726
December 1928
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
The Preexistence of Jesus Christ B y D r . R. L. S t e ph en s San Antonio, Texas
f HERE are few who realize the creative greatness, the divine majesty, the mighty wonder, and the past eternal existence of Him who is our Sav iour. Few ever think that the beginning of Jesus Christ was not in the manger of Bethle hem. David called Him Lord (Matt. 22 :43-45 ; Psa. 110:1; Acts 2:34, 35).
C h r ist !B efore A ll T h ing s Few read aright that God said to Jesus Christ, who was born of the virgin Mary: “Thou, Lord, hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands” (Heb. 1:10). And that “by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth,
visible and invisible . . . ' . . And He is before a ll things, and by Him all things consist (Col. 1 :16, 17). These same great and mar velous creative powers and wonders were transferred to this earth, when Jesus Christ, who preexisted, and performed them in the eternity of the past, was born the babe of Bethle hem in order to become the sac rifice and the resurrection for lost sinners. His birth, His life, His , resurrection, His ascen sion, all proved that He was God—the promised one of prophecy. Again, the lustrous.;.: nebula of names which cluster about the birth-name of our immacu late Lord, declare His past eter nal existence beyond the man ger of Bethlehem, and His fu ture eternal existence from the manger of His birth. This is one of the barriers of the Bible, before which the impudent infi del; the inane, insolent atheist; and the superstitious evolution
He was with Israel on Sinai’s desert (1 Cor. 10:4). He said, “Before Abraham was I am” (Jno. 8:58). Jesus Christ was St. the creation of Adam when God said, “Let Us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). He was at the creation of the heaven and the earth. “Elohim” is plural, in cluding Jesus Christ (Gen. 1 : 1). Nebuchadnezzar saw the “Son of God” walking in the) furnace of fire with the Hebrew children, five h u n d r e d and‘ eighty years before the Son of God was born into this world (Dan. 3 :24, 25 ). Daniel saw the “Son of man” in his vision of empires, five hundred and thirty-seven years' before the Son of man was born (Dan. 7:13). He was foreordained to die for sinners before ‘ the founda tion, o f the world (1 Pet. 1:18- 21). We were chosen in Him before the foundation o f the world { Eph. 1:4). All the
Keystone ViewCo. FROM HEAVEN TO THIS TOWN CAME THE ETERNAL SON OF GOD. THE BAZAAR OF BETHLEHEM, PALESTINE
works of redemption were finished before the foundation of the world (Heb. 4:3). He, by appointment, was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). “From him, fJesus] which is and which was and which is to corné” (Rev. 1 :4). “Who hath saved us, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Tim. 1:9). “I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but He sent me” (Jno. 8: 42). “I came forth from, the Father, and am come into the world: again I leave the world, and go to the Father” (Jno. 16:28). “O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (Jno. 17:5). Few, indeed, ever pause to dwell on the fact that “He, by whom the worlds were made, by whom all things were made, and without whom was not anything made that was made, and by the power of whose word all things are maintained, was He who made Himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and became the humble sufferer of Calvary for lost sinners” (Heb. 1:1-3; Tno. 1:1-4; Col. 1:16).
ist, must stop and bow, and never pass—-the names of Jesus Christ. For, about this precious name are woven, bejeweled and entwined, many titles, in both the Old and New Testaments, which point to His eternal past and to His eternal future, and conclusively prove His eternal Divine Being, beyond all ignorant denial of evolution’s vile superstition, or atheism’s indecent blasphemy. His D iv in e T itles He is “Lord,” “Jehovah,” “Jehovah Lord,T “I am,” “Faithful,” “True,” “Wonderful,” “Counsellor,” “The Mighty God,” “The Everlasting Father,” “The Prince of Peace,” “The Prince of Life,” “The Prince of Princes,” “The Prince of the Kings of the Earth,” “The Son of God,” “The Son of Man,” “The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world,” “The Mediator,” “The Intercessor,” “Advocate,” “The Rock,” “The Rock of Ages” (Isa. 26:4 mar.), “Rock of Refuge,” “Rock of Strength,” “Rock of Salvation” (to the saved), “Rock of Offense” (to the lost), “A Stone,” “A Tried Stone,” “Living Stone,” “Chief Corner Stone” (to the saved), “A Stone of Stumbling” (to the lost), “The Light,” “The True Light,” “The Light of Men,” “Light of the Gen tiles,” “Light of the World,” “Light of Life,” “The
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