The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1911-01-24


were all things made and without him
was not anything made that was
made" John /, /, p. He said:
A week ago we considered the time
| when God was alone. Today let us
discuss the first creative act as re-
spects intelligent beings. Long before
man was created, or our earth was
brought from its chaotic condition.
| long before angels and cherubim were
created, Divine power brought forth a
| Son on the spirit plane-Jehovah's First
Begotten- glorious, perfect, beautiful,
| his own image and likeness.
This glorious One is in our text
designated the Logos, the Word, the
Message, the Expression OF God. In
the Old Testament he is symbolically
referred to as Wisdom In the words.
Jehovah possessed me in the begin
ming of his way, before his works of
old ." Then l was by him, as one
brought up with him, and l was daily
his delight, rejoicing always before
him" proverbs viii. 22-30).
This mighty one, personifed as Wis
dom, is declared by St. Paul to be "the
frst-born of all creation" (Colossians l.,
1913. The Psalmist similarly refers
to him as Jehovah's ''frst-born, high
er than the kings Of earth" psalm
lxxxix, 20. Jesus thus refers to him
self as one who had a prehuman ex-
istence, saying, Before Abraham was.
/ am" John viii, IA, %, 1850. The
| glorifed, assembled Christ, in Apoca-
liptic vision, declared the same great
| truth, that he was 1.-The beginning of
the creation of God" Revelation iii.
| IA. And again he declared. 81 am the
First and the Last" CRev. i, IT; ii, 81.
| All Of these Scriptures fully corrobo
rate the statement of our text that he
who subsequently became the worlds
Redeemer was long before the primary
Son of God. He ranked, first. not only
| in seniority. but also in honor. dignity
and station, above all other sons OF
God, not one OF whom was like him
| self-the direct creation of Jehovah
"For all things were made by the Lo-
| Cos, and without him was not one
| thing made that was made" He was
not the creator In the primary sense
of the word, but in the secondary
sense He was the active agent of
Jehovah in all of his subsequent crea-
! tive work; thus he was not only the
first-born of all creation, but individu
ally, he was also the last Of Jehovah's
creation To this agrees the word of
st. Paul, "All things are of the Father
and all things are By the Son"
Surely many have failed to appreci-
ate not only the Divine personality
of Jehovah, but also the greatness Of
him who is styled 1.-THE Son of God"
In the Dark Ages.
| There was time when Gods people
did not possess the Bible In their own
language, and when education to read
| it was extremely limited. and when
nobody possessed such wonderful
Bibles with references and concord
ances) as are common today. 1t should
not surprise us that in that far-off
| time confusing errors crept into the
traditional faith of the Church. The
contention of the Jews was that Jesus
of Nazareth was an impostOr and that
his mighty works were done under
| the influence of the fallen angel, Be
elzebub Should we think it strange
| that in the heat of discussion some of
the followers of Jesus would make ex-
travagant claims for him in their en-
deavor to oppose the theory that made
of Messiah q mere sinful man?
| 1t does not surprise us, therefore
that early in the third century claims
were put forward in the name of
Christ and his Apostles which neither
he nor they ever authorized The
Apostles declared him to be 'the Son
Of God with power and that he was
holy, harmless, indebted and sepa-
rate from sinners" Hebrews VII, 26).
The Master himself declared, my
Father is greater than l." HE is
above ll;;"r"he sent me-" 81 came to
do the will of my Father in heaven
and not mine own WILL II delight to
do thy will. oh my God: thy law is
written in my heart"
| True, he also declared, II and my
Father are one;" but he showed in
| what this oneness consisted-that it
was a oneness of will, of purpose, of
work. Because he had fully submitted
| his will to the Fathers will and had
| made the Fathers will his own, there
fore they were one.
The Master again illustrated this
oneness when he prayed for his dis
ciples that 'they all might be one.
even as thou Father and | are one
John xvii, II. 81, 22). Evidently the
Master did not pray that his disciples
should all become one In person, but
that they should all become of one
mind, of one heart, of one disposition
through their loyalty and obedience to
the Word and to the spirit of God.
And this oneness. he declared, was the
kind which subsisted between the
Heavenly. Father and himself.
Leaving the simplicity of the teach
ings of Jesus and of the Apostles,
some went to the extreme of declaring
that Jesus was his own Father; that
the terms Father, Son and holy Spirit
all applied to one person who mani
| tested himself to mankind In three diff
ferent ways corresponding to these
names-one God in three manifesto
tons. Others took a still different
view and claimed that the Father,
| Son and holy Spirit were three Gods
who operated as one. In proportion as
these unscriptural human theories
! were received, they produced confu-
sion. And when asked how three per-
sons could logically be one person, and
how one person could be three persons
equal in glory and power, of course no
answer could be given. Then the sub
terfuge was raised, "This is a great
mystery which nobody can explain"
1t should not surprise us from what
we know Of the structure of human
| nature that these extreme views were
opposed by others Of the opposite ex-
IRENE, some claiming that Jesus was
mere man; that he was born as are
other men; that Joseph was his father,
etc. Thus we behold the danger Of
any variation whatever from the pre-
else teachings of the Word of God.
1t should be needless to say to Bible
Students that there is nothing in the
Bible which declares a trinity Of Gods.
There is just one passage of Scripture
quoted In proof Of the Trinity q John,
V, y, and it is never quoted by schol-
ars, because all scholars know that 1t
was tempered with, several words hav-
ing been added in the seventh century
which are not found In any New Tes-
lament manuscript Of earlier date.
And those added words make the
statement as a whole foolish.
If you will turn In your Bibles to
this passage, you may strike out the