God the Father part 2 from Patersons lil' ol' book
Apr
12
Written by:
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 7:32 PM
GOD IN CHRIST JESUS
By John Paterson
Printed 1st In GT HAYWOOD’S “Voice in the Wilderness” in 1920
Reprinted in Cochrane Wi. By D.I. Hammergren for A.D. Urshans “Witness of GOD”
Excerpts taken from a 1962 addition made available in 1964
God The FATHER (2nd post)
This is of course a big part of Paterson’s book that I particularly love …
I, following Biblical prescedent almost always open up any public prayer by addressing our “Heavenly Father”.
This is, of course, How Jesus taught us to pray… ie… “our Father which art in Heaven”…
And so, in a great discussion paper on the “Mighty God in Christ”
(another great pamphlet put out by none other than SG. Norris. My mothers pastor)
Paterson takes on the idea of the Father being a separate entity… he starts off with, …
Speaking of THE FATHER
Jesus said, "God is a Spirit" (John 4:24 - God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.)
"And the Spirit of God MOVED upon the face of the waters" (Gen. 1: 2) .
"Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord" (J er. 23: 24 ).
"Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?
If I ascend up into heaven Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there" (Ps. 139: 7,8).
"Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee" (I Kings 8: 27; II Chron. 2: 6; II Chron. 6: 18) .
"That they should seek the Lord, if haply they may feel after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from everyone of us: for in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:27,28).
These passages DO NOT TEACH that the 'Father is subject to bodily limitations but rather that He is an omnipresent spiritual Power, moving upon, upholding, and pervading all creation.
This is NOT Pantheism -
google < Pantheism >
not a word I hear or use everyday
- make no mistake, the God of the Bible, though omnipresent, IS nevertheless a conscious, intelligent Being, possessing a will and capacity for independent thought and action and is distinct from His creation.
Concerning the Holy Spirit having a body distinct from that of our glorified Lord, as crudely imagined by some differing doctrines,
(take for example the recently popular book the “the Shack”,
where WM. Paul Young paints the picture of God the Father as a woman they affectionately call PaPa…
what bothered me way more than the confusing tone that set so many off of a female figure with the title of a male… but the trouble in which the author went about to display that the “God-Head”
was some sort of a group as opposed to ONE; .see Deut 6:4)
It IS only necessary to read the following passages where the words "poured" and "shed" are used, to see how un-realistic this is : Provo 1:23; Isa. 32:15; Isa. 44:3; Ezek. 39:29; Joel 2:28,29; Zech. 12:10; Acts 2:17,18,33; Titus 3:5,6. How could a body be poured out or shed forth?
Again, If I might say something here…This is intersesting to me …
because it is a whole different approach to this subject than I am used to …
Interesting, and True enough…
but not the angle that perhaps a David Bernard would take…
or a Gerald c. Mclean, both of whom have written excellently on this subject
Just a few more relevant scriptures that came to me as I read through this…
John 1:18 KJV No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
Colossians 2:8-9 KJV Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (9) For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Summery: I was reading a paper written by the late Nathaniel A. Urshan, on behalf of unity of doctrine quoting 1Co 1:10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. Urshan speaks of the importance of “Purity of doctrine (that) keeps the church pure” using scriptures like I Corinthians 13:5 & 1 Peter 3:15 …In respect to this … I wanted to share a bit more of Patersons booklet