July 14, 1919

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W.W.PRESCOTT: (Morning study: The Person of Christ)

In this message, which we are seeking to give, Christ should be exalted as in no other teaching of the gospel, and as no other people exalt Him. I think that should be the vital purpose in our study, in our teaching, in our preaching, to make know Christ as a personal Saviour, and to bring people into personal fellowship with Him, to make clear to them that a Saviour he is, what he is able to do, what a revelation of Him has been given to us in the Scriptures. That to me is the vital thing, the central feature of our study, of all teaching. And I find that when we take that viewpoint, study the Scriptures from that viewpoint, the people are helped by our ministry, the people are blessed. “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.”

Yesterday we called attention to the relation of the Son of God to the original creation. Now this morning I turn to the New Creation. Let us read first: Second Corinthians, 5:17: “Wherefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.” If any man is in Christ he is a new creation.

Galations 6:15: “For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” The performance of any ceremony does not make us Christians; the omission of the ceremony does not make us Christians. There must be a new creation. That is the vital thing.

Ephesians 2:10: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them.”

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We are his workmanship. The word here translated for “workmanship” is the same word that is translated in Romans 1:2 (in the plural) “things that are made”—“For the invisible things of him since the beginning of the world, are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made.” And how? Created in Christ Jesus unto good works. That is the way we are made new by that creative process.

15th verse of the same chapter: “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the two one new man, so making peace.” That he might create in himself.

Ephesians 4:17,18: “Being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God.” Alienated from life. In the second chapter that same idea is expressed in the 12th verse: “That at that time ye were separate from Christ.”—Alienated from the life.

23rd and 24th verses: “That ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.”

Colossians 3:9,10,11—“Lie not one to another; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him:” “Created in righteousness” “Renewed after the image

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of him that created him.” I think that is a splendid motto. Christ is all. Christ is all and in all.

Now we carry that thought not simply to persons but to things. Therefore, Revelation 21:1 “I saw a new heaven and a new earth”—in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah in the 65th chapter and the 17th verse: “for behold I create new heavens and a new earth.” “That he might created in himself one new man.” New heavens, new earth, new man. Now exactly the same process that brings the new heavens and the new earth brings the new man. The same process, same Creator, same person through whom the work is wrought. And in the scriptures these things are brought together in a very simple way. The new heavens, the new earth, the new man are created by the same power, and mediated by the same Person; and that there is no difference between the Person who mediates the creative power to create a new man and the Person who mediates creative power to create new heavens and a new earth.

John 3:17: “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world.” Observe the word Son is the same word as used in the 16th verse: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Begotten Son.”—“God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.” He is the One through whom God would save the world.

Acts 13:32 (Paul preaching at Antioch and Pisidia is relating the history of Israel from the time of the deliverance from Egypt down to the manifestation of Christ.) “Be it known unto you, therefore, brethren, that

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through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins.” He is the one through whom this is wrought.

Romans 5:1 “Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Through our Lord Jesus Christ. In all these cases the word “through” is the same word as used in John 1:3,2: “Through him were all things brought into being, and without him was nothing brought into being.”

[Prescott favors the R.V. “brought into being” instead of KJV “made” to eliminate the difference between “created” and “born”]

Romans 7:25: After asking the question in the 24th verse, “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death” he answers it in the 25th verse: “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Now let us turn to another phase of the subject—the direct study of the mediation of the new covenant.

Hebrews 12:24 (Speaking of the contrast between the experience at Sinai and the present experience—The sound of the trumpet, of the voices with the fear of blackness and darkness and tempest and other fearfulness, so fearful that Moses himself said “I exceedingly quake”. Now notice the contrast (24th verse) “And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant.” Notice the name that is applied there. You are to make Jesus the mediator of the new covenant.

8th chapter, 6th verse: “But now hath he obtained a ministry the more excellent, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises.” You see how close is the connection in the thought between the covenant and the promises. First, Jesus Christ the mediator of the new covenant. Then, the Mediator of a better covenant which hath been enacted—sanctioned. The word

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there used is the verbal form of the noun for law—legalized, sanctioned—with all the solemnities and formalities of the law. This new covenant has been sanctioned—put into that very definite form upon better promises.

Take the 10th verse: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and on their heart also will I write them; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:”

Now you come to Jesus Christ the Mediator of the new covenant—a better covenant, enacted upon better promises. That covenant is to write the law in the heart. Remember the definition I gave the other day of the covenant, “An agreement, an agreement for bringing man into harmony with the divine will, placing him where he can keep the law.” It doesn’t keep the law for him; it does not force him to keep the law. The covenant is not the law but it is an arrangement for bring man into harmony with the divine will, placing him where he can keep the law. Now that arrangement is the writing of the law in the heart—not the law itself, but the giving of the law in the heart. The law was given at Sinai (written on tables of stone then). Now it is given again, but it is given in the mind, written in the heart. Now contrast these two: Exodus 24:12, “Jehovah said unto Moses, Come up to me into the mount, and be there: and I will give thee the commandment, which I have written, that thou mayest teach them.” In connection with thqt take the 34th chapter and the 28th verse:

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“And Jehovah said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel. (29 vs.) …And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.”

Now that was when they were written upon stone.

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2 Cor. 3:3: “Being made manifest that ye are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in tables that are hearts of flesh.”

If you will compare two scriptures, you will see how the writing of the commandments on tables of stone by the finger of God as represented in Exodus is a prophecy or type or suggestion that the real law is to be written in the heart on other tables by his Spirit. Take these two scriptures and contrast them: Luke 11:20: Christ, speaking to the Jews when they are talking about this question of casting out demons, said: “But if I by the finger of God cast out demons, then is the kingdom of God come upon you.” He wrote the ten commandments on the tables of stone, he wrote them with his own finger. Now contrast this in Luke 11:20 with Matt. 12:28, where the same experience is described, and note the different word that is used with reference to this casting out:

“But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then is the kingdom of God come upon you.” The writing of the finger of God on the tables of stone was typical of the writing by the Spirit of God.

Now, going on in the 3rd chapter of 2 Corinthians, read the 4th to the 6th verses: “And such confidence have we through Christ to Godward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God; who also makes us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”

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There is one mediator of the covenant. There may be many ministers of the covenant. Observe the difference. We are ministers of the new covenant—we ought to be; we are not ministers (sic: mediators) of the new covenant. There is a marked difference between the two offices, that of mediator and that of minister.

When Christ was about to leave the disciples, he said: (Luke 24:49) “And behold, I send forth the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city until ye be clothed with power from on high.”

Acts 1:4: “And being assembled together with them, he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, said, he, ye heard from me.”

Acts 2:1-4 give the fulfillment: “When the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were staying. And there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire; and it sat upon each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

This is explained in the 32nd and 33rd verses: “This Jesus did God raise up, whereof we all are witnesses. Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise.” They were to wait for the promise of the Father. He ascended to heaven, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, “he hath poured forth this, which ye see and hear.”

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Heb. 8:1-2: “Now in the things which we are saying the chief point is this: We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man.”

He ministered unto them this blessing of the Holy Spirit. That is the way it appears to me, that just now this question of the ministry of Christ, his mediatorial work, his work as high priest in the heavenly sanctuary, is of very great importance to us. The outpouring of the Spirit upon the day of Pentecost came because He was at the right hand of the father as minister of the sanctuary, the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man; and as the minister of the heavenly sanctuary he poured out upon them the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father.

I think it will be by the same ministry through the work of the same High Priest and mediator that the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon His people in this latter rain, and that therefore emphasizes in my mind the very great importance of this subject, the mediatorial work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary. We are to deal with it actually, according to the scriptures, and not in the way of a mere theological idea or mere abstract dogma.

Now let us turn for a moment to another phase of this subject, connecting today’s study very definitely with yesterday’s study. Turn to Gen. 8:23: this is after the flood, and is the promise that there will not be another such a catastrophe upon the earth: “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

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Those are the operations of God in nature. While the earth remaineth, there will be those successions of the operations of God, seedtime and harvest. Just that one thought, when you develop it, gives the idea—“seedtime and harvest.” “Behold, the kingdom of God is like a sower. Behold, a sower went forth to sow”—seed time. The seed is the word of God. That whole question of the seed time has in it the whole question of the gospel of the kingdom.

A.G.DANIELLS: May I interrupt you to tell how the gospel is in the physical earth and seed?

W.W.PRESCOTT: I said in the question of the sowing of the seed and the harvest, as explained in the 13th chapter of Matthew.

A.G.DANIELLS: You mean the gospel as set forth in this spiritual sowing?

W.W.PRESCOTT: He uses the actual sowing to teach the principle bound up in the sowing of the word of God in the hearts of men.

J.N.ANDERSON: Are you using this material seedsowing as an analogy with the spiritual seedsowing?

W.W.PRESCOTT: Yes, I do not identify them any more than Christ identifies them, but the same principle is in both.

J.N.ANDERSON: But in the physical there is no moral quality.

W.W.PRESCOTT: O, no!

J.N.ANDERSON: They differ essentially that way.

W.W.PRESOCTT: In one case that life, that power, is manifested in visible forms where, as you say, there is no moral quality; and in the other case the same power is manifested in us, and moral qualities appear.

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J.N.ANDERSON: But if we say the same power operates in moth cases, would it not indicate that there was a moral quality in connection with the physical?

W.W.PRESCOTT: How many powers work?

[Prescott is trying to assert that God’s power achieves both the upholding of nature and the redemption of man, if not then there are multiple powers, multiple Gods?]

J.N.ANDERSON: I would distinguish something like this: Here is a man that makes furniture for his house. That is a product of his skill. That has a vital relation to the family. So Christ’s relation to us is a vital one. His relation to the physical world is a very different one.

W.W.PRESCOTT: Let us go on with the study or we will lose the connection. Remember, I am not forcing this thought upon you, but it is merely for your consideration.

Jeremiah 33:19-21: “And the word of Jehovah came unto Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah: If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, so that there shall not be day and night in their season; then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he shall not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers.”

That is referring to the promise in Gen. 8:23 that there shall be night and day. “If you can break my covenant of the day and of the night, then you can break my covenant with David.”

Now the 31st chapter of Jeremiah, beginning with the 31st verse: “Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah (reads verses 31-36)”

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W.W.PRESCOTT: Now the first part is the new covenant. To what does he appeal as the proof, as the evidence of the stability of that new covenant? He appeals to his work in the physical universe. The ordinances concerning the sun, moon, stars. His power is revealed in the raging of the sea. He appeals to that as evidence of the stability of this new covenant that he makes. Now turn to the 89th Psalm. The subject of this Psalm, as you see, is the loving kindness and the faithfulness of Jehovah. That is what he has promised to man.

“I will sing of the longing-kindness of Jehovah for ever: With my mouth will I make know thy faithfulness to all generations.” He goes on. Third verse: “I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant: Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations.”

Now the stability of the gospel rests upon the oath to Abraham. There’s the foundation of it. The oath to Abraham, and sure mercies of David as given in the seventh of second Samuel, are based on the oath to Abraham. Here he is speaking of his covenant with David and his faithfulness to establish the covenant. Go on through the Psalm, and come down to the 35th verse. “Once have I sworn by my holiness: I will not lie unto David: His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as the faithful witness in the sky.”

Now take that with Genesis 1, where the first things in the Bible is the record of the original creation. You run through this creative record, and you will find that there are just ten creative commandments.

In the 3rd verse
“Let there be light,”
in the 6th verse
“Let there be a firmament,”
in the 9th verse
“Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together,”
in the 11th verse
“Let the earth bring forth grass,”
in the 14th verse
“Let there be lights in the firmament,”
in the 20th verse
“Let the waters swarm,”
in the 22nd verse
“Be fruitful, and multiply,”
in the 24th verse
“Let the earth bring fourth living creatures,
in the 26th verse
“Let us make man,”
in the 28th verse
“Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth.”

Now, as the result of that, we read in the 31st verse, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” There are ten creative commandments that are mediated through the Son. As the result of that there was a perfect physical creation. Now turn to the 19th Psalm. Note that from the first to the sixth verses he speaks of the heavens, the sun. “The heavens declare the glory of God.” What is the glory of God? The manifested perfections of God, whether in nature or in grace. “The firmament showeth his handiwortk. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language; their voice is not heart. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.”

This is the scripture that the Apostle Paul quotes to prove that the gospel has been preached to all.

“In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run his course. His going forth is from the end of the heavens,

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and his circuit unto the ends of it; and there is nothing hid from the heath thereof.”

That is the new creation. Now the same one who mediated the ten creative commandments for a perfect physical creation, including man in the image of God, mediated ten commandments for the restoration of that man who lost the image of God. There was a creation that was very good, perfect. He commanded and they were created. Through his Son those creative commandments became effective, were wrought out in the physical universe. Now man lost the image of God in which he was originally created. He is to be restored. The same ten commandments, mediated by the same son through the new covenant, written in the heart, restore man to the image of God, and he is again very good as at the first. Now to my mind there is an absolute difference between identifying God with nature and saying all is God, which is pantheism, a very great difference between that and the scriptural teaching concerning the revelation of God in nature and in grace. A very great difference. I will simply present the reading of the scripture. Now shall we go on.

Rom. 1:20: “For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity.” I will not add anything to that, or explain it, I will just read the scripture. “Are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made.” Now I don’t think that’s pantheism, and yet his everlasting power and divinity are clearly seen by and perceived through the things that are made. Now look at Isaiah 40. I asked yesterday

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Why is it that there is this constant appeal to the physical universe? Why is it that pantheism has arisen to scare us off from the truth, to lead us over the line into error?

Isaiah 40, beginning with the 25th verse: “To whom then will ye liken me, that I should be equal to him? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these, that bringteth out their host by number; he calleth them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and for that he is strong in power, not one is lacking.

“Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid form Jehovah, and the justice due to me is passed away from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard? The everlasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary; there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to faint; and to him that hath no might he increaseth strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait for Jehovah shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.”

I don’t see, as far as I observe in reading the scripture, any distinction made between one kind of power in the physical universe, and another kind of power in the spiritual universe. I don’t find any evidence of distinction between the two. I think they are the same kind of power revealed for a different purpose. The same power, the same God, the same mediator, but for a different purpose. Why is this constant appeal to the things that are made? Because in the things that are made, the visible things

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that are made, the invisible things become visible. I don’t interpret it to mean that his power and Godhead in the invisible universe are different from his power and godhead in something else. The appear is to these visible things in order that we may see the very things that make for our salvation, his eternal power and divinity.

Now the 43rd of Isaiah: “But now thus saith Jehovah that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by they name, thou art mine.” Fifteenth verse: “I am Jehovah, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.” The same one that is the creator of the heavens and earth in the fortieth chapter is the creator is (sic: of) Israel. The same one. The same power, mediated through the same person for a different purpose.

Again in the 65th chapter and 17th verse: “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth.” No I understand right through, that the creator of the original heavens and earth is the creator of man. The creator of the new heavens and the new earth is the creator of the new man. The same invisible power and divinity that is revealed in the things that are seen since the creation of the world, since that power went forth and was clothed with visible forms, that same power, the power of the gospel, but revealed for a different purose.

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Now shall we advance one step farther and call attention to this fact. Read John 15:26: “And when the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father.” This is the spirit of truth. He is, and announces himself as, the spirit of truth. The spirit of truth is the spirit of Christ. The spirit in Jesus.

Therefore we read as in Acts 16:6,7: (after this Spirit of truth had been given, speaking of the missionary work of Paul): “And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden of the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia; and when they were come over against Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia; and the Spirit of Jesus suffered them not.” Here is the Spirit that guided them in their work, being called the Spirit of Jesus.

The whole book of Acts is a revelation “of the things which Jesus continued both to do and to teach.” The Gospels are the record of the things he did and taught personally, individually in the body; and the Book of Acts is the record of the things he continued to do in the person of his disciples who were endowed with his Spirit.

Now let us turn to John 14:16—“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you forever (17 vs.) even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive.” There is that same idea again: Give you another Comforter that he may abide with you forever. Jesus was about to take away from them his bodily presence. He says, “He (that other Comforter) will abide with you forever.”

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This is fulfillment of his promise, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” “Even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive; because it beholdeth him not; neither knoweth him.” The world deals with visible things. We have to learn to deal with invisible things. These invisible things are clearly perceived in the things that are made. “Ye know him, for he abidth with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you desolate, I come unto you.” The advent of the Spirit is the advent of the Spirit if Jesus Christ [is]—his personal presence. The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ. “Yet a little while, and the world beholdeth me no more; but ye behold me, because I live, ye shall live also. In that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in me, and I in you.”

Now the promise of the Spirit—the Comforter—in the 17th verse was that “he shall be in you” which was to be fulfilled “in that day when ye shall know that I am in you.” That is the advent of the Comforter, the advent of this person of Christ in the Spirit—divested now of his humanity to dwell with our humanity. To get this clear we must take all the Scriptures: “That Christ may dwell in your heart,” “Crucified with Christ”, “Christ living in me.” All these Scriptures that speak of the indwelling Christ are fulfilled by the indwelling of the Comforter, and we have just that measure of the indwelling Christ that we have of the indwelling of the Comforter.

But now he ministers that Comforter, he ministers that life himself, as found from the second chapter of Acts where it says “he is at the right hand of God, the minister of the true sanctuary of the Lord. He ministered that gift of the Comforter

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on the day of Pentecost, and he continues that ministry. By that ministry, by that gift of the Spirit he writes the law in our hearts—“The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath set me free from the law of sin and death.” The law is the law of sin and death apart from Christ. The same law ministered by the Spirit of God written in the hearts of flesh, is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

Take that scripture in the 10th of Hebrews in connection with the exposition of the mediatorial work of Christ, and it shows that the true sacrifice is obedience, “Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not; Lo I come to do thy will.” In saying that, he says “he taketh away the first that he may establish the second.” The first, were the sacrifices, the outward ceremonials; the second, the doing of the will of God, the obedience to the law of God. Now he takes away the first, the mere outward forms: “Circumcision is nothing, uncircumcision is nothing…a new creation.” Sacrifices—the mere outward forms—are nothing; obedience is true sacrifice; that is, the keeping of the commandments of God. Now we are set for the keeping of the commandments. We are set to make that known to the world; but the only way we can bring that message to the world so that it shall be life and salvation is when we bring them the message of the Mediator of the New Covenant who writes this law in their hearts by the Spirit of God; that he ministers that life, that power, that Spirit, as the minister of the Sanctuary and the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man.


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SHAW: A question that was not very clear to me is about creation and re-creation. You spoke about one power both for creation and re-creation. Am I right in that?

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The power of re-creation, it is in the hearts of men. Now in nature, what would you call it?

PRESCOTT: I used the expression that I did from “Education” purposely so as to avoid any misunderstanding—“The mysterious life pervades all nature.”

SHAW: How far is that from Pantheism?

PRESCOTT: Suppose you take that up with the author rather than with me. That is pretty fair authority I believe to phrase it that way. In the 62nd Psalm, the 11th verse, we read: “God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.” So far as I have been able to read, I do not find that the Scriptures distinguish between the power of God revealed in creation and the power revealed in re-creation. In Romans 1:20 it says, “the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.” I do not find any adjective used in the scripture to distinguish the power of God in one manifestation from the power of God in another manifestation. It refers us constantly, as in Isaiah 40, to his power, and in his power there is not one lacking. He giveth power to both, but it does not use two kinds of words to distinguish between the powers.

M.C.WILCOX: Is not the same thought expressed by his speaking of the heavens as being garnished?

QUINN: I think the Spirit of Prophecy explains itself. We cannot take an isolated statement and get anything out of it. It says:

“We are living in an age of great light: but much that is called light is opening the way for the wisdom and arts of Satan. Many things will be presented that appear to be true, and yet they need to be carefully considered with much prayer; for they may be specious devices of the enemy. The path of

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error often appears to lie close to the path of truth. It is hardly distinguishable from the path that leads to holiness and heaven. But the mind enlightened by the Holy Spirit may discern that it is diverging from the right way. After awhile the two are seen to be widely separated.

Already there are coming in among our people spiritualistic teachings that will undermine the faith of those who give heed to them. The theory that God is an essence pervading all nature is one of Satan’s most subtle devices. It misrepresents God, and is a dishonor to His greatness and majesty. Pantheistic theories are not sustained by the word. of God.” Testimonies Vol 8 p. 29

PRESCOTT: Did you read that because it applied to teaching here?

QUINN: Personally, I am not able to distinguish the difference between God in creation and in re-creation.

PRESCOTT: What is the application of the instruction?

QUIN: The instruction here seems to be that the idea of God in all nature is pantheistic.

PRESCOTT: Would you think Romans 1:20 was Pantheistic? “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”

ANDERSON: Is it not true that through these works of God we can know of his manifestations of eternal Godhead and power. We cannot say it predicates his nature, but that these things are his handiwork and reveal to us and speak to us of his wisdom and power that stands back of all this. That is what that passage means to me. I am troubled on this point. It says in one passage we all know so well in John’s letter, “He that hath the son hath life, and he that hath not the son of God hath not life.” It must be that all those who have mere natural life have not the life of God in the spiritual and moral sense. It seems to me that the gospel draws a very marked line between God’s moral supremacy and the power seen in creation. I am of the opinion that we are better off to make that distinction very clear.

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PRESCOTT: May I give a little experience? I remember when these words were written, and I passed through the experience that called out these words, and it fell to my lot to stand in the forefront against that Pantheistic teaching. I was accused of having held exactly the same views as Doctor Kellogg had, and yet it fell to my lot to fight him face to face in our committee and through the Review, of which I was editor. I held exactly the same views as I hold now, and one thing that struck me rather strongly. I have been teaching for a year and a half among the simple people of the Far East this very thing, and they have got a great blessing out of this thought, but I find here it does not go. Among those people out there it brought great help and blessing. We took up the very same things in Korea, and here it is not accepted, and I am sorry anything has been said about it here.

[We should gain great confidence that the power that created the universe and holds the worlds in space is able to save to the uttermost, is able to do far exceedingly abundantly more than we can ask or think, for He who spoke and it stood fast, also works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure.]

PALMER: In the study this morning in the comparison of the material creation and the power of God with the manifestation of that power in recreation or redemption, I found myself not altogether confused, and yet feeling there was something lacking in the expression of recreation or redemption, not as to the person of God, but the mediator or the power through which it was accomplished, as to the provisions and manifestations for its accomplishment.

PRESCOTT: Yes, that is good. Take for instance right here before us. (Indicating the flowers on the desk): Here some kind of life is manifested. I read that expression I hardly thought would be questioned here. Some kind of life if manifested here; we cannot explain it. It builds these things up before our very eyes, but I cannot get the power from these for my salvation. I cannot get any life through that means for my salvation. There is no provision made there for it.

F.M.WILCOX: Brother Palmer had the idea that in Sabbath observance there is a memorial of creation, a sign of sanctification.

PALMER: Yes, something like that, is what I had in mind. If the manifestations and provisions were the same, I don’t know that I could discover any reason why Christ should have come here and died for the sin of man. He might have continued his mediatorial work and power for our recreation without that provision for sin and that sacrifice, that manifestation of God which he manifested here.

PRESCOTT: Now suppose we take that thought; it may help us. You remember, I think, in one of my very first talks which I gave here, I said that during this period of time during which

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sin is manifested, the character of God has not changed, the purpose of God has not changed, He simply adapts his plans and purposes to the special conditions of this time. Perhaps you may remember that I spoke of that. Now take this question of mediation.

PALMER: May I add one other item which I think you can deal with in the same connection? Is it a question of whether we would exclude God from the material universe, or a question of whether we would put a false God into the material universe? It seems that in that struggle—I went through all those meetings in Battle Creek—through that struggle it seemed to me the false God was put into nature and God Jehovah did not exist anywhere else in any way in which he did not exist in those plants; and precisely the same power and workings were manifested in those and in man, so it seemed we had a pantheistic God in that power. And the opposite extreme would be to exclude God from the material creation.

PRESCOTT: The Bible is just as clear in the statement that God is present everywhere—Whither thall I go from thy Spirit, and whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I descend into hell, lo Thou art there, if I fly to the uttermost parts of the earth, Thou art there, etc. But there is a distinction. It also points out that there is a place where God is and he is not any place else. The Bible teaches both, but I cannot reason them out.

[God is bodily present on His throne as Sovereign Ruler of the Universe in the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary, but he sends forth His Spirit into all the earth—into all the earths!]

F.M.WILCOX: “Our Lord has said, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you…For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.” This is true of our physical nature. The light shining from that communion service in the upper chamber makes sacred the provisions for our daily life. The family board becomes as the

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SHAW: I want to be clear on this matter. I do not know whether I am or not. Now we teach these Hindu people that nature is simply a result of the power of God, that he brought these things into existence, but we teach them that the new birth is the life of Christ within us, and that nature is not the life of Christ nor the life of God. This illustration that Brother Anderson used is the one we make use of. We speak about the furniture in the room, and we speak about the child as related to the household. He made the furniture with his own hands, but the child is a product of his life. And so we speak of the new birth and that is the way we carry it on in speaking to these people. Is that right?

PRESCOTT: That would be good if nature had no more life in it than the chair. But it has.

SHAW: Then the question comes, Whose life is it? Is that the life of God? Then if it is, we will worship God in the tree, because that is God.

M.C.WILCOX: Does not the life come from God but passes into every creature according to the law of that creatures being?

G.B.THOMPSON: I asked a question on this point yesterday and fear it was not understood. My intention was to draw out the discussion so that the meaning would be made clear. The way I stated it may have looked as though I thought Brother Lacey and others believed pantheism. I did not intend to convey that idea. But I thought there was a similarity of terms, and I was not clear about them, and though it might ???? the matter and make it clear. That is the intention of my question.

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LACEY: There is no question but that the use of the word essence I read in Controversy is different from the term Brother Quinn read. When we translate that word essence there is no English word equivalent to it, and it is used in a philosophical sense. But there is something that makes God, his attributes, his character, and Jesus is the manifestation of that character. He is the expression of the thought of the Father, and so we use the word essence in that sense. Not in any way indicating that the Great God is only an essence pervading his universe.

But, Brother Prescott, isn’t the thing you have been trying to teach us something like this: That God is the creator of the universe, and the creator of our souls. His power in creating the universe and in recreating us is the identical power, but manifested in different ways in creation than in redemption. When he put his power and life into the universe, he has not put himself there. His spirit is not in the trees. The tree has God’s life in it, but it is not a personal power. There is no spirit there. God’s mysterious life pervading everything, but I cannot worship that. But when God regenerates us, he does it by his spirit and has personal fellowship that you cannot get with a tree, of course. Now I notice that Paul makes the connection that Prof. Prescott makes, and I suppose that is why Professor Prescott makes it. He says, For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give light of the glory of God. There is a connection between the redemptive life giving and creative life giving. God has shined into our hearts, and I cannot think this is pantheism.

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PRESCOTT: May I read a little? It will be better than for me to speak, perhaps. “In His teaching from nature, Christ was speaking of the things which his own hands had made, and which he qualities and powers that He Himself had imparted. In their original perfection, all things were an expression of the thought of God. To Adam and Eve in their Eden home, nature was full of the knowledge of God, teeming with divine instruction. Wisdom spoke to the eye, and was received into the heart; for they communed with God in His created works. As soon as the holy pair transgressed the law of the Most High, the brightness from the face of God departed from the face of nature. The earth is now marred and defiled by sin. Yet even in its blighted state, much that is beautiful remains. God’s object lessons are not obliterated; rightly understood, nature speaks of her Creator.

“In the days of Christ those lessons had been lost sight of. Man had well-night ceased to discern God in His works. The sinfulness of humanity had cast a pall over the fair face of creation; and instead of manifesting God, His works became a barrier that concealed him. Men ‘worshiped and served the creature more than the Creator.’ Thus the heathen ‘became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.’ So in Israel, man’s teaching had been put in the place of God’s. Not only the things of nature, but the sacrificial service and the Scriptures themselves—all given to reveal God—were so perverted that they became the means of concealing Him.” Christ’s Object Lessons, page 18.


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W.W.PRESCOTT: Brother Bollman asked a question that I would like to have the privilege of answering. The Scriptures declare that there is one God and one mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus. Was he therefore a man in the gospel sense before sin? I thought I very distinctly pointed out that during the reign of sin he is mediator in a special sense, a mediator for the restoration of man. Now,

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again: Does not the philosophy of the mediation of Christ, to which we have been listening, teach, in effect, that there are two mediators in one person?—first, the Son of God, who was with the Father in the creation, the mediator between his Father and the material creation, in the sense of being the agent of the Father; and second, the same Son made flesh, the incarnation.

When sin came into the world a new situation was introduced. The question at that moment to be answered was not this, Shall I look around for a mediator that wil help this situation, but Shall the Son of God continue to act as mediator for man?

Now apply that: If he continues to act as mediator, because the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.” (See Hebres 2:14-17.)

If sin had not come into the world, he would not need to have become like unto his brethren, he would not have needed to partake of flesh and blood; but in order to continue his mediatorial work after man sinned, he must partake of the same flesh and blood that man partakes of. He must become like unto his brethren, not to introduce a new mediator, but in order that the same mediator

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might continue his work under the conditions of sin, and after man has fallen.

I understand the eternal purpose of God, in which he purposed in Christ Jesus, covers this whole ground. The eternal purpose, not a new idea. The provision made for the salvation of man was not an afterthought, something that had been planned for after sin came into the world. I think the Bible teaches that just as plainly as Sister White, and my idea is to teach it from the Bible rather than to read it publicly from her books. When we go out to the people, we cannot read them things to them from her books.

CHARLES THOMPSON: We can, and do, but we ought not to.

W.W.PRESCOTT: That may be a better way to put it. If any of you think I do not teach the Spirit of Prophecy, just come with me and look at my books, that is all. IF you think they do not help me, come and see how I have marked them. I do not teach them by reading the books. I think the same thoughts are expressed in the Bible. I think we are to study them from the Scriptures and teach them from the Scriptures, and then when we go out to the people we are to teach these same truths to the people from the Bible.

W.T.KNOX: That is why they were given.

R.A.UNDERWOOD: I have looked upon Christ as being priest part of the time and King part of the time, not as being a priest or mediator through all eternity. I want to ask if he has always been a priest, from eternity?

W.W.PRESCOTT: You will notice in the epistle to the Hebrews it says “it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” That

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was a special application of his priestly mediatorial work for sin. But in the larger sense, apart entirely from that, his mediatorial priestly ministry for his Father has been going on from the beginning. But here comes a special condition, and it makes it necessary for him to become flesh in order that he may be a merciful High Priest.

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UNDERWOOD: I hold the view that there was a time when everything was be (sic) one, but there came a time when there came into the universe two parties and two policies. Then Christ became a mediator between two.

PRESCOTT: That would be the accepted application of the idea of his mediatorial work simply for sin—to reconcile the parties at variance. But here is the very point of this; When this variance took place, it did not take God by surprise. He had made provision for it. He had somebody there, and he simply undertook the work. But in order to do the work, he had to become flesh like unto us.