Editorial by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 3, 1903

Editorial

By Editor

Stormy Times

THE captain of one of the great Atlantic liners which recently arrived at New York reported the most stormy passage which he had known in his thirty years' experience upon the water. The great ship was tossed about terribly by the mountainous seas, the passengers became panicstricken, and it became necessary to lay to and pour oil upon the water. The stormy seas are a sign of the times. “The wicked are like the troubled sea.” As the winds of heaven stir the waters of the great deep, so the winds of strife and confusion are now stirring the peoples of the earth. The spirit of unrest prevails everywhere, and there is no prospect of permanent peace and quiet. We are fast approaching those terrible scenes which will usher in the great day of the Lord. Now is the time to give to the world the only message of hope and salvation: “Fear God, and give him glory.” In these stormy times the only peace will be found in submitting to the rule of “the Prince of peace.” There is peace like a river for those who are willing to give glory to the God of peace.

“Peace! perfect peace! our future all unknown? Jesus we know, and he is on the throne.”

God's Dwelling-Place

It was Jesus who taught us to say, “Our Father who art in heaven.” Again and again in talking with his disciples he spoke of the “Father who is in heaven.” When Jesus had finished the work for which he came from heaven to earth, we are told that he knew “that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father.” Just before his martyrdom Stephen, “being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” Of Christ's ascension the Scripture says, “For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us.” Among his last words to his disciples Jesus said, “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” All these statements are utterly misleading unless there is a definite place called heaven where God is found in a sense in which he is not found in every other place. It is true that God is infinite, and that his presence fills heaven and earth, and yet it is equally true that he reveals himself to us as One who has a habitation in heaven, a place to which he translated Enoch and Elijah, a place to which he took Moses after his resurrection, and a place to which Jesus went in his flesh after his resurrection, and to which he promises to take his redeemed ones at his coming. That conception of God which dissipates him throughout space, and makes him everywhere in general and nowhere in particular, is a long step toward the conclusion that there is no God. The heathen have gods everywhere, but no God anywhere. “But our God is in the heavens.” “Jehovah hath established his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.” “Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.” In his presence is fullness of joy.

God With Us

THE prophet Isaiah had a view of God in his dwelling-place. “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.” Through the same prophet the assurance is given to us that the God whose throne is in the heavens will also dwell with the contrite and humble. “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” Jesus taught the same truth when he said, “If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” The same truth is taught by the apostle Paul: “Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? . . . Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God?” Through the incarnation God was manifest in the flesh, and humanity again became the temple of God. “They shall call his name Immanuel; which is, being interpreted, God with us.” To those who believe on him, Christ gives the right to become sons of God. They become heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. All the believers constitute the body of Christ, the dwelling-place of God. “But now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ. . . . For through him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the Father. So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner-stone; in whom each several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.” All this blessing comes to us through our union with Christ. The body of Christ is the true temple of God on earth. Each individual member of the body of Christ is a temple of God by virtue of his union with Christ. The Holy Spirit, the third person of the God-head, is the presence of God through Christ filling the temple. This is the indwelling presence of God. “Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies

through his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” There is a clear distinction between believers and unbelievers in this matter. In the dwelling-place of God his glory is revealed. In the temple of God his service is carried forward.