The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1902-07-18
FATHERHOOD OF GOD
Relationship Which Exists Between
the Creator and the Creature.
Sermon by the "Highway and BY
way" Preacher in Which He Utters
Some Plain Truths on q Popular
But FNaIIacfous Doctrine.
Copyright, 1902 by A n. Kellogg News
paper Coz

Copyright, 1907, by A. N. Kellogg NeWs-
paper Coz
Chicago, 1902
Text:-For as many as are leu by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
For We have not received the spirit OF
bondage again to fear; but ye have re-
ceived the Spirit of adoption, whereby
we cry, Abba, Father.-Rom. S:14-15.
Universal Fatherhood of God.-As
the progenitor of the human race, God
is it's Father. The relationship thus
existing between God, the Creator, and
man, the created, is one of origin rath-
er than that of active association and
fellowship. That this is true is not
due to any change in purpose or desire
of God towards the people of the world,
for He is the same yesterday, to-day
and forever, but it is owing to the
prodigality of the human race, which,
beginning in the garden of Eden with
Adam, departed from the Fathers
house, and is no longer worthy to be
called. the son of God. Since the will
of man was set up against the perfect
and righteous will of God, and every
man has sought his own way, he has
been in the far country feeding on the
husks of the perishable things of the
world, while the Father sits in His
house eternal in the Heavens await
ing the return of the prodigal, whom
He longs to receive back into the low
ing relationship Of son.
Paul. at Athens, on the summit of
Mars hill, from whence he could look
out over the city given to idolatry and
every form of cultured godlessness
and lustful wickedness, takes the
thought of one of their own poets who
had written: For we are also His
offspring" and declares that he had
spoken an eternal truth. The doctrine
of the universal Fatherhood of God
so popular to-day thus dates back to
early Greek culture and refinement if
not to still earlier date, and people
resting in the ease of their own con-
ceptions of who and what God was
needed to be stirred up by the declara-
ton that God "now commandeth all
men everywhere to repent" Into the
far country has gone this message
from the Fathers House. He waits in
patience and love, but while the son
remains away, spending his substance
in riotous living, he has no place in the
Fathers House, nor has he any right
to call Him Father. Has not the
Father given him all "the portion of
goods that falleth to" him? He has
no further claim upon Him. By direct
choice he has become a stranger and
foreigner, and it is only through the
matchless grace and mercy Of the
Father that the way back to the
Fathers House has not been closed
forever.
The Fatherhood of God is universal
in the sense that eve are His off
spring. and that as Father He longs
and waits for the return of His way
ward and self-seeking children. The
Fatherhood of God is limited in the
sense that only those who repent and
return to the Fathers House by the
way which He has provided are priv
LEGGED to call Him Father and have a
right to a place again in the family
circle. Man may reason and speculate
all he pleases, and lull to sleep the con-
science by high and broad-sounding
sentiments and subtle sophistries, he
may drag down to human levels Gods
love and Gods righteousness and make
believe that he is son of God
and entitled to a place in the Fathers
House, but when he comes to the end
of himself he will find that he is still
in the far country, and that the father
of his thought and reason was God
head craven by art and mans device"
Satan hoodwinked Adam into believing
that he could erect for himself a god,
knowing good and evil, and the father
ut IL
doesn't care how beautifully you talk
of the love and Fatherhood of God, or
how you denounce him (the devil), if
you only do not come to yourself, re-
pent and return to the Fathers
House.
And if, while the world is talking of
the universal Fatf&2rhood of God, it has
no atom of truth on which to base its
claim, Gods Word comes, and with its
of light proves the universal
of God by the universal
plan of salvation which it offers. The
testimony of Gods Word does not seek
to rob the world of Father, but gives
to the world Father, if it will only
accept Him on Gods reasonable terms.
For this is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sin
argues it's sonship relation to
God and Gods Fatherhood relation to
the world proves how much it really
longs for and needs the true Fathers
love and care. And Gods Word, and
this feeble message which we seek to
deliver in the name Of our Father
which art in Heaven" only longs to I'M
mask the worlds false notion of the
of God, which would leave
It at last naked and undone in the pres
ence of the righteous Judge, and give
It loving and forgiving Heavenly
Father, who sees the repentant child |
while she is yet a great way off" and,
rushing out to meet him, writes with
the finger of His love dipped in the
blood of His only begotten Son, His |
full and free forgiveness, and, hushing
MS pleading to be taken back as a
servant, He reinstates him in his lost |
position, and makes him son indeed. |
The Mark of Sonship-"For as many
as are led by the Spirit of God, they are
he sons of God" Here is the distin- |
nay identify those who have right !
10 turn their faces upward and cry: |
Abba, Father" And on the other |
hand, the sons of men as distinguished |
from the sons of God wear the livery |
If this world and are ruled by the |
spirit of man which is in him." In |
The second chapter of I Corinthians |
Paul develops this thought fully and |