Those who seek to remove the old landmarks are not holding fast; they are not remembering how they have received and heard. Those who try to bring in theories that would remove the pillars of our faith concerning the sanctuary or concerning the personality of God or of Christ, are working as blind men. They are seeking to bring in uncertainties and to set the people of God adrift without an anchor.
Ballenger's attacks on the sanctuary, with the doctrine of universal justification, are still used to denigrate the sanctuary doctrine. I didn't realise that he also attacked the personality of God or of Christ. Even now after thinking about it for some time, I'm just beginning to see how they are linked.
One link I see is that if God is only Spirit and Jesus and the Father are sort of merged into one being, how can any work be done in the sanctuary at all? 'One' being cannot be the mediator between us and Himself. While Christ can be the sacrifice and priest only because he has these functions at different times ie. He was the sacrifice and now He is the priest. But this cannot apply to a priest before the throne of God, as both are present simultaneously.
Geoff mentioned a chapter in Ministry of Healing on worship, chapter 35 "A True Knowledge of God". It was a great reminder to read it again. A few highlights:
p410 We need to study the revelations of Himself that God has given.
413
God is a Spirit; yet He is a personal Being; for so He has revealed Himself:
"The Lord is the true God,
He is the living God, and an everlasting King: . . .
The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth,
Even they shall perish from the earth, and from under
these heavens."
"The portion of Jacob is not like them:
For He is the former of all things."
"He hath made the earth by His power,
He hath established the world by His wisdom,
And hath stretched out the heavens by His discretion."
Jeremiah 10:10, 11, 16, 12.
So we NEED to study that God, though Spirit, is a personal Being
pp 418, 419
As a personal being, God has revealed Himself in His Son... Jesus as a personal Saviour, came to the world. As a personal Saviour, He ascended on high. As a personal Saviour, He intercedes in the heavenly courts. Before the throne of God in our behalf ministers "One like unto the Son of man." Rev 1:13And it goes on to "He sent His Son into the world to manifest, as far as could be endured by human sight, the nature and the attributes of the invisible God.
We NEED to study God as a personal being revealed in Jesus, a personal Saviour on earth, ascended and as intercessor. Revealer of the nature and attributes of invisible God. Ballenger didn't believe in Christ as High Priest so maybe he couldn't have Him as 'personal' as well.
There are heaps of great quotes about the saved looking upon the face of God (What greater joy..indeed) and personality of the Father and the Son on page 421 and the quotes keep coming, as Geoff pointed out, right to the end of the chapter.
p425 The knowledge of God as revealed in Christ is the knowledge that all who are saved must have.
it transforms character, recreates the image of God in the soul, imparts divine, spiritual power. No wonder she finishes with "beside (this knowledge) all else is vanity and nothingness."
Wow, to see the unity and, at the same time, the person of God revealed in Jesus is amazing and powerful. But I don't think I have seen clearly yet how this relates to the sanctuary.
