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MICHAEL? Christ. The well-known JW view is that Christ was but a created angel, in direct contradiction of the Scrip tures, such as Hebrews 1:5-8: . . Unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to Him a Father and He shall be to Me a Son? And, again, when He bringeth in the firstbegotten in to the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him. . . . But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.” In fact, one of the charges on which Jesus was crucified was that “ He made Himself equal with God” and the other that He claimed to be a King, both o f which were true. The Seventh-day Adventists state their position on Michael in QUES TIONS ON DOCTRINE ( Review and Herald 1957) p. 71: “We em phatically reject . . . the position held by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. We do not believe that Christ is a cre ated being.” Then they go on to make a claim which is not borne out in their literature, from old- time SDA theologian Uriah Smith and Mrs. Ellen G. White to present- day writers such as Raymond F. Cottrell, the authors of their Bible courses and others: “We, as a people, have not considered the identifica tion of Michael o f sufficient promi nence to dwell upon it at length either in our literature or in our preaching.” If space permitted, we could quote at length on this subject from SDA authors mentioned above as well as many others. It is un equivocally thus stated, as by Cot trell, p. 207, “ Beyond Tomorrow” (Southern Pub. Ass’n .) : . . Michael, Captain o f the heavenly host, is none other than Christ, the Son of God.” ; by Arthur L. Bietz, (Review & Herald) “Whenever we
skirts of more serious reflections upon the deity of Christ such as the statement in QUESTIONS ON DOC TRINE, p. 659: “ He [Christ] was not exempt from temptation. . . . It. was necessary for Him to be con stantly on guard in order to pre serve His purity” and the dreadful teaching in BIBLE READINGS FOR THE HOME CIRCLE, p. 174: “ In His humanity Christ partook of our sinful, fallen nature. . . . On His human side, Christ inherited just what every child o f Adam in herits — a sinful, fallen nature.” Dr. I. M. Haldeman spoke truly: “ He [Christ] was begotten o f God from the seed of the woman, by and through the Holy Ghost. That which was begotten was not a person, but a nature — a human nature. This human nature was holy; Scripture calls it that holy thing. It was the holiness produced of and through the Holy Ghost. It was the holiness pro duced by and out of God. Since its quality was the holiness o f God, there was no sin in it, and no possi ble tendency to sin. This holy sinless human nature was in d is s o lu b ly joined to the eternal personality of the Son.” Several years ago there was a movement to integrate the Seventh- day Adventists into e v a n g e lic a l Christianity. A number o f starry- eyed, prominent Bible teachers asso ciated themselves with this effort. The Christian public was given to understand that there was to be a great repudiation of much o f Mrs. Ellen G. White’s heresies but after all the sound and fury died down, and the above-referred to QUES TIONS ON DOCTRINE was pub lished by the Seventh-day Adven tists, it was discovered that there was no change at all — not in doc trine nor in the stubborn adherence to Mrs. Ellen G. White as the in spired prophetess o f the movement. So one has not much hope that the identity of the good archangel Michael will ever be established ac curately by this sect.
are inclined to think of the time of trouble as a period of agony and defeat, let us remember that God Himself — Michael — with His limitless power, stands up for His people.” Who was Michael? What saith the Scriptures? There are four Scrip ture references to him: Dan. 10:21: “ . . . There is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince” ; Dan. 12:1: “At that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the chil dren of thy people” ; Jude 9: “Yet Michael, the archangel, when con tending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusa tion, but said, The Lord rebuke thee” ; and Rev. 12:7-9: “ And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dra gon----- ” Dr. Charles L. Feinberg, Dean of the Talbot Theological Seminary, states simply: “ I am convinced that Michael- is precisely what the Scrip tures indicate him to be, namely an archangel. His name is not one of the names of the Lord Jesus. Even the Jude passage would indicate that he takes somewhat of an inferior position to Satan. I find nowhere that Christ is so limited in His deal ings with Satan.” Dr. Louis T. Talbot, Chancellor of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, Inc., declares: “ The Bible is filled with names of our Lord Jesus, as Re deemer, Saviour, King, but ‘Michael’ is not one of them. He was the arch angel, just as the Scripture declares. Michael called upon the Lord to re buke Satan and the Lord is Jesus Himself. By every rule of logic Michael did not engage in talking to himself.” If the Seventh Day Adventists do not wish to be identified with the Jehovah’s Witnesses in this absurd teaching, let them abandon it. At the same time let them clear their
Photo at left shows Mrs. Betty Parks, who forwarded letter reproduced herewith. Kings Business appreciates her assistance in showing how poisonous error can be subtly mixed with the truth of the Word of God.
OCTOBER, 1965
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