God, Angels, Jesus Christ, and the Crucifixion

WITH REVERENCE, we approach the subjects proposed for consideration in the present lecture.

That Christendom is astray in its conceptions of God will, unhappily, be but too evident. That we must possess Scriptural knowledge of the subject will also be evident. The "knowledge of God" is an essential feature of Christian attainment, according to the apostolic standard. Those "who know not God" are among those whom vengeance is to overtake (II Thess. 1v 8). Knowledge of God is the basis of sonship to God. Without it, we cannot enter the divine family. How can we love and serve a being whom we do not know? Knowledge is the foundation of all. It is the rock upon which everlasting life itself is built. "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, THE ONLY TRUE GOD, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent" (John 17v 3).

Where shall we find this knowledge? We cannot find it where we please. It. is to be found only where God has placed it. It is to be found in the Scriptures. We cannot get it anywhere else. Nature tells us something. The consummate wisdom of all her arrangements--the ineffable skill displayed in the construction of even the smallest animalcule, show us the presence, in the universe, of a supreme designing and perfect intelligence, but nature can do no more. It can tell us God is, because He must be, but it can tell us nothing of His being, His character, His purpose, His will with regard to man, or His object in forming the universe. Speculations on these points only lead to the monstrosities of ancient and modern heathenism.

That a revelation of Himself has come from the Creator of all things will excite the highest admiration and gratitude in every mind that is enabled to realise what this stupendous privilege means. Peace now and life everlasting for the endless ages coming is easily spoken of: but who can measure the wealth of well-being involved in the words? This wealth comes with the knowledge God has given us: and the knowledge he has given us comes to us through the Bible, and through no other medium-ship in our day.

But we are in a peculiar position with regard to this knowledge. It no longer shines before us in its pristine simplicity and glory. Along with almost every other item of divine truth, it has been covered up in the most dangerous way by the organised Apostasy from original truth, which obtained ascendancy in Christendom very early in the Christian era. The Apostasy does not professedly deny the God revealed in the Bible. On the contrary, it makes an ostentatious profession of belief in Him. It holds up the Bible in its hand and declares it to be the source of its faith--that the God of Israel is its God. In this way, the impression is made universally that the God of popular religion is the God of the Bible, so that in reading the Bible, people do not read critically on the subject, but necessarily and as a matter of course, recognise the popular God in the phrases by which the Bible designates the God of Israel. If the case were otherwise--if popular theology in words denied the God of the Jews, and asserted its own conceptions in opposition to Hebrew revelation, there would be a greater likelihood that people would come to a knowledge of what God has truly revealed concerning Himself, because they would be prepared to sit down clear-headedly, discriminatingly, and independently to ascertain what the Deity of Hebrew revelation is. As it is, people are misled, and find the greatest difficulty in rousing themselves to an apprehension of the difference between the orthodox God and the Bible Deity, and the importance of discerning it.

Popular theology says that God is three eternal elements, all equally increate and self-sustaining, and all equally powerful, each equally personal and distinct from the other, and yet all forming a complete single personal unity. There is, say they, "God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost," each "very God," each without a beginning, each omnipotent and separate from the other, and yet all ONE.

If we ask why one of these elements should be called the Father, not having preceded or given existence to the others; and why another should be called the Son, not having been brought into existence by the Father, but co-eternal with Him; and why the third should be called the Holy Ghost (or Spirit), since both "God the Father," and "God the Son" are holy and spiritual, we are not met with an explanation. Popular theology contents itself with saying that the truth is so--that there are three in one and one in three that as to how such a thing can be, it cannot say, as it is a great mystery.

Mystery indeed! There are mysteries enough in creation--things, that is, that are inscrutable to the human intellect, such as the ultimate nature of light and life; but Trinitarianism pro-pounds--not a mystery, but a contradiction--a stultification--an impossibility. It professes to convey an idea, and no sooner expresses it than it withdraws it, and contradicts it. It says there is one God, yet not one but three, and that the three are not three but one. It is a mere juggle of words, a bewilderment and confusion to the mind, all the more dangerous, because the theory for which it is an apology, employs in some measure the language of the Bible, which talks to us of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

We will look at the Bible representation of the "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." We shall find that representation in accord with a rational conception of things, enlightening the understanding as well as satisfying the heart--agreeing with experience, as well as revealing something beyond actual observation. We shall find it to supply that consistent and intelligible information of the First Cause of all things which the intellect of the noblest creature He has formed in this sublunary creation craves, and information of a character such as would be expected to come from such a source.