PERSONALITY OF GOD

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 25, 1861

PERSONALITY OF GOD.

(Concluded)

"Let us make man," said Jehovah to Jesus, "in our image, after our likeness." Gen. i, 26. Jesus was the express image of the Father's person. "Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." Heb. i, 3. There on the Father's throne, is our personal Jesus, beside our personal God.

Jesus arose from the dead with a physical form. "He is not here," said the angel; "for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee. There shall ye see him. Lo, I have told you. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy, and did run to bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail! And they came and held him by the feet, and they worshiped him." Matt. xxviii, 6–9.

"Behold my hands and my feet," said Jesus to those who stood in doubt of his resurrection, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honey-comb, and he took it, and did eat before them." Luke xxiv, 29–43.

After Jesus addressed his disciples on the mount of Olivet, he was taken up from them, and a cloud received him out of their sight. "And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Acts i, 9–11.

Mark says, "So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God." Chap. xvi, 19.

When inspired testimony is as plain and pointed on any important subject as language can be, we choose to give the language of inspiration; hence the quotations above. They prove,

1. That Christ arose from the dead with a physical form.

2. That he, to demonstrate the fact to his wondering and still doubting disciples, showed them his hands and his feet, and ate before them.

3. That with this form he ascended up to heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.

But those who deny the personality of God, assert that he is as much in every place as in any one place. In harmony with this assertion is the oft-repeated declaration that heaven is everywhere. We inquire, then, What was the ascension of Jesus Christ? He was taken up to heaven. He went to his Father. If heaven be everywhere, and God everywhere, then Christ's ascension up to heaven, at the Father's right hand, simply means that he went everywhere! He was only taken up where the cloud hid him from the gaze of his disciples, and then evaporated and went everywhere! So that instead of the lovely Jesus, so beautifully described in both Testaments, we have only a sort of essence dispersed through the entire universe. And in harmony with this rarified theology, Christ's second advent, or his return, would be the condensation of this essence to some locality, say the mount of Olivet!

Again, Bible readers have believed that Enoch and Elijah were really taken up to God in heaven. But if God and heaven be as much in every place as in any one place, this is all a mistake. They were not translated. And all that is said about the "chariot of fire" and "horses of fire," and the attending whirlwind to take Elijah up into heaven, was a useless parade. They only evaporated, and a misty vapor passed through the entire universe. This is all of Enoch and Elijah that the mind can possibly grasp, admitting that God and heaven are no more in any one place than in every place.

But it is said of Elijah that he "went up by a whirlwind into heaven." 2 Kings ii, 11. And of Enoch it is said, that he "walked with God, and was not, for God took him." Gen. v, 24.

The language of scripture on this subject is pointed and beautiful, and stands out in strong contrast with that foggy system of interpretation which denies the personality of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. See Gen. i, 26, 27; ix, 6; Ex. xxiv, 9–11; xxxiii, 20–23; Dan. vii, 9, 13, 14; Heb. i, 1–3; John v, 37; Mark xvi, 19; Luke xxiv, 38–43; John vii, 33; xiii, 36; xiv, 1–3, 12; xvi, 16, 28; xx, 17; Acts i, 9–11; vii, 56. Read also the description of the Son of God as seen by John more than sixty years after his ascension to his Father.