THE WORD—LOGOS—GOD'S SON. HIS PRE-HUMAN EXISTENCE. HIS CREATION. HIS RELATION TO GOD. HIS WORK. THE GOOD ANGELS. THEIR NATURE AND WORKS. SATAN. AUTHOR OF SIN. HIS EMPIRE. RELENTLESS PERSECUTION OF OPPONENTS. HIS CUNNING. OVERTHROW OF HIS EMPIRE. HIS FINAL REBELLION AND DESTRUCTION. THE FALLEN ANGELS.

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IN THE preceding chapter, in which we set forth some general thoughts on creation, we showed that there are two created worlds—that of spirit and that of matter. Both of these we purpose to treat in discussing our theme. As the world of spirit was first created, and as its subjects were used by God to bring into existence and order the world of matter, it is logical to treat first the world of spirit, which we will, accordingly, treat before we treat of the world of matter. Since God is increate because of His having always been, we of course would not treat of Him, though a Dweller in the world of spirit (John 4:23), while discussing the world of spirit as the product of creative action. In that action He is the Creator and in no sense a creation or creature. His Son, therefore, as the pre-human Word— Logos (John 1:1, 2)—would logically be the First One to be discussed in an article treating of God's creative works, and that especially for two reasons: (1) His being, as God's Firstborn, apart from the Father, before all other spirit beings, and (2) His being the Agent of God in bringing the rest of the world of spirit and the whole world of matter into existence. Therefore we begin our discussion of God's specific creative works with a dissertation on the pre- human Word, or Logos—our pre-human Lord.

And at this point we are met with the view of some who deny that our Lord existed before He became a

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human being born of the virgin Mary. These claim that His father was Joseph and His mother was Mary; that only in the sense that other good people may be called God's children can Jesus be called a son of God, i.e., in a figurative or accommodated sense, but not in the actual sense of deriving His life principle directly from God. Those who set up such a claim do not hesitate to consider Jesus a sinner, though they usually admit that He was more successful than the average sinner in overcoming His alleged sinful propensities. This theory conflicts with the facts of Jesus' human begettal and birth, as set forth in the Bible, notably in the first chapter of Matthew and Luke. It also contradicts the explicit Scriptures that teach Jesus' sinlessness Ps. 45:7;  Heb. 1:9;  Ps. 89:19;  Is. 42:21;  53:9; Jer. 23:5; Luke 1:35; John 5:30; 7:18; 8:46; 14:30; Acts 3:14; 4:27, 30; 13:35; 2 Cor. 4:4; 5:21; Heb. 4:15;  7:26-28; 9:14; 1 Pet. 1:19; 2:22; 1 John 3:5; Rev. 3:7). But most of all it is in violent conflict with the whole plan of God, which is pivoted on the Ransom; for if Jesus were a sinner He would have needed a savior and thus, not able to save Himself, He would, of course, not be able to save others; for His sinlessness was a necessary antecedent to His bringing a Divinely acceptable propitiatory sacrifice for mankind's sin. But since He did this, He could have had no human father; since sin and its penalty are transmitted by human fathers (Rom. 5:12, 15-19; Eph. 2:3). Accordingly, Joseph was not Jesus' actual father, which God is, as His plan sets forth.

While the preceding paragraph proves that neither Joseph nor any other human being was Jesus' father, and also proves that God was the Father of Jesus' humanity, this latter fact of itself would not necessarily prove Jesus' pre- human existence; for God could have generated Him by Mary without His having pre-existed. Hence Jesus' pre- existence must be established by other lines of proof than His human

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generation by God, though the latter fact would not be unfavorable to His pre-existence. His pre-existence is proven by direct Scripture passages which affirm it, by His identity with the archangel, Michael, and by His office work as God's special Agent in creation, providence and Old Testament revelation. We, therefore, will now proceed to the proof of our Lord's pre-human existence, and that first from the direct statements of the Bible, both in the New and in the Old Testaments.

We begin with John 1:1-3, which we will quote according to the Improved Version, a more literal translation of the Greek and thus better than the A. V.: "In a beginning was the Word [Logos, in the Greek], and the Word was with the [supreme] God, and the Word was a god [a mighty one]. This one was in a beginning with the God. All things came into existence through Him; and apart from Him not even one thing came into existence which has come into existence." The fact that v. 3 asserts that the Word [the pre-human Christ] was the Agent through whom all creation came into existence, proves that He existed before His birth from Mary. This fact further proves that the expression, "in a beginning," in vs. 1, 2, refers to a time previous to that beginning in which the heavens and earth were created (Gen. 1:1). The beginning of John 1:1, 2, therefore, predates even that beginning in which were made the angels, who were made before the heavens and earth, since they praised God when they witnessed creation coming into existence (Job 38:7), and who doubtless assisted the Word (Logos, in the Greek) in bringing creation into existence. The expression, "the Word [Logos] was a god" (so the Greek), likewise implies our Lord's preexistence; for it defines Him as existing as a spirit before He became human. This is manifest from the fact that all the orders of spirit beings below God are over 200 times in the Bible called gods. Again, His

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being spoken of as being with God in that first of all beginnings (v. 2) proves His pre-existence. There are other matters in these verses on which we will comment when treating of our Lord's relation to the Father. But the points in these verses above noted prove His pre-existence.

Of all Biblical writers St. John stresses our Lord's pre- existence the most, and that to refute certain Jewish and other false views on that subject, some prevalent in his day, and some shortly to arise. For this reason we will make a larger use of St. John's pertinent testimonies than those of other Biblical writers. John 1:14 is to the point: "The Logos became flesh," i.e., the Logos became human. Here our Lord's carnation is set forth. From a spirit being next in rank and nature to the Father He became a human being. The change of nature from that of a spirit to a human being is here taught. Please notice that the text does not say that He remained what He was before and added another nature to that which He had before and as a consequence existed henceforth in two natures the pre-human and the human; but it says that He was translated from the one into the other, so that He ceased being a spirit being when He became a human being. This is illustrated by His changing, at the wedding feast at Cana, the water into wine. In this miracle the water did not remain water with wine added, so that there were two substances as a result of the miracle; but the water was transubstantiated into wine and thus was wine and ceased to be water. Thus at His carnation the pre- human Logos ceased being a spirit and became a human being—"the Logos became flesh." This change of nature— His carnation—implies that He existed previously to His becoming a human being.

In John 17 there is a testimony to our Lord's preexistence. In v. 5 Jesus prays thus: "Glorify Me with the glory that I had with thee before the world was." Here Jesus says that He had been previously with the

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Father, just as St. John (1:1, 2) says of Him. Jesus further shows when this was—"before the world was"—before the creation of the universe, i.e., before that beginning when the heavens and earth were made (Gen. 1:1). The glory that He then enjoyed was one of mode of existence (that of a spirit) and of position or office; for He was then a spirit being and God's Vicegerent, empowered to act as God's special Agent in creation. He left that mode of existence and office to become a man; and after finishing His earthly mission He here prays to be restored to His former mode of existence as a spirit and to His former office as God's Vicegerent. Modestly He does not mention that there would be an exaltation, both in the mode of existence and position, i.e., that while receiving again the mode of existence of a spirit, it would be in a higher nature—the Divine nature—and that while receiving again vicegerency for God, it would be with greatly added powers, which proves Jesus' pre-existence.

John 3:13 teaches this thought: "No man hath ascended into heaven, except He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man." The direct statement in the second clause of this verse proves that our Lord lived in heaven before He came to live on earth; and this verse also proves that up to that time He was the only human being who had ever been in the heaven of God's abode. The run of thought in the connection of v. 13 proves the same thing; for Jesus had been speaking of heavenly things, which Nicodemus could not understand. Jesus, therefore, assures him that he would have to accept Jesus' teachings as of a qualified witness who spoke of what he had seen (v. 11), i.e., in His pre- human condition, when He lived in heaven. And as an evidence that He had seen them Jesus in v. 13 shows that He had previously lived in heaven and that up to that time no other human being had so done. Accordingly, this verse proves His pre-existence. V. 17 contains another reference to Jesus' having previously

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lived in heaven, whence He had been sent by God to the earth, when He became human: "God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him." So, too, v. 31 proves the same thought: "He [Jesus] that cometh from above [heaven] is above all … He that cometh from heaven is above all."  This passage shows that the Word formerly dwelt in heaven, where He saw heavenly things, of which the next verse teaches that He gave a true testimony.

John 10:36 also gives a testimony on this point: "Say ye of Him, whom the Father hath sanctified [set apart from the other spirit beings in heaven] and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest?" The expression, to sanctify and send into the world, implies several things: First, He must have existed before He was sent into the world, else He could not have been sent into it at all. Moreover, He was separated, set apart ("sanctified") from the other spirit beings, who were not honored with being sent into the world, with the mission with which He was honored, in order to fulfill which He came into this world, for which He was set apart and sent. These considerations show that He existed before He came into the world. John 6:38, 51, 58, 61, 62 discuss in some detail this subject: "I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent me." Here, again, our Savior speaks of His having lived in heaven with God before He came to earth. He shows that His coming was not on His own initiative or to do things for self-gratification, but to do the things that God had given Him to perform. Again (v. 51), "I am the living bread which came down from heaven." Here Jesus shows that He formerly lived in heaven, whence He came as food to save the dying race from death, by giving Himself in His perfect humanity, His right to life and His life-rights, as the real food, keeping people in life forever. Had He not come from heaven (had

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He not a pre-human life, which became the seed, fructifying the ovum in the virgin, instead of the seed of a human male) He could not have become the living bread; for with a human father He himself would have had need of the living bread and thus could not have supplied it to others. V. 58 reads much like it and gives the same thought on His pre-existence: "This [One, Himself] is the bread which came down from heaven." These sayings of our Lord offended the Jews and some of His disciples and to answer them effectually He asks them what they would think of His ascending to that place [heaven] where He was before He came to earth. "Doth this offend [stumble] you?" How would you then bear it "if ye should see the Son of man ascend up where He was before?—before He descended from heaven?

In John 8:14, 23, 42-58, we find our Lord witnessing to the same truth. When the Pharisees accused our Lord of bearing false witness, because He witnessed of Himself, they were guilty of sophistry; for certainly a truthful person's witness of himself is to be accepted. Jesus, therefore, refutes their argument by giving proof of His trustworthiness in the following words: "Though I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true; for I know whence I came and whither I go." Here He refers to His past personal existence and to the office that He held in the past and to His future nature and to His future office. "I know whence I came," i.e., I know that I existed as a spirit being next to the Father and was then His Vicegerent and came from such a nature and office into this world. "I know … whither I go," i.e., I know that I will be exalted to the Divine nature and will be seated at the Father's right hand as His plenipotential Vicegerent. Jesus' argument, therefore, was this: He being a person and official next to God, certainly His witness, whether of Himself or of any other person or of any thing or of any principle, was credible. Were He not

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credible; God would not have used Him as He had, nor would He use Him as He was going to use Him. Thus in this passage Jesus appeals to His pre-human existence and office, as well as to His future existence and office, as a proof of His veracity, which, of course, proves His pre- existence. He adds further confirmation on His pre- existence in v. 23. The Pharisees still disputing with Him, He says: "Ye are from beneath; I am from above. Ye are of this world; I am not of this world." Here Jesus contrasts the origin of the Pharisees as being of this earth with His own as being of heaven, which implies His pre-existence. He further in this passage contrasts the character of their origin with the character of His origin: Their origin was of such a kind as to make them subject to, and harmonious with the present evil order of affairs, in which Satan is ruler. His origin was of such a kind as to make Him not subject to, nor harmonious with the present evil order of affairs, in which Satan is ruler. Thus we infer Jesus' pre-existence and heavenly abode.

Jesus continues in argument with the Pharisees, affirming His pre-existence in v. 42. When the Pharisees in v. 41 affirmed that they were God's children Jesus denied it on the ground that they did not love Him, while God's children would love Him, because He did not only have God as His Father, but came forth from the Father and entered the world as the Father's special Messenger: "If God were your Father, ye would love Me; for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but He sent me." This shows that before He came into the world He had been with the Father, which, of course, proves His pre-human existence. Still continuing His discussion with the Pharisees (vs. 56-58) Jesus said: "Abraham rejoiced that he might see My day; and he saw it and was glad." This statement of Jesus has several meanings, all of which are true. Abraham saw Jesus' day in the first place in the sense of witnessing

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Him in His activities as God's Logos giving Old Testament revelations in the Patriarchal day. First of all, this doubtless refers (1) to the Logos' appearing as God's special Messenger with two other angels to Abraham at Mamre, announcing first Isaac's birth, and then, after the two angels went away to Sodom, announcing Sodom's destruction (Gen. 18:1-33); and (2) to the Logos' announcing as God's mouthpiece the Oath-bound Covenant to Abraham and to his seed (Gen. 22:11-18). In the second place, this statement doubtless also refers to Abraham's looking forward (Heb. 11:9, 10, 13-16) to the day of Christ, when He would bless all nations by His Millennial reign. Here, again, in the first set of thoughts we have our Lord's pre- human existence taught, as in the second line of thought His post-human existence is taught. The Pharisees caught only a glimmering of the first of the above lines of thought and cried out, "Thou art not yet 50 years old, and hast Thou seen Abraham?" Then Jesus gave a reply which affirmed that He had existed before Abraham and had ever since continued to exist "Before Abraham was, I am." Please notice the expression, "I am"—present tense. Why this? The expression is a Hebrew idiom and is used to express a non-terminated existence, i.e., the existence that Jesus as the Logos had before Abraham lived had never up to the time of His speaking in this text come to an end, which proves that when the Logos became flesh He did not die while undergoing the transfer from a spirit to the human plane of existence. Without dying the one person exchanged one nature for the other and lived continuously amid the change. This passage proves Jesus' pre-human existence.

John 16:28 by 'its contrasts likewise proves our Lord's pre-existence: "I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; again, I leave the world and go to the Father." Noteworthy are the double contrasts of this verse. I came "into the world" and

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"I leave the world." "I came forth from the Father" and "I go to the Father." His being in the world is the condition midway between two other conditions:

(1) the one, that in which He was before He came into the world, the other, that in which He would be after He would leave the world. And both of these conditions, separated from each other by the condition in which He was while in the world, would be in association with the Father. Most cogently, does this prove His pre-human and his post- human condition. By several of its statements 1 John 4:9 also proves our Lord's pre-human existence: "By this was manifested the love of God toward us, because God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him." Do the Scriptures contradict themselves when they say that Jesus is the only begotten of God and yet say that God's Gospel-Age sons are all begotten by God? We answer, No. These passages are harmonized as follows: Jesus was God's only directly begotten Son. All other sons of God—those on the angelic plane (Job. 38:7), those on the human plane (Luke 3:38) and those on the Divine plane (1 John 3:1), except Jesus, have been indirectly begotten by God, i.e., by the agency of our Lord (Col. 1:16). Hence the expression, only begotten, refers primarily to our Lord's coming into existence before all the rest of creation, which expression, therefore, proves His pre-human existence. This verse says that the Father sent Him into the world, which implies His existence before such sending, as in the case of several other verses already considered. Jesus' statement (Luke 10:18) that He had seen Satan as lightning fall from heaven refers to an experience of His that occurred a little while after Satan brought Adam and Eve under the dominion of sin. This proves our Lord's preexistence.

Certainly, 2 Cor. 8:9 proves our Lord's pre-existence when it says that "He who was rich [in nature,

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office, honor] became poor" by becoming a human being. If His becoming a human being made Him poor who before was rich, He must have existed before He became poor, if before that He was rich. Col. 1:15, 17, in calling Him "the firstborn of every creature" and in saying that He was before all [other] things [the Father excepted, of course], likewise proves His pre-existence. Phil. 2:6, 7, in showing that, while He existed in God's form [mode of existence, i.e., as a spirit], He did not grasp at equality with God [A.R V., as Satan did—Is. 14:13, 14], but rather emptied Himself [of His pre-human nature, office and honor], by taking the form of a servant [without His former office and honor of rulership] and by becoming in the likeness of men [becoming of a lower nature, even human nature], conclusively proves His pre-human existence. This same thought is forcibly taught in Heb. 2:14, 16, where the Apostle assures us that He did not stoop simply to angelic nature, but went down to a plane of being lower than the angelic plane, even to the human plane, when He left His pre-human nature and laid hold of a lower nature. Such a course implies His pre-human existence. Certainly, St. Paul's expression, yesterday, in Heb. 13:8 ("Jesus Christ, the same [person] yesterday [the Jewish Age], today [this Age] and forever") proves His pre-existence.

There is, among others, a celebrated passage in the Old Testament which teaches our Lord's pre-human existence. We refer to Prov. 8:22-30, where, under the figure of Wisdom, our Lord is presented as having been with the Father long before other persons or things were brought into existence: "The Lord possessed Me in [literally, as] the beginning of His [creative] way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting [literally, before an age], from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth, when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains

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were settled, before the hills was I brought forth while as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When He prepared the heavens, I was there: when He set a compass upon the face of the depth: when He established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: when He gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass His commandment: when He appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by Him, as one brought up; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him."

The passage becomes plain as applicable to our Lord when we remember that He, in 1 Cor. 1:24, is called the wisdom of God, and in Col. 2:3 all the treasures of wisdom are spoken of as hidden, centered, in Him, i.e., the expression and personification of God's wisdom, whence his pre-human name of Logos. The passage teaches His pre-existence.

In calling our Lord the firstborn of every creature (Col. 1:15), the beginning of the creation of God (Rev. 3:14), God's firstborn (Ps. 89:27), God's only begotten son (John 3:16; 1 John 4:9), the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last [of God's direct creation] (Rev. 1:11, 17; 2:8), the Bible most clearly proves His pre-existence. In ascribing the work of creation to Him as God's Agent therein, as is done in Gem 1:26 ("Let us [God and the Logos] make man in our image and after our likeness, etc."), in Heb. 1:10-12 ("Thou, Lord, in a [so the Greek] beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of Thine hands. They shall perish; but Thou remainest … Thou art the same [person] and Thy years shall not fail"), in Col. 1:16 ("By Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, … all things were created by Him and for Him") and in John 1:3 ("All things were made by Him and without Him was not any thing made that was made"), the Bible definitely

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implies His pre-human existence. Also by identifying Him with  Michael,  the  Archangel  (Dan.  10:13,  21;  Jude  9, compare with 1 Thes. 4:16; Dan. 12:1; Rev. 12:7), the Scriptures teach our Lord's pre-existence. And, finally, His giving Old Testament revelations to the patriarchs (Gen. 22:11-18), to Moses (Ex. 3:2 - 4:17) and to the prophets (1 Pet. 1:11) proves His pre-existence, as also do His providential acts on behalf of God's people in Old Testament times (Gen. 48:16; Ps. 34:7; "the" not an angel of the Lord]; Dan. 10:13 ["the first of the chief princes,"  see the margin].) Certainly, the above quoted and cited numerous Scriptures and Scriptural considerations give us an abundance of evidence in support of our faith in the fact that our Lord did not first come into existence when He was begotten in and born from Mary, but that He had previously existed and then emptied Himself of His pre- human nature, honor, office and riches that by becoming a perfect and sinless human being He might become God's Agent in the redemption of the human family, the Conqueror of sin, death, hell and the devil and the Introducer of righteousness, truth, life and eternal joy.

Having above proven the fact of our Lord's pre-human existence, we now proceed to treat of His coming into existence; for the Scriptures are quite explicit on the fact that He came into existence through a creative act of God. This is most explicitly stated in Col. 1:15: He is "the firstborn of every creature [or, of all creation]," either translation being grammatically and etymologically correct. Two things in this verse show that Jesus had a beginning and that He was created. First, in that it implies that He is a creature it affirms the proposition that He came into existence by a creative act; for the rule of Greek Grammar on the partitive genitive proves this, because the construction, firstborn of every creature, or all creation, is in Greek Grammar called the partitive genitive, i.e.,

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that genitive which contains as a part of its contents the thing or things mentioned in the noun that governs the genitive. The expression, "the firstborn of every creature," being in the Greek a partitive genitive, it includes as a part of itself the thing implied in the noun that governs it, viz., firstborn. It, therefore, implies that this firstborn one is a part of creation and, therefore, was created and thus had a beginning. Secondly, His being called the firstborn of every creature, or of all creation, proves that He came into existence by a creative act, just as surely as those who are the after born of creation came into existence by a creative act.

Equally strong on this point is Rev. 3:14, which calls Him "the beginning of the creation of God." Please note that this passage does not call our Lord the beginner of the creation of God; for such a twist would not only be a mistranslation, but would contradict the second part of the expression, "of the creation of God"; for if, as this expression proves, the creative act is God's, God must at least have begun it alone; hence the Son of God did not begin it. The proper translation, "the beginning of the creation of God," as found in the Authorized Version, proves that God started the creative work by bringing the Logos, God's firstborn, into existence. This, then, proves that the Logos, as a created being, is a part of creation and, therefore, was both created and hence had a beginning.

Ps. 89:27 contains another proof to the point: "Also I will make Him, My firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth." The expression, firstborn, implies a bringing into existence and, therefore, a beginning, just as much as does the expression after born. Undoubtedly in this passage God is the speaker and Christ is the one spoken of, who, of course, is the firstborn of God, the later born ones of God including angels (Job 38:7), Adam and Eve (Luke 3:38) and God's Gospel-Age children (John 1:12; 3:3, 5). A similar proof is given by Heb. 1:6, where our Lord is

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passages also prove that God created Christ, brought Him to birth.

The expression, only begotten Son, as we find it in John 3:16, also proves this thought: "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The fact that He was begotten proves that our Lord was a creation of God; and the further fact that He is called the only begotten Son proves the same thing; for the word son implies either a direct or an indirect act of creation As applied to Christ it evidently applies to a direct creative act of God—one exercised by God alone, without the assistance of any other agency. Inasmuch as God created everything else indirectly, i.e., through the Logos' agency (John 1:3), it is with propriety that our Lord, as the Logos, is called the only begotten. This thought is further confirmed by both readings of John 1:18: "No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son [an only begotten God, is the reading of some of the best MSS. See John 1:1, 2, and our remarks on it in the preceding portion of this chapter], which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared [made explanations on] Him" (John 1:18). Whether we accept the unbracketed or the bracketed reading of this verse it makes little difference in the sense, because the only begotten Son is an only begotten God, a mighty one, mightier than any of the other gods, the Father excepted, and because an only begotten God would be the only begotten Son of God. In either case the passage shows our Lord's pre-human creation by God and proves that He had a beginning. The same proof is given by the expression, only begotten, in John 1:14; 1 John 4:9; for to be begotten implies a beginning and a coming into existence.

There are several passages in the book of Revelation that belong here. One of these is in Rev. 1:11:

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These two sets of expressions are synonymous, because alpha is the first, and omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet [alpha-beta]. These expressions are used of Jehovah (Is. 41:4; 44:6; 48:12; Rev. 1:8); and they are also

used of our Lord (Rev. 1:11, 17; 2:8; 22:13). In the set of four passages referring to Jehovah as the First and the Last, the three from Isaiah use the expression, "I am the First and the Last," while the one from Revelation uses the expressions, "I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End." Of the four passages cited as referring to our Lord, the first is quoted in the second sentence of this paragraph, the second and third omit the expression, Alpha and Omega, but use the expression, "the First and the Last," while the last one uses all three of the pertinent expressions: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the  Beginning and the End, the First and the Last." Accordingly, we see that the four passages referring to God combinedly use all three expressions and the four passages referring to Christ combinedly use all three expressions. In other words, the Bible uses all three of these expressions of both God and Christ.

There are some who hold that these three expressions mean the eternity of the Father and of the Son. But this is evidently not the case of them with reference to the Son, since we have seen that He was created or begotten and had a beginning; hence He could not have existed from eternity. Nor can they refer especially to the Father's being from eternity, which, as a matter of fact, He is, since that would be incompatible with their being used of the Son, who is not from eternity. Rather, these expressions should in consistency be given such a sense as would make them apply to both. The following, we believe, gives us a definition that up to a certain stage uses the expressions similarly: Each is the first and last of His peculiar kind: God is the first and last of His peculiar

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increate, i.e., never to have been created; and the Son is the first and last of His peculiar kind, in that He is the first and last to have been directly created by God, all other  creatures having been indirectly created by God, i.e., through the agency of the Logos. Thus the Father and the Son are both unique—which is the meaning of these three expressions—but each of them is unique in a different sense: The Father is unique in that He is the only—the first and last—Being never created; and the Son is unique in that He is the only—the first and last—Being ever directly created by God without the intervention of an agent, which creative intervention by the Logos occurred in the case of every other creature. Thus Jehovah is the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End of increation—the only Being who never was created; and thus the Logos is the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End of God's direct creation. In other words, these terms used with reference to the Son are equivalent to His being called, "the Only Begotten of the Father" (John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9); while their use with reference to the Father implies that He is from eternity, though not directly teaching it, the direct teaching being His uniqueness in that He never was created or begotten, as was the Son.

The fact above proven, that the Logos was created or begotten and had a beginning, brings up the subject of His relation to the Father. On this subject the marvelous Biblical harmony has been much beclouded by Satan (2 Cor. 4:4) early in the night—fall of the Dark Ages, especially by his teaching three gross errors on the subject; that the Son is co-eternal, consubstantial and co-equal with the Father. There is no Scripture that teaches any one of these three thoughts, but there are many Scriptures and facts that contradict every one of them. The fact that He is the Son of

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God proves that His existence could not be without a beginning; for sonship implies one's coming into existence through begettal from a father. Again, a father has to exist before a son, in order to beget him; for no son is as old as his father, i.e., begins to exist as soon as his father. God's being the Logos' Father implies that He antedates the Logos; and, therefore, the Logos is not co-eternal with the Father. Every one of the above quoted passages that prove that the Logos was created, was begotten, had a beginning, was Jehovah's firstborn, was Jehovah's only begotten Son, disproves the thought that He is co-eternal with the Father. Certainly it was a piece of hocus-pocus beclouding men's reasoning powers, when Satan enchanted people into believing that a son is as old as his father, existed as soon as his father, was begotten and created and yet had no beginning, was a father's firstborn and yet never came into existence, but always existed. Note the expression in Prov. 8:22, 23, as given in the Improved Version: "The Lord possessed [acquired] Me, as the beginning of His [creative] way, before His subsequent works. I was set up [created] before an Age [the first Age of God's plan followed the fall into sin], before a beginning [Gen. 1:1], before the earth." These verses prove that He was created before anything else was created; but their teaching that He was created implies, that He had a beginning and hence was not from eternity. Please note v. 30, as it is given in the Imp. Ver. "I was with Him while being brought up." Here the Logos' development under Jehovah's training is set forth. Such a training at Jehovah's hands would have been impossible had He been coeternal, consubstantial and co-equal with Jehovah.

Those who teach that the Son is co-eternal with the Father are in great difficulty to find Scriptural passages and facts on this subject. They quote especially three passages on this point: (1) Ps. 2:7: "Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee." They stress

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he words this day as meaning eternity, as an alleged proof that our Lord is eternal. To this we reply: The expression begotten, used of Him here, proves the reverse, i.e., that He has a beginning, hence is not eternal. Moreover, St. Paul three times quotes this passage (Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5; 5:5), to prove of Christ, as the firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5), His resurrection. Hence the expression this day refers to the Gospel Age, not to the eternity that was before the world was. Small comfort do they get from this passage who hold that it proves that our Lord was without a beginning! A second passage that they use is Heb. 13:8: "Jesus Christ, the same [person] yesterday, today and forever." Here, again, they are unfortunate; for the word yesterday, which they claim teaches our Lord's past eternity, contradicts the idea of duration without a beginning; for a yesterday is a day before a present day. But a day has a beginning; so has a yesterday; hence a yesterday cannot mean duration without a beginning. The days of this passage are evidently ages, as is proved by the Greek expression for forever which in this passage is rendered literally for the ages. Hence we understand the expression today in this verse to mean the Gospel Age, in which we are now living and which is called a day (Acts 13:33; Heb. 3:13, 17); and the word yesterday we understand to mean the Jewish Age, which is called a day (Is. 65:2; Rom. 10:21), as the Day or Age before the Gospel Day or Age. Accordingly, this passage proves that the Logos existed during the Jewish Age, but proves nothing as to His existing before that time. Hence it does not prove that He was without a beginning, i.e., was from eternity.

The third passage that is by some quoted to prove that our Lord is without a beginning is John 10:30: "I and My father are one." In reply we say that the word eternity is neither used here nor implied. The expression does not mean that the Father and Son are

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one person, as some hold; for the Greek word for person— hypostasis—is feminine, and if one person were here meant the feminine form (mia) for the Greek word for one would have been here used and not hen, the neuter form, which is here used. The same reason proves that the expression does not mean one being, as some others hold; because the Greek word for being is ousia, which is also feminine and would, therefore, require the Greek word for one to take the feminine form (mia) here. The neuter form hen here used requires us, according to Greek Grammar, to supply a neuter noun as agreeing with the neuter hen; some neuter word like spirit—pneuma—evidently must be here supplied; for it is in spirit, disposition, purpose, work, that the Father and the Son are one. But such a word supplied would not teach that the Logos is as old as the Father, any more than the fact that twelve apostles are one (hen), and the fact that the rest of the Lord's people are one (hen; John 17:11, 21, 23) prove that the Lord's people are from  eternity and that each one of them is as old as the other. Certainly a theory that is forced to limit its quotations to Ps. 2:7; Heb. 13:8 and John 10:30, to prove that our Lord is from eternity, is hard pressed for Biblical proof and is hard hit by its own alleged proof texts! Nor can they cite one Scriptural fact that proves their thought. Especially do they cite two facts as alleged proofs that He is without beginning, is from eternity, i.e., that He was begotten and that He existed before His carnation. In reply we say that the fact of His begettal before the worlds were made, while proving His pre-existence, disproves that He was without beginning—from eternity—for to be begotten implies a beginning of existence. Hence this fact disproves the thing that it is adduced to prove. Nor does the fact that our Lord pre-existed prove Him to have been without a beginning, any more than the fact that the angels existed before Christ's carnation

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proves them to be without a beginning. The fact that the Bible teaches that His pre-existence started by His being created—begotten—proves that it had a beginning and was, therefore, not from eternity. We repeat the thought that there is no Bible passage or Bible fact that proves our Lord to be without a beginning, to have existed always. All of the pertinent Biblical passages and facts prove the reverse, that He had a beginning. Therefore He is not co-eternal with the Father. To be without a beginning is a unique excellence of the Father; therefore it is shared by Him with no one else, not even with His exalted and highly honored Son, in whom He delights.

The second of the three errors as to Christ's relation to the Father is that He from eternity is consubstantial with the Father. The propounders of this theory mean by it two things: (1) that from eternity He was begotten from the Father's substance and therefore (2) from eternity has had the Father's nature—the Divine nature. Both of these propositions are completely destitute of Scriptural proof and are contrary to the Bible in many ways. Their propounders rely on the fact that He was begotten by the Father, as the proof of His being begotten of the Father's substance, alleging the analogy of animal begettals, which ordinarily occur by a substance derived from the father. Such an idea implies two sexes, between whom the sexual act occurs. But such a thought is utterly foreign to a Divine begettal. Again, God's substance is indivisible, hence incommunicable to another. Therefore the Logos was not begotten from the Father's substance. Moreover, none of God's other sons were begotten of God's substance, yet all are begotten by Him through Christ. This is true of God's angelic sons, His human sons (Adam, Eve, Jesus as a human being and the world in the Millennium) and of His new-creaturely sons of the Gospel Age. All of these— angelic, human, Divine—come into existence as

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such by creative acts. Hence, whenever the expression to beget is predicated of God, it is used, not to indicate an act similar to the sexual act, with the implication of a male and a female as active, but to denote a creative act. And the reason the word beget is used of God in this connection is to indicate the act that implants the life principle, which in animal procreation occurs ordinarily in the sexual act, and which God, as the source of life, not in the sense of deriving it from His own body, but in the sense of creating it and filling the universe with it, imparts to all His living creatures. Hence, for God to beget means for God to create. These considerations disprove the proposition that God begat the Logos of His own substance, as the creeds teach.

Some other considerations prove the falsity of the proposition that the pre-human Christ was consubstantial with the Father. Those who hold this thought claim that the pre-human Logos was of the Divine nature, of the very essence of God. Such a thought is not only without any Scriptural foundation, and is at best a very poor speculation, as shown above, but is also contradictory of the whole plan of God. In the first place, it would make impossible our Lord's carnation—His becoming human (John 1:14; 2 Cor. 8:9; Phil. 2:6, 7; Heb. 2:14, 16-18); for

the Divine nature is both immortal and unchangeable in substance and character (1 Tim. 1:17; Jas. 1:17). Had He, therefore, been Divine in substance—nature—His nature, because unchangeable, could not have been changed into human nature. Hence, had He been Divine in nature He could not have undergone carnation. He had to have a mortal, changeable nature to become human. Therefore His pre-human nature was lower than the Divine nature, since He changed it into human nature. Had he been Divine in nature, which is unchangeable, how could He have emptied Himself (Phil. 2:6) of His former nature, office and riches

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and become poor? (2 Cor. 8:9.) Again, had He been Divine in nature while with the Father before His carnation, He would have remained Divine while on earth and, therefore, would not have been a man, which the Bible repeatedly says He was (Matt. 8:20; Mark 2:28; Luke 7:34; John 7:47; 15:24; 4:29; 8:40; Acts 2:22; 1 Cor. 15:22; 1 Tim. 2:5; Heb. 3:3; 7:24; 8:3; 10:12; Rev. 1:13).

Nor could He have hungered (Matt. 21:18, 19), become weary (John 4:6), wept (Luke 19:41-44; John 11:35), prayed (Matt. 26:39-44; Heb. 5:7), been tempted (Heb. 2:18; 4:15), sorrowed (Matt. 26:38), suffered (1 Pet. 2:21; 3:18), died (1 Cor. 15:3), as the Bible in the cited passages and elsewhere tells us that He did. He would only have pretended to be a man, to be hungry, weary, weeping, praying, tempted, saddened, suffering and dead. The cry, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" would have been a hypocritical cry, forsooth to gain sympathy or to make a pitying impression on His hearers. Those who hold the view under consideration have had to resort to all sorts of metaphysical evasions, mystifications, hocus-pocus wizardries, to express their unintelligible gibberish, all the while being compelled to admit that it was unintelligible. Samples of these Satanic vagaries, follies and confusions are hidden under expressions like the following: God became man; Mary, the mother of God; God Himself lies dead; a god-man; two natures in one person; the human nature of Christ is without personality; His Divine nature alone had personality (yet they admit that His human nature had a perfect human intellect, perfect human sensibilities and a perfect human will, which are the essence of personality). According to their view His humanity was only a veil, a cloak, a garment, worn by the Divine. All of such twaddle was born in Satan's head and by him was suggested to the befuddled brains that were Satanically

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confused enough to accept it. It is in the most direct conflict with the passages cited in this and preceding paragraphs and it contradicts the offices of Christ before He came 'into the world, while He was in the world and after He left the world and went to heaven.

It likewise contradicts His being dead; for a Divine being is immortal and cannot die, and thus cannot be dead. It contradicts His resurrection; for, if He had been Divine, He could never have been dead, which one must be, if he is to be resurrected. It contradicts His exaltation to the Divine nature in His resurrection (John 5:26; Phil. 2:9; Heb. 1:3, 4); for, according to the theory, He always had the Divine nature, and therefore always had been supremely exalted. It contradicts His glorification after His resurrection and ascension; for if He had always had the Divine glory He could not have been further glorified (Phil. 2:10, 11). It contradicts His exaltation over the heavenly host; for had He been always Divine He would have always been over the heavenly host and, therefore, would not after His resurrection and ascension been in exaltation put over them (Eph. 1:20-22; Heb. 1:4, 5). How could all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18) after His resurrection have been given to Him, if He had always had it? Thus we see that if the theory that the Logos was of the Father's substance, Divine in nature, were true, He could not have been what He was, nor done what He did while on earth, and that in almost all of it He would have been a hypocrite, which He could not have been. Nor could He have experienced the post-human things affirmed of Him by the Bible, if He had always been Divine.

On the contrary, the Bible teaches that He first became of the Divine nature, one of whose essential qualities is immortality, in the resurrection, and that as a reward for His faithfulness unto death. In. John 5:26 Jesus tells us that God had given Him [a promise]

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to have immortality—life in Himself—which proves that He did not at the time He uttered this language have it. But He did have it after His resurrection (1 Tim. 5:16). It was in His resurrection that He became the very impress of the Father's substance—Divine in nature (Heb. 1:3-5; Acts 13:33). It was because He was obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross, that He was given a name [nature, office and honor] above every other name [nature, office and honor] (Phil. 2:8-11). It was due to His receiving the Divine nature in the resurrection that He was fitted not only to be placed over the heavenly host, all of whom are of natures lower than the Divine, but also over the Church, which is also to be made Divine in nature (Eph. 1:20-23; 2 Pet. 1:4; 1 Cor. 15:41-54; 1 John 3:2). All of these considerations refute the idea that the pre-human Logos was of the Divine nature. To sum up: Before the Logos became man He was the highest of all beings, the Father excepted, and in a nature next below the Divine, but higher than that of the rest of the heavenly host (Heb. 2:16). While He was on earth He was until Jordan a perfect sinless human being, nothing more and nothing less. From Jordan to Calvary He was, while yet a human being, undergoing a recreation of heart and mind for the Divine nature. In His resurrection, and as a reward for His faithfulness unto death, even the death of the cross, He attained to the Divine nature, of the same substance as the Father, though, of course, a different being from the Father. He is thus now, and will to all eternity be, Divine in nature, next to the Father and the Father's plenipotential Vicegerent throughout the universe (Matt.  28:18;  Eph.  1:20-23;  Phil.  2:9-11;  Heb.  1:3-5). Praised be our God for our worthy Savior's and Lord's high and eternal exaltation to God's right hand—position of chief favor!

We recall that it was stated that those who teach that the pre-human Logos was co-eternal and consubstantial

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with the Father likewise teach that He was then also co- equal with the Father. This proposition is as false as the other two; for according to the Bible He never was, nor will He ever be the Father's equal. We now proceed to the refutation of the third leading proposition of those who teach the false doctrine under discussion as to Christ's relation to the Father. We will now show that neither before He came to earth, nor while in earth was He, nor since His return to heaven is He, the Father's equal. The Scriptures are very explicit on these three points. It will be noted that those who teach Christ's equality with the Father do not have any Scripture that teaches such a thought. They infer it as a necessary consequence from the propositions that He is co-eternal and consubstantial with the Father, the falsity of which propositions having been demonstrated, their conclusion drawn from them is necessarily false. They do try to infer it from the passage, "I and My Father are one" (John 10 30). But if the oneness between the Father and the Son were that of equality, then since the Lord's faithful Apostles and other faithful people are all one in the sense in which the Father and the Son are one (John 17:11, 21, 23), they are not only all equal with one another, but also with the Father and the Son—a self-evident absurdity in both features of oneness f Note how plain is the Lord's pertinent language; for the Apostles He prays, "that they all may be one [hen, neuter, as in John 10:30] as we are"; and for the rest of the Faithful He prays: "that they all may be one [hen, neuter], as Thou, Father, art in Me; and I in Thee [God was in Christ by His Spirit and Christ was in the Father by His consecration—subjection. Hence the oneness here prayed for was a oneness of spirit, purpose, aim, plan, work, not one of being or equality], that they also may be one in us [one in the spirit of consecration—subjection] … I in them [My spirit and will ruling in them], and Thou in Me [Thy,

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spirit and will ruling in Me], that they may be made perfect in [into, so the Greek] one [hen, neuter]." Hence the oneness for which Jesus prayed on behalf of His own is the same oneness as exists between the Father and the Son. But such is not a oneness of equality; for neither in this life are all the Lord's people equal (1 Cor. 12:28-30; Eph. 4:11), nor in the next life (Matt. 19:28; Rev. 21:14; Mark 10:40; Luke 19:17, 19; 1 Cor. 15:41, 42). Hence the oneness between the Father and the Son being the same kind as that between the Faithful, it cannot be a oneness of equality, but must be a oneness of spirit, purpose, aim, and work. Thus is exposed the corrupt foundations on which the error under study rests.

Plain Scriptures treating of our Lord's pre-human relation to the Father prove His subordination, inequality, to the Father: Phil. 2:6, 7, is to the point. We quote it as given in the American Revised Version: "Who [the Logos], existing in the form of God [i.e., in the mode of existence of a spirit being], counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped [as Lucifer ambitiously did; Is. 14:10-14], but [instead of conspiring to usurp equality with God, as Lucifer did, He did the reverse, for He] emptied Himself [of His pre-human nature, honor and office], etc." Here we are plainly shown that, while existing as the pre- human Logos, as a mighty spirit being, He considered Himself to be God's subordinate and eschewed aspiring to equality with God after Satan's example. Hence this passage proves His inequality with God. His having been trained in His pre-human existence by God proves that He was God's inferior (Prov. 8:30), as also His being then owned or acquired [by creation] by God and His having then been given His existence and exaltation by God (Prov. 8:22, 23) prove His pre-human inferiority to the Father; for the Creator, Owner (Lord) and Promoter is always superior to the one created, owned and promoted.

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The proof above given of His coming into existence, while God always existed, and of His being as the pre-human Logos of a lower nature than God's, likewise prove His inferiority to the Father. Accordingly, before He came into the world He was the Father's inferior. Furthermore, the fact that He emptied Himself of His pre-human nature, office and honor (John 1:14; 2 Cor. 8:9; Phil. 2:7; Heb. 2:9, 10, 14, 16-18), proves that He was the Father's inferior as the Logos; for if He had been the Father's equal He could not have emptied Himself, because since the Father cannot do such a thing an equal of His could not do it. Hence the pre-human Logos was the Father's inferior.

Hence, of necessity, while He was on earth He was the Father's inferior; for as a man and as a spirit begotten man He was lower than He was before He became a man (Heb. 2:9). The four passages cited toward the end of the preceding paragraph to prove His carnation also prove this thought. Again, all those passages that prove that while on earth He was a messenger, servant and agent of God, decisively prove Him to be God's inferior as another's messenger, servant and agent is his subordinate and inferior. The following are a list of some of such passages: Is. 42:1; 49:5; 61:1; Matt. 20:23; John 3:34, 35; 4:34; 5:19, 20, 22, 30; 7:16, 28; 8:28; 9:4; 10:38; 12:49; 16:5; 17:4; Acts 10:38; Rom. 8:32; Heb. 3:2; 1 Pet. 2:4, 23. Passages previously quoted showing He hungered, was weary, sorrowful, tempted, suffered, died, prove the same thing. The fact that He prayed to God proves His inferiority to God while in the flesh. His having feared that He might not return from the dead, because. He thought that He had perhaps in some way failed to please God perfectly (Heb. 5:7) proves His inferiority. His not knowing everything proves His inferiority to the Father in knowledge (Mark 13:32). His saying, "My Father is

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greater than I" (John 14:28), applying to His pre-human, human and post-human condition, proves that while on earth He was the Father's inferior.

So, too, since His resurrection and exaltation He is the Father's inferior. This is proved by those passages that prove that God raised Him from the dead and exalted Him (Ps. 110:1; Is. 49:6; John 5:26, 27; 14:20; 17:5; Acts 2:33, 36; 13:37, 38; Rom. 1:4; Eph. 1:20-22; Phil. 2:9-11; Heb. 1:2-5; 5:5, 6; 1 Pet. 1:21; 2 Pet. 1:17). It is proven by those passages that speak of the Father as giving Him His office powers (Matt. 28:18; John 5:27; 1 Cor. 1:30; Micah 5:4; Col. 1:15); as being His God (John 20:17; Eph. 1:17; Rev. 3:12); as being His Owner and Head, in the sense that Christ is the Church's Owner and Head (1 Cor. 3:23; 11:3); as Christ's being God's Image (2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3). The Lord Jesus is expressly said to be subject to God, as the Supreme One, forever (1 Cor. 15:28). In His office as Priest, interceding before God (Heb. 7:25), as Prophet, getting the Truth from God (Acts 3:23; Deut. 18:18, 19), as King, ruling as God's Vicegerent (Ps. 2:6), as Advocate, pleading before God as judge for His clients (1 John 1:1, 2) and as Mediator, representing God before the people (1 Tim. 2:6), He acts, or will act, officially as God's inferior since leaving the world. All these considerations prove that He as the pre-human, human and post-human Son of God is, the Father's inferior. Therefore as related to God's eternity, He is not from eternity; His nature was until His resurrection lower than the Divine and He always was and always will be the Father's inferior in attributes of being and character, in word and in work. Thus negatively have we shown what is not His relation to the Father. He is not co-eternal, consubstantial and co-equal with the Father.

In previous parts of this chapter we showed that our Lord in His pre-human condition was the first of all

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God's creation. From this and from pertinent Scriptures we further proved that He had a beginning and, therefore, did not exist from eternity. We further showed that He was not of the Divine being, nor of the Divine nature before He came into the world, though He attained in His resurrection the Divine nature, having now a body of the same kind of substance as the Father's, though not of the Father's substance. And, finally, we showed that He was in His pre- human, human and post-human conditions the Father's subordinate. This proves that the Father is in Himself unique, being greater in attributes of being and character than the Son and thus solely the Supreme Being. From this standpoint we are in a better position to see just what His relation to the Father is. First of all, we recognize Him to be the Son of God—not God Himself; for a son is not the same being as his father; for to affirm that He is both the Son of God and God Himself implies that He is both His own Father and His own Son, which, of course, are absurdities of the first order. God is His Father and He is God's Son, yea, God's only begotten Son; and God is His Father directly, by a direct begettal, in which sense no one else is God's son. The following passages prove that God is His Father and that He is God's Son: John 1:14, 18; 3:16- 18,  34-36; 1  John  4:9; Ps.  2:7; 89:27;  Matt. 3:17;  11:27; 15:13; 16:15-17; 17:5; 21:37; Mark 1:1; Luke 1:32, 35; John 15:1, 8, 10, 23, 24; 20:17, 21, 31; Acts 3:13; Rom. 1:3, 4; 1 John 1:7; 3:8, 23; 4:10. It will be noted that in these passages it is God who is called the Father of our Lord and that our Lord is called the Son of God. In none of them are they identified as one, but always as separate persons or beings.

From His relation of sonship as to God is immediately inferred His coming into existence (which implies His previous non-existence, i.e., that He has not always existed), as well as His being subordinate,

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unequal to the Father. Nor must we from His sonship infer that He always was of the same nature as the Father, since such an inference, if necessary, would make the angelic sons of God and the human sons of God of the same nature as God, which would be erroneous and absurd. So, then, His sonship implies His creatureship at the Father's hand. Hence the above considerations prove Him to be God's created Son, who is the Father's inferior in being, in duration, in nature until His resurrection, in honor, in position and in work. These features of their relationship to one another must be kept in mind, if we are to see daylight on the subject of their relationship. The ignoring of these things as indicating their relationship has resulted in confusion worse confounded on the subject, as can readily be seen in the self-contradictory, reason-defying and Scripture-denying absurdities of the creeds of men on the subject. But the right view of their relationship clarifies the pertinent Scripture teachings and enables us to honor God supremely and next to Him His highly exalted and worthy Son, to whom be glory and honor as now occupying at the Father's right hand the place of chief favor and power.

This relation to the Father implies His pre-human superiority to the other spirit subjects of God. This is directly stated in the correct rendering of the Hebrew of Dan. 10:13, as it is given in the margin Michael, the first of the chief [spirit] princes. His being called, Michael the archangel (Jude 9), and the archangel (1 Thes. 4:16), proves the same thing; for the word archangel means, first or chief messenger. And He is the chief messenger of God (John 17:3). His pre-human superiority over the heavenly host of God is likewise evident from His being called their creator as God's creative agent (John 1:3; Col. 1:16; 1 Cor. 8:6; Eph. 3:9). This is also to be inferred from the fact that He was God's chief providential agent in His pre-human condition (Gen. 48:16; Ps. 34:7;

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Dan. 10:13). It likewise follows from His being the chief agent of God in giving the Old Testament revelations (Gen. 18:1-33; 22:11-18; Ex. 3:2 - 4:17; 1 Pet. 1:11). And, finally, this follows from the fact that God offered Him, and not any other of the heavenly host, the privilege of carnation in order to become the Grand Agent for carrying out God's plan with its involved opportunity of still higher exaltation in nature, honor, riches, office and work, than He had in His pre-human condition. Thus we see that, while in His pre-human existence He was God's inferior in every way, He was at the same time superior to any of God's other creatures whatsoever.

From these facts we see that He held the position of being God's special representative toward the heavenly host and in the work of creation, providence and revelation in His pre-human condition. This put Him into line of being the one who would be chiefly considered as a candidate for any specially important work that God desired done. What does this mean other than that He was a quasi-vicegerent of Jehovah during His pre-existence? We say quasi-vicegerent designedly, because His powers then were much more limited in vicegerental respects than those that He received in and since His resurrection. He had then far less discretion as to how He should do than He now has as to how He should do. Therefore He then had to consult God more than now as to ways and means of doing. Before His carnation He could not truly say, "All authority in heaven and earth is given unto Me" (Matt. 28:18), as He can now say since His resurrection. With Him God carried out the law that is everywhere prominent in His dealings with His servants: As they are faithful in smaller things He entrusts them with larger things. Since He had always proved loyal to the Father, and that in a higher degree than any other servant of God, of course God advanced Him more than He did His other servants.

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And this we recognize as right and good. Thus we see in the above our pre-human Lord's personal and official relations to the Heavenly Father. And in all of them we find Him to be the Father's inferior and the superior of all others of God's creation.

We now come to a discussion of His pre-human work, which, as we have already seen, exercised itself especially in three separate spheres—creation, providence and revelation. His work of creation properly belongs to our subject, Creation, because He was the Agent whom God used in creating all things. Though His pre-human works of providence and revelation do not properly belong to our subject, we will nevertheless in this chapter treat of them in order to have a fairly complete view of our pre-human Lord's work. Accordingly, we begin with His creative work. In this He did not act independently of God, nor did He act as God's equal. Rather His creative acts were those of an agent carrying out the plans and arrangements of His superior. He did not originate the creative plans. These God originated and designed. Nor did He supply the materials of creation. These God provided. His work was that of taking the materials that God provided and working them into creative products according to God's plans and specifications. In other words, God is the source of the plans and materials of creation, somewhat after the manner of an architect who from materials that he himself owns and provides and from the plans and specifications that he himself draws up has a house built for himself by a contractor whose work in all details he supervises. Our Lord acted like the contractor in this illustration, performing the work with the materials furnished Him according to the plans and specifications. And He performed it well.

We are thus to view the relationship of the Father and the Son in creation, if we would see it in its

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Scriptural light. 1 Cor. 8:6 is a passage that not only proves this thought, but also shows that in all other matters of God's works and ways the Father is their Source and Originator, while the Son is His Agent in their outworking: "To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom [as their Source and Originator] are all things … and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom [as their Agent] are all things." Thus as to creation, both of the spiritual world and of the material world, the Father originated the thought of them, made the plans in the minutest details for them and provided the substances out of which everything in them was made, which proves that He is the Creator in the sense of being creation's Source and Originator. Thus all things [also of creation] are of [source and origin] the Father. But all things [also of creation] are through [by the agency of] the Son. In the Greek agency through which a thing is done is expressed by the preposition dia [through] with the genitive, while the source of a thing is indicated by the preposition ek [of, in the sense of out of]; and to denote that a thing is made or done by an independent originator the preposition hypo [by] is used after the passive verb by which the action is expressed. Thus if we were to state prepositionally in Greek that creation was (1) originated in God and (2) was brought into being by His supervision, and that (3) through His Son's agency, we would use ek [of, out of] to express the first thought, hypo [by] to express the second thought and dia [through] to express the third thought. Thus creation is of and by God, but through the Logos. And well have they made it.

Thus to show that God as its Dominator was the Source, Originator and Supervisor of creation, Gen. 1:1-25 speaks only of Him as the Creator; and then first in v. 26 is the Logos spoken of as associated with Him in that work: "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness; let Us give him dominion," etc. There

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upon in vs. 27, 28 and 31, the discourse turns again to God only as Creator. On the other hand, the agency of our Lord for God in creation is shown in John 1:3 by the word dia [through]: "All things were made through Him [the Logos] and without Him was not one thing made that was made." His agency in making the ages (see Revised Version) under God's supervision is also so stated in Heb. 1:2: "Through [dial whom [the Son] He [God] also made the ages." Whenever in contrasts the Scriptures present the work of the Father and the Son, the Father is shown to be the primary actor, usually shown by the active voice of  the verb with God as its subject; while if the form of the statement were to be put into the passive voice the things made would be made the subject of the passive verb, while God's activity therein would be expressed by the preposition hypo with the Genitive of Actor. Such a case is manifest from the last two clauses of Heb. 3:3. If we see clearly the above lines of distinction we will understand well the relations of the Father and the Son in creation, in which all things are of the Father in the sense of His being their Source, Originator and Supervisor, and all things are through the Son in the sense of His being God's Agent in putting God's creative plans into execution.

Hence God put into the Logos' hands the creative plans and specifications which He had thought out. Furthermore He put into His hands the substances and forces to be used in creation and charged Him to work out these plans by applying to the substances the pertinent forces in such ways as to produce the effects aimed at in the plans and specifications. We do not know whether these plans were merely described verbally, or were given in drawings, or were made in form of models, such, e.g., as God showed Moses on the mount as respects the tabernacle and its belongings (Heb. 8:5). Such details belong to the hidden things not revealed to us (Deut. 29:29), which we may,

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therefore, well leave to the Lord, content with such details as He was pleased to reveal to us. Doubtless in due time the exact details will be made known to us. But whatever method God used in making clear to the Logos' understanding the various details as to the beings and things that He desired Him as His Agent to bring into existence, the Logos' intellect was sufficiently able to grasp the pertinent details and His executive abilities were sufficiently skilful and powerful to give these beings and things not only existence, but in the exact modes and qualities called for in God's plans and specifications. Therefore, the Logos' pertinent intellectual and executive abilities must have been of the highest order compatible with a nature lower than the Divine in order to have brought the world of spirit and the world of matter into existence. This will appear from a brief consideration of the general things done and the great diversities, details and attributes of the creatures brought into existence by God through the Logos. From all viewpoints these are great.

According to Col. 1:16 and John 1:3 the Logos brought into existence all the spirit beings in the spirit world, the Father and the Son excepted, and all creatures. animate and inanimate in the material world. While this is stated in general terms in John 1:3, already quoted, it is stated specifically in Col. 1:16, which we will here quote: "For by [not hypo—by, but dia—through] Him were all things created that are in heaven [the spirit world] and that are in earth, visible [to man's eye, hence, generally, earthly things] and invisible [to man's eye, hence, generally, heavenly beings], whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers. All things were created by [through] Him and for Him." By the expressions, "thrones," "dominions," "principalities" and "powers,

four orders and perhaps four different natures among created spirit beings are meant. In Eph. 1:21 the same four are again meant, the word "might" here

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standing for the class called "thrones" in Col. 1:16. The angels of Rom. 8:38 seem to be a fifth order and perhaps nature among created spirit beings. Additionally the Bible speaks of cherubim and seraphim (Gen. 3:24; Ezek. 28:14; Is. 6:2, 6), who seemingly are still two other orders of beings than the foregoing five orders of created spirits. The Logos, also a created spirit, was of a still higher order than the above-mentioned created spirits. Accordingly, there seem to have been eight orders and natures of created spirits, the Logos, the highest of these, bringing the other seven into being. This means that God gave the Logos different spirit substances, life principle being among these, and gave Him pertinent plans and specifications with the charge to bring into existence the other seven orders and natures of spirits above-mentioned, by using the specified spirit substances to form the involved bodies and give existence to spirit beings by uniting with these bodies the life principle.

We are ignorant of the details as to the substance or substances from which each order or nature of spirit beings was created, not to mention the proportionate amount of each substance used for each nature, how they were diversified, and how they were compounded. Nor do we know what the members of these spirit bodies are. All that we know of them as to their bodies is that they consist of some incorruptible spirit substance or substances, that they can permeate and pass through material substances without impediment, that they are gifted with exceedingly rapid powers of locomotion and that they are very powerful physically, mentally, morally and religiously. That they can die is evident from the fact that Lucifer, who by sin became Satan, will be annihilated (Heb. 2:14; Is. 14:15; 27:1; Ezek. 28:14, 15, 19), as the impenitent fallen angels will with him share the same fate (Matt. 25:41). It took great skill and executive ability in the Logos to make their wonderful bodies; but much

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more so to make their mental, moral and religious faculties, endowing them much more highly in these respects than the perfect human mental, moral and religious faculties of Adam, Eve and Jesus were, and than those of the perfected human race will be. When we think of some humans exceptionally well endowed in mental, moral and religious faculties, whom we have met or read of, and then remember that the heavenly host is by far superior to any of these, we can form a fairly approximate idea of the Logos' great creative skill and executiveness. This would also appear from a consideration of the skill and inventiveness of an Edison or a Steinmetz. If we should take one of Edison's most marvelous inventions—like moving pictures—and contrast it with the wonderful inhabitants of the created spirit world, we could form a fair idea of the Logos" creative greatness. Edison has made moving pictures, but not persons. Edison made moving images, but without life; but the Logos made higher than human beings—spirit beings of wonderful abilities of body, mind and heart, capable of almost infinite development and attainment. Surely to have been the Creator of such was an achievement of almost rarest skill and executiveness.

Not the least remarkable feature of the Logos' creation of the spirit world is the fact that He began His creative activities by first bringing into existence the most complex and difficult of all creatures—spirits. Ordinarily an inventor starts with simpler inventions and gradually proceeds to the more complex. Not so in our Lord's case. Next to the new creation, which He began with Pentecost, He brought the most complex of creations into being at the first. Doubtless the Father supervised this work and enabled the Son to bring each feature of it on the spirit plane to a successful conclusion—to perfection. It was undoubtedly due to this supervision that our Lord was able successfully to complete this, the first and the next most difficult

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feature of the creative program, apart from Himself. While this was undoubtedly a most difficult feature of the creative work, it was not so vast as was that of the creation of the universe, which He proceeded to bring into existence after the heavenly host.

Indeed, according to the Scriptures the heavenly host rejoiced to see the creation of the universe (Job 38:7), and from the fact that they were created to be servants of Jehovah (Heb. 1:7) the conclusion is quite sound that they assisted the Logos in bringing the universe into existence. While details are not given us on this point, we are warranted in concluding that under His direction their assistance was in the way of manipulating various of nature's laws to operate various features of the creative process. According to our Lord's declaration (Matt. 26:53) that for His deliverance, if He desired it, He could ask the Father for more than 12 legions of angels, and seeing that a legion at that time consisted of 6,000 soldiers, and that Jesus could thus have had more than 72,000 angels for His deliverance, we conclude that the number of angels is quite large, there being probably over 100,000 of them who remained sinless, not to mention those who later sinned and are now fallen angels. These in the creative work on the universe were doubtless divided into groups under sub- supervisors, scattered about among the various embryo solar systems with their various embryo suns and planets, manipulating the pertinent laws of nature for the development of such embryo solar systems as wholes and in their various parts toward finished products. And as they saw this wondrous work proceed their holy hearts rejoiced and their holy voices sang and shouted for joy, praising the Lord, in whose creative work they were privileged to share (Job 38:7). And when we consider this immense force of helpers under the Logos' direction, we have another glimpse of His skill and ability as a director of subordinate; for all this work

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went on with greater precision than the proverbial clockworks. Merely to have supervised so large a company of helpers would have been a very exacting piece of work. Thus, with angelic co-operation, did He bring into rough and unfinished existence the heavens and earth, as described in Gen. 1:1, making the earth consist of at least 92 chemical substances, all of the universe being produced from gases originally.

But the work so done was finished only in the rough. Neither the earth, nor the other planets of our solar system, nor the suns and planets of other solar systems were perfect. This work of perfecting His creations has been going on, e.g., in the earth during the six creative days and will not result in perfection until the end of the seventh epoch of earth's history, when Christ will deliver over the kingdom to God (1 Cor. 15:24-27). Indeed, so far as we know only one heavenly body is now perfect—God's abode, heaven, which is quite probably Alcyone, one of the Pleiades (Job 38:31), the center of the universe, whence seemingly the Creator governs His universe. During the six creative days following the creation of the heavens and earth the Logos directed the various creative processes that continually advanced the earth toward perfection, giving it light during the first epoch, an atmosphere during the second, dividing it into land and water and starting vegetation during the third, causing the sun and moon and stars to shine through earth's rings during the fourth, creating living beings in sea, air and land during the fifth and bringing beasts and cattle and finally man into existence during the sixth. But the perfecting of the earth awaits Christ's Millennial reign, though under the conditions of the curse man has done more or less to subdue some parts of the earth, bringing it toward perfection. In bringing various forms of life into existence, as well as the universe itself, we see again illustrated the wonderful skill and creative ability of the Logos—a skill and an ability not

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one whit diminished by the fact that He enjoyed the co- operation of the angels. When we contemplate the fact that of insect, reptile, fowl, beast, cattle, there are according to the estimates of moderate scientists 3,000,000 species, not to mention the many others that have served their purpose and have passed away, some of them leaving traces of themselves in petrified forms and in fossils, we are again brought face to face with the stupendousness of the creative work, as well as the skill and executive capacities of the Logos, while the fact that God planned and provided for all of them enhances Him before our appreciative and adoring hearts and minds. Praised be the Lord!

In every one of the members of these 3,000,000 species are hidden marvels of creative and executive invention. Think of it: from earth's elements bodies of exquisite and elaborate texture were formed and united with life principle and were given conscious existence and powers of locomotion and self-preservation. The millions of varieties of plant, vegetable and tree life are other spheres of wondrous creative effects. And when we consider man, the monarch of earth, with his wonderful body of hundreds of coalescent bones, thousands of nerves, sinews and capillaries, numerous veins and arteries, many vital organs and functions, all so remarkably adjusted for his well being, with the vitalizing blood adapted to receive the life force from the air and through its circulation to impart power to function to every part of the body, we stand aghast at the Logos' creative skill and executiveness. Consider but a moment the great marvels of the eye with its wonderful adaptabilities and reactions to varying light! Note the great diversity of these in beings living under different light conditions, e.g., in water, in clear light, in dark caverns, etc. More wonderfully is this the case when we attentively view man's mental, moral and religious constitution and realize that this was also given him by the Logos'

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uniting an organism that He created out of about 25 elements of the earth with the life principle, so as to empower men to use this mental, moral and religious equipment either for better or for worse—the better so wonderfully appreciative, the worse so abominably abhorrent. Thus in a mere summary we have set forth the Logos' creative work in the spirit world and in the world of matter, animate and inanimate. Details on the creation of the universe and particularly on the earth we give further on. Here we are merely emphasizing the Logos' activities in God's works of creation.

For completeness of treatment of the pre-human Logos we desire to discuss briefly His works of providence; for through Him God also exercises His providence; over the universe, the earth, mankind in general and over God's people in particular. Therefore the Logos was active providentially toward these. When God says that all things were made for the Logos (Col. 1:16), the thought is that they were made for His care to be exercised over them. Again, when He says (Col. 1:17) that through the Logos all things consist, continue to subsist, He again teaches the Logos to be God's providential agent. He exercised this providence by preserving the universe that He brought into existence and by governing it for its accomplishing of its ends. This implies that He constantly manipulated the laws of nature for the continuance, preservation and direction of the universe. Hence the perfect precision in the harmonious movements and relations of the planets and their suns, each system in its own relations and all of them in their relations to one another. Through the great science of astronomy we have learned to spell out a few of these marvels, which declare God's glory and that of the Logos (Ps. 8:1, 3; 19:1- 6). By the controllership of these laws of nature He also preserves, continues and rules the earth in its succession of day and night, seasons and years, for its own refreshment and for the preservation and comfort

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of its inhabitants (Job 37:6-24; 38:25-27, 41; Ps. 65:9-13; 104:10-29; 135:7; 147:8, 9; Acts 14:17). His providence has likewise extended toward the inhabitants of the earth— both man and beast—continuing, preserving and overruling for their ultimate good, even amid the conditions of the curse and an experience with evil, so that in the end man will benefit from his various untoward experiences in this sin-cursed earth (2 Sam. 7:8, 9; Job 12:23; Ps. 78:52-55; 145:15, 16; Acts 17:25-31). But His providential acts as the Logos were especially exercised toward the Old Testament faithful people of God. This we can see in the experiences of every one of them described in Holy Writ. Yea, He was the Angel of the Lord that encamped about those that feared the Lord and delivered them from all their troubles and enemies (Ps. 34:7). The teachings and histories of the Old Testament are replete with such providential acts of the Logos, of which we will cite a few: Gen. 7:1; 19; 20:3-6; 28:20, 21; 48:15, 16; Deut. 2:7; Ps. 103:3-5; 105:17-22; Ex.

14:21; 34:24; 1 Kings 19:1-8; Esther 3:1-10:3. Thus we see His pre-human providential work toward the universe, the earth, animals and man and God's Old Testament people.

There was still a third activity of the pre-human Logos: He acted as the main channel of revealing God's ways and purposes during the time the Old Testament was given. Thus He was the special confirmer of the covenant that promised a seed to Abraham (Gen. 17:1-22; 18:1-15). He also gave the Oath-bound Covenant to Abraham and his seed (Gen. 22:11-18; Gal. 3:16, 29). He appeared to Jacob on various occasions with revelations (Gen. 28:11-22; 32:24-30; 48:16). He appeared to Moses, commissioning him to go to Egypt and deliver Israel (Ex. 3:2-4:17). He is the one through whom God spoke to Moses from between the cherubim (Ex. 14:19; 23:20, 23; Num. 7:89). And

judges 13:3-21; 2 Kings

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1:3, 15; Is. 63:9 and 1 Pet. 1:11 are other passages that show that He was the chief messenger making Old Testament revelations. But He was assisted in these activities by other angels, as we see in the example of the giving of all the features of the Law Covenant (Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19). Another notable instance of an angel helping Him in this activity is that of Gabriel who gave a number of revelations to Daniel (Dan. 9:20-27; 10:4; 12:13). The most important of such revelations; as the above citations show, came through the pre-human Logos. Hence the bulk of the Old Testament revelations were given by God through Him. Apparently other angels assisted Him only when more pressing matters required His attention elsewhere, as can be noted from the case of his manipulating the king of Persia (Dan. 10:13, 21) to give Gabriel the opportunity to communicate with Daniel. It will be noted that Gabriel was also from obvious reasons used to communicate with Zechariah, Mary and Joseph in connection with the Logos' carnation (Luke 1:19, 26; 2:10; Matt. 1:20; 2:13, 19, 22). With this remark we close our discussion of the pre-human Logos.

Having discussed the Logos—our pre-human Lord Jesus Christ—as the first creation of God, and as the Agent through whom God made all the rest of creation, we now come in the discussion of our subject to that part of creation that consists of the other created inhabitants of the spirit world, whom we usually call angels. The Hebrew word for angel—maloch and the Greek word for angel—aggelos (pronounced angelos), from which our English word angel is derived—each means messenger, regardless of whether a spirit or human or inanimate messenger is meant. As none dispute that these words stand for spirit beings, who are God's messengers, we will quote no passages to prove it; but we will quote several to show that human messengers are sometimes meant by

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these Hebrew and Greek words. Jacob's messengers to Esau are called malochim, in Gen. 32:3, 6. Various of Moses'  and Balak's messengers are called malochim, in Num. 20:14; 21:21; 22:5; 24:12. So the messengers that Joshua sent to Jericho, etc., are called malochim, in Josh. 6:17, 25; 7:22. Gideon's messengers are called malochim, in judges 6:35; 7:24, as also are those of Jephthah and Israel, in judges 11:12-14, 17, 19. These citations will be sufficient to show that the Hebrew word for angels means messengers and applies to human as well as to spirit beings. A few instances of the Greek word aggelos as applicable to human messengers will be given. John the Baptist is called an aggelos, in Matt. 11:10; Mark 1:2; Luke 7:27. So, too, are the two disciples whom he sent on an errand to Jesus (Luke 7:24), and the spies sent to Rahab (Jas. 2:25), while St. Paul's thorn in the flesh—an inanimate thing—is called a messenger of Satan, an aggelos of Satan, and a king's anger—an inanimate thing—is called messengers— malochim—of death, in Prov. 16:14.

The Hebrew word maloch—angel—is frequently applied to the pre-human Logos, because He was a messenger, yea, the Chief Messenger (Dan. 10:13; Jude 9; 1 Thes. 4:16) of God. Thus He is called The Angel of God (Ex. 14:19; Judges 13:6-11). So, too, He is sometimes called The Angel (Gen. 48:16) and The Angel of His Presence (Is. 63:9). Most frequently as the Angel He is called The Angel of the Lord  (Gen.  16:7-11;  22:11,  15,  Num.  22:23-35;  Judges 6:11-22; 13:3-21; 2 Sam. 24:16; 1 Kings 17:7; 2 Kings 1:3, 15; Ps. 34:7; Zech. 1:11, 12; 3:5). This name is applied to Him not as a designation of equality with the other created spirits, for He was and ever is their superior, but simply to designate Him as the chief, the Messenger of God. Accordingly, we are to remember that this name is given to the created spirits, not to designate their nature or

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mode of being, but their office as messengers of God. Their nature or mode of existence is rather designated by the word spirits (Heb. 1:7, 14). That these beings, as well as the Logos, are called angels is evident from the following Scriptures:  Matt. 1:20, 24;  2:13, 19;  28:2;  Luke 1:11, 18, 19, 26, 28, 30, 34, 35, 38; 2:9, 15; Acts 5:19; 7:30, 35; 8:26; 12:7, 23. They are also called morning stars, in Job 38:7; hosts, in Gen. 32:2; Joshua 5:14; Ps. 33:6; 103:21; Luke 2:13. They are called principalities, thrones, dominions, powers and mights, in Eph. 1:21; 3:10; Col. 1:16; and some of them are called cherubim (Gen. 3:24; Ezek. 28:14, 16) and seraphim (Is. 6:2, 6). Singularly enough, only three of them are known to us by name Michael (Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1; Jude 9), Gabriel (Dan. 8:16; 9:21; Luke 1:19, 26) and Lucifer (Is. 14:12), who afterwards through sin became Satan, and by Palestinians was variously called, Baal, Beelzebub, Molech, Chemosh, etc.

At the outstart we must confess that we do not know very much about the nature of these beings. That they have bodies is evident from the Biblical teachings that spirits have bodies; for when the Bible speaks of God's having a shape (John 5:37) and of the pre-human Logos as existing in God's form (Phil. 2:6), it shows that both God has and the Archangel Michael had a body. The same is implied in the description of our Lord's and the saints' spiritual bodies (1 Cor. 15:41-54). But we know nothing of their shapes or members. All we know about them as to the constituency of their bodies is that they are made of spiritual, immaterial, substances, like light, fire, etc. (Heb. 1:7; Matt. 28:3; Judges 13:6). Their bodies are very glorious and bright, so much so as almost to paralyze a human who would look upon one (Matt. 28:4; Dan. 8:17, 27; 10:7-11, 18). St. Paul got only a glimpse of the glory that emanated from our Lord's resurrection body (Acts 9:3-8); and it blinded

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him before his eyes could penetrate it and see the body itself out of which it shone (1 Tim. 6:16). But, of course, our Lord's resurrection body, being of the Divine nature, is more glorious than that of the other spirits lower in nature than He. Even in His pre-human existence He had a higher nature tan any of the other created spirits, as St. Paul implies that when He took a lower nature He did not stoop to that of angels, but even lower, i.e., to human nature (Heb. 2:16). Hence we cannot infer that as none can see our Lord's resurrection body because of its dwelling in a light unapproachable, so none can see the bodies of the other created spirits, for Daniel, as cited above, did see Gabriel's body, and the soldiers at our Lord's tomb saw the face of the angel who rolled away the rock before that tomb, at our Lord's resurrection. These remarks, of course, are not to be understood as referring to those materialized bodies which angels assumed to make revelations to humans.

Such materialized bodies were usually made to look like those of ordinary people and in some cases they were mistaken for humans at first (Heb. 13:2); they were not the real—spiritual—bodies of those communicating angels. An examination of such appearances will prove these to have been materializations, not actual spirit bodies. This can be seen from the appearances of angels to Abraham (Gen. 18:2; 22:11-18), to Hagar (Gen. 16:7), Lot (Gen. 19:1-17), Jacob  (Gen. 32:24-30),  Moses  (Ex.  3:2-6),  Israel  (Ex. 14:19). Balaam (Num. 22:31-35), Joshua (Josh. 5:15), Gideon (Judg. 6:11-22), Manoah and his wife (Judg. 13:3- 6, 9-20), David (2 Sam. 24:16, 17), Elijah (1 Kings 19:5- 11), Daniel in the lions' den (Dan. 6:22) and in the places noted above, the three Hebrew youths and Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 3:25-28), Mary, Zacharias and the shepherds (Luke 1:11-20, 26-38; 2:9-15), Jesus after His temptation and in Gethsemane (Matt. 4:11; Luke 22:43), the

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women at the sepulcher (Matt. 28:5; Luke 24:4-10; John 20:11-13), the Eleven at the ascension (Acts 1:10, 11), Peter and John (Acts 5:19), Philip (Acts 8:26), Peter (Acts 12:7-11), Paul (Acts 27:23) and John (Rev. 1:1). In every one of these cases the manifestation was made by the angel or angels assuming Human bodies or some other form than that of their spiritual bodies, and thus they made the appearance. Hence from these cases we cannot infer anything as to their real bodies, except that they are spiritual; and, therefore, not being suitable for the purpose at hand, a materialization was necessary.

While not being able to convey a precise idea of the exact form, parts and all the constituents of their bodies, we know more about their qualities. We know that they are not immortal, since immortality is a quality exclusively of the Divine nature (1 Tim. 6:16). Their mortality is proven by the fact that Lucifer, one of these, will die (Heb. 2:15; Is. 27:1) Nevertheless, since they are spiritual they have incorruptible bodies, bodies that do not decay, which is also a quality of the Divine nature (1 Cor. 15:53, 54). They are gifted with exceedingly rapid powers of locomotion (Dan. 9:21, 23), since Gabriel at the time that Daniel began to pray left Alcyone, God's abode, untold billions of miles from this earth and reached Daniel about the time he finished his prayer. Their bodies can pass through materials of great thickness, like walls, doors, etc. (Acts 12:7-11), as easily as electricity passes through wires, after the manner that our Lord entered the upper room after His resurrection, and fallen angels enter houses for séances. Their bodies evidently have great 'strength (Ps. 103:20), not only as evidenced in the things said in the two preceding sentences, but in rolling away the stone at the sepulcher, overcoming the obstacles to Peter's deliverance, destroying the Assyrian host (Is. 37:36) and the firstborn in Egypt (Ex. 12:29) and in destroying

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Sodom, etc. (Gen. 19:13, 24, 25). Their bodies are sexless and therefore they neither marry nor are given in marriage and cannot reproduce themselves (Luke 20:35) after the manner of the animal creation. Since their bodies are incorruptible they do not eat to supply waste cells, since they have no cells that waste. It follows from this that their bodies are well; sickness, being a process of decay, does not prey on their bodies. Thus physically they are in a very fine condition. This accounts for the fact that even though some of them have sinned and are banished from heaven, the fallen angels, despite their mental, moral and religious corruption, have remained physically perfect. Thus we see that the angels came from the creative hand of God perfect in their bodies and have remained so, though it is doubtless millions of years, since their creation, for they were created before God began the creation of the universe—Gen. 1:1; Job 38:7.

As to their faculties of heart and mind: These as such were also created perfect, and that on a scale higher than the faculties of perfect humans. A fair idea of their ability to reason may be gotten from the accurate mathematical knowledge that they must have had in assisting the Logos so to manipulate the laws of nature as to balance the various solar systems which they assisted the Logos to bring into existence. The amount of mathematics, astronomy and physics needed to co-operate intelligently to bring these into orderly being transcends almost infinitely that of humanity's greatest mathematicians, astronomers and physicists. Then, too, their moral and religious faculties must be of stupendous strength. Their tenacity of will to righteousness and their steadfastness in equal love for one another and supreme love to God, persisting through millions of years, despite temptations to the contrary, prove of the good angels that they have had wonderfully strong moral and religious faculties,

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whose compass of action and innate power greatly exceed those of perfect human moral and religious faculties. This, among other things, is implied in Ps. 103:20, 21. They will not allow themselves to be worshiped; and they obey God—Ps. 103:21; Matt. 6:10; 1 Pet. 3:22; 2 Pet. 2:11; Judg. 6:7.

To sum up, the main attributes of being that the angels have are spirituality, mortality, incorruptibility, longevity (the righteous of them having everlasting life), dependence, rapid locomobility, sexlessness, non-reproductiveness, corporeality, super-strength, knowledge and freedom from need of food, water, air or any other material thing for their sustenance. The main attributes of character among the good angels are faith, hope, love, obedience, fortitude, wisdom, self-control, patience, piety, brotherly-love, humility, simplicity, peace, joy, industry, aggressiveness, defensiveness, longsuffering, forbearance, forgiveness, temperance, tactfulness, sincerity, magnanimity, kindness, economy, generosity, sympathy, appreciation, gratitude, gentleness, zeal, meekness, guilelessness, tenderness, faithfulness, friendliness, politeness, patriotism, filiality toward God, readiness to serve, diligence to duty, watchfulness to their charges and responsibilities and entire devotion to God as servants. Certainly they are from every standpoint a noble, gifted set of beings, an honor to God and a blessing to one another and to other beings.

These angels were created in various orders and natures. We are certain of their being of different natures so far as the Logos and other created spirit beings are concerned, because Heb. 2:16 distinctly implies that the Logos was of a higher nature than the others, for when emptying Himself of His pre-human nature He stooped not only as low in nature as they, but even lower than they. This implies that He was of a higher nature than they. So there was at least that difference in nature between the Logos

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and these created spirits. But we are of the opinion that the various names: cherubim, seraphim, principalities, thrones, dominions, powers [mights] and angels, of Gen. 3:24; Is. 6:2, 6; Rom. 8:38; Eph. 1; 21; 3:10; Col. 1:16, indicate seven differences in nature among these heavenly beings, and as such are an expression of the manifold creative wisdom of God. But if these names do not imply differences in nature, assuredly they do indicate differences in rank, or order, among these beings. This is implied in the very use and meaning of these terms. The expression, Arch (chief) angel, implies a difference in the Logos' rank from the ranks of the other created spirits; and it seems entirely reasonable to conclude that the other names given above imply their differences as to nature as well as to rank. But since the Lord has not deigned to give us certainty on the subject as to whether the spirits lower than the Logos differ in nature, we are not to be dogmatic on this.

We now come to a discussion of their activities, limiting our discussion to those of the good angels. Those of the fallen angels we will discuss later. There are three distinct works, a share in which the Bible ascribes to the good angels: they have shared in the works of creation, of revelation and of providence, the latter both with respect to the righteous and the wicked. Their share in the work of creation was that of helpers of the Logos. As shown above God is the Creator in the sense of being creation's Source, Provider and Supervisor; the Logos is the Creator in the sense of being creation's Agent; and the angels are the assistants of the Logos in working out under His direction various details. The illustration of a building's architect, material provider and supervisor well illustrates the Father's part in creation; of a building's contractor well illustrates the Logos' part in creation; while that of a builder's mechanics well illustrates the angels' part in creation. This we infer from the latters'

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being spoken of as mighty servants of God doing His pleasure, for which He made all things (Ps. 103:20, 21; Rev. 4:11). Again, we infer it from the fact that they were present at creation, as highly interested parties (Job 38:4-7). This is also inferable from their being called chariots of God, on whom He figuratively rides—uses them for furthering His purpose—in the execution of His plans (Ps. 68:17). Also this is inferable from the fact that they praise Him (Ps. 103:20, 21; 148:2; Job 38:7), which they do by works rather than bywords, creation being a means of praising God by works (Ps. 19:1-6). Their part in creation therefore seems to have been to lay hold on the materials— seemingly gases—out of which the universe was created, and to use the laws and forces of nature as their tools to construct the various solar systems of the universe. Similarly, they thus wrought on the earth to order it for the abode of plant and animal life, as well as to assist in bringing such life into being by manipulating certain materials, laws and forces to that end, doing everything under the superintendence of God and the direction of the Logos.

More clearly does the Bible reveal their activities in ministering revelations from God to man. While as a rule the Logos was the main Actor therein, He had the angels as assistants in this work. They were, e.g., before the flood, the teachers of the race, whom they sought to reform. This activity of theirs became the occasion of Satan's seducing many of them into sin, by prevailing upon them to assume human bodies and therein to marry women and raise families, ostensibly thereby to overcome the depravity transmitted by heredity (Gen. 6:2-4). We will touch upon this more in detail when treating of the fallen angels. During the Patriarchal Age angels were active in giving revelations. Thus the Logos with two of them appeared to Abraham and Sarah, promising the advent of the typical seed (Gen. 18:1-15). The Logos revealed

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to Abraham the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 18:16-32). The other two angels went to Sodom and revealed to Lot and his family the destruction of the cities of the plain (Gen. 19:12-22). The Bible explicitly teaches that the angels assisted the Logos in giving the Law arrangements (Acts 7:53; Gal. 3:19; Heb. 2:2). These constituted a large part of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Not only so, but they assisted the Logos in making revelations to the prophets. A most notable case to the point we find in Daniel, where some of its most remarkable prophecies were revealed to Daniel through Gabriel. In Dan. 8:15-27 we have an account of the Logos' commanding Gabriel to clarify the vision given in the preceding verses, and of Gabriel then going and explaining the vision to Daniel. In Dan. 9:21-27 Gabriel is again set forth as making a revelation to Daniel; and that revelation was one of the most important prophecies connected with our Lord's First Advent work and His activities in the Jewish Harvest. Again, Gabriel in Dan. 10; 11; 12; made the revelation of one of the most notable of all Bible prophecies to Daniel. The angel who spoke to Zechariah (1:8-6:8) was the Logos; but in giving the visions of these five full chapters he was assisted by another angel (Zech. 2:3-13).

Angels were likewise active in making New Testament revelations. The first of these centered around the birth of John the Baptist and of our Lord. Thus Gabriel revealed to Zacharias, John's father, the birth and mission of John (Luke 1:11-20). The same angel (Luke 1:26-38) revealed to Mary the birth and mission of Jesus. An angel—likely Gabriel—revealed the secret of Mary's condition to Joseph, warned him to flee with the child and mother into Egypt, and to return to Palestine again (Matt. 1:20-23; 2:13, 19, 20). It was also an angel who revealed to the shepherds

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the birth of the Messiah and other angels sang the great nativity anthem (Luke 2:9-15). It was likely an animate angel revealed to our Lord in Gethsemane that all was well with His case before God (Luke 22:43). Angels revealed Jesus' resurrection to the women (Matt. 28:2-5; Mark 16:5- 7; Luke 24:23; John 20:12). Two of them at our Lord's ascension revealed the manner of His return (Acts 1:10, 11). One of them revealed an opportunity of service for the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26). An angel revealed to Cornelius where he could find Peter, who would become a preacher of the Truth to him (Acts 10:3, 30-32). And it was an angel who acted as Jesus' agent in making to John the revelations contained in the book of Revelation, (Rev. 1:1) i.e., that angel revealed an entire book-the last one of the New Testament. Thus we see that angels exercised a ministry on behalf of making known parts of the Old and New Testament revelations.

The third activity of the good angels is that of ministering providentially on behalf of God's people. This is manifest both by their Old and New Testament acts. In this work they act as God's servants, cooperating for the carrying out of His plans and purposes along providential lines. We are to understand that in this work they are subject to God's supervision exercised through His only begotten Son. Indeed, in most of these acts God's only begotten Son was the direct Agent in the providential acts. Undoubtedly the Logos is referred to by the angel who helped Hagar and sent her back to Sarah (Gen. 16:7), as it was also He who assisted her and Ishmael and thus kept them from famishing from thirst (Gen. 21:14-19). Likewise, it was He who prospered Eliezer's journey for a bride for Isaac (Gen. 24:7, 40), as undoubtedly it was He who in various ways helped Jacob (Gen. 48:16). Yet whatever assistance He may have needed we may be sure was rendered by the other

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created spirits. We may be very sure that, as they assisted Him in establishing the Law Covenant in various of its features, they likewise assisted Him in ordering the events connected with giving the Law Covenant, beginning with Israel's deliverance by the Passover, which was the first institution of the Law Covenant, in working for them at the Red Sea, in sending them the supply of manna and quail and in ordering their other wilderness experiences and needs (Ex. 23:20, 23; Num. 20:16; Is. 63:9).

The angel who awoke Elijah under the juniper tree and twice supplied him food and drink to strengthen him for his 40 days' journey to the mount of God was very likely another angel than the Logos, indicated by the indefinite way of introducing him into the narrative, "an angel," whereas the Logos is usually introduced in a definite way where He appears and acts, "the angel of the Lord" (1 Kings 19:5-8). The angels attending God, and being at attention for service on behalf of Israel (2 Chron. 18:18), show that they also assisted the Logos in His work toward God's people. All of us recall how they surrounded Elisha and protected him against the wiles and machinations of the Syrians, trust in which gave him serenity amid his danger, whereas his servant, Gehazi, was in great fear until his eyes were opened to see them (2 Kings 6:1 7). The same thought is conveyed in Ps. 68:17, where the angels are called God's chariots. Often have all of us from childhood on thought of their delivering Daniel in the lions' den (Dan. 6:22). How lovingly did the angel minister to Zechariah (Zech. 1:12- 14). Many of the signal deliverances of Israel were undoubtedly wrought by angelic assistances, even though the record does not expressly so state, as, for instance, the overthrow of the Midianites by 12,000 Israelitish men, without the loss of a single Israelite (Num. 31), and by Gideon, without the loss of a single Israelite (Judg. 7:8) and the great losses inflicted on

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the Philistines by individuals, like Shamgar (Judg. 3:31; 5:6), Samson (Judg. 14; 15; 16), Jashobeam, Eleazar, Shammah and Abishai (2 Sam. 23:8-19). Thus we see that in the Old Testament angels helped God's people.

They likewise have acted providentially in the interests of God's New Testament people. They are their guardian angels, who always have access to God on behalf of their wards (Matt. 18:10). They are in the New Testament expressly spoken of as spirits ministering on behalf of the heirs of salvation (Heb. 1:14). This service of theirs is also, though not exclusively indicated, as theirs, in Ps. 91:11, 12, where we read of their being given a providential charge to preserve the Church in her ways and by their providential ministries (hands) to support her from stumbling over the Ransom and the sin-offerings. We have also seen how they ministered to shield Mary and Jesus through Joseph. In this spirit one of them delivered Peter and John from prison and told them to preach publicly undismayed in the temple (Acts 5:19, 20). The angel who came to Cornelius helped him providentially to get a preacher of the gospel, though he was not permitted to preach it to him (Acts 10:3-6; 11:13, 14). Signal indeed was the deliverance that one of them wrought on Peter's behalf (Acts 12:7-10). St. Paul, likewise, had the ministry of one, not only to prophesy that he and all with him would be delivered, though shipwrecked, but also providentially to fulfill that prophecy (Acts 27:23, 43, 44). In innumerable ways have they ministered to God's people in their need throughout the Gospel Age, sometimes relieving their needs in almost miraculous ways, e.g., preserving the reformer Brenz, whose hiding place under the hay in a haymow, after a most thorough search, papal soldiers watched for nine days, then gave it up with the thought that, if there, he must be dead of starvation, but he was succored by

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a hen that daily came to him and laid an egg in the straw under which he was hidden, and whence he could reach the egg without detection! A similar deliverance they wrought on behalf of Simon Menno, the Baptist reformer. Pastor Duncan, another reformer, driven out of Scotland by James VI, was with his wife and children starving, which led him to prayer, and though an utter stranger at Berwick, whither he fled, an unknown man came to him giving him a sackful of provisions, among which was stowed away a £20 note. No wonder Pastor Duncan said to his fearful wife: "See what a good Master I serve." Many of us can testify to very singular deliverances wrought upon us or upon others that we have known. Countless of such cases have occurred throughout the Gospel Age, even if we may not know of a millionth of them. They prove that the angels, as the guardians of God's people, care for them. It is these experiences, as well as Scriptures, that have convinced many of God's people that the Scriptures are right in teaching the existence and ministry of good angels.

These angels have performed another ministry executing judgment on the wicked, either simply as retribution or as a retribution to the wicked and a deliverance of God's people. Thus they delivered righteous Lot, but punished Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities of the plain (Gen. 19:1-15). So, too, they delivered Israel at the Red Sea and smote the Egyptians with destruction (Ex. 14; 15:1-20). So, too, an angel executed punishment upon Israel for its participation with David in his pride at numbering Israel (2 Sam. 24:16, 17). When the Assyrians, like a plague of locusts, overran Judah, Hezekiah and Isaiah offering acceptable prayer in the presence of imminent destruction, God by His angels overthrew 185,000 of the host of the Assyrians and the few spared beheld the dead multitudes (2 Kings 19:35; 2 Chro. 32:21; Is. 37:36). Thus the wicked have

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been as chaff before the wind, whom the Lord's Angel pursued and chased (Ps. 35:5, 6). When the proud Herod, after persecuting the Jerusalem Church, allowed himself to be lauded as a god, the Angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory, and he died miserably, as food for worms. Exemplary punishments were heaped upon the public and private persecutors of God's people during the Gospel Age, beginning with the Jewish persecutors, proceeding with the pagan persecutors and culminating with the papal persecutors, of whom we may mention a few: Nero, Julian, Conrad of Marburg, the inquisitor; Bishop Gardiner and the other chief Marian persecutors, Charles IX, the French king, infamous for the massacre of St. Bartholomew's night, etc. The nations that have persecuted have terribly suffered for it. And in the very near future God will doubtless, by more or less angelic cooperation, exact justice for the righteous blood shed, especially by Great Babylon (Rev. 18:24, 5-23). Thus have the angels had a ministry of executing judgment upon the wicked before and since Christ. Thus we see that the angels are servants of God. They delight to understand God's Word and works (1 Pet. 1:12). They take pleasure in serving His designs, and are to be recognized and appreciated by us as such. We are, however, not to worship them, nor do their holy hearts desire it (Judg. 13:15, 16). They are pleased to help us without anything in return for it, other than the consciousness that thereby they please God and help us. We believe we might well make, as a return for their kindnesses, good efforts not to increase their work on our behalf by mistakes and misdeeds of ours, whereby their work is increased and made more difficult, and their holy hearts are made sad, as doubtless our good progress in grace, knowledge and service is a delight to our guardian angels. We will, if honored with spirit existence, have opportunity to thank them for their ministries on our

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behalf, when we will learn from them of many a deliverance or service of which we now know little or nothing.

Having treated of the good angels as a part of God's creation, we will now discuss the evil angels. But since the general title of this book is Creation, how come we to treat of evil angels in such a book? Is it because we think that God created some angels good and other angels bad? Certainly not; for He made all angels good; because all God's completed works, such as are the angels, were by their creation made perfect (Deut. 32:4). Hence the evil angels, who for millions of years after their creation remained good, later made themselves, in the exercise of their free wills, sinful and thus evil. To make oneself sinful and to sin are not creative works; nor is sin a creature. Sin is the quality of an act transgressing God's law; and to sin is to exercise a quality in transgressing God's law. Accordingly, when we say that angels made themselves sinful, we do not mean that they performed a work of creation, but that they exercised a quality or qualities in such a way as to make a change in their characters from good to evil. So when people ask us, since God made all creation, whether He created the devil, our answer should be that God created very good a certain angel, who much later made himself sinful and who, because of the evil change he made in his moral qualities, changed, not his nature, but his character, into evil and thus became the devil. So with all fallen angels. Hence the propriety of discussing them in a work on Creation.

Hence originally that being was good whom we call Satan (1 Chro. 21:1; Job 1:6; John 13:27; Acts 5:3; 26:18; Rom. 16:20), which name in Hebrew, like its Greek equivalent—diabolos, whence comes our English word devil—means adversary, opponent. But Satan was not his original name. Until he sinned and led the race into sin his name was Lucifer—light—

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bearer (Is. 14:12). In nature and rank he was a cherub, one of the highest of all angels (Ezek. 28:14, 16). Ezek. 28:12- 19, addressing him as the king of Tyre, because Tyre symbolizes the present evil world, whose ruler is Satan, gives us a fairly detailed description of Lucifer before he sinned and after he sinned and of his final end— annihilation. In both literal and symbolic language his physical, mental, moral and religious perfection is set forth in vs. 12-15. The expression, thou sealest the sum, refers to the fullness of his perfection, intellectually (.full of wisdom) and physically, morally and religiously, since the word beauty refers to his physical, moral and religious qualities. He was such even for a while after he was made guardian angel to Adam and Eve in Eden (vs. 13, 14). More particularly are his pre-fallen moral and religious qualities brought to our attention by the figure of his being covered with precious stones (v. 13); for these and other precious stones are used to symbolize the moral and religious perfections of the glorified Church, the Bride, the Lamb's Wife, as New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:11-21), as they are also among the stones mentioned in the high priest's breastplate (Ex. 39:10-13). V. 14 first describes his work in Eden as guardian of Adam and Eve and later describes his position and work among the heavenly hosts. V. 15 shows that he had been perfectly righteous and good from the time of his creation for probably millions of years later, even until he in Eden fell into sin. His subsequently corrupting himself is graphically described in vs. 16-18, while his final influence and annihilation in the Little Season following the Millennium are described in v. 19. Thus this Scripture gives us a comprehensive description of this cherub's history.

Thus so far we see him called Lucifer, Satan and covering (protecting) cherub; but he is also called by other names than these in the Bible. It would be profitable for us to consider these, which refer to him

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from the standpoint of his qualities and activities subsequent to his fall. Thus he is called: Beelzebub (lord of the fly), the god of Ekron, (destruction; 2 Kings 1:3-6; symbolic of his plaguesomeness through errors [flies] on militarism, leading to war and destruction; Matt. 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15); Belial, or Beliar (wickedness, descriptive of his character; 2 Cor. 6:15); devil (adversary, descriptive of his opposing God, the Truth, righteousness, mankind in general and the good in particular; Matt. 4:1; Luke 4:2, 6; Rev. 20:2); enemy (descriptive of his despiteful course and hating attitude; Matt. 13:39); liar, and father of lies (descriptive of his deceitfulness and originating error; John 8:44); murderer (because by sin he murdered the whole human family; John 8:44; Rom, 5:12); serpent, and old serpent (because of his cunning and poisonousness: Gen. 3:4, 14; Rev. 20:2; 2 Cor. 11:3); prince of this world (because he is by usurpation the ruler of the present evil order of affairs among mankind; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11); prince of devils (because he is the ruler over the fallen angels; Matt. 12:24); prince of the power of the air (descriptive of his headship over the fallen angels as the invisible spirits organized as a kingdom over humanity; Eph. 2:2); spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience (because he uses the wicked and disobedient as his servants and tools; Eph. 2:2); tempter (because he entices to sin, error, selfishness and worldliness; Matt. 4:3; 1 Thes. 3:5); the god of this world (descriptive of him as the ruler of the present evil order of affairs; 2 Cor. 4:4); and wicked one (whose character has been rightly described by the words Milton puts into his mouth: "Evil, be thou my good; Good, be thou my evil"; Matt. 13:19, 38). Thus we see that his Biblically given names accurately describe his character, works and office. And surely a being correctly characterized by such names must be the supreme of all sinners and evil-doers.

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There is such a being as Satan. There are some who, repulsed by some nonsensical teachings of the creeds on Satan, have concluded not only to reject those creedal teachings, but with them the Biblical teachings on Satan, as being in their opinion identical with those of the creeds, and who as a result deny altogether that such a being as Satan exists. However, to do this is to fly into the teeth of reason as well as of experience and Scripture; for reason suggests, as the Bible teaches, that sinful acts, like righteous acts and the universe, must have been originated by some first cause. And this first cause of sinful acts, in originating them, must have become sinful; and since sinful acts imply purpose as well as cause, their originator must have been a being endowed with mind and will, hence a person. Thus reason demonstrates the personality of the first cause, or source, of sin, who, the Bible assures us, is Satan. Experience likewise suggests to us that there are at least a number of invisible evil beings evil spirits; for we can on no other ground explain a frequent happening: the sudden injection of irrelevant, unfamiliar, foreign and repulsive evil thoughts into the minds of human beings— thoughts which are not suggested by the cogitations, feelings, activities, circumstances and experiences of those into whose minds they are injected. This implies their existence.

However, coming to the Bible, we find the personality of Satan expressed and implied in many passages and incidents. Certainly the dealings between God and Satan and the latter's connected acts respecting job, imply Satan's personality (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-7). The angel contending against Satan and calling upon God to rebuke him, as Satan resisted the high priest, Joshua, is in line with the thought that Satan is a personal being (Zech. 3:1, 2). Jesus' statement respecting Satan's adopting policies foreign to his usual proceedings to bolster up his waning cause strongly implies Satan's personality (Matt. 12:24-26). No less strongly

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is this taught by Jesus in His statement that Satan was once in the Truth, that he later originated falsehoods and murdered the human family, when he introduced sin into the world (John 8:44; Gen. 3:1-7). If Satan were the evil principle, as some claim, how could he ever have been in the Truth? If Satan were the evil principle, and not an evil person who works through evil principles, how contrary to St. Paul's stated purpose would it have been to deliver the erring Corinthian brother to Satan for corrective stripes (1 Cor. 5:5)! How could the Bible speak of his devices, unless he could think and plan, as making devices implies thought and purpose and thus personality (2 Cor. 2:11)? Certainly in transforming himself into an angel of light from an angel of darkness, he must have thought and reasoned, which of course implies personality (2 Cor. 11:14). The fact that devils believe and tremble—therefore think and feel— proves that Satan, their leader, thinks and feels, and therefore is a personal being (Jas. 2:19). His walking about as a roaring lion seeking, especially Christians, as his prey, proves his personality (1 Pet. 5:8, 9). Michael's contending with him over Moses' body, which Satan seemed to want for use as an object of worship in Israel, is in line with his being a real, personal-being, and not the abstract evil principle (Jude 9). Accordingly, Reason, Facts and Scriptures prove Satan's personality. It is therefore to be accepted by us.

Evidently Lucifer, his name before his fall, was at first good; for he at first was in the Truth, though he failed to continue therein (John 8:44). Thus, too, he was before his fall—before he sinned—one of the foremost angels in heaven (Is. 14:12). This implies his rectitude at the time. Hence he was pure and perfect in all his ways, until he sinned (Ezek. 28:13-15). Accordingly, as he came from the creative hand of God he was good; nor did God make him so that he had to sin. God, on the contrary, gave him a disposition

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favorable to righteousness and averse to sin. This naturally raises the question: How, then, could he have sinned, if there were no sin in the world, and no sinful propensities in his make-up, as he came from the creative hand of God? The possibility of his sinning lay in the fact that he was endowed with liberty of choice. Apparently Lucifer was one of the highest of the angels (Is. 14:12), and as such had as his subordinates some of the other angels, from whom by Divine arrangement he received the honor and obedience due to his station in relation to them. It was proper for him both to desire and to receive such honor and obedience in harmony with God's order. But it seems that Lucifer permitted his mind to dwell overweeningly on the desirability of receiving such honor and obedience, and thus he failed to keep such desires in proper subjection to higher sentiments, like the desire to please God above all things and the desire not to receive honor and obedience from others unless it should be according to God's arrangement. Failing to keep the desire of receiving obedience and honor subject to the two desires just mentioned, the more he kept the desirability of receiving honor and obedience from others in his heart the stronger by exercise this desire became, and the more it reached out for exercise toward some who were not, to the extent that he craved them to be, put by God in his charge.

Thus a craving for more honor and power than God arranged for him to have grew gradually in him (1) by a failure properly to subordinate the desire for honor and obedience to certain higher qualities, and (2) by extending such a desire toward persons and things beyond the limits of their Divinely arranged relations to him. As he contemplated the race of mankind and its possibilities such growing ambition began to see in the human family a possible dominion from which he could gain further honor and obedience than God offered him. He seems, as "the covering [protecting]

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cherub," to have been given a limited guardianship over the human family in Eden (Ezek. 28:13-15). The limits of this guardianship were too confined for that degree of exercise of his desire for honor and obedience to which his ambition by this time had grown. Therefore to gain more power over the race than God had commissioned him to exercise, his ambition—by now the controlling quality of his heart— prompted him to lead unfallen mankind into sin, as the only way by which his ambition could be gratified. Thus externally he rebelled against God through his inordinate ambition grasping for the exercise of Divinely- unsanctioned power and rulership, as the growth of the seed of a not properly controlled desire for honor and obedience from others. This is the way the Prophet describes his gradual fall into sin: "Thou has said in thine heart [desires], I will ascend," etc. (Is. 14:12-14). Unholy ambition brought it about.

We may reasonably assume that at the outstart Lucifer did not intend to go so far as he has gone; for his course gradually turned him into an implacable enemy—Satan, i.e., enemy, opponent—of God and man. There is a proverb to the effect that whoever says A must in time, say B, i.e., whoever concedes an inch to wrong for advantage will have to go further in wrong to secure his ends. Satan has gone further than B. He has now proceeded as far as Y, and at the end of the Millennium he will go to the end—Z, the full limit of evil, whereupon his destruction will ensue (Heb. 2:14). The course that he has taken has wrought fearful havoc with his own once holy character and fellowship with God and all in harmony with Him, as well as has involved many angels in sin with its evil results, and has brought sin and ruin upon the human family. His course has made him most cunning instead of wise, most unjust instead of just, most selfish instead of loving and most obstinate in evil instead of powerful in good. As a result he is the most conspicuous example

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of depraved character in the Universe—almost the synonym of Sin itself. It is true that he has attained his ambition for rulership over the human family under the present evil world (Gal. 1:4; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:1, 2), and for princeship over the fallen angels (Matt. 12:24; Eph. 2:2; 6:11, 12), yet at what a terrible cost to himself and to all his underlings! Surely his is the chief example of "vaunting ambition overleaping itself"! Let us avoid imitating him; for it would spell ruin.

How graphically the Prophet describes the various features of his ambition: "Thou has said in thine heart, [1] I will ascend into heaven [I will make myself an exalted ruler]; [2] I will exalt my throne above the stars [angels] (Job 38:7) of God [I will become the king over the angels (Matt. 12:24)]; [3] I will sit upon the mount [Kingdom (Dan. 2:35, 44, 45; Is. 25:6)] of the congregation [people— I will become the ruler of the human family] in the sides of the North [as a spiritual, invisible ruler]; [4] I will ascend above the heights of the clouds [I will put myself out of reach of all trouble]; [5] I will be like the Most High! [I  will found an independent Empire in which as God's rival I will be supreme, and will be His equal]"! Thus Lucifer experienced a real fall, which involved him step by step into deeper degradation, mental, moral and religious, but not physical, for Satan has retained all his physical perfection unimpaired. Nor has he impaired his mental, moral and religious faculties, which have, like his physical faculties, remained unimpaired, but which in their qualities have been deeply depraved, so that he thinks erroneous thoughts instead of true ones and loves moral and religious evil and hates moral and religious good. This degradation, mental, moral and religious, God meant when He sentenced him, the symbolic serpent (Gen. 3:14), symbolically to crawl and to eat dust, i.e., unlike the good angels, who stand upright in good, he would grovel in, and appropriate to

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himself the degraded things of sin, error, selfishness and worldliness, and would delight in degrading others to the same level. What a terrible condition!

Remembering that he sinned first in his heart (Is. 14:13), let us note how in order to gain an unauthorized rulership he inveigled the race into such unwarranted controllership under him: He sought to turn the affections of the race away from God to himself. Since this could not be done by the race retaining its proper relation toward God, which was possible exclusively by obedience to righteousness, he had to seek it through leading them into sin, if he were to become their supreme ruler. Hence his inordinate ambition, in order to its gratification, would go the length of seducing mankind into sin! As he viewed Adam and Eve, he saw that she was the more deceivable of the two, and that Adam very ardently loved her. So he determined to inveigle her by deception into a position that Adam's love for her would make him deliberately sin. He knew that Adam believed God's statement as to the result of eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in disobedience, i.e., death would be the result. He further thought that if he could deceive Eve into eating of that tree, Adam, under the conviction that Eve was to die, would in despair likely yield to the temptation that he would then strongly present to him, deliberately to eat of it in order to be spared the evil of living without Eve, i.e., in order to die with her. In other words, Satan speculated on the question as to whether Adam so greatly loved Eve as rather to die with her than to live without her, and therefore he determined to create a situation in which Adam's great love for Eve could be made the point of temptation to draw him into deliberately eating of the forbidden tree, in an attempt to suicide, that thus he, by dying with Eve, might be spared the sorrow of losing her. This, then, was the fell purpose of Satan, who probably believed that if God would enforce the

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penalty, He likely would allow a long time, since a day of His time is 1,000 years of man's, to lapse before it would  go into fulfillment, during which time Adam and Eve could have opportunity to propagate a race, which, with its parents, would thus become his subjects.

With this plot in mind, using a serpent as a medium, just as the demons in spiritism use mediums through whom to speak to others, Satan, waiting to find Adam absent, and seeing Eve alone, suggested to her (Gen. 3:1-5) that by prohibiting their eating of the forbidden tree God was seeking for His own interests to abridge their privileges and to keep them in a degrading bondage to Himself, whereby their possibilities for development were being greatly curtailed, whereas, he said, if they would eat of the fruit: (1) they would only seemingly, but not really, die ("ye shall not surely [really] die"); (2) would change their mode of existence from human to spirit beings while seeming dead (ye shall be as gods [angels, who as spirits, are called gods 197 times in the Old Testament]"); and (3) would as spirits, after a seeming death, experience bliss and torment ("knowing [this word, like the word see, in the Bible at times means experience] good [bliss] and evil [torment]"). Thus Satan told the first falsehood—really three in one, an unholy trinity. The first one was a bold direct contradiction of God, who said, "In the day [of God's time, with whom 1,000 of our years make one day; Ps. 90:4; 2 Pet. 3:8] that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:17). Thus Satan's first falsehood was that the dead are not really dead, but alive. But Satan, illustrating the saying that whoever tells one falsehood must tell others to support it, was then forced to tell a second to make the first plausible. It was this: "Ye shall be as gods," i.e., they would change their mode of existence at death by becoming spirits. Knowing that if he could deceive her by these two, a third by deception would make them his slaves, he stated than an experience of

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bliss and torment would as alternative possibilities be opened before them, i.e.; he told this third falsehood to prepare them for later deceptions through which he hoped to make them believe they would have bliss, if they would do what he would want them to do, and torment if they would not so do. It will be noted that these three falsehoods are the basis of all heathen religions and that during the Dark Ages they were introduced into and accepted by all Christendom. Thus Satan's original three lies have since been used by him to deceive and to enslave to him almost the whole race. Eve believed the falsehoods, and knowing that to be a spirit was greater than to be a human, and doubtless being made to believe that the eating of that tree made the literal serpent wise, since she did not know that Satan, and not the serpent, really did the talking, she became very desirous to be made wiser and greater and, therefore, in deception ate of the tree (1 Tim. 2:14) to attain these ends. But she believed the deceiver.

When she met Adam she told him the whole history as recorded in Gen. 3:1-6; but this was as though she had plunged a knife into his heart, he believing that she was for her act sure to die; and his love for her caused this thought to grieve him inexpressibly. Satan, according to his fell plan, by an inaudible suggestion worked on him in his great grief, alleging that life without his loved Eve would be intolerable, and that it would be a thousandfold better to die with her than to bear the grief of living without her, and that all he need do to escape the woe of living without her would be to eat the fruit that she offered him and thus save himself from the great grief that otherwise would make him forever miserable. The suggestion was accepted. Adam ate of the fruit deliberately (1 Tim. 2:14), and thus sinned willfully in order to die with Eve, and not in deception, as was the case with her. For love of his wife he deliberately committed suicide. His real sin was not so much in the external eating of

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the forbidden fruit; but it was in this: He had learned to love his wife more than God—idolatry! Thus Satan's plot succeeded: he had won the race as the subjects of the empire that he had plotted to found in rebellion against, and in rivalry with God (Is. 14:14). And by this act Satan not only originated lies and thus became "the father of lies,"  but also became the arch-murderer of all history, murdering the whole human race (John 8:44).

Above we have described the fall, not so much from man's as from Satan's standpoint, since the latter is the subject in this connection—he is the villain of our story! The results of this fall surely affected disastrously all three participants therein: Eve (Gen. 3:16), Adam (vs. 17-19) and Satan (vs. 14, 15). The sentence on Adam and Eve was according to the law of life and death, under which they were tried, even as God had forewarned (Gen. 2:17)— death, not life in torment. And the sentence on Satan was not a different one, though in its wording and outworking it would be different. His mental, moral and religious degradation would be deeper than that of those symbolized by the cattle and beasts mentioned here—deeper than that of the visible religious and civil governments that he would establish among men (cattle) and than the invisible governments that he would later establish in the fallen angels (beasts), which implies that the officers of each phase of his kingdom would be less evil than he. Furthermore, the Lord sentenced him and his underlings to a losing fight with God's servants, resulting not fatally for the latter, but so with him and his persistent servants (v. 15). Apparently after this sentence Satan went to that heaven where God and the good angels dwell and was, in the presence of the pre-human Jesus, cast out therefrom (Luke 10:18) and fell to the earth, within whose atmosphere (Eph. 2:2), as his prison, he is confined (Is. 14:12; 2 Pet. 2:4). The words in the latter passage, "cast down to

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hell," are the translation of but one Greek word, a verb, and should be rendered, imprisoned, i.e., within earth's atmosphere. Thus Satan has been subjected to the severest penalty of the then participants in the fall, and this we all recognize as right. Cast out of heaven and confined to earth's atmosphere, Satan for a while had no associates among spirits; for the Bible teaches that it was only toward the time of the flood that he succeeded in inveigling other angels into sin (Gen. 6:2-4; 1 Pet. 3:19, 20; 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6, 7). The meantime he filled in with plotting the furtherance of his influence and control over mankind; and this he succeeded in doing more with Cain and his descendants than with the rest of Adam's race. But as yet, though obtaining great influence over mankind, he had failed to establish an empire over the race, which remained to be done in the dispensation following the flood; but in Abel, Enoch and Noah he found servants of God whom he could not dominate. We leave for later consideration the deception of certain angels into sin, which Satan with great cunning and plausibility accomplished, merely remarking that he did succeed in winning them to his side, and found them efficient subordinates of his in carrying out his later plots against God, His servants and mankind as a whole, and that on a large scale.

With many confederate fallen angels after the flood, Satan did establish an empire over the human family and that empire has persisted, though from time to time its form in its various departments, as these have been visible to mankind, has undergone great changes, almost always from bad to worse. A brief description of this empire would here be in place. It has two phases, which we may call an invisible and spiritual phase and a visible and human phase. Of these two, the spiritual phase is the controlling one and consists of Satan, as head, and the other fallen angels, as body. Satan's headship over them is shown by his being

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called the prince of this world (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11), the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2) and the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). Their being his co-operators under him is shown by his being called the prince of devils (Matt. 12:24), prince of the air power (Eph. 2:2) and by their being called principalities, powers, world rulers of this darkness and wicked spirits (Eph. 6:11). These, then, Satan and his subordinate demons, as the spiritual invisible phase of his kingdom, are the real rulers in Satan's empire. This combination, under Satan, thus rules the earth (Job 9:24). God never granted him this rulership, but has allowed him to usurp it (Matt. 4:8, 9; Luke 4:5-8). While he has hitherto had the kingdom of this world, it is now in process of being transferred to our God and His Christ, according to God's word (Rev. 11:15).

But as an invisible kingdom without earthly representatives to further their designs Satan and the other fallen angels would have achieved very little in the way of ruling over the human family. Therefore they have sought to enlist as their representatives gifted humans who, under the deception of error and the rule of selfishness, could be manipulated by the spiritual phase to accomplish its designs. As Satan wanted three ruling departments in the earthly phase of his kingdom in order to control the race governmentally, religiously and proprietarily, he had to deceive certain ones to become leaders in government, religion and capital, or aristocracy. But deception was not enough as a means of controlling them to carry out his will. He had to make it desirable to them to have and to hold such leadership. Accordingly, he had to make having and holding such leadership appeal to their selfishness as a thing profitable. Therefore he has in these three domains made such leadership bring great gain to its holders—gain in the way of power, influence, honor, ease, wealth and luxury. He makes the opportunity of gaining such things the means of influencing

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them to do what he wants done, and to block their doing what he does not want done he makes it injurious and unprofitable to them so to do. Thus he enslaves them to his will. That he makes such offers as the means of gaining their doing what he wants we can see from his threefold temptation of Jesus, where-in he offered Jesus governmental (all this power will I give thee), religious (cast thyself down) and proprietary (turn stones into bread) advantages in return for Jesus' service of him (Matt. 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13). But whereas Jesus repelled the temptations to these things, the governmental, religious and proprietary leaders have succumbed thereto (2 Tim. 2:26; Acts 13:10; Matt. 13:22; 2 Thes. 2:9). Thus through deceiving them and by their selfishness he works them into doing and accomplishing what he wants done and accomplished, as by making it injurious and more or less ruinous to them he restrains them from doing and accomplishing what he does not wish to be done or accomplished.

Accordingly, Satan got control of the governments. Since he can control through an absolute monarchy more easily than through a limited one or through a republic, he first formed such governments and strove to keep them intact as long as possible, only then yielding to the allowing of limited monarchies when the people no longer would tolerate absolute ones, and later only then allowing republics when the people no longer would submit to a limited monarchy. Hence the rise and fall of various kingdoms in Satan's order. Furthermore, he got control of popular religion. He made it as superstitious and erroneous as possible, compatibly with the degree of these that the people would tolerate. Only then would he let the grosser forms of superstitions be put aside when the people would no longer tolerate them. Accordingly, he has had to modify his superstitions and errors from time to time as the growing intelligence and self-respect of

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the people forced it. Hence the rise and fall of many false religious systems in history. But in all his religions in a grosser or more attenuated form, as conditions demanded, he made fundamental his original three errors: (1) The dead are not dead, but are alive; (2) the dead are spirits and as such are conscious; and (3) the dead are either in bliss or torment. Thus by religious error, championed by various religions, he has deceived practically the whole world (John 8:44; 2 Cor. 4:4; 11:3, 14, 15; 2 Thes. 2:9; 2 Tim.

2:26; Rev. 17:2; 18:3; 19:2, 20). The same things in principle Satan has done with aristocracies, making them as predatory on the common people as conditions would allow, modifying their oppression only when forced thereto by a determined people. But he has always so shaped them as to make them, under the influence of error and selfishness, represent his purposes along proprietary and social lines. This accounts for their varied forms and powers in the history of the earth.

In all three departments of his empire's earthly phase, as the principle that in practice would best serve his purposes, Satan has set forth that of the "Divine Right" as the foundation principle of his empire, and has given it in three forms: the Divine Right of rulers, the Divine Right of aristocrats, and the Divine Right of the clergy—one form of the principle of the Divine Right for each department of his empire. These three forms of the doctrine of the Divine Right are calculated to make the masses blindly subject to the classes as a matter of Divine sanction and obligation. How well the three forms of the Divine Right are calculated to keep the masses, indoctrinated with the error of the Divine Right, in subjection to Satan's representatives, and thus to him, becomes manifest on even a casual consideration of what the three forms of this principle mean. By the doctrine of the Divine Right of kings Satan caused the

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following thoughts to be taught by his mouthpieces, especially by the clergy: (1) the kings are God's direct appointees, vicegerents and representatives; (2) they do exactly what God wants them to do; (3) therefore God sanctions all their acts (which means, e.g., God sanctioned all the acts of the Czar and the Kaiser!); (4) therefore the people are in duty bound to obey without question everything their rulers require! The principle of the Divine Right of rulers is calculated to keep the people subject to those rulers, on whose selfishness Satan could depend to advance those governmental policies that he wished advanced, and thus he would control the people governmentally by the Divine Right doctrine.

By the doctrine of the Divine Right of the aristocrats he caused the following things to be taught, especially through the clergy: (1) It is the Divine good will and pleasure that practically the whole earth and its riches be owned and administered by the aristocrats; (2) that these act as "the stewards and almoners of the Almighty" in dispensing on their own terms to the bulk of mankind, as their slaves, serfs and employees, of the surplus of earth's bounties; (3) that God sanctions the aristocrats' administration of things; and (4) that the masses should, therefore, be content with their lot and with what is dispensed to them by these "stewards and almoners of the Almighty." The principle of the Divine Right of the Aristocrats is calculated to keep the people subject as slaves, serfs or employees to the aristocrats, on whose selfishness Satan could depend to advance those aristocratic policies that he wanted advanced, and thus he would control people economically and socially by the Divine Right doctrine. By the doctrine of the Divine Right of the clergy, Satan caused, especially by the clergy, the following thoughts to be taught: (1) God speaks to the people through the clergy; (2) therefore they are His mouthpieces giving forth the Truth; (3) He

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sanctions their teachings; and (4) therefore the people should with blank, unquestioning minds believe and practice the clergy's teachings. The principle of the Divine Right of the clergy is calculated to make the people subject to the clergy, on whose selfishness Satan could depend to advance those religious teachings and practices that he wanted advanced, and thus he would control the people religiously by the Divine Right doctrine. Of course, the doctrine of the Divine Right as Satan has caused it to be taught is false as a whole and in its three forms, but it has been calculated to keep the race subject to Satan since the flood until very recent times, when the war debates largely set it aside throughout Christendom.

For the good of his empire Satan has always seen to it that, compatibly with the successful operation of his empire's three earthly departments, some law and order existed; for he was too shrewd to allow anarchy to reign in his kingdom, well knowing it would result in wreck and ruin for his cause. Hence, there has from the outstart been in his empire civil law, guarding especially the rights of the leaders in state, religion and aristocracy, or, as it is now usually called, capital. This has prevented anarchy from setting in among such rulers. And only then has he tolerated the setting aside of civil law when it interfered with such overturning of governments, religions and aristocracies as he decided should be overturned for his empire's good. Then, also, he has introduced some laws for the regulation of the "rights of the common people." These, however, have always been made first of all to serve the interests of the statesmen, clergy and aristocrats; and subordinately to such interests they have been made to serve those interests of the common people that were calculated to keep them subject first of all to his own interests and thereafter to prosper in a measure their interests, and that, again, subject to his dominion as the executioner of the race (Heb. 2:14).

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These limitations have always made his governments, religions and aristocracies oppressive and exploitative of the common people, and have allowed more or less crime and other invasions of the common people's rights, which Satan on general principles encouraged in individual cases, partly because it was in his interests to corrupt the race and partly to arrange for the execution of penalties on exceptional cases, in order to strike fear into the hearts of the people, as a tribute of respect to his laws. Thus he has been an angel of both light and darkness, accordingly as it best served his ends (2 Cor. 11:14, 15).

An empire based on such principles and using such means for its perpetuation naturally must be one of much evil, even as the Scriptures call it the power of darkness— sin and error (Col. 1:13). While he greatly deceived the people by the doctrine of the Divine Right of rulers, clergy and aristocrats, he knew that these of themselves were not sufficient to continue his rulership over the race. He, therefore, found it necessary to advance three other doctrines to support the superstructure which he built upon the foundation of the three forms of the Divine Right. Hence, we call the latter three doctrines the fundamental, and the former three the supporting doctrines of Satan's empire. The following are these three supporting doctrines: (1) The dead are alive; (2) they have become spirits; and (3) they are in bliss or in torment. Early in the history of the race, yea, as shown above, in Eden itself Satan set forth these three falsehoods, for which Jesus called him a liar and the father of lies, and for whose acceptance by Eve, resulting in sin and death coming upon the race, Jesus called him a murderer (John 8:44). Let us again for sake of emphasis note the language in which Satan first clothed these three supporting errors of his empire: (1) "Ye shall not surely [really] die [you will only seem to die; actually, you will live right on, even though seemingly dead, i.e., 'the dead

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are alive']; … (2) Ye shall be as [like the] gods [angels (Ps. 97:7; compare Heb. 1:6; 197 times angels are called gods in the Hebrew of the Old Testament), who are spirits (Heb. 1:7), i.e., 'the dead have become spirits'—they exist as angels], (3) knowing [experiencing] good [bliss] and evil [torment]." Satan's design in using these three errors as the supporting doctrines of his empire is very apparent. He knew that if he could deceive the race on these three subjects he could deceive them into believing that certain (other) errors were true and certain truths were false, and that certain wrongs were right and certain rights were wrong. This done, he would promise rewards for the next life to those who would, under the deception that his errors were true and his wrongs were right, accept his errors and practice his wrongs, and threaten with eternal torment those who refused so to do. So, too, would he threaten torments for the next life to those who would accept God's truths— misrepresented as erroneous by Satan—as true, and practice certain of His commands, misrepresented as wrong by Satan, as right; as he would also promise eternal bliss to those who would not so do. Thus, through deception, he would by hope of reward for compliance and by fear of torment for non-compliance, to be realized in the hereafter, enlist the people to believe and practice his errors; and he would, by misrepresentations of the source and character of God's teachings and by hope of reward and by fear of torment, in the hereafter, deter the people from believing and practicing God's truths. Thus he would enslave the race to his will and prevent their doing God's will! In this dark plot he succeeded, with the bulk of the human family; and thus by the three errors under consideration he mightily supported his empire and its foundation errors on the Divine Right.

The above considerations show us that Satan's empire is founded on and supported by errors. And by

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these he has worked mightily in the hearts of the children of disobedience throughout the duration and territory of his empire. (Eph. 2:2.) But an empire so founded and so supported must be an evil one, even as all history attests; for the course of Satan's empire is marked by every evil word and work. Corrupt indeed have been the majority of the rulers, aristocrats and clergy of his empire. The history of "the present evil world" presents a succession of events replete with war, revolution, rapine, murder, destruction, lust, cruelty, conquest, oppression, degradation, unhappiness, misfortune, death and persecution, especially of God's people! How little space is given in history to good, noble and elevating philanthropies! How much of its space is given to their opposites! So, too, Satan's empire has been one in which are found the greatest inconsistencies. How contradictory have been its religions, its philosophies, its civilizations, its governments, its social arrangements, its laws and its workings! From this we infer that Satan adapts the form of government, religion, society, etc., to the varying ideals of the peoples as far as he must. He would, if he could, keep all people in the densest ignorance, deepest oppression, darkest superstition and basest character and environment; but when the people will no longer stand for this, he makes such concessions as he must, compatibly, however, with his retaining control. This will account for the many overthrows, revolutions and reorganizations that have occurred in the governmental, aristocratic and religious departments of his empire. Whenever governments, aristocracies and religions which he has used cease to serve his purpose of controlling the people, as nearly according to his views as possible, he wrecks those governments, aristocracies and religions, often with extreme ruthlessness, and replaces them by others more in harmony with his aims, and the concessions he must make to his subjects. He certainly makes it uncomfortable

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for those rulers or religionists who oppose the principles and purposes of his empire. This is manifest in the oppositions and persecutions that he has aroused against every Christian leader and movement that have attacked his errors and preached God's Truth; for he has made them targets.

Satan has not contented himself with merely founding and operating an empire in rivalry with, and opposition to, God; but he has also used that empire in the officers of its earthly phase and in its subjects to further his purposes. Above we pointed out how he used such officers to carry out his purposes, but did not point out how he has been doing this with other citizens of his empire. He has "worked" these according to their talents, positions and susceptibilities to contribute to his designs. Of course he has been thoroughly deceiving them as to the character of his works and intentions through appealing to their varying degrees of degradation, selfishness and ignorance. The more talented the agents that he could find for his works and purposes, the more willingly did he use them. Without any doubt, he manipulated his knowledge of hereditary laws to produce characters and talents susceptible to his designs; and this will account f or certain marriages that he promoted and prenatal experiences that he gave, to have, as it were, handmade suitable agents for his purposes. In the cases of many of the leaders in the world of education and learning, of society and home, of art and philosophy, of camp and rostrum, of vice and crime, the manipulation of the laws of heredity by Satan can be discerned.

Then, he saw to it that their training, experiences, surroundings and contacts were conducive to adapting them to his designs, for Satan has had varied designs for the various strata from, and with which he has constructed his forms of society. Thus he has wanted some to be leaders in education and learning, others in society and home, others in art and science, others in

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camp and rostrum, and still others in vice and crime, and he has seen to it that they were fitted for these roles by heredity, training, experience, environment and contacts. What variety of character was thus produced! Some quite elevated and noble, others much degraded and base. How could it have been otherwise, if Satan was to make an empire having subjects of such physical, mental, moral and religious contrasts? He pursued this principle in every variation of his empire—among savages, heathen, Moslems, Jews and Nominal Christians. No wonder that alongside of every evil word and work and every species of depravity and degradation we find excellent mental, moral and religious heights for fallen man reached among some of the citizens of Satan's empire. These stand out as beacon lights in the dark night of sin and error that characterize Satan's empire and rule. It is indeed a kingdom of darkness, despite the few stars that pierce through the clouds and gloom of its night.

And all this has been done to keep people in subjection to Satan's will and rule. Such agents, as reinforcers of the rulers, clergy and aristocrats, who have been his empire's earthly officers, have been necessary, to assist in keeping subject to him the masses of the people. These educators and scholars were needed to make plausible the political and non-political, the religious and non-religious and the aristocratic and non-aristocratic theories of Satan's kingdom, in order to keep the masses in subjection to those theories. The leaders in Satanic art and philosophy were needed to give such forms to the masses' tastes for beauty and utility, and to give such theories on the nature of things to the masses reasoning on fact and thought, as would make them Satan's slaves from these standpoints. Satan's military leaders performed such exploits as captivated the imagination and spoils-hunger of the multitude. His orators were needed to blind his subjects by their blending of sophistry and entertaining

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powers. His leaders in vice have been well adapted to corrupt hordes of careless women to prostitution and vast multitudes of weak men to the patronage of that horrible institution. The same remark in principle applies to the vices centering in foods, intoxicants and drugs, as it is also seen exemplified in the leaders and the led of criminal life. Satan made leaders for every sin and every iniquity, varied according to its nature and his pertinent design therewith. And he carried through these designs to the ever increased degradation and degeneration of his subjects, until as their executioner he brought them down to the death state; his has been the power of darkness and death (Eph. 6:12; Heb. 2:14).

One of his main purposes, though a negative one, was to turn away and keep turned away the better people from God, as well as to make Him appear so repulsive that the better minds among the people would not desire fellowship with Him. Of course this could not be done by giving them correct views of God; for such make Him appear as the most attractive and lovable Being, which in reality he certainly is. Therefore to turn away and to keep turned away from God the better minds and hearts among mankind, Satan has continually misrepresented God to them. Hence, he has most terribly caricatured the Divine character, which is supremely appreciable in its perfect blending and domination of wisdom, justice, love and power; and has made it appear as the height of folly, injustice, lovelessness and weakness (2 Cor. 4:4). He grossly caricatured His person, making it appear in the most unbiblical and unreasonable form of creedal trinitarianism. He so greatly misrepresented His plan by a combination of truth and error, wisdom and folly, practicability and impracticability, design and accident, effort and failure, power and weakness, love and hatred, justice and injustice, as to baffle the ignorant, grieve the righteous and repel the thoughtful. He has

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made His works appear as expressions of tyranny, cruelty, weakness, wickedness, ruthlessness and implacability. Thus has he maligned, blasphemed, misrepresented and caricatured the Lord in His person, character, plan and works. All this to turn mankind away from the Truth of God and to debase them unto himself, his purposes and his spirit.

But his special targets have been God's faithful people. Truly, indeed, has the prophetic word been fulfilled, that enmity would exist between the woman—the Sarah Covenant: the Little-Flock-developing Truth and its servants—and her seed—the faithful Christ—on the one hand, and Satan and his seed—the godless and unfaithful— on the other hand. Thus for the Truth servants' loyalty to the Truth in the Old Testament, he greatly persecuted them, as the history of the Ancient Worthies, briefly summed up in Heb. 11, shows. But his spleen has been specially poured out against "the saints and martyrs of Jesus" during the Gospel Age, all of whom he first of all sought to seduce from their loyalty, and, failing therein, instigated against them unrelenting and cruel persecution.

This spleen, therefore, showed itself against these during the Jewish Harvest, in which he persecuted all of them and oppressed their leaders in almost every case even unto a violent death. Thus he dealt with Jesus and all of the Twelve, except John, though he persecuted the latter only short of death. Similarly he treated lesser lights in the Apostolic Church, as well as persecuted the rank and file of the saints at that time. It was then also that he started the pagan persecutions against them, using Nero, the Roman Emperor, to wage the first of the ten Pagan Roman persecutions. Roman emperors and their subordinates intermittently for nearly 250 years in these ten persecutions cruelly tormented and did to death in manifold ways "the saints and martyrs of Jesus." But Satan's heyday of persecution, as it was also the heyday of

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his power, was the period of papal power, from 539 to 1799. During this period, especially through the inquisition, crusades and wars, the papacy, as the chief part of Satan's empire on earth, wrought the most cruel and torturous deaths on members of the Woman's Seed ever recorded in history. While public opinion no longer allows Satan to go to the extremes of persecution that marked the Dark Ages, he uses as much venom against the faithful as is possible for him to employ; and thus is fulfilled the saying, "All  who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Tim. 3:12). Their taking God's side and thus menacing Satan's order of affairs is, of course, the reason for the adversary's wrath against them.

Satan's opposition to God's people dates from the days of Abel, whose piety as against Cain's envy and hatred (1 John 3:12), aroused Satan to instigate Cain to murder him. Subtle indeed were his attacks upon God's Old Testament people. Noah had to endure the ridicule of the antediluvians aroused against him by Satan. Abraham had all sorts of assaults made upon his faith by Satan, in an attempt to overthrow him. The more peaceable Isaac had his difficulties because of Satan's oppositions. The more aggressive Jacob had a life full of troubles due to Satanic working. We all know of his greatly harassing job and Joseph by sore calamities and contradiction of sinners against themselves (Job 1:6-12; 2:3-7). The life of Moses is full of instances of Satan's nagging and picking at him through wicked individuals and murmuring and ungrateful multitudes. To a smaller degree we see the same things operating in the lives of Aaron and Joshua. All the judges, especially Samson and Samuel, were objects of Satan's spleen. David is perhaps the most conspicuous example of Satan's persecuting spirit against God's Old Testament servants. By Saul's relentless and groundless seeking of his life, by his sons' (through Satanic manipulation) making his domestic

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life miserable and by Satan's dogging his personal and rulership qualities into mistakes and sins and arousing domestic and foreign wars and individual hatreds and treasons against him, David was certainly terribly set on by the adversary (1 Chro. 21:1). The same principle was acted out by Satan toward all other pious rulers of Israel, their inspired prophets and their less prominent godly people. When we consider Hezekiah and Josiah, Elijah and Jeremiah, Daniel and the three Hebrew youths, the pious of the days of the Maccabees and last, but not least, John the Baptist, we see in their experiences the same persistent dogging and persecution of God's people on the part of Satan. Like Joshua, the high priest, they always had Satan at their right hand to resist them (Zech. 3:1, 2).

When our Lord came, to be the Head of the Woman's Seed, Satan recognized His uniqueness and resolved to make the supreme effort of his history to overthrow Him. He began this through instigating Herod to do away with him. As Jesus grew into a youth Satan sought to inveigle Him into sin and to sectarianize Him as a disciple of one of the Jewish sects, in which also he failed, resulting in Jesus' attaining His majority perfect, physically, mentally, morally and religiously. But the time for Satan's special attacks upon our Lord was after His Spirit-begettal. These were first launched against Him during the forty days that He spent in the wilderness, immediately after His baptism (Matt. 4:1-11; Mark 1:13; Luke 4:1-13). Three of these temptations are especially described in the passages just cited. By these Satan sought to tempt Him to gain wrongfully governmental power ("all these kingdoms will I give Thee, if Thou fall down and worship [submit Yourself to] me"), religious power ("cast Thyself down from the pinnacle [gain by faker and sensational methods religious influence over the multitude]") and capitalistic power ("command these stones to become bread [use

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Your miraculous powers to enrich Yourself now with food, later with other earthly good things]"). We pointed out above that by these three temptations Satan sought to inveigle our Lord sinfully into the positions into which he had inveigled the leaders of the three departments of his empire. But in these things Satan failed. Leaving our Lord for awhile, he later returned again to his work of seeking to draw Him into sin. Sometimes he operated directly on our Lord's heart and mind by appealing suggestions (Luke 22:28; Heb. 4:15); and sometimes he did it by appealing to Him through His fleshly relatives (John 7:3-5; 2:4; Matt. 12:46-50), through His disciples (Matt. 16:21-23), through the multitude (John 6:15), through His opponents (Luke 11:16; Matt. 19:3; John 8:6), through the rulers (John

18:33-37; 19:8 12; Luke 23:8-11) and through His sufferings (Heb. 2:18). But none of Satan's efforts could shake Him. The most that Satan could thereby effect was to afflict Him ("bruise His heel"). Here Satan met from every standpoint a complete defeat; for he could in nowise influence our Lord into sin, error, selfishness or worldliness. Our Lord conquered Satan!

In principle Satan has met the same kind of a defeat with the rest of the Woman's Seed. It is true that some who have been given the opportunity to become of this Seed have been completely overthrown by Satan's opposition to them, either through their flesh or through the world, and have become wholly his—the Second Death class. It is also true that some others favored with the same opportunity have been so largely, though not totally, overthrown by Satan that they have made shipwreck of membership in the Seed, viz., the Great Company class. But it is also true that there have been others who, while not perfect in every respect as their Lord was, did, despite all Satanic opposition and temptation, maintain their loyalty—were faithful unto death (Rev. 2:10)—and thus maintained

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their membership in the Seed. Satan, as with our Lord, has tempted them at every point, and though he often made them hobble—bruised their heel—he could not undermine their faithfulness. To accomplish it he has sought every form of alluring temptation and every forbidding form of opposition from every available instrument of affliction; but he has failed with these. More powerful than they, he would have conquered them, except that Jesus, having Himself suffered, being tempted, knew how to succor them amid their temptations and bring them victorious out of their trials (Heb. 2:18; 1 Cor. 10:13). Thus with these he has failed, though by every power of the world, the flesh and the fallen angels, he has sought to gain the victory, along lines of alluring them into sin, error, selfishness and worldliness (Eph. 6:11, 12; Rom. 8:35-39). While all of these have not yet completely overcome, it will not be very long now until they will overcome in their last member; and though made by Satan to hobble along by his bruising their heel, the Seed, that will under its feet bruise Satan's head, inflict a mortal wound, will soon have been fully won and prepared. All of the facts given in the last few paragraphs certainly prove Satan to be an enemy,  his name's meaning, to God's people.

Satan has exercised considerable cunning in seducing the race and the fallen angels into sin. He has exercised even more cunning in keeping the race subject to his will. But his greatest cunning is expended in his efforts to seduce God's servants into disloyalty to the Lord and the principles of His government, which they have espoused in becoming God's servants. Satan is a very expert psychologist. Next to the Lord nobody understands human nature more thoroughly than he. Especially expert has he become in understanding how to play on human lacks, weaknesses, faults and perversions, so as to manipulate men into captivity at his will (2 Tim. 2:26). He counts much

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on human ignorance, as giving him an opportunity to supply false knowledge, so that by error he may deceive people into following his will. He also takes advantage of man's impaired reasoning powers, to palm off on him plausible sophistries as truths, especially in turning him aside from the Truth. He uses man's depraved tastes and desires as motives to stir him up to wrong. Especially has he appealed to the combative and destructive propensities in man, to stir him up against his fellow man. The party spirit is another motive that he uses markedly to work his will among men. This enables him to prompt people to fight over the extremes of error, in order that the Truth that lies between them may be forgotten.

To everyone he offers a different dish, according as it is likely to appeal to his appetite. He, therefore, works on the superstition of one and on the unbelief of another. Here he appeals to the too optimistic, there to the discouraged and the despairing. Here to the irresoluteness of the one, there to the too great tenacity of the other. To the unpersevering he offers obstacles to stop them; to the too persevering he gives tasks requiring great continuity in wrong. To the impious he gives plenty of opportunity to show their enmity to God; and to the thoroughly pious he offers diversions to undermine their piety. To those who lack equal love to the neighbor he gives all sorts of experiences that harden them in their unneighborliness; and to the neighborly he gives experiences of loss, ingratitude and injustice from their neighbors, to ruin their neighbor-love. To the uncharitable he gives suggestions and experiences that tend to make selfish; and with the loving he, by contrary experiences, seeks to crush charity out of their hearts. To the proud he appeals to lead him into more arrogance; the lowly he seeks to crush utterly; while he seeks to pervert the remainder in humility to one or the other of the extremes just mentioned. He makes vanity and ostentation appeal to

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one, and sensitiveness to crush another. One he spoils by love of luxury and ease, another by driving him to extremes of asceticism and restlessness. He seeks to make the lover of life to be self-sparing, and the disparagers of life suicides. So, too, does he, according to his design, play on man's anger and longsuffering, covetousness and liberality, hypocrisy and candor, hatred and forbearance, intemperance and temperance, ignorance and knowledge, error and truth, patriotism and unpatriotism, love of home and dislike of home, friendships and enmities, family loves and family indifferences, and love for the opposite sex and indifference toward the opposite sex. Thus with cunning, variously adapted to the differences of the individuals and groups to whom he appeals, he seeks to make them all fall into the differing snares that he lays for their capture. And, alas, the vast bulk are entrapped by him! Only the faithful escape his traps and pitfalls. His cunning in these ways is shown in such Scriptures as the following: Luke 22:31; Acts 13:10; 1 Cor. 7:5; 2 Cor. 2:11; 11:3, 14, 15; Eph. 2:2; 6:11, 12, 16; 1 Thes. 3:5; 1 Tim. 3:6, 7; 1 Pet. 5:8, 9; 1 John

5:18.

The Bible assures us that as in the time of the end Satan's powers will be waning, he will resort to all the greater deceptions (Mark 3:26; Matt. 12:26; 2 Thes. 2:9). Since 1799, when the Time of the End began, the Lord has been pouring an ever increasing amount of light upon the kingdom of darkness, which as a result has compelled Satan to stir up such a multitude of deceptions as never before in history has had even a remote likeness. These deceptions in the religious sphere started in 1835, through the writings of such skeptics as Baur, Strauss and Vatke. And from that time on there has been a veritable deluge of error and erroneous movements unprecedented in human history. Here belong the thousand and one isms, schisms, schools, tendencies, parties, movements, cults, factions, etc.,

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with which our times teem, in state, church, capital, labor, society, industry, business, finance, education, learning, literature, art, science, etc. Surely we have among these movements "the working of Satan with all power, signs and lying wonders" (2 Thes. 2:9). And the Lord has been working amid these things and through them unto the disintegration of the solidarity of Satan's empire, first as a unit, and since 1914 for its destruction as a thing. And these many wild waves of confusion are a sure evidence that Satan's kingdom is waning (Matt. 12:26); for amid these multitudinous movements of error our Lord has been shedding such a brightness of exposing truths, and He has contemporaneously with them been giving such an abundance of constructive truth, as are breaking up Satan's hold on mankind. As a result Satan and his subordinate fallen angels are driven to utmost extremities of perplexity and confusion, since the situation of world control has gotten beyond their power and direction. In a word, Satan's empire over mankind is on the verge of utter collapse, and that because our present Lord is taking over the kingdom of this world as His own.

Above a general view of Satan and his empire was sketched as preliminary to a description of the latter's destruction. We now proceed to set forth such a description. According to the Bible our Lord Jesus and His glorified Church, acting as The Christ, will be Jehovah's primary agency in accomplishing its overthrow, though many human agencies will co-operate to this end (Dan. 12:1; Rev. 17:14; 19:11-21). We are not to think that Jehovah has been an unconcerned observer of the ruthless reign of Satan over the human family. His love for our fallen race prevented such unconcern (John 3:16). Even before that reign began He prepared a Plan for its overthrow. One feature of this Plan is to keep Satan's activities within certain metes and bounds, while God prepares The Christ and

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His supporters to become His agency for the overthrow of Satan's empire. To those ignorant of that Plan it could not but appear that Satan has hitherto been winning. His victory, however, has been only a seeming one. Actually, every feature of God's Plan, so far due, has been fulfilling with unfailing precision and success, despite every effort of Satan to thwart it. Even in his opposition to Jesus and His Faithful has Satan's seeming success been a defeat for him; for his opposition furnished Jesus and His Church such experiences as have better enabled them to oppose and overcome him in their hearts, and thus to develop characters fitting them for the work, in due time, of overthrowing his empire, of establishing God's Kingdom, and of ruling over the human race for its uplift to perfection. Thus God's Plan purposes that the wrath of Satan as well as the wrath of man shall surely praise Him, and that He will restrain the remainder of wrath (Ps. 76:10).

Even since the Fall of 1874, the human family has entered into a new epoch, characterized by the most unusual enlightenment, movements, events and changes of all history. We believe that this enlightenment and these movements, events and changes are more or less connected with the overthrow of Satan's empire. We can better visualize matters if we keep in mind the Scriptural figure of The Christ—Head and Body—coming forth as an army, whose Commander is the Lord Jesus, to attack Satan's empire (Rev. 17:14; 19:11-21). The weapon that He uses is a "sword that proceedeth out of His mouth" (Rev. 19:15, 21). Certainly no sane person would contend for the proposition that this is a literal sword. It evidently means the Truth on secular and religious subjects (Is. 49:2; Hos. 6:5; Eph. 6:17; Heb. 4:12; Rev. 1:16; 2:12, 16). And how

appropriate to the Prince of Peace it is to use such a sword, as how inappropriate it would be for Him to use a literal sword; yea, by reason of the

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contrast how appropriate to Him is the Sword of Truth as a weapon of warfare in a conflict with an empire whose weapon is untruth, and whose ruler is "the father of lies"! (John 8:44; 2 Cor. 4:4.) It is even so; for the "Truth is mighty and shall prevail" in the war of The Christ upon Satan's empire. In this war Christ is making an attack with secular and religious Truth upon the ignorance that Satan has fostered, and upon the errors that Satan has spread. However, the most particular objects of His attack with the Sword of Truth are the three foundation doctrines of Satan's empire—(1) The Divine Right of kings, (2) the Divine Right of aristocrats, and (3) the Divine Right of clerics— and the three supporting doctrines of Satan's empire—(1) the consciousness of the dead, (2) the transformation of the dead into spirits, and (3) the bliss or torture of these spirits. Additionally the Lord Jesus is spreading the Truth on other secular and religious subjects, arousing more opposition to Satan's empire of error and wrong.

Of course, we are not to understand that our Lord has visibly appeared attacking ignorance, error and wrong with the Truth; rather, we are to understand that He is in an educational and natural way opening the eyes of people to see the Truth along all lines of human thought. Thus He is not only giving us Truth on the Bible and on other religious subjects, not previously seen, but also on secular subjects He is bringing forth the light. This has resulted in our generation becoming much more enlightened than previous generations. Great increase of knowledge is spreading among the people on art, science, philosophy, history, law, government, rulers, political economy, sociology, capital, commerce, aristocracy, labor, production, distribution, wealth, poverty, non-employment exploitation, wages, profits, loses, special privileges, political elections and parties, human rights, health, inequality, etc. (Dan. 12:4). With all this enlightenment the

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question of right and wrong, as it applies especially to the common people, and to classes and nations in their various relations, is continually being thrust upon the attention of people everywhere. The Lord Jesus is using a thousand instrumentalities to bring the Truth on these subjects to the attention of the people. Newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, booklets, books, lecture platforms, political parties, reform movements, labor organizations, clubs, societies, conversations, discussions, scientific laboratories, investigation commissions, courts, detective agencies, etc., are only a few of the many channels through which the Lord is causing the rising flood of Truth to flow to the people. Like the Statue of Liberty, Truth is holding up the torch of knowledge to the mariners sailing over life's dark and stormy main, as they are approaching the land of light and righteousness after passing over the stormy sea of human sin and error.

Many of our Lord's attacks upon Satan's empire consist of His exposing by the light of Truth the deeds of darkness committed by the three departments of Satan's empire— oppressive governments, predatory aristocracies, and false religious systems. Additionally these exposures have undermined the foundation and supporting errors of Satan's empire, and thereby have shaken that empire itself. Above we showed what is meant by the three doctrines of the Divine Right.

Every one of these three doctrines is erroneous, and the practice of them has produced the terrible violations of the Golden Rule and the cruel wrongs against the Lord's saints with which the history of Christendom is replete. When we view the acts that have flowed as a logical consequence from the doctrines of the Divine Right of state, church and aristocracy, we will readily recognize the erroneousness of these doctrines and the sins of those holding and practicing them. The following is a partial list of the wrongs resulting from the doctrine of the Divine Right of

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kings: claims of unjust "prerogatives," gross oppression of their subjects, ruthless and cruel suppression of rivals, real and imaginary, the rule of might as against right, unjust and cruel wars, robbery of one another's territory and subjects, national hatred, revenge, envy, suspicion, etc., violation of the rights of other nations, violation and repudiation of solemn and binding treaties, support of false religions, union of governments and special religions, persecution of religious dissenters, debauchery and exploitation of weaker nations, traffic in human slavery, favoritism of the classes as against the masses, gross hypocrisy, dishonest and selfish diplomacy, etc., etc. The following is a partial list of the wrongs resulting from the doctrine of the Divine Right of the aristocracy: exploitation, slavery, serfdom, legal technicalities, evasions, delays and violations, frauds, dishonesty, special privilege, monopolies, the manufacturing of financial and military panics and wars, indifference to the masses, gambling, wanton luxury and waste, unfair and destructive competition, corruption of politics, morals and government, support of oppressive and persecuting governments, etc., etc.

The following is a partial list of the wrongs resulting from the doctrine of the Divine Right of the clergy: priestcraft, pride, intolerance, hypocrisy, superstition, error, persecution of dissenters, blasphemy of the Divine Person, Character, Plan and Works, sanction of the wrongs of rulers and aristocrats, union of religions and states, secularization of religion, fomenting wars and national hatreds, rivalries, distrust and revenge, destruction of real religion, etc. Every one of the above-mentioned acts is a violation of the Golden Rule, professedly accepted by the Rulers, Aristocrats and Clergy, rests under Divine disapproval and is a demonstration of the falsity of the doctrine of the Divine Right of these. From 1874 onward has our Lord been progressively exposing to the public through

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His amenable agents these flagrant sins against the Golden Rule by the Rulers, Aristocrats and Clerics; and by these exposures He has proven beyond peradventure that the doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings, Aristocrats and Clergy is untrue; consequently the people on all hands are repudiating these doctrines, and are casting off the shackles of obedience required by the classes who seek to enforce that doctrine.

Along with the overthrowal of the people's confidence in these foundation doctrines of Satan's empire—the Divine Right of rulers, aristocrats and clerics—the Lord Jesus has been undermining their faith in the three supporting doctrines of Satan's empire—the consciousness of the dead, the transformation of people at death into spirits and the bliss or torment of these spirits. This He has done especially from a Biblical standpoint through able and devout students of the Scriptures, though science and reason have also co-operated in undermining belief in these three supporting errors of Satan's empire.

The Lord's undermining the confidence of millions of people in the foundation and the supporting doctrines of Satan's empire has been accompanied by another of His works—His revealing to mankind everywhere a series of truths underlying men's relations to one another governmentally, morally, socially, religiously, commercially, economically, and industrially—truths that in not a few particulars fundamentally contradict the notions on these subjects that Satan's empire has spread and reduced to laws or established usages. This double work of our Lord, in harmony with His object in making His kind of an attack on the kingdom of darkness, has produced an intense dissatisfaction with the theories, practices and departmental organizations of Satan's empire among many millions, especially throughout Christendom. Naturally enough this dissatisfaction has in the main seized upon those who have suffered most, and who

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have been advantaged least by the arrangements of Satan's empire—the masses. On the hand, these exposures of the wrong-doing of the privileged classes, as well as their desire to advantage themselves increasingly by the many scientific discoveries that the Lord in this "the Day of His preparation" has brought to light, have made these privileged classes more determined to perpetuate present conditions. Thus we find from shortly after 1874, as a result of our Lord's exposing and truth-revealing work, human society began to divide itself into two well-defined and mutually opposed classes. One of these two classes consisted of the Conservatives—the rulers, aristocrats and clerics, with their supporters—who desired, because it was to their advantage, to maintain what—unknown to them— is actually Satan's empire. The other of these two classes consisted of the Radicals—Trade-Unionists, Socialists, Communists and Anarchists, with their supporters—who desired, because it was to their advantage, to set aside what—unknown to them—is actually Satan's empire. The differences between these two groups were growing ones, as from 1874 onward year after year witnessed new exposures of wrong-doing on the part of the privileged classes and as new flashes of truth on human conditions and rights aroused the masses.

The conflict between Labor and Capital became the overshadowing one between the masses and the classes. At first the friction between Capital and Labor was a wordy one, each side setting forth its real or fancied rights and grievances, and the other's real or fancied wrong-doings. But the conflict did not remain simply a wordy one. On the part of Labor, it at times proceeded to strikes, intimidation, riots, incendiarism and boycotts; on the part of Capital it at times proceeded to lock-outs, injunctions, evictions, employment of strike-breakers and armed guards, and calls on government officials for state and national military support;

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and on both sides it sometimes proceeded to actual battles, with many casualties on each side. Birds of a feather flocking together, the three conservative parties usually supported one another against the Radicals, and vice versa. This led to each side becoming more and more set against one another in their efforts to win out. The advantage usually being with Capital, supported, as it usually was, by State and Church, the Radicals became more and more embittered against the present order. They increasingly agitated for a complete change in the body politic, but differed sharply as to what kind of a change was desired. While they could not agree as to a definite program of procedure, more and more a revolutionary bent was taken on by the more radical of the Radicals. Revolution against the present order thus became their program of immediate action, though they could not unite on a program of reconstruction after the revolution. With revolutionary agitations there came an increase of Class consciousness and antagonism. The nerves of people generally were severely tensed, and almost anything destructive was feared by the Conservatives as coming from the Radicals.

Satan was no indifferent spectator of this conflict, which he promptly recognized threatened the continuance of his chosen order of affairs. Its overthrow, if preventable, of course he would not permit; nor would he permit changes contrary to his general order; but he would offer compromises to conciliate the masses. He therefore sought to effect a reconciliation, by offering some concessions from the Classes to the Masses in the latter's interest, especially in some European states, along socialistic lines. To this end he aroused a number of Reformers to activity. These denounced the more patent abuses of the Conservatives, urged upon Capital and State the necessity of making concessions to Labor and of restricting the power of the State and Aristocracy, and preached to

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Labor obedience to and contentment with law and order. The sum-total of the Reformers' achievements, however, was small indeed. The breach between the Radicals and Conservatives became ever wider. A Revolution subversive to Satan's chosen order of affairs was imminent. Satan was determined to prevent it; and not only so, but also at the same time to bring the Conservatives and Radicals in each country into one camp, fighting for the maintenance of his order as it existed in each European country, by making its inhabitants believe that other nations were, by aggression in warfare, seeking its national destruction. If he could fill the inhabitants of each country with the fear that their nation and institutions were in danger of destruction, he felt satisfied that he could arouse in each country practically all its people to fight the invader. This plan was pivoted on the thought that the Conservatives and Radicals in each country would forget their mutual antagonisms in the presence of their supposed common danger, and thus would stand shoulder to shoulder in defense of their country and its institutions against the supposed threatened destruction from the invader. This plan also had as one of its features a world-wide war, whose dangers would drive the divided Conservatives and Radicals of each country into one camp, fighting, for their national existence against the invader or supposed invader seeking their national ruin.

But what could Satan make the excuse and the point of departure for the world-wide arming of the nations required as one of the features of his plot? The existence of the Triple Alliance, embracing Germany, Austria and Italy, furnished him this excuse and point of departure by giving him the materials for arousing the fears of other nations whom he stirred up through these fears to form a rival alliance—the Triple Entente, embracing Britain, Russia and France. The past experiences of these two sets of

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powers with one another furnished them enough suspicions, rivalries, envies and grudges to make them quite hostile and obstructive to one another. Additionally, Satan saw to it that increased opportunities for arousing friction between them were not wanting. Finally the feeling between these two rival alliances became tensed to the snapping point. They lived, as it were, over a huge powder magazine, which only waited the lighting of a match to explode with devastating force. The perfidious murder of the Archduke of Austria and the rash decision of the German Kaiser furnished these conditions, and the greatest explosion of human history occurred—the World War of 1914-1918—to which Radicals and Conservatives in each country rallied in defense of native land and institutions against the threatened destruction, which the inhabitants of each country were led to believe their enemies sought. Doubtless the sins and follies of statesmen figured in the events leading up to the explosion; but back of them worked Satan, the Enemy of God and man, who used these as so many pawns in his game of ruling the nations. What cared Satan for the waste of mountains of human labor and treasure, and the shedding of rivers of human blood and tears, if by their expenditure he could conserve his empire! They were as nothing to him, if he could still continue his reign. Thus to sustain his own empire Satan took advantage of human sin and folly even to the extent of involving the world in the World War—the greatest calamity of all history—in order to divert the Radicals from their threatened overthrow of his order of affairs. If he had done no other wrong, this alone would stamp him as the worst criminal of all history.

But one may ask, How do we know that Satan plotted and brought about the World War, and that for the purpose of preserving his own ascendancy and his chosen order of affairs? We answer, a number

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of reasons prove it: (1) He is the ruler of the present world, and of course such a gigantic event, involving as it did all of earth's nations, would not be without his ordering; (2) the condition and needs of his empire called for the diversion of the Radicals from their program of World Revolution, and this was accomplished by the war- accompanying propaganda in each country that the other side sought its national destruction; (3) the uniting of the Radicals and the Conservatives as one in each country for the purpose of preserving its national existence and order— so much needed by Satan's empire—directly resulting from the widely heralded dangers threatened by the war, is explainable on no other ground than such a purpose; (4) the fact that there was so much of devilish wrong and ingenuity that led up to and accompanied the war proves the same thought; and (5) the fact that humanity free of Satanic influence is not capable of committing many of the deeds enacted in the World War also proves the same.

Doubtless the Adversary knew that a modern war would weaken his empire; but he preferred a weakened empire to none. He invented through perverted human brains the horrible weapons and munitions of the World War, whose destructiveness doubtless convinced him that the war would be short. He especially used the Central Powers as his war agents, and therefore gave them the greater preparedness. And for a time it seemed that his plan in this respect would prosper in the speedy defeat of the Allies. However, in this case the devil proposed and God disposed. God's longsuffering with Satan was exhausted by the latter's ruthlessness in plunging the race into the horrors of the World War. To Satan's ruthlessness God opposed a "so far, and no farther." He caught the crafty Satan in his own craftiness, determining that He would make his atrocious deed the turning point of his evil empire. Satan's crime against

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God and man by working up the World War God decided to punish by making it the first stage in his overthrow. Satan counted on a somewhat weakened, but comparatively powerful empire, emerging from the war; but God determined that his empire should emerge from the war so weakened that it would be a comparatively easy matter to overthrow it.

Therefore God did not permit Satan to end the war with a speedy and easy victory for the Central Powers, which Satan expected would for years result in keeping Conservatives and Radicals united for revenge in each Allied country, and which would keep in each country of the Central Powers the Conservatives and the Radicals united for protection against such revenge, and thus indefinitely postpone the danger of a revolution against his order of affairs. On the contrary, the Lord permitted the war to drag its "slow length along" until all of the involved countries became very greatly weakened in every feature of national strength—especially in man-power, resources, wealth and prestige—and hopelessly burdened with crushing debts. Thus the war had two results directly opposite to those that Satan had planned: (1) the side that he favored was ultimately defeated; and (2) his empire was weakened and debt-burdened almost to collapse. Moreover, the Lord overruled to the complete frustration of Satan's purpose of making each nation emerge from the war with the masses and the classes thoroughly united with each other, instead of their being divided against each other as they had been before the war. This purpose of Satan was frustrated by the Lord's making known, not only the human, but also the Satanic causes of the war, particularly as these were connected with the doctrines of the Divine Right of Kings, Aristocrats and Clerics, which doctrine and its resultant practices were the basic human causes of the war. The making of these things known has had various results: (1) the almost complete abolition of

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autocracy—a child of the Divine Right doctrine; (2) in some countries a large abolition, and in other countries a large limitation of aristocracy; (3) greatly de creased belief in the Divine Right of the Clergy and a correspondingly immense decrease of their influence; (4) greatly increased embitterment and opposition of the Radicals to what is Satan's order of affairs; (5) greatly increased demands for more liberty from State, Aristocracy and Clergy; and (6) most threatening imminence of world-wide revolution. Thus in a deeper sense than most people recognize Satan emerged from his adventure in the World War as the worst defeated sovereign of all history.

The World War was no usual war. From the above description it will be seen that it was a greater conflict, with larger issues involved, than mankind in general recognizes. As a matter of fact the World War was the great war of prophecy—the war that, according to the Scriptures, would precede Armageddon, the war that would be the first part of the great Day of the Lord, the Day of Vengeance. In many places the Bible refers to it. The following are among the more important of these references: Joel 3:9-14; Dan. 12:1; Matt. 24:21, 22; 1 Thes. 5:1-3. This war, and the very year—1914—in which it was to begin, were forecast from the Bible by Pastor Russell years before it began. According to the Bible it is, after an ever increasingly stormy interval, to be followed by sudden world-wide Revolution, which will overthrow the present form of Satan's empire in state, aristocracy and religion. And according to the Scriptures even greater famines and pestilences than those which accompanied the World War will accompany the World Revolution. According to the Scriptural delineations, the Radicals, in the coming Revolution, will attack the present order with crushing and relentless blows, under which it will collapse with but scant resistance, due to its greatly weakened condition

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resulting from the wounds received in the World War and its aftermath. This will show in another way what a great blunder Satan made in bringing about that war; for by greatly weakening his empire it will have prepared that empire to become an easy prey to the attacks of the Radicals in the coming World Revolution. Events on all hands indicate that we are rapidly sweeping toward this great social upheaval.

Of this coming upheaval, the following are some of the Biblical descriptions, clothed in figurative language: "The Battle of the Great Day of God Almighty" (Rev. 16:14; Zeph. 3:8; Is. 13:4, 5), "Armageddon" (Rev. 16:16), "a great earthquake" (Rev. 16:18; Heb. 12:26), "the fire of Jehovah's jealousy" (Zeph. 3:8; 2 Pet. 3:10, 12; Mal. 4:1), "a whirlwind" and "a storm" (Nah. 1:3, 6, 7), "a tempest of hail," "a destroying storm," and "a flood of mighty waters" (Is. 28:2; Nah. 1:4, 5, 8), "the besom of destruction" (Is. 14:23), "a furnace of fire" (Matt. 13:42), "a lake of fire" (Rev. 19:20); "the supper of the great God" (Rev. 19:17), and "the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God" (Rev. 19:15). As one reads these many terms descriptive of one and the same event, the conclusion is irresistible that they set forth in symbolic language an appalling calamity just ahead of the race.

The present European powers are symbolized in their entirety in the seven-headed Beast of Rev. 17:7-12, by its ten-horns, which Beast is, of course, symbolic. As such they will be destroyed in the coming Revolution. We look for the coming of another (symbolic) Beast, which seems to represent the form of European government to be set up after the Revolution, and which, we opine, will probably be socialistic in form. This being a part of the "present evil world," Satan, of course, will be its invisible ruler. Forced, much against his preference, to accept such an order of affairs, he will seek to use it to further

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his controllership over the human family. However, the inherent impracticability of Socialism as a method of government among fallen, selfish men will be quickly demonstrated, even as the inherent impracticability of Communism as a method of government among fallen, selfish men has been quickly demonstrated in Russia by its adventure with Bolshevism; for the Scriptures teach that after this government shall but briefly pilot the ship of State amid the storms of the social sea, Anarchy will set in, and like a devouring fire will completely destroy every vestige of Satan's empire. More severe famines and pestilences than those accompanying the Revolution will accompany Anarchy. Fire is the most frequent Biblical term describing the Anarchistic phase of the Great Tribulation. The prophet Elijah was given a vision of the three great phases of this Trouble—war, revolution, and anarchy—by the wind, earthquake and fire of 1 Kings 19:11, 12. Using Jerusalem as a figure of Christendom, the prophet Ezekiel by the term "sword" describes the War and Revolution, and by the figure of the noisome beast (a beast is opposed to law and order) fittingly describes the Anarchy of the Time of Trouble (Ezek. 14:21) Additionally, in the same passage,  he shows that famines and pestilences will play their part in these troubles, as we by observation know they played their part in the war.

Surely the immediate outlook here presented is far from pleasant; and if there were no blessing following these sad experiences, we would rather pass them over in silence. We tell them here in order to forewarn and thus forearm those who will heed the "sure Word of Prophecy" and "the signs of the times," and by them apply their hearts unto wisdom. One may ask, How could a God of love permit these things? We answer that for nearly 2000 years with marvelous longsuffering God has been calling upon the world to repent; but apart from a saintly few they have refused

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to respond, and thus have demonstrated that they will not be reformed by moral suasion. Hence God determined to permit devils and wicked leaders to bring them into great tribulation, which He designs to use as a rod of correction, that men may learn righteousness (Is. 26:9). As a surgeon, though inevitably hurting the patient whose broken limb he must set, performs the operation as the only means to secure the ultimate good of the patient, so God permits the Great Tribulation as the only remaining method of bringing the world to its senses, and thus of preparing it for its uplift through Christ's Millennial Reign. Then there is, connected with God's permitting the Great Tribulation, another thing that shows His love even amid wrath—this tribulation will by Divine inter-position break Satan's yoke from off the neck of the race, and thus free humanity from the oppression of the worst of all tyrants (Is. 9:4; Ps. 72:4). When we contemplate the fearful and remorseless havoc that Satan has wrought against and among mankind, and then learn that the Great Tribulation will result in his losing his empire and throne and in his under-going thereafter a thousand years' imprisonment (Rev. 20:1-3), and that consequently freedom for the race from his ruthless sway will set in, we at once see that to be freed from him it would be worth while to pass through twenty-five Times of Trouble. And best of all is the third reason why God permits the Great Tribulation—it will be the means of sweeping away Satan's empire, and thus of making way for the establishment of God's Kingdom the world over for the blessing of mankind—living and dead—with the privileges of restoration to human perfection and Edenic bliss. To gain these blessings it would be worth while to pass through fifty Great Tribulations.

How glad we are that Satan, the proud, selfish and ruthless oppressor of our race is now being laid hold on by the Almighty hands of our Lord Jesus, and by

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them is being hurled from his throne, never again to be permitted to mount it! With this faith in heart and mind let God's Faithful joyfully sing the song, "The kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever" (Rev. 11:15)! And let all others mightily join in the refrain, "Alleluia! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth" (Rev. 19:6)! Yea, let every one in Heaven and in earth sing the jubilee song of Liberty from Satan's yoke to the earth and to the inhabitants thereof; and let every human heart cry out, "Make room! make room!" for the great Liberator, our adorable Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who with His Bride, as the Seed of Abraham, shall bless all the nations of the earth, and as King of kings and Lord of lords shall reign forever and forever!

Satan will, after the Anarchy, attempt but one final effort against God's people, and that not against His spiritual, but against His fleshly Israel. One of the signs of our times as a fulfillment of prophecy has been Israel's returning to Palestine. This has had several stages, beginning with the Berlin Congress of Nations, 1878 (Zech. 8:23), requiring Turkey to permit Israel's return to Palestine under certain guarantees of protection. Various civil disabilities in Slavic Europe have made such a return quite desirable for Israel. The World War, especially in the Slavic countries, served to loosen all the more the hold of many Israelites on Europe and caused their eyes to turn toward the Holy Land. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 greatly advanced their return. Arab opposition has given a temporary setback to their return, but in due time this obstacle will be removed. Present world-wide conditions have influenced many wealthy Israelites to divert vast millions of treasure to their Home Land, and the land is being richly built up; and much treasure is being laid up there for safekeeping against the financial losses of Christendom. All this is in fulfillment of prophecy

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relating to our times (Ezek. 36:8, 12). Satan, beholding these prosperous Israelites, and realizing that his days of mischief are about over, will, after anarchy has destroyed the future socialistic governments, in hatred against Israel stir up the anarchistic remnants of all nations to plunder the Israelites in Palestine. These plunderers, as described in Ezek. 38 and 39 and in Zech. 12:1-9 and 14:1-3, will be gathered by Satan from among all nations and will sorely afflict Israel in what the Bible calls Jacob's Trouble (Jer. 30:1-9). This will be a very severe trouble, according to the prophetic description given in the above citations, and will be Israel's final chastisement. It will effectually turn them to the Lord Jesus in thorough conversion, when they, in the complete overthrow of their plunderers by the Lord Jesus, will remember that their trouble and their troublers' overthrow were forecast to them by the Truth people. And their affliction and the overthrow of their anarchistic plunderers will be the last act of Satanic oppression as the god of this evil world. With that wicked effort his days as man's supreme oppressor will be over, for which we thank God.

According to Rev. 20:1-3, Satan will be bound and be imprisoned during the thousand years. The language of this passage, of course, is figurative. We understand that the bottomless pit symbolizes error, which, indeed, is a pit, and from the standpoint of its having no real foundation, is well represented by a bottomless pit. A key in Bible symbols represents the power to lock or unlock. In this passage the key is used to lock up Satan in the bottomless pit. The great chain by which Satan is bound represents the Truth in its various parts, as mighty in its Biblical, factual and reasonable proofs. The binding of Satan, therefore, represents his restraint by the Truth, Biblically, factually and reasonably set forth. This binding work has been a gradual one, and when completed, will have consisted of four stages. Its first stage was from 1874 to 1914,

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when his binding was his increasing restraint by secular and religious truth, so that he could no more control the nations by his empire's three foundation doctrines—the Divine right of kings, aristocrats and clergy—and their three supporting doctrines—the change of humans into spirits at death, the consciousness of the dead and the bliss or torment of the dead. The completion of the first stage of his binding was marked by the World War, to which he resorted to maintain his empire, after realizing that he could no longer control it by its three foundation and three supporting doctrines, as of yore.

Since then he is trying to maintain it by various other errors, especially combinationistic ones, as these are manifest in various treaties, the League of Nations, the World Court, alliances among the nations, etc., combines among the financiers and unions and federations among the religious forces. By Biblical, factual and reasonable exhibitions of secular and religious truth, Jesus is showing, and will continue to show the erroneousness of these to such a degree that Satan, to maintain an empire at all, will resort to a revolution of the masses against the classes combined as above, and thereby will overthrow his present order. His resorting to the revolution—the fast approaching Armageddon—will be a proof of the completion of his second binding stage. He will establish on false teachings a socialistic form of government which, as the third stage of Satan's binding, Jesus will expose as erroneous, by secular and religious truth; and in a mad dash to preserve some sort of power over mankind, Satan will lead the people on to anarchy, which will prove the completion of the third stage of his binding. The fourth stage of it will be our Lord's exposures, by secular and religious truth, of his effort of despair and hatred against the Jews by the anarchistic remnants of all nations. Thus, at the end of the tribulation Satan's binding will be complete. He will have

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run the full course of his pre-Millennial deceptions. In every way the Truth—the great chain—will restrain him, so that he will be unable to move hand, foot or mouth, in the way of deceiving the nations during the Millennium. His being cast into the bottomless pit represents his being left to his own unaided resources and speculations and being kept from learning any further truth; and his being kept in the darkness of errors of his own making is meant by his remaining in the bottomless pit, which certainly will be painful.

To accomplish this several things will be necessary on the Lord's part: (1) to remove Satan so far away from the earth that he will know nothing of what is going on here during the Millennium, and (2) to keep him there away from mankind during that period. This will prevent his learning the secular and religious truths given mankind during the Millennium; and separating him from contact with mankind will not give him opportunity to deceive any of them. It will also leave him to his own resources in imagining what is going on here. But with an intellect so perverted in power of reasoning, all his imaginations as to Millennial conditions and teachings will be erroneous. The errors that he taught mankind before the Millennium will during that period be so completely refuted that none of mankind will any longer believe them. Thus he will deceive the nations no more by error and sin during those thousand years. On the contrary, our Lord will operate restitution processes on the race so powerfully during those thousand years as to bring all the obedient to perfection—those obeying only externally, and not from the heart, to perfection of physical, mental, moral and religious faculty, but not to perfection of character; and those who obey externally and also from the heart, to perfection of both faculty and character. Thus the entire race will be perfect when the Millennium is over, and it will be in a better position to be tested for fitness or unfitness for everlasting

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life than inexperienced Adam and Eve were when they were put on trial for life in Eden.

This post-Millennial trial of mankind will be during the Little Season at the end of the Millennium (Rev. 20:7-9). In the passage just cited Satan is spoken of as being loosed out of his prison. As his imprisonment means his being in error and away from any contact with the race on earth, his loosing would imply his being brought back into touch with the race and finding out the exact truth on Millennial teachings and conditions. As his binding was a gradual one, extending over many years, so will his loosing—a permitting of more or less of knowledge to influence by deception—be a gradual one extending over many years, though his coming back to the earth will not be a long- timed journey. He will make a careful study of the situation, so as to get a thorough grasp of it, as the basis of a plan to seize control of the human race again. Doubtless Satan will not believe that he will be annihilated at the end of the Little Season, but like Pharaoh, his type, will persuade himself that God is too kind to take extreme measures against him; and he will therefore hope for another empire and reign over the earth for thousands of years, like his first one god will allow him to attempt to gain control of the race again, only as a means of testing the hearts' attitude of the perfected race for the manifestation of those who will be loyal to right principle under heart-searching tests and those who under such tests will not be loyal to right principle; for God is determined to let no person after having had a favorable opportunity for life exist after the Little Season, if he will not maintain loyalty to righteousness. So Satan's unbelief and ambition will inveigle him into the role of a tempter; and this will bring upon all a final crucial temptation, whose outcome will be life everlasting to the faithful and endless death to the unfaithful. Thus, as with Adam and Eve in the beginning, a trial to

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determine worthiness or unworthiness for everlasting life must be undergone by all, and the stage for that trial will be set in the Little Season.

Of what will the deception consist, through which Satan will seek to make the race again his subjects? While we may not be too positive on this subject, we incline to the thought that Satan will seek to work out a deception as follows: After 2874 he will remind the people that the Millennium began in 1874 and, therefore, was over in 2874, that at the end of the Millennium, according to God's promise, the race would be given the dominion over the earth, and that the Ancient and Youthful Worthies, instead of yielding up to the race the promised dominion at 2874, have allowed year after year to pass since that time without making a move to give up that dominion to mankind as a whole. Thus he will slyly insinuate the thought that the Worthies are usurping a rulership over them, unauthorized by God and contrary to God's promise. These sophistries will affect responsively those who during the Millennium will not have in heart reformed, but only reformed externally in order to escape chastisement. Thus, instead of developing supreme love to God and equal love to man, such will have been developing a selfish disposition during the Millennium. And Satan's suggestions will appeal more and more to their selfishness. Shortly thereafter, under Satanic suggestion, they will begin to voice their thoughts, and more by hints to express their disapproval at the alleged usurpations of the Worthies. Presently, under Satanic manipulation, these hints will become direct charges, and later agitations will break out and more and more will multitudes—Gog and Magog—join these agitations. And as during the trial the Lord will not summarily punish wrong-doing, as He for their reformation will have done during the thousand years (Is. 26:9), these selfish persons, encouraged by Satan, will think their course approved by the Lord. Under

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Satan's lead they will organize to make their claims all the more effective. They will probably, at Satanic incitation, delegate committees to ask the Worthies to turn over the dominion to them, which, under Divine instruction, will be refused by them.

Satan urging them on, they will become increasingly urgent until, finally, they will commit such undeniable sin—perhaps the murder of the Ancient and Youthful Worthies, represented by the beloved city and the camp of the saints—that they will be proven to be sinful and thus unworthy of life. Thereupon will follow their and Satan's and the impenitent angels' annihilation, symbolized by their being cast into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:9, 10, 15; 21:8). Literal passages, like the following, prove this of the wicked: Job 6:15, 18; 7:9; Ps. 37:10, 35, 36; 49:12; 104:35;

Is. 65:20; while the following passages show this of Satan: Is. 27:1; Ezek. 28:16, 19; Heb. 2:14. Sometimes Rev. 20:10, which in the A. V. speaks of the devil being tormented eternally, is quoted to prove that he will continue to exist forever. To this several things may be answered: The beast and the false prophet, which are spoken of in this passage, and which have the same thing done to them as is done to Satan, are not persons, but Satanic institutions, systems, organizations, which therefore will not exist forever (1 John 3:8). What, then, is the solution of this matter? We reply that the word basanizo, translated tormented in the A. V. of Rev. 20:10, is an unhappy translation here. This word has three meanings: (1) to examine; (2) to examine with torture, and (3) to torture. The A. V. has taken the third, whereas the first meaning of this word fits here. The thought is this: that eternally  perfect men will examine Satan's, the beast's and the false prophet's history, theories, effects, etc., and as a result of that examination will always conclude that these are worthily in eternal annihilation. The thought is more literally expressed in Is. 14:15-20.

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Satan will subject to temptation those who will have reformed not only externally but also internally, i.e., those who will have faithfully developed supreme love to God and equal love to the neighbor, but he will fail to deceive them. As the sun melts wax, but hardens cement, so, by the heat of temptation, Satan will ruin the unfaithful, and will but strengthen the faithful. Their unselfish gratitude and appreciation of the Ancient and Youthful Worthies for ministering to their Millennial blessing and uplift will shield them from responding to the delusion that the former are usurping rulership over them during the Little Season. They will meet the temptation somewhat after this manner: "Though we do not understand why the rulership is not being handed over to us, we do not believe that they are usurping authority over us. And even if they should rule over us a few years longer than we have expected, we will not begrudge it of them, because their ministry assisted us up out of physical, mental, moral and religious degradation to physical, mental, moral and religious perfection. If they reign over us longer than we expected, they are welcome to it for the good they have done us; moreover, we are sure that it will result in greater blessing to us than if they did not so rule. Therefore, we will not murmur nor complain with our lips against them, nor resent and dislike their acts with our heart, much less do them insult and violence with our hands. And, finally, we love God so much that we will do nothing in the way of attempting to take matters out of His hands into our own. We will in such love wait on Him to manage this matter as it will please Him." Thus they will overcome the temptation, which after being faithfully met will be eased by their being given an understanding of the temptation denied the unfaithful, who will be permitted to remain in their delusion until escape will be impossible and their destruction inevitable, while the faithful will in perfection inherit the

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paradisaic earth as their perfect and everlasting kingdom in righteousness and blessedness.

Among other Biblical types the experiences of Moses and Israel and of Pharaoh and the Egyptians at and in the Red Sea are given as a type of the Little Season's experiences of the Christ and the faithful restitutionists on the one hand, and of Satan, his fallen angels and wicked men on the other hand, the former coming to safety in everlasting bliss and the latter to eternal destruction, as a result of their varied wicked attitudes, while the song of praise to Jehovah sung by the Israelites on the other shore types the Hallelujah anthems joined in by all in heaven and earth as a choir—an anthem that will be lived as well as sung (Rev. 5:13). This outcome of God's plan reveals Satan's true character and work. At best, so far as the Elect are concerned, he has served as a catspaw to pull God's chestnuts out of the fire, as a grindstone to make them acute, as a mason's tools and materials to shape, smooth and polish them, as shears to prune them, as a rod to discipline them and as a proving machine to test them. At best, to the world he is now a fire that burns them to teach the burnt ones to dread the fire, and in the Little Season the roaring lion, who will make the faithful seek a refuge in God away from the lion's power to harm, and who will devour the unfaithful, remaining within reach of the lion's paw. And these good results are not of his planning or design, but are of the Lord's overruling untoward things for the glory of his Name in the blessing of the faithful and in the destruction of the unfaithful. At his bad and worst, in his thoughts, character and works he is guilty of all the evil and more, too, than we have written of him here. Surely, as we contemplate his past, present and future activities, we are constrained to say also of his end—annihilation: "Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of the nations … for Thy righteous acts are made manifest" (Rev. 15:3, 4)!

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So far in our study of the evil angels we have given our attention almost exclusively to their leader, Satan, saying almost nothing of his associate evil angels. We now proceed to a brief study of them. Some, giving a literal and historical, instead of a symbolic and prophetic explanation to Rev. 12:7-9, have imagined that Satan and a number of literal angels before man's creation made a rebellion in the literal heaven, were defeated and cast out of it into a burning marl—an imaginary hell—which they fancy to be far away from the earth. Certainly Rev. 12:7-9, being, like the rest of that book, a symbolic prophecy of things to come (Rev. 1:1, 2), cannot have such a meaning. As we saw, Satan fell into open sin after Eve's creation; and, according to the Bible, the rest of the fallen angels sinned shortly before the flood. To make this matter clear we will have to give a description of the first world, the world before the flood, and of its heavens and earth.

The first world—"the world that then was," "the old world"—was from the creation and fall of man until the flood, lasting 1656 years. It was the order of affairs that prevailed among men especially from the fall into sin and the curse until it was blotted out by the flood in the days of Noah. It was an evil order of affairs, because in it sin, error and death prevailed; but not being so evil as that one which followed, it is not, like the present order of affairs, expressly called, "that evil world." "The world that then was," or "the old world," consisted of two parts: (1) its heavens, and (2) its earth. But when we speak of its heavens and its earth, we are not to be understood as meaning the literal heavens and earth of those days; but are to be understood as meaning figurative or symbolic heavens and earth. But one might ask, "What is the difference between the literal and the figurative heavens and earth?" The literal heavens are, of course, the planetary systems and their suns that we

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see above us on cloudless nights; while the literal earth is the planet on which we live, build our houses and plant our gardens. These literal heavens and this literal earth are used in the Bible in a natural figure to represent symbolic heavens and earth. The following thought-likeness underlying these things suggests the use of the heavens in a symbolic sense: As the natural stars give light, so that we may find our way in the natural night, so teachers of religion are to shed the light of Truth on the pathway of sinners, that they may find their way in the night of sin. As, therefore, all of the literal stars constitute the literal heavens, so all of the religious systems and their teachers in any of the Bible's three worlds constitute the heavens of that world. That the Bible speaks of a teaching class or system in the sense of symbolic stars is apparent from many verses, of which we will quote a few: "They that be wise [literally, teachers; see margin] shall shine as the brightness of the firmament [the sun]; and they that turn [convert] many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever (Dan. 12:3). The Christ from the standpoint of giving the world the light of Truth during the Millennium, are called the Sun of Righteousness and the Sun (Mal. 4:2; Matt. 13:43). False teachers are called wandering stars (Jude 13). The special teachers of the Church in her seven epochs are called stars (Rev. 1:20). The twelve Apostles as the teachers of the entire Church are symbolized by the twelve stars crowning the woman who symbolizes the Church (Rev. 12:1). And Jesus, from the standpoint of giving the Truth in the dawn of the Millennium, is called the Day Star and the Morning Star (2 Pet. 1:19; Rev. 22:16). These passages, proving that religious teachers are symbolic stars, enable us to see how that all of the symbolic stars of a world would be the symbolic heavens of that world—order of affairs.

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In the Bible, angels—the spirits that God made as His servants (Heb. 1:14)—are called stars, or teachers. In job 38:7, they are spoken of as the stars that sang together early in human history, rejoicing in God's creation. Lucifer, light- bearer, who later became Satan, was like the morning star—"son of the morning"—and later in unholy ambition sought to mount above (to become supreme over) the other stars—angels (Is. 14:12, 13). According to these verses, the angels have been teachers—symbolic stars. When? Evidently they will not be the heavens—the teachers—in the world to come; for St. Paul expressly says, "Unto the angels hath He [God] not put in subjection the world [Age] to come" (Heb. 2:5). Nor are they the religious teachers of "this present evil world," for the Lord has made  certain men teachers of religion in "this present world," as can readily be seen from Cornelius' experience, to whom an angel was sent to show where a preacher might be found; but the angel was not himself privileged to teach Cornelius the Truth unto Salvation; for instead of attempting to teach Cornelius, the angel said to him, "Send … for … Peter, who shall tell thee words whereby thou and thy house shall be saved" (Acts 11:13, 14). Therefore, not being the symbolic heavens of the second and third worlds, if the angels ever were symbolic stars—teachers of the human family—it must have been before the flood—in the "world that then was," in "the old world," i.e., in the first dispensation.

The angels are expressly spoken of as having been the authorized teachers of the human family, and as having been clothed with power to reward the obedient and punish the disobedient, in the following verse: "For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward" (Heb. 2:2). This passage, in the light of the foregoing considerations, implies that before the flood the symbolic heavens—the symbolic

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stars—light or truth bearers—were the angels who were the authorized teachers of the people, rewarding them for obedience and punishing them for disobedience. It is true that the Bible does not give details as to their administration of affairs; but piecing together the thoughts Scripturally indicated and implied, we infer that they were permitted by the Lord, who foreknew their failure, to seek the uplift of mankind after sin had entered the world, and thus were made the religious teachers—the stars, the symbolic heavens—in "the world that then was." But instead of success crowning their efforts, matters became worse and worse until man's wickedness required the punishment of the flood, which was effected by God's causing the canopy of water that enveloped the earth—"the waters above the heavens" or earth's atmosphere—to drop upon the earth in a worldwide deluge.

But not only did mankind steadfastly continue its downward course; but many of the angels were misled into sin in an unauthorized attempt to stem the tide of human wickedness and to restore mankind to perfection. While the Bible does not give us the details, yet from the facts that it does give us we may properly infer that the following things occurred: Satan, who originated sin among men and angels, seems to have suggested the following thoughts to the angels while they were somewhat discouraged by their failure to uplift fallen man: "Your failure is due to your use of an inadequate remedy for man's sin. He is becoming worse because of hereditary depravity. A pure fountain is indispensable to pure water. If you make the fountain pure, you will have pure water. The race is impure because it comes from an impure fountain through heredity. You have the power to materialize human bodies (Gen. 18:1, 2; 19:1; Judges 6:11-22; 13:20; Luke 1:11-22, 28-38; etc.). Use this power, marry women and raise families; and you will impart your sinlessness to your posterity, and

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by the by, through a pure heredity, sin will be blotted out of the race." We say that Satan suggested such thoughts, because (1) apart from Satan angels did not sin until just before the flood (1 Pet. 3:19, 20; 2 Pet. 2:4, 5; Jude 6, 7);

(2) he led many angels into sin; and (3) the angels sinned by marrying women and raising families (Gen. 6:2, 4; Jude 6, 7; A.R.V. margin), thus leaving their own habitation— their mode of living as spirit beings—and becoming guilty of fornication and going after strange flesh—a different nature from their own; and St. Jude tells us that they in these matters did as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah did later. But, instead of the offspring of these angelic fathers and human mothers being sinless, they seem to have increased the wickedness of the antediluvians (Gen. 6:4-6). The procedure of the angels in this matter was entirely unauthorized. We may assume that when Satan first made his suggestion, it appealed to all as plausible; but doubtless some of them had doubts as to its propriety, because God had never authorized such a procedure. Some of the angels refused to enter into the suggestion unless Divinely authorized so to do. But there were others that allowed their zeal to reform the race to set aside proper caution; and these, following Satan's suggestion, instead of reforming the race, plunged themselves into sin, and the race into deeper sin. Thus the heavens—the symbolic heavens—of "the old world" became unfit for Divine use as religious leaders and teachers—symbolic stars. What a solemn lesson to us always to find out the Lord's will on everything before attempting it, if we would be one with Him!

Let us briefly look at the symbolic earth before the flood. We understand the symbolic earth of any world to be the organized society of that world. Often the word, earth, is symbolically used in the Bible to mean society. For example, when Jesus said, "Ye are the salt of the earth" (Matt. 5:13), He certainly did

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not mean that we are literal salt placed in the literal earth to season, nourish and preserve it, but that in human society— the symbolic earth—Christians are a seasoning, nourishing and preserving factor. Evidently Is. 60:2 does not refer to the literal earth being in gross literal darkness; for if such were the case, it would be dark wherever the sun does not shine on the earth, no matter how many saints were there; and it would be light wherever the sun shines, no matter how many sinners were there. Evidently the thought of the verse is that while society in general would be in the darkness of error, the faithful would be in the light  of Truth. How apparently does the word earth mean society, in its first use, and the planet on which we live, in its second use in Gen. 4:14: "Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth [society]; and from Thy face [favor] shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth [our planet]." Again, "the  whole earth [human society] was of one language" (Gen. 11:1). Other illustrations of the symbolic sense—society—as being given to the word earth could be cited; but the above are sufficient to prove the point under consideration.

It being established that the symbolic earth of the Scriptures means society, we now remark that the symbolic earth upon which the angels as the symbolic heavens shone before the flood was human society as then constituted. From the fact that the earth was not divided up into private property until in the day of Peleg [divider] after the flood (Gen. 10:25); from the fact that the first human government was organized by Nimrod (Gen. 10:10), and from the fact that the first business transaction on record in the Bible is that of Abraham's purchase of the field and cave of Machpelah (Gen. 23:3-20), we infer that before the flood there was no private ownership in property, no governments among the people, and no competition in business. In other words, society seemed to be

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organized on a more or less communistic basis, somewhat after the manner of the social organization of the North American Indians. It was this peculiar social arrangement, combined with man's increasing selfishness and sinfulness and the greater selfishness and sinfulness of the giant offspring of the angels (Gen. 6:4), that made the earth— society—"corrupt" (Gen. 6:5, 6, 11-13)—an expression that cannot be applied to the literal earth. The reader will note that in every use of the word, earth, in the above-cited verses it means society. Thus the order of affairs before the flood—the angels in charge of the race and the race organized on a sort of communistic basis—proved to be a failure, so far as concerns the reformation of man from sin and his restoration to his Edenic perfection.

The foregoing discussion proves that both the symbolic heavens—the angels as the teachers of the human family, and the symbolic earth—society organized on somewhat of a communistic basis, became corrupt—unfit for the Lord's further use and tolerance as such. Hence He determined to destroy the world—not the physical, but the symbolic world, consisting not of the physical, but the symbolic heavens and earth (Gen. 6:3, 5-13, 17). That the symbolic world is referred to as having been destroyed by the flood in 2 Pet. 3:6, and not the literal world, nor the human family, is evident from the fact that we still have the same literal heavens and earth that existed before the flood and that the human family still exists; for had the world in the sense of the human family been destroyed by the flood, a new human race would have been created, while the Bible shows that a part of the human race survived the flood. Therefore it was the symbolic world that was destroyed by the flood (Gen. 6:13; 9:11), i.e., the order of affairs in which the angels were the teachers of the human family, and in which the human family was socially organized on a somewhat communistic basis, was forever set aside by the

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flood. Thus ended "the world that then was," "the old world"—not the human family, nor the universe, nor the literal earth, but the order or dispensation of affairs existing in the human family before the flood.

Thus we see that the human race in eight persons survived the flood. So, too, did the fallen angels survive the flood, but no longer organized as the symbolic heavens— teachers of the race as organized anew in the second earth. On the contrary, they were sentenced not only to the punishment of being demoted from being the teachers— symbolic stars—of the human family, but were further punished (1) by being imprisoned within the atmosphere of this earth, no longer, as formerly, being allowed the freedom of the universe, and (2) by being restrained from all manifestation of themselves to humans in the light, being limited to darkness for such manifestations. Both Peter and Jude tell us of these two forms of punishment as being meted out to the fallen angels after the flood for their sins before the flood (2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 6, 7). We have above explained Jude 6, 7, as showing the peculiar form of the angels' sin before the flood. The second part of v. 6 points out their punishment: "The [sinning] angels … He [God] hath reserved [kept] in everlasting [ages-lasting] chains [imprisoned within the atmosphere of this earth, where they are under the prince—Satan—of the power of the air,— Eph. 2:2] under darkness [limited to operating visibly to darkness, hence in séances no lights are allowed, since in the light these fallen angels cannot manifest themselves] unto the judgment of the great day [in which we have been since 1874, which accounts for the gradual loosing of their visible manifestations from the limits of darkness and their gradually increasing materializations in the light]. But 2 Pet. 2:4 is more clearly to the point than Jude 6, when the veil of mistranslation is removed; for here the A. V. renders one word, the verb tartaroo, by five

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words, "cast them down to hell,"—a verb, a personal pronoun, an adverb, a preposition and a noun. This fact properly arouses suspicion that some violence has been done in translation to the verb, tartaroo. This verb is from the same root as the noun tartaros, which the heathen Greeks used to designate a gloomy prison in which wicked spirits were kept imprisoned and where they were more or less tortured. And when the Catholic Church in the Dark Ages took over from the heathen the doctrines of the consciousness of the dead and the eternal torment of the wicked, it without Biblical warrant introduced and magnified the heathen ideas associated with tartaros. If we keep in mind the basal idea of tartarus as a prison and make a verb of it, we have the true meaning of the verb—to imprison. Thus Peter by the verb tartaroo tells us that God imprisoned the angels that sinned; and since Jude tells us that such imprisonment lasts until the great day, and since these fallen angels as the power of the air are active among humans, e.g., in demonizing people, appearing in séances and other occult practices, we conclude that earth's atmosphere is their prison (Matt. 12:24-27; Eph. 2:2; 6:11, 12).

None of the other sinful angels are of so high a nature as Satan, he being the only cherub to have sinned. Despite the fact that Satan deceived them into sinning, he succeeded in securing their subordination to him since the flood, which is probably due to the facts that, feeling the need of some organization among themselves and knowing that Satan was their superior in nature and consequently in the compass of his powers, they accepted his supremacy  among them, and under his direction they were organized into the invisible phase of his kingdom. While the Bible does not give us definite details on the organization of the invisible phase of Satan's kingdom, it shows us that it is an organized arrangement, from the fact that it proves Satan to be its chief (Matt. 12:24) and other

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fallen angels to have varying ranks in that kingdom (Eph. 2:2; 6:12). Since his kingdom is a worldwide one (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11), it is doubtless divided into departments corresponding to the various governments, religions and aristocracies among men, without overlapping into one another. Especially would this be so in the countries where there have been one religion and one form of aristocracy. Thus, e.g., in a country like Russia one of Satan's chief deputies would be in charge of a large number of demons, of various ranks and authority, and thus they would rule over Russia governmentally, religiously and aristocratically. And as that country was a unit of Satan's kingdom, under the lead of its chief ruler (who was, of course, subordinate to Satan), the country would be divided up among various groups of the fallen angels, each group having a chief who would act under Satan's chief deputy  for Russia. Thus the demoniacal rule would be universal in Russia. The same principle was doubtless carried out in all other countries of Satan's empire, similar things there taking place.

The chief deputy of Satan in each country got himself called the god of that country in heathen times and countries, and national patron saints in the Catholic countries of Christendom. Thus the so-called Saint George was the counterfeit patron saint (actually a demon) of England; St. Denis, of France; St. Michael, of Germany; St. James, of Spain; St. Patrick, of Ireland; etc., etc., while provincial and local gods or so-called saints were actually the demons in charge of provinces, cities and towns of the various countries. Thus they got themselves worshiped (Lev. 17:7; 2 Chro. 11:15; Ps. 106:37; 1 Cor. 10:20, 21).

This shows us how thoroughly the invisible phase of Satan's empire was organized. For varying reasons, always at Satan's instigation, these demons incited the nations to war on one another, the false religions to war on one another or against the true religion and the members

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of various aristocracies or members of the same aristocracy to war on one another. The case of Joan of Arc, incited (supposedly) by St. Michael (actually by a demon who impersonated Michael), aroused France to renew the war against England. There cannot be doubt in the mind of those truly instructed on the subject (Rev. 7:1-3) that the World War was of demoniac origin and furtherance, as evidenced, e.g., by many reports from soldiers, on both sides, of visions of angels leading them on into the fight. Thus all sorts of movements, governmental, religious and aristocratic, have been inaugurated, incited and led by the invisible phase of Satan's kingdom.

These demons have wrought on nations, groups and individuals. They have resorted to all sorts of methods and means to get influence and control over these. In all Satan's methods and means of obtaining control of mankind they have been the agents to bring these into operation among men, using false religious theories more than any other things to accomplish their ends. These fallen angels thus duped the race into believing the then foundation and supporting doctrines of Satan's empire, as well as hordes of other errors of doctrine, practice, organization, ceremonial and custom. Very fertile in deceptive contrivances have they been through the doctrine of the consciousness of the dead. In Deut. 18:9-14 and Is. 8:19, 20, a list of these is given, among which are mentioned: making children pass through the fire, divination, observing times, enchanting, bewitching, charming (hypnotizing), consulting familiar spirits (fortune tellers), necromancy (alleged talking with the dead, actually with demons impersonating the dead). In their approach to individuals they have set as their ultimate goal demoniacal control, and to gain it they have been using five distinct steps: (1) suggestion of whatever thought they considered advantageous to them for each individual case; (2) diversion of one's attention from that on which he desired to fix his mind

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to such thoughts as would interfere with one's direction of his own thoughts; (3) impression of all sorts of vagaries, dreams, hallucinations, etc., to make one's mind wander and weaken his will for logical thought, feeling and action;

(4) obsession, whereby a partial control over the will is obtained, and finally, (5) possession, in which the person's will is entirely controlled by the demons, who would thus make their victims act as foolishly, wickedly or insanely as they might desire. The Bible has much to say of demoniac possession and of Jesus and the disciples freeing people therefrom (1 Sam. 16:14-23; Matt. 8:16, 28-34; 9:32, 33; 12:22, 43-45; 15:22-29; 17:14-18; Mark 1:23-26; 3:22; 16:9; 9:38; Acts 5:16; 8:7; 16:16-18; 19:12). We all recall how the demons caused Jesus to be accused of demoniacal possession (Mark 3:22-30; John 7:20; 8:48; 10:20). To discredit Jesus and the Apostles they attempted to give testimony of them (Matt. 8:29; Mark 1:23, 24; 3:11; 5:7; Luke 8:28; Acts 19:15). Thus they figure in the Bible.

In our day demoniac possession and spiritism are the favorite methods of these demons. Many people have by these demons been led to give up all belief in most phases of demonism, especially witchcraft and demoniac possession. But they are undoubted facts, now being enacted. According to medical authorities, two-thirds of the inmates of insane asylums are there for no other cause than demoniac possession, evidenced by the fact that they have no functional derangement, such as normal insanity entails. And the demons obtain this possession by the five steps above described. For the last 90 years the demons have been making great efforts to inveigle people into demonism by spiritism. While fully 95% of the manifestations in séances are slight-of-hand trickery in which the mediums are taking a conscious part, perhaps 5% of the spiritistic phenomena are manifestations of genuine spirits. These spirits are not the dead, who are unconscious (Job 14:21;

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Is. 63:16; Ps. 6:5; 115:17; 146:4; Eccl. 9:5, 6, 10; Is. 38:18, 19), but they are the fallen angels, who impersonate the dead and deceive the unwary by telling them things of which they believe no one else except the dead and themselves have had any knowledge. We raise a warning against spiritism as a gigantic fraud palmed off by the fallen angels to mislead and injure all whom they can dupe; for these are the lying spirits mentioned in the Bible (1 Tim. 4:1). These Satan uses to bring mankind to, and to keep them in subjection to him; and certainly by their manifold aid, of which a few of its forms are given above, he has succeeded with the bulk of men.

We saw above that Satan originally deceived these angels into sin. He has since been deceiving them further, e.g., into believing that our Lord intends to torment them (Matt. 8:29); and it is for this reason that they tremble instead of trust (Jas. 2:19). It is because, unlike Satan, who sinned originally without being deceived, they were deceived into sin, that the Bible teaches an opportunity of repentance and trial for life for them. This is taught or implied in passages like 1 Cor. 6:1-4; 4:9; Eph. 1:10; 3:10;

Phil. 2:10, 11; Col. 1:20; Jude 6; 1 Pet. 3:18-20; 2 Pet. 2:4;

1 Tim. 3:16; 2 Tim. 4:1. According to these passages, throughout the Gospel Age God has through the Church been enlightening the fallen angels on the actual purposes of God with respect to God, Christ, the Church, the world and themselves. Thus they have been getting the needed enlightenment as an encouragement to repent. The fact that God is too wise and practical to undertake a thing in which no success whatever is obtainable, proves that some of these fallen angels have been repenting, which doubtless has resulted in their suffering great persecutions as "turncoats," "traitors," etc., from Satan and the impenitent angels, under which conditions they must purge themselves of their sins. Now, in the Epiphany time

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(2 Tim. 4:1), the penitent angels, who, among others, are "the quick" of the passage last cited, are being separated, "judged," from the impenitent ones. The latter as irreformable will be imprisoned with Satan in the bottomless pit during the Millennium, while during that time the penitent angels will get their trial for life, and those successful therein will be restored to God's eternal favor with their sins as fully forgiven and forgotten by God as mankind's Adamic sins will be (Jer. 31:34). The impenitent angels will not be given the Millennial opportunity of undergoing trial for a full restoration to God's eternal favor; for their impenitent course has hardened them in sin irreformably, as Satan's course therein has done to him, hence it would be fruitless to give them a trial for life then. With him they will be imprisoned in, and later loosed from the bottomless pit in the Little Season; and with and under him, as typed by Pharaoh's captains (Ex. 14:7), they will seek to bring mankind again into sin; and with Satan and apostate men they will all perish in the Second Death, typed by Pharaoh's and his officers' and men's overthrow in the Red Sea. Thus the Sublime Drama will end with the annihilation of all evil beings and things, and in the eternal permanence of all good persons and things: "Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, good will to men" (Luke 2:14; Ex. 15:1-21)!