That Jehovah is the Most High
God—infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, perfect in wisdom, justice, love and
power; that Jesus, His only begotten Son, had a pre-human existence as the
mighty Word, or Logos, "the beginning of the creation of God,"
"the firstborn of every creature," the Father's Agent in all the
works of creation (John 1:1-3; 6:51; 17:5; Rev.
3:14; Col. 1:15-17).
That the Word "was made
flesh," born of "a virgin," and thus became the man Jesus,
"made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death," yet
"separate from sinners" (John
1:14; Isa. 7:14; Heb.
2:9; 7:26).
That Christ is Divine; that He was
"put to death in the flesh, but quickened [made alive] in the
Spirit," made "a quickening Spirit," highly exalted, and
"given a name which is above every name"; "who only hath
immortality [God being excepted]" (1 Pet. 3:18; 1 Cor. 15:45, 50; Phil.
2:9-11; 1 Tim. 6:16; Heb.
1:3, 13).
That the Holy Spirit proceeds from
the Father and the Son, and is manifested in all true Christians (Luke 11:11-13; John
14:26; 15:26; 16:7-15; 1 Cor. 2:9-16; 3:16: Eph.
3:16; 4:4, 30; 2
Tim. 1:7).
That man was created perfect, in
God's character image, and that through sin he fell under the penalty—not of
eternal life in torment, but--of death, destruction, which he is
undergoing by exposure to various evils, permitted by God to teach him by
experience the evil nature and effects of sin and the desirability of hating
and forsaking it (Gen. 1:26-31; 2:17; 3:1-31; Eccles.
7:29; Rom. 5:12-19; 6:21-23; 8:20-22; 11:32; Psa.
76:7-10; 90:1-17).
That the Church, the 144,000,
gathered from among Jews and Gentiles, is God's Temple, "his
workmanship"; that "the church of the firstborn" includes the
Great Multitude, "living stones" in this great Temple's Court,
together with the Ancient and Youthful Worthies Millennially; that this great
Temple's construction has been in progress throughout the Gospel Age, beginning
when Christ became mankind's Redeemer and the Chief Corner Stone of this
Temple, through which, when finished, God's blessings shall come to "all
people," and they shall gain access to Him (Rev.
7:1-17; 14:1; Rom.
11:11, 12; 1 Cor. 3:16, 17; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph.
2:10, 20-22; Joel
2:28, 29; 2 Tim. 2:20; Heb. 11:38-40; Gen.
28:14).
That meantime the pre-Millennial
preparation—the chiseling, shaping and polishing—of the Gospel-Age consecrated
believers in Christ's atonement for sin progresses; and when the last of these
shall have been made ready, the great Master Workman will bring all together in
the resurrection; and the Temple, filled with His glory, will become the
meeting place between God and men throughout the Millennial Age (Rev.
15:5-8; 21:3).
That the basis of hope for everlasting
life for the elect and the non-elect is in the fact that God "is the
Savior of all men, specially of those that believe"; that Jesus "by
the grace of God tasted death for every man," "a ransom
[corresponding price] for all"; that God "will have all men to be
saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth"; and that Jesus is
"the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world," "in due time" (1 Tim. 4:10; 2:3-6; Heb.
2:9; John 1:9; Num.
14:21; Isa. 11:9; 40:5; Jer.
31:34; Hab. 2:14).
That the hope of God's true people
now being developed is that they will have an abundant entrance into God's
everlasting Kingdom, and that their present mission is to develop and perfect
themselves and others in Christlikeness, to witness for God and Christ to the
world, and to prepare for the work of blessing all the families of the earth in
the coming Kingdom on earth (Rom.
12:2; Phil. 2:12; Gal.
5:22, 23; 2 Pet. 1:5-11; 3:18; John
18:37; Acts 1:8; 1 Cor. 9:16; 2
Tim. 4:2). That Jesus is the satisfaction for the sins of the Church
and the world; that the Gospel Age is the Church's judgment day; that God has
appointed a Thousand-year Day in which He "will judge the world in
righteousness," with Satan bound; that while none of Adam's race get a
second chance, each of them will have one full, free, fair
opportunity to gain eternal life through Christ, either in this life
or after being awakened from the dead (1
John 2:2; 1 Pet. 4:17; Acts
17:31; 2 Pet. 3:7, 8; Rev.
20:2-7, 12, 13; John
5:28-29 (ASV); Acts
24:15; 1 Thes. 4:13, 14).
That the gospel was preached to
Abraham, saying, "In thee shall all nations be blessed"; that the
Christ, Head and Body, is the great Seed of Abraham (the rest of God's people
are the subordinate seed), through whom "all the families of the earth
shall be blessed"; that this blessing of salvation for the world will come
during Jesus' Second Advent, in "the times of restitution of all
things," when God's Kingdom will be established on earth (Gen.
12:3; Gal. 3:7-9, 16, 29; Eph.
1:22, 23; Acts
3:19-23; Matt. 6:10; Rev.
22:17).
That we are now in "the
time of the end," with its unprecedented "time of trouble," the
Epiphany, or Apocalypse, period, in which Jesus reveals Himself in His Second
Advent; that He is now overthrowing Satan's dominion; that His reign of peace
and righteousness is soon to be established; and that Israel's return to their
homeland presages the beginning of His reign (Dan.
12:1, 4, 9, 10; Matt.
24:21; 2 Tim. 4:1; Zeph.
3:8, 9; Dan.
2:35, 44; Amos
9:11-15; Rev. 11:15; 21:1-8).
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