On God and Nature

One of the manuscripts by Mrs. White was entitled “The True Relation of God and Nature.” It specifically referred to erroneous teachings tending to identify the Creator with the works of His hands. One might at the time well have wondered why Seventh-day Adventists needed to be reminded of such elementary truths as the following:SHM 312.2

“Nature is not God, and never was God. The voice of nature testifies of God, declaring His glory; but nature itself is not God. As God’s created work, it but bears a testimony of His power. ...SHM 312.3

“Christ came to the world as a personal Saviour. He represented a personal God. He ascended on high as a personal Saviour, and He will come again as He ascended to heaven—a personal Saviour. We need carefully to consider this; for in their human wisdom, the wise men of the world, knowing not God, foolishly deify nature and the laws of nature. ...SHM 312.4

“We may look up, through nature, to nature’s God. The beautiful things of nature have been given us for our pleasure. Then let us not turn our blessings into a curse by being led away from God in the worship of the creature rather than the Creator.”—Ibid. (Italics mine.)SHM 313.1

The urgent need for the cautions contained in this message becomes evident when, in the light of later developments, one looks over certain utterances that were pronounced during the session of the conference to which the message was sent. For example we find speakers at the session maintaining that the air we breathe is the medium through which the Holy Spirit is given to us. Thus it was asserted that “when Christ breathed upon His disciples and said, ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost,’ it was to teach us that when we recognize Him in the breath of life which He gives to us, we are to receive the Holy Ghost, which is as free as the air; and just as the air will come in when there is a vacuum, so wherever there is a place for the Spirit of God to enter, there it will come in. There is a wonderful connection between this air we breathe and the Spirit. ... When a man knows and recognizes that every breath he draws is a direct breathing of God into his nostrils, he lives in the presence of God and has a Spirit-filled life.”—Ibid., February 23, 1899.SHM 313.2