Jason My Child

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Anthony Elliott

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Sarah Stickfort

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 The Old Nature

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Is the Lord’s Supper a shadow of things to come?

In other words, does it portray His heavenly feast in which we shall participate with Himself?

We do not think so. The Bible rather limits it to the present—”ye proclaim the Lord’s death, till He come” (1 Corinthians 11:26)." TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 11:26). In 1 Corinthians 5" TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 5: we read the words, “therefore let us keep the feast,” but this follows the statement, “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us,” and the reference would be to the feast of unleavened bread which followed the passover, to which should correspond the holy life which befits the child of God.

W.H.

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Are there three distinct Persons in the Godhead, to be distinguished from one another?
 
It is wise to be humble as we approach the high and holy subject of the Being of God.  Any mere discussion of Him, before whom the angels veil their faces, the Three in One and the One in Three, should be guided by Him. We must not try to define or explain or measure where the Word of God is silent; in fact our wisdom is to limit ourselves as far as possible to the words of Scripture. We "cannot by searching find out God" (Job 11:7)," TARGET="_blank">Job 11:7), except in so far as He is pleased to reveal Himself.

God has never condescended to prove His existence, nor yet explain His mode of Being; but He reveals Himself in His Works and Word; and even then we need God the Spirit to teach us. The great truth of the Old Testament is the Unity of the Godhead. “The Lord our God is one Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4)," TARGET="_blank">Deuteronomy 6:4), and we believe this as strongly as any Jew or so-called Unitarian. But from the very first verse of Genesis we are made aware of a Plurality in that Unity. The word for “created” is in the singular, but “God” is a plural word— Elohim, though when this stands for strong ones or false gods, it takes a plural verb (e.g., see Exodus 32:4)." TARGET="_blank">Exodus 32:4). In verse 2 a Personal Being in the Godhead is differentiated: “the Spirit of God.” Then in verse 26 we read, “Let us make man in our image.” Later, in Exodus we become aware of another Person—the Angel of the Lord, to whom Divine honours are paid (chap. 23.20-22)—and yet He is distinct from Jehovah. In Matthew 3:1" TARGET="_blank">Matthew 3:1 the word “messenger” (“messenger of the covenant”) is in the Hebrew the same as “angel”. We are brought face to face with a Personal Wisdom possessed by Jehovah “before His works of old” (Proverbs 8: 22-31);" TARGET="_blank">Proverbs 8: 22-31); and in Proverbs 30:4" TARGET="_blank">Proverbs 30:4 we are asked, Who is the Creator and “what is His Son’s name?” Who then is this Angel of His presence— and Who this Spirit against whom Israel rebelled and Who was grieved with their ways? (see also Zechariah 12:10" TARGET="_blank">Zechariah 12:10 and Zechariah 13:7)." TARGET="_blank">Zechariah 13:7). Clearly even in the Old Testament there are in the Unity of the Godhead, three Personal Subsistencies.

In the New Testament this becomes clearer. In Matthew Jesus is identified with Immanuel—”God with us.” But “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son” is equally true, so that the Giver and the Given One are both God. Again in John 1:1" TARGET="_blank">John 1:1 we read “The word was with (or in relation to—pros) God, and the Word was God” and in V. 14, “the Word became flesh.” To Him at His baptism the heavens were opened and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and heard a voice from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I sin well pleased” (Matthew 3:16-17)." TARGET="_blank">Matthew 3:16-17). Later, He “by the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God” (Hebrews 9:14)" TARGET="_blank">Hebrews 9:14) and then after the Lord ascended, the Father sent the Spirit, in His and His own name, to testify of Christ.

All who believe are to be baptized into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost (Matthew 28.)," TARGET="_blank">Matthew 28.), and to such comes the message, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14)." TARGET="_blank">2 Corinthians 13:14). “For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father” (Ephesians 2:18)." TARGET="_blank">Ephesians 2:18). We do not confound the Persons nor do we divide the Substance. There is a distinction in the Divine Functions. The Father preordains—determines “the times and seasons,” and gives the Son; The Son creates, redeems, intercedes; The Spirit calls, gives life, indwells. But those three Divine Persons are coequal, coeternal, co-substantial in the Unity of the Godhead.
W.H.

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Genesis 3:15" TARGET="_blank">Genesis 3:15  I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."

Genesis 4:3" TARGET="_blank">Genesis 4:3  In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground.

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THE SABBATH AND THE LORD’S DAY

Is there any Scripture for making the first day of the week or the Lord’s Day, a Sabbath, on the ground that the Sabbath has been changed from the seventh to the first day?

None whatever; the Sabbath never was changed from the seventh to the first day of theweek by any divine revelation in the Scriptures. The two days are quite distinct.  The former was the Jews’ day, and we read in the Acts that the apostles would improve the occasion, by going to the Jewish synagogues on the Sabbath to get an opportunity for testimony (Acts 13:42;" TARGET="_blank">Acts 13:42; Acts 18:4)," TARGET="_blank">Acts 18:4), and then on the first day of the week, break bread with the disciples (Acts 20" TARGET="_blank">Acts 20: .). Their idea of the Sabbath was a well earned physical rest after six days of work, but true spiritual rest they never earned. The true rest, that of the Lord’s Day—the resurrection day—is rest in Him. We begin with this rest, and then work throughout the week. The two days ran concurrently in the Acts period, but there is not a line to show that the first day of the week was a physical rest-day. Probably the reason why the early disciples broke bread at night was that they were working all day. A certain legal sect gets a great advantage over denominational Christians owing to this common, mistaken notion. Its adherents point out that God never changed the seventh to the first day, and therefore, as they are legal to the core, they enforce on all literal obedience to what is to them the greatest commandment of all— Sabbath observance. Yet they themselves do not strictly keep it as the law enjoins, but are content with an approximate obedience, as long as you join the ranks of their denomination. It is perfectly true that “God rested on the seventh day from all His works,” as recorded in Genesis 2:2," TARGET="_blank">Genesis 2:2, but though God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, there is no mention that it was instituted as a rest day for man till Millenniums later, nor have we a single case recorded in the history of the antediluvian patriarchs, nor of Abraham, Isaac or Jacob, of Sabbatical observance. What we read of Sabbatical resting in Gen. 2." TARGET="_blank">Gen. 2. 2 was no doubt coincidental with creation, but Genesis was only written by Moses, toward the end of the sojourn in Egypt. The Sabbath was not formally enjoined upon Israel till the giving of the law at Sinai in Exodus 20," TARGET="_blank">Exodus 20, though shortly before, when God gave the Manna, He arranged for a double quantity to be collected on the sixth day, “in view of the rest of the holy Sabbath,” so soon to be instituted. The collecting of the manna was to go on right through the desert wanderings, so that the question was settled at the start by anticipation, how manna was to be collected for the Sabbath’s consumption, preparatory to the institution of the day, in chap. 20. Later, in chap. 31. the true import of the Sabbath is explained (verses i 3, x 6: “Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. . . . It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel for ever”).

The death-penalty was attached to a failure to observe it in every particular, e.g., the man found gathering sticks on the Sabbath. Nor were Israelites allowed to light a fire on the seventh day. But the Sabbath with its stringent laws was never given to the Gentile nations and still less to the church. The question as to the advantages of one day’s rest in seven is not disputed here. There can be no doubt at all that in practice some such rest is called for. Doubtless governments have a perfect right to decree such cessation from work on the pattern of the Jewish Sabbath, but that is totally different from enforcing a sort of Sunday Sabbath as a religious obligation, which is one of the pillars of Christendom under the title of “Sabbath Observance” (see Colossians 2:16)." TARGET="_blank">Colossians 2:16). What then is the Lord’s day?

It is the first day of the week, the resurrection day, on which the early disciples came together to break bread (Acts zo), and on which they were enjoined to lay by them in store as God prospered them, to avoid special collections when the apostle arrived (1 Corinthians 16:2)." TARGET="_blank">1 Corinthians 16:2). But because the day is not the Jews’ day, it is not for that “my day,” any more than any other day is “my day.” This is negative, but is there no positive enforcement? The first day is what no other is said to be: “the Lord’s day,” and though there is not a line of Scripture, known to the writer, which enjoins a legal or Sabbatical observance of the day on anyone, if it is His day, it is peculiarly fitting to regard it as such, and to avoid anything which would unnecessarily make the day common. The way we spend the Lord’s day may well be the straw which shews how the wind blows. The man who deliberately flouts the Lord’s day, flouts the Lordship of Christ, and shews the direction in which his whole life is trending.
W.H.

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