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Saturday, November 22, 2014

 

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NEXT: The Memorial Name

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PHANEROSIS
The Subject Itself


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PAGES 53-58

In our previous exegesis of the subject before us, we were defining words occurrent in the Hebrew, and used by the "holy men of old," whom the Holy Spirit moved to write as he dictated concerning Deity, a topic so unsearchable by unassisted reason that it is declared to be "past finding out" (2 Pet. 1:20, 21; Heb. 1:1; Rom. 9:33).

The words examined are Ail, Elyon, Elyonin, Eloah, Shad-dai, Adon, Adonai, and Elohim all of them rendered with little or scarcely any discrimination, by the Anglo-Saxon terms Lord and God. We have seen that power, might, sovereignty, are the ideas upon which the words are based; and as the ideas are absolute and underived in Him "out of whom, and on account of whom, and for whom, are all things" ( ex autou kai di autou, kai eis autou ta punta) (Rom. 11:36; 1 Cor. 8:6). The Hebrew nouns expressive of power, might, sovereignty, are selected and appropriated by the Creator as representative signs or names of Himself, in revealing the knowledge of divine power in its manifestation to men.

The source or fountain of power in the universe is one. It is a unit. Therefore, everything which exists is ex autou out of Him. Hence the Creator did not "make all things out of nothing." This is the teaching of theology, the "orthodox theology" of the

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Old Man of the Flesh; and which leads many of his children to affirm that "matter is God," understanding by "matter" that which is cognizable by the five senses. Hence the sun, the moon, and the stars, and all the things they can see, taste, feel, smell, and hear upon earth, are God. They confound that which "is of Him" with the "Him" out of whom all things proceed. On the other hand, other children of the Old Man affirm that "God is immaterial"; by which they mean that He is not matter, or substance, or body; but an inconceivable something they call "spirit," an incorporeal, unsubstantial, immaterial spirit, which is as near to nothing as words can express. Nothing making all things out of nothing is the Old Man's theology concerning God and the fountain of all things, reduced to its simplest terms. But the Scripture declares that pneuma ho Theos esti literally, Spirit is the Theos. I say simply theos, because we shall yet have to ascertain the New Testament sense of Theos. "Spirit," then, is the Theos commonly called God. But more than this, this Spirit is the Father; that is, the One ex autou, out of whom are all things. This appears from what is affirmed of "Spirit" and of "Father." Jesus says in John 5:21: "The Father raises up the dead and quickeneth," or makes the grave-emergent dead incorruptibly living: and in chapt. 6:63, he says: "It is the Spirit that quickeneth," or makes alive. The Father and the Spirit are, therefore, the same; nevertheless, the word "spirit" is often used in other senses. It is the "Father-Spirit" that Paul refers to in 1 Tim. 6:16, whom no man hath seen in His unveiled splendour. Veiled in flesh, "the Vail o[ the Covering" (Exodus 35:12): he that discerneth him who spoke to Philip, "saw the Father" (John 14:9; 12:45). But, veiled or unveiled, the Father-Spirit is substantial. Speaking of the Unveiled Father-Spirit, Paul says in Heb. 1:2, 3, that the Son is the Character of his Hypostasis, rendered, in the common version, "express image of his person."

The Son is the character or exact representation, and the Father is the hypostasis. In reference to the former, the Father says, in Zech 3:9: "Upon One Stone there shall be Seven Eyes; behold I will engrave the graving thereof (that is, of the stone), saith He who shall be hosts." The graving engraved on the stone is termed, in Greek, character, an impress wrought into a substance after some archetype or pattern. The archetype is the hypostasis, so that hypostasis is the basis or foundation of character; wherefore the same apostle in Col. 1:15, styles the character engraved the "Image" of Theos the Invisible (eikon tou Theou tou aoratou).

Seth was the image of Adam, and Adam, the image of Elohim (Gen. 1:26; 5:3). Like Seth, Jesus was an image of Adam, but only in relation to flesh. Adam the First was the image of Elohim, and this was in relation to bodily form. Body and form

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were the hypostasis of Adam and Seth; that is, they were the basis or foundation of the images so named. Where body and form do not exist, there can be no image; therefore, where image is predicated of hypostasis, that hypostasis must have both body and form. The Father-Spirit, unveiled, is, then, a bodily form; and as all things are "out of Him," He is the focal centre of the universe, from which irradiates whatever exists.

The Father-Spirit is embodied power. Paternal power implies offspring or children, children or SONS OF POWER. Son-power is also embodied power. It is power emanating from the Father, corporealized in one or a multitude, but never separated or detached from the focal centre. The Son-power is, therefore, the Father-power, multitudinously expressed, manifested through many bodies. This is illustrated in the science of arithmetic. Arithmetic is the scence of numbers. The hypostasis or basis of this science is the multitudinous expression of one, a multiplication of number one. Let there be no numerical power called one, and there could be no five, fifty, or any other combination of one. One is the great power of the arithmetical universe; and all the other powers resulting from the multiplication of one combined, cannot exclude one therefrom, without annihilating themselves, and expunging the system. This is true of Son-power, individually or multitudinously expressed, in relation to the One Father-power. Hence Jesus was led to remark, "The Son can do nothing of himself," and again, "I can of mine own self do nothing" (John 5:19,30). "The flesh," said he, "profits nothing." As son of Mary, he pretended to no power, wisdom or superiority. Mary's son was "the Vail of the Covering" to be rent. The Vail in which the Father-power was veiled, the Flesh-medium of Power-manifestation.

That which connects the Focal Power of the universe with the embodied sons of power, and indeed with all created things, is also "spirit" -- styled in Scripture "free spirit" (Psalm 51:12). It is free or uncombined in space, and fills immensity as the water fills the basin of the seas. The atoms of all material things are elemental condensations of free spirit, connecting the orbs of heaven and all they contain, with the Great Central Focal power of the Universe. It is the principle of cohesion, attraction, form; penetrating and pervading everything. To this universality the Psalmist alludes, when he enquires of Yahweh, "Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? And whither from Thy face shall I flee? If I shall ascend the heavens, Thou art there: though I shall spread down in sheol (the grave) behold Thee! I will take the wings of the dawn; I will dwell in the utmost end of the sea --moreover, there Thy hand (or power) shall lead me, and Thy right hand shall take hold of me. And I said, surely darkness

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shall cover me; but the night was light about me. Moreover, darkness will not conceal from Thee; but the night as the day will shine; as the darkness so is the light" (139:7-12). All this is equivalent to saying that the Father-Power is omnipresent by His Spirit. Hence, He needs not to be locomotive to see what passes in the sun, moon, earth and stars. His all-pervading spirit places Him in contemporary juxtaposition with them all; so that at one and the same instant, He knows the fall of a sparrow on earth, and any other event, small or great, on the sun. In this way it is that, as Paul told the Athenian idolators: "He is not far from every one of us" (Acts 17:27). We are out of Him, and through Him, and in Him as physical beings. This is equally true of all flesh that breathes. Hence Moses styles the Father-Power Ail Elohai haruchoth l'kol-bashar, power, powers of the spirits, for all flesh (Num. 16:22). Here is power as the cause of life, called Ail; and powers as distributed to each living thing, and therefore styled Elohim. A dozen creatures have life. This life is Ail's spirit in them all. It is not, however, a dozen separate and independent Ailim; but one and the same Ail multiplied by twelve. Ail is life absolute; for as Paul says: "He only hath deathlessness." Life radiating from His hypostasis or substance, is spirit-life Eloahh ruach, power of spirit. Formative of a creature, and sustaining it in life, it is power of spirit, or spirit-power for that creature. Twelve such Eloahh ruach become Elohim ruchoth, spirit-powers of the twelve. Hence, these Elohim are son-powers, or emanations from Ail, the great "paternal power." He is therefore the Ail of all flesh, as well as Elohim for all flesh. "The ruach or spirit of Ail has made me, and the nishmath or breath of the Shaddai, or Mighty Ones, hath given me life" (Job. 33:4). Here is the Spirit of Ail through the breath of Shaddai that gives life to men. This withdrawn and they die. Hence it is written: "If He gather unto himself His spirit and His breath, all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn unto dust" (34:14).

In this elaboration, then, we have Father-Power, Son-Power, or emanation, and Free Spirit. Moses and the prophets teach this, as we have seen. The Father-Power is One; the Son-Power is the One Father-Power in plural manifestation; and the manifestation is developed by Free Spirit emanation from the Father Power. This is not only Scriptural but reasonable; and right reason and Scripture always go together.

We affirm then, that the Mosaic and prophetic revelation concerning Deity is that there is ONE POWER, multitudinously manifested; and that these manifestations constitute GOD. The One Power inquires of Job: "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Who laid the corner stone thereof;

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when the stars of the morning sang together, and all the Sons of Elohim shouted for joy?" (Job 38:7). This inquiry teaches, that before the earth was fitted up Mosaically, or as Moses has described in Genesis; the Supreme Power existed in multitudinous manifestation. The plurality was composed of intelligences styled"Stars of the Morning" and "Sons of Elohim" the former kokvai voker, and the latter benai elohim. In Rev. 22: 16, the glorified Jesus is styled "the bright and morning Star." The enquiry put to Job showed that there were many such before Adam was created, and that these stars are sons of Elohim, even as Jesus is Son of Eloahh. The word bain, signifies a son, from banah, to build. A son is the thing built. The Stars of Morning Light were things built and made resplendent by Ail, whose spirit formed and illuminated them. His Spirit was their atomic nucleus, the organic principle that made them what they are. As intelligences created and made, they were "Sons of" or benai; and the Spirit of Ail, the Great Paternal Power, became Eloahh to each of them, and so constituting each of them bain eloahh, a Son of Power, and all of them collectively benai Elohim, Sons of Power, -- the One Spirit of the Supreme paternal Power multitudinously organised.

Our proposition then, is that Moses and the Prophets teach, that there were One Primary Creating Power and a multitude of Secondary Powers, as intimately connected with and dependent on the First, as ten or a hundred are upon number one; and that this multiplication of the One Power in the relation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, was in existence before the Mosaic Creation. Dr. de Lara's Jew is, therefore, unnecessarily excited "when he is told that God has a Son." The Supreme Power has not only a Son, but a multitude of sons, and all of them partaking of His nature, or spirit-substance, hypostasis. The Supreme Power, or Ail, is "the Godhead," or source, fountain, or sole spring of Power. Moses and the prophets do not teach that "there are three persons, three essences, three somethings, or three anythings, in the Godhead; and that these three distinct units, or unities, constitute only one unit or one Unity -- and that that Tri-Unity is the God of Israel." They do not teach this. This is the foolishness of the Old Man of the Flesh. They teach the absolute oneness of the Power-Head. "Before me," as written in Isaiah 43:10, 11, "Ail" was not created, nor after me shall be: I, I shall be (anoke, anoke, Yahweh); and NONE WITHOUT ME A SAVIOUR. This is perfectly true, and quite compatible with Peter's proclamation to Israel concerning Jesus, saying: "Him hath Theos exalted to His right hand, a Prince and SAVIOUR; to give enlightenment (metanoian) to Israel, and remission of sins" (Acts 5:31). The Jew objects that if Jesus be a Saviour, there is then another Saviour beside Ail. But this objection arises

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from not knowing Ail, and Jesus Anointed whom He has sent. That born of Mary was bain Eloahh, Son of Power. Beside that power there is no Saviour. Apart from the Power the Son could not save; for he, as son of Mary, testifies, that "of himself he could do nothing." That the Supreme Power would save by a Servant-Power, is manifest from Isaiah as well as Peter. In that prophet, the Only Potentate says to one He styles His servant: "Thou shalt be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the desolation of Israel; I will also give thee for a Light to the nations, that thou mayest be my Yesua, salvation to the end of the earth" (49:6). The I and the Thee of this passage are but One Power. Power in servant-manifestation -- I the First and I the Last, and independent of that I, there are no Elohim or powers (Isaiah 44:6).

Our proposition is further illustrated in the first chapters of Genesis. The first verse commences by informing us that "In the beginning Elohim fashioned the substance of the heavens and the substance of the earth." Here Power is plurally presented in connection with a singular verb, bara Elohim "powers He created." This looks and sounds very uncouth to the Anglo-Saxon mind; and as the grammar is bad, in order to save the grammatical reputation of Moses, and to get over what they can not explain, the grammarians have invented the plural of majesty or excellence, and tell us that the plural word Elohim must be regarded as singular. Their grammar teaches us that there was only One Person as well as One Power concerned in developing what exists on earth, out of nothing; but that, as this one person is very great, He is to be spoken of as if He were more than one; as if to resolve Him into two or three would add to His excellency. This notion is, however, sheer foolishness; for in those passages where the Creator asserts His supremacy, majesty or excellency, he speaks of Himself emphatically as anoke, anoke, Yahweh, that is, "I, I Yahweh"; not "We, We, Jehovah."

The grammarians, having invented their rule, the theologians of the Old Man's school, rush in to show why it must be so. They say, that in the Godhead there are Three Persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost: three Gods in One Godhead; and that therefore, because of this, the Godhead which created all things is styled Gods in the Hebrew, that is Elohim. But we have shown that the Godhead, or Fountain of Power, is only one: and speaks of Himself as One only; we have seen also that there existed many Sons of Power before the earth was fashioned. These are Elohim, of whom it is testified in Psalm 103:20, "Bless Yahweh ye His angels, Mighty Ones of Power, doers of His word, hearkening to the voice of His command; bless ye Yahweh, all His hosts, His ministers who do His

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pleasure." And in another place commanding their worshipful recognition of Messiah, he says: "Bow down to Him, all ye Elohim" (Psalm 97:7): which is quoted by Paul and applied to the glorified Jesus, in the words: "Let all the angels of God worship him" (Heb. 1:6). By these testimonies we are taught that the Elohim and the Angels are the same order of Divine Intelligences; and that they belong to, or are the property of Yahweh. Hence, they are styled "His angels," "His Mighty Ones of Power," "His hosts," and "His servants," or ministers; "who do His pleasure." He is their Creator, Lord or Imperial Chief; and they are more ancient than the human race. Without Him, they can do nothing. It may be said of them, as Jesus said of himself, "Of myself I can do nothing." Energized and authorized, however, by Him, nothing is too great or difficult for them to do. The Supreme Power, or Ail, has His pleasures; and whatever He is pleased to do, He commands its execution, and they perform it by His Spirit, whose material embodiments they are. They are, therefore, "Spirits" -- public official spirits, as Paul styles them; "begotten of the Spirit," and consequently spirit. They are therefore in Ail, and of Ail, and He through them all. To see them, is to see power in form and body: in common terms, to "see God"; and yet not to see Ail, "whom no man hath seen, or can see."

This intimate relationship, so intimate as to constitute a Unity in plurality, but not a plurality in the absolute and primary Power the source of all--is expressed in Isaiah 45:18 -- "Thus saith Yahweh that created the heavens hu ha-Elohim, HE THE ELOHIM that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited. I YAHWEH, and none without." In this text Yahweh is twice repeated. This expresses one, being in the singular number; but Elohim is plural expressing two or a multitude; and this noun of multitude is prefaced, not by they as they the Elohim; but by "He," as He the Elohim. This peculiarity is doctrinal not accidental, nor an arbitrary custom of language, but designed. It teaches that the creation was produced from one power ex ou, out of which, are all things, and that this one power operated through a plurality of agents, or Elohim, who are the spirit-embodiments of its rays.

 


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