The state of the dead and the destiny of the wickedSmith, Uriah
Religion
The state of the dead and the destiny of the wicked
Smith, Uriah
Annihilationism; Death -- Biblical teaching; Intermediate state; Seventh-Day Adventists -- Doctrinal and controversial works
We now invite the attention of the reader to a little of the evidence
that may be presented to show that God is a person, and so that man,
though of course in an imperfect and finite degree, may be an image, or
likeness of him, as to his bodily form.
1. God has made visible to mortal eyes parts of his person. Moses saw
the God of Israel. Ex. 33:21-23. An immaterial being, if such a thing
can be conceived of, without body or parts, cannot be seen with mortal
eyes. To say that God assumed a body and shape for this occasion, places
the common view in a worse light still; for it is virtually charging
upon God a double deception: first, giving Moses to understand that he
was a being with body and parts, and, secondly, under the promise of
showing himself, showing him something that was _not_ himself. And he
told Moses that he would put his hand over him as he passed by, and then
take it away, that he might see his back parts, but not his face. Has he
hands? has he back parts? has he a face? If not, why try to convey ideas
by means of language?
Again, Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders, saw the
God of Israel. Ex. 24:9-11. “And there was under his feet as it were a
paved work of a sapphire stone.” Has he feet? Or is the record that
these persons saw them, a fabrication? No man, to be sure, has seen his
face, nor could he do it and live, as God has declared. Ex. 33:20; John
1:18.
2. Christ, as manifested among men, is declared to be the image of God,
and in his form. Christ showed, after his resurrection, that his
immortal, though not then glorified, body, had flesh and bones. Luke
24:29. Bodily he ascended into Heaven where none can presume to deny him
a local habitation. Acts 1:9-11; Eph. 1:20; Heb. 8:1. But Paul, speaking
of this same Jesus, says, “Who is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn of every creature.” Col. 1:15. Here the antithesis expressed
is between God who is invisible, and his image in the person of Christ
which was visible. It follows, therefore, that what of Christ the
disciples could see, which was his bodily form, was the image, to give
them an idea of God, whom they could not see.
Again: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who,
being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.”
Phil. 2:5, 6. It remains to be told how Christ could be in the form of
God, and yet God have no form.
Once more: “God who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in
time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days
spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by
whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and
the _express image of his person_,” &c. Heb. 1:1-3. This testimony is
conclusive. It is an inspired declaration that God has a personal form;
and to give an idea of what that form is, it declares that Christ, just
as we conceive of him as ascended up bodily on high, is the express
image thereof.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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