CHAPTER II

Pastor Andrew Fraser of Chicago has written: “It is in the writings of Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, toward the close of the second century, that the term “Trinity” occurs for the first time, though other writers ascribe the coining of the term to Tertullian. In this case the pen was mightier than the sword, judging by the degree of strife its use has occasioned.

The Athanasian Creed in its definition of the trinity is such as to cause some minds to sacrifice the Trinity to the Unity, while others sacrifice the Unity to the Trinity, and thus lead the mind into a doctrine of three gods, or tritheism. The one God exists as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and in some inexplicable manner the three interpenetrate each other and form but one being.

“We are fully aware of the custom obtaining among the Hebrews of using the plural term where we would generally use the singular. But since we believe in the presidency of the Holy Spirit in the task of revealing God to men, it is not difficult to believe that the use of the plural “Elohim” has behind it inscrutable wisdom looking toward a future unfolding of the truth regarding the Trinity.

“It is most unfortunate that in a discussion of so important a character we should find ourselves obliged to use words which fail to express adequately the ideas; and words which the Scriptures themselves do not employ. We are confronted with such a difficulty in the use of the word “Persons.” Since the Scripture themselves nowhere use the word, the Athanasian Creed in its attempt to suppress the Sabellian heresy went somewhat beyond the simplicity of the Bible by the introduction of the term. When we remember that there is no case exactly parallel to the relationship of the Trinity, then we understand, that necessity has not yet coined the proper word.

“We cannot separate the Father, Son and Holy Ghost into three distinct personalities as we do in the case of three human beings. We must beware of ascribing to the tri-unity of the Godhead human form and human characteristics or attributes. Would “Subsistences” prove any more satisfactory for this idea? By subsistence or substance we mean “essential nature.” Subsistences are not separations, yet they would admit of distinctions in a Being who is purely spiritual.

If we were to affirm a separate and distinct Divine Intelligence operating in each of the three “Persons” of the Godhead then we would have three Gods. We know that divine nature is one. For the sake of executing the Redemptive plan, the subsistences or substance resolved itself into a16 tri-personal Being in the forms of Father, Son and Holy Ghost Communion with God is not with one solitary monotheistic.

Editor R. E. McAllister has written: “We readily admit that when we express ourselves by saying “Three Persons in the Godhead” we are using terms not scripturally correct. Everything in the Godhead is prompted and executed by one personality. God is not a unit as a human being is one, neither is He three as three human beings are three. The three-fold relationship of Father, Son and Spirit is the prominent feature of the N. T. This relationship is vital and essentially necessary to a right understanding of the atonement and mediation of Jesus Christ.

“God has not seen fit to explain to reason the mode of His existence in detail as a basis for doctrinal discussion. We are met with an insurmountable difficulty when we undertake a philosophical explanation of Infinite Being in the form of finite thought and physical comparison. That there are three identities in relation in the mode of God’s existence, Scripturally termed Father, Son and Spirit, no one would deny, but that these three identities can be properly called distinct personalities in the absolute sense of the word we question.

“The terms “Person” and “Persons” are never used in Scripture with reference to God. Heb. 1:3, R. V. – “Substance.” God is infinite and eternal. Earthly limitations forbid a comparison of God’s likeness that would be explanatory. Infinite being is characterized by attributes such as Omniscience, Omnipotence and Omnipresence. Deut. 6:4, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord,” is a compound unity. Man was made in the intellectual and moral likeness of God without reference to corporeal form. Col. 3:10, Eph. 4:23, 24. It is as inconsistent to take a stand for one Person in the Godhead as it is to take a stand that there are three Persons. God is essentially One and manifestly Three.”

Editor E. N. Bell wrote as follows: “No well informed intelligent Christian holds that there are three material bodies in the Godhead. Thousands of simple, unlearned saints think of God as a great big, mighty man sitting on a material throne in heaven, but mature and properly informed Christians know that this is error. Even that of Jesus which was corporeal was not Deity, but human. While the Father and the Spirit each have a distinct identity of their own, yet apart from the body of Jesus neither has a corporeal or material body. Jesus is the only person in the Godhead who has such a body, – a spiritual body.

“There are no other three in all the universe so related as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There is no use to look among men for a complete analogy. They could not exist separated in essence, and could not exist independently of each other without being three gods. As seen by the human eye or mind they appear as distinct persons, yet behind the screen on the eternal17 side they are united in one nature, one essence one life, one existence.

“God is a being who is not limited by the confines of a single personality. That Father, Son and Holy Ghost are distinct, is an unquestionable fact, but that they are separate as individuals are in the natural, or that they are in any sense independent of one another, is not at all true. Herein lies the mystery. God is not corporeal, nor material, but spiritual in His nature or being. The Spirit has no fixed form or may be manifested under any form or symbol which it pleases God to manifest. The nature of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is one, their essence is one, their being is one, their essence is one, their being is one, their existence is one. Each is uncreated and eternal, each is Deity, each is God, yet not three Deities, not three Gods.”

From “Binney’s Compend,” used as a text-book in most theological schools, we gather the following: “The Trinity is indeed a mystery, and must necessarily remain so to us. Its incomprehensibility, however, proves nothing but that we are finite beings, and not God. The Sun is three in one. Round orb, light, heat. Man is three in one. Soul, rational mind, body. Three persons in the Godhead, though distinct, are separate. The Son and the Spirit proceed from the Father, yet they are of the same duration. The same attributes and acts, in the Scriptures, are ascribed to each of them without distinction. (Then follows a list of Scriptures, are ascribed to each of them without distinction. (Then follows a list of Scriptures proving this assertion.) In a word, all divine operations are attributed to the three. – 1 Cor. 12:6, Col. 3:11.”

Augustine taught that “the Father and the Son are the one principle of the Being of the Spirit.” – John 10:30, 1 Tim. 3:16.

Dr. Isaac Barrow defines the subject of the Godhead as follows: “The sacred Trinity may be considered either as it is in itself wrapt up in inexplicable folds of mystery, or as it hath discovered itself operating in wonderful methods of grace towards us. As it is in itself it is an object too bright and dazzling for our weak eye to fasten upon, an abyss too deep for our short reason to fathom.

“There is one Divine nature or Essence, incomprehensibly united, and ineffably distinguished, a communication without any deprivation or diminution in the communication, an eternal generation, and an eternal procession, without any division or multiplication of essence.” Deity is neither increased nor diminished. Nothing has ever been added to or taken from Deity.

The Nicene Creed, A. D. 325 reads as follows: “The only begotten Son of God, of one substance with the Father. But those who say: ‘There was a time when he was not; or the Son of God is created; they are condemned by the holy catholic and apostolic church.”

The Athanasian Creed reads: “We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity; neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. The Godhood of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is all one, the glory equal,18 the majesty co-eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father eternal; the Son eternal; and the Holy Ghost eternal. And yet they are not three but one eternal. So likewise the Father is Almighty; the Son is Almighty; and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not three Almighties, but one Almighty. The Father is God; the Son is God; and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not three Gods; but one God. And in this Trinity none is afore, or after another; none is greater or less than another, but co-eternal and co-equal.

“Our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, is God and man. Perfect God and perfect man. Equal to the Father as touching his Godhead.” From the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, the early church doctrine of the Trinity is principally formed.

Agreement of Bonn, 1875: “In the Godhead there is only one beginning, one cause, by which all that is in the Godhead is produced.” (“I and the Father are one.” – John 10:30.)

The Confession of the Greek Patriarch, Gennadius to Mahomet II, read as follows: “We believe that there are in the one God three peculiarities, and these three peculiarities we call the three subsistences. We believe that out of the nature of God. spring the Word and the Spirit, as from the fire the light and the heat. These three, the Mind, the Word, and the Spirit, are one God, as in the one soul of man there is the mind, the rational word, and the rational will, and yet these three are as to essence one soul.” This was the faith of the Greek church at this date. 1453, A. D.

From the Catechism of the Greek Church, Moscow, 1839, we gather the following: “The Son of God begotten of the Father expresses that personal property by which he is distinguished from the Father and the Holy Ghost. None should think that there ever was a time when he was not.” Jesus, the Word, was “in the bosom of the Father,” His “thought and expression” (Logos), from all eternity.

“Light of lights” explains the incomprehensible generation of the Son of God from the Father. Both the light we see and the Sun axe of one indivisible nature. “Very God of very God.” The Son of God is called God in the same proper sense as God the Father. – 1 John 5:20. (There is no increase in Deity in this so-called “generation.”)

“Jesus suffered and died not in his Godhead, but in his manhood. The Son of God is omnipresent. In his Godhead he ever was and is in heaven. He is omnipresent, on earth and in heaven. He became visible in his humanity. He was always in heaven and on earth. His humanity had a beginning.

“How does Jesus sit at the right hand of God the Father? This must be understood spiritually. Jesus Christ has one and the same majesty and glory with God the Father. God’s special presence is manifested in heaven to blessed spirits; also in the church a spiritual presence in various manifestations, gifts, etc. But “God is Spirit,” omnipresent.

“How does Scripture ascribe to God bodily parts, as heart,19 Eyes, ears, hands, if God is a Spirit? Holy Scripture suits itself to the common language of men; but we are to understand such expressions in a higher and spiritual sense.

“The Son of God was made man, without ceasing to be God. The “Word was made flesh.” – John 1:14. One Person, God and man together, a God-man.” – Greek Catechism.

I. M. Haldeman, D. D., Pastor of the First Baptist Church, New York City: “God, the one being, is expressed in three persons. No one person is God without the other two. The Father can neither be seen nor felt; the Spirit can never be seen, but is felt; while the Son can be both seen and felt. The Son of God is the revelation of both the Father and the Spirit, therefore the embodiment of the fulness of God. – Col. 2:9, 2 Cor. 3:17. Father, Son and Holy Spirit constitute one being and one God.

“God is ever essentially the same. The being of the Father would not be complete without the being of the Son. The Son of God is the outgoing and forthputting of the essence and energy of the Father. “Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” – Micah 5:2. He never in all eternity was unbegotten. He is the uncaused Son of God, and God the Son.

“From all eternity He has been a common part of the being and substance of God. Since this his true His mother could not conceive His personality. Therefore that which was conceived by his mother was not a personality, but an impersonal nature. “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son, of God. – Luke 1:35. “Wherefore also that which is to be ‘begotten’ ” – Luke 1:35, Rotherham Translation. “A body hast Thou prepared for me.” – Heb. 10:5 (His human nature was ‘begotten” in the womb of the Virgin.) His body (the expression of his created human nature) was united to His unchanged personality. While the Holy Ghost came upon the virgin, and the power of the Highest overshadowed her, it was the Son (Logos) who, laying aside his “form” of God and uniting this divinely wrought (begotten of God) human nature to himself, entered the world through the gateway of a woman’s life and became the concentrated expression of the unit work of Godhead and the final and determining factor in his own incarnation,” – Phil. 2:7. The resurrection of Christ does not touch His essential and eternal relation to the Father. It is the coming forth of the Son from the grave in the humanity, which, with the Father and the Spirit, He had created for Himself.

“When it is said he is the “first born of every creature (creation),” the qualification is used in the sense not of essence or origin, but in the sense of heirship. – Heb. 1:2. He is the “beginning” of the creation of God.” He was the first to rise from the dead. As such He is the “second Adam,” the last Adam, the head and beginning of the new race potentially in Him, the new creation of God. (“The primal source of all creatures.” – Col. 1:15, – A. S. Worrel.)

“Only God can atone to God. God as God cannot die. He must have a human nature. God must become incarnate. As sons of God we are subject to an dependent on him as that one of whom alone of all the sons of God it can be said, ’Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God” – Psa. 90:2. – I. M. Haldeman. “And God was the Word.) – John 1:1. “God was manifest in the flesh.” – 1 Tim. 3:16.

“The final goal of Greek philosophy was only reached when the great thinkers of the early christian church, who had been trained in the schools of Alexandria and Athens, used its modes of thought in their analysis of the christian idea of God. The result was the evolution of the doctrine of the Trinity.” Ency. Britt.

Pastor J. T. Boddy has written the following convictions, which would seem to be very applicable at this time: “All must concede that it is impossible for the finite to comprehend or define the Infinite, and that whatever measure of knowledge of God and the great mystery of godliness procurable in this life, it must reach us by revelation through the Word, and not through reason. We have become too metaphysical. Our salvation does not depend on our correct conceptions of the Godhead, but upon our personal relation to Him through Jesus Christ.

“Many very incompetent persons mentally and spiritually, have irreverently “rushed in where angels fear to tread,” and have undertaken to analyze, define and even dissect God, and then presumptuously held up before Him their human analysis, in sacrilegious attitude. This is largely due to a lack of true veneration and reverence for divine and sacred things. And this is frequently done by so over-emphasizing a truth that we warp it out of its true relation to the other truths, and thereby weaken the whole.”

From Binney’s Compend we gather the following instructive Bible study on the subject: “Jesus Christ is verily and truly man. Jesus Christ is the very unoriginated God. – John 1:1; 20:28, Acts 20:28, Rom. 9:5 (the Spanish translation reads, “Who is God over all things, blessed forever”), Col. 2:9, Phil. 2:6, 1 Tim. 3:16, Titus 2:10, Heb. 1:8, 1 John 5:20.

“His eternity is proven by the following Scriptures: Isa. 9:6, Micah 5:2, John 1:1; John 8:58, Col. 1:17, Heb. 7:3; 13:8; Rev. 1:8. His divine titles are given, a few of which are Alpha and Omega. – Rev. 1:8; 21:6; 22:13. Emmanuel, – Matt. 1:23. First and last, – Rev. 1:17. Everlasting Father, Isa. 9:6. Mighty God, Isa. 9:6. King of kings and Lord of lords, – 1 Tim. 6:15. Lord of Glory, – 1 Cor. 2:8. Prince of Life, Acts 3:15. And many other titles and passages. He is proven Omnipresent, Omniscient, and Omnipotent, by many Scriptures

“Substantial divinity and real humanity are combined in the person of Jesus Christ. As man21 he weeps over the grave of Lazarus. As God, He raises him from the dead. As man he himself suffers and dies. But as God He is able to raise His own body from the dead. – John 10:18. As those two natures are united in him, he has of course a double mode of speaking of himself.

“Jesus manifestly claims supreme divinity where he says to Philip, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” – John 14:9. Jesus was the human personation of the invisible God. Philip sees the Father only as he sees him in the Son. – John 1:18. In his mediatorial office, being sent, he was inferior to the Father who sent him. – John 14:28. He refers not to his nature but to his office, – ”the Father is greater than I.” In view of Christ’s many claims to be God, he is either God, or not a good man. They who begin by denying Christ’s supreme Deity logically end by assailing his moral integrity. – Mark 10:18. In Mark 13:32, the ignorance does not disprove his Divinity: It may have been a part of his humiliation in His mediatorial office. The union of two whole and perfect natures, divinity and humanity, qualify Jesus Christ to be the mediator. That is, perfectly to represent God to sinful man, and fallen man to God, and to provide, through his shed blood, and the agency of-the Holy Spirit, for a reconciliation between them. – 1 Tim. 2:5, – Notes from Binney’s Compend.

Iraneaus, a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of St. John, wrote: “God was to become man, and in Christ he became man. Christ must be God; for if not, the devil would have had a natural claim on him, and he would have been no more exempt from death than the other children of Adam; he must be man if his blood were indeed to redeem us. In the God-man God has drawn man up to himself. The Logos is the voice of God, with which the Father speaks in the revelation to mankind.” Jesus was a “cross” between God and man. God “crossed” himself with humanity. “God was manifest in the flesh.” – 1 Tim. 3:16.

The Editor of the Sunday School Times writes: “John introduces Christ to us as the Word. The Greek word logos, translated ‘word,’ had two meanings. It signified the intelligence or the reason. Our word logic is derived from it in this sense. It also signified speech. Both these meanings are included when John calls Christ the Word. He is the inward Word of God, because He exists from all eternity in the bosom of the Father, as much one with Him as reason is one with the reasoning mind. Nothing is so close to man as his own thought. So nothing is so close to God as His own, eternal Word. It is within Him, it is one with Him, and it is divine, like Him. Christ is also God’s outward Word. He expresses and explains and reveals to the world what God is.”

Alexander Cruden writes in his ”Concordance of the Scriptures”: The eternal Son of God in his divine nature is equal with the Father; but in his human nature subordinate and inferior to the Father. Both natures are united in the person of Christ. The Word, the eternal Son of God, is equal and22 consubstantial with the Father, being the express image of the Father, as our word, are of our thoughts.” – Heb. 1:3.

On Isa. 9:6, Cruden says: “His name shall be called Wonderful, the Mighty God, that is, He is wonderful, he is the mighty God.”

Tertullian wrote, A. D. 200: “There is but one God and no other besides the maker of the world, who produced the universe out of nothing, by his Word sent forth first of all. This by the patriarchs, was always heard in the prophets ( 1 Peter 1:10-12), at last was sent down, from the Spirit and power of God the Father, into the Virgin Mary, was made flesh in her womb, and born of her, lived (appeared) as Jesus Christ, etc.”

Origen, wrote, A. D., 230: “Emptying himself he (Jesus Christ) became man incarnate, while he was yet God and though made man, remained God as he was before.” ‘ the true Son of the true Father.’

Gregorious wrote, A. D. 270: “One Lord (Jesus Christ), the mighty Word, the wisdom which comprehends the constitution of all things, and the power which produces all creation, the true Son of the true Father.”

Fourth Ecumenical Council, A. D. 451: Established Creed of Chalcedon – Christological. The Incarnation: “The God-man is not a mere indwelling of God in man, but an actual and abiding union of the two in one personal life. The Logos assumed, not a human person (else we would have two persons a divine and a human), but human nature which is common to us all; and hence he redeemed, not a particular man but all men as partakers of the same natur

“Christ is not a double being with two persons. He is person, both divine and human. The divine will ever remain divine, and the human ever human, and yet the two have continually one common life. It is a permanent state, resulting from the incarnation. The two natures constitute but one personal life and yet remain distinct

“The self-consciousness of Christ is never divided. The divine nature is the seat of self consciousness and pervades and animates the human. The one divine human person of Christ wrought miracles by virtue of his divine nature, and suffered through his human nature. “The superhuman effect and infinite merit must be ascribed to his divinity. His humanity alone made him capable of temptation, suffering, and death. Christ’s human nature had no independent personality of its own besides the divine. The divine nature is the root and basis of his personality.

“His human personality was completed and perfected by being so incorporated with the pre-existent Logos personality as to find in it alone its full self consciousness, and to be permeated and controlled by it in every stage of’ its development. The human nature of Christ did not exist at all before the act of the incarnation. The Son of God was crucified and buried, yet he suffered not in his Godhead, but in weakness of human nature.” So Jesus took on him humanity, not a single human23 individuality. The human was blended, “crossed,’ with the divine. Jesus was “perfect God and perfect man.” As such he was capable of the fulness of Divine felicity and blessedness, and yet of the sum total of human wretchedness and suffering. He was “made sin for us, who knew no sin.” – 2 Cor. 5:21.

Weymouth Translation, N. T., foot-note on Matt. 1:21: “The full significance of the name “Jesus” is seen in the original “Yeho-shua,” which means “Jehovah the Savior,” and not merely Savior.”

Scofield Reference Bible, foot notes “ Matt. 1:21 “Jesus, Greek form of Hebrew Je-hoshua, meaning Savior. Josh. 1:1: Joshua – Je-hoshua

“The central theme of the Bible is Christ. It is this manifestation of Jesus Christ, his person as “God manifest in the flesh,” has sacrificial death and his resurrection, which constitute the Gospel. Unto this all preceding Scripture leads, from this all following Scripture proceeds. Man was made in the image and likeness of God. This image is found, chiefly in man’s tri-unity, and in his moral nature. Jehovah is distinctly the redemption name of Deity. Jehovah is the self-existent One who reveals Himself.

“Christ is seen in his person as Son of God, and very God. Those Scriptures which attribute to God bodily parts are metaphorical. Jesus was the Mighty God. Jesus the Logos was the expression or utterance of the Person and thought of Deity in his incarnation. Christ applied to himself the Jehovistic “I Am.” He claimed to be the Adonai (Lord) of the O. T. Eternal life is the life of God revealed in Jesus Christ, who is God.

“The Memorial Name of God: “The primary meaning of the name Jehovah (English – Lord) is “the self-existent One.” Literally (as in Ex. 3:14) He that is who He is, therefore the eternal I Am. But Havah, from whence Jehovah, or Yahwe, is formed, signifies also “to become,” that is to become known, thus, pointing to a continuous and increasing self-revelation. Combining these meanings of Havah we arrive at the meaning of the name Jehovah. He is “the self-existent One who reveals Himself. Jehovah Elohim clearly indicates a special relation of Deity, in His Jehovah character, to man, and all Scripture emphasizes this Jehovah is distinctly the redemption name of Deity. When sin entered and redemption became necessary, it was Jehovah Elohim who sought the erring ones, and clothed them with ‘coats of skins.” The first distinct revelation of Himself by His name Jehovah was in connection with the redemption of the covenant people out of Egypt. Christ Himself affirmed his deity. He applied to Himself the Jehovistic “I Am.”

“The Greek term Logos (Word) means a thought or concept, and the expression or utterance of that thought. Christ is from eternity, but especially in his incarnation, the utterance or expression of the Person and thought of Deity. The “mystery of God” is Christ, as incarnating the fulness of the Godhead. The life is called “eternal” because it was from the eternity24 which is past unto the eternity which is to come – it is the life of God revealed in Jesus Christ, who is God

1 Cor. 15:24, 15:28; “The Son will deliver up the kingdom to “God, even the Father” that “God” (i. e., the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit), “my be all in all.” The eternal throne is that “of God, and of the’ Lamb.” – Rev. 22:1.” – Scofield Ref. Bible

“The Angel of the Covenant, Jesus Christ, appeared many times in the Old Dispensation, and received worship, as God. “Behold, I send an angel (messenger) before thee … provoke him not . . . . for My Name is in him.” – Ex. 3:20-22. Israel worshipped this angel all the way to the promised land.” – Eusebia. This was evidently the Angel of the covenant, Jesus Christ; according to Adam Clarke and others.

The Syriac Version gives the following curious rendering of John 1:18, “No man hath ever seen God; the only begotten God, he who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” Even the title of this ancient and valuable translation reads as follows: “The New Testament; or, the Book of the Holy Gospel of our Lord and our God, Jesus the Messiah.”

Dr. Philip Schaff writes, on John 20:28: “This is the strongest Apostolic confession of faith in the Lordship and divinity of Christ. “Thomas answered and said unto him (Jesus), “My Lord and my God.” Thomas could not have uttered a profanity unrebuked by the Lord. He was an honest inquirer for the truth, not an unbeliever. He embraced with, joy the proof.

“It was by a true, divine instinct that the early theologians made Christ Himself, in his divine human personality, the center of their creeds.” – Schaff.

Ignatius said: “Be ye deaf, therefore, when any man speaketh to you apart from Jesus Christ.” The doctrine of one God undermines the heathen systems of worship at one stroke. When the heathen ask the name of the christians’ God the missionaries invariably and rightly tell them Jesus. 1 John 5:20, “This is the true God, and eternal life.” – (Jesus.) “Little children, keep yourselves from idols (false ideas of God).” – 20th Century Trans. – 1 John 5:21

Wm. Smith. LL. D., in his ‘Bible Diet., writes as follows: “Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures two chief names are used for the one true divine being – Elohim, commonly translated God in our Version, and Jehovah, translated Lord. Jehovah denotes specifically the one true God, whose people the Jews were, and who made them the guardians of His truth. The name is never applied to a false god, nor to any other being, ‘‘except One, the Angel Jehovah, who is thereby marked as one with God, and who appears again in the New Covenant as “God manifest in the flesh.”

“The Jews’ abstained from pronouncing this name, for fear of its irreverent use. “The Name”, (Shema), is substituted by the Rabbis for the unutterable word. They also call it “the name of four letters” (JHVH), “the great and terrible name,”25 “the peculiar name,” “the separate name.” In reading the Scriptures they substituted for it Adonai (Lord). The substitution of the word is most unhappy. The mind has constantly to guard against a confusion with its lower uses. The key to the meaning of the name is unquestionably given in God’s revelation of Himself to Moses by the phrase, “I am that I am,” in connection with the statement that He was now first revealed by His name Jehovah. – Ex. 3:14; Ex. 6:3, ( (John 8:58)). Jehovah expresses the essential, eternal, unchangeable Being of Jehovah. It is also a practical revelation of God, in His essential, unchangeable relation to His chosen people, the basis of His covenant. He was about, for the first time, fully to reveal that aspect of His character which the name implied – Jehovah.” The name Jehovah had been known from the beginning. – Gen 2

Rev. Leon Tucker, prominent Baptist preacher and writer, in his book “Is Jesus Christ Creature or Creator?” writes the following: “Apart from the Scriptures we can know nothing of Jesus Christ. Apart from Jesus Christ we can know nothing of the Scriptures. The Word of God and the Son of God are eternal and inseparable, therefore to the child of God the Scriptures are imperative. The battle continues with ever increasing hate and hostility. The personal attributes of the Son of God are not only little understood, but much misunderstood. The means of the revelation of God is Christ. He is not only the conveyor of that revelation, but is the revelation itself.

“Scripture declares He was in the world from all time, existed before all time, and will be when time is no more. The Eternal Christ is the theme of the Scriptures. It takes a whole Bible to give us a whole Christ. Christ is from Eternity to Eternity in His character. Henry Ward Beecher in writing the Life of Christ said, “How can I finish the Life of Christ? a life which never began, and will never end.” “But thou, Bethlehem-Ephratah ... out of thee shall one come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting (the days of eternity).” – Micah 5:2

“The Son was in the “bosom of the Father” because never unborn. Jesus Christ came from the “bosom of the Father.” He was God manifest in the flesh, but nevertheless God of all flesh, and before all flesh. He was not manifestation of God in the flesh, but was. “God manifest in the flesh.” He was before all things. – Col. 1:17. Isaiah refers to Him as “Father of Eternity.” – Isa. 9:6. – Heb. Eternal life is “in the Son.” – 1 John 5:11, John 17:3. Natural life, spiritual life, and eternal life all come front Him. All the attributes of God are His and He is God.

“He pre-existed as God. – John 1:1. He was predicated as God – Isa. 9:6. He professed to be God. – John 5:18. He was proclaimed God. – 1 Tim. 3:16. He was promoted as God. – Heb. 1:8, 9. He was petitioned as God. – 1 Cor. 1:2. His perfections are God’s. – John 8:53[sic], John 8.58[sic], 10:15, 28; John 20:28. Matt. 18:20, Heb. 7:26. He created. – Col. 1:15, 17. He is “Providence,” – Heb. 1:3.

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.” – Heb. 13:8. Human reason has always failed at the Christ. But the fact remains. Divine revelation can never sink to human reason, and human reason can never rise to divine revelation. The Bible says He is a Creator. – Col 1:15-20. The Bible says He is God. He is no less than the Creator of all things, whether they be atoms or angels, persons or planets. The Seraphim at the presence of His glory, covered their faces. – Isa. 6:1-8. John 12:39-41.

“In the beginning God,” ( Gen 1:1), and Christ is the beginning. He is before all time. He is the Alpha of all things. There was some one before there was anything. He was the One. Angels both faithful and fallen know Him if men do not. He is Lord of All. No, Jesus Christ is not a creature, He is the Creator. Whether in Creation or Redemption, Jesus Christ is the Absolute and all perfect expression of God. He is all of God and God is all of Christ. Let us speak out in these days of doubt and declension. The Christology of the Book is better than the philosophy of all books. Christ is “All and in all.” – Leon Tucker

John Bunyan: “His (Jesus’) attributes, though apart laid down in the Word of God, that we, being weak, might the better conceive of his eternal power and Godhead; yet in him they are without division, one glorious and eternal being. The Godhead is but one, yet in the Godhead there are three. These three are called the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; each of which is really, naturally and eternally God; yet there is but one God. To each the Scripture applieth, and that truly, the whole nature of Dei

“Adam heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the midst of the garden; which voice John will have to be one of the three, calling that which Moses here saith is the voice, the Word of God: “In the beginning was the Word,” the voice which Adam heard walking in the midst of the garden. This “Word was with God,” – “Word was God.” – John 1:1,2.

“Now the godly in former ages have called these three, in the Godhead, Persons or Subsistences; the which though I condemn not yet choose rather to abide by Scripture phrase. Thou must take heed when thou readest that there is in the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that thou do not imagine about them, according to thine own carnal and foolish fancy, and foolishly imagine about it. You find not one of the prophets propounding an argument to prove it; but asserting it, they let it lie, for faith to take it up and embrace it. The Godhead then, though it can admit of a Trinity, yet it admitteth not of inferiority in that Trinity; if otherwise then there must be less or more, and so either plurality of gods, or something that is not God.”

The infidel Renan “declared: “, Thou Man of Galilee, Thou hast conquered; and henceforth no man shall be able to distinguish between thee and God. Banner of our contradictions!27 Thou wilt be the sign around which there will be fought the fiercest battles.” And it is so.

Napoleon, on the Island of St. Helena, in exile, said: “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemange and I have founded great empires; but upon what did these creations depend? Upon force. Jesus has founded his empire upon love, and to this very day millions would die for him. No one else is like Him. Jesus Christ was more than a man. I have inspired multitudes with such devotion that they would have died for me. But to do this it was necessary that I should be visibly present, with the electric influence of my looks, of my words, of my voice. Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man toward the unseen that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time and space. Across a chasm of 1800 years Jesus Christ makes a demand which is, above all others, difficult to satisfy. He demands it unconditionally, and forthwith his demand is granted. Time, the great destroyer, is powerless to extinguish the sacred flame. This it is which strikes me most.”

Some one has written of Napoleon: “Moved alternately by admiration, jealousy, and remorse at Jesus Christ, Napoleon unhesitatingly and in all sincerity denominated him “the man-God.” He marveled at the power of the symbol of the Cross to change mens’ lives. The thing that aroused his jealousy, admiration and remorse, was the fact that while he had led the world’s greatest armies to the slaughter and miserably failed either to retain a kingdom or the adherence of his followers, Jesus Christ had given his own life and secured an eternal kingdom, and the lasting admiration and fidelity of a world of true believers. Napoleon began by desiring to be a god. He ended by being hated and execrated by all.”

Editor E. N. Bell wrote as follows on Isa. 9:6: “Jesus was and is the Everlasting Father in the sense that he is the father of eternity, but not the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The idea is that Jesus existed before all time, though in the flesh he appeared in time; also that he originated or created all things. Isa. 9:6 does not discuss or refer to the Father in the N. T. sense. He is the father also of the “new creation,” even as the “first Adam” was of the old.”

Wm. H.’ Bennett, an English writer says: “The Everlasting Father,” Isa. 9:6, “The Father of the Everlasting Age, the One from whom spring the glory and blessedness of God’s new creation.”

Adam Clarke, speaking of the name for Jesus in the O. T., writes: “This is the famous tetragrammaton, or name of four letters, which we write Jehovah. The letters are JHVH. The Jews never pronounce it; and the true pronunciation is utterly unknown. This name the Jews never attempt to pronounce. When they meet with it in the Bible they read Adonai for it. To a man they all declare that no man can pronounce it; and that the true pronunciation has been lost; and that God alone knows its true interpretation28 and pronunciation.” It is evidently a mouthful for the Jews. It is “Jesus

Dr. Chas. H. Spurgeon, the great London preacher, wrote on 1 Timothy 3:16: “Was it a man that was manifest in the flesh? Assuredly not, for every man is manifest in the flesh. This could not be called a mystery. Was it an angel? What angel was ever manifest in the flesh? And if it were would it be a mystery for him to be seen of angels? Could it have been the devil? If so, be has been: “received up into glory,” which, let us hope is not the case. Now, if it was neither of these three that was “manifest in the flesh,” then it must have been God.”

Declaration of Evangelical Association of the World: “Christ is supreme in God’s revelation to Man. Christ declared of himself: “He that seeth me seeth the Father also.” He was the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of his person. Christ revealed the Fatherhood of God, of God, as well as the Saviorhood of man. There is no higher revelation of God than we have in Jesus Christ. “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself,” and the historical and experimental fact is a unique, and an unmatched revelation of God in the creation and redemption of man, the correct interpretation of God’s eternal purpose with man. Christ is the supreme revealer of God in human redemption.

Wyckliffe: “Our faith will not fail for it is founded on Jesus alone, our Master and our God. The mediator must needs be a man; but every man, being indebted to God for everything that he is able to do this man must needs have infinite merit, and be at the same time God.”

Jacob Boehme, A. D. 1624. “The way to oneness is to sink into the knowledge of the great and holy name of God, Jehovah or Jesus, as the living Word, that gives life to all things. In the only beloved Son, God is revealed.”

Hannah Whitall Smith: “The God who created us is the God who saves us. Not another God, for there is none beside Him, but the very God, our Creator himself. Some are apt to think of our Creator and our Savior as two Gods, with interests which are not identical. But we are told as plainly as words can tell it, that the Creator is also the Savior, and there is none beside.”

Chas. G. Finney, the Great Revivalist: “Only the Holy Ghost can reveal Christ as God so that the believing soul will be fast established in this truth and the fact become a sanctifying power in the heart.”

Pastor Paul, of Berlin, in a Book recently written, declares: “The Antichrist is about to set himself up as a man-God, and in keeping with this assumption his chief attack will be to overthrow the fact that Jesus Christ is God.” Antichrist will set himself forth in the temple of God as God. “He that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God.” – 2 Thessalonians 2:4. Then let us29 set Jesus Christ forth in our temple as the true God. Anti-christ is “against Christ.” “This is the true God, and eternal life,” – Jesus, – 1 John 5:20. “Little children, keep yourselves from idols (false ideas of God).” – 1 John 5:21, – 20th Century Trans. Antichrist is subtly and surely paving the way for the complete denial of the Deity of Christ. It will become harder and more unpopular continually to preach this truth. God grant that our sympathies may be found on the right side, that we may not be found finally aiding the Antichrist. Any tendency or spirit to deny the full claims of Jesus Christ is necessarily antichrist, and in line with the Apostasy. The spirit of Antichrist rises up against and opposes the revelation of Jesus Christ, as God. It is a persecuting spirit, the “Mother Harlot” spirit. Just’ in the measure that men reject and oppose this full revelation of Christ they still possess the spirit of Antichrist, inherited through the “fall,” enmity with God.

Testimony of Suzuki Yasukei, a Japanese convert in Japan: “I am a man of 78 years of age and getting very old. I have been a member of Japanese old Buddhist temple for over 60 years, and I have learned many Korans, and I can pray like priests for the dead people and instruct others how they can go to a place where people live on water lily flowers all the time. That is what we call “Gokuraku,” a place of easy retirement. I thought it was the true way and no other way to go to that fine place, so I worshipped Buddha every morning, beating drum and burning incense, repeating the same each year without knowing peace in my heart. I thought, I can go to that place in this way. But this year in May I heard that a Christian tent meeting was going on at Kitagata Yochien waki, where people were finding real joy and peace through Yaso (Jesus Christ). I went to the tent, and found the true God and Savior. Although I wasted my whole life, thank God he has saved me even now before I die. He has become my personal Redeemer.

“A few days ago I saw a wonderful dream or vision. It was so real to me I will tell you all about it. I awakened early: and was meditating on God when I saw something with my eyes. As I looked up I saw a beautiful country and many people shouting hallelujah, as I heard in the mission, and I wanted to go there so much. Then at this time two priests ‘-came in to talk to me from the sidewalk and asked me. “Do you forsake us? Where are you going now? Come on with us to the temple.” But I said to them, You are dirty, wicked deceitful priests. You misled me, you fooled me, you cheated me; get out of my way. I hollered out like, that. Again Yaso (Jesus) appeared in a cloud, and took me on that same cloud to that beautiful, country which I had seen a few moments before. Oh, it was so beautiful! I never saw such a beautiful place since I was born. Jesus himself said to me, “You were honest, so I will give you a key to the treasure house of this country.” At this time I really found out the true God and Savior, Jesus Christ. I heard many people say, Kami (God),30 Yaso (Jesus), Miseire (Holy Spirit); I thought they were all different gods. But God is united with Yaso (Jesus) on the throne of God.” – From “The Toyo No Koe,” Japan. This old Japanese saint’s photo was printed with the article.

Sadhu Sundar Singh: “Sadhu Sundar Singh is known as the St. Paul of India. His life and experience have been apparently parallel to those of Apostolic days. He has visited the Orient, the Isle of Ceylon, European countries and, also the U. S. In a book written by a well known writer, the following is what Sundar Singh has to say on the subject of’ the Trinity: “At one time I was a good deal perplexed about the doctrine of the Trinity. I had thought of three separate persons, sitting as it were on three thrones, but it was all made plain to me in a vision. I entered into an ecstasy into the third heaven. I was told, it was the same to which St. Paul was caught up. And there I saw Christ in a glorious body sitting on a throne. Whenever I go there it is the same. Christ is always in the center, a figure ineffable and indescribable, His face shining like the Sun, but in no way dazzling, and so sweet that without any difficulty I can gaze at it – always smiling a glorious, loving smile.

“The first time I entered heaven I looked around and I asked; “But where is God?” And they told me, “God is not to be seen here any more than on earth, for God is Infinite. But there is Christ, He is God. He is the image of the invisible God, and it is only in Him that we can see God, in Heaven as on earth.” And streaming out from Christ I saw, as it were, waves shining and peace giving, and going through and among the saints and angels, and everywhere bringing refreshment, just as in hot weather water refreshes trees; and this I understood to be the Holy Spirit.”

Some one has beautifully and truly written the following: “The central theme of the Word of God is Jesus Christ. In Genesis He is the Creator, in Exodus He is the Passover Lamb, in Leviticus He is the Offering, in Numbers He is represented in type, in Deuteronomy He fills the reviews, in Joshua He is the Captain of the Lord’s Host, in Judges He is the Righteous Judge, in Ruth He is the Husband, in Samuel He is the Prophet of the prophets, in Kings and Chronicles He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, in Ezra He is the Restorer of His people, in Nehemiah He is the Protector of His people, in Esther He is the Preserver of His people, in Job He is the Redeemer that liveth, in Psalms He is the Shepherd King-Messiah, in Proverbs He is the Wise Man, in Ecclesiastes He is the only One under the sun in whom there is no vanity, in Songs of Solomon He is the Bridegroom-Lover. The major and minor or the pre-exilic, exilic, and post-exilic prophets especially portray in minute and comprehensive detail the exact events that cluster around the two advents of Christ. In Matthew He is the King-Messiah, in Mark He is the Servant-Messiah, in Luke He, is the Man-Messiah, and in John He is the God-Messiah. The historic, epistolary and apocalyptic letters all reveal the one personage. – Jesus Christ.”