I have reserved to myself 144,000 who will not bow to the image

After reading a few of your posts/blogs and then compairing them to findings in scripture and in the egw database, I got to thinking about the definition of "spirit".

I tried a simple experiment with the Bible and with Ellen White's writings.  Every time I came across the word "Spirit", I repaced it with the word "Mind" so instead of the "Spirit of God", it would be the "Mind of God" or the Holy Spirit would be the Holy Mind.

What brought me to this simple test was a piece of scripture in Ezekiel where in one sentence the word "spirit" and the word "mind" were used together, but in Hebrew it was the same word; thus the translator of this phrase (and others) decided for himself what word they thought fit the translation best.  You describe it here

“And the Spirit [Hebrew: j^Wr - ruwach #7307 in Strong’s Concordance] of the LORD fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak; Thus saith the LORD; Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind [ruwach], every one of them.” (Ezekiel 11:5)

In this verse ruwach was translated “spirit” in one place, and “mind” in another. Clearly you can see that the spirit of an individual is the mind or thinking of that individual. (See also Isaiah 40:13, Romans 11:34)

So, after looking at this it hit me and just seemed very obvious and in front of my face for so long; but I never saw it before:

Spirit = the mind

When we think of ourselves or look at ourselves, we see flesh... and we know that when we think we're using our brain, but we don't know the truth of how a memory is stored or how a thought is conjured. Our brain is merely the translator to our spirit (our mind). And it is our mind and spirit that makes up our character.  

So when we're putting on the Character of Christ; we're putting on the Mind of Christ.  Thus we're being filled with the Spirit of Christ.  And if we are filled with the Spirit of Christ, then we are also being filled with the Spirit of God because as Christ said Himself in John14:7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”

And this leads to the final step that gets confused with people.  If we know Jesus, then we know the Father... and because we then know both are we filled with the Holy Spirit which is the Holy Mind of God though Christ.  So they are all One in Mind and Spirit but not as physical persons.

I was explaining this to someone recently like this:

Think of a marriage. You have a man, who has his own personality.  Then, you have a woman who has her own personality.  But when you bring the two together in marriage, something happens.  Not only do they have their own personalities, but a third personality is formed that contains the common goals, thoughts, ideals of both parties involved.  I think of the Holy Spirit in this sense.  It is the their personality of the Godhead (as they say).  All of them equal, but only one is God the Father in person. And the other being Jesus, the Son of God.

Which leads me to another thought, a bit off tangent but slightly relevent to the idea of the Trinity.

Many people believe that the Son of God is just a role that one of the Beings took in order to fulfill the ultimate goal (for lack of a better phrase). But you and I both believe that Jesus is the litteral begotten Son of God from eternities past.  I was asked about this and it sorta came to me simply like this:

It is written "Let us make man in our image".  This was spoken by God as He came to create man on the 6th day.  God then created man and then proceeded to create woman from man by opening up his flesh and taking out a rib.  And from that rib, He created Eve.

If we are made in God's image, then wouldn't He have use himself as the express example for creating Eve from Adam?  To think of it this way would mean that in eternity's past, God the Father reached within Himself and begat Jesus, who is the Son of God.  It doesn't seem that difficult to phathom when we were created in his image.

Also, I'd like to note that I've heard MANY pastors claim that Adam was also the Son of God.  This is obviously not true since Adam was created with the dust of the earth and God breathed life into a lifeless body where Jesus was the actual begotten Son of God who came from God the Father and not from some other source (like the dust of the earth).

Okay, enough of me rambling... it's bad enough that I have no scripture in any of this to backup any of my thoughts... this was written in a rush; otherwise, I'd try to fill in some of the scripture blanks.  But it still seems obvious (these two points) and I find it difficult to believe that people are refusing both of them.

Brian