The Unity of God

In the formation of every argument it is necessary to lay down correct premises; because on them the conclusion depends. In every science it is necessary to have a knowledge of its first principles. These are the basis of the whole system. In the science of Theology, as in all other sciences, there are fundamental truths, which must be admitted or proved, before inquiries can be prosecuted with success. The most important of these, and which claims the first attention, is, the unity of God.

1. The first argument, which offers itself in proof of this truth, is, there appears to be no need of more than one God. In treating subjects philosophically it is correct to admit no more causes, than are necessary to account for the effects produced. One Being of almighty power is sufficient to create the world. One Being of infinite wisdom is sufficient to organize it, and form a constitution for its government. One Being of infinite goodness is competent to the administration of its laws. The same Being, who created, organized and supports one world, can multiply them to any extent he pleases. It is no harder to conceive of infinite attributes residing in one Being, than to conceive of them residing in many beings. As all the effects, which are visible, or fall within the compass of human apprehension, may be traced to one Cause, possessing infinite perfections, there is no necessity of inferring more than one.

2. The unity of God is argued from the harmony and mutual subserviency of different parts of the world; and from the uniformity of its government. There is a just proportion between the various parts of the world. The elements are so adjusted, that one does not prevail against another. The globe is wisely balanced with earth and water. The spheres, which compose this system, are so exactly proportioned as to size and distance, that they perform their revolutions with the greatest precision. There is a remarkable correspondence and subserviency between the different parts of the world; between different classes of animals; and between the brutal and the intelligent creation. The face of the earth is agreeably and usefully variegated with hills and vallies. There is a happy subserviency between the atmosphere, earth, and water. The different parts of this system so correspond that they are mutually beneficial. The sun enlightens and warms the earth. The moon and the host of heaven, not only adorn the canopy of the skies, but they shed their milder rays. The regular succession of day and night promotes the growth of the vegetable kingdom; and affords a pleasing and refreshing variety to human nature. The rotation of the seasons is wisely calculated to bring forward and mature the productions of the earth, and to restore its wasted strength.

Cont'd tomorrow! 10/1/15

Words transmit Images

Excerpt from Charles Capps teaching about the Power of Words.

"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteh nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." (John 6:63)  Jesus said there is spirit life in the spoken word.  That;s why it is important for us to confess what God has already said about us in His Word.  Words carry spiritual forces.  Words can transmit faith.  They transmit images after their kind to others.  God's Word transmits the image God wants you to have.  The devil's words transmit the image he wants you to have.

Your words are powerful transmitters.  Be careful what you say to yourself and others.

Faith is Transmitted by Words

In Romans 10:17, Paul said, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."  That is "A truth," but it is not the whole truth.  When Paul made that statement, he was talking about faith in God and in His word  Faith in God's word come by hearing what He said.  But there is a reciprocal of that truth.  Just as Faith in God comes by hearing and receiving the Word of God, faith in the devil comes by hearing the words of the devil.  The opposite of faith is fear.  Most of the time,  fear is actually faith in the devil.  Don't take "A truth" and make "THE truth" out of it.  For if we dogmatically declare that the only way anyone can obtain faith is by hearing the Word of God, that's not the WHOLE truth.  You can have faith in the weather man by hearing him predict the weather.

The truth is that Faith comes by hearing, Whether you are hearing me or hearing the weather forecast, faith comes by hearing.  Spoken words transmit a corresponding spirit.  Fear-Filled words produce fear in those who hear and receive them.  Faith-Filled words produce Faith in those who hear and receive them.

The Integrity of the Word of God

Excerpt from "Advanced Bible Course"

 by E.W. Kenyon

"The WORD is god speaking to you.  "Thus saith Jehovah" is repeated over two thousand times from Exodus to Deuteronomy.  God and his Word are one.  The Word is always now. Jesus is the Word.  Jesus is the living Word.  Hebrews 4:12 "The Logos of God is a living thing, active and more cutting than any sword with double edge penetrating to the very division of soul and spirit, joint and marrow- scrutinizing the very thoughts and conceptions of the heart." (Moffat)

And now notice carefully the next verse: "And no created thing is hidden from Him; all things lie open, exposed before the eyes of Him with Whom we have to reckon."  The Word is called the Logos.  Jesus is the Logos, and the Logos is a living thing- not in the book, not on the written page, but in the lips of the believer."  There is no created thing hidden from Him, this living Word.  The Word searches us out, find us.  The Word is our Contact with God the Father.  It is His contact with us. Christ and the Word are one.  It is the Word dwelling in you which is equivalent to Christ personally being in you.  Letting the Word have right away in your life is letting Christ have right-of way.  The Word dominating you is the Lordship of Christ in you."

Angelic Obedience part II

When the way to the tree of life was to be closed against fallen man, cherubim were set to guard the entrance, and with their flaming sword rendered it unapproachable: when that way was again to be thrown open, and the twelve manner of fruits yielded in their season, and the leaves to be applied for the healing of the nations, twelve angels are represented as standing at the gates that are never to be shut, day or night, not armed to bar the passage, but as guards of honor welcoming the happy comers to that scene of everlasting felicity.  The variety of commissions which we know the angels to have executed among men, sufficiently attest their prompt obedience to every command of their glorious King, whom to serve is their privilege and joy: for "he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven." Dan.4:35. "Thinkest thou," said our Lord to the disciple who smote the high priest's servant, "thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than ten legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?" Matt. 26:53, 54.

We now proceed to review the instances of angelic interference and as the work of vengeance is in no way consonant to the character of a holy angel, except when executed in loyal obedience to the command of his righteous King, who will punish evil-doers, we may class under the present head all the destructive operations of the heavenly host. 

The Lord needs no help of men or of angels; yet the armies of heaven stand around, eager to be employed against the enemies of his name and of his people.  To render a recompense to those who afflict Christ in his members, is indeed a part of angelic office, as David shows; when speaking of those who sought to destroy his soul, he says, "Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angels of the Lord chase them. Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord persecute them." Psalm xxxv. 5, 6.  In virtue of this office, they will fulfill their terrible commission in the last days of the present dispensation. "The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Matt. 13: 42. 

They will come fully prepared for the terrible work of that great day: "It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thess. 1: 6, 7, 8.

He "who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire," (Psalm 104: 4,) has pre-ordained them to act a most conspicuous part in the transactions of the last days, we must turn to the book of Revelation, where a scene of awful magnificence is opened to us, in language of unparalleled grandeur.

Angelic Obedience

"See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book." Rev.22: 9

There is not, in the whole Bible, an instance where an angel appears to act independently of the divine command. Perfect submission is the unvaried character of the heavenly host. Our Lord expresses this, in the prayer that he has taught us to use: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." When John would have worshiped the angel who showed him the wonderful things that he has recorded for us, he was prohibited in these words: "See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book." Rev.22: 9.

We cannot doubt that the Holy Spirit has so framed the word of truth as to be a perpetual antidote to every form of error that should creep into the world : and the "worshiping of angels," which constitutes a prominent mark of the Roman apostasy, is provided against by continually setting forth their entire dependence and subordination. They never appear but as messengers:

"God sent an angel into Jerusalem to destroy it." 1 Chron. 21:15. 

"My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me." Dan. 4:22. 

"The man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation." Dan. 9:21.

  "At the beginning of thy supplication the commandment came forth, and I am come." (v. 23.) 

"And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth." Luke 1:26.

  "Now I know of a surety that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews," Acts 12:11:

And in the last instance that is recorded by inspiration of an angelic mission, we read, "I Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the Church." Rev. 22:16. However willingly performed to men, it is still a service appointed of God, and by him especially directed; they are "ministering spirits," sent forth to minister to them that shall be heirs of salvation," Heb. 1:14 ; and it is on this principle of holy obedience that we find them zealously executing God's righteous displeasure against the rebellious.

The Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ part V

No sooner had the Lord received the baptism of the Holy Ghost than He was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to "be tempted of the devil." This is especially emphasized by the Evangelist. It is aot the devil that appears first, but it is the Spirit. In the Gospel of Mark the language is still stronger, and it is said that he was "driven of the Spirit."

Perhaps His human spirit recoiled from the awful ordeal of the wilderness as it afterwards shrank from the anguish of Gethsemane, and the Holy Ghost pressed Him forward by one of those resistless impulses which many of us have learned to understand; and for forty days His blessing was challenged, His faith was tested, His very soul was tried by all the assaults of the adversary.

He was brought into certain places that seemed to contradict all that He believed, and to challenge all that had been promised to Him. The devil might well say to Him, "Art Thou indeed the Son of God, in the midst of hunger, desolation, and wild beasts, and every form of suffering, cast.off and neglected even by God, and left in destitution and desolation."

And then, amid all these perils and privations, suddenly there opened before Him, the vision of power and pleasure—the kingdoms of the world and all the glory of them if He would but yield a single point and accept the leadership of the enemy, who doubtless appealed to His higher nature and represented Himself as an angel of light, or perhaps approached Him through His own form, and all the visions and possibilities of power He might use for the good of men and the benefit of the world.

These and other yet more subtle insinuations and instigations came to Him on every side; and yet amid them all He stood unmoved in His obedience to His Father's will and His reliance upon His Father's word, until Satan was driven from His presence, and He came forth more than conqueror. And so the first thing that we may look for, after the baptism of the Holy Ghost, is the wilderness with its desolations and privations. Circumstances will surely come to us which seem to contradict all that we have believed, and to render impossible the promise of God. Even God will seem to have failed us; and when all is dark as midnight, the vision of help from other sources will come to us, and a thousand voices will whisper to us their promises of sympathy and aid if we will but yield a single point of conscience and give ourselves up to the will of the deceiver. All the temptations of our Master will come to us;—The lust of the flesh, The lust of the eye, The pride of life, The temptation to take help from forbidden sources,  All these will come; but if the Spirit has led us up into the wilderness He will lead us out. If we will but lift our eyes above the tempter to the Divine Deliverer, we shall find that even Satan shall be compelled to become our ally; and, more than conquerors like our Master, We shall take our enemy prisoner, and make him fight our very battles.

The Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ part IV

Jesus Christ was baptized by the Holy Spirit. Not only did He derive His person and His incarnate life from the Holy Ghost, but when at thirty years of age He consecrated Himself to His ministry of life and suffering, and service, and went down into the waters of the Jordan, in token of His self-renunciation and His assumption of death, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Ghost by whom He had been born,  Now "came down and personally possessed His being and henceforth dwelt within Him."

No one can for a moment deny that this was something transcendentally more than the incarnation of Christ. Up to this time there had been one personality, henceforth there were two ; for the Holy Ghost was added to the Christ, and in the strength of this indwelling Spirit, henceforth He wrought His works, and spake His words, and accomplished His ministry on earth.

But this also has its parallel in the experience of the disciples of Christ. It is not enough for us to be born of the Holy Ghost, we must also be baptized with the Holy Ghost. There must come a crisis hour in the life of every Christian when he, too, steps down into the Jordan of death, when he yields his will to fulfill all righteousness, like his Master, when he voluntarily assumes the life of self-renunciation and service, which God has appointed for him in His Holy will, and when there is added to him, as a Divine trust, the Holy Ghost; and henceforth it is not one but two, and then these two are one.