p. 1 | THE PERSONALITY OF GOD by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 19, 1878

THE PERSONALITY OF GOD.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

BY ELDER D. M. CANRIGHT.

(Continued.)

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED.—CONCLUDED.

When Jesus Christ the Son of God came into this world, he was a real being, a person, having a body and form. Was he not a material being? We all know that he was. He ate, drank, and walked; he died upon the cross and was buried. Yet the Bible says he was a spirit, and that too while upon earth.

“And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [Christ] was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from Heaven.” 1 Cor. 15:45–47. Here it is declared that Christ, the second Adam, was made a quickening spirit. It will be noticed that this was said of Him who took man’s nature. Paul says, “The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” “The second man is the Lord from Heaven.” Then the man Christ Jesus was a spirit, for so the apostle says. This passage explains what is meant when a person is called a spirit. It means that he is a spiritual being, for thus it says, “Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural [Adam], and afterward that which is spiritual” (Christ). Paul says that Christ is a spirit, and explains a spirit to be a spiritual being. The apostle again says, “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body.” Verse 44.

This verse settles the question that there is a spiritual body, and that it is a person, and not an immaterial, intangible essence. A being can be spiritual and have a body. Likewise God is a spirit and has a body. He is a spiritual being, and yet of bodily form and shape.

Christ is again called a spirit in 2 Cor. 3:17. Paul says, “Now the Lord is that spirit.” If Christ was a spirit, and yet had a body and form, his Father can be a spirit and have a body and form.

But does not Jesus say that a spirit hath not flesh and bones? Luke 24:39. In this case the reference is to an apparition, or ghost. The disciples were terrified, and at first thought that they had seen a ghost, a mere specter. They themselves did not believe such an apparition to be real; hence Christ appeals to them that he is not such a spirit, for he has flesh and bones.

3. God cannot be a material being.

It is urged that matter cannot think, move, and act of itself; that it must first be organized and animated. Hence our opponents ask, If God is a material being, who organized him, who made him? But we hand this question back to them, If God is a spirit, who made him? Are not angels spirits? Are not devils spirits? Were not angels and devils created? Spirits were created as well as material beings. Even if we grant the distinction between matter and spirit that our spiritualizing friends claim, where is the proof that spirit is eternal any more than matter? Angels and devils themselves are spiritual beings, but are just as distinct one from another as men are from one another. Neither are they eternal any more than men are. They were created, formed, organized.

Granting that their ideas of God as a pure immaterial spirit are correct, we ask them, Who created this spirit? And our question is just as fair as theirs, when they ask us, Who organized God if he is a material being? Neither party can answer these questions, simply because we know nothing about the matter. The atheist triumphantly asks the Christian, Who made God? but no one can ever answer, from the simple fact that such questions are too high for mortal men. Job truly says: “Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.” Job 11:7–9.

We utterly deny the distinction between matter and spirit which is claimed. We believe that all things are material, although matter may manifest itself in a great diversity of forms. The wisest and most scientific men freely admit that they know but little about matter. The more they study, and the deeper they search into it, the stronger are their convictions that its different attributes and capabilities have been but partially understood. Because a certain fact is true of matter in one condition, it is argued that it must always be true of matter everywhere. This is illogical and false, for matter is capable of the greatest diversity. Matter in one form may even seem to be the direct opposite of the same matter in another form. For instance: I have before me a piece of ice. I put my hand upon it; it is exceedingly cold. I can cut it with a knife or saw it with a saw. It is solid. But I put this ice in a vessel and warm it, and it soon becomes water. Now it does not look at all like that piece of ice which was before me a few minutes before. I confine this water in a vessel and heat it very hot. It now becomes steam, a vapor, and is invisible. It is so hot it would scald your hand. It can neither be cut, nor poured from vessel to vessel. It now seems to be precisely opposite from that block of ice, and yet everybody knows that it is the very same matter, only in another condition. If we had not seen ice thus converted into steam, we would all pronounce such a change impossible; yet we all know by actual observation that ice, and water, and steam are only different conditions of the same material.

There is as great a difference between steam and ice as our opponents claim there is between spirit and matter. We claim, therefore, that they cannot show that a spirit is not one form of matter. The Bible nowhere says it is not. On the other hand, we have plainly shown that it is. Consider further the wonderful diversity of matter. Before me lies a piece of very white paper; by its side lies a book which is black. These are opposite in color, but both material. Here is a cake of ice, there is a coal of fire; one is cold, the other hot, but both are material. Here is a ball of lead, there a feather of down; one is very heavy, the other flits in the air, but both are material. Here is a plank of wood, there is a pane of glass; one is entirely opaque, the other transparent, but both are material. Here is a piece of pure gold a foot square, and worth many thousands of dollars, there is a bushel of mud worth nothing; both are material.

It is our opinion, founded both in revelation and science, that celestial beings are as material as men, only that they are more highly organized, more refined,—matter on a higher plane. Who that has carefully observed the wonderful and infinite diversity of matter, even as seen in this earth, will deny the reasonableness of this position? When we have found out God to perfection, when we have explored earth, heaven, and hell, and have fathomed all the infinite diversities and capabilities of matter, then, and not till then, will it do for us to say what God must be and what matter cannot be. Therefore this objection against the materiality of God is not a valid one.

God made this solid earth, this material planet, with all the material things upon it. He made a material man, a material atmosphere, material food for man, a material sun to light and warm this earth. He made all the millions of stars on high, every one of them as material as our own earth. If matter is so repulsive, so opposed to the nature of God, why has he made so vast a creation out of it?

Consider the further fact that the Saviour of men is a material being. He was born of a material woman, walked upon this material earth, breathed its air, ate of its food, died upon a material cross, spilled his material blood, was buried in the earth, his material body was resurrected, and is exalted at the right hand of God, and now sits upon the throne of the universe. “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.” Rev. 3:21. These facts are directly asserted by the most orthodox creeds. The fourth article in the creed of the Episcopalian church says, “Christ did truly rise again from death and took again his body, with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of man’s nature, wherewith he ascended into Heaven, and there sitteth.” So also says the Methodist Discipline. Then we have indeed a material Saviour, sitting upon the throne of the Father. Why, then, should those who adopt these creeds be horrified at the idea of a material God? We advise them to examine this point again.

(To be continued.)