WE HAVE ALREADY PUBLISHED AN ARTICLE DEALING WITH THE HUMANITY AND THE DEITY OF JESUS CHRIST, AND WE HAVE TESTIMONY THAT IT HAS ALREADY BEEN A GREAT BLESSING TO MANY PEOPLE BUT SOMEHOW I FEEL THAT WE CAN APPROACH THIS SUBJECT FROM A LITTLE DIFFERENT ANGLE AND OPEN UP A MUCH DEEPER REVELATION. I BELIEVE WE CAN TAKE VARIOUS SCRIPTURES, AND ALLOW THE HOLY GHOST TO PLACE THEM IN THEIR PROPER ORDER OF UNDERSTANDING TO THE POINT WHERE WE WILL GET RIGHT TO THE VERY HEART OF THIS GODHEAD REVELATION. IF THE ONENESS PENTECOST PEOPLE COULD HAVE SEEN WHAT I SEE HERE IN THESE SCRIPTURES, THEY COULD HAVE PRESENTED A ONE GOD REVELATION TO TRINITY PENTECOSTALS THAT MIGHT NOT HAVE SEEMED SO RIDICULOUS TO THEM. HOW-EVER WE DO REALIZE THAT ONLY THE SPIRIT OF GOD CAN OPEN UP THE SCRIPTURES TO OUR UNDERSTANDING, AND THAT IS DONE ONLY WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT. THEREFORE REGARDLESS OF WHAT WE MAY SEE, OR SAY, IN THIS HOUR OF TIME, I AM FULLY PERSUADED THAT GOD HAS BEEN RUNNING HIS REDEMPTION PROGRAM, AND THAT NOTHING OF ANY BENEFIT TO OUR SOUL’S SALVATION IS GIVEN TO US PREMATURELY. HE IS AL-WAYS RIGHT ON TIME, NEVER LATE, AND NEVER EARLY. THIS LAST DAY ELEMENT OF THE BRIDE OF CHRIST IS BEING DEALT WITH IN A WAY THAT NO OTHER AGE EVER HAS TO THIS POINT, AND IT IS ALL BEING DONE TO MOLD SOME PEOPLE INTO THE VERY IMAGE OF JESUS CHRIST, SO THAT WHEN HE COMES FOR THEM THEY WILL BE LIKE HIM. THERE WILL BE NO ONE GOING IN THE RAPTURE THAT IS STILL EXPECTING TO SEE THREE PERSONS IN HEAVEN, ALL THREE BEING CALLED GOD. BUT NATURALLY WE CANNOT GIVE ANYONE A REVELATION. ALL WE CAN DO IS LEAD THEM TO THE SCRIPTURES THAT REVELATION COMES THROUGH, AND THAT IS WHAT WE ARE ASKING GOD TO HELP US DO.
A CERTAIN SON IS BORN
Open your Bibles to Isaiah 9:6, where we will read the text scripture for this particular message. This prophecy was given almost 800 years before the actual event took place, and when the prophecy was finally fulfilled, those who supposedly had watch-ed for its fulfillment, failed to acknowledge it when it stared them in the face. Notice the wording of this verse now as we read it. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: (Did you catch that? What do we see here? A child is going to be born, and that child is going to be a son, a male child. Therefore as we read the rest of the verse, please remember what I have emphasized over and over; God the Creator was never born, and cannot be born. His existence is eternal, and to be born would destroy that completely. He always was, and He always will be. That is why the Old Testament reveals Him as the self existent, self sufficient one. But here, we are reading of a child that is to be born, and it sounds like that child is going to grow up to be God.) and the government shall be upon his shoulder.” Praise God! We will get the whole verse read eventually, but I want to be sure we catch all the important points of it, for that is what opens up a true revelation of who this child would be. He would be a son, and not only that, he would be a son that had no former physical existence, for that is what the natural birth is; it produces a physical being that has never lived before. Naturally some would ask, Was Jesus a spirit being prior to His birth? The answer is, Only in the mind of the Father, the great eternal Spirit, did Jesus have any former existence, and we were every one there in His mind before He ever created the first star, or anything else. But like we have said many times before, The difference between Him (Jesus) and us was the hereditary genes that produced us. We came through Adam’s sin imputed genes, causing us to need redemption to restore us back to what the Father saw us to be, and He (Jesus) came from created genes apart from Adam’s , therefore lie had no inherited sin in Him. We will see a little later that this male child, this son that is to be BORN would be called, “The Son of God,” but that is getting ahead of where we are. Here we are reading of a son that is to be born, and he is going to fall heir to something, “The government shall be upon his shoulder.” That means he is destined to carry responsibility. “And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Brothers and Sisters, we need to analyze this very carefully, for God caused this prophet to write these words, knowing that it would be strictly up to every individual to see, and to react according to what they see. That is why we have chosen to sub title this message, “We Have Seen the Everlasting Father,” for I believe, that by close examination of the scriptures we are going to use, we will all be able to proclaim this by the time we finish. But in what way can we say that we have seen Him? Certainly not as the oneness Pentecostals claim to see Him. They will read these scriptures such as we are using for our text, and they will talk about Jesus being God, and Father, and how God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, but they get real upset when someone mentions that Jesus was the Son of God. They cannot cope with His Sonship, and at the same time, push their supposed to be, revelation of the Godhead. On the other hand, I have always believed that God had all these scriptures written for a particular reason, and I believe that we can embrace all of them if we will allow the Holy Ghost to reveal them to us. I do not have to be afraid to speak of Jesus as the Son of God in order to protect my revelation of the Oneness of God. The Holy Ghost that I received is doing what Jesus said He would do when lie would come; He is leading me into truth, and away from man’s doctrines. When I hear people who claim to be filled with the Holy Ghost arguing that God is three distinct persons, and speaking evil of anyone who believes that God is one, it lets me know something about them. It lets me know that the spirit they received is not doing what Jesus said the Holy Ghost would do, teach them all things, and lead them into all truth. No one ever heard Jesus claiming to be the 2nd person of a triune Godhead. He would tell them plainly, that the Father was in Him, and I will tell you, that if that same Spirit is not In you, you are not a son of
God. How do I know that? The apostle Paul told me, and he will tell you the same thing if you will open your Bible to the 8th chapter of Romans, and read verses 9-16.
WHO WAS THIS MAN FROM ABOVE?
God is seeking to mold some people into the very image of Jesus, the Christ, who, as the very begotten Son of God was faithful in all that the Father had ordained for Him to do. His mind was completely subject to the mind of the Father at all times, and that is what God desires to mold in us. He is molding a character and purpose in His redeemed children, that will lift them out of the carnal realm of thinking and doing things. Before we were saved and filled with the Holy Ghost, we were not even on talking terms with our Creator, no matter how educated some may have been; therefore we could not please God. But when we are born again, (I use this term in its strictest sense, and not as denomi-national religion uses it.) we have in us a measure of the Spirit which is the Creator of all things. Then He can talk to us, and we can talk to Him. From within us, He is able to guide us into all truth. When Jesus said, I do only that which I see the Father do, He was referring to the Spirit of the Father that dwelled within Him. Was that Spirit in Jesus when He was born? No. He waited 30 years to receive it. Did that make Him God? If you are talking about the flesh; No. But when you can properly see how the eternal God robed Himself with that flesh which carried the name Jesus, you can see how He could have been called God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace, and so forth. However, What Isaiah said though was, His NAME shall be called all of that. JESUS is the redemption name of the eternal God, the Father of all creation, and that name was given to that little baby by a command to Joseph and Mary from Gabriel, the archangel that announced what was going to take place. Isaiah prophesied that a virgin would conceive, and bear a son, and almost 800 years later, Gabriel appeared to the chosen virgin, and announced that what Isaiah had prophesied would be fulfilled in her. She first said, “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” But then Gabriel explained to her, that with God nothing is impossible, and she responded, “Be it unto me according to they word,” and it was so. In the normal process of time she gave birth to a man child and called his name Jesus, according to Gabriel’s instructions. The child grew into manhood. being in subjection to Joseph and Mary, and walking in perfect obedience to the will of God, and at the age of about 30 years, he came to the Jordan to be baptized by John the Baptist. Now His baptism was not for the remission of the sins of His human nature, for He was without sin. He had no inherited nature to sin; therefore his whole life was sinless as Adam’s could have been, if he would have obeyed the voice of God. Why was Jesus baptized then? To fulfill the righteousness of the law of Moses which was still in effect at that time. He was entering into a ministry whereby He would be both the sacrifice for man’s sins, and also the priest that would offer that sacrifice, for He offered Himself. Therefore sire the law required every priest to be washed before he entered in, to offer up sacrifice unto God, he came to John for this washing. Now I have said many times, Jesus did not have to be told when to go to the river, He knew when the time was right, and therefore when John said, “I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?” Jesus could answer him right back, “Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.” He knew what He was doing, and why He was doing it, and at that moment things began to change. For when John baptized Him, he himself began to receive more revelation of what was taking place, and that brings us to St. John 3:31, where John said, “He that cometh from above is above all : he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all.” Not only did John speak of Jesus as coming down from heaven, but Jesus Himself said, (John 6:38) “For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.” Of course we realize, that without a true revelation, pro-fessing religious people take yeses like these to establish their trinity doctrine, and never even stop to realize that anything which is born from a womb, has its beginning right there, and that is exactly where Jesus the Son of God, had His beginning. So it was not the flesh of Jesus that came down from heaven. Get that settled in your mind, and you will be able to catch the revelation of what statements like these really do mean. In other words John really explained His statement while He was making it, when he injected the phrase, “He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth.” That differentiates between those that were begotten of earthly parents, and He who was begotten by the very word (Logos) of God. The word of God that created the embryo in the womb of Mary, came down from heaven; therefore Jesus was not begotten by the earthly line of fallen natural parents, but rather from His holy Father which is above. Now some may say, We were all in the mind of the Father before the foundation of the world, and that is true; we were. But the way we came into this life is what makes the difference between us and Jesus. He is absolutely above all, because of His origin of life. I do not feel that anyone should stumble over statements like these, if they will just allow the Holy Spirit to guide their thinking. If you would just stop for a moment and think about the things you talked about before you surrendered your life to God, it would clear up a lot of your questions, for a lost person, out somewhere wallowing in sin, will talk about every carnal, rotten mess imaginable. But when he gives his life to God, his conversation turns noticeably toward heavenly things. On the other hand, the life in Jesus came directly from God, therefore Jesus had that eternal life in Him from birth, and had no need to be born again. He was absolutely without sin, but He was not God; He was the Son of God. As we said in another message, He never did any miracles until after He was baptized by John, for that is when the miracle worker incarnated trim. Before that, He was simply a sinless, perfect man. His conversation was always upright. Therefore after John said, “He that cometh from heaven is above all,” he went ahead and said, “And what He bath seen and heard, that He testifieth; and no man receiveth His testimony.” Hallelujah! Old John is getting a revelation, but it only started coming to him after he baptized Jesus. Before that, he did not even know Him. He testified to that in chapter 1, when he saw Jesus coming to him saying, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh Away the sin of the world. This is He of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for He was before me. And I knew Him not: but that He should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him. And I blew Him not: but He that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.” John plainly tells us when he began getting a revelation of who Jesus is; it was only after he saw the Spirit of the Father descending upon Him in bodily shape as that of a dove. Before that, he could only say, There is one among you. But notice verse 33; as this revelation begins to unfold to John he says, He that receiveth His testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. For He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God; for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.” That statement clinches it. This is proof that John’s revelation is coming to him on the merits of what he witnessed when he baptized Jesus, there in Jordan. He had witnessed the incarnation of the great, eternal God, the Creator of all things, in a human body of clay. God descended in the form of a dove so that it would be visible to those who stood by. They knew something out of the ordinary was taking place. This was the beginning of something God had waited thousands of years for, a time when He could come down to earth and place the fulness of His attributes in a man that would allow Him to have complete control of His whole being. Like John said, The Spirit was given to Him without measure. Every attribute of the great eternal Spirit was invested in Him without measure. This set many scriptures in motion. He is the first fruits. He is the firstborn among many brethren. He is the firstborn from among the dead, the beginning of God’s new family of children. He is the one whose name should be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, the everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. All of this went into effect the moment John baptized Him in the Jordan River. He had carried the name Jesus, for thirty years, and He had lived a perfect life all of those years, but there was no deity in Him before that particular day, and even after the great eternal Spirit incarnated Him, His physical flesh could not be what was looked upon as the everlasting Father. In other words, the flesh and blood man called Jesus, never created anything, but there are certain religious camps that will fight you for saying that. They believe Jesus was all there was to the Godhead. As I said before, They get real nervous when someone mentions the Son of God. For the simple reason, they know that God is not three persons, but they do not have a complete revelation of the Godhead, so they are afraid to allow talk that would sound contrary to their one God belief. If you will bear with me though, I believe we can see this everlasting Father that Isaiah wrote about without destroying anyone’s true revelation.
BENEFITS OF PROPER BELIEVING
All right now, let us read verse 34 again, and then we will take it to Colossians 1:19, 2:9-10. “For He whom God sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.” Jesus had the fulness of the Spirit of God in Him; therefore out of His mouth proceeded words that only God Himself could utter, and that greatly disturbed many of the Jews which heard Him speak, for they could not understand such a thing. But notice Paul’s revelation here in the Colossian letter. “For it pleased the Father that in Him (Jesus) should all fulness dwell.” That means exactly what John said. God placed in Him (Jesus) the fulness of Himself, and that is how the eternal Spirit, the Father of all creation , walked among men demonstrating His many attri-butes. In Colossians 2:9-10, Paul said, For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principal-ity and power. We are complete in Him, because He is the one that paid our sin debt with His own blood, and imputed perfect righteousness to us. We are not righteous because of any merits on our part, for the Bible says, All our righteousness is as filthy rags before God, but in Jesus, we have His righteousness imputed to us, and that allows us to stand in the presence of God as though we had never sinned. Praise God! What a Wonderful Savior is He! John the Baptist had a beautiful picture of this great operation of God, but he did not live very long to tell about it. Notice verse 35, in John 3, “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand. Here was a man the Father could depend upon to completely carry out His will. He loved Him, and that is why, with audible voice He said, “Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased,” or as some translate it, “In thee I am pleased to dwell.” No matter how you translate it, anyone ought to be able to see that the physical man called Jesus, was not the everlasting Father. Only after He was baptized by John did He become the manifested everlasting Fath-er, and even then, it requires a true revelation in order to read the many scriptures where Jesus would speak one time as the Father, and turn right around and speak as the Son of God. You have to be able to see ONE God which is Spirit, manifesting Himself in three separate offices, Father of all creation, Son for the purpose of redemption, and Holy Ghost for the purpose of indwelling His redeemed children. But in all of this, there is only one manifested PERSON in the Godhead, and that was the Son of God, Jesus, the Christ. Keep that in mind and let us read verse 36. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abidth on him.” We are living in a day when most of the people you talk to will say, Yes, I believe in Jesus Christ. But deep down in your heart, you know that they do not believe on Him, like John was talking about. When John spoke those words, The everlasting Father had just come on the scene to fulfill Isaiah 9:6, and He is now a living, walking, talking reality on earth, but in order to be a recipient of this everlasting life, a person had to see exactly what was taking place. There were many that saw Jesus manifesting the Father, and they could not deny that they were seeing a man do things that no other man had ever done, but a lot of them only saw Him as a troublemaker, a man that constantly broke the traditions of the elders. They saw Him as a man that spoke evil against the temple, and that would not keep the Sabbath according to their traditions; therefore I would have to say, None of these received everlasting life as a result of what they believed. Only those that saw the reality of what was being manifested before them, gained everlasting life for what they believed about Him. Out of the multitudes that witnessed His ministry on earth, only 120 of them believed in Him enough to wait 10 days for the promise of the Father to be manifested to them. Where were all the others that claimed to believe in Him? When the excitement was over, they went back to their fishing, farming and whatever else they were doing before. About one hundred and twenty souls did believe on Him in the way that John was talking about, and they tarried in Jerusalem until they received the promise of the Father, (the Holy Ghost) and then they went out into the streets of Jerusalem and manifested the deeds of the Father, just like Jesus had done. Instead of just one man with the Spirit of God in Him, now they were 120 men and women with that same Spirit in them that was in Jesus, only they did not have the unlimited measure that Jesus had. It was still the same God though, and soon there was another three thousand, with that same Spirit in them, and before long, another five thousand. Mankind that had never seen Jesus in the flesh, could still see His character, attitude, motive and understanding of the will of God being manifested through these that had received a measure of the same Spirit that was in Him. This is how the gospel has gone around the world for almost two thousand years since then. The only way God sends a man to preach the gospel, is the way He sent His Son Jesus who was the beginning of the gospel of Salvation. The way God sends a man, is by getting inside of Him, and going with him. This way, He can enable that man to focus attention on the DOOR. Who is the door? Jesus said He was. “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” In another place He said, “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” It is the Father that is eternal life, but He has committed all things into the hands of His only begotten Son therefore the Son Jesus, the Christ is the door to enter into this eternal life, so the gospel is to focus attention on the door, the entrance way into eternal life. When you look at a door, if there is nothing about it that causes you to want to go inside, you will probably just turn and walk away. But if there is something about that door that draws your attention to what is beyond it, you want to enter in, and that is why those who do believe to the point of receiving everlasting life, have to see something more than what can be seen with the natural eye. In other words, the Father drew attention to the Son, but the Son diverted that attention right back to the Father whose great plan is to redeem all of His lost sons and daughters, and put His Spirit within them; that He may be all in all. The Son was seeking no glory from man, but rather sought to turn all glory to the Father which sent Him.
THE TRUE SOURCE OF ALL POWER
Let us go to St. John, chapter 5, where Jesus is being questioned because He healed a man on the Sabbath day. This thing has upset their religious apple cart, and they were mad about it, so notice verse 16. “And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, (up to this time) and I work.” Saints: This is a perfect picture of perfect unity between the mind of the Father which is omnipresent, and the mind of the Son which is right there in that little head. The mind of the Son, from the human standpoint, was limited to right there, but the Father that had incarnated Him was unlimited. He is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent, and has given all things into the hand of the Son; therefore what the Father would do, they saw the Son (Jesus) doing it, but to those Jews, He was just a man trying to make a name for Himself. They could only see the Son being manifested by the Father; they could not see the Father being manifested by the Son. I know this sounds like a riddle to some, but it is a beautiful scriptural reality to those that have eyes to see. God, in His great plan of redemption, is seeking to get us back on a level where He can dwell in each of us in the fullness of Himself. That is when Jesus is going to be reverenced as our elder brother. All the wealth of the Father was given into His hands. But did He take it, and run off somewhere? No. He has shared it with all who would receive it. We are talking about His heirship to all the eternal riches of the Father, and how He has willingly made us joint heirs with Him in it all. Hallelujah! I gladly look to my elder brother, and realize what He has done for me. Praise God! Well we are getting ahead of our story. Jesus said, “My father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.” That is exactly what Paul wrote to the Philippians saying, (2:54) “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” But those self righteous Jews did not like that kind of talk, so they tried to kill Him. (That same spirit is on a lot of religious people today. If you do not agree with their doctrine, they would just as soon kill you.) But notice how Jesus responded to them. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” What point was He making to them? Simply this, just being the only begotten Son of God did not give Him that miracle working power. Before the incarnation, He could not walk on water. Before that moment that the Father indwelled Him, He could not calm a terrible storm just by speaking three words, “Peace be still.” What was all this then? It was the Father in Him, drawing attention to the flesh man, for the Son had to get their attention, before He could reveal the Father to them. The body of Jesus had to have sleep and rest just like everyone else. That is why He was sound asleep in the back of that old fishing boat when those storm waves began to toss that boat around that night. The Son of God was sound asleep, but the Father in Him never sleeps, and it was time to reveal something more of His perfect Son, so here comes a storm so ferocious that His disciples could not cope with it, and what did they do? They found Jesus lying back there, and yelled to Him, Carest thou not that we perish? In our language, Hey! Why don’t you get up and do something? He arose from His sleep and rebuked the winds, but then He asked them, Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? Did that mean that they could have done what He did? That was His way of teaching them that they could have faith to draw from that same source of power that He looked to, and that was also His way of saying to them, I am not the one that stopped that storm ; it was the Father in me. He always gave credit to the Father for that which was done. Like the time when He cursed the fig tree, and the next day Peter noticed that it was dried up, and withered away, and mentioned it to Jesus, and Jesus said to him, “Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.” That was His way of calling their attention to the true source of all power and authority. Of course those disciples heard Jesus speak words that caused things to go contrary to nature, but what He really wanted them to discover, was that they could have that same force of power and authority dwelling in them, and the works that they had seen Him do, they could do also. Personally, I have never known very many men who could properly use such power and authority to the glory of God the Father. Most of them would want to put it on display for personal fame and fortune. Come and see a man walk on water. You know what I am talking about.
ONE GOD — THREE OFFICES
Jesus never did go back and repeat the various miracles of His ministry. He only walked on the water one time. He only turned water to wine one time, and so on. He sought no fame for Himself. He was only interested in revealing the everlasting Father that dwelt in Him. He never tried to pattern His life after any other person on earth, like many of us do. His mind was always set upon pleasing His heavenly Father, even was a young boy. Luke mentions how He increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. But it was only after he was baptized by John, and the Spirit of God descended from heaven and incarnated Him, that He began to perform miracles. As we have pointed out in other messages, The Catholics believe that as a little boy, he went around creating birds and animals and so forth, but that is not so. If He had been performing supernatural feats all His life, why would He, at the age of 30, start saying, It is not I, that do these works, but the Father that dwelleth in me? Simply because He never per-formed any miracles before that. Oh, He was full of wisdom; He could debate with any of their scholars, and He knew the will of the Father for His life, but He had to wait until the proper time, to enter into His predetermined ministry. Brothers and Sisters: I wonder how many of you can truly see how ridiculous it is for anyone to try and make these many scriptures fit into a trinity doctrine? The trinity concept is that God the Father. God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost coexisted as three separate persons of this triune Godhead, all equal in authority, and in perfect agreement on everything. Can you run that concept of the Godhead through the Bible, and bring it out through the book of Revelation still intact? If you have the Holy Ghost directing your study of the Bible you can not. To me, Genesis 1:27, cancels out their trinity without reading any further. It reads like this, “So God created man in HIS (SINGULAR) own image, in the image of God created HE (SINGULAR) him; male and female created He them.” Is that the kind of language to properly describe the cooperative efforts of three separate persons working together to accomplish something? Of course not. It would have needed to say, So God created man in THEIR own image, and so on. But some need more to convince them, so I will call your attention to another proof that trinity teaching in Antichrist. In Matthew 1:20, the angel of the Lord told Joseph not to be afraid to take Mary for his wife, “for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit.” Therefore I ask you, If God is one person, Jesus is a person, and the Holy Ghost is a third person, and all three pre-existing from the beginning of time, How is it that Jesus is called the Son of God, when He was conceived by an operation of the Holy Ghost? Something got crossed up some-where. If God the Father, and the Holy Ghost are not one and the selfsame Spirit. then you would have to say that Jesus had two fathers, and if you do that, what kind of situation will you have? On the other hand, if you can see a sovereign Spirit in the beginning, speaking to His angelic helpers which are spirit beings also, and hear Him say, Let us make man in OUR own image, you do not have to try and squeeze the Son, and the Holy Ghost in there to explain the term OUR image. God is a Spirit, His angels were spirit beings, and the man that was created was a spirit being, so that takes care of the term OUR image, without having to make the Godhead into three separate persons. Then you do not have all that trouble trying to explain how a Son that had always been by the side of His Father, entered into the womb of a young virgin woman to be carried nine months, and birthed like any other little baby. Then when you have to explain the Holy Ghost, it is very simple to say, that the Holy Ghost that fell on the day of Pentecost, was the blended Spirit of both the Father and the Son, and they were not two persons, for the Father has never been a person; He has always been a sovereign Spirit. That makes the Son Jesus, the only person of the Godhead. Now if you have followed the revelation this far, you will have no trouble understanding the great incarnation that took place there at the Jordan when John baptized Jesus. The everlasting Father came down to indwell His only begotten Son Jesus. No, He did not empty the universe of His presence, He could never do that, for He is omnipresent, and will always be. But the Son Jesus, was filled with a full measure of every attribute that the Spirit of the Father encompasses, and He was given the headship over every-thing but the Father Himself. That is what Paul was referring to in I Cor. 15:27-29, when he mentioned how everything was put under subjection to the Son, except He that decreed it to be so, meaning God the Father, the great sovereign Spirit. But there was such unity between the mind of the Father and the mind of the Son, that the Son would not make a move, until the Father gave Him the go ahead. You say, Could He have done differently? Did He have any choice? We will let Jesus answer your question. In Matthew 26:53-54, when Peter had cut off the ear of one of the men that came to take Him, and Jesus had told him to put up his sword, Jesus said, “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and He shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? That lets me know that the Son had a mind of His own, but also, that it was completely submitted to the will of the Father. It lets me know also, that the Son knew what scriptures must be fulfilled, and how they would be fulfilled.
HAVE YOU SEEN THE EVERLASTING FATHER?
Reflecting back to I Corinthians 15, where Paul is speaking of how Jesus Christ must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet, and then goes on to say that after all things are subdued, the Son will be subject to the one that put all things under Him, (the Father) that God may be all in all. That does not suggest that the Son will have to give up anything of what the Father has given into His hands; It simply means that the Son delivers the redeemed kingdom that He has reconciled, back into the hands of the Father. He will not have to give up any of the indwelling presence of the Father, for by this time, the Father will be in all of His redeemed family with that full measure of His presence. That is what redemption is to accomplish. It puts us in a position where God can place the fullness of His presence in us, without us using that authority the wrong way. While sin and death are still a reality it cannot be so, but in that day, there will be no sin and death present ; for they will have been destroyed in the lake of fire. Where do we stand right now, though? That is the question, and I am afraid a lot of you are standing right where Phillip was standing when he said, after walking with the Lord all those months, “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” We are in John 14. Jesus has just said to His disciples, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also ; and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him.” But Phillip had not yet seen the Father to his satisfaction, so he says, “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” He had been showing them the Father all along, and here is Phillip with a question like this. Notice how Jesus answered him. Verse 9, “Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Phillip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Now we know Jesus was not talking about seeing the Father with the physical eyes, for a Spirit cannot be seen like that, so what did He mean? He could have just said, Phillip, if you had a true revelation of who I am, you would surely know by now that it is the Spirit of the Father in me, that has been doing all these mighty works among you, for I could not do these things apart from Him. Notice verse 10 now. This is as clear as anything could ever be spoken. “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? (Phillip, do you still not see that?) The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.” In other words, The Father which is Spirit came into the Son which had a sinless human spirit, and the two blended together and became one Spirit, never to be separated again, so even though the Father and the Son are one Spirit, there is still two minds functioning individual-ly, but in perfect unity, which explains why Jesus could speak either as the Son, or the Father. Regardless of which one spoke, the words came through the same set of lips though, and that causes unrevelated people some problems. Nevertheless, anyone who ever sees the everlasting Father, will have to see Him through the person of Jesus Christ, and they will only see Him through the eye of the Spirit, for the Father has no other human form to manifest the fullness of His attributes through. That is the reason some have said, If you ever see Jesus Christ, it will change your whole life. It truly will. But that does not mean that you must see Him in a supernatural vision of some kind. It simply means that when we see through the eyes of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, to the point where we get a revelation of who He was, and what He was, we can never embrace our former doctrines again. I will say this also, If you never see Him like that, do not bother to look for Him in the rapture, for He is coming back after a people that has been molded into His image and likeness, and that can only be a revelated people, those who have seen the everlasting Father. If there had never been water changed to wine, if there had never been a walking on the water, if there had never been a feeding of the 5000, nor the raising of the dead, and other such things, then man could never have seen the everlasting Father. He would have seen the Son of God as a perfect man, clean in character, pure in heart, and completely pure in His spiritual attitude toward His Creator, but He would not have seen the everlasting Father that Isaiah prophesied about. I believe, if we could have lived in that century of time, we would have heard Jesus say many things that were not the words of the Father. I believe he talked about natural things of life, such as flowers, birds, animals, a delicious meal that had been prepared for Him, and many other such things, that were strictly the words of the Son, but the important thing for us to see, is that the everlasting Father, the eternal God of all creation spoke through those same lips. Another thing you must surely realize, if you have a right revelation, is that God did not die on the cross at Calvary. God cannot die. That was Jesus, His perfect Son that died there for the sins of the whole world. The sin debt is paid in full, but only those who were foreknown of the Father will ever benefit from it, for all the rest will either reject God’s salvation plan completely, or else try to work out part of it by their own works.
THE ONLY SOURCE OF LIGHT
Let us go to John 12:44 now, for a few more verses of scripture. Many of the chief rulers believed on Jesus to some extent. but because of the Pharisees, they would not confess it, for fear of being put out of the synagogue. John said, it was because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Verse 44 now, “Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on Him that sent me. (He was sent for a purpose, and that was to reveal the Father.) ‘And he that seeth me seeth Him that sent me. (Saints: He is not talking about seeing Him with visual eyes, but rather with the eyes of your spirit. Remember that.) I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.” Please do not think of a light bulb, or some other type of manmade light, and neither is He talking about the darkness of night as when the sun goes down. He is talking about the darkness of sin and unbelief, and the religious traditions of natural mankind. The whole world is full of this kind of darkness, twenty-four hours of the day, and every day. They have taken Jesus Christ completely out of His true role in the Father’s redemption plan; therefore to them, He is not the only life giving light source that lost man can look to, but rather, a little boy subject to His mother Mary, or else they have some other warped doctrine they teach about Him. Even most of those that call His name in prayer, have little or no revelation of who He actually is. Nevertheless those who do see Him through a spiritual revelation can never be found groping in that sort of darkness again. Now this next verse is for those who hear Its words but allow their unbelief to override what they hear. Verse 47, “And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not : (This is the Son speaking.) for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, He gave me a commandment. what I should say, and what I should speak.” Saints: I hope you can all see by now, that this physical Son of God was not the WORD of God, but the worth He spoke at the command of the Father is what unbelieving mankind will be judged by, and He who then will sit as their judge will be the same one that spoke these words, but that will be at the appointed time when authority is delegated to Him to judge. In other words, The physical flesh of Jesus Christ is the only flesh that God is going to work through while He is working out His plan of redemption. The Son came the first time to be the Savior of lost mankind, and spoke by the authority of the Father that was in Him. Then this same Jesus will return to earth at the end of the great tribulation. and by the authority of the Father in Him. He will cleanse the earth of wickedness and set up His Millenial reign as King of kings, and Lord of lords, and one thousand years later, this same Jesus, by the authority of the Father in Him, will sit upon the great white throne judgment for the final cleansing of the earth from all traces of sin and death. Then when that is completed, the Son Himself will say, Father. redemption is completed, receive unto thyself thy redeemed king-dom, that thou mayest be all in all, as it was in the beginning. Then this same Jesus will take His place at the head of God’s family of children, and then be known and reverenced as our elder brother. He will still have the same measure of the Spirit of the Father, but His former duties will no longer be required of Him. Hallelujah! By that time, all of God’s children will be endowed with that same measure of His Spirit. Praise His name! I love Him. Should we not rejoice, to have such an hope set before us.
THE EVERLASTING FATHER CANNOT DIE
Now there is a verse in the 23rd chapter of Matthew, that has troubled a lot of folks, so let us read it at this time and see if we cannot shed some light upon it. Verse 9, “And call no man your Father (Jesus speaking) upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.” When Jesus spoke those words, He was coming right down to the end of His ministry upon earth. It was almost time for Him to go to the cross. This lets us know. that the Son wanted to make sure that His disciples knew better than to address the flesh person of Himself as Father. Yet right after that, He is heard saying, “He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father, so how are we going to reconcile that statement with the other one? We simply have to realize and accept the fact that the flesh was not the Father. He never wanted to be called Father, for He knew who the everlasting Father was. He knew that He was born of woman, and nothing that is born could be eternal in the sense that God is eternal. In other words, Without beginning, and without end. He (Jesus) turned all glory and honor to the Father. This Son of God was so perfect, and so obedient, and so submitted, that the Father in Him could be seen as the power source, the life giving source, the answer to every need of fallen mankind, yet He was accused of having a devil by some, for the same reasons that caused others to say, “To whom shall we go? Thou host the words of eternal life.” You just have to realize that the difference lay in how each person saw and heard Him. Therefore for lack of revelation, some call this Son of God Father, others say that God died for our sins, and others say that He was just a good man, who set an example of right living that everyone would do well to follow, and on, and on, but I hope that by the time we finish this message, all of you will have a true revelation of both the Father, and the Son. The Son of God could never be the Father of all creation, and the Father of all creation (the eternal God) could never die for any reason whatsoever, and Jesus the Christ was much, much more than just a perfect example of right living, for He displayed the very attributes of The everlasting Father that is without beginning or ending of days. As we said, The Son died on the cross, but the Father in Him, did not die. When the life of the Son left His body of clay, to go down into hell itself, for the purpose of releasing righteous captives, the life of the Father was still with Him. He did not go powerless, as the Son without the Father would have been. No, He went with the full authority of the Father. and three days later. He stopped back by that old tomb, and picked up His body, and went to meet His disciples, and the Father was right there in that resurrected body with Him. It was the power of the Father that raised Him from the grave, just like Paul wrote to the Romans. We have already read it. but it will not hurt to read it again, and again, for this is the only thing that will get any of us up out of the ground, if we should go there before the Lord’s return for the rapture. Romans 8:11. “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken (make alive again) your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth IN YOU.” In other words, If God’s Spirit is not in you before you die, you will lay in the ground until the great white throne judgment, and then you will be raised, and judged, but you will never walk with God in immortality. In other words, Today is the day of salvation. Accept Him while you may. This perfect Son of God has already paid your sin debt, if you can believe it, and accept it with all of your whole heart. Now when you truly see who Jesus was, you will realize that He truly did set a perfect example for us to live by, but you will not limit Him to just that. There is just simply no human words to express the full reality of what can be seen by a spiritual revelation. We just have to say it the best we know how, and pray that the Holy Spirit will open up your complete under-standing to His thus far revealed will for us. May we truly learn to ascribe all honor and praise to the one to whom it is due, just like Jesus did. When those disciples came and held Him by the feet worshipping Him, it was the Son’s feet they were holding, but the Father in Him was receiving all the praise, all the honor, all the admiration, if you can catch my thought. The Son knew that whatever was bestowed upon Him, it was because of the works of the Father that dwelt in Him; Right? Therefore He would never be like we are so prone to be get to feeling like we are something when we are receiving praise that actually belongs to someone else. No person that has ever done anything by the anointing of the Spirit of God, should ever accept the praises of men for it, without turning that praise to God to whom it belongs. Bro. Jackson: Are you saying that we should not praise Jesus? No, I am saying that no mortal man, nor woman, should ever accept praise and worship that belongs only to God.
THE FAMILY NAME
As for Jesus, this perfect Son of God, I feel that I can say, by the authority of the scriptures, that as far as His natural appearance was concerned, He was a very ordinary looking man. There was nothing about His natural looks, that would have caused anyone to know that He was the only begotton Son of God. There was nothing about His natural looks, that would have caused John the Baptist to say, “Behold the Lamb of God.” The scriptures say, There was no beauty, that we should desire Him. In other words, There had to be something beyond the flesh, to reveal who He was. That should help us understand why Jesus said, No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. There was nothing about His flesh that would draw men to Him; it was the Spirit of the Father in Him, manifesting Himself in such a way that it got their attention, and caused them to be attracted to the human vessel through which He (the Father) spake and worked. How could Jesus raise them up at the last day? Only by the authority of the Father that was invested in Him. Isn’t that contrary to what you have been saying, Bro. Jackson? No, If you look at Matthew 10:7,8, you will see where Jesus told His twelve apostles to go out, and preach, and to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out devils (demons.) He told them to do that, but you tell me, By what authority could they do such things? Certainly not by the authority of the Son; but by the authority of the Father that had delegated this authority to His Son. Are you catching it? We are going to keep on approaching this truth from every direction the Holy Ghost opens up to us; with the hope that no true child of God will fail to get a revelation of the relationship between this perfect Son of God, and The everlasting Father that dwelt in Him. In this same manner the Son of God is worshipped as God, and it is the will of the Father for it to be so, but this perfect Son always turned all attention toward the Father that had delegated all authority to Him. Trinitarians speak of Jesus Christ as the incarnate God, while at the same time believing that the Son existed in creation as the 2nd person of the Godhead, and never even stop to realize that it would require a double in-carnation to fulfill their version of the Godhead. Now listen to me, why I say that. If the Son pre-existed with the Father in creation, as they say He did, then the Son first had to incarnate his body of flesh that was born of Mary, before the Father could incarnate the Son. Just think about that for a minute. Brothers and Sisters: I know that none of you here, need to hear this, for you know the truth, but we still have to preach it, in order to print it, and send it out to those who may still be wrestling with these Godhead arguments. I have to use terminology that will help them to see how ridiculous some of these things are. Otherwise some people just never allow themselves to think things through. You can always count on one thing for sure; If there had been any such thing as a double incarnation, those apostles of Christ that were commissioned to write the New Testament, would have recorded it along with their revelation of how God became man in redemption. Those Jewish apostles carried the true revelation of this great mystery of the incarnation, so can you even imagine for one minute, that they would have left out anything as important as how the Son came to be in that physical body, if He was already a person of the Godhead before that? Their main theme of the gospels was showing how the Jehovah of the Old Testament was manifested in Jesus Christ of the New Testament. In other words, God demonstrated through this perfect, sinless Son, what His ultimate plan is for all of His redeemed children. For the day will come when He will dwell in all of His redeemed family in the fullness of Himself, just like He did in Jesus. Now as we have said before, the name JESUS, is a compound name. Not only was it the name given to the Son, and the name the Son was called by before the Father even incarnated Him, but it is also the redemption name of the everlasting Father. That is why Jesus said, Father, I have revealed thy name to as many as thou gayest me. What name did He reveal? Only the name JESUS. That is the name that the whole family in heaven and earth is called by.
ALL POWER FOR WHAT?
Now let me restate some things that I have already said, that you may not have caught the full significance of. First, Jesus the Son, though His mind was perfect it was limited to the bounds of the five senses. His eyes were as the eyes of other humans, in that they could only see as far as the mountains, but not beyond, and His ears could only hear what was said in a normal distance of hearing from Him. Besides that, He was also subject to the law of gravity just like you and I. Yes, for the first 30 years of His life, He was limited in all of these areas just like we are. But after His baptism, when the Father came down in the form of a dove, and incarnated Him, He could see the coin in the mouth of a fish. He told old Nathaniel that He saw him while he was still sitting under the fig tree. He told of Lazarus’ true condition, before He ever went to raise him from the dead. He walked upon the water, and fed the great multitude with 5 little loaves, and two little fishes. Does that help you see why the Son would always say, That which I do is not me doing it, but the Father that dwelleth in me? The Son without the indwelling presence of the Father, could not do anything any more miraculous than anyone else could do. The words that He spake when He was 29 years old, were not words that were Spirit and life, like He said His words were later on. Now let me remind you of something else. The Father could have spoken to those people right out of the clear blue sky, without using the vocal cords of Jesus, but it would have scared them to death. Even when He spoke through the Son, some looked at the man standing there, and said, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Others said, We have known this man ever since he was a little boy. We know his mother and daddy, and we know where he was raised, so who does he think he is, talking like that? But, Praise God, there were some that said, Never did any man ever speak like this man. They were hearing something more than just the words that were spoken. They were hearing something with their inner ear. The Father was speaking to their spirit. Some accused Him of making Himself equal with God, but it was the Father, that made Him equal in authority. He did not make Himself anything, except an obedient Son. Even in Matthew 28, when Jesus said, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth, that only applied at that time, to what He was to fulfill in that dispensation, or era of time. In other words, At the time He spoke those words, He had just fulfilled His prophetic ministry, and entered into His high priest ministry by first offering Himself upon the sacrificial altar of God for the sins of lost mankind, and He was ready to ascend into heaven where He has remained for almost two thousand years, interceding before the throne of God, for all those whose names are written in the Lambs book of life. All power is given unto Him in heaven and earth, to fulfill each phase of His work of redemption, but you can be sure of this, at the time He spake those words, He had no power nor authority to become King, at that time. It was only His disciples, that jumped the gun, and thought He was going up to Jerusalem to become King. Take for instance, when He was asked, Lord, Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? What did He say? “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father HATH PUT IN HIS OWN POWER.” At that time, He had all power and authority pertaining to His office as high priest. But there will come that day, when He will be robed with the robe of that great King of kings, and when He is, He will never don the robe of a high priest again. When each phase of His three fold work is finished, it is finished. It will not have to be done over again. The authority for that is passed. That is the reason He could bow His head saying, It is finished. He had revealed the words of the Father, the works of the Father, and the name of the Father, and now, the sin offering was made; so the dispensation of grace could begin. When He walked among men He told them, I am the way, the truth, and the life. In the 5th chapter of John He said, For as the Father hath life in Himself, even so HATH HE GIVEN to the Son to have life in Himself. He was given complete authority to execute all things pertaining to His present office. Of course it is written, that it pleased the Father, that in Him should all fullness dwell, but do not try to apply that as the oneness Pente-cost people do. Do not try to make Jesus everything, to the point of excluding the Father. Everything we have need of, is in Jesus, including the Father, if you can catch my thought. Paul wrote to the Philippians, (2:9-11) “Where-fore God also hath highly exalted Him, (Jesus) and given Him a name (JESUS) which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of GOD the FATHER.” You simply cannot rule the Father out of the picture just because He has given all authority and power unto the Son for His meditorial work in His present office. Of course the name JESUS, stands out above all other names, but please do not forget that this name is also the redemption name of the everlast-ing Father, the one that hath put all power and authority into the hands of His only begotton Son. In other words, Before His baptism Jesus was the perfect Son of God, and after His baptism, when the Father incarnated Him, He was perfect God. I simply do not see one thing here, for anyone to argue and fuss about. It is a beautiful truth for those who are ordained to see it, and it is just so many words to all the rest. No one who still holds to a trinity concept of the Godhead after reading this message, has the Holy Ghost in Him, or her, for that Holy Ghost presence will always bear witness to the truth when it is presented.
THE LOGOS OF GOD
Now let us for a little while, examine the terminology John used, as he opened up his gospel account of the things he had seen and heard, and understood. In verses 1-3, of chapter 1, he starts out by saying, “In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was with God, and the WORD was GOD. The same was in the beginning with GOD. All things were made by Him; (Who? The WORD of course, but remember, the WORD was GOD.) and without Him was not any thing made that was made.” Of course not, for God created all things by His spoken WORD. Go back to the first chapter of Genesis and read it, “And God said, Let there be, And God said, Let there be, all the way through. But John wrote, in verse 14, “And the WORD was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” Now does that mean that the flesh of Jesus was the WORD of God? No it does not, it only tells us how that flesh got its start in this world. We have to find out, in what way was this word, WORD, used? In Dr. Scofield’s footnotes, we find what is translated WORD in English, could be found as LOGOS in the Greek, and that is a word that pertains to a thought, or a thought expressed. In other words, In the beginning was the LOGOS, (thoughts) and the LOGOS was with God, and the LOGOS was God. A word is a thought expressed. But in the beginning, God’s thoughts were with Him, because there was nothing else but God. Then He began to express those thoughts through words, and this whole creation came into being. Every-thing you see, was created by the WORD of God. As long as God’s thoughts were only thoughts, He remained alone, but when He began to express those thoughts through words, things began to happen, and we are a part of it. Therefore if we can insert LOGOS, in those places where the word WORD, is used, it will serve to remind us that it definitely pertains to an expression of God’s thoughts, and that will help us make a more true application of what we read. Therefore with that in mind, let us go to the 1st chapter of Hebrews, and see how the apostle Paul expressed his revelation of the embodiment of that WORD that made all things. One thing we always need to keep in mind, is that most of the great scholars that translated the scriptures were trinitarians, and it was only natural that their choice of words would be those that seemed more to express their concept of the Godhead. With a true revelation in our hearts, we could go through the choice of words they had to choose from, and in many places we would use a much more fitting word than what they used, but even then, it would still take the Holy Ghost to open up a person’s heart, and plant a revelation within. Hallelujah! All of our hope hangs by that one thread, a true Holy Ghost revelation. Without it, the most we can be is just religious.
HOW GOD SPAKE TO THE FATHERS
All right now, notice Paul’s words. Heb. 1:1, “GOD, who at sundry times (various times) and in divers manners (different manners) spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds.” Paul started with God, and then told how that God spake to the old patriarchs by, or through the prophets, and then brought it over to the New Testament, and showed how that same WORD of God came to us, not through the old prophets, but through the mouth of His only begotten Son, a Son that did not even exist, except in His own mind, when He spake through those prophets of old. Now when you go back into the Old Testament, and begin read-ing, you find over and over, again and again, where the Word of the Lord came unto such and Such. In some instances. such as to Abram. (Abraham) the Word of the Lord came directly to him in some manner that caused him to know that it was God speaking, and in many other instances, God conveyed His Word to its recipient through the mouth of a prophet, but in every instance, the sovereign authority of that Word came from the same great eternal Spirit that dwelt alone, before He ever began to express His thoughts. Therefore those old prophets that would step up, and say, Thus saith the Lord, So and so, were speaking the thoughts of God, that came to them in various ways, but when His Son began to speak His thoughts, He (the Father, God) was right there in Him, speaking right through His (the Son’s) vocal cords and mouth. Did that make the Son, the Word? No, but the Word was in Him, and it would have been hard for those New Testament writers to have expressed the difference as they recorded what they saw and heard, for it was Jesus they were looking at, and it was from His mouth that they heard God speak, and it was His hands they saw break the loaves and fishes, and give to the twelve, to feed the multitude. All of this, caused this same John who wrote the Gospel, to also write in his first little epistle, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the WORD of life; (For this life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us; ) That
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” Was John talking about two persons? You know better than that. What was from the beginning, which they heard? The LOGOS was in the beginning, and what they heard was those thoughts expressed through words, and what they looked upon, and handled, was what came forth from the womb of Mary, as a result of that WORD of life being spoken. That Word of life was manifested in flesh, but the flesh was not the Word. It is a fine line between the one, and the other, but that is how God hides these gems from the great scholars, and allows common people who have the Holy Ghost to guide them, find them.
IMAGE OF THE FATHER
There in Hebrews 1:2, where it says, by whom also He made the worlds, that could have been more properly translated, by WHICH also He made the worlds, for he was dealing with how God had spoken His thoughts, but to just read it as it is written in the King James version, it sounds like Paul is saying that God created the words by His Son. No, He created the worlds (planets) by the same method He used to create an embryo in the womb of Mary that eventually produced a sinless Son of God. He did it by expressing His thoughts through words. Then in verse 3, where Paul speaks of the Son being the express image of the person of the Father, he was not saying that the Father was a physical person ; he was merely pointing out, that because Jesus was not born of the seed of sinful man, but rather of the seed of God, He was of the same Spirit image as the Father; so was Adam before he sinned. But this only begotten Son was appointed heir of all things, and what He speaks is the thoughts of the Father. What did the prophets of old speak? Always the thoughts of God. But let us look at how God spoke to Abraham at various times. The eternal God never carries on a conversation with man, just for the fun of it: it is always for the purpose of letting His will be known to them, and that is what we see in the 12th chapter of Genesis. “Now the Lord HAD said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing : And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Of course we do not know, in what way God had communicated His thoughts to Abraham, but we do know that it had to be by some super-natural means. Whether it was by a dream, or a vision, or by an audible voice is not the important thing here. The important thing is that Abraham heard something that started him on his way. He did not know when he started out, what kind of land he was going to; he was simply obeying the Word of the Lord. God had expressed His thoughts to him, and he was simply walking by faith. We know it was not just a carnal urge, on the part of Abraham, for Paul wrote in Heb. 11:8, “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” This was the beginning of a relationship between God and man, that was destined to reveal more and more of God’s plan of redemption through Abraham’s seed.
MELCHIZEDEK — TYPE OF JESUS CHRIST
Another outstanding expression of this LOGOS is found in the 14th chapter of Genesis, and carries an important manifestation fore-shadowing the Christ that was to come. I like this, for it shows how, when our motive and attitude is right, God sometimes bestows a special blessing upon us. Abraham was returning from battle, with the souls he had rescued from their captors, and for some reason he passed by a certain place, and was met by Melchizedek who introduced him-self as king of Salem and priest of the most high God. He served Abraham bread and wine, and blessed him, and Abraham paid tithes to him of all that he had. Now there is no record stating that Abraham ever saw this Melchizedek again, but it was bound to have made a dramatic impression in his mind, for he related the story to his descendants, and almost two thousand years later, Paul writes about this Melchizedek to the Hebrews, saying that he was King of righteousness, and King of Salem, which is King of peace, and that he was without father, and without mother, and without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but was made like unto the Son of God; and abideth a priest continually. Only God is without beginning of life, and ending of days, therefore Paul knew that this was a manifestation of the LOGOS of God. He was God’s thoughts expressed to Abraham, but God never repeated that image. It was a one time manifestation, but it marked a spot, where God would
one day place His name, and meet with His people there. That spot today, is known as Jerusalem, but at that time, it was an old Jebusite city by the name of Salem. Melchizedek prefigured Jesus the Christ, that would one day, be crucified near the place where he met Abraham, as a Lamb, for the atonement of man’s sins, and reconciliation of man back to God. From this same place, (Jerusalem) He ascended into glory, into the presence of the eternal Spirit in the heavenly holy of holies, where He has been interceding for lost mankind for almost two thousand years as a priest after the order of Melchizedek. This Melchizedek only set the type for the priesthood that Jesus Christ would fulfill. When the aged apostle John was caught up into heaven, in Revelation, chapter 4, he did not see Melchizedek sitting upon the throne of God with a rainbow round about Him, he saw Jesus Christ, the one Melchizedek prefigured. The eternal God also appeared to Abraham in another form, in the 18th chapter of Genesis, and ate with him, but nowhere did He ever repeat that image again. Nevertheless it was a manifestation of the LOGOS of God. All of those former times when God took upon Himself a body for the purpose of communicating His thoughts to a human vessel, were only temporary manifestations of a theophany body, but there came the day when God appeared to mankind in a human body that was not temporary. The LOGOS was made flesh and dwelt among us, John said, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. God walked among men in this human body for 31/2 years, went to the cross in it, and later, raised it from the dead and continued His communication with mankind through, or from within that same body. He ascended from Jerusalem in Him, and He will still be in Him when He returns to Jerusalem to rule as King of kings, but none of these manifestations detracted anything from His omnipresence. Throughout all time and eternity, God has remained to be omnipresent at all times.
GOD IN THEOPHANY
Now concerning God’s appearance to Abraham in Genesis, chapter 18, not only did God appear in a physical form, two angels did likewise. It was about noon one day, when Abraham looked up and saw three men close by. He jumped up, bowed himself before them, and addressed one of them as Lord. Then he insisted that they stay and eat with him, and they consented, so he ran to the field, and selected a choice calf to be dressed for dinner. He put Sarah busy making bread, and he fetched water to wash their feet, which was a custom in those days. Not only did the eternal God appear to Abraham in physical flesh, two angels did also. (God gives His angels power to do that, and we read in the scriptures in various places, where it was done.) Not only were those men hungry, and had dirty feet from walking, they had stomachs to digest food, and in every way they were physically, as any other man, but they were only theophany bodies. A week later, you could not have found them for love, nor money, for that manifestation of the Logos of God, was just for that occasion, never to be repeated again. While they were sitting under the tree eating, Abraham was asked, Where is Sarah thy wife? Abraham said, In the tent. Then God said, I will surely, or certainly return unto thee according to the time of life: and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. Sarah heard it from the tent door, which was behind them, and she laughed within herself, because of her age. But then the Lord said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? Now Sarah became afraid and denied it, but this was the omniscient God who knows every-thing. She could have been ten thousand miles from there, and He would still have known that she laughed, for He did not have to see with those natural eyes, nor hear with those natural ears; they were only for the benefit of Abraham. The men left shortly after that, and Abraham walked away with them, and as they walked along, the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken. The Lord then began to tell Abraham that they were on their way to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because the cry of their wickedness had reached into heaven, so to speak. Of course Abraham already knew of the wickedness of those cities, and he realized that the Lord must destroy them, but he became concerned for his relatives that dwelt among those Sodomites, and began to intercede for them, saying, Lord, will you also destroy the righteous along with the wicked? If there were fifty righteous souls found there, would you spare the city for their sakes? Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? The Lord said, If I find fifty righteous souls within that city, I will spare it, for their sakes. Naturally the Lord knew they were not there, but He was allowing this righteous man Abraham, an opportunity to express his true character. Apologetically Abraham worked from fifty souls all the way down to ten, and the Lord agreed that He would spare the city, if there could even be found ten righteous souls there, and He left, and Abraham left, but the two angels proceeded on to the house of Abraham’s nephew Lot, which dwelt there, and Lot saw them coming, and invited them to come in and spend the night with him and his family. They first said, No; we will abide in the street all night. But Lot insisted, and they finally came in, and ate with him, and spent the night. Before they lay down to sleep though, all the wicked men of that city began to gather around Lot’s house, and demand that he send those two men out to them. Lot begged them to spare his guests from this immoral act, and even offered them his daughters instead, but they were determined in their evil hearts to lay their hands on these two men, even if they had to break the door down, and deal with Lot in a worse way. About that time, the angels reached out, and pulled Lot into the house, and shut the door, but then, they smote those evil men blind, and left them staggering in the streets all night, while they slept. They sent Lot out to warn all his family members to flee from the place, but when Lot told his married children and their mates, that God was going to destroy the city because of the wickedness in it, they laughed at him, and mocked him, and refused to take heed. Those angels were up early the next morning, and told Lot to take his wife and two daughters that were dwelling in the house with him, and leave immediately, and when they hesitated, the angels laid hands upon them, and took them out of the city, telling them to flee to the mountain, and not look back, and when Lot and his daughters were safely out of range, the Lord rained down fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah from out of heaven and completely destroyed them. (All that you see there today, is the Dead Sea, where those cities stood.) Poor Mrs. Lot just had to take one last look at that beautiful city though, even though they were told not to look back, and when she did, she became a pillar of salt. That is just like a lot of people today; they are so wrapped up in material things, the word of the Lord is the last thing they are going to hear, and as was the case with Mrs. Lot, sometimes that is the absolute last thing they hear before their self willed life is snuffed out. Needless to say, Once Lot and his two daughters were safe, and those wicked cities were destroy-ed, the two angels were never seen by Lot any more. They would never need to be fed again. They would never need those same two bodies again. They were back in their own environment, back to what they were created to be. But let me ask you this, What have we been looking at here? We have seen how the Logos of God was manifested through human forms for specific purposes, and then, how those human forms just disappeared, when the job was completed. This was Jehovah’s way of manifesting His thoughts to human vessels, before He became incarnate in His only begotten Son Jesus. This account we have just examined, also verifies the fact that wherever God is, angelic spirits minister on His behalf Even when Jesus the Son, was tempted in the wilderness, Jehovah Himself being right there present, in Him, angels came and ministered to Him when the testing was completed. But what we are concentrating on mainly, is some of the ways that this Logos of God was manifested, before it became manifested in His only begotten Son.
OMNISCIENT SPIRIT SPEAKING
All of the attributes of Jehovah the great eternal Spirit, that were displayed in the ministry of Jesus, were foreshadowed throughout the Old Testament. In other words. When Jesus looked at Nathaniel and said, I saw you while you were still sitting under the fig tree, those words came forth from the very same Spirit that said to Abraham through another set of vocal cords, Why did Sarah laugh? It was also the same Spirit that spoke through Balaam’s donkey, when Balaam himself was so determined to please the flesh, that he could not hear the voice of God. Is there anything too hard for the Lord? That is what He asked Abraham, when Sarah doubted His word concerning a son, because of her old age. God is not bound by the limitations that confine man to certain realms. For instance, take the account of Exodus, where from the viewpoint of natural man, the Israelites were being led out of Egypt by a man, Moses, a prophet anointed of God. But was it Moses leading them? He was the earthly instrument that God was working through, but God Himself was the true leader, for He went before them in a pillar of a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night, and they only moved when He moved. Those Israelites looked to Moses for direction, but we have to look beyond Moses to understand what was really taking place. In the 14th chapter of Exodus, we find the children of Israel standing by the banks of the Red Sea, with Pharaoh’s army closing in behind them, and they are crying to Moses because he has gotten them into such an impossible looking mess, but was it Moses that did it? No. It was Jehovah Himself, that had maneuvered the whole thing, for He was getting the stage set, to deliver them from the bondage of Egypt by a high hand, as He had promised Abraham He would, even before Isaac was ever born. God had told Moses what He was going to do, how He would harden Pharaoh’s heart, and all, and Moses knew that everything was going exactly as the Lord had planned, so he answered the people saying, “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show to you this day, for the Egyptians whom ye have seen this day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.” Brothers and Sisters: That was not just an idea that Moses had; that was the Word of the Lord being spoken. “The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.” This is the great Jehovah, getting the stage set to be sanctified in the eyes of the Egyptians, but not for their salvation. Then the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore cryest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: (But, Lord, What about all that water, how are we to go forward, with that in front of us? No, Moses did not say that, but we probably would.) But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: (God told Moses to divide the waters of the sea, but where would the power to do that have to come from? The Lord God Himself.) and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.” That was 1450 years before Christ, or we will say, before Jesus the Son of God was born. God was never handicapped because He did not have a permanent form to dwell in, for He could work through one vessel as easily as He could another, and He will always be omnipresent, but there came the time for Him to demonstrate to mankind, what He was moving them toward; a time when He would be in all of His redeemed family of children, in the same measure that He was in Jesus.
HOW GOD IS SANCTIFIED
When God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, He did not have to have any of man’s scientific devices to transport them across that body of water. He just merely stacked those waters on top of each other, walled them up, froze them, or whatever the word congealed, meant in those days. One thing we do know in our hearts though, is that the children of Israel passed over on dry ground, and the Egyptians that tried to follow them, perished, when the waters were released, and came back together. The same God that did those things then, is working out His plan for the Middle East today, getting the stage set to deliver Israel from the hands of their enemies once again. He is hardening the hearts of some, and softening the hearts of a few others, and when the stage is set, and the time is right, He shall once again be sanctified in the eyes of a heathen people. Not for their salvation, but for His own glory. Let us read a few verses starting in Exodus 14:19, where we will see exactly what tran-spired that night, when the children of Israel were waiting to cross the Red Sea. “And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea ; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left.” Not only did God stop the waters on the upper side, He also held the waters on the lower side, so that they actually had a wall of water on each side, as they crossed over on dry ground through the bed of the Red Sea. From that time on, even on the darkest night, those Israelites could look right out their tent door and see that pillar of fire hovering over their camp. They were never without light. They did not have TV’s, radios, nor any other of man’s devices, but think for a moment what an hour they lived in. At any time of day or night, they could witness a manifestation of Jehovah God, hanging right there above them. That manifestation stayed with them through their whole journey. But as you read on over a little further, when Moses was taken up into Mount Sinai, and the people were camped at the foot of the mountain, on the third day they heard thunder claps, saw lightning flashing, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet was heard long and loud, and the people became terribly afraid, and desired that God would speak only to Moses, for they could not stand it. Brothers and Sisters: That was no natural storm. Moses did not have on a rain coat. That was a manifestation of Elohim, the eternal God. He wanted to scare them, because of their rebellion prior to that, and to keep them from sinning later, for that is when He gave them the ten commandments, written upon two tables of stone by the finger of God. Moses did not write the ten commandments; he only took the two tables of stone, and laid them before the Lord, and He did the rest. All of this was a unique manifestation of the Logos of God, and Moses never saw it like that again, but these are some of the “divers manners” in which God spake to the fathers by the prophets. All of which prefigured and typed Christ, the Son of God that was to come later.
A PROPHET LIKE MOSES
In deuteronomy 18:18-19, we find God saying to Moses, (be-cause the people did not want Him speaking directly to them any more) “I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in His mouth; (That was Jesus Christ) and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which He shall speak IN MY NAME, I will require it of him.” God determined that He would honor their wishes, in that He would no longer deal with them as He had in the wilderness, but He gave them fair warning, that one day and hour of time, He purposed to raise up from among them a prophet like unto Moses, a prophet that would unwaveringly speak the very Word of Elohim to them, and if they rejected Him, as they had Moses, it would be just too bad for them, but He did narrow it down to an individual basis. In other words, whosoever will not hearken unto MY WORDS which He shall speak IN MY NAME, I will require it of HIM, the individual person. So if you will look in your Bibles, in Acts 7 : 37-38, you will find Stephen (just before he was stoned to death) reminding them of this very thing. Telling them that God truly had sent Moses to be a ruler over them, and they rejected him, and in verse 37, we hear him saying, This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; Him shall ye hear. This is He, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us.” I am putting this in the message, because people read it, and it sounds like Jesus the Son of God was out there in the wilderness with Moses, does it not? What did he mean then? It was that same anointing on Jesus whom these were rejecting, that was upon Moses whom their fathers reject-ed. Now look at verses 51 & 52, where Stephen really turned loose upon them. “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; (Jesus) of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.” That made them so mad they even gnawed on him with their teeth, before they stoned him to death. What God had prefigured through all of those Old Testament manifestations had finally become a living reality among them, and their hearts were too hardened to receive Him. Speaking from the standpoint of the flesh, as was supposed, He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. Should they have recognized Him? They had enough prophecies concerning Him, that they should have been able to recognize Him, but God already knew that those great scholars of that day would never humble themselves to the point of receiving a carpenters son of their own community, as their Messiah. Therefore their rejection of Him fulfilled many other prophecies that just kept the complete redemption plan of God perfectly on schedule.
PREDESTINATION IN OPERATION
Now let us go to Isaiah 6:1, and follow a certain prophetic projection of Christ Jesus right on through to Revelation 4:2-8. Isaiah said, “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. (He saw a manifestation.) Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory. (You can find John describing a similar scene in Revelation, chapter 4.) And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. (This is the beginning of the unfolding of God’s plan in a different manner.) Then said I, Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. (Why would Isaiah say a thing like that? Catching a glimpse of this holy environment made him realize that he was just a mortal sinner, so when he cried out like that, notice what happened next.) Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” Now, Saints: We know that no angel would do a thing like that to a man literally, so what is the purpose of such a vision. It shows what the great eternal Spirit was seeking to do to this earthly man, to get his lips cleaned up so they could utter words that had not been uttered. Something to the children of Israel, that they would have to wait more than 750 years to begin to see it fulfilled. “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. And He said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.” I will never understand how any one can study these scriptures like your great scholars do, and still not believe in predestination. If the Lord did not already know everything from beginning to end, how on earth could He make provision for every turn of man-kind, hundreds and thousands of years ahead of time? Before Abraham ever had a Son, this Melchizedek prefigured a certain Son whose natural genealogy would be traced all the way back through Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, and all the way back to Adam, and then to the Creator Himself. Then in 96 A.D., John was shown a vision of that same Son coming back to earth 1900 years later, to fulfill the rest of what Melchizedek prefigured more than 3800 years before it would be fulfilled. Hallelujah! Does that sound like something that just accidentally happened, in a world that got its start from a spark of some kind? Or would you rather believe that an omniscient Creator designed the whole thing from beginning to end, before He ever spoke the first Word to set any of it in motion? Praise God, I believe all of you know the truth, but those that do not, far outnumber us.
VISIONS OF ISAIAH AND EZEKIEL
Let us go over to chapter 7, now, and read what Isaiah first prophesied about Emmanuel, a name that means, God with us. Isaiah had said, “Here am I; send me,” and the Lord had done just that, so we will pick up the thought in verse 10. “Moreover the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. And -he said, Hear ye now, 0 house of David; It is a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? (Here comes the ultimate.) Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel.” That is why the Lord had to deal with Isaiah as He did, for he was going to utter words that would literally confound every scholar, and every scientific mind. God used him to point ahead to the great climax of all the types and shadows that would be found in the old covenant, and what a prophecy this was. Who ever heard of such a thing as a virgin giving birth to a son. That was completely contrary to every genetic law that men knew anything about, but it was the Word of the Lord, so Isaiah spoke it. But what kind of thoughts do you suppose he had for the rest of his life, as the devil constantly reminded him, that such a thing was altogether unheard of? It took faith in God to speak it, and it took faith in God to believe it, but after all, Who else is God speaking to, except those who have faith? Just turn in your Bibles, right on over to the 1st chapter of Ezekiel now, and we will see if he wrote anything that sounds familiar. Verse 1 “Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. In the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity, The word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldean by the river of Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was there upon him. And I looked and, behold, a whildwind came out of the north, a great cloud and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire. Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures, and this was their appearance; (In Revelation 4, John also wrote of seeing four living creatures around the throne of God, in heaven.) they had the likeness of a man. And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot: and they sparkled like the color of burnished brass. And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings. Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went ; they went every one straight forward. (The description of their wings is much like Isaiah’s description of the seraphims he saw above the throne of God.) As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, (Notice this now; this is exactly what John saw.) and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.” Ezekiel did not give them in the same order as John, nor is the complete description the same, but they both saw represented there about the throne of God, a lion, an ox, a man, and an eagle, all of which were manifestations of the Spirit of God, symbolizing certain manifestations of that Spirit as His plan of redemption would be worked out on earth. We will not take the time now, to read the whole chapter, but you might like to later, to get the complete manifestation. For the present though, let us skip down to verse 19. “And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. Whithersoever the Spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up over against them : for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.” I believe it was verse 16, where it says, “The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the color of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.” Brothers and Sisters : Try to understand that all of these manifestations are portraying, pointing to what Christ is, as He sits on His mediatorial throne now. For when John was caught up to heaven, in Revelation 4, how many did he see sitting on the throne? ONE! Right? Only one. That is why I say, There is no way that a doctor of divinity can take these scriptures, and get a trinity out of them. vet they cannot accept anything other than a trinity. I want you to know, that the ONE seen there, by John, is the climax of what all these other manifestations were pointing to. How many realize that? In other words, Jesus will not be sitting there, and all these other manifestations still be displayed there also They all typed, and fore-shadowed the climax of what God was working out. In other words, they pointed to the finished work.
A GREAT MYSTERY
Almost two thousand years ago, a virgin fulfilled a prophecy of Isaiah, that had been hanging there for over 700 years. She being a virgin, gave birth to a son, called his name Jesus according to the word of the Lord by His angel, and that son at the age of thirty was baptized by John the Baptist, and filled with the Spirit of God, the Creator, The everlasting Father who had given all these visions to various ones, pointing to the time when this one man would stand in the place to fulfill all of what these many visions pointed to. The Catholic church failed to see that every-thing in the Old Testament types and shadows actually pointed to Jesus Christ; therefore they placed the virtue in Mary, rather than in the one whom the scriptures say, was as a Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. It took the sacrificial blood of this perfect Son of God to reconcile lost mankind back to the Creator, and God used many means down through the years, foreshadowing this great climax that He had foreordained before the world was created, all of which were much like a great architectural plan for a huge project of modern man. Not just anyone can read all those symbols, and know what they mean, but the one that drew up the plans, knows what every last one of them are pointing to, and he can explain them to whomsoever he chooses. That is the way the great Spirit of God has done, down through the ages. He has revealed to those of His choosing, all that they needed to know to carry out their part in His great redemption plan. But those who have tried to build something for God, without an understanding of His plan, have just made a big mess. They try to make THREE PERSONS out of ONE GOD, and have all three of them sitting upon thrones in heaven, and in heaven, there is only ONE throne, and the ONE sitting there upon it, is the one they call, the second person of the Godhead. What did they do with the first person, and the third? It is no wonder that many of them have actually said, The book of Revelation never should have been written. That is because the book of Revelation is a prophecy, mainly about the Jews, but given to the Bride of Christ for her understanding, in these last days, and those who make such remarks are not of that bride; therefore they can never understand much of its contents. Let us just be thankful to God that we can read this love letter with revelation in our hearts, for except for His mercy and grace to us, we could have been just as spiritually blind as they are. They have misread the symbols, and because of it, they do not understand that all of them were pointing to Jesus, and that, since the day that God incarnated Him, there has never been another manifestation of God in any other form. None of those former manifestations are what God is seeking to mold us into the likness of. But according to Romans 8, He has predetermined to mold us into the image of the one that all of those manifestations pointed to, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is really sort of strange, how God at times would manifest Himself to His earthly creatures in ways that would scare them half to death, and at other times He would come to man, in the likeness of a man, and sit down and eat with him. But these were the divers manners that He choose to speak to His prophets through. When Isaiah saw Him sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filling the temple, he cried, Woe is me! He knew he was not worthy to be looking upon the King, the Lord of hosts. I am undone; he said, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. A spiritual coal of fire from off that spiritual altar, laid against his lips by one of those angels, changed his feelings about that, for the angel said, Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is purged. Then in the very next chapter, he is prophesying about a virgin conceiving, and giving birth to a son, and giving him a name that would actually mean, God with us. That just shows how quick God can change things. What is it all about? God is molding some people into the very image of the only person He ever saw fit to dwell in permanently, and some day He will dwell in all of them, in the same fullness of Himself, as He dwelled in Jesus. But in the meanwhile it is as that little song says, “God’s still working on me.” Praise His name! That is what my hope and confidence is in today, the fact that God is still working on me.
A PRODUCT OF LOVE
Alright now, we used John 1:1, 14, as our text for this message, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 14, And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,” and we have pointed out to you, that a word is a thought spoken, and that, in the beginning was the LOGOS (thoughts) of God, and when those thoughts were spoken through words, things began to happen. That is how the Word was made flesh, and that is how all these other manifestations came to be; it was a sovereign Spirit express-ing His thoughts, and it was all pointing to one thing, a time when He (The everlasting Father) could dwell fully in all of His great family of children. Now some have said, If God knew that man would sin, and have to be redeemed, why did He not simply create man without the ability to sin? Where would He have received glory and honor from a family of robots? God is a Spirit. But within that Spirit are many attributes that needed to be expressed, and they could only be expressed in the ways that they have been.*His mercy never could have been expressed, if nothing had ever needed mercy. His healing virtue never could have been expressed, if nothing had ever been allowed to get sick, and right on down the line. On the other hand, by allowing man to be able to make choices, those who eventually end up over in the eternal age, with God dwelling fully in them, will be only those that have chosen to serve God out of their own free will. That makes His heart glad. These served Him because they loved Him, and not because they had no choice in the matter. That is perfect unity, perfect joy, perfect peace, per-fection in every way, and besides, time is not a problem with God. Suppose it does take Him a few thousand years to breed up spiritually that kind of family, what is that, compared to the endless age of eternity?
VISIONS OF THE ENDTIME
Let us go to Daniel 7:7.8 now, where we will get another view of this great God, working out His perfect plan of redemption. “After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.” This was more than 500 years before the first advent of Christ. Daniel was in Babylonian captivity at the time, and he had this dream, or night vision, as he calls it, where he saw four great beasts come up from the sea representing the spirit of four world empires. The first, like a lion, was the world empire of Nebuchadnezzar. The second, like a bear, was the Media-Persia empire, the third, like a leopard, was the Grecian empire, but the fourth was the one that really stuck in Daniel’s mind. This is the one he described as dreadful, terrible strong and mean, (my words) with great iron teeth, just gnawing and stomping, and tearing up everything that got in its way. It had ten horns, but as Daniel watched it, notice what happened. “I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots; and behold; in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.” This fourth beast represented the Roman empire, and the ten horns, ten different kingdoms that Rome ruled over, or that were encompassed in Rome’s scope of power. The little horn represents the power of the Papacy that raised up from among them, and began to exert ecclesiastical authority over them, (We are now living in the closing days of the fulfillment of what that horn would do.) That little horn had the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. The power of the Antichrist is portrayed here. He is a power to be demonstrated more fully as this age closes out, and Daniel just kept on watching that thing until it reached the hour of its total destruction. (I am not going into details here, for we have various articles in print already, dealing with all of this.) Notice verse 9. I beheld till the thorns were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, (of course we all know the Ancient of days is none other than the eternal God.) whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire.” Remember, Saints: This scene is portraying in pictorial form, a divine act upon the part of God, in what He will do in relationship to these world systems when they have reached their climax. Naturally the term Ancient of days, refers to Jehovah, the Elohim, because He was before all times. But you will notice that Daniel saw Him in a bodily form, and we know that Elohim had no bodily form, for HE is Spirit. Therefore let me test you a little. Where would that have to fall in, (time wise) if Jehovah, the Elohim, is sitting upon a throne in bodily form, in judgment? Did you say, Revelation chapter 20, the great white throne judgment? Yes, the bodily form is that of Jesus, wigged with that ancient authority of Elohim. For almost two thousand years He has been our intercessor, our advocate, as high priest before God. It was John that said, “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” He is invested with all the power and authority of Elohim, as He fulfills each phase of His office work in God’s plan of redemption. In other words, all of verses 9 & 10, are yet to be fulfilled. In verse 10, he said, A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.” We saw the throne as a fiery flame in Isaiah, and the wheels as a burning fire in Ezekiel, and now we see the same thing here in Daniel, all of which serves to portray some aspect of the great eternal Spirit. It draws attention to His majesty and authority, and it is all channeled through a figure, or form, and that form catches the attention of mortal men, and it is that of Jesus Christ through whom all of this is to be fulfilled. This is that immortal Christ, that arose from the dead triumphant over death, hell, and the grave, and ascended into heaven, where He was positioned at the right hand of all majesty, power and authority of the Father, and draped about, or covered with the very countenance of The eternal One. Every description of the eternal Father is reflected in Him. Did you notice how Daniel saw a fiery stream issuing forth from before Him? That is the same thing that Isaiah referred to as His train that filled the temple. It is that great host of angelic beings that always accompany His presence. You will find the same thing in the book of Revelation. They were written more than 600 years apart, but Daniel and Revelation go together. In verse 10, you read almost exactly what John wrote about the great white throne judgment in Revelation 20:12. Who is upon the throne? The Lord Jesus Christ, who by that time, has already ruled for one thousand years as King of kings, while the earth was being re-populated with people from every nation under heaven, and now it is time for the last judgment. This is God’s Supreme Court. Not only will Jesus Christ sit in judgment, but according to Paul’s revelation, the saints will judge the world. Paul says also, that the saints shall judge angels. Where will they judge them? At the great white throne judgment. In revelation 5:10, John wrote, that He hath made us unto our God, kings and priest on the earth. The saints will rule with Jesus for one thousand years upon earth with the devil bound in chains, but then, the devil will be loosed for a little season, to test all those who were born while he was bound, and after he has had time to deceive a great multitude of them, the Lord intervenes, cuts him off, and sets up the last judgment where all, both small and great will be judged, even the wicked dead will be raised up from their graves, judged, and destroyed, and the saints will judge right there with Jesus Christ.
JESUS CHRIST ROBED AND CROWNED
Let us continue, by reading verse 11, here in Daniel 7. Daniel’s attention remained on that fourth beast. Of course the physical effects of that beast spirit is brought to naught by the wrath of God, before going into the Millennium, but the spirit of it is not judged and destroyed until the great white throne judgment. All right then, let us read. “I beheld then because of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts, (meaning the first three, the Babylonia, Media-Persian, and the Grecian empires) they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.” In other words, Rome took dominion over the whole thing, but the spirit of those other three empires was not destroyed; it was incorporated into the Roman empire rule. That is what made it the most terrible of all, for it had the spirit of the life of all the others incorporated within it. Daniel saw how it was all characterized in that Roman system, and carried straight through to the end, and judged. Now in verse 13, we find a beautiful picture, that in actual fulfillment takes place before the events of verses 9-11, but notice. “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought Him.” They who? It has to be the bride of Jesus. Because when you go to the 19th chapter of Revelation, where Jesus is actually robed with a cloak, and crowned with that Kingly crown, to be King of kings and Lord of lords, there is His precious wife standing, clothed in fine linen, clean and white. Dominion is given Him pertaining to His Kingship and Millenial rule, at that time. Presently Jesus Christ is not yet crowned, for He is still high priest. Alright, “They brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, and nations, and lan-guages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” That is all pertaining to the Millennium, and that points to a time period between the 70th week of Daniel, and the setting up of the Millennial rule of Jesus Christ. Now of course we do not expect every one of you to be able to repeat everything we are dealing with, but I do believe you can ail understand enough to avoid being taken in by some of these characters that have these things, all twisted up in their minds.
A LAMB WITH SEVEN HORNS — SEVEN EYES
Let us go over to Revelation 5:6 now, where John has begun to weep because there was no one worthy to take the little scroll out of the hand of Him that sat upon the throne, and loose the seals that were thereon, and one of the elders told him not to weep, for the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and the Root of David had prevailed to open the scroll, and to loose the seven seals. So John looks, and in verse 6. here is what he says. “And I beheld, and. lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne.” Brothers and Sisters : I hope you realize that there is no such literal lamb, that actually exists like this one described here. That would truly be a real freak. But all of this is given to John to write it like that, because in Jesus the Christ, is all of this. He is the one that is sitting upon the throne, and by the virtue of what He accomplished as the perfect sacrificial Lamb, He has the authority to break the seven seals, and reveal the contents of the little scroll. Now in that perfect Son of God, while He still walked upon earth, before He offered Himself upon the altar, He was invested with all of the authority of the Father, to whom belongs these 7 spiritual attributes reflected in the appearance of the Lamb John saw. Those seven spirits speak of the all sufficiency of the eternal God to meet every need of man, and that was all invested in the Son at the time of the incarnation. When Jesus was taken up into heaven, and positioned at the right hand of the Father, (Not another person, but signifying power and author-ity.) to be high priest, and intercessor between man, on earth, and the great eternal Spirit, that portrays a transition of authority, and we want to liken that to these verses over here in Daniel, where it says, “The Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days.” Even though there is only one bodily form involved, it has to be shown like this in order for the mind of man to see something that he can write, which actually portrays the different phases of the work of redemption, that is all worked out by one and the selfsame being. Everything Jesus did was done by the authority of the Father that dwelt in Him, and that authority was delegated according to each phase of the work to be accomplished, and even though more than one image or form is seen, by revelation, we know that there is only one bodily form involved in the actual work, and that is the immortal Son. But I hope you can catch what we mean by a transition of authority, for Jesus was not all these things at the same time. In other words, when He laid down His life, as the Lamb slain for the sins of the world, He was no longer that prophet that should come. His prophetic ministry was completed. Then when He entered into His role as high priest, and intercessor for man’s sins, He was no longer the Lamb of God, and when He opens that last seal, He will leave His mediatorial work, and come for the contents
of what He has been interceding for, that which is written in the scroll. From that moment on, He will never be priest and mediator again. He will be King of kings, and Lord of lords, and conclude it by sitting up the great white throne judgment where He will be exercising His supreme judgeship. Therefore I hope this will help you see why these various images needed to be shown, simply to show where the merits or authority was wrought. The rainbow around the throne is symbolic of the presence of Jehovah. The one sitting there was the Son, but by the will, and with the full authority of Jehovah. He (Jesus) is the one that was holding the little scroll, and He is the one that would open the seals holding it, but it was by the merits of what He had done as the Lamb of God, that He was authorized to open those seals, and that is why God allowed John to see that Lamb. It is the same with those four beasts that he saw guarding the throne. They are symbolic of the power and authority of that great eternal Spirit to do all that they are shown to do. But I assure you, there are no such literal beasts around the throne in heaven.
SOON TO BE FULFILLED
Over in Revelation 19:7 we read, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And it was granted to her that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” It literally means, in the days when this thing, as we see it now, is literally being applied to the true church of the living God, the testimony of the bride is, that they are the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy brought to pass, because the salvation aspect of it is being brought to an end. There will be no more grace imputed. Now watch, “And I saw heaven opened,” Now we see what has happened, in Daniel, in those verses. The son of man has come before the ancient of days, and a kingdom has been given unto him, we see it here now, in literally, its application. “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse: (so this lets us know, Jesus Christ when he comes, fulfilling what will take place in Daniel, he is not coming on a throne, is that understood? He is coming, riding a white horse. See, Daniel didn’t see him come riding a white horse. But John did. So it goes to show, what took place in Daniel, was pointing ahead, portraying certain things about the Christ, the God man. But here we see it in much more detail.) And He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war.” He is no longer the one that looks like the lowly Galilean. He is no longer the one that rode the donkey into Jerusalem, He is the one coming from glory now, invested with ancient kingly authority, to be judge, and to take over the governments of the world. Listen to this. “His eyes were as a flame of fire.” Now you know and I know, Jesus of Nazareth, that lowly Galilean, when He walked here before, as prophet, that is not the way he looked. How many catch it? There was nothing about him that the natural man could discern any difference. But why does His eyes have to be like this? It is because He is angry with the forces of evil. When a man gets mad, they say he has got fire in his eyes. You have heard that expression. Well, when God gets angry, Oh! He has got fire in His eyes. And He is going to get even with the devil. And this is a picture that God has invested into Jesus, this anger. Go to earth, execute my wrath. Alright. “His eyes were as a flame of fire, and upon his head were many crowns.” Well, in actuality, when He comes, He is only going to wear one. Why are all these stacked up? It goes to show He received from Jehovah, the eternal Spirit, the right to be King of kings of every nation, and governmental system on the earth. That is why all that multiple of crowns. Yes, on His head were many crowns, and he had a name. Notice now, “He had a name, that no man knew but He Himself, and He was clothed (Hallelujah!) He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood.” Now this cloak portrays again, some-thing that is characteristic of this ancient Spirit, because if I can describe this cloak to you in actual material, we would say, it says here, “dipped in blood.” Well, it would have to be red, wouldn’t it? That signifies blood. But red is also a color of royalty, in this respect. Now He is clothed with a vesture, dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God. So this lets me know, when He was here before, He was called Jesus, who is the Christ, because the name in its redemptive meaning, compound meaning, meant He, Jehovah, God incarnate, will save His people, lost mankind, redeem them back to Himself, through the shed blood, the offering of the life of His son, on the cross of Calvary, that is His redemptive name. But now if He is going to have a new name, it has to pertain to His kingly authority. Something that brings out the kingly authority in a greater detail. And yet, even that, it says, is called the Word of God. In other words, it is a continual unfolding of the thought and the purpose of Jehovah executed through Him, to accomplish that. But remember this, whatever that name is, does not destroy the name Jesus, in the purchasing of His children, because that would annul Eph. 3 : 14-15, “I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.” That is His family name. Alright, now let us go on here, “And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God, and the armies (Now we see the armies, now this is the saints, the bride.) which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, (Now you know and I know, that many of the things we have been reading here, are pictorial. When Jesus descends from heaven, to execute this, He is not literally going to pull a literal sword out of His mouth. You only see that in Barnum & Bailey’s Circus. How many realize that? So what is John literally seeing? What looks like a sword, it is the word of judgment. And that word of judgment, He literally strikes evil, sin of this earth with it.) that with it He should smite the nations. And He shall rule them with a rod of iron.” Now you know and I know, we don’t want to picture Jesus Christ, sitting on His kingly throne, over there in Jerusalem, ruling the nations for a thousand years, and Him being some evil tyrant, that stands there with a great big iron bar, bringing his subjects before Him, and beating them. How many understand my illustration? What looks in the natural so real, you’ve got to apply it in its spiritual meaning. So this rod is to symbolize authority, that nothing will be allowed to exist under a righteous government, there will be no rebellion, nothing of that nature allowed. Now to see that rod in its application, we can take that back to Zechariah chapter 14. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of the people that are saved, (meaning the remnant of mortal mankind, that is, we will say, preserved, left alive, after God’s great wrath and destruction,) once each year, they are to come to Jerusalem, to worship this God man, this king, that descends from heaven, as he takes His throne of David in Jerusalem. And they are to come according to Zechariah, once each year, to worship that King, the Lord of hosts.” That is the way Jehovah has ordained it to be. To worship him through his redeeming man. Because he is to be called King of kings, and Lord of lords. Now, and it says, “And this shall be the plague, (or the curse,) that shall come upon that nation, there will be no rain.” In other words, He has the authority to control the elements of nature, for the sole purpose of fulfilling that rod, as nations, as people are disciplined and taught righteousness, obedience unto the will of God. But don’t picture Jesus as a man standing, Let me beat him one more time. That is not the picture. It is symbolic. That discipline, righteousness, respect is given to him, and Jesus is the one through which this is administered. Now, I think I have said enough, we could still go on with some other things, and I will put this in. When you go to the 12th chapter of Daniel, and you see there the one standing on the river, clothed in linen, and Daniel has asked the angel, that is accompanying that figure, and to see the identity of
that figure, you have to go back to the 10th chapter to get the one clothed in linen, whose countenance he portrays. But in actuality, what you see there in chapter 12, is a preshadowing of Jesus, projected in earth, in angelic form, in our day and time, in Revelation, chapter 10. And as that is fulfilled, then chapter 10 is the fulfillment of this, to the Gentile church, and then when he turns to make himself known to the Jewish nation, it fulfills precisely Daniel, chapter 12, And it is all how Jesus Christ is revealed to the Jewish nation. Now, to bring our thought to a close, this should let us know what Paul meant, in Hebrews 1, “God in sundry times, in diverse manners, spake unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,” and so forth, and for 2000 years since his death, burial and resurrection, Jehovah has not manifested himself in any form, outside of the image, and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because that is what He wants you and me to be in the likeness of. For 2000 years, His spirit, which is omnipresent, it is called the Holy Ghost, but it is the Spirit of the heavenly Father, wooing lost sinners, to come to the gospel story of Jesus Christ, so that you and I may be purchased and redeemed back to God, through the shedding of his blood, that you and I, through the gospel revelation, may be con-formed to the image, and likeness of his dear Son, the Lord Jesus. Brothers and Sisters, this age, this dispensation is just about over. What we read in Daniel, is just about to be set in motion. He will come, and He is God invested in man. But to think, everything you see Him to be, God invested it in Him. Therefore if Jesus is to be heir of all things, then that heirship is to be invested in his church. Brothers and Sisters, there is no way we can exhaust the beauty of this picture. One God, no wonder Paul could say in 1 Timothy 3:16, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” What a revelation, and it has all been done, that God, the Creator, the great eternal Spirit, the self existing life giver, the mighty God, could mold a people into the very image of His perfect Son, and make them joint heirs with Him of all that He received from the Father. Hallelujah! No trinitarian can ever get three persons out of 1 Tim. 3:16. There is just no way. May God add His blessing to you as you read these words, and may He be glorified, above all else. AMEN