The herald., 1897-05-10
UNITY CHURCH
DR.. Thomson on Christ's Declarations
After Resurrection


Thomson, preached sermon upon THE
Seven Declarations of Christ After His
Resurrection" taking the text, He
showed himself alive after his passion
by many infallible proofs, being seen of
them forty days, and speaking of tha
things pertaining to the kingdom of
God. Acts is.
"Christ's first declaration after his
resurrection was made to Mary of Mag
dala al the sepucher. He said to her that
he was ascending to His God and their
God and to His Father and their
Father, and he requested her not
to touch him lest the touch should
prevent his ascension. Christ's as
cension is representative. All spirits
after death ascend to God gradu-
ally and orderly, according to moral and
spiritual laws; and we should not let our
grief or morbid curiosity be such as to
have a depressing influence upon as
cending spirits. Christ declared to the
two disciples on their way to Emmaus
that suffering is essential to promotion
in all worlds, that the true Israel in the
Old Testament had to suffer in struggling
to reform the world, and that he repre-
sented the true Israel in his efforts to
save mankind from committing sins. He
revealed to them the inner and spiritual
meaning of the scriptures. He said to
the eleven disciples in the room in Jeru-
salem that His resurrection fulfilled the
scriptures in their secret senses. and that
baptism, belief and repentance. accord
ing to His teachings, would gain Gods
gracious pardon, and that the apostles
required spiritual baptism to qualify
them for their grand mission, and that
they would be witnesses to His resur-
rection, and that they would have power
to exercise demons to speak new
tongues, to handle serpents and drink
poisoned water with impunity The mod
ern revivalist cannot show these signs.
and. therefore. he is not like the apostles.
Christ did not say that He would with
draw from his followers the power to
show these signs in the nineteenth CEN
tury He declared that, if they had the
spiritual baptism, they could perform
those miracles. The Christians of our
age have not the purity, nor the con-
secration, nor the spiritual wisdom nor
the intellectual insight, necessary to re-
ceive that power, and to be trusted with
it. Christ declared to Thomas that
spiritual proofs of the resurrection are
superior to physical proofs The spiritual
nature of Thomas was too weak to grasp
the spiritual realities of life. He needed
the baptism of the spirit On the noun
tain in Galilee, Christ commanded His
apostles to baptiZe converts in the name
of God, of the Son, of the Holy Spirit,
and to teach the converts his doctrines.
He did not tell them to recommend to
their converts evolution, reincarnation,
and psychical research, nor did he tell
them to preach Calvinism, Wesleyan
ism, Episcopalianism, Catholicism
These denominations were not in exist
ence in Christ's time. These peculiar
theories and heresies were not deemed
necessary by the Master, and it seems
that men and women were saved from
sinful lives and from shining by practic-
ing Christ's simple doctrines and by fol-
lowing His divine example. If people
were saved in Christs time in this way,
and no one can deny it, it surely fol-
lows that we might be saved in the same
way in our time. Then what is the use
of all our theological and denomina-
tional trash and baggage which we have
unfortunately inherited? On the shore
love, divine and human is the preachers $
greatest power, and not hell fire from
which any selfish person may escape
by taking advantage of the theological
bankruptcy act, Adams fall, total de-
pravity, and the predestined murder OF
Christ to save those who are immoral
enough to let another suffer for them.
When Christ was about to ascend to
heaven, He told His disciples not to
worry about the future as God would
take care of that. of that day and hour
knoweth no man; no, not the angels in
heaven, neither the Son, but the Faith
er'-Mark xiii:32. Christ's seven declar-
ations on the cross, and his seven declar-
ations after his resurrection give no
comfort to our modern denominational
heresies in Catholic and Protestant
churches"