As Mrs White points out, such a belief takes away the glory of both God and heaven. I know I am dwelling on this, but it IS really important that God and heaven and Christ are all physical.
The fact that the devil attacks at this point, all through Mrs White's ministry and into our time means that it is important. As she summed up in the quote below, men try to make the Son a nonentity by making Him 'one' with the Father.
And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." All through the Scriptures, the Father and the Son are spoken of as two distinct personages. You will hear men endeavoring to make the Son of God a nonentity. He and the Father are one, but they are two personages. Wrong sentiments regarding this are coming in, and we shall all have to meet them.
{Review and Herald, July 13, 1905 par. 3}
Satan would like nothing better than for the Son of God to be a nonentity, a person of no influence. And he will try anything to do it and a 'loose, lax religion' certainly would. As Mrs White points out below, the fact that Christ and the Father are two personages, yet are united, means that we are to be one with Christ. This unity proves God sent his Son to save us.
Christ is one with the Father, but Christ and God are two distinct personages. Read the prayer of Christ in the seventeenth chapter of John, and you will find this point clearly brought out. How earnestly the Saviour prayed that his disciples might be one with him as he is one with the Father. But the unity that is to exist between Christ and his followers does not destroy the personality of either. They are to be one with him as he is one with the Father. By this unity they are to make it plain to the world that God sent his Son to save sinners. The oneness of Christ's followers with him is to be the great, unmistakable proof that God did indeed send his Son into the world to save sinners. But a loose, lax religion leaves the world bewildered and confused.
{Review and Herald, June 1, 1905 par. 14}
This concept of 'oneness yet distinct personalities' lived out by us, makes salvation clear to a bewildered world. The unity of the Father and Son are an example of our unity with Christ. But this sets a very high bar because they were one in spirit, heart and character 'from eternity'. That spirit, heart and character was of unfathomable love.
The love of God was Christ's theme when speaking of his mission and his work. "Therefore doth my Father love me," he says, "because I lay down my life, that I might take it again." My Father loves you with a love so unbounded that he loves me the more because I have given my life to redeem you. He loves you, and he loves me more because I love you, and give my life for you. "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you." Well did the disciples understand this love as they saw their Saviour enduring shame, reproach, doubt, and betrayal, as they saw his agony in the garden, and his death on Calvary's cross. This is a love the depth of which no sounding can ever fathom. 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.
{Youths Instructor, December 16, 1897 par. 5}
A church united with such love would be a powerful witness indeed. 'Almost identical' in loving, giving and longsuffering. Are we up to this Geoff?
So God and Son must be distinct personages or else 'love' becomes 'self-love'. No wonder Satan wants confusion here. He wants to make God's greatest attribute into selfishness.
I would really like verses that back this concept up. Do you know of any Geoff? From my limited knowledge, a few verses which seem to show the Father as being a Person are the vision of Daniel 7 where the Ancient of Days (v9-10) show Him as an awesome Being seated on a throne. which is similar to "Him who sat the the throne" in Revelation 5:1 with His right hand holding the scroll (v7) and being approached by "One like the Son of Man" (v13). In Revelation He is approached by the Lamb.
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