THE FORM OF GOD.
ANALYSIS. | REFERENCES. |
I. Jesus Divine-Hence God. 1. Dependent Upon Revelation for Knowledge of Form and Nature of God. 2. World's Need of a Revelation of God. 3. Scripture Evidence of the Divinity of Jesus: —Jesus Christ is Called God in Revelation—Hence God; —Jesus Declares Himself to be God—The Son of God; —Jesus is to be Worshipped—Hence God; —Jesus Christ is Creator—Hence God; | The New Testament and Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants. Psalms xix, Rom. i, Note 1. Note 2. See collection of passages of Scripture, Richards and Little's Compendium title, "True and Living God," pp. 187-191. Note 3 and contexts of passages of Scripture cited. Note 4. Note 5. Note 6. Note 7. Hebrews i and Notes 8, 9, 10, 11 and the Scripture References within the notes. |
II. Jesus the Express Image of the Father's Person. |
SPECIAL TEXT: "For it pleased the Father that in Him [the Christ] should all fulness dwell. * * * For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Colossians.
NOTES.
The notes of this Lesson are taken from two discourses by the author: one the "Mormon Doctrine of Deity"; the other "Jesus Christ, the Revelation of God," hence the personal character and direct address style that appears in the notes.
1. Need of Revelation for Definite Knowledge of God: We are dependent upon that which God has been pleased to reveal concerning Himself for what we know of Him; especially as to His form, nature and attributes. While it is true, in a certain sense, that the heavens declare God's glory; and "the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world," in a certain sense, "are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made"; and while the spirit in man may be intuitively conscious of the being of God; while the general consent of mankind may confirm man's own consciousness of the divine existence, yet nothing definitely is learned or can be learned concerning the form, nature, or attributes of God from these sources. Now, as of old, man by searching cannot find out God. He cannot "find out the Almighty unto perfection." (Job II, 7.) This can only be learned by revelation. It is the revealed law of the Lord that is perfect, "converting the soul;" it is the statutes of the Lord that are right, "rejoicing the heart;" it is the commandment of the Lord that is pure, "enlightening the eyes;" it is the judgments of the Lord that are "true and righteous altogether." "More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honey comb. Moreover, by them is My servant warned, and in the keeping of them there is great reward." (Psalms 19.)
2. The World's Need of a Revelation of God: In all the survey we have taken of men's conceptions of God in Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern times, in all their doctrines, outside of the revelations of God—nowhere have we found a knowledge of the true and living God. Nowhere a teacher who comes with definite knowledge of this subject of all subjects—a subject so closely related to eternal life, that to know God is said in the scriptures to be life eternal; and, of course, the corollary naturally follows, viz.: not to know God is not to possess eternal life. We can form no other conclusion from the survey we have taken of the world's ideas respecting the existence and nature of God, than that forced upon us—the world stood in sore need of a revelation of God. He whom the Egyptians and Hindoos sought for in their pantheism must be made known. God, whom Confucius would have men respect, but keep at a distance, must draw near. The "Alfader" of the Goths, undefined, incomprehensible to them, must be brought out of the northern darkness into glorious light. The God-idea that prevailed among the Greek philosophers must be brought from the mists of their speculations and made to stand before the world. He whom the Jews were seeking to deny and forsake must be revealed again to the children of men. And lo! when the veil falls from the revelation that God gives of Himself, what form is that which steps forth from the background of the world's ignorance and mystery? A Man, as God lives! Jesus of Nazareth—the great Peasant Teacher of Judea. He is God revealed henceforth to the world. They who thought God impersonal, without form, must know Him henceforth as a person in the form of man. They who have held Him to be without quality, must henceforth know Him as possessed of the qualities of Jesus of Nazareth. They who have regarded him as infinitely terrible, must henceforth know Him also as infinitely gentle. Those who would hold Him at a distance, will now permit Him to draw near. This is the world's mystery revealed. This is God manifested in the flesh. This is the Son of God, who comes to reveal the Father, for He is the express image and likeness of that Father's person, and the likeness of that Father's mind. Henceforth when men shall say, Show us the Father, He shall point to Himself as the complete revelation of the Father, and say, "He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father also." Henceforth, when men shall dispute about the "being" and "nature" of God, it shall be a perfect answer to uphold Jesus Christ as the complete, perfect revelation and manifestation of God, and through all the ages it shall be so; there shall be no excuse for men saying they know not God, for all may know Him, from the least to the greatest, so tangible, so real a revelation has God given of Himself in the person and character of Jesus Christ. He lived His life on earth—a life of sorrow and of gentleness, its pathway strewn with actions fraught with mercy, kindness and love. A man He was, approved of God among men, by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by Him. Being delivered by the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God, men took, and by wicked hands crucified and slew him; but God raised him up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be holden of it; and exalted Him on high at the right hand of God, whence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. (This synopsis of the Christ's life is in Acts, ch. ii.)
Mark you, in all this there is not a word about the mysterious, ineffable generation of the Son of God from the Father, together with all the mysteries that men have gathered together in their learned disquisitions about God. No question is raised as to whether Jesus was made out of nothing or begotten by ineffable generation from the substance of the Father. Whether He is consubstantial, that is, of the same substance with the Father, or only of a similar substance. Nor is there any question raised as to whether Jesus was "begotten before or after time began." All these and a hundred other questions arose after the Christian doctrine of Deity began to come in contact with the Greek and other philosophies. Jesus accepted the existence of God as a settled fact, and proclaimed Himself to be the Son of God: offending the Jews by so doing, for they saw that He made Himself equal with God, (John v, 18) and being a man, held forth Himself to be God (John v: 30-33.) Slow, indeed, were they to learn the great truth plainly revealed in Jesus Christ, that God is a perfect man. Such was Jesus Christ, and He was God manifested in the flesh. "Was," did I say? Nay, "is," I should have said; and such will He remain forever; a spirit He is, clothed with an immortal body, a resurrected body of tangible flesh and bones made eternal, and now dwelling in heaven with His Father, of whom He is the express image and likeness, as well now as when He was on earth; and hence the Father also must be a personage of flesh and bones, as tangible as the exalted man, Christ Jesus the Lord.
3. Jesus Is Called God In the Scriptures: "The first proof I offer for this statement, is from the writings of Isaiah. You remember, perhaps, my former quotation from Isaiah, wherein that prophet says, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel," (Isaiah vii: 14) the interpretation of which name is, according to Matthew "God with us." (Matt. i: 23.) So that this man-child, born of a woman, and called "Immanuel," is God; and, moreover, is "God with us"—that is, with men. The same prophet also says: "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." (Isaiah ix: 6.)
All concede that this is in plain allusion to Jesus Christ, and the scriptures here directly call Him "The Mighty God." He is also called God in the testimony of John. Mark this language, for it is a passage around which many ideas center, and to which we shall have occasion to refer several times. In the preface to his Gospel, John says: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. * * * And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth."