Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 108, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 May 1913 — CHRIST ASCENDED AS HE DESCENDED [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CHRIST ASCENDED AS HE DESCENDED

Wb Have Erred In Supposing His Flesh Ascended. Pastor Russell Says ths Logos Descended —He Was Made Flesh—Humbled Even Unto Death, Sheol, Hades. He Was Raised From the Dead a Spirit Being—He Ascended as Ho Descended—Jesus a Quickening Spirit Ascended to Glory, Honor and Imr mortality—What He Left and Moro Added Glory.

Detroit, Mich., May 4.—Pastor Russell gave two addresses herd today. We report the one on Christ’s Ascension. His text was: “Thou hast ascended on High, Thou hast led captivity captive: Thou hast received gifts for men: yea, for the rebellious also,

that the Lord God might dwell among them.”—Psalm 68:18. Pastor Russell declared that one of the serious errors engrafted into the Christian faith is the supposition that Jesus is still a man. This wrong thought prevails especially amongst PremiHenarlans. and helps to turn many away from faith in the premillennial coming, of Christ for the blessing of all the world. Many Christians, perceive that a reign of Christ in the flesh would be inferior to a spiritual reign. Hence the general rejection of faith in the Second Coming of Christ and the establishment of His Kingdom. He showed that all Christans firmly believe that Jesus was a spirit being before He came into the world. All believe that a spirit being is of a higher order than a human being, and that Jesus made a great stoop when He laid aside the glory of His prehuman condition to become “the Man Christ Jesus.” Man is “a little lower than angels,” even in his perfection. The Pastor declared that surely no Bible student supposes that the Heavenly Father had permanently degraded His Son from a station higher than angels to one below them. Yet many Christians profess to believe this very thing. The ascension of Christ Is claimed to prove it. How absurd to suppose that our Lord Jesus, accustomed to spirit conditions, and made flesh for a short period, could be otherwise than discommoded and seriously dishonored by the Father, if He has a body of flesh! Ascends Where He Was Before. Mistaken views respecting the word ascend have helped to confuse us. St Paul, explaining our text, shows that the ascension of Jesus is to be considered in conjunction with His descending. (Ephesians 4:8 11.) He that ascended is the same that descended, thirty-four years before.. Did the descending have reference to the kind of body? Surely not! Then the ascending has no reference to the kind of body. The descending signified the humiliation, the leaving of spiritual glory, to be born of the flesh. The life of the Logos was transferred from the spirit body to the body of the babe, that He might become “the Man Christ Jesus.” Similarly, the begetting of the Holy Spirit came to Jesus at His baptism, and for three and a'half years it constituted Him a spiritual Priest, whose work was to “offer Himself.” That offering ended at Calvary. When on the third day, the Father raised Him from the dead, it was the Priest who was raised to glory, honor and Immortality—not the sacrificed human body. As it is written. “A body hast Thou prepared Me for the suffering of death.” Jesus' sacrifice was finished at Calvary, as He said. He dietb no more, and therefore has no further use for the body of flesh. What became of it, the Pastor would not undertake to say. It was not seen in tomb. But the soul, not the body, was raised to life. “Thou wilt not leave My soul in Sheol” —Hades—the tomb. Why ■ Body of Flesh Was Used. We must remember two things, said the Pastor. Followers of Jesus were required to have full faith: (1) That Jesus was the Txigos, who had descended from the spirit plane to thf human. (2) That He had didd sacrifldally, and that God raised Him from the dead. Unless these two points were fully established, they could not continue as Jesus* disciples, acceptable with the Father, and capable of receiving the Holy Spirit. But they could not receive spiritual things until after the spirit-begetting at Pentecost. Hence their instructions must lie along earthly lines. If after His resurrection, Jesus bad appeared to them as He did to Saul of Tarsus, what proof would they have that it was the same Jesus who bad died? How could the Message of His resurrection and ascension have been conveyed to their minds? Some ocular demonstration was necessary to constitute a basis tor faith. Therefore our Lord demonstrated to His disciples the fact that a great change bad taken place. The disciples were children In the t School of Christ, learning a great lesson. To have crowded all lessons upon them at once would have been injurious. So Jesus had said. See John 18:12. IS.