESTABLISHING PRINCIPLES OF ROBBERY. They were depriving their brethren of their rights in gathering everything in the book line under their control, and making their own laws and rules,–rules that were not after God’s order at all, but which revealed the very attributes of Satan. It was this spirit that was manifested by the priests and temple officials in their gatherings for the Passover. CATTLE WERE BOUGHT BY THE DIGNITARIES, THE MONEYED MEN, WHO OPPRESSED THEM OF WHOM THEY PURCHASED. THE REPRESENTATION WAS MADE THAT THESE ANIMALS WERE TO BE OFFERED AS A SACRIFICE TO GOD AT THE PASSOVER, AND THUS URGED THE OWNERS SOLD THEM AT A CHEAP PRICE. THEN THESE SCHEMING MEN BROUGHT THEIR PURCHASES TO THE TEMPLE,–PURCHASES WHICH MEANT DOUBLE ROBBERY-ROBBERY OF THE MEN OF WHOM THEY HAD PURCHASED, AND ROBBERY OF THOSE WHO WISHED TO SACRIFICE, TO WHOM THEY WERE SOLD AGAIN AT EXORBITANT PRICES. They used the courts of the temple as though the animals brought there made them of the highest value. Oh, what deceit, what hypocrisy was practiced. Twice Christ’s displeasure was evidenced against them. Divinity flashed through humanity, and he drove out the buyers and sellers from the temple courts, saying, “Take these things hence: it is written, My Father’s house shall be a house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves. He overturned the tables of the money changers, and priests and people fled before that one man as though an army of soldiers with drawn sword were pursuing them. THIS WORK HAS BEEN CARRIED ON AT BATTLE CREEK. The publishing office was turned from the original design; men made terms with authors; councils were formed; schemes were entered into. WHILE ONE AUTHOR WAS ENGAGED IN THE SERVICES OF A MEETING AT A DISTANCE, THE EXPENSES OF ONE MAN WERE PAID TO GO AND SEE THIS BROTHER AND INDUCE HIM TO PUT THE LOWEST FIGURES ON HIS BOOKS. They urged that they wished to get this important matter before as many people as possible, and that the book would have a very much larger sale if it were sold at cheap price. THE ROYALTY WAS PLACED AT THE LOWEST FIGURE. Then this confederacy held this example up as a rule for others. Warnings were given me that all this was the working out of a system of oppression and robbery, and that the whole institution was leavened throughout with corrupt principles, that the light of God was fast departing from all who were engaged in this confederacy. God sanctioned none of this spirit. He could not place his signature upon this devising. He would forsake those men, remove his spirit from those who entered upon this course, and the glory of his presence would depart from them. {Ms105-1898}

 

The following is worthy considering Fire Chief Weeks:

• “There is something strange,” he said, “about your SDA fires, with the water poured on acting more like gasoline.” (Arthur L. White, Ellen G. White — The Early Elmshaven Years: 1900-1905 [Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald, 1981], 224)

 

A.T. Jones caught up

Why would I mentioned A.T. Jones in passing here? He reviewed the Living Temple and said he found nothing objectionable. His association with Kellogg did not work in his favor.

 

EGW eventually would write

• I am sorry for A. T. Jones, who has been warned over and over again. Notwithstanding these warnings, he has allowed the enemy to fill his mind with thoughts of self-importance. Heed not his words, for he has rejected the plainest light and has chosen darkness instead. The Holy One hath given us messages clear and distinct, but some poor souls have been blinded by the falsehoods and the deceptive influences of satanic agencies and have turned from truth and righteousness to follow these fallacies of satanic origin. Ms39-1906

• We did not see anything to encourage us in the hope that Elder Jones is coming out from the darkness that is upon him. He feels that he understands himself; but he is as the blind and is feeling about, to know what step to take next. I felt that I must speak plainly to him. I told him that notwithstanding the warnings that had been given regarding Kellogg’s influence over him, he had gone into the very path he had been cautioned not to take; he had not spiritual discernment to understand the doctor’s religious standing. I told him that he had become Dr. Kellogg’s voice to the people. Lt234-1908.6

 

Some of the men who proof-read the reading temple and what they had to say

• “That we find in the book ‘Living Temple’ nothing which appears to us to be contrary to the Bible or the fundamental principles of the Christian religion, and that we see no reason why it may not be recommended by the Committee for circulation in the manner suggested.”-A.T. Jones, J.H. Kellogg, David Paulson, quoted in “How the Spirit of Prophecy Met a Crisis,” p. 27.

 

There is a most remarkable story regarding Washburn, 1888, and Ellen White:

1. S. Washburn, who was a nephew of George I. Butler, was twenty-six years old in the year of 1888, the year when Brother Waggoner and Jones delivered to the Adventist Church the special message of ‘Righteousness by Faith’. When he first heard the message he rejected it, because he felt that it was contrary to the established teachings of the Adventist Church concerning the law of God; thus he sided with Brother Uriah Smith and J. H. Morrison in their disavowal of the doctrine. It was during this time that he first realized that Sister White was in full agreement with Jones and Waggoner, this knowledge led him to question Mrs. White’s position as the Lord’s special messenger. After a short time of struggle, he met with Sister White and His doubts were dissolved. He later recalled:

 

• “So I went to have a visit with her in her tent at the Ottawa meeting. I told her I had always thought and believed that she was a pr But I was disturbed by the Minneapolis episode. I had thought Uriah Smith and J. H. Morrison were right. “Do you know why J. H. Morrison left the Conference early?” she asked me. I replied, “Yes.” Then she told me just what Morrison had said to me–and the revelation of her apparently superhuman  knowledge  of  that  private, confidential  conversation frightened me. I realized that here was one who knew secrets. Sister White told me of her Guide in Europe, who had stretched His hands out, and said, “There are mistakes being made on both sides in this controversy.” Then she added that the “Law in Galatians” is not the real issue of the Conference. The real issue is Righteousness by faith! “E. J. Waggoner can teach righteousness by faith more clearly than I can,” said Sister White. “Why, Sister White,” I said, “do you mean to say that E. J. Waggoner can teach it better than you can, with all your experience?” Sister White replied, “Yes, the Lord has given him special light on that question. I have been wanting to bring it out more clearly, but I could not have brought it out as clearly as he did. But when he brought it out at Minneapolis, I recognized it.” {Report of interview with Elder J. S. Washburn by R. J. Wieland June 4, 1950}

 

After this man consulting with Ellen White, he was converted and this is what he wrote:

• Satan has taken some heathen conception of a three-headed monstrosity, and with deliberate intention to cast contempt upon divinity, has woven it into Romanism as our glorious God, an impossible, absurd inventio This monstrous doctrine transplanted from heathenism into the Roman Papal Church is seeking to intrude its evil presence into the teachings of the Third Angel’s Message. …And the fact that Christ is not the mediator in the Roman Church demonstrates that the Trinity destroys the truth that Christ is the one, the only mediator. The so-called Christian Church, the Papacy, that originated the doctrine of the Trinity, does not recognize him as the only mediator but substitutes a multitude of ghosts of dead men and women as mediators. If you hold the Trinity doctrine, in reality, Christ is no longer your mediator. … The whole Trinity doctrine is utterly foreign to all the Bible and the teachings of the Spirit of Prophecy. Revelation gives not the slightest hint of it. This monstrous heathen conception finds no place in all the free universe of our Blessed heavenly Father and His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ…The Catholic heathen doctrine of the Sunday Sabbath is just as sacred as the Catholic pagan doctrine of the Trinity and no more so…Seventh-day Adventists claim to take the word of God as supreme authority and to have “come out of Babylon”, to have renounced forever the vain traditions of Rome. If we should go back to the immortality of the soul, purgatory, eternal torment and the Sunday Sabbath, would that be anything less than apostasy? If, however, we leap over all these minor, secondary doctrines and accept and teach the very central root doctrine of Romanism, the Trinity, and teach that the son of God did not die, even though our words seem to be spiritual, is this anything else or anything less than apostasy, and the very Omega of apostasy?…However kindly or beautiful or apparently profound his sermons or articles may be, when a man has arrived at the place where he teaches the heathen Catholic doctrine of the Trinity, and denies that the Son of God died for us, is he a true Seventh-day Adventist? Is he even a true preacher of the Gospel? And when many regard him as a great teacher and accept his unscriptural theories, absolutely contrary to the Spirit of Prophecy, it is time that the watchmen should sound a note of warning.” {Portions of a letter “Trinity” written by J. S. Washburn in 1939.} (This letter was liked by a conference president so much that he distributed it to 32 of his ministers.)

 

What is the Real Controversy with this Kellogg stuff?

This issue of people saying that a part of God’s being is in them is removing God from the throne in heaven and placing him in you. Then just go ahead and pray “Our Father who art in us”

 

Kellogg started out that God is in everything then modified the issue when he adopted the trinity and said no, it is now God the Holy Spirit who is in everything. Think about that for a second he is saying the Holy Spirit which is part of God and Christ is in everything. He said “he had come to believe in the trinity” {Letter: A. G. Daniells to W. C. White. October 29, 1903. pp. 1, 2}. EGW never knew what to call it, she said: “Until the Lord presented it to me, I knew not what to call it, but I was instructed to call it unholy spiritual love. {Lt230-1903}”. The issue was is a part of God in anything. This was the controversy.

 

• “Ever since the council closed I have felt that I should write you confidentially regarding Dr. Kellogg’s plans for revising and republishing ‘The Living Temple’…. He (Kellogg) said that some days before coming to the council, he had been thinking the matter over, and began to see that he had made a slight mistake in expressing his views. He said that all the way along he had been troubled to know how to state the character of God and his relation to his creation works…He then stated that his former views regarding the trinity had stood in his way of making a clear and absolutely correct statement; but that within a short time he had come to believe in the trinity and could now see pretty clearly where all the difficulty was, and believed that he could clear the matter up satisfactorily. He told me that he now believed in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; and his view was that it was God the Holy Ghost, and not God the Father, that filled all space, and every living thing. He said if he had believed this before writing the book, he could have expressed his views without giving the wrong impression the book now gives. I placed before him the objections I found in the teaching, and tried to show him that the teaching was so utterly contrary to the gospel that I did not see how it could be revised by changing a few expressions. We argued the matter at some length in a friendly way; but I felt sure that when we parted, the doctor did not understand himself, nor the character of his teaching. And I could not see how it would be possible for him to flop over, and in the course of a few days fix the books up so that it would be all right.” {Letter: A. G. Daniells to W. C. White. October 29, 1903. pp. 1, 2}

 

So far from the materials I have gone through, Kellogg denies teaching pantheism and says he is teaching exactly what Ellen White taught in the book Education Chap. 10 – God in Nature. So what did EGW teach?

 

• “Upon all created things is seen the impress of the Deity. Nature testifies of God. The susceptible mind, brought in contact with the miracle and mystery of the universe, cannot but recognize the working of infinite power. Not by its own inherent energy does the earth produce its bounties, and year by year continue its motion around the sun. An unseen hand guides the planets in their circuit of the heavens. A mysterious life pervades all nature–a life that sustains the unnumbered worlds throughout immensity, that lives in the insect atom which floats in the summer breeze, that wings the flight of the swallow and feeds the young ravens which cry, that brings the bud to blossom and the flower to fruit. {Ed 99.1}

• The same power that upholds nature, is working also in man. The same great laws that guide alike the star and the atom control human life. The laws that govern the heart’s action, regulating the flow of the current of life to the body, are the laws of the mighty Intelligence that has the jurisdiction of the soul. From Him all life proceeds. Only in harmony with Him can be found its true sphere of action. For all the objects of His creation the condition is the same–a life sustained by receiving the life of God, a life exercised in harmony with the Creator’s will. To transgress His law, physical, mental, or moral, is to place one’s self out of harmony with the universe, to introduce discord, anarchy, ruin.” {Ed 99.2}

• “Nature is a power, but the God of nature is unlimited in power. His works interpret his character. Those who judge him from his handiworks, and not from the suppositions of great men, will see his presence in everything. They behold his smile in the glad sunshine, and his love and care for man in the rich fields of autumn. Even the adornments of the earth, as seen in the grass of living green, the lovely flowers of every hue, and the lofty and varied trees of the forest, testify to the tender, fatherly care of our God, and to his desire to make his children happy.”–S. of T., 1884, No. 11. {HL 285.1}

• “Fathers and mothers, teach your children of the wonder-working power of God. His power is manifest in every plant, in every tree that bears fruit. Take the children into the garden and explain to them how He causes the seed to grow. The farmer plows his land and sows the seed, but he cannot make the seed grow. He must depend upon God to do that which no human power can do. The Lord puts His own Spirit into the seed, causing it to spring into life. Under His care the germ breaks through the case enclosing it and springs up to develop and bear fruit.” {8T 326.4}

• THE PSALMIST REPRESENTS THE PRESENCE OF THE INFINITE ONE AS PERVADING THE UNIVERSE. “If I ascend up into Heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.” We can never find a solitude where God is not. The ever watchful eye of Omniscience is upon all our works, and although he can marshal the armies of Heaven to do his will, he condescends to accept the services of frail, erring mortals. {ST, July 14, 1881 par. 10}

 

What did Kellogg again say?

• He told me that he now believed in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; and his view was that it was God the Holy Ghost, and not God the Father, that filled all space, and every living thing. He said if he had believed this before writing the book, he could have expressed his views without giving the wrong impression the book now gives. I placed before him the objections I found in the teaching, and tried to show him that the teaching was so utterly contrary to the gospel that I did not see how it could be revised by changing a few expressions. We argued the matter at some length in a friendly way; but I felt sure that when we parted, the doctor did not understand himself, nor the character of his teaching. And I could not see how it would be possible for him to flop over, and in the course of a few days fix the books up so that it would be all right.” {Letter: A. G. Daniells to W. C. White. October 29, 1903. pp. 1, 2}

 

If you are not getting it, Kellogg is saying that a part of God called God the Holy Spirit is in everything. Remember I have not seen a place where Kellogg left the begotten theology so far. If anyone has such evidence I would be so glad.

 

What did EGW reply?

• Today there are coming into educational institutions and into the churches everywhere spiritualistic teachings that undermine faith in God and in His word. THE THEORY THAT GOD IS AN ESSENCE PERVADING ALL NATURE IS RECEIVED BY MANY WHO PROFESS TO BELIEVE THE SCRIPTURES; BUT, HOWEVER BEAUTIFULLY CLOTHED, THIS THEORY IS A MOST DANGEROUS DECEPTION. It misrepresents God and is a dishonor to His greatness and majesty. And it surely tends not only to mislead, but to debase men. Darkness is its element, sensuality its sphere. The result of accepting it is separation from God. And to fallen human nature this means ruin. {MH 428.2}

• You are not sound in the faith. I have stated this in my diary months ago. You have certainly placed the people of God, whom the Lord has led step by step in the ways of truth and placed upon a solid foundation, in a false showing before unbelievers. Some have departed from the faith and will continue to misrepresent the work God has given me. The sanctuary question is a clear and definite doctrine as we have held it as a people. You are not definitely clear on the personality of God, which is everything to us as a people. You have virtually destroyed the Lord God Himself. Ellen G. White to John Harvey Kellogg, Letter 300, March 16th 1903

 

Why should EGW introduce the concept of the sanctuary in her replies to pantheism and personality of God? Because God was being removed from the sanctuary and placed everywhere, this is destroying the personality of God. Men are repeating the same sentiments of Kellogg. She says

• I thought that this would surely be discerned, and that it would not be necessary for me to say anything about it. But since the claim has been made that the teachings of this book can be sustained by statements from my writings, I am compelled to speak in denial of this claim.” {Letter 211, 1903}

 

And what worried EGW most is that all the OTG present truth members of that time had read the book by Kellogg and did not see anything wrong in it. It shocked her that she said

• I was shown a platform, braced by solid timbers—the truths of the Word of God. Someone high in responsibility in the medical work was directing this man and that man to loosen the timbers supporting this platform. Then I heard a voice saying, “Where are the watchmen that ought to be standing on the walls of Zion? Are they asleep? This foundation was built by the Master Worker, and will stand storm and tempest. Will they permit this man to present doctrines that deny the past experience of the people of God? The time has come to take decided action.” EGW Lt 242-1903
• I saw that blindness had fallen upon some who had long known the truth. I pray that the Lord will open the eyes of these ministers, that they may see the difference between light and darkness, between truth and error. {SpTB07 35.1}

 

Where were the watchmen who had long known the truth and ought to be standing on the walls of Zion? They were saying

• “That we find in the book ‘Living Temple’ nothing which appears to us to be contrary to the Bible or the fundamental principles of the Christian religion, and that we see no reason why it may not be recommended by the Committee for circulation in the manner suggested.”-A.T. Jones, J.H. Kellogg, David Paulson, quoted in “How the Spirit of Prophecy Met a Crisis,” p. 27.

 

Can you imagine that? And why had they been deceived? Because EGW had said

• “Upon all created things is seen the impress of the Deity. Nature testifies of God. The susceptible mind, brought in contact with the miracle and mystery of the universe, cannot but recognize the working of infinite power. Not by its own inherent energy does the earth produce its bounties, and year by year continue its motion around the sun. An unseen hand guides the planets in their circuit of the heavens. A mysterious life pervades all nature–a life that sustains the unnumbered worlds throughout immensity, that lives in the insect atom which floats in the summer breeze, that wings the flight of the swallow and feeds the young ravens which cry, that brings the bud to blossom and the flower to fruit. {Ed 99.1}

 

Lack of keenness on thought inspiration rather usage of words. It’s like someone entered in my house today and I said to him “you know am in USA” and he went about and said “Sami told me he is in USA” and this be held as a literal truth rather than an inquiry how I am in USA. It’s via “World Wide Web” friend. You should have thought of what am saying rather than insisting you are saying what I said and meant what you thought.

 

What is EGW saying? The power of God is in everything not a part of him while Kellogg using the same words is saying a part of God called God the Holy Spirit is in everything. And many always repeat the same things and say a part of God is in them. Kellogg doctrine was a two sided coin. One side a trinitarian and the other side a pantheistic non-trinitarian

 

Just a last observation. I noticed that Kellogg was confounding the spirit of God and God and so he argues then if it’s dangerous believing that where God’s power is working spiritually God is not present then he would drop pantheism belief and just be comfortable with God sustaining him. Now remember he is saying this while he actually was confessing that he believes in Trinity where God the Holy Spirit is the one in everything. Simply Kellogg believed in the Spirit of God or what he calls God the Holy Spirit being a part of God in everything. Check this argument of his in the image below

 

Letter 1904-08-22 – Kellogg to GI Butler page 4 paragraph 2

 

Summary

1. Sanitarium and RH burnt in 1902 while Living temple is being worked on to be released. God did not want it to be released in our houses

2. Release of Living Temple in 1903

3. Quotes appear in PH March 27, 1903 that God has cleansed these institutions

4. Statement Issued next month in April 6, 1903 in the aftermath of the burning: “Let the General Conference offices and the publishing work be moved from Battle Creek. I know not where the place will be, whether on the Atlantic Coast or elsewhere. But this I will say, Never lay a stone or a brick in Battle Creek to rebuild the Review Office there. God has a better place for it. He wants you to work with a different influence, and connected with altogether different associations from what you have had of late in Battle Creek. {GCB, April 6, 1903 par. 11}”

5. 8T published in 1904 repeating the same and gives further warning. Mrs. White Decries Centralization. Although the fires took away the sanitarium in February of 1902 and the publishing house December 30 that same year, the former was rebuilt by Kellogg in Battle Creek, against the counsel of the Lord. Notwithstanding frequent counsels to the contrary, men continued to plan for centralization of power, for the binding of many interests under one control. This work was first started in the Review and Herald office. Things were swayed first one way and then another. It was the enemy of our work who prompted the call for the consolidation of the publishing work under one controlling power in Battle Creek. Then the idea gained favor that the medical missionary work would be greatly advanced if all our medical institutions and other medical missionary interests were bound up under the control of the medical missionary association at Battle Creek. I was told that I must lift my voice in warning against this. We were not to be under the control of men who could not control themselves and who were not willing to be amenable to God. We were not to be guided by men who wanted their word to be the controlling power. The development of the desire to control has been very marked, and God sent warning after warning, forbidding confederacies and consolidation. He warned us against binding ourselves to fulfill certain agreements that would be presented by men laboring to control the movements of their brethren (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 8, pp. 216, 217). The pen of inspiration declared further in this time: The heavenly Teacher inquired: “What stronger delusion can beguile the mind than the pretense that you are building on the right foundation and that God accepts your works, when in reality you are working out many things according to worldly policy and are sinning against Jehovah? Oh, it is a great deception, a fascinating delusion, that takes possession of minds when men who have once known the truth, mistake the form of godliness for the spirit and power thereof; when they suppose that they are rich and increased with goods and in need of nothing, while in reality they are in need of everything.” {8T 249.3}

6. SpTB07 published 1906 which was 4 years after the sanitarium was burnt warning again “God’s judgments will be executed” because Kellogg in rebellion had gone against the advice and was again rebuilding these building so a warning of the future in view of the past was being issued.

7. 1907, Kellogg’s loss of church membership over pantheism and other issues. At the turn of the century his pride caused him to start turning and he lost confidence in Ellen White. “The Battle Creek Sanitarium was divorced from denominational control in the year 1907 (A. W. Spalding, The Origin and History of Seventh-day Adventists, vol. 3, p.141). By 1908, with legal maneuvering, Kellogg got the control of the Battle Creek Sanitarium and the American Medical College which were part of the same complex. The medical school went under in 1910 and merged with the Illinois State University (Ibid., p. 149) and in 1933 the Sanitarium went under in the collapse of Wall Street. In 1942 it was sold to the United States government and became the Percy Jones Hospital for veterans. A few years before Kellogg took Battle Creek away from the denomination the Lord was putting things in place to begin another work at Loma Linda. He showed the place to Ellen White in night vision, 1901. It was located and a down payment made on May 26, 1905. Mrs. White visited it June 12 and as she stepped down from the carriage she said to her son who attended with her, “Willie, I have been here before.” She later wrote that it was her desire that this place would be a true representation of what our health institutions should be (The Paulson Collection, p. 170)

 

So if you look closely at the matter, some trinitarians have a third God called God the Holy Spirit outside floating everywhere while some non-trinitarians have “another being” called the Spirit of God inside them. All this is trinitarianism in a very subtle way. I can but just re-echo the sentiment of Washburn “this monstrous doctrine transplanted from heathenism into the Roman Papal Church is seeking to intrude its evil presence into the teachings of the Third Angel’s Message” and modify EGW’s words ““the foundation of our faith which was established by so much prayer, such earnest searching of the Scriptures, is being taken down pillar by pillar. Our faith has nothing to rest upon—the sanctuary is gone, the atonement is gone.” May God help us discern the truth.

A closer look at what Kellogg believed