SECTION 5.--MAKER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH

Belief in the Almighty power of God is further declared by a confession

of faith in Him as the Maker of heaven and earth, and this is but a

repetition of the statement contained in the first chapter of

Genesis--the only account of Creation which is fitted to solve all

difficulties and to meet all objections. "Maker" in this article is used

in the sense of Creator, implying that heaven and earth were called into

existence out of nothing by the word of Divine power; and by "heaven and

earth" are meant all creatures, visible and invisible, that have existed

or do exist.

Those who object to the Scripture statements regarding Creation have

maintained views as to the origin of the material universe differing

largely from those held by persons who accept this article of the Creed,

and differing also greatly from one another. Various solutions have been

given, among which may be stated:--

(_a_) The view of those who hold that all phenomena and all

existence originate in Chance or a blind fortuitous concourse of

atoms. To state such a doctrine is to refute it. No one

possessed of reason can believe in his heart that Intelligence

did not create and organise matter, or that the material

universe, with all its adaptation of parts, was evolved, and is

governed, by chance or accident. This theory, if it is worthy of

the name, seems to have been devised in order to evade the idea

that man is subject to Divine government.

(_b_) Another view is that all existence owes its origin to Fate

or Necessity and is now held in its resistless grasp. The

advocates of this theory are at variance among themselves. One

school maintains that all things existed from eternity in their

present condition, and are destined to continue as they are,

controlled by relentless and undeviating necessity. Another

school--the ancient Fatalists--held that at first there was a

fortuitous concourse of atoms and phenomena, until Fate or

Chance decided the present order, which became an established

necessity. A third class hold doctrines of Development. Some of

them agree with the ancient Fatalists in maintaining that

development, in a fortuitous concourse and action of matter and

force, issued in evolution or originated a course of evolution.

Others again deny fortuitous concourse and affirm that this

process of evolution had no external beginning, but has

continued from eternity under the control of evolutionary law.

The term "law" as used by them has no specific meaning, and is

simply an adaptation, to a theory naturally atheistic, of a word

which may serve to commend their doctrine. The "law" of which

they speak has its origin in matter itself, and is not under the

control of a Supreme Intelligence. That this is the fact is

shown by the denial of free-will in man and of the

superintending providence of God; of the efficacy of prayer and

of the forgiveness of sin; and by the prominence given in their

writings to the absolute control of all things by undeviating,

unchanging law.

(_c_) A third view affirms that while there is a distinction

between the Ego and the non-Ego (the me and the not-me), it is

impossible to know anything about either in its essence. That

they exist and that they are different are facts within our

knowledge, but as to the absolute nature of mind and matter we

can discover and believe nothing. The ultimate or absolute is

beyond our reach, as is the infinite and unconditioned. We can

have no knowledge of First Causes, or of the Ultimate Cause, or

of the Absolute Cause. The infinite cannot even be apprehended,

and those who undertake to learn or to speculate regarding the

infinite engage in a task beyond their powers. Such knowledge is

not practical. The term "God" is merely an expression for a mode

of the unknowable, conveying no meaning to those who use it. The

view thus expressed originated in concessions unhappily made by

certain writers, as Sir William Hamilton and Dean Mansel, who,

thinking to defend revealed religion, taught that reason cannot

know the Infinite, and that therefore the Infinite must reveal

Himself. Herbert Spencer took advantage of this concession, and

carried it to a logical conclusion, when he argued that, if

reason could not know or apprehend the Infinite by reason,

neither could it by revelation.

(_d_) Another class hold the view which is termed cosmogonies

than that of Moses, whether contained in the sacred books of

religions that have long existed, or professing to be based on

modern scientific discovery, raise difficulties that are

insuperable. Whence came matter if not from the creative word of

God? To assign eternity to it is to invest it with an attribute

that is Divine, and Pantheists carry such an explanation to its

logical conclusion when they affirm that the universe is God.

The existence of a single atom is an unfathomable mystery. Man

cannot create or destroy even a particle of matter. How

overwhelming, then, if we reject the simple statement of the

Bible, is the mystery of the great universe, in whose extended

space suns, planets, stars, and systems unceasingly revolve, and

in which our own world is but a little speck. All things created

point to God as their origin and source. "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."[027]

"I asked the earth," wrote Augustine in his _Confessions_, "and it

answered me, 'I am not He.' And whatsoever things are in it confirmed

the same. I asked the sea and the deeps and the living creeping things,

and they answered, 'We are not thy God, seek above us.' I asked the

morning air, and the whole air with its inhabitants answered,

'Anaximenes was deceived, we are not thy God.' I asked the heavens, sun,

moon, stars, 'Nor,' say they, 'are we the God whom thou seekest.' And I

replied unto all the things which encompass the door of my flesh, 'Ye

have told me of my God that ye are not He: tell me something more of

Him.' And they cried out with a loud voice, 'He made us.'"[028]

* * * * *

ARTICLE 2

_And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord_

SECTION 1.--AND IN JESUS CHRIST

The first article of the Apostles' Creed has numerous adherents. Jews

and Christians are at one in affirming their belief in God the Father

Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. Many too who, unlike Jews and

Christians, have not been favoured with a written revelation, have yet

risen to the conception of such a Divine Being as that article sets

forth. Mohammedans believe in an Omnipotent Creator, and many thoughtful

heathens have accepted and maintained the doctrine as an article of

faith. It expresses a conviction reached by Plato and Aristotle, by

Seneca and Epictetus, and is a truth proclaimed by Old Testament

prophets and New Testament saints. No belief regarding things invisible

is more generally professed.

It is otherwise with the second article of the Creed, "I believe in

Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord," which expresses doctrines so hotly

disputed that they prove the saying true, "This child is set for a sign

which shall be spoken against."[029] It is rejected by the Jew and the

Mohammedan, and finds opponents in many who profess to accept the

Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as a Divine revelation, and to

regard the exemplary life of Jesus as a model to be copied, while they

deny His Divine origin, His sacrificial death, and His universal

authority.

The early controversies concerning the Second Person of the Trinity were

disputes regarding His nature and the relation in which He stands to the

Father. Certain heretics affirmed that Jesus was a mere man, selected by

God and specially endowed with the gift of His Spirit. Others maintained

that Christ was not God, but a created spirit, nearest to the Father in

dignity, who took upon Him human nature, and, having finished the work

appointed Him on earth, went up again to God the Father. One class, the

Ebionites, regarded Him as a being essentially human, though begotten of

the Spirit, by whom He was anointed above measure; while another, the

Docetae, regarded Him as a Divine Being seemingly bearing human form and

united with the man Jesus. These views were finally rejected by the

Catholic Church, because they conflicted with the Word of God which

affirms the true Divinity of the Son of God, the true humanity of the

Son of Man, and the true union of the two natures of God and man in One

Person, Jesus Christ.

The Gnostics, who were the leaders in connection with such heretical

views, are generally thought to date from the time of Simon Magus. He

had been enrolled as a disciple of the Apostles, and, professing faith

in Christ, was baptized by Peter. But he had joined the Christian Church

for selfish ends,[030] as Luke's statements show. Hymenaeus,[031]

Phygellus, and Hermogenes,[032] referred to by Paul in his second letter

to Timothy, are believed to have been Gnostics, and towards the close of

the first century Cerinthus and Ebion extended the system.[033]

SECTION 2.--JESUS

Jesus is the personal name of our Lord. In ancient times names had often

a meaning and importance which they do not carry now. "Name" means a

word by which any person or thing is known, and names were originally

given from some quality attribute inherent in the person or thing to

which they were attached. Proper names among the Hebrews had a deeper

meaning and a closer connection with character and condition than

elsewhere. The care that marks the Scriptures in recording the origin of

names of individuals and places, the frequent allusions to names as

having a special relation to character or qualities, the solemnity with

which a change of name is stated as marking an epoch in the history of

individuals or nations, and the frequency with which names are

associated with great events, with promises, threats, or prophecies,

show the importance that was attached to them. This feature is most

marked in the use by the Jews of the word "Name" in reference to God.

The "Name of the Lord," or an equivalent expression, constantly occurs

to denote God Himself. His Name is in Scripture identified with His

character, marking His attributes and His nature as distinguished from

all other beings. The Name, Jehovah, by which God revealed Himself to

Moses was so closely identified by the Jews with the Divine Personality

and Holiness that it was never pronounced by them.

In Old Testament times the Deliverer foretold as the object of faith and

hope and love under the Gospel Dispensation was announced by a

declaration of His name. "His name shall be called Wonderful,

Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of

Peace."[034] Immediately before He appeared a messenger was sent from

heaven with the Divine command, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he

shall save his people from their sins."[035] The name is thus not the

ascription to Him of qualities evolved from our own conception of what

He is, or of what God is in Him, but God's disclosure of His infinite

love and of His purposes for man's salvation. In His Divine power and by

His efficacious sacrifice He is Jesus, the Saviour. He does not save, as

some who profess to be Christians hold, by the influence of His own

example and teaching only, just as one man may be said to save another

whom he persuades to abandon evil habits and form good ones. He is our

Saviour because He died as a sacrifice for our sins. Had He not expiated

our guilt by dying for us, His example, teaching, and sympathy would

never have brought us salvation.

The name "Jesus" is a human name. In its Hebrew form Joshua, Jehoshua,

Hosea it had been borne by others. We read of one Jesus in the New

Testament[036] and of many in the pages of Josephus. In this respect, as

in other particulars, Jesus was "made like unto his brethren" and bore a

human distinctive name. "Jesus" was accordingly the name given to Him at

His circumcision, by which He was to be known in His family and among

the people of Nazareth. During His ministry He was described as "Jesus,

the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee";[037] and the title affixed to His

cross by Pilate was "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." Yet, as

if to make emphatic the truth that His humanity did not derogate from

His Divine power and Godhead, the first Evangelist, who describes the

angel's visit, quotes in immediate connection Isaiah's prophetic

announcement, "They shall call his name Emmanuel, which being

interpreted is, GOD with us."[038] In the name Jesus thus bestowed we

have the announcement of Himself as a personal Saviour from sin, in its

power and consequences. Of those who had borne it before Him some were

raised up to deliver the people of their nation from suffering in time,

but He came to be man's everlasting Saviour. "Neither is there salvation

in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men,

whereby we must be saved."[039] It is important therefore to bear in

mind that Jesus is a name not only given to Him by God, but a name

itself Divine; not only the name by which, as that of a Mediator, we

worship God, but the name under which, as that of God Himself, we

worship Him. "God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name

which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should

bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the

earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father."[040]

SECTION 3.--CHRIST

In ancient times no such appellations as those now termed surnames were

given to individuals. One name only was distinctive. Both among the Jews

and among the Greeks this system of nomenclature prevailed, family names

being unknown. It was different with the Romans, by many of whom more

names than one were borne. In reading ancient Greek history, we find

illustrious personages known by one name only, as Plato, Aristotle,

Socrates, Solon. The same feature marks early Jewish history. Abraham,

Isaac, Moses, Job were not known by any other names than these.

Sometimes names were changed or modified in order to express some

speciality of character or achievement--Abram to Abraham, Jacob to

Israel, Hoshea to Joshua. In later times appellations descriptive of the

work or office of individuals were attached to their original names, as

in the cases of John the Baptist, of Matthew the Publican, and of our

Lord Himself, Jesus the Christ. This latter practice prevailed in early

English history, and famous kings appear bearing descriptive epithets in

addition to their original single names--Alfred the Great, Edward the

Confessor, William the Conqueror.

Christ is not a proper name but an official title. Although now often

used to designate the person of the Lord Jesus, it was not so when He

lived in the world. As John was the Baptist or Baptizer, Jesus was the

Christ--the Anointed. The title is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew

Messiah, and means the Anointed. It denotes that He who bore it was

separated, consecrated, and invested with high office. These

distinctions met in Jesus, rendering the title appropriate.

At the time of the birth of Jesus, the coming of a great deliverer was

at once the desire and the expectation not of Jews only, but of many

nations. Roman historians of that period tell us that a redeemer was to

make his appearance from among the nation of Israel. This belief was no

doubt spread abroad by Jewish exiles, who, scattered through many lands,

carried with them the hopes and prophecies which had been given from

time to time to their own people.

That the expected Messiah had come to the world bearing with Him from

heaven a message of salvation was the cardinal doctrine of Apostolic

preaching. To accept Jesus as the Christ was to accept Him as the

Saviour and Deliverer. When Andrew found his brother Simon he said to

him, "We have found the Messias."[041] "Is not this the Christ?"[042]

was the appeal of the woman of Samaria to the people of her city; and

the confession of Peter that Jesus was the Christ, was declared by our

Lord to be a revelation not of flesh and blood, but of His Father in

heaven.[043] Not Apollos only, but Paul and the other inspired teachers

also, set it before them as their appointed work, "to show by the

Scriptures that Jesus was Christ."[044] To confess that Jesus was the

Christ was an acknowledgment that in Him were vested all those

attributes and qualities which the Old Testament Scriptures ascribed to

Messiah, that Jesus of Nazareth was the Deliverer of whom the prophets

testified, to whose coming all the holy men of old looked forward, whom

prophets and kings desired to see, and of whom all Scripture bore

witness. It was the acknowledgment by the common people that Jesus was

Messiah that stirred the indignation of the Jewish rulers. They saw

that, if this were conceded, all His claims must be held valid, and

accordingly the Sanhedrim passed a resolution to the effect that, "if

any man did confess that Jesus was Christ, he should be put out of the

synagogue."[045]

The name "Christ" denotes the offices which Jesus executes as our

Redeemer. Three classes were set apart by anointing--the Prophet, who

made known the will of God; the Priest, who confessed sin and offered

sacrifice for the people; and the King, who acted as their leader and

commander. Jesus was consecrated for His work as our Redeemer by

anointing, but not, so far as we know, with material oil. He who

anointed Him was God the Father, and the oil that descended upon Him was

the Holy Ghost, of whose influence oil was the symbol. "God, even thy

God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy

fellows."[046] He fulfilled the office of a Prophet by revealing the

Father, and making known the will of God for our salvation; of a Priest

in the sacrifice of Himself which He offered up to God for us, and in

the intercession which He makes on our behalf at His Father's right

hand; of a King in the victory He won over man's enemies, and in the

power He imparts to His people, by which they overcome evil in

themselves and in the world. It was not until after He had finished His

work that His followers so closely associated Him with the Messiahship

as to speak of Him not as Jesus only, nor as Christ only, but as Jesus

Christ. This twofold name occurs very rarely in the Gospels--once in

Matthew, once in Mark, never in Luke; but in the Epistles it is the name

by which He is designated and made known to the world. To believe in

Jesus Christ is to accept Him in all His offices, and to take home the

truth which John had in view when he penned his Gospel: "These are

written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God;

and that believing ye might have life through his name."[047]

SECTION 4.--HIS ONLY SON

God is love. Love must have an object, and from eternity the Father was

not alone. The only-begotten and well-beloved Son was with Him, dwelt in

His bosom, and shared His glory. The Filiation or Sonship of our Lord

follows the statement of His proper name and the declaration of His

Messiahship. It is expressed in the designation, "Only Son," which is

His divine name, peculiar to Himself, incommunicable to any other being.

He is the Son of the Father, and is His only Son inasmuch as He alone

partakes of His Divine nature, and in this nature is the Son. The Old

Testament Scriptures foretold that Christ should be the Son of God. "I

will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son;

this day have I begotten thee."[048] Isaiah wrote of Him, "Unto us a

child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon

his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the

Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."[049] The New

Testament in various passages bears the same testimony. "In the

beginning," says John, "was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the

Word was God"; and "the Word," he goes on to say, "became flesh, and

dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten

from the Father,) full of grace and truth."[050] The writer to the

Hebrews makes a similar declaration: "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 is the

brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person."[051] It

has been noted that Christ, in speaking to His disciples, never says

_our_ Father, but either _My_ Father, or _your_ Father, or both

conjoined, never leaving it to be inferred that God is in the same sense

His Father and our Father. It appears from various passages in the New

Testament, that when He came the Jews identified Messiah with the Son of

God, as when Nathanael exclaimed, "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou

art the King of Israel";[052] and when Martha said, "I believe that thou

art the Son of God, which should come into the world."[053] He did not

first become the Son of God when He took upon Him the nature of man. The

Divine Sonship existed in the beginning before He was the child of Mary,

the seed of the woman. He was the Son of God before the birth of

Abraham: "before Abraham was I am."[054] Though John the Baptist was

older than Jesus, and preceded Him in His ministry, Jesus was yet

preferred in honour before him, "for he was before him." "The Lord

possessed him in the beginning of his way, before his works of

old."[055] In the relation of the Son to the Father, there is a mystery

which we cannot solve. "Who shall declare his generation?" Earthly

figures fail to set forth Divine realities, and as we are dependent upon

human emblems for the conceptions we form of heavenly things, we see

through a glass darkly. But though we cannot fully understand the sense

in which our Lord is the Son of God, we yet believe that He is so in a

manner analogous to that in which we are our fathers' sons--possessing

the same nature as His Father, and having that nature communicated to

Him as the only-begotten Son. God has other sons. Angels are termed sons

of God. Men are also His offspring, and believers are now the sons of

God; but Jesus is God's son in a higher, special, and perfect sense.

That Jesus claimed to be in this sense the Son of God is clear from many

incidents in His history. It was ostensibly on the ground that He

declared Himself to be "equal with God" that He was arrested and

condemned by the Jewish rulers. The high priest put the question to Him

directly and solemnly, "I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell

us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God." The reply was distinct

and emphatic. "Jesus said, I am: Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man

sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of

heaven."[056] There is no resisting the meaning which these words

convey. The Sonship they assert is very different from that which is

implied when a mere man who fears God and keeps His commandments is said

to be a son of God. It was a claim to the possession of Divine

personality and power, and was so understood by His accusers. When

Caiaphas heard the reply he accepted it in its full significance,

tearing his clothes and exclaiming, "He hath spoken blasphemy; what

further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his

blasphemy. What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of

death."[057]

His saying that He was the Son of God was the "blasphemy" for which He

was condemned. The horror, real or affected, and the rent robes of the

high priest, the verdict of the court, and the contemptuous treatment to

which Jesus was afterwards subjected, leave no room for doubting that He

declared Himself to be the Son of God, having at His disposal the powers

of heaven and earth.

SECTION 5--OUR LORD

The last title of the Second Person is expressive of His dominion. The

name "Lord" is the translation of a Greek word, which signifies ruling

or governing. Jesus Christ is not only a Lord, He rules by authority and

in a sense peculiar to Himself, so that He is commonly spoken of in the

New Testament as "the Lord": "Come, see the place where the Lord

lay";[058] "They have taken the Lord out of the sepulchre";[059] "I have

received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you." In the time

of Christ the title "Lord" had for Jews and Jewish Christians a special

personal meaning. "The Lord" was in the Septuagint, as it is still in

the Authorised English version of the Old Testament, the translation of

"Jehovah."[060] When, therefore, the Apostles used this title to

designate their Master, there is reason to think that they did so in the

full belief that He was one with the Father. This view is confirmed by

Paul's statement. "To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are

all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all

things, and we by him."[061] As Lord, the government is upon His

shoulders, His dominion is universal and His kingdom everlasting. This

He claims for Himself "All power is given unto me in heaven and in

earth";[062] "All things are delivered unto me of my Father";[063] "The

Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand."[064]

"God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name that

at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and

things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue

should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the

Father."[065]

While Christ is the "Lord of all,"[066] the Creed yet sets forth the

truth that there is a special sense in which He is the Lord of

believers, "our Lord."

Scripture recognises the existence in the universe of two great armies,

marshalled under their respective leaders--one under the rule of Jesus

Christ, the other under His adversary the Devil, otherwise termed Satan,

Apollyon, and the Old Serpent. These powers are in constant antagonism,

and every man takes his place in the army of Christ or in that of Satan.

Those opposed to the Lord are rebels who, except they repent, must share

the doom of their leader in the place prepared for the devil and his

angels; "for He must reign until He hath put all His enemies under His

feet." He is their Lord for their overthrow and destruction; while to

those who are "with Him,"--"the called, and chosen, and

faithful,"[067]--He is their Lord to secure for them victory and

everlasting salvation. When we use the expression "our Lord," we declare

that we renounce other masters; that we make no compromise with His

enemies, and refuse to have "fellowship with the unfruitful works of

darkness"; that, renouncing the Devil and his works, rejecting the vain

pleasures, pomps, and glories of the world, and denying ourselves the

gratification of sinful desires, we accept Christ as our leader, with

the determination expressed by the prophet, "O Lord our God, other lords

beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make

mention of thy name."[068] As the followers and subjects of an

omnipotent, righteous King we shall strive to "bring into captivity

every thought to the obedience of Christ."

It is noteworthy that a plural pronoun is used in this recognition of

Christ as _our_ Lord, while elsewhere throughout the Creed the

confession of belief is personal, "I believe." The plural form here

indicates that while in following Jesus we are separated from the world,

we are gathered into the fellowship of the saints, and are members of

the whole family in heaven and earth.

* * * * *

ARTICLE 3

_Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary_

The Creed proceeds to declare belief in the doctrine of the Incarnation,

which is thus set forth in the Shorter Catechism: "Christ, the Son of

God, became man, by taking to Himself a true body, and a reasonable

soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, in the womb of the

Virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin."[069]

Two Evangelists record the miraculous birth of Jesus. Mark and John do

not refer to it, and their silence has led some opponents of

Christianity to discredit the statements of Matthew and Luke. But while

there is no direct account given by Mark or John of the miraculous

conception and birth of Jesus, the fact of His Divine descent is implied

in many portions of their Gospels. The words with which Mark opens his

narrative clearly express it, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus

Christ, the Son of God;"[070] as does the statement he makes that at His

baptism there came a voice from heaven saying, "Thou art my beloved Son,

in whom I am well pleased."[071] John is equally explicit in declaring

his belief in the Divinity of Jesus. The opening words of his Gospel

assert His Divine nature: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word

was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with

God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made

that was made."[072]

It is evident, therefore, that each of the Evangelists believed in the

Divine origin of Jesus, for they would not have used such language

regarding one who in their opinion was a mere man, the son of Joseph the

carpenter and of Mary his espoused wife. Matthew, who wrote for Jewish

converts, shows how fully the Old Testament prophecy was accomplished

that Christ should be born, not at Nazareth but at Bethlehem, and

especially that Isaiah's prophecy, "Behold, a virgin shall be with

child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name

Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, GOD with us,"[073] was fulfilled

in the birth of Jesus Christ. Luke, who is termed by Paul "the beloved

physician," gives the fullest account of the Nativity. His writings are

characterised by minuteness of detail and historical accuracy. Recent

investigations have shown that, even in regard to matters about which he

was long thought to have been mistaken, Luke's statements are strictly

correct.[074]

The story of the miraculous conception would not, without the strongest

corroborative evidence, have commended itself to a man of his acumen

and his calling. A physician by profession, the companion of Apostles,

and possessing singular penetration and sagacity, he tells us that he

had received the facts he narrates from eye witnesses and competent

authorities. For information as to the events connected with the birth

of her Son, Luke would naturally have recourse to Mary. There is

evidence in his Gospel that he had intimate knowledge of her private

thoughts and actions.[075] Lange, in his _Life of Jesus_, finds in the

specialties of the narrative evidence of a woman's diction.[076] Be this

as it may, the minuteness of detail, the message of the angel Gabriel,

the preservation of the sacred songs, and of the thoughts and words of

the Virgin, justify the belief that Luke received his information from

herself. When we find him assuring his friend Theophilus that he himself

had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, the

inference is natural that his information was obtained from the most

trustworthy sources. There is no reason to doubt that Mary was

associated with the Apostles of her Son, and had opportunities of

imparting information regarding Him which no other could supply Luke's

account corresponds with that of John, to whose care Jesus from the

Cross committed His mother, and who from that time "took her unto his

own home."[077]

It does not necessarily follow, even if the information was supplied by

Mary, that it is therefore to be accepted as true. Human witnesses are

not infallible or invariably honest, and it is conceivable that Mary may

have been a dreamer or a deceiver. This article of the Creed,

contradicting as it does the ordinary course of nature, stands in need

of more than a historic statement. Jesus admitted that if His claims had

been supported by no other evidence than His own word, the Jews would

have had excuse for hesitating to accept Him. "If," said He, "I bear

witness of myself, my witness is not true,"[078] and therefore He

appealed to the testimony borne to His Messiahship by His Father, by

John the Baptist, by His miracles, and by His life. All the evidence by

which the Divine nature and mission of Jesus were accredited goes to

support the account of His super natural birth.

That Jesus was born of Mary is a plain historic truth to which all must

accord belief. "Yes," said Renan, who did not regard Christ as the Son

of God, "this story of Jesus is no fable, but a true history Christ

really lived." The miraculous birth was a fulfilment of prophecy. When

the angel told Mary that the child to be born of her would be the Son of

God, he cited Isaiah's prophecy for the confirmation of her faith, and

indeed the same truth had been foreshadowed when the promise was given

to Eve that her seed should bruise the head of the serpent. The first

Adam had no human father. He was the Son of God. It was therefore

fitting that the second Adam should resemble the first in this respect,

being in a sense infinitely higher than our first father the Son of God,

His only Son. It was fitting too that He who was to assume the nature,

not of any branch of the human family but of universal man, should be

conceived by the Holy Ghost. Other faiths than Christianity are limited

in their adaptation to races. The religion of Mahomet is not practicable

save in Eastern latitudes. The Koran enjoins as duties practices that

cannot be carried out in Western countries. The faiths of Brahma and

Buddha find followers only under Eastern skies, and even Judaism

required observances which could be rendered at Jerusalem only. All

faiths but Christianity are narrowed down by the nationalities of their

founders or adherents. It is otherwise with the religion of Jesus of

Nazareth. He came from God with a mission and a message for the world.

In comparison with the severe requirements of the law and the grievous

exactions of religions devised by men, His "yoke is easy and His burden

is light." With Him there is "neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor

uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free."[079] With Him there

are no distinctions of sect, or country, or caste. "In every nation he

that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him."[080]

In being born, Jesus assumed the nature of humanity, and, in so doing,

more than restored to man the likeness to God which our first parents

lost, for themselves and their descendants, through the Fall. He thereby

made it possible for God to dwell with man, and for man to rise into

communion with God. Sin had effaced the Divine image, and no other than

the Son of God could give back to men the power to reflect in their own

lives the character of God. His possession of the human nature gives us

confidence in approaching Him, by assuring us of His brotherhood and

sympathy; while His possession of the Divine nature assures us that He

can make His brotherhood and sympathy effectual.

* * * * *

ARTICLE 4

_Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried_

SECTION 1.--SUFFERED UNDER PONTIUS PILATE

The preceding articles of the Creed appeal to faith. They so far

transcend reason that they can be apprehended only when reason is

sustained by faith. This article, which affirms that Jesus "suffered

under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried," is a simple

historical statement. Pilate is a historic person, the details of whose

life are recorded, not in the Gospels only, but in secular history.

Josephus records several incidents in the life of Pilate which are

strikingly in accordance with his character as set forth in the Gospels.

Tacitus, a Roman historian, who wrote his _Annals_ soon after the

crucifixion of Jesus, relates that, while Pilate was governor of Judaea,

Jesus Christ was put to death. The testimony of the Gospels and the

statement of the Creed are thus confirmed by the Roman and the Jewish

historians. But, indeed, the event itself is not the subject of

controversy. It is the conclusions drawn from it by the followers of

Christ that are disputed. "Christ crucified, to the Jews a

stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness,"[081] still raises

opposition and kindles hostility.

The name of Pilate is inserted not with the view of branding him with

infamy, but in order to fix the date of the crucifixion of Jesus. It is

the only intimation of the time of His death that the Creed contains. It

states that He was born, and that His mother was the Virgin Mary, and

beyond this reference to Pilate there is no intimation as to the time of

the nativity or the death. Bishop Pearson writes:--"As the Son of God,

by His deliberate counsel, was sent into the world to die in the fulness

of time, so it concerns the Church to know the time in which He died.

And because the ancient custom of the world was to make computations by

the governors, and refer their historical relations to the respective

times of their government, therefore, that we might be properly assured

of the actions of our Saviour which He did, and of His sufferings,--that

is the actions which others did to Him,--the present governor is named

in that form of speech which is proper to such historical or

chronological narrations when we affirm that He suffered under Pontius

Pilate."[082] From stating the birth of Christ, the Creed passes by what

at first sight may seem an abrupt transition to His suffering,

crucifixion, and death. There is no reference to His life or works,

though these differed so widely from those of ordinary men. The reason

seems to be that the end for which He came into the world was to suffer

and die. Although He spake as never man spake, and did the works no

other man did, it was not in the first place to teach or to work

miracles that He emptied Himself of His glory and came to earth, but in

order to suffer and die in the room and stead of sinners. Others had

been prophets and teachers, others had worked miracles, others had done

good in their day and generation, but none save Jesus had come in his

own name or wielded power so marvellous as His. No one could share with

Him the work of suffering and dying for sinners. He was lifted up that

He might draw all men unto Him. "He suffered the just for the unjust,

that he might bring us to God."[083] On the cross He tasted death for

every man, and made a sacrificial atonement for the sins of the world.

"He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our

iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his

stripes we are healed."[084] His dying was the leading thought and

purpose of His life. Those who were with Him fixed their eyes on His

greatness as manifested in His wisdom and miracles, and looked for His

setting up a kingdom of this world, but He Himself from the very

beginning knew that the path to be traversed by Him was one of agony and

death. He was straitened until this baptism of suffering should be

accomplished.[085] At His first Passover He had intimated that, as Moses

lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man should be

lifted up. He used this expression "lifted up" three times, and an

Evangelist gives the explanation: "This he said, signifying what death

he should die."[086] Again and again He told the disciples that He had

come to give His life a ransom for many, that He was to be betrayed and

killed, that as the Good Shepherd He would give His life for the

sheep.[087] He intimated that His death was in accordance with the

deliberate counsel and foreknowledge of His Father, and with His own

free and full assent: "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay

down my life."[088] And when betrayal and apprehension brought His

ministry to a close, He would allow no sword to be drawn in His defence,

but was brought as a "lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her

shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth."[089]

The views which the Jews entertained with regard to the triumphant

progress of Messiah did not accord with the statements of their

prophets. The sacred writers who foretold His coming pointed indeed to

victory as the ultimate issue of His mission, but they also clearly

associated His life with conflict and suffering. From the first

intimation of a Deliverer, which spoke of a heel bruised by man's

malignant adversary, there was indicated in every type and prophecy the

truth that Messiah was to be "a man of sorrows and acquainted with

grief," whose triumph was to be achieved through suffering. The

expectation current among the Jews that deliverance would be wrought by

Messiah, without humiliation or suffering, showed that they

misinterpreted the messages of the prophets. Familiar with the letter,

they failed to grasp the spirit of the prophetical writings. Jesus laid

this ignorance to their charge when He said to them, "Ye do err, not

knowing the scriptures";[090] and He upbraided the two disciples on the

way to Emmaus because they had failed to discover that their Redeemer's

glory was to be won through conflict: "O fools, and slow of heart to

believe all that the prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to have

suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?"[091]

The suffering which Jesus endured was both bodily and spiritual.

Persecution followed Him as a babe: Herod sought to slay Him, and Joseph

and Mary had to flee into Egypt.[092] He was "despised and rejected" by

His countrymen. His claims were refused by His kinsmen. He "endured the

contradiction of sinners."[093] He "took our infirmities and bare our

sicknesses." He hungered and thirsted and was weary; He was spit upon,

buffeted, and scourged. The cross on which He was to suffer was laid

upon His shoulders, till His exhausted frame broke down; and on Calvary

a thorny crown was set upon His brow, and the cruel nails pierced His

hands and His feet. But the sorrow within His soul was worse to bear

than bodily buffering. Travail of soul was the consummation of His

afflictions, and while we do not read of a groan wrung from Him by

bodily torture, soul-trouble led Him to ask His Father with "strong

crying and tears," as His frame was agonized and His sweat was like

drops of blood--"If it be possible, let this cup pass from me."[094] As

man's Saviour Jesus was made perfect through suffering.[095] "We have

not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our

infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without

sin."[096] The world is full of suffering, and He alone can understand

and sympathise with it who has experienced it. It is the knowledge that

their Divine Saviour is their Brother-man that gives to believing

sufferers boldness and confidence as they draw nigh to the throne of

grace.

SECTION 2.--WAS CRUCIFIED

Prophecy in the sense of prediction is a very interesting and important

branch of Christian evidence. Old Testament prophets foretold minute

events in the history of the Lord Jesus Christ, such as His lineal

descent, the place and time of His birth, its miraculous character, His

death, His burial, His three days' sojourn in the sepulchre, the casting

of lots for His raiment, the piercing of His hands and feet, His last

exclamation, His resurrection and ascension. Whatever view may be taken

as to the dates of the various books of Scripture, it must be admitted

that the whole body of the Old Testament was in circulation among the

Jews hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. There can be no doubt

that these prophecies were separated by great distance in time from the

events predicted. Even the Septuagint Version, which is a Greek

translation from the original Hebrew Scriptures, existed at Alexandria

about two hundred years before His advent.

One of the most striking features of Old Testament prediction is its

bearing upon the closing scenes of Christ's history. In its types as

well as in its prophecies His death was foreshadowed, and the

humiliating and ignominious treatment to which He was subjected minutely

described. The predictions involved events that appeared contradictory

and paradoxical until their fulfilment furnished the key. He Himself

told the disciples again and again that He should be crucified. This

form of execution was a Roman punishment reserved for slaves and the

vilest criminals; and the fact that Jesus was subjected to it depended

on a combination of events which no mere human sagacity could have

foreseen. It required that, though he should be apprehended, accused,

tried, and found guilty by Jews, His death-sentence should be inflicted

by Gentiles; that the Roman governor of Judaea should, against his

better judgment, surrender to the clamorous cry of a mob who demanded

that the prisoner should be crucified. It required that the betrayal and

condemnation of Jesus should take place during the Passover week, when

it was unlawful for the Jews to put any man to death. The excuse of the

Jewish rulers, that they could not inflict death, did not mean that this

power had been withdrawn from them, but that it was against their law to

exercise it then. Had the season been different, had the Jews themselves

carried out the sentence of death, it would have been accomplished not

by crucifixion, but by stoning. Such an execution would not have

fulfilled prophecy or have been associated with the ignominy that marked

the Roman death-penalty. Thus the Scripture was fulfilled in Him,

"Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree."[097] There is but one

explanation that meets these facts, which is that they were directed by

the counsel and foreknowledge of God, and that holy men of God spake as

they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

The death of Jesus by crucifixion fulfilled in a wonderful manner the

types and figures of the Old Testament. He applied the type of the

brazen serpent to His death on the cross on which He was to be lifted

up, and from which He was to exercise His healing power on those whom

sin had bitten. The surrender of Isaac by Abraham, when he that had

received the promises offered up his only begotten son, prefigured the

unspeakable gift by the Father, who spared not His own Son, and the

self-surrender of the Son, who gave Himself for us. As Isaac went forth

bearing the wood on which he was to be offered, he was a type of Him who

went forth from Jerusalem to Calvary bearing His cross. Had His sentence

been any other than death by crucifixion, He would not have come under

the doom which required that a prisoner should bear his cross. The

Paschal Lamb, of which not a bone was to be broken, prefigured the

Antitype in His exemption from the treatment to which the two thieves

crucified with Him were subjected. In crucifixion He was numbered with

the transgressors and associated with accursed criminals, and so

prophecy received fulfilment.

It is a standing testimony at once to the reality of Christ's suffering,

and to the power which He exercises over men's minds and consciences,

that from being associated with shame and scorn, the sign of the cross

has been elevated to the highest place of honour and dignity. Through

his reverence for Jesus, Constantine the Great, the first Christian

Emperor of Rome, abolished crucifixion. It is recognised that through

Christ's death upon the cross man obtains all that makes life precious.

Instead of being regarded with scorn, a cross is the coveted emblem now

of valour and exalted achievement. The instrument wherewith capital

punishment was inflicted on abandoned criminals has come to be an

ornament of monarchs. Such a change is to be explained only by the fact

that it is the sign of Christ's redeeming sacrifice, and that to

multitudes who glory in the Cross, He who suffered the painful death on

Calvary is the "power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation."

SECTION 3.--DEAD

The death of Jesus Christ was the result of His being crucified. When He

died, the great sacrifice for the sins of the world was accomplished.

Death was necessary for the completion of His work, and this was the

fact most prominent in Old Testament type and prophecy. "Without

shedding of blood is no remission,"[098] and it was to His death as the

procuring cause of salvation that the Apostles directed their converts.

To the Corinthians Paul wrote, "I delivered unto you first of all that

which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to

the scriptures."[099] It was necessary that the lamb which formed the

chief part of the Passover meal should be slain, and so Messiah was

brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and when John saw Him in vision it

was as a Lamb that had been slain.[100] It is the death of Jesus that we

commemorate in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. The bread represents

His body "broken for us"; the wine, His blood which was "shed for many

for the remission of sins."[101] "We are reconciled to God by the death

of His Son."[102] "We have redemption through his blood, even the

forgiveness of sins."[103] Statements such as these fail to convey any

meaning if Christ did not really die on the cross, or if salvation comes

to us in any other way than through His death as an atoning sacrifice.

Of the reality of the death there is abundant evidence. It is recorded

that, after six hours of suffering on the cross, Jesus gave up the

ghost. The soldiers did not break His legs as they did in the case of

the malefactors, because they saw and pronounced Him dead already; but

one of them inflicted a spear-wound with a force that would have caused

death had any life remained. The result was an outflow of blood and

water, of itself sufficient evidence that death had done its work upon

the Sufferer. Before Pilate permitted the body of Jesus to be delivered

to Joseph, he was careful to make sure, by questioning the centurion in

charge, that the wonderful prisoner who had caused him so great anxiety

was dead. Thus Messiah was cut off, but not for Himself. He stood in the

room and stead of sinners, and, though Himself without sin, He tasted

death for every man. "He was delivered for our offences." "The Lord laid

on him the iniquity of us all." His death was not the result of

unavoidable circumstances, for it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; and

His sacrifice was voluntary, for He said, "I lay down my life ... no man

taketh it from me."[104] The penalty of death which He endured did not

pertain to Him but to those for whom He died. "He bore our sins in his

own body on the tree."[105] We are "justified by his blood."[106] "God

hath set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to

declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past,

through the forbearance of God ... that he might be just, and the

justifier of him that believeth in Jesus."[107] "Therefore as by the

offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by

the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men to

justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made

sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."[108]

In the statement that Jesus Christ "was dead," the Creed affirms the

reality of Christ's death in opposition to certain early heretics, the

Docetae, who said that His death was not real but only apparent. A

similar view has been adopted by some modern writers, who assert that

what the witnesses of the crucifixion saw was not death but a swoon,

from which, through the ministry of His disciples, Jesus was restored

after He had been taken down from the cross. It is urged in support of

this view that a crucified criminal did not usually die as Jesus is said

to have died, six hours after He was crucified, but lingered on for

days, before being relieved from his sufferings by death. Jesus' legs

were not broken by the soldiers, because they believed Him to be dead,

but--say those who deny the reality of the death--the soldiers were

mistaken, the seeming lifelessness was not real, and recovery soon

followed, so complete that He was able to appear in public on the third

day.

In considering this statement, we must take into account the physical

condition of Jesus when He was crucified. On the night of His betrayal,

and after His apprehension, He had been subjected to intense suffering

in body and to sorrow of soul such as human thought cannot conceive. In

Gethsemane He had passed through an experience of agony from which He

must have risen weakened, to endure new forms of suffering. He had been

scourged by Roman soldiers, whose cruel loaded weapons inflicted wounds

that left deep scars upon His flesh and caused intense pain and

exhaustion. His hands and feet had been fixed to the cross with nails.

He had been crowned with thorns and mocked and hooted by a reckless mob.

He had been hurried from the Sanhedrim to the Judgment-hall, and had

carried the cross until He sank beneath its weight. He had for six hours

endured intense suffering from pain and thirst, and when, after a strong

Roman soldier had thrust a spear into His side, He was taken down from

the cross, and declared by the centurion and his company to be dead, He

was laid without food, and remained for two nights and a day, in a cold

rock-sepulchre, whose door was barred by a great stone, sealed, and

guarded by soldiers. Suppose for a moment that Jesus had survived this

terrible ordeal of suffering, and that, having eluded His Roman guard

and His Jewish persecutors, He had again entered into Jerusalem, it must

have been as a weak, disabled invalid, not as a man possessing normal

strength and vigour. Yet on the third day He showed Himself alive,

bearing no traces of the suffering He had endured except the marks of

His wounds. The feet that had been pierced bore Him from Jerusalem to

Emmaus, a journey of threescore furlongs; and He passed from place to

place with a swiftness of movement and a superiority to obstacles that

filled the disciples with amazement.

In the light of these facts, the view we have been considering is

utterly untenable. It is no matter for wonder that Jesus, after such

exhaustion, died six hours after He had been lifted up on the cross. The

circumstances which preceded His dying are not consistent with the

opinion that while in the sepulchre He recovered from a swoon. It is not

possible to conceive that a man, wounded and bruised--His hands, feet,

and side pierced with nails and spear--could appear so soon, bright and

radiant, strong and vigorous, undistressed by pain or weakness, and

possessing power of movement not only restored, but marvellously

augmented. If Jesus was not really "dead," no explanation can be given

of His disappearance from history. If He had really lived as a man after

His crucifixion, we should have looked for a fresh outbreak of

persecution directed against Him. We have His own testimony by the

Spirit, "I am he that liveth, and was dead."[109]

SECTION 4.--AND BURIED

Isaiah thus prophesied regarding the burial of the Messiah: "He was cut

off out of the land of the living ... and he made his grave with the

wicked, and with the rich in his death."[110] In ordinary circumstances,

the body of a crucified person would not have received burial. It was

the Roman custom to leave the bodies of slaves and criminals, who alone

were subjected to this punishment, suspended on the cross, a prey to

beasts and birds, and when these and the elements had done their work

upon the flesh, the remains were ignominiously cast out. The Jews, who

inflicted capital punishment not by crucifixion but by stoning, did not

thus deal with the bodies of malefactors; but, as the law directed, gave

them burial on the night of execution.[111] The presence of dead bodies

in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem during the Passover festival was

regarded as a defilement, and steps were taken to have those of Jesus

and the malefactors removed. The Jews could not themselves dispose of

the bodies, because they would have sustained pollution by contact with

them, and also because they had made over to the Romans the execution of

the death-sentence. "The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation,

that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day,

(for that Sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs

might be broken, and that they might be taken away."[112] This request

was granted, but, through the interposition of Joseph, a rich man of

Arimathaea--to whom, as a member of the supreme council, the resolution

for the removal of the bodies would be known--that of Jesus escaped the

ignominious treatment to which the others were subjected. He came and

went in boldly unto Pilate and craved the body of Jesus, securing for it

an honourable burial such as the Jews had not contemplated. Pilate

"gave" the body to Joseph, and he bought fine linen, and took Him down

and wrapped Him in the linen and laid Him in a sepulchre, which was hewn

out of a rock.[113]

It was a new sepulchre, "where never man had yet lain."[114] In Joseph's

holy task there was associated with him Nicodemus, who brought costly

spices wherewith to embalm the body, "as the manner of the Jews is to

bury." The disciples of Jesus do not appear to have shared in this work,

which was watched from a distance by certain women from Galilee, who

followed and saw where He was laid. They, too, made ready spices and

ointment with which to honour the body of the Lord; but when they came

to the tomb on the morning of the first day of the week, they found it

empty, for Jesus had risen. It is not without meaning that the tomb in

which the body of Jesus was laid was a new one. It was thus impossible

to affirm that any other than He had opened a way out of its dark

recess, the conqueror of death.

Such was the wonderful combination of circumstances that led to the

fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy, "He made his grave with the wicked, and

with the rich in his death." The Jews desired that He should be buried

with the wicked. When they besought Pilate to remove the bodies, they

wished that Jesus and the malefactors should be laid together. If the

Jewish rulers had not parted with their right to dispose of the bodies,

the three who had been crucified together would have been consigned to

the burying-ground set apart for the interment of Jewish criminals; but

it was the Divine decree that Jesus should make His grave with the rich,

and therefore the event was so overruled that the bodies of Jesus and

the malefactors were at the disposal not of the Jews, but of the Roman

governor, who delivered the body of Jesus to the rich Joseph. While,

therefore, Jesus was executed in such a way that, but for the

intervention of the Jews and Pilate and Joseph, He would have been

buried with criminals, "he made his grave with the rich in his death."

Thus He who had humbled Himself in dying was honoured in His burial.

Joseph and Nicodemus were timid men. The one was a secret disciple and

the other, through fear of the Jews, came to Jesus by night. Though

members of the Sanhedrim, they had lacked courage to defend Jesus when

He was under trial; but now, grown bold, they identified themselves with

Him.

The sepulchre was carefully watched. The Jews, thinking that they might

hear something about the resurrection of Him whom they called "that

deceiver," went to Pilate and made known their fear that the disciples

would steal His body and say that He had risen from the dead.[115] The

Roman governor made light of their apprehension, and said to them,

perhaps sarcastically, "Ye have a watch: make it as sure as ye can." "So

they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a

watch,"[116]--proceedings which eventually furnished strong confirmation

of the reality of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection.

* * * * *

ARTICLE 5

_He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead_

SECTION 1.--HE DESCENDED INTO HELL

It is somewhat startling to find in the Creed this statement regarding

our Lord, "He descended into hell." The clause, which was one of the

latest admitted into the Creed, was derived from another creed known as

that of Aquileia, compiled in the fourth century. It does not appear in

the Nicene Creed, but it has a place in the Thirty-nine Articles of the

Church of England, where we read, "As Christ died for us, and was

buried, so also it is to be believed that He went down into Hell." The

Westminster Divines, who gave the Creed a place at the close of their

Shorter Catechism, appended a note explanatory of the clause to this

effect, "That is, continued in the state of the dead, and under the

power of death, until the third day."

The word "hell" is used in various senses in the Old Testament.

Sometimes it means the grave, sometimes the abode of departed spirits

irrespective of character, sometimes the place in which the wicked are

punished.

In the English New Testament, also, the word "hell" has not in every

place the same meaning. It represents two different nouns in the

original Greek--Gehenna and Hades. _Gehenna_ was the name of a deep,

narrow valley, bordered by precipitous rocks, in the neighbourhood of

Jerusalem, which had been desecrated by human sacrifices in the time of

idolatrous kings, and afterwards became the depository of city refuse

and of the offal of the temple sacrifices. The other noun, rendered by

the same English word _Hell_, is _Hades_, which means "covered,"

"unseen" or "hidden." _Hades_ is the abode of disembodied spirits until

the resurrection. The Jews believed it to consist of two parts, one

blissful, which they termed _Paradise_--the abode of the faithful; the

other _Gehenna_, in which the wicked are retained for judgment. Lazarus

and Dives were both in Hades, but separated from each other by an

impassable gulf, the one in an abode of comfort, the other in a place of

torment.[117]

As long as the spirit tabernacles in the body there are tokens of its

presence in the visible life which is sustained through its union with

the body. But when it departs from its dwelling-place in the flesh,

death and corruption begin their work on the body. Death is complete

only when the spirit has departed, and it is probable that this

statement in the Creed was meant to express in the fullest terms that

Christ's death was real. As man He had taken to Himself a true body and

a reasonable soul, and when His body was crucified and dead, His spirit

passed, as other human spirits pass at death, into Hades. It is not

without a meaning that we read, "When Jesus had cried with a loud voice,

he gave up the ghost."[118] Ghost is simply spirit, and in His case, as

in that of every man, there was a true departure of the soul from the

body at death. It was with His spirit that His last thought in life was

occupied. He knew that though it was to depart from the battered,

bruised tabernacle of His body, it was not to pass out of His Father's

sight or His Father's care. "Father, into thy hands I commend my

spirit,"[119] were His last words on the cross.

The descent into hell is not referred to in the Westminster Confession,

but in the Larger Catechism this statement is found: "Christ's

humiliation after His death consisted in His being buried, and

continuing in the state of the dead, and under the power of death, till

the third day, which hath been otherwise expressed in these words, 'He

descended into hell'"[120] What the Westminster Divines meant was, that

while Christ's body was laid in the grave His spirit passed from the

visible to the invisible world, that, as He shared the common lot of men

in the death and burial of His body, so He shared their common lot in

passing as a spirit into the abode of spirits. The statement of this

clause follows naturally what is said of the body of Jesus in that which

precedes it. As His body was crucified, dead, and buried, so His spirit

passed into the abode of spirits. "In all things it behoved him to be

made like unto His brethren."[121]

Those who maintain that the spirit of Christ descended into hell in a

sense peculiar to Himself, ground their opinion upon certain passages of

Scripture. Psalm xvi. 10--"Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor wilt

thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption"--is quoted in support of

this opinion, but does not really justify it. It expresses the

confidence of the speaker, that God will not deliver His soul to the

power of Sheol (the Hebrew word equivalent to the Greek Hades), or

suffer His body to see corruption, and in this sense the passage is

quoted by Peter, as a proof from prophecy of the resurrection of Christ.

Ephesians iv. 9 is also regarded as giving sanction to this view--"Now

that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the

lower parts of the earth?" By the "lower parts of the earth" some

understand parts lower than the earth, but such a view rests on a

strained interpretation of the passage. Paul's argument is that ascent

to heaven must have been made by one who, before ascending, was below.

Christ had come down from heaven to earth, and was below therefore, he

argues, Christ is the subject of the prophecy he has quoted. He it was

that hid ascended up on high, not the Father, who is everywhere.[122]

In Isaiah xliv. 23 we have corroboration of this view: "Sing, O ye

heavens ... shout, ye lower parts of the earth." Here "lower parts"

means simply the earth beneath; that is, beneath the heavens.

The most difficult and important passage bearing on the clause is 1

Peter iii. 18, 19. "Being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by

the spirit by which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison."

In the Revised Version the rendering is not "by" but "in," "which"

referring to the word "spirit,"--not the third Person of the Godhead,

but the human spirit of Jesus--in which spirit, separated from the body

yet instinct with immortal life, He went and "preached to the spirits in

prison," or rather to the spirits in custody. The passage marks an

antithesis between "flesh" and "spirit." In Christ's "flesh." He was put

to death. His enemies killed His body, but His soul was as beyond their

power. His body was dead, but in the abode of souls His "spirit" was

alive and active.

So far there is here simply the statement that our Lord's disembodied

spirit passed to Hades, but the Apostle adds that He "preached to the

spirits in prison," and it is inferred by some that He preached

repentance, but this is an assumption for which there is no Scripture

warrant. We are not told what was the subject of Christ's preaching. He

had finished His work on earth, had atoned for sin, had overcome death

and conquered Satan. Even angels did not fully know the work of grace

and salvation which Christ accomplished for man, and it is not likely

that the spirits of departed antediluvians and patriarchs understood its

greatness. The least in the Kingdom of Heaven knows more than the

greatest of patriarchs or prophets knew. While in the flesh they had

seen His day afar off, and, as disembodied spirits, they knew that

Messiah by suffering and dying was to work out their redemption, but

before the work was finished neither men nor angels understood the

mystery of it, and what is more likely than that the completion of His

redeeming work was first made known to them in the spirit by the

Redeemer Himself? If we accept this view, the preaching to the spirits

in prison was the intimation to those already blessed, who had while on

earth repented and believed, that Messiah by dying had brought in

everlasting salvation for His people.

There is still a difficulty in Peter's words. Christ is said to have

preached to those who were disobedient in the days of Noah. Peter says

that in the writings of Paul there are some things hard to be

understood, but what he himself writes regarding Christ's work in Hades

is also difficult, and the passage has found a great variety of

interpretations. It would seem to imply that Christ in the spirit

carried a special message to the antediluvians who had been disobedient

and had perished in the Flood. What that message was we are not told,

and human conjecture may not supply what the Spirit of God has seen fit

to conceal. While the passage is a difficult one, the inference is not

warranted which some have drawn from it, that those who are disobedient

to Christ and reject His Gospel may, though they die impenitent,

nevertheless obtain salvation after death. The plain teaching of

Scripture is that it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that

the judgment.[123] And whatever the statement of Peter may mean, it does

not sanction belief in purgatory or in universal restoration. Romanists

teach that the department of Hades to which the spirit of our Lord

descended was that in which dwelt the souls of believers who died before

the time of Christ, and that the object of His descent was the

deliverance and introduction into heaven of the pious dead who had been

imprisoned in the _Limbus Patrum_, as they term that portion of Hades

which these occupied. This they say was the triumph of Christ to which

Paul refers in Ephesians iv. 8, when, quoting the 68th Psalm, he tells

us that He ascended up on high, leading captivity captive.

According to the Romanists, Hades consists of three divisions--heaven,

hell, and purgatory. Heaven is the most blessed abode reserved for three

classes of persons:--1st, Those Old Testament saints whose spirits were

detained in custody until Christ arose, when they were led out by Him in

triumph; 2nd, Those who in this life attain to perfection in holiness;

and 3rd, Those believers in Christ, who, having died in a state of

imperfection, have made satisfaction for their sins and receive

cleansing through endurance of the fires of purgatory. Hell is the abode

of endless torment, where heretics and all who die in mortal sin suffer

eternally. Purgatory is supposed to complete the atonement of Christ.

His work delivers from original sin and eternal punishment, but

satisfaction for actual transgression is not complete until after the

endurance of temporal punishments and the pains of purgatory. The Church

of Rome claims the right to prescribe the nature and extent of such

punishments, and having devised a complicated system of indulgences,

penances, and masses, professes to hold the Keys of Heaven and to

possess authority to regulate penalties and obtain pardon for the living

and the dead. Such claims are unfounded and false. God alone can forgive

sin, and He recognises only two classes--the righteous and the

wicked--here and hereafter; and only two everlasting

dwelling-places--heaven and hell. The Romanist doctrine has no authority

in Scripture, but is of heathen origin, being derived from the Egyptians

through the Greeks and Romans, and having been current throughout the

Roman Empire. Its effect has been the aggrandisement and enrichment of

the papal priesthood and the subjection of the people. It contradicts

the Word of God, which declares that there is no condemnation to the

believer in Christ Jesus; that he hath eternal life; that for him to

depart is to be with Christ, to enjoy unalloyed, unending blessedness.

Protestants, therefore, hold that "the souls of believers are at their

death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into

glory."[124]

Between those who hold the doctrine of purgatory and believers in

universal restoration, there is not a little in common. Universalists

reject the Atonement, and say that God always punishes men for their

sins. The wicked must expect to suffer in the next world, but the mercy

of God will follow them, the punishment endured will in time effect

deliverance, and the result will finally be the restoration of all to

purity and happiness. They thus maintain with regard to all, what

Romanists hold respecting those who pass to purgatory, and both are to

be answered in the same way. We cannot make satisfaction, and we need

not, for Jesus has borne "our sins in his own body on the tree."[125] By

this "one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified";

so that "there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain

fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall

devour the adversaries."[126]

This clause has place in the Creed as a protest against the heresy of

Apollinaris, a Bishop of Laodicea, who taught that Christ did not assume

a human soul when He became incarnate. He thus denied the perfect

manhood of Christ, and in support of His doctrine appealed to the fact

that the Scripture says,[127] "The Word (in Greek, Logos) was made

flesh," "God was manifest in the flesh," while it is never said that He

was made spirit. He sought to establish a connection between the Divine

Logos and human flesh of such a kind that all the attributes of God

passed into the human nature and all the human attributes into the

Divine, while both together merged in one nature in Christ, who, being

neither man nor God, but a mixture of God and man, held a middle place.

His heresy found many supporters, though it was promptly met by Gregory

Nazianzen, who showed that the term "flesh" is used in Scripture to

denote the whole human nature, and that when Christ became incarnate He

took upon Him the complete nature of humanity, untainted by sin. Only

thus could He be qualified to become man's Saviour, for only a perfect

man can be a full and complete Redeemer. Man's spirit, his most noble

element, stands in need of redemption as well as his body, for all its

faculties are corrupted by sin.

In affirming that Jesus descended into hell, this clause of the Creed

declares that He possessed the complete nature of humanity; that His

true body died, and that His reasonable soul departed to Hades.

SECTION 2.--THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD[128]

On the morning of the first day of the week, thenceforth hallowed as the

Lord's Day--the Christian Sabbath--the soul of Jesus left Hades, and

once more and for ever entered the body, and formed with it the

perfected humanity of the "Word made flesh." The resurrection of Jesus

is a well-attested fact of history. The close-sealed, sentinelled

sepulchre, the broken seal, the stone rolled away, the trembling guard,

the empty tomb, and the many appearances of Jesus to the women, the

disciples, the brethren, and last of all to Saul of Tarsus, prove that

He had risen.[129]

The Resurrection was a fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy. Peter thus

interprets Psalm xvi. 10, "For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell;

neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption," affirming

that David in that Psalm speaks of the Resurrection of Christ.[130]

Jesus Himself often foretold, both figuratively and directly, His own

resurrection, as when He spoke of the coming destruction of the Temple,

and connected it with the death and resurrection of His body;[131] or

when He told the disciples that in a little while they should not see

Him, and again in a little while they should see Him.[132] The place

which this doctrine holds in the Christian faith is shown by the

numerous references to it in the Epistles.

The Apostles had not grasped the statements of Christ in such a way as

to lead them to look with confidence for His return, or to gather hope

of His resurrection. On the contrary, they did not expect His

resurrection, and, when they heard of it, they could not believe it to

be real.[133] Yet, convinced by the evidence of their own senses, they

came to hold it fast as the fact that crowned all their hopes in life

and death. Although the preaching of "Jesus and the Resurrection"

exposed them to persecution and martyrdom, they nevertheless continued

to proclaim a risen Lord. "If Christ is not risen," says Paul, "then is

our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain,"[134] and he goes on to

admit that if the Resurrection had not taken place, he was altogether

mistaken in the view of God's character set forth in his preaching and

epistles. Peter makes a similar statement: "We are begotten again unto a

lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ."[135] It is His victory

over death that confirms the truth of His claims. He is proved to be the

Son of God by His resurrection from the dead.[136] So important a fact

was it regarded in connection with their work, that when they met to

select a successor to Judas in the apostolic college, it was held to be

essential that no one should be appointed who was not able to testify

that he had seen the risen Lord.[137] Paul regarded this doctrine as so

necessary, that he made it the basis of faith and salvation: "If thou

shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine

heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."[138]

The life of Paul is an unanswerable argument for the truth of the

Resurrection. Not only did he preach this as the central doctrine of

Christianity; he maintained it at the cost of all that, before his

conversion, he had held dear. He was not a man to give his faith to such

a doctrine without overwhelming evidence of its truth. As Saul of Tarsus

he had been in the fullest confidence of the Jewish rulers, and knew all

that they could urge against the reality of the Resurrection, but their

arguments had no weight with one who had seen the risen Lord on the way

to Damascus.

The importance of the Resurrection of Christ as an argument for the

Divine origin of Christianity is recognised alike by those who receive

and by those who reject it. Negative criticism has assailed the doctrine

and has devised ingenious theories to explain on natural grounds the

testimony on which it is received. The diversity of such explanations

goes far to refute them, and their utter failure to account for the

marvellous effects which the appearances of the risen Jesus produced on

the witnesses, or for the place which the doctrine held in their

teaching, has tended rather to establish than to discredit the reality

of the Resurrection.

Various sceptical theories, to which much importance was attached for a

time, are now almost forgotten. The Mythical theory fails to account for

the immediate effect produced by belief in the Resurrection. Myths

require time for their growth and development, but the disciples of

Jesus set the Resurrection in the forefront from the very first. On the

day of Pentecost Peter sounded the keynote of Apostolic preaching when

he declared, "This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are

witnesses." And so from this time forward, "with great power gave the

Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus." The historical

fact not only rests upon the most irresistible evidence; it is the very

corner-stone of the whole fabric of Gospel teaching.

Another view of the testimony for the Resurrection has found advocates

who claim that it explains, without having recourse to supernaturalism,

the belief of the disciples and others in the doctrine. With some minor

differences of detail, they agree in attributing the persistency of

those who said that they had seen Jesus alive, to the impression

produced on them by His wonderful personality. This, they hold, was so

strong that the effect continued after His death, and the disciples saw

visions of Him so vivid that they believed them to be real appearances.

He had filled so much of their lives while He was with them, that they

were unable to realise His departure, and retained His image in their

hearts continually. Exalted and excited feeling projected His figure so

that they saw Him apparently restored to life.

A theory such as this will not stand, in the face of the evidence for

the Resurrection. It was no subjective impression, but the Saviour

Himself, that brought conviction to the minds of the numerous witnesses.

It was no apparition, it was a body that they saw and handled and tested

and proved to be of flesh and blood. They heard their Master speak, and

saw Him eat; and at frequent intervals for forty days He showed Himself

to them. Sometimes He was seen by one, sometimes by many; and before His

ascension He charged them to carry on the work He had committed to them:

to feed His sheep, to feed His lambs, to go into all the world and

preach the Gospel to every creature. "Him," said Peter, "God raised up

on the third day, and showed him openly; not to all the people, but unto

witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with

him after he rose from the dead."[139]

What they saw was the true body of their Lord, the same that had been

crucified, dead, and buried, but a marvellous change had passed over it.

It was now possessed of spiritual qualities, suddenly appearing,

suddenly vanishing; now felt to be made of flesh and bones, and now

passing through closed doors, or walking upon water. It was no longer

subject to natural law as it had been before the Resurrection; and when

the disciples beheld the Lord, they had not only proof of His continued

existence, of His being God as well as man, and of God's seal having

been set upon His atoning work,--they had also an intimation of what

life hereafter will be for His followers, who shall be like Him, for

they shall see Him as He is.

How full and widespread was the belief in the Resurrection of Jesus in

the hearts of those who were its witnesses, is apparent not only from

the fact that the great theme of their preaching was "Jesus and the

resurrection," but is also evident from the importance they attached to

the Lord's Day and the Lord's Supper. These institutions have a direct

connection with the Resurrection, the former having been substituted for

the Jewish Sabbath expressly on the ground that on that day the Lord

rose; the latter, while it commemorates His death, sets forth also His

resurrection life.

* * * * *

ARTICLE 6

_He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of

God the Father Almighty_

Forty days after His resurrection Jesus charged the Apostles, in the

last words He is known to have spoken on earth, to testify of Him

throughout the world, and assured them that they should receive power

through the descent of the Holy Spirit. This last-recorded utterance

called His Church to missionary enterprise: "Ye shall be witnesses unto

me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the

uttermost part of the earth."[140] It is when believers in Christ are

faithful in the performance of this duty that fulfilment of the promise

may be confidently looked for, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the

end of the world."[141]

We are told that, when Jesus had spoken these things, "He led them out

as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And

it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and

carried up into heaven."[142]

Ascension is the completion of Resurrection. "If he were on earth," says

the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, "he should not be a

priest."[143] No part of His work would have corresponded to that of the

high priest, who, when he had offered up sacrifice, passed into the holy

place with the blood of the victim, and laid it upon the altar. The act

thus foreshadowed in the type was accomplished when our great High

Priest passed into the heavens, and "entered not into the holy places

made with hands, which are the figure of the true; but into heaven

itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us."[144]

The Ascension took place in open day and in the sight of the Apostles.

"While they beheld, he was taken up."[145] That they might be witnesses

of the fact, it was necessary that they should see Him go up from earth.

Unlike the Ascension, the Resurrection of Christ took place unseen by

mortal eye. Eye-witnesses of His rising from the dead were not needed.

The fact that they had seen Jesus after He rose qualified them to be

witnesses of His Resurrection, but it was only because they had seen Him

taken up that they could bear personal testimony to His Ascension.

Thus our Lord "ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of

God the Father Almighty." This Article expresses the honour and dignity

of His Person and character. To sit on the right hand is an honour

reserved for the most favoured.[146] When the Scriptures speak of the

right hand of God, it is meant that, as the right hand among men is the

place of honour, power, and happiness, so to sit on the right hand of

God is to obtain the place of highest glory, power, and satisfaction.

At God's right hand our Lord entered into everlasting and perfect glory

and dominion. Being one with the Father, all that is the Father's is

His. He is exalted a Prince and a Saviour, having an eternal life and

all the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in Him bodily. The Father

Himself gave Him the place at His right hand, having highly exalted Him

and given Him a name which is above every name. None can dethrone Him or

successfully plot against His kingdom. No weapon, carnal or spiritual,

can ever prevail against Him. It is this that gives to Christianity its

stability and power, for Christianity is Christ Himself sitting at the

right hand of God. The ascended Christ exercises absolute authority and

unlimited dominion. The Father on whose right hand the Son sits is, in

this clause, as in that which stands at the beginning of the Creed,

termed the "Father Almighty." Though the distinction is not apparent in

the English version of the Creed, "Almighty" in the original Greek is in

these clauses expressed by two different words. In the earlier clause,

the word so rendered signifies God's supreme, universal dominion, while

here the word employed denotes the fact that His power and operation are

always efficacious and irresistible, and that all things are under His

absolute control. This word "Almighty" warrants the belief which the

clause declares, that the Son, sitting on the right hand of the Father,

possesses absolute and universal power, and that in executing His office

as Mediator none can resist or oppose Him.

The word "sitteth" is expressive not so much of the attitude as of the

settled and continuous character of Christ's exaltation. At God's right

hand in heaven He executes the offices of Prophet, Priest, and King, as

He did on earth. The prophet, as teacher of the revealed truth, held

office in Old Testament times; and when Jesus entered on His public

ministry, it was as a Divinely-accredited teacher that He claimed to be

received. He brought out of His treasury things new and old, and

exhorted men to hear, believe, and obey Him. By His words and His life,

He made known the will of God for man's salvation; and when He was

lifted up upon the cross, it was to the end that, by the sacrifice He

offered and the truth He taught, He might draw all men unto Him. He

brought life and immortality to light, and since His departure He has

not ceased to be the Teacher and the Guide of all who receive Him. His

word abides with us, and His first gift to the Church after He rose was

the Holy Ghost, who came to lead men to all truth. When the Lord

ascended on high He received gifts for men, "and he gave some, apostles;

and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and

teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the

ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ."[147] It is in Him

that all Christian teaching originates, and through His Spirit that it

takes hold of men's hearts. Our Lord does not indeed now appear in

visible form, speaking face to face with men as He did in Palestine, but

He speaks in and through every believer who in His name seeks to win

souls for His Kingdom. Paul recognised this when he wrote to the

Corinthians, "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did

beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to

God."[148]

In His exaltation, Christ executes the office of a Priest. The functions

of the Jewish high priest were not limited to the offering of sacrifice.

When he had made an end of offering, he carried the blood of the victim

into the Holy Place and made intercession for the sins of the

congregation. As the mediator between God and His people, he thus

foreshadowed the work of Him who is a "priest for ever, after the order

of Melchizedek,"--succeeding none, and being succeeded by none, in His

priestly office. As the high priest's work was partly without and partly

within the Holy Place, so Christ's priestly work is twofold, consisting

of His satisfaction for sin upon earth and His intercession in heaven.

"Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." He was once offered to bear

the sins of many, thereby satisfying Divine justice and reconciling men

to God. After having as our great High Priest offered the sacrifice of

Himself, He passed into the heavens. There He makes continual

intercession for us.

At the right hand of God He exercises kingly prerogatives also. He was

anointed to the royal office at His baptism, when the Holy Ghost

descended on Him.[149] When by death He overcame him who had the power

of death; when He rose from the grave and announced to His disciples

that all power was given Him in heaven and earth, He asserted His kingly

office; and when God, having raised Him from the dead, set Him at His

own right hand in heavenly places, far above all principalities, and

powers, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only

in this world, but also in that which is to come, all things were put

under His feet, He was given to be Head over all things to the

church,[150] and received dominion and glory and a kingdom. He must

reign until all His enemies are under His feet. "To which of the angels

said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies

thy footstool?"[151]

* * * * *

ARTICLE 7

_From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead_

This clause of the Creed points to the future. As those who saw Jesus

ascend stood gazing up, two heavenly messengers in white apparel

appeared and said to them, "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you

into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into

heaven."[152] Jesus Himself often warned the disciples that the time was

at hand when He should leave them and return to His Father, but that His

departure was not to be final, for He would come again to gather all

nations before Him, and to judge the quick and the dead. He comforted

them by the statement that His going away was expedient for them. "I go

to prepare a place for you." "I will come again, and receive you unto

myself."[153] But the return was not to be only for the reception of the

faithful into His kingdom and glory, but for judgment upon all mankind.

"The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels;

and then shall he reward every man according to his works."[154]

"Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they

also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because

of him."[155]

The time of Christ's return to judgment has not been revealed. "Of that

day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father

only."[156] The first Christians looked for it with joyous expectation,

believing that their Lord and Master would speedily appear and redress

their wrongs. Cruelly persecuted by Jew and Gentile, it is no wonder

that Apostles and other believers associated the second advent with

emancipation and victory, and termed it "That blessed hope, the glorious

appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ."[157] Under the

influence of false teachers, this expectation gave rise to unhealthy

excitement and consequent disorder in the Church. In his second Epistle

to the Thessalonians Paul set himself earnestly to counteract their

teaching. He indignantly repudiated the doctrine attributed to him,

apparently in connection with a forged epistle, and he supplied a test

by which the genuineness of his letters might be proved.

The mistake of the Thessalonians has often been repeated. Attempts have

been made to fix the time of the Lord's second coming, and the work of

predicting goes on busily still. Enthusiasts and impostors have been

more or less successful in finding credulous followers. Again and again

the progress of time has falsified such predictions, but would-be

prophets have not been discouraged by the blunders of their

predecessors.

All men, quick and dead, are to be brought before the Judgment-seat, the

faithful that they may be raised to everlasting blessedness, and the

wicked to be dismissed to everlasting punishment. Paul describes the

events of the great day of Christ's appearing as it will affect the

saints. "The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with

the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in

Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be

caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the

air."[158] He gives a similar description to the Corinthians: "We shall

not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the

twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and

the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."[159]

"He commanded us to testify," says Peter, "that it is he which was

ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead."[160] And Paul writes

to Timothy that "the Lord Jesus Christ shall judge the quick and the

dead at his appearing."[161]

The most awful descriptions of the Judgment, as it will affect the

wicked, are given by the Lord Jesus Himself. In Matthew xxv. we have a

series of images, in which the terrors of the "great day of the Lord"

are set forth. The virgins that go out to meet the Bridegroom, the

servants with their talents, the Judge dividing all brought before Him

as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats, are warnings of the

certainty and severity of judgment, and of the doom reserved for the

ungodly.

"The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the

Son."[162] As God, He has all things naked and open before Him. As man,

He became subject to human conditions, and was in all points tempted as

we are, yet without sin. Our Judge knows our frame, our temptations, our

weakness, our difficulties; and in the Judgment, as in His life on

earth, He will not break the bruised reed, or apply to men's conduct a

harsher measure than they have merited. Judgment will begin at the house

of God, and sentence on the ungodly will be severe in proportion to

knowledge, privilege, and opportunity. Men will be judged by their

works, and in this doctrine of Scripture there is no opposition to that

of justification by faith. Men cannot be justified by their own works,

but if Christ be in them and the Spirit of God dwell in their hearts,

then, being dead to sin, they follow holiness. The distinction between

the children of God and the children of the devil is this, that the

former class bring forth the fruits of righteousness, and the latter the

fruits of sin. "A good man out of the good treasure of the heart

bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure

bringeth forth evil things."[163] In the Judgment the works of every man

shall be brought to light, whether they be good or evil. "There is

nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be

known."[164] The just shall be rewarded, not on account of their good

works, but because of the atonement and righteousness of Christ; yet

their works will be the test of their sanctification and the proof that

they are members of Christ and regenerated by His Spirit.

* * * * *

ARTICLE 8

_I believe in the Holy Ghost_

The eighth article of the Creed declares belief in the third Divine

Person--the Holy Ghost.

The words "I believe," implied in every clause, are here repeated, to

mark the transition from the Second to the Third Person of the Trinity.

While this doctrine underlies all the teaching of the Old Testament

Scriptures, it was yet in a measure not understood or realised by the

Jews, and as Christ came to make known the Father, so to Him we owe also

the full revelation of the Holy Spirit. Prophets and Psalmists had

glimpses of the doctrine, but they lived in the twilight, and saw

through a glass darkly many truths now clearly made known.

While we speak freely of spiritual life, our conception of it is so

vague that we are apt to overlook, or to regard lightly, the work of the

Holy Spirit in redemption. The disciples of John, whom Paul met at

Ephesus, believed in Jesus and had been baptized, and yet they told the

Apostle that they had not so much as heard whether there was any Holy

Ghost.[165] John tells us that even while Jesus was on earth the Holy

Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.[166]

That the Holy Ghost is a Person, and not, as some hold, a mere energy or

influence proceeding from the Father, or from the Father and the Son, is

apparent from the passages of Scripture which refer to Him. An energy

has no existence independent of the agent, but this can not be

maintained with reference to the Holy Ghost. He is associated as a

Person with Persons. In the baptismal formula and in the apostolic

benediction the Holy Spirit is spoken of in the same terms as the Father

and the Son, and is therefore a Person as they are Persons. He is said

to possess will and understanding. He is said to teach, to testify, to

intercede, to search all things, to bestow and distribute spiritual

gifts according to His will.