15/10/2026
What did the Adventist Pioneers Have to Say About Jesus being Begotten?
"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." - Ellen White, Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, July 9, 1895, par. 13
"Says the true Witness, the only Begotten of the Father, 'Blessed are they that do his [the Father's] commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the City. Rev. xxii, 14." - Ellen White, Review and Herald, June 10, 1852 'To the Brethren and Sisters'.
"Our great Exemplar was exalted to be equal with God. All the holy angels delighted to bow before Him. "And again, when He bringeth in the First-begotten into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him." Ellen White, 2T p. 426, Feb. 9, 1869
"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." White, Signs of the Times, May 30, 1895 par. 3 Ellen
"As the disciples comprehended it, as their perception took hold of God's divine compassion, they realized that there is a sense in which the sufferings of the Son were the sufferings of the Father. From eternity there was a complete unity between the Father and the Son. They were two, yet little short of being identical; two in individuality, yet one in spirit, and heart, and character." White, Youth Instructor December 16, 1897, par. 5 Ellen
"Who is this that was to come to our world and become incarnate? The only begotten Son of God. "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death." "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old," Christ says." Ellen White, Manuscript 37, March 10, 1898, par. 13
"Before the entrance of evil there was peace and joy throughout the universe. All was in perfect harmony with the Creator's will. Love for God was supreme, love for one another impartial. 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. By Christ the Father wrought in the creation of all heavenly beings. "By Him were all things created, that are in heaven, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers" (Colossians 1:16); and to Christ, equally with the Father, all heaven gave allegiance." Ellen White, Great Controversy, p. 493.1
"The Sovereign of the universe was not alone in His work of beneficence. He had an associate--a co-worker who could appreciate His purposes, and could share His joy in giving happiness to created beings. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God." John 1:1, 2. Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father--one in nature, in character, in purpose the only being that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God. "His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6. His "goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." Micah 5:2. And the Son of God declares concerning Himself: "The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting.
When He appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: Ellen White, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him." Proverbs 8:22-30. Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 34.1
"The Father was greater than the Son in that he was first. The Son was equal with the Father in that he had received all things from the Father." James White, Review and Herald, January 4, 1881, vol. 1, p. 244
"Christ is the only literal son of God. "The only begotten of the Father." John 1:14. He is God because he is the Son of God;" - John Matteson, Review & Herald Oct 12, 1869
"The Scriptures nowhere speak of Christ as a created being, but on the contrary plainly state that he was begotten of the Father. (See remarks of Rev. 3:14, where it is shown that Christ is not a created being.)"
"But while as the Son he does not possess a coeternity of past existence with the Father, the beginning of his existence, as the begotten of the Father, antedates the entire work of creation, in relation to which he stands as joint creator with God. John 1:3; Heb 1:2."
"These testimonies show that Christ is now an object of worship equally with the Father, but they do not prove that with him he holds an eternity of past existence." - Uriah Smith, Thoughts on the Book of Daniel and the Revelation, p. 430. 1882
"As Christ was twice born, once in eternity, the only begotten of the Father, and again here in the flesh, thus uniting the divine with the human in that second birth, so we, who have been born once already in the flesh, are to have the second birth, being born again of the Spirit, in order that our experience may be the same, the human and the divine being joined in a life union." W. W. Prescott, Review & Herald, April 14, 1896
"And as to the Son of God, he could be excluded also, for he had God for His Father, and did, at some point in the eternity of the past, have beginning of days. So that if we use Paul's language in an absolute sense, it would be impossible to find but one being in the universe, and that is God the Father, who is without father, or mother, or descent, or beginning of days, or end of life. Yet probably no one for a moment contends that Melchizedek was God the Father." John N. Andrews, Review & Herald, September 7, 1869
"The angels, therefore, are created beings, necessarily of a lower order than their Creator. Christ is the only being begotten of the Father." - James Edson White (son of Ellen White), Past Present and Future, p. 52
"John 1:1, John 1:18 and John 3:16 "According to this, Jesus Christ is begotten of God in a sense that no other being is; else he could not be his only begotten Son. Angels are called sons of God, and so are righteous men; but Christ is his Son in a higher sense, in a closer relation, than either of these."
"God made men and angels out of materials already created. He is the author of their existence, their Creator, hence their Father. But Jesus Christ was begotten of the Father's own substance. He was not created out of material as the angels and other creatures were. He is truly and emphatically the "Son of God," the same as I am the son of my father."
"No created being can ever be worthy of worship, however high he may be, neither would it be right nor just for God to bid one order of his creatures to worship another. Divinity alone is worthy of worship, and to worship anything else would be idolatry. Hence Paul places Christ far above the angels, and makes a striking contrast between them. He asks, "For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?" The implied answer is, that he has "made so much better than the angels." He says that the angels are simply ministering spirits, but to Christ, God has said, 'Thy throne, O God is for ever and ever." D. M. Canright, Review and Herald, June 18, 1867, 'The Son of God'.
In response to a readers Question: "Will you please favor me with those scriptures which plainly say that Christ is a created being?
Answer: "You are mistaken in supposing that S. D. Adventists teach that Christ was ever created. They believe, on the contrary, that he was "begotten" of the Father, and that he can properly be called God and worshiped as such."
"They [Seventh-day Adventists] believe, also, that the worlds, and everything which is, was created by Christ in conjunction with the Father. They believe, however, that somewhere in the eternal ages of the past there was a point at which Christ came into existence. They think that it is necessary that God should have antedated Christ in his being, in order that Christ could have been begotten of him, and sustain to him the relation of son.
"They hold to the distinct personality of the Father and Son, rejecting as absurd that feature of Trinitarianism which insists that God, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit are three persons, and yet but one person."
"S.D. Adventists hold that God and Christ are one in the sense that Christ prayed that his disciples might be one; i.e., one in spirit, purpose, and labor." "See 'Fundamental Principles of S. D. Adventists, published at this Office. Price, 4 cts." W. H. Littlejohn. Review and Herald, April 17, 1883, Question No. 96, The commentary, Scripture questions.
"The Word then is Christ. The text speaks of His origin. He is the only begotten of the Father. Just how he came into existence the Bible does not inform us any more definitely; but by this expression and several of a similar kind in the Scriptures we may believe that Christ came into existence in a manner different from that in which other beings first appeared; That He sprang from the Father's being in a way not necessary for us to understand." - C. W. Stone, The Captain of our Salvation, p. 17, written 1883, published posthumously by Uriah Smith 1886. (Charles Wesley Stone was Secretary to the General Conference and a teacher in Battle Creek College)
"In arguing the perfect equality of the Father and the Son, and the fact that Christ is in very nature God, we do not design to be understood as teaching that the Father was not before the Son... While both are of the same nature, the Father is first in point of time. He is also greater in that He had no beginning, while Christ's personality had a beginning." E.J. Waggoner, October 1, 1889
BEGOTTEN as explained by Ellet Joseph Waggoner. His father was one of the original Adventist Pioneers. The early Advent believers recognized this fact. Here is a quote from E. J. Waggoner explaining it:
"Before passing to some of the practical lessons that are to be learned from these truths, we must dwell for a few moments upon an opinion that is honestly held by many who would not for any consideration willingly dishonor Christ, but who, through that opinion, do actually deny His Divinity. It is the idea that Christ is a created being, who, through the good pleasure of God, was elevated to His present lofty position. No one who holds this view can possibly have any just conception of the exalted position which Christ really occupies.
..The Scriptures declare that Christ is "the only begotten Son of God." He is begotten, not created. As to when He was begotten, it is not for us to inquire, nor could our minds grasp it if we were told. The prophet Micah tells us all that we can know about it in these words, "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from the days of eternity." Micah 5:2, margin. There was a time when Christ proceeded forth and came from God, from the bosom of the Father (John 8:42; 1:18), but that time was so far back in the days of eternity that to finite comprehension it is practically without beginning.
But the point is that Christ is a begotten Son and not a created subject. He has by inheritance a more excellent name than the angels; He is "a Son over His own house." Heb. 1:4; 3:6. And since He is the only-begotten son of God, He is of the very substance and nature of God and possesses by birth all the attributes of God, for the Father was pleased that His Son should be the express image of His Person, the brightness of His glory, and filled with all the fullness of the Godhead....
Finally, we know the Divine unity of the Father and the Son from the fact that both have the same Spirit. Paul, after saying that they that are in the flesh cannot please God, continues: "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Rom. 8:9. Here we find that the Holy Spirit is both the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. Christ "is in the bosom of the Father" being by nature of the very substance of God and having life in Himself. He is properly called Jehovah, the self-existent One and is thus styled in Jer. 23:5, 6, where it is said that the righteous Branch, who shall execute judgment and justice in the earth, shall be known by the name of Jehovah-tsidekenu--THE LORD, OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Let no one, therefore, who honors Christ at all, give Him less honor than He gives the Father, for this would be to dishonor the Father by just so much, but let all, with the angels in heaven, worship the Son, having no fear that they are worshiping and serving the creature instead of the Creator." E. J. Waggoner-Christ And His Righteousness, pp. 19-24. 1890