The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-01-17
THE PULPIT,
A SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
PASTOR c. T. RUSSELL
Subject: Centre of the Divine Revelation
il Jesus Christ.

Providence, r. I.-Pastor G. T. Rus
sell, Of Allegheny, Pa, preached twice
here Sunday in Infantry Hall to large
audiences. His evening discourse fol-
lows:
The Bible may be said to be a reve-
lation of Jesus, who in turn is q reVe-
lation of the Father. Its opening pages
tell US Of the fall of the first human
son of God, Adam, point to the death
penalty upon him, and indicate the
need of a Saviour and Redeemer; and,
more than this, inferentially promise
such q one as the seed of the woman
who ultimately shall bruise the ser
penis head-crush, subdue all evil.
Its intermediate pages are prophecies
and types respecting Jesus and the
work He weuld accomplish as a Re
deemer, and later as q deliverer of the
race. And further on it records His
birth, His ministries, His death, resur-
r~ectiOn, gloriication, and the messages
He gave to all who would become His
followers, including His promise to
come again and receive them unto
Himself. The closing pages Of the
Bible picture in symbolical language
the completion of the present age, the
inauguration Of the millennial age,
the work that it will accomplish in
the blessing and uplifting Of the hui
man family I'D the ultimate purging
of the earth from all sin, imperfectiOn,
evil, when every voice in heaven and
earth shall be heard praising the Lord.
The teachings of higher criticism are
very misleading on this subject. They
would have US consider that all mira
cles are impossible; that our Lord was
not born of a virgin, and by the direct
power of God; that He was born as
other men; that He happened to be a
rather superior type of man; that He
never had a prehuman existence. The
Scriptures teach to the contrary Of this
most explicitly, that He left the glory
which He had with the Father before.
the world was" that HE who was
rich for our sakes became poor" TAX
ing a human form for a particular, spe-
cifc purpose "for the suffering Of
DEATH" that He might be our Redeem
er. John xvii, 5; II. Cor. viii, 9; Heb.
H., 81.
The inspired writer's 60 further and
declare, "All things were made by
Him, and without Him was not one
thing made that was made" The con-
text tells us that He was in the begin
ming with the Father, and was the
Word, or ~mouthpiece, and personal rep
resentative of the Father in all the
work of the creation of all the remain
der of the works of God.
No chnr1a nnhA IN nocc;pr Tho aNn-
sistency of the Scriptures in respect to
the supremacy of Jehovah God. From
first to last with one voice the Scrip
lures declare that there is but n su-
preme in the universe.
How comes it then that the record
is that Jesus, our Master, in His pre-
human condition, was the logos, q God
with the God? Is this testimony out
of accord with the remainder of scrip
tural testimony? We answer, No! The
name Jehovah was never permitted to
any but the one, the Father supreme;
but the title God, which in the Hebrew
is ElOhim, and sometimes abbreviated
Ell, signifies a mighty one, and might
be applied to any mighty one in author
ity and power, Jehovah Himself being
superior to all Elohim.
An examination of the scriptural
uses of the word Elohim substantiates
the foregoing. We find, for instance,
that it has not only been applied to the
Father and to the special representa-
tive and prime minister, the logos, the
Son of God manifest in the flesh, but
we find also that the word is used in
respect to angels when they directly
represented the Lord as His special
messengers, they who are His mighty
one We find also that this title Flo
him was used in respect to angels
when they directly represented the
Lord as His special messengers, they
who are His mighty ones. We find
also this title Elohim was used in re-
spect to the first elders of Israel when
God recognized them as His represen-
tatives in judging their brethren.
1t will be remembered that the Jews
were angry with our Lord Jesus, not
because He called Himself Jehovah or
intimated any usurpation Of the Faith
er's place, honors or p~rerOgatiVes, but
simply because He called Himself the
Son Of God and referred to Jehovah
God as His Father. On n occasion
when they were about to stone Him
Jesus inquired why, and the answer
was that in calling Himself the Son Of
God He was affecting to be superior to
them and to others of mankind, and
affecting a relationship with the great
Jehovah, which they termed blasphe-
my, because they said it was affecting
an equality with Jehovah; but u Lord
c%ontradicted that thought and pointed
out to them that the claim to be the
Son of God was not to put Himself on
an equality with Jehovah, but that the
Scriptures fully sanctioned such a title
as the Son Of God.
The Jews never claimed the title
Sons Of God for themselves, would
it have been proper for them to have
done so.4 Not until the great sacrifice
for sins was offered by the Redeemer
could the Father SO justify any mem
bers Of the fallen race az to receive
them back into the close, the dear re-
lationship represented by the word
Son, but, since The redemptive work Of
Jesus, spiritual Israelites + termed
soma Of God, as the Apostle declares,
"Now are we the ons Of God, though
it doth not yet appear what we shall
be (how great our glory and eXaltation
in the resurrection change), but we
know that when He shall appear Jour
Lord and Master, the only begotten
SOM we shall be like Him and see
Him as He is" Il. John, Ill, p. The
Scriptures clearly show that the fol-
lowers of Christ we're accepted Of the
Father rs sons when begotten of the
Spirit at Pentecost and since. John,
j., 1913.