Pantheism and Satan's Final Deception in the Judgment Hour
William Diehl
We must always be exceedingly careful not to equate the "breath of life", which all living creatures possess, with the Holy Spirit which attends the proclamation of the gospel of Christ and infills those who repent and believe in the saving merits of the doing and dying of Christ as our substitute upon the Cross. Confusion in this matter resulted in the error that Kellogg ( The Living Temple) made in his form of pantheism which claimed that all life contained the Holy Spirit and that Christ's person was contained and revealed in all living and even inanimate creation. Kellogg took this form of pantheism which saw salvation as simply becoming aware or "enlightened" to the "fact" that the Holy Spirit is already in all of us and all around us in creation and those so "enlightened" should be giving glory to God for living in us and all living things. To their dying day neither Kellogg nor Waggoner admitted that their understanding of salvation was incorrect. They claimed that this was good old salvation by God living in us that Christians call sanctification.
This is why they denied the existence of the heavenly sanctuary where we need the mediation of Christ to add His perfect merit to our imperfect lives. To them all atonement takes place in the heart of the believer and "no legal book-work" justification by imputed righteousness is needed to take place in heaven before the Law of God.
On a similar vein, their pantheism is very similar to the view that is still prevalent in the Christian church today by those teaching the "moral influence theory" which rejects the "forensic" view of justification by faith by falsely portraying it as being "legalistic". The truth is that our justification before our holy God is based upon Christ's "legal" right to be our Mediator due to His sinless life and atoning death upon the Cross. But this is not "legalism". Legalism is to seek to be justified or accepted before God by ones good works and success at keeping God's Law. There is no one but Jesus who ever met all the broadest demands of the Law of God for perfect holiness and constant unselfish love to God and fellow man.
It is only those who think that they do not need the imputed merit of Christ to stand before a holy God who are being "legalistic", because they think they can come before God without faith in the "blood" of Christ, i.e., his imputed sinless life and atoning death upon Calvary. They claim that because God is "gracious" that He can forgive sinners without a Substitute to meet the demands of God's holy Law. Many will realize only too late that they need that "legal" merit of Christ to stand before God when He comes in the undimmed glory and splendor and brightness of the Son of Man. No man can come before God without a "blood" sacrifice to sprinkle its merit and imputed righteousness upon the holy Law of God and also upon the conscience of those who will stand on that final Day.
The "moral influence" teaching of the late professor Graham Maxwell that is the dominant doctrine at the Loma Linda School of Dentistry and Medicine is the "omega of apostasy" that Ellen White predicted would follow the "alpha" of pantheism taught by Kellogg and Waggoner in their day. Her prediction of over one hundred years ago is coming to pass in our day.
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