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God Manifestation
"I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back:
bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;
Even every one that is called by my name:
for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him;
yea, I have made him . "
Isaiah 43:6-7
"Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles,
to take out of them a people for his name." (Acts 15:14)
"Men think God is bound to save them if they are ‘good', as the popular phrase runs. They forget that they are sinners, and in a state of alienation from Him, ending in death, which He alone can terminate. They forget that God made man for His own objects, and that He will save them for no other. They altogether fail to realize the relative positions of God and man." (Robert Roberts, The Law of Moses, p. 151)
“No injustice is done to the nations and generations that never heard the Gospel. Before they were born into the world they were nothing; after they died they went to nothing, so they became as though they had never been. They had no hopes, and now they have no regrets; why, then need we burden ourselves with sorrowings for them that know nothing and care for nothing? 'The dead know not anything'.
"Men were not ushered into being for the purpose of being saved or lost. God-manifestation, not human salvation, was the grand purpose of the Eternal Spirit. The salvation of a multitude is incidental to the manifestation, but it was not the end proposed. The Eternal Spirit intended to enthrone Himself on the earth, and in so doing, to develop a Divine Family from among men, every one of whom shall be spirit because born of the Spirit; and that this family shall be large enough to fill the earth, when perfected, to the entire exclusion of flesh and blood. In elaborating this purpose, upon the principles revealed in the Bible, a far greater production of human kind occurs than is necessary. Hence vast multitudes are swept off by disease, war, and so forth, and the multitude left are of but little more use than to keep the world a going until the Divine Family shall become complete. God will take out from the human race as many for His Name as His purpose requires. If He chose to make apostolic demonstrations every two hundred years, He could doubtless obtain a hundred fold more for the kingdom than upon the present system; but He does not so operate. It is fair, then, to conclude that His purpose does not demand so many, and that, therefore, He only employs means adequate to what He desires.” John Thomas, Herald of the Kingdom , April 1858
"For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off." (Isaiah 48:9)
"Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed." (Isaiah 66:5)
"But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, among whom they were, in whose sight I made myself known unto them, in bringing them forth out of the land of Egypt." (Ezekiel 20:9)
"But I wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen, in whose sight I brought them out." (Ezekiel 20:14)
"Nevertheless I withdrew mine hand, and wrought for my name's sake, that it should not be polluted in the sight of the heathen, in whose sight I brought them forth." (Ezekiel 20:22)
"And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have wrought with you for my name's sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD." (Ezekiel 20:44)
"And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved." (Matthew 10:22)
"And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life." (Matthew 19:29)
"Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake." (Matthew 24:9)
"And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." (Mark 13:13)
"But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake." (Luke 21:12)
"And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake." (Luke 21:17)
" But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me." (John 15:21)
"For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake." (Acts 9:16)
"And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted." (Revelation 2:3)
"Paul said, ‘The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared,' The ark was the symbol of this manifestation — represented by the glory between the cherubic figures resting on the mercy-seat, surmounting an interior occupied by the tables, the budded rod, and the pot of manna. The object of the whole manifestation was the salvation of man for the glory of God. The symbol combines the two features prominently — [First] "glory to God in the highest" in the cherubim on top; ‘goodwill to man' in the law-holding cavity below, on which the whole rests." The Law of Moses, p. 114
"… One transcendent truth, which is to all others as the sun in the heavens — the hallowed supremacy of God as the rule of being ." The Law of Moses, p. 158
"The man chosen as priest had to be covered with garments having all these meanings in a concealed manner. God not only plainly declared, ‘I will be sanctified in them that come nigh Me', but He required such to be arrayed in vestments which were not only glorious and beautiful in an artistic sense, but which typically proclaimed the supremacy of God and the complete subordination of man as the conjoint and indispensable conditions of acceptable fellowship. We may miss all the meanings intended, but some of them are very manifest." The Law of Moses, p. 159
"As for ‘the daily sacrifice' — the morning and evening lamb — we instinctively say as we look towards Christ ‘Behold the Lamb of God.'With him in head, in heart, and hand, the true worshippers now draw near. Not now with a bleating animal with literal blood poured out, but with the recollection of faith in ‘the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest' in the last times of Judah's history (1Pet. 1:19-20), we come to God in prayer every day. We cannot come otherwise acceptably. We are sinners who can claim no attention on our own behalf. We have to say with Daniel: ‘We do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousness, but for thy great mercy'; and His great mercy has taken this form: Christ crucified and given us as the form of our approach — combining God's great exaltation and our great humiliation. Every time we bend the knee, it is in the name of Jesus, crucified and raised, as the declaration of God's righteousness; and this ‘every time' is very often. It is not limited to public assembly. It was morning and evening in the type, and it is not less frequent in the antitype. And every time we thus ‘offer unto God the voice of thanksgiving,' it is required that we do so with the mental discernment of the slain lamb of the antitype. That is, we are required to have Christ crucified before our minds as the basis of our permitted approach — not as an innocent substitute on whom our punishment has been inflicted, but as a representative perfect elder brother, in whom God's righteous dealing with sin has been exhibited, for our humble endorsement that the way of mercy may be open for healing — in forgiveness and deliverance." The Law of Moses, p. 193
"Over-arching the whole as a rainbow, is that larger mission of the law, which men are so liable to omit or fail to appreciate, viz., a clearing of the way for the manifestation of the kindness of God. This is the last lesson we learn: the beauty we last perceive. Naturally so; it belongs to God's point of view; and our own point of view is our first, and for a long time, our only point of view. God's kindness is full and bountiful and unconstrained, but in the matter of admitting created beings to a participation in His open friendship and divine nature, it has its limitations and conditions of so strict a character that one act of insubordination on the part of Adam sufficed to put an end to it. The work of restoration is being carried out on the basis of this principle being vindicated. There must be no boasting, says Paul. Most reasonable. Boasting is barbarism, even between man and man who are equal. What is it towards God, who is the fountain of all being? God will be head. He is so, and it is only reasonable that the fact should be recognized. Where is there any monarch or human official of any kind who would consent to work where his authority was challenged or dignity affronted? If this is a tolerable principle of action amongst fellow-mortals, is it not absolutely indispensable with God who is the author of our life and the strength and support and wisdom of all creation? Yet it is a principle that man ignores in his pride. It is a principle that God asserts by bringing ALL men under condemnation first of all. He has done this by the law of Moses. Unless there is forgiveness, there can be no salvation. Forgiveness is favour (grace), and God requires the honour of "faith" towards Himself as a condition of the favour. "Where is boasting then ?" enquires Paul. "It is excluded. By what law? of works ? Nay, but by the law of faith." "It is of faith that it might be by grace" - "that God in all things may be glorified ": "that no flesh should glory in his presence . . . that according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord" (Rom. 3:27; 4: 16; Pet. 4: 11; 1 Cor. 1:29, 31)." The Law of Moses, p. 7
Last Update: April 24, 2006