The Person of God by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Feb 27, 1907

The Person of God

By Editor

2006.—The Person of God.

(1) Is God the Father of bodily form? (2) Did Christ have a bodily form before He became man? (3) Will the redeemed have blood? (4) Had Christ any blood after His resurrection, since He spilled it on the ground? W. D. S.

From the language of Heb. 1:3 it seems to us that God does have a form, and image. What that is, we do not feel that it is profitable to discuss, but the whole language of the scripture means, if it means anything,—for we can not believe that God intended to deceive,—that while God is everywhere present by His Holy Spirit, He also has a throne and a local habitation where He is as He is nowhere else. It is said of the Son, "Who being the effulgence of His [the Father's] glory, and the very image of His [the Father's] substance;" language were meaningless unless God were a personal being. There are many other expressions in the Scriptures which would indicate the same thing.

2. The language quoted from Hebrews indicates clearly the same thing as regards the Son of God before He came to this earth. See also Isaiah 6, and Psalm 110.

3. It is impossible in the space we have to answer adequately the third question. There are some considerations, however, that would seem to the writer to indicate that man will not have blood in that immortal state. The blood is the life here (Lev. 17:11); the Spirit will be the life there. "The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit." This also would answer the fourth question. Jesus shed His blood upon the ground, it was poured out upon the earth for guilty man and the sinful earth. Man in the transcendent, immortal state will be a spiritual being, but not the less a substantial being.

2007.—An Unclean Spirit. Mark 5:1-13.

Please explain Mark 5:1-13, especially the ninth and twelfth verses. I. T. H.

The first part of the account is very plain. Jesus meets in the country of the Gergesenes a violently insane man possessed of evil spirits. He sees Jesus, and the faint glimmering of reason that the spirits have not taken away gives him hope. He runs to worship Him, but as he opens his mouth, the evil spirit speaks by his mouth, "What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of the Most High God? I

adjure Thee by God, torment me not." Jesus asks the spirit, "What is thy name?" and the spirit declares, "Legion," that is, many. There were many spirits possessing the man. Then those spirits plead with Jesus that they may not be banished; for they recognize His power, but ask Him that they may enter into the swine, and He gives them leave. To us it is not an unreasonable thing to believe that the very life of these spirits is maintained from the vitality which they draw from others; so they were living upon the life of that poor demoniac. Cast out of him, they besought that they might go into the swine, evidently not knowing the effect it would have upon the swine. It drove the swine insane, and they rushed into the sea and perished. We need not understand by this, however, that the evil spirits themselves perished. This is the simple story. Question may be raised as to the drowning of the swine, but our Lord was not responsible for that, and the Jews themselves who owned the swine were certainly not living according to the law of God.

2008.—The Tower of Babel.

Is it true that there was no such literal Tower of Babel, or was it simply a parable which God gave us in His word of the human heart? L. G. C.

Doubtless there are in many hearts confusion, for that is what Babel means; but there was a literal Tower of Babel, for so the Scriptures declare, so the records in the stone and brick books of Babylon declare; so also one of the idiomatic names of the city of Borsippa, a suburb of the city of Babylon, declares. There are any number of confirmations of the literal Babel; the very mounds of Babylon which have been excavated clearly show that there was an ancient tower, so much so that men have been able to reproduce it in outline from the ruins themselves.

2009.—The Two Comings of Christ.

I read in your paper about Christ coming the second time. Do you mean that when the last day comes, then He will come again? First, He comes in our hearts—that is, when we know the truth, and then on the last day. J. H.

Christ's first coming was when He came a Babe in Bethlehem, when the "Word was made flesh and dwelt among us," when angels sang, "Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord." When He comes into our hearts, it is not a personal coming of Christ. It is by His Spirit that He dwells in us; but in order that Spirit may come and dwell in the heart of all His children, it was necessary that He should go away. John 16:7. When He comes again, it will be at the last day. John 14:1-3; 1 Thess. 4:16; Luke 21:25-27, and many other scriptures. Read, "The Lord's Coming," in the SIGNS of February 13 and in this number. Those articles will tell you what His coming is and what it is not.

2010.—What City? Ezekiel 48.

Please explain Ezekiel 48, especially about the city, verse 35, "and the name of the city from that day shall be, THE LORD IS THERE." Mrs. P.

It seems to us that the whole of Ezekiel from chapter 36 onward is a conditional prophecy to Israel, in which Israel was exhorted to return to God and give themselves wholly to Him, and receive all the good things that He promised by His prophets. From chapter 40 onward is a description of a city and a sanctuary which would have been built IF Israel had been faithful to God. He gave His prophet the vision; the prophet was instructed to show the vision to his people, "that they may be ashamed of their iniquity," "and IF THEY BE ASHAMED of all that they have done, make known unto them the form of the house," etc. Chapter 43:10, 11. But Israel was not ashamed. Their sins were not put away, and God could not fulfil to them

the promise of the city, the restoration of the land, and the rebuilding of the temple in the glorious form presented by His prophet. But He will more than make good all of His precious promises to His Israel in Christ Jesus, as recorded in Revelation 22, in the new heaven and the new earth, and the capital city thereof is the New Jerusalem.

2011.—The Guidance of God.

If two persons pursue the same course, search the Scriptures, and seek God earnestly to learn the truth, with minds open for its reception, and will follow it wherever it leads, will they not get the same result? A. S.

They will. God has promised that in His word. One great trouble in men coming to wrong conclusions and different conclusions is previous education, previous bias. Too exalted an opinion of their own knowledge is another thing. They may not be conscious of the influence of these elements in their seeking, and yet the elements are there. For instance, in the case to which our inquirer refers, he had a special experience that worked out wonderful and blessed results in his life. Some one else who claimed to be truly seeking the Lord set aside that experience as anything supernatural, and declared that it came from mere physical causes. Many are seeking God's word, but they are seeking it thru the theological glasses which their grandfathers wore, or their fathers, or their teachers. They wish to write their consecration, but they are writing it with the dead hands of Wesley or Luther or some other good souls who followed all the light they had, who had not seen beyond their generation. There are others who read and study God's word wanting to know what His truth is, but above all else to have that knowledge of truth conform to their own preconceived opinions. But he who seeks to know and do God's will regardless of what he may have believed or held in the past, has God's promise that he will be guided. "The meek will He guide in judgment; and the meek will He teach His way." There is no question in regard to it. Jesus met these same difficulties. He has given us a prayer to teach us how to pray. He wanted to escape the baptism of Gethsemane and the cross, and prayed, "Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee; take away this cup from Me; nevertheless not what I will, but what Thou wilt." Mark 14: 36. He wanted His way, to escape the suffering, and yet above His way was the prayer that the Father's will might be wrought. Now if that is our prayer we may be assured that the Father will guide. He may be able to lead one into the truth faster than He does another. Seed springs from some soil much sooner than it does from others. He may have to lead some by more devious ways than He does others, but He will surely lead to His truth. "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro thruout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him." 2 Chron. 16: 9.