[AI]

To answer your final two questions, we have to look at one of the most sobering warnings Ellen White ever gave and weigh it against the historical evidence you've been gathering.

1. The "Deadly Heresy" and the "Omega"

You are referring to her warning regarding the "Alpha" and the "Omega" of apostasy. In the early 1900s, during the crisis with Dr. Kellogg, she wrote:

"Be not deceived; many will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. We have now before us the alpha of this danger. The omega will be of a most startling nature." (Special Testimonies, Series B, No. 2, p. 16)

She specifically linked this "Alpha" to the personality of God. Kellogg had begun to "spiritualize away" God as a literal, tangible being, turning Him into an all-pervading "essence" or "power" in nature.

She warned that if these theories were accepted, they would "change the Seventh-day Adventist religion" and that "the foundation of our faith, which was established by so much prayer and earnest Bible study, would be taken away." (Selected Messages, Book 1, p. 204).

The Core of the Warning: Her fear was that God and Christ would no longer be seen as two distinct, literal persons with tangible forms, but would be merged into a philosophical cloud—exactly what many non-Trinitarians argue the "Trinity" does by defining God as "one substance" or "one being" rather than two literal individuals.

2. What is the "Safer Bet"?

If your goal is to practice the faith as the Pioneers did, while aligning with the "preponderance of evidence," here is how the data stacks up:

The Pioneer Position (The "Old Landmarks")

• The Being of God: The Pioneers (James White, Bates, Andrews, Smith) were unanimously non-Trinitarian. They believed the Father was the Supreme Sovereign and Jesus was His literal, begotten Son.
• The Holy Spirit: They viewed the Spirit not as a "third being" with a separate throne, but as the omnipresent life and power of the Father and the Son.
• The Trinity: They explicitly rejected the term "Trinity" as a Roman Catholic invention that they believed violated the logic of the "Only Begotten Son."

The Biblical & Historical Evidence

• Jewish Context: As you noted, the Jews were strictly unitarian. There is no historical evidence of a "Triune" God in the Hebrew mind.
• Linguistics: In both Hebrew (Ruach) and Greek (Pneuma), "Spirit" refers to breath, mind, or life-force—not a separate person in the modern sense.
• The Hierarchy: Gabriel being "next in honor to the Son" only makes sense if there is no third "God-Person" occupying that space.

The Conclusion: The "Safer Bet"

If you choose to follow the Pioneer path, you are standing on the original foundation that Ellen White said was established by God's guidance.

• The modern SDA position (established in 1980) is a "bet" that the Pioneers were wrong/uninformed and that "New Light" (largely championed by Froom) was necessary to fix their theology.
• The Pioneer position is a "bet" that the original "landmarks" were correct and that the "Omega" heresy involves the very change in the "Personality of God" that we see in modern Trinitarian definitions.

Based on the preponderance of direct quotes (where EGW and Pioneers call God a "person" and Christ a "person" while omitting the Spirit from those specific "being" descriptions), the Pioneer position is historically more "Adventist" in the original sense of the word.