The Word Was Made Flesh

"And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua." (Joshua 24:31)

As William Grotheer has pointed out,[1] there is an interesting parallel between the long-lasting influence of Joshua and that of Ellen White insofar as her teaching about the humanity of Jesus is concerned. It is apparent from the written records that her conviction that Christ had come to the earth in the nature of fallen man, because this was the only way that He could accomplish the salvation of the fallen race, had thoroughly permeated the church by the time of her death in 1915.

The influence of her strong conviction continued after her death for a third of a century, approximately as long there remained in the active service of the church men who might have been personally acquainted with her life and work. They continued to print and publish opinions that were not different from hers until the 1950's, as the following pages will reveal.

1916

As a man He was one with humanity, and was called the Son of Man.[2]

1918

From the fallen race itself must arise the Deliverer. ... the Son of God ... stood, not where Adam stood before the fall, but where man stands today.[3]

1919

God's Son declared that He would Himself become a man, would take the nature of sinful flesh.[4]

1920

Christ assumed, not the original unfallen, but our fallen humanity.[5]

He took the same kind of flesh that you have--sinful flesh. ... He came "in the likeness of sinful flesh" and lived a sinless life.[6]

1921

Jesus came into the world (and) took upon Him "the likeness of sinful flesh. ..."[7]

Christ came from heaven in the likeness of sinful flesh. ... He had flesh just like ours.[8]

Christ assumed, not the original unfallen, but our fallen humanity. In this second experiment, He stood not precisely where Adam before Him had, but, as has already been said, with immense odds against Him--evil, with all the prestige of victory and its consequent enthronement in the very constitution of our nature, armed with more terrific power against the possible realization of this divine idea of man--perfect holiness. All this considered, the disadvantages of the situation, the tremendous risks involved, and the fierceness of the opposition encountered, we come to some adequate sense both of the reality and greatness of that vast moral achievement; human nature tempted, tried, miscarried in Adam, lifted up in Christ to the sphere of actualized sinlessness.[9]

He who is introduced in the first chapter as Son, God, and Lord, whose deity and eternity are emphasized, meets us in the second chapter as the Son of man, with all the limitations of our common humanity. He is known now by His earthly, personal name, and as one who can taste of death (Heb. 2:9), and can be made "perfect through sufferings" (verse 10). He partook of the same flesh and blood which we have (verse 14), becoming just as truly man (verse 17) as He is truly God.[10]

He was made in the "likeness of sinful flesh." He took part of the same flesh and blood that those had whom He came to redeem, was made in all things "like unto His brethren."[11]

Christ took upon Himself the likeness of sinful flesh.[12]

(Jesus) became flesh and blood, even as we are.[13]

1922

And so Christ, taking upon Him the likeness of sinful flesh, became subject to death.[14]

1923

He ... clothed His divinity with humanity ... that He might reach men where they were.[15]

To meet the necessities of humanity, He took on Him human nature. ... Mysteriously He allied Himself to human nature.[16]

The great plan of the redemption of a fallen race was wrought out in the life of Christ in human flesh.[17]

And so Christ, taking upon Him the likeness of sinful flesh, became subject to death.[18]

But He took our nature, shrouded His divinity in our humanity, came in "the likeness of sinful flesh." (Romans 8:3; Philippians 2:7-8 quoted)[19]

As (man) grasps the truth that there actually lived upon this earth One possessed of the same nature as himself, who "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin," he realizes that there is hope for him.[20]

None but a human being--"made in the likeness of sinful flesh"--could serve as a mediator on behalf of sinful men. All the attributes of the Godhead, and those of sinful humanity, must be made to meet in the one who should effect the reconciliation.[21]

1924

... partaking of the same flesh and blood, becoming near of kin as a member of the family. ... Christ became "a near kinsman" to us, our brother in the flesh.[22]

He was a man. "The Word was made flesh." He was made in the "likeness of sinful flesh." ... He is a brother to us in our weakness.[23]

As seen by the world, Jesus of Nazareth was like other men of His time, for He had the same flesh and blood.[24]

There are many people in the world today who feel that because of the weakness of the flesh they never can lead a life of victory over sin. And then there are others who think of Christ as a friend afar off, one whom they feel they cannot approach. Paul, in his letter to the Hebrews, said that "both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren." (Chapter 2:11) I firmly believe that this means that He was not only one with His followers while here upon earth, but that He is one with them now; and that no matter how deep into sin one has plunged, He is not ashamed to call that one His brother.

I further believe that our chance for eternal life is just as bright as that of the Son of God when He was here among men. We read that "the Word [Christ] was made flesh, and dwelt among us." (John 1:14) We may ask ourselves the question, How was the Word made flesh? This is answered in (Gal. 4:4) He was "made of a woman" as is any other person who comes into the world; yet He was begotten of God, and was indeed the Son of God, made "in the likeness of sinful flesh." (Rom. 8:3) The question would then naturally arise, Whose flesh was He like? for there is a great difference in sinful flesh. Some men have plunged into the depths of sin and the result of their indulgence is seen in their offspring, while others have never been so very indulgent. Whose flesh was Jesus like? He was "made of the seed of David according to the flesh." (Rom. 1:3)

Made of Sinful Flesh

Nothing, then, could be clearer than that the same kind of flesh that David had was the kind that Jesus had. Who was David?--He was the son of Jesse. But who was Jesse?--He was the son of Ruth. Ruth was a Moabitish girl, a descendant of Moab; and Moab was a son of one of Lot's daughters. (Gen. 19:36, 37) We find as we study the character of the progenitors of Jesus that they are the darkest of any upon the earth, and have gone to the greatest depths in sin. When Jesus was born into the world, He took upon Himself sinful

flesh after it had been weakened by nearly four thousand years of wickedness. He might have come through another line, but He came through the weakest of the weak, that He might prove to the world that man never plunged so deep into sin but that the power of God is sufficient to enable him to live a victorious life. He "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. " (Heb. 4:15) He was not only tempted, but His temptations were so strong that He even suffered when He was tempted. (Chapter 2:18) Although Jesus had in His flesh all the desires that were in the flesh of His ancestors, yet He never once yielded to sin.

The question often arises, How could He be a partaker of Joseph's or David's flesh and yet be the Son of God? The answer is this: Mary was of the same lineage as Joseph or David. They were not permitted to marry outside of their tribes. Thus Jesus was of the same flesh as Joseph, even though He was not Joseph's own son.

While Christ was here upon earth, despite the fact that He was the Son of God, He exercised no power in His own behalf that is not also freely offered to us. He emptied Himself, for He said, "I can of Mine own self do nothing." (John 5:3) He depended upon the Father for all His power and strength to overcome and live the victorious life.

Thus by His having partaken of the weakness of the human family, He is able to care for those who are sorely tempted and to be "a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." (Heb. 2:17, 18) In the three temptations He met in the wilderness is wrapped up every temptation that comes to man, and by conquering, He thus made it possible for the entire human race to be victors over sin. All who receive Him have the power to become the sons of God. (John 1:12)

Let me ask: Have you received Him? If not, why not do so today? Take Him at His word. Step out on His promises, and He will never forsake you. (John 10:27-29)[25]

He conquered sin in a body which had come under the hereditary law of sin. He now proposes to live that same sinless life in my members.[26]

When Jesus bore the cross, He acknowledged the death sentence upon the sin nature. He took our nature, the Adam nature ... and bore that nature to its inevitable and necessary death.[27]

So in the veins of Jesus flowed the blood of many antecedent characters, some good and some bad.[28]

Christ united Himself to man in his fallen condition. When He took our nature He did not take it as it was originally created, before sin entered, but as it was after four thousand years of the ravages of sin. He came to us where we are. ...

If Christ did not come in sinful flesh, to men just where they are, He did not need to come at all, for He could bring them no help otherwise. If He came only to where men were in their original innocence and purity ... then He might just as well have remained in heaven ... for in this way He could not reach men. ...

He partook of the essential nature of fallen humanity. ... The Bible very clearly teaches that Christ was truly human, that He partook of human nature as it now is. ...

Paul makes it clear that this flesh that Christ partook of was "sinful flesh," (Romans 8:3 quoted). ... He did bear our sinful nature for thirty-three years. ...

In the weary, sinful, fallen, helpless nature of humanity ... Christ worked out the perfect way of human salvation.[29]

1925

Jesus came in the "likeness of sinful flesh" for me.[30]

Christ's victory over the flesh which He, the Word, became , has made possible free and full communication of God with man. ... His love for me led Him to take my nature.[31]

He ... took upon Himself the flesh of man, "the seed of David" (Rom. 1:3), "the likeness of sinful flesh" (Rom. 8:3), the form of the creature. The Creator became a Brother man. The Infinite God became human.[32]

(He) became man (Phil. 2:5-11)--not man as He came from God's hand in Eden, of sinless flesh, but man after he had sinned. He took the flesh that we possess ... with all the woe and misery, longing and despair, conflict and struggle, of fallen, sinful humanity, such as we are.[33]

The Son of God took our flesh, became our Brother, and assumed certain obligations in behalf of fallen humanity. ... Jesus had Gentile blood in His veins: He is our Redeemer, our Substitute, our Kinsman.[34]

He has been through all the experiences that have come to humanity.[35]

1926

"Jesus" is the name of the babe born of woman in the likeness of sinful flesh.[36]

The Promised One must be born of the seed of the woman--a carnal woman, mark you--a woman of sinful flesh like ours.[37]

"Jesus" is the name of the babe born of woman in the likeness of our sinful flesh.[38]

Our Christ today is "the offspring of David." (Rev. 22:16)[39]

Christ has conquered. He live a life free from sin, and He did it while in the same sinful flesh that we ourselves have to contend with.[40]

But no one outside of God and His Son could fathom the depths of Divine Love that would lead the Christ actually to step down from the throne of the universe to be united with fallen humanity by partaking of our fallen flesh.[41]

He was made flesh, and just such flesh as we know about,--our own kind.[42]

He took upon Him our flesh, and became in all things like as we are.[43]

He (Christ) came as a helpless babe, subject to the weakness of humanity. ... the blessed Christ met life's peril in common with every human soul ... as every child of humanity must fight. ... He knows by experience what are the weaknesses of humanity.[44]

This body was that body which was made "in the likeness of sinful flesh." (Rom. 8:3)[45]

Christ as the "Son of God," the begotten of the Highest, bore the perfect divine nature, but as the son of Mary, the Son of man, He inherited the human and fallen nature. ... It should be remembered that man being born with a sinful nature does not make sin a necessary result, for ... Christ "knew no sin."[46]

Christ came and tabernacled in our sinful flesh.[47]

1927

Christ stooped to take upon Himself human nature, that He might reach the fallen race and lift them up.[48]

Christ took upon Himself our sinful flesh.[49]

Oh blessed victory thus achieved in human flesh. ... It was wrought in flesh like ours.[50]

As man, He lived a perfect life, enduring, under exactly similar conditions, every experience through which the human family must pass. ... (He had) a human mother, a human birth, a human nature, feeling all the infirmities of the flesh. ... Christ overcame by making His humanity depend absolutely not on His own, but His Father's divinity.[51]

"You know, it's easy for her to be a Christian, She was born good."

"I'm sorry I flew off the handle the way I did, but I'm really not to blame for it; I inherited an awful temper."

Did you every hear anyone talk that way? Did you ever talk that way?

I wonder if you know the "Begats." I think everyone ought to know the "Begats." As a typical American, I have scant interest in genealogies. Some friends of mine are very proud to trace their Editorial pedigrees back to royalty or nobility in Europe. Most Americans have descended from John Smith, Pocahontas, Miles Standish, or Priscilla, or somebody who came over on the Mayflower. I'm not particularly interested in my genealogy. But there is one record that I am intensely interested in. There is one family tree that does not bore me. There is one lineage that is glorious. I used to call it the "Begats."

"Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judah and his brethren; and Judah begat Perez and Zerah of Tamar; and Perez begat Hezron; and Hezron begat--" (Matthew 1:1-17, A.R.V.)

Well, those are the "Begats. " And to me they are not a dry, uninteresting, attenuated genealogy. They are alive and vivid, and aglow with interest. For that is the way that Christ the Saviour is introduced to the reader of the New Testament.

There are two things about His ancestry which, as revealed by the "Begats," are very interesting and very striking. The first is that He came of a line of kings; and the second, that He came of a line of crooks.

Some poet has written in a verse of satire,

"My ancient but ignoble blood Has crept through scoundrels since the Flood."

That was true of Jesus.

We do not worship the Christ to-day because He had royal blood in His veins. Kings have been from the very beginning, on the whole, not a very respectable lot. And it seems to me that one lesson of the "Begats" is the truth that even in the most high-sounding genealogy, there is none righteous, not one.

Let us look for a moment at this pedigree. There was Jacob the supplanter; and Judah, whose children were born of an impure woman; there was Rahab, the harlot of Jericho; there was Ruth, once the pagan woman of Moab; there was David, whose son and heir was begotten by a woman whose husband he murdered in order that he might have his wife; there was Rehoboam, Abijah, Ahaziah, Jehoram, Amon, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, of whom uniformly it is recorded that they "did evil in the sight of the Lord;" there was Ahaz, the leader of apostasy; and the wicked and cruel Manasseh, who caused his sons to pass through the fire. Yes, Jesus came of a line of sinners.

And I am glad for that. For it helps me to understand how He can be "touched with the feeling" of all my infirmities. He came where I was. He stood in my place. In His veins was the incubus of a tainted heredity like a caged lion ever seeking to break forth and destroy. For four thousand years the race had been deteriorating in physical strength, in mental power, and in moral worth; and Christ took upon Him the infirmities of humanity at its worst. Only thus could He rescue man from the lowest depths of his degradation. Editorial

"If we have in any sense a more trying conflict than had Christ, then He would not be able to succor us. But our Saviour took humanity, with all its liabilities. He took the nature of man, with the possibility of yielding to temptation. We have nothing to bear which He has not endured."--Desire of Ages, p. 117.

It is good to know that. He, the Son of God, became the Son of man, that I, a son of man, might become a son of God. He became as I am that I might become as He is. He partook of my human nature that I might partake of His divine nature. In every temptation that assails, it is strength to know that just such a temptation in all of its overwhelming force attacked Him--attacked Him where, by heredity, He was weakest,--attacked Him in unexpected times and ways; and that, with equal tendencies toward evil, in spite of bad blood and inherited meanness, by the same power to which I have access, He conquered. He won for me. He offers me His victory for my own--a free gift. And so in all these things I am more than conqueror through Him that loved me.

Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound.[52]

The Roman Catholic doctrine that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, was sinless, "immaculate," is a denial of the possibility of His being "in all points tempted like as we are." The inherited tendency to sin is indeed strong. The mother of the man Christ Jesus inherited the "image and likeness" of her ancestors; she was "made" or "born" in sinful flesh; and Christ, as her Son, inherited that human nature.[53]

He is "the seed of the woman, " and so the Son of man, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, "one near of kin" to us.[54]

He became one of us, He was one with us. He was made bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh.[55]

Sin is without excuse, since it has been overcome (by Jesus) in "sinful flesh" ... but taking upon Him--or in other words, being Himself "made flesh"--human flesh, with all its weaknesses, and overcoming sin in the flesh, Jesus condemned sin by utterly disproving and utterly destroying its only possible justification.[56]

Jesus took a human body and a personality, the same as ours.[57]

There alone (on the cross) the Saviour could achieve that union with fallen men which was necessary to become their Substitute and Redeemer.[58]

The amazing condescension of Christ in uniting His divinity with our poor fallen humanity is difficult to grasp.[59]

Jesus ... had come to earth as a little babe, thus identifying Himself with sinful humanity.[60]

1928

It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man's nature, even when Adam stood in His innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam, He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity.[61]

Christ came in the weakness of the flesh.[62]

He was upon earth as a member of the human household, cumbered with our flesh ... knowing the frailties of our being.[63]

In the life of Christ we have God manifest in the flesh, living with man, subject to all his infirmities and suffering all his disadvantages in this mortal life.[64]

How could Christ in any worth-while and adequate sense be a sharer in our "flesh and blood" unless He shared the inherent possibility toward evil, the possibility to sin, which is in our flesh and blood? ... Could He be made "like unto us" in "all things" if He did not have that same dominant, powerful urge to commit sin?[65]

(Reprinted without change on August 21, 1928, p. 6, cols. 2, 3.)

Not only did the Father give His Son to a fallen world, but He gave to His Son the human family as an inheritance.[66]

But so great is that love that He is willing to leave His home, willing to lay aside His superiority, willing to empty Himself, and take upon Himself the like flesh of the children of clay. He is born a child of flesh in Bethlehem's manger. (Hebrews 2:14-17 quoted in part.)[67]

He must come to this sin-polluted world, become clothed with the flesh of humanity, conquer the inherited tendencies to sin, and then pay the supreme penalty for man as man's substitute.[68]

He has access to no more power than that to which we have access; for He was made in the likeness of man, was partaker of the same flesh and blood. ... He became truly man, our Kinsman after the flesh. ... He identified Himself fully with our weakness. ... Being fully identified with us as a man. ...[69]

God does not condemn us for being shapen in iniquity, and for being born with sinful propensities.[70]

(This statement is here included because it offers an insight as to how these writers understood David's words in Psalms 51, and Ellen White's word, propensities.)

Jesus took humanity with all of its liabilities. ... He took my infirmities.[71]

And He who was the highest became the lowest,--became a man, taking our sinful flesh.[72]

Carnal, natural man cannot abolish his enmity against God. It is a part of his nature. It is intertwined in every fiber of his being. But Jesus took upon Himself our nature of flesh and blood (Heb. 2:14), "in all things ... to be made like unto His brethren" (Heb. 2:17), "of the seed of David according to the flesh" (Rom. 1:3); He met and "abolished in His flesh the enmity," "the carnal mind" (Rom. 8:7), "the mind of the flesh" (Rom. 8:7 ARV). He conquered sin in the flesh for us forever.[73]

1929

(God) gave Him to the fallen race.[74]

Jesus entered into the conditions of our fallen humanity. (Prescott then quotes Ellen White:)

But our Saviour took humanity, with all its liabilities.[75]

We have seen the Son of God, who was God, assuming our humanity, taking the same flesh and blood that we have, made in all things like unto His brethren.[76]

(Reprinted with slight change in issue of 2/12/29, p. 13, col. 1)

(Quoting Ellen White) Jesus was in all things made like unto His brethren. He became flesh, even as we are . (Salton comments) Yet, praise His name, in our sinful humanity He led a sinless life. (Emphasis his.)[77]

He came and lived among us, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. ... He bore our infirmities in the flesh before He bore our sins on the tree. ... He knows the way we must go, for He has been over every inch of it Himself.[78]

(God) gave His only Son, that He might show humanity how those divine principles could be lived in sinful flesh upon this earth.[79]

Son of man ... made "like unto His brethren" ... He came here as a man made like you and me. ... This same Jesus, who was a man like me, who shared the joys and sorrows, and temptations to which I am heir.[80]

Christ, our Elder Brother, Who knows all about our weaknesses and our frailties.[81]

... in His humanity, He was just as we are. He took upon Himself the weaknesses and frailties of humanity. (He quotes DA, p. 152.)[82]

But Christ came to this world and became one of us, taking our human flesh with its weaknesses and temptations.[83]

It is from the standpoint of His humanity that He enters into the closest of His relationships with us. ... He knows me just as I stand in all the weaknesses of my humanity.[84]

Jesus, the Son of the Infinite God, became the son of a sinner for me.[85]

He partook of the same flesh and blood that we have ... when He assumed humanity, He became man, generic man, racial man, the new head of the human family.[86]

(Christ) stooped low to assume the flesh of sin.(87)

The Son of the Eternal God became the Son of a sinner ... the Son of the Highest became the Son of a sinner.[88]

If Jesus would come to earth and take the same of kind of flesh we all have ... then He could die on the cross a perfect sacrifice.[89]

He took upon Himself humanity. ... He became the Son of man. ... He became a member of the earthly family. ... He became one flesh with us. ... He took our nature and overcame.[90]

(He was made) like you--like me. ... Having triumphed over sin in sinful flesh.[91]

He brought perfection of character down to the very lowest plane of humanity and successfully placed it in human flesh.[92]

1930

... it was necessary that He should step down from His glorious condition and not only take the form of man, but empty Himself of His glory and take the nature of the human race just where He found it. (Emphasis his.)

... born of the seed of David after the flesh, of the seed of Abraham--human flesh subject to human necessities.[93]

(Quoting Ellen White) (God) gave Him to the fallen race.[94]

Hence Jesus Christ Himself, though the Infinite Son of God, did not trust Himself to mere theories, but took upon Himself the form of humanity, so that as a man, He might enter into the experiences of men.[95]

Just as the brazen serpent was a Deliverer to the Israelites in the likeness of the fiery serpent that destroyed, so Christ came as the Saviour of the world in the likeness of men that sin. Just as the brazen serpent, though in the form of a fiery serpent, was without venom, so Jesus, though in the form of sinful man, was without sin.[96]

That He might become bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, He left His Father's house.[97]

(He took) the nature of the human race just where He found it. ... Nay, He stripped Himself of His glory, and took on Him the nature of a bond servant by becoming a man like other men ... human flesh subject to human limitations.[98]

He stepped down from the glories of the eternal, and took upon Him the likeness of our sinful flesh.[99]

He became flesh that He might know our frame. ... He knows our infirmities.[100]

In His alliance with man, in His humanity, He was just as human as you and I. (Then quoting from Twentieth Century New Testament:) What Law could not do, in so far as our earthly nature weakened its action, God did by sending His own Son, with a nature resembling our sinful nature to atone for sin. (Rom. 8:3)[101]

Jesus took the same flesh that I have and lived a truly human life. ... He met the same temptations that are common to you and me. In these respects He differed in no way from His brethren. ... Christ is the only one who has experienced all the temptations that befall humanity.[102]

He ... became our Elder Brother, made in all points like unto us.[103]

Then was formed that union between the Divine and the human nature in the person of the Son of God who became the Son of man, having the same flesh and blood that we have.[104]

Whoever would save man must put himself in man's place. He must be subject to the same tendency ... to sin ... as man.[105]

Jesus came into this world on human plane. ... In his human nature Jesus stands on our ground.[106]

1931

It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man's nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity.[107]

... the force of temptation and the strength of sinful passions and evil desires would not be properly understood; therefore our Divine Substitute must also become human. ... All this could be wrought only by an incarnation of the Son of God into our sinful human flesh.[108]

The Son of God, born in Bethlehem, became the Son of man, our near kinsman--bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Made "in the likeness of sinful flesh." He is the mystic ladder uniting earth and heaven.[109]

With none of the effects of sin upon him, in the Garden of God Adam had failed. With four thousand years of degeneration in physical strength, mental power, and moral worth behind Him, Christ, the second Adam, in the wilderness won. Taking humanity with all its liabilities, taking the infirmities of our degenerate sinful nature, He won.[110]

1932

In order to apply this all sufficient remedy it was necessary for Christ to come the first time veiled in human form and flesh. He tested out the plan in contact with sin from every angle that human beings have to meet it.[111]

God has revealed Himself to man and proved His own existence by the Incarnation of the Son of God, who lived in the likeness of our sinful flesh.[112]

He partook of sinful flesh, yet He did no sin. Jesus Christ was incarnated in sinful flesh so that sin might be overcome in human flesh.[113]

Our sinful flesh became His. In His veins flowed the tainted blood of Adam's race. Somewhere between the manger and the cross He experienced every emotion that touches my heart.[114]

... touching His humanity Christ came of the line of David, He was a Jew.[115]

Oh, the shame of it, that the great God should design to come to dwell with men, tabernacling in their own flesh.[116]

Jesus, our Elder Brother, linked Himself to His family upon earth with ties that can never be broken. He partook of flesh and blood and clothed Himself with humanity that He might be one with us. He does not hold Himself aloof from us, for He took upon Himself our nature. He is not ashamed to call us brethren.[117]

Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh, and was subject to the same disabilities as man. Jesus Himself said, "Of mine own self I can do nothing. "That statement revealed that there was no power at all in the sinful flesh that He took on.[118]

The Scriptures make it very clear that Jesus took upon Himself human nature with its physical needs and infirmities. ... There are many statements in the Scriptures showing that our Saviour reached down to man just where sin had placed him.[119]

He sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.[120]

He was subject to human temptations, also to human limitations. ... Jesus took on human nature just where He found it, with its physical needs and infirmities. ... He was flesh of our flesh. ... Our Saviour reached down to man just where sin had placed him.[121]

1933

He (Christ) knows by experience what are the weaknesses of humanity, and where lies the strength of our temptations.[122]

So He took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses. ... He gave Himself to us wholly.[123]

Jesus Christ took upon Himself the weakness, the tendencies, toward sin, that He might prove Himself a brother to His fellow men. (Hebrews 2:16-17 quoted.)[124]

So came the Messiah, taking upon Himself man's nature and its penalty, death.[125]

In order for Christ to understand the weakness of sinful nature, He had to experience it. ... Therefore He became bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. ... God must first come down to man in order to lift man up to Himself.[126]

Jesus Christ ... clothed Himself in our sin-smitten flesh.[127]

In order for Christ to understand the weakness of human nature, He had to experience it. ... Therefore He became bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.[128]

1934

God gave His son to enter into man's estate and take upon Himself man's nature.[129]

Since we are human, He must be born a human. He must be subjected to the same limitations, tempted in all points like we are.[130]

When man was hopelessly lost, ... Christ entered into man's estate. He took upon Himself the nature of man. ...[131]

(After quoting Hebrews 2:14, 7, 9 and 17, in that order, with emphasis on the words "like unto His brethren" in verse 17, Walker writes):

In His human nature Jesus stood on our ground.[132]

(After quoting Hebrews 2:14-15) As the Son of God did not intervene to prevent the three Hebrews from being cast into the fiery furnace, but joined them in their trial and brought them safely through it, so He united Himself with the human family through the incarnation, assuming all their liabilities.[133]

Now, because fallen sinners are partakers of flesh and blood, "He also Himself likewise took part of the same" flesh and blood. ... that He might identify Himself fully with the status of mankind ... to sense the weakness of human flesh in the terrible combat with sin and Satan.[134]

He took upon Himself the likeness of man--sinful, fallen man. He ... felt the weakness that transgression had brought.[135]

... it was necessary that the Word take upon Himself the garb of sinful flesh.[136]

He came to earth and took our flesh. ... In the likeness of sinful flesh, the Lord Jesus hung upon the cross in man's stead.[137]

1935

The Son of God, the seed of the woman (Genesis 3:15) in the divine plan took the place of the fallen Adam.[138]

In the likeness of sinful flesh, the Lord Jesus hung upon the cross in man's stead.[139]

Encouraged in the discovery of One born in the likeness of sinful flesh who did not sin.[140]

The Son of God stepped down from His place upon the Father's throne, and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, that, because of sin, He might condemn sin in the flesh.[141]

1936

Jesus Christ took upon Himself sinful flesh.[142]

In what form did Jesus come into the world? "God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." Romans 8:3 (Emphasis his.)[143]

God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh.[144]

Jesus took the same flesh that I have. ... He was my brother in the flesh.[145]

If He were to tabernacle in our flesh, to take our nature upon Him, and understand our temptations and trials, it would be necessary for Him somehow to be born into this world. ... Let us be glad that He came into our world in such a wonderful way and took our flesh upon Him.[146]

To meet the trouble at its source, the Author of the law came to this earth, made "in the likeness of sinful flesh," and, experiencing every difficulty that man must meet, lived victoriously by the power that men may claim.[147]

Jesus Christ took the same flesh that I have. ... He lived a truly human life. ... He was my brother in the flesh.[148]

He came to live as a man, subject to weakness ... having no power from heaven that the weakest son of Adam might not command.

Thus He came into the world, as one of the human family, entering it in the same manner that every other son of Adam has done, as a helpless babe. ... As the Son of man, living a perfect and victorious life in a frail human body, never failing in one point, though compassed with infirmity, Christ provided a perfect example of human life. (Emphasis hers.)[149]

It was planned that His only begotten Son should come down to this world of sin and be born in human, fallen flesh.[150]

It was not the nature of angels that He assumed, but that of Abraham. He was made "like unto His brethren." ... In order for Christ to understand the weakness of our nature, He had to experience it. ... Therefore He became bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.[151]

When He came to seek me and to save me, He humbled Himself to my low estate.[152]

As (man) grasps the truth that there actually lived upon this earth one possessed of the same nature as himself, who "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin," he realizes that there is hope for him.[153]

Born To Be Bad

"Born To Be Bad" was the title of a motion picture being shown at a theatre as I passed its doors recently. The caption stood out brilliantly to challenge my attention. The phrase continued to haunt my mind as I walked on down the street. "Born to be bad"--was such a view of life actually true? "Born to be bad"--who are the unfortunate individuals doomed to such a fate? Who ordained their career?

This philosophy of determinism has penetrated much of the modern literature of European and American authors. It has been imbibed by the reading youth, until they, too, have declared their path is determined for them, and they cannot change it, so why not eat, drink, and be merry, since tomorrow we die, and our fate is inevitable? Theodore Dreiser, famous contemporary novelist, writes with this viewpoint in mind: "It is a grim world we are all born into. ... Who was to straighten out the matter of the unjust equipment with which most people began? Who was to give them strong minds in place of feeble ones? able bodies instead of wretched ones? Where were they to get pure tendencies instead of impure ones, as the world looked on these things?" These rhetorical questions linger in one's mind with the author's answer--"There is no hope."

Or again, Frank Norris describes one of his characters drawn to illustrate this pre-destined philosophy of life: "Below the fine fabric of all that was good in him ran the foul stream of hereditary evil, like a sewer. The vices and sins of his father and his father's father, to the third and fourth and five hundred generations, tainted him. The evil of an entire race flowed in his veins. Why should it be? He had not desired it. Was he to blame?

Can We Overcome Heredity?

This outlook upon life and individual destiny, well expressed in the statement, "Born to be bad," would be the natural conclusion of the human heart without the saving power of Jesus Christ. We freely admit that there is no hope of overcoming hereditary and cultivated tendencies aside from Him. But when we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, and who took upon Himself "the seed of Abraham," we begin to realize the significance of the statement in Heb. 4:15: "We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."

Jesus Christ was born into the world on the level of all men. He clothed His divinity with humanity, and took the liabilities and the frailties of "the seed of Abraham." He knew what it meant to hunger, to thirst, to weep, to sink exhausted from the strain of labour. There are many persons who believe that Jesus Christ never could have sinned, and, therefore, that He could not realize the temptations through which mortals must pass. There are also those individuals who believe that their hereditary weaknesses and environment background are so contaminated that they cannot overcome certain temptations to evil.

But the Scriptures plainly declare that Jesus was "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." No man can be tempted if it is impossible for him to sin. If a man is totally blind, you cannot tempt him to look upon an evil picture or to sit down and read a pernicious book. Jesus Christ could have sinned, for His life was marked with struggle from the pull of temptation toward sin, toward following a path different from that which His Father marked out for Him.

The challenge to hereditary weakness is also taken up by the Saviour of men. Is anyone bequeathed a legacy of evil by his ancestors which cannot be conquered? It is recognized that hereditary influences may hinder or help the character of the individual. Sins of the fathers may be inherited by the sons. But is there no remedy for this disease of sin?

When the Son of man took upon Himself "the seed of Abraham," He brought upon Himself one of the vilest and most corrupt lines of ancestors that it would be possible to inherit. His ancestry through Mary was such that He might rightly have thought, "I am born to be bad." He was from a royal line, it is true, but that line was blotted with every foul crime and evil deed. Search His lineage for a Daniel, an Isaiah, an Elijah, a Moses, or a Jeremiah. They are not there. His forefathers include Jacob, the supplanter; Judah, the man of licentious conduct; and David, adulterer and murderer. Rahab, the harlot, and Ruth, the heathen Moabitess, are in His family. The later kings of Judah were notoriously bad men. Rehoboam, Abijam, Ahaz, Jehoram, and Manasseh form a portion of the "rogues' gallery" of whom it is constantly said that they did evil in the sight of the Lord." The seed of Abraham" was indeed corrupt. Yet Jesus Christ overcame every temptation, and lived without sin!

"A Man Like Other Men"

In the clear statement of Weymouth's translation, we see the complete humanity of the Master revealed, for "He stripped Himself of His glory, and took on Him the nature of a bondservant by becoming a man like other men. " (Phil. 2:7) Therefore, He knew fully the longings, the cravings, and the appetites of carnal man. He knew the strong pull toward evil. Yet He sinned not.

"Born to be bad." No man can throw such an excuse before the Judge of heaven, for Christ answers that challenge by proving that a man may live above the accumulations of iniquity that have been left him by his ancestors.

Yet again someone may say, "I am born to be bad; look at my surroundings. I can't be good where I am forced to live. My associates are such as make it impossible for me to do right." Now, environmental conditions are known to affect the development of character. Every man is not born equal in his surroundings. The child born into a cultured, religious home has advantages which a boy growing up in the slums, which exude its vice, cannot know. Where can an individual find spiritual help if he is placed in evil situations? Is it possible for him to excuse his evil by saying, "I am placed in an environment which causes me to be bad"?

Study again the example of Jesus Christ, and find strength and succour for every situation in life. The Gospel of Matthew declares that the family of Jesus "came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth." (Matt. 2:23) Among the hills north of Jerusalem, in despised Galilee, was this city's location. It was a garrison for Roman soldiers--an immoral, profligate group of men. There must have been numerous dens of vice, and much fighting, swearing, and gambling. Immorality was rampant. The associates of Jesus must have been tainted by these environmental evils. So notorious was the unrighteous city of Nazareth that when Philip told Nathanael of the Messiah from this city Nathanael at once exclaimed "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46)

But if Christ's associates were evil, it did not mar His life. For almost thirty years He lived in this atmosphere--yet without sin. His growth was positive and certain. He "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." (Luke 2:52) As a lily remains in its purity amid the dust of the coal mines, so the Son of man remained pure and free from contaminating sin. He answers for all time the query, "Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?"

God's Grace Is Sufficient

Again, the Scriptures declare to us that God takes into account where a man has been born (Ps. 87:6), and that the grace of God will be sufficient for the need of the individual. This divine power may be received by everyone who asks for it.

The philosophy of determinism, or "born to be bad," is not compatible with the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. He is declared to be able to "save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him." (Heb. 7:25) No hereditary or environmental situation need cause any man to despair of righteousness. As a great religious writer has pertinently declared of the saving grace of God, "Christ has given His Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress His character upon His church." There is dynamic power, with omnipotent resources, for the individual who will draw upon heaven. There is living, vitalizing spiritual power in the life of the individual who will use this strength to demonstrate the powerful triumph of a Christian life over sin. It was through temptation, suffering, and death that the Son of God for ever linked Himself with humanity. It is this sympathetic bond which unites our love with His mercy before the throne of God. "Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted." (Heb. 2:17, 18)

Jesus Christ is not ashamed to call us brethren. The human lineage of the Saviour of men makes it possible for Him to plead for man before the Father. He can remain cognizant of the deep valleys of temptation through which man passes, for He, too, has endured them. The wilderness experience left Him weak, emaciated, and in need of heavenly ministration. The barren intervals of life demand that we seek the ministration of the Christ who invites us, "Follow Me."

The Remedy For Despair

Without a saving Jesus, the vicissitudes of life cause despair in the heart of the individual. There is no remedy to lift him out of this, but God. "Born to be bad" epitomizes this despair of heart. Paul describes the condition of the carnal man without God in this text: "That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." (Eph. 2:12) Can you imagine an individual more hopeless than the man who feels that he is born to be always bad? This is the result of overwhelming doubt, and of failing to know the Christ, for Paul adds, "But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh [to God] by the blood of Christ." (Verse 13)[154]

In order that Jesus might be "near of kin" to helpless sinners, what was needful?

He was made "in the likeness of sinful flesh." (Romans 8:3)[155]

A Saviour who can enter into every experience of humanity, who would be touched with the feelings of human infirmity, was to come.[156]

1937

(Christ) knows by experience what are the weaknesses of humanity.[157]

Jesus is our elder brother. He has linked Himself to His family upon earth with ties that will never be broken. He partook of flesh and blood, and clothed Himself with humanity, that He might be one with us. He does not hold Himself aloof from us, for He took upon Himself our nature. He is not ashamed to call us brethren.[158]

... the Son of God ... assumed humanity with all its liabilities due to sin.[159]

(Christ) took the form and the frailty of fallen man.[160]

Christ was a man--He bore our flesh and endured our infirmities.[161]

Our God dwells with men. He was manifest in the flesh. ... He stooped down to where we are, that we might be lifted up to where He is. He partook of our human nature, that we might be partakers of His divine nature.[162]

He was born of a virgin, and thus assumed our human nature.[163]

It would have been an infinite sacrifice for the Son to have taken man's nature before the fall in Eden, for man was created lower than the angels. ... But the Son stooped even lower; He was born in the likeness of sinful men, and became a servant among men.[164]

Jesus took upon Him the frailties of the flesh, the tendencies to sin, and the exposures to temptation common to men.[165]

The son of God came into this world to share the common lot of mankind.[166]

The Son of God was made in the likeness of sinful men, that He might be a merciful High Priest.[167]

(He was willing) to take the form of humanity degraded by two thousand (sic) years of sin and rebellion.[168]

The ground of our assurance in coming to the Lord Jesus is the fact that He took upon Himself the nature of man, ... thus bridging the gulf which sin had made between God and humanity.[169]

In order for Christ to understand the weakness of our nature He had to experience it. ... Therefore He became bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. His incarnation was in actual humanity.[170]

(Quoting Ellen White , thus:) He was in all things made like unto His brethren. He became flesh, even as we are. (Testimonies, vol. 8, p. 256)[171]

He became partaker of our flesh and blood that He might tabernacle among us and be one of us. In all things He was made like unto His brethren.[172]

1938

The Son of God took Adam's place, and was made in the likeness of sinful man.[174]

(Quoting Ellen White.) Christ would identify Himself with the weakness of the fallen race ... the great work of redemption could be carried out only by the Redeemer--taking the place of fallen Adam. ... The King of Glory proposed to humble Himself to fallen humanity. ... He would take man's fallen nature. (from Redemption, pp. 14- 15)[174]

He took our sins and our sinful nature.[175]

The life of the Son of Man having our flesh and our fallen nature, lived in this world of sin, constitutes the righteousness by which we are justified.[176]

Sin is without excuse, since it has been overcome (by Jesus) in "sinful flesh." ... By taking upon Him human flesh with all its weaknesses ... and overcoming sin in the flesh, Jesus condemned sin by utterly disproving and utterly disqualifying its only possible justification.[177]

In fact, as one writer says, These thirteen verses (John 1:1-13) were intended "to raise the reader to the altitude of this climax, "The Word was made flesh." And in several other scriptures, "Flesh" denotes man's present frail, mortal condition. ...

By His incarnation He became married to our human nature, and is as conscious of our infirmities, weaknesses, and frailties as He is of all that is properly divine. ...

Jesus, to redeem us, reached down to humanity's lowest depths. He took our nature. He became man ... Christ "came where he (man) was" by His humanity. ... For taking our nature, thus He is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities." ...

With His divine arm He grasps the throne of the Infinite, and with His human arm He encircles the fallen race. ...

(John 1:51) Jesus is the ladder. This ladder is set upon earth. He is the Son of man, and by His humanity He is linked to humanity. The ladder is within our reach.[178]

He understands our human frailties, for He was "made in the likeness of men. "[179]

1939

... it was in a still higher sense His sinless life that "condemned sin in the flesh" by showing that sin is without excuse, since it has been overcome in "sinful flesh." ... But taking upon Him human flesh with all its weaknesses ... and overcoming sin in the flesh, Jesus condemned sin by utterly disproving and utterly destroying its only possible justification.[180]

Beloved, the plan and program that involved the cross, separated the Son of God from His father, and linked Him up forever with a race of sinners, by the ties of blood, ties never to be broken.[181]

Jesus laid aside the glory He had with the Father when He took upon Himself the human form and human nature. As a man, He possessed the frailties, the tendencies, the likes and the dislikes, of human nature.[182]

It is as a Son of God and a Son of man, a human being "made in all points like unto His brethren," that our Saviour fulfilled every possible requirement of the plan of salvation.[183]

Christ identified Himself with man in every sense.[184]

Yes, He came, the only man in history whose lineage can be definitely traced back to Adam. He was "the woman's seed," because born of a virgin, yet the "Son of Man" because of His descent from Adam. (Emphasis mine. )[185]

It would have been ignominy for Him to leave His throne and take even the place of Adam as a sinless, perfect man. Yet we find that He was willing to take man's place after the human race had suffered four thousand years of degradation and sin. He took upon Himself our nature, with all the legacy of heredity that every human being has to face.[186]

1940

He came from Heaven to earth, clothed His Divinity with humanity, and bore the curse as surety for the fallen race. ... He was to take upon Himself our nature. ... Satan and His angels exulted as they discovered that the Son of God had taken upon Himself the nature of man ... humanity needed divinity, that a power from above might restore man to the likeness of God. ... (Christ) ... was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. ... Sinless and exalted by nature, the Son of God consented to take the habiliments of humanity, to become one with the fallen race.[187]

He knows by experience all that man must pass through. ... It was necessary for Him to be made like His brethren in all things.[188]

1941

He took upon Himself our sinful nature.[189]

But to be man's Redeemer, the Creator must become man. He must come in "the likeness of sinful flesh." (Rom. 8:3)[190]

And yet it was not until He came in the " flesh" and became the "Son of man" that there was that closest union with humanity, in that He was made like unto us, whom He terms His "brethren," and thus became our "merciful and faithful High Priest." It was not until that Natal day in Bethlehem, when Jesus was born a Savior that Heaven came so near to mankind. On that day Jesus became our Elder Brother, our own flesh. As one of us, sharing man's experiences, He could be "touched with the feeling of our infirmities."[191]

1942

(Quoting Ellen White) It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man's nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam He accepted the working of the results of the great law of heredity. ...

Into the world where Satan claimed dominion God permitted His Son to come, a helpless babe, subject to the weakness of humanity.[192]

Nothing less than the Son of God ... taking on the likeness of sinful flesh, that He might demonstrate before the universe the reasonableness of the principles enunciated in His Father's Word.[193]

Jesus inherited ... the nature of His mother. ... A man named Jesus, made of flesh and blood like other men, had actually lived in their midst.[194]

In Him the character of God was revealed in human flesh. ... That revelation was made in Him, who in all points was made like unto us.[196]

Before God sent His Son to this world to live in the likeness of sinful flesh ... Satan had ... taught the nations of earth that God was a terrible, cruel Being.[197]

In the second chapter (of Hebrews) He is the Son of man, a partaker of human nature, of our flesh and blood.[197]

This argument, however, is based on a misunderstanding, caused by overlooking one word in the text. Antichrist was not to deny that Christ had come in flesh, but was to deny that He had "come in the flesh," in "the same" kind of flesh, as the human race He came to save. ... On this vital difference hinges the real "truth of the gospel." Did Christ come all the way down to make contact with the fallen race, or only part way, so that we must have saints, popes, and priests intercede for us with Christ who is removed too far from fallen humanity and its needs to make direct contact with the individual sinner? Right here lies the great divide that parts Protestantism from Roman Catholicism. ...

Through sin man has separated himself from God, and his fallen nature is opposed to the divine will. ... Only through Christ, our Mediator, can man be rescued from sin, and again brought into connection with the source of purity and power.

But in order to become such a connecting link Christ had to partake both of the divinity of God and of the humanity of man, so that He with His divine arm could encircle God, and with His human arm embrace man, thus connecting both in His own person. In this union of the human with the divine lies the "mystery" of the gospel, the secret of power to lift man from his degradation. "Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh." (1 Timothy 3:16) The "mystery," or secret of power to live a godly life in human flesh, was manifest in the life of Jesus Christ while on earth. ...

But mark! It was fallen man that was to be rescued from sin. And to make contact with him Christ had to condescend to take our nature upon Himself (not some higher kind of flesh). "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same. ... Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren." (Hebrews 2:14, 17) This text is so worded that it cannot be misunderstood. Christ "took part of the same" flesh and blood as ours; He came in "the" flesh. To deny this is the mark of Anti-Christ.[198]

1943

It would have been almost an infinite humiliation for Him to have laid aside His divine form and to have clothed Himself in flesh before man fell,--while man was still in his Edenic purity--but the Son of God was "manifest in the flesh" (1 Timothy 3:16), after humanity had been scarred and marred by the curse of sin four thousand years. ... Like every child of Adam, He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity, and He triumphed over sin in that kind of flesh where sin had reigned and was triumphant.[199]

... the Son of God must understand, in His own experience, as one of us, the seductive power of sin enticing men to death ... suffering our "weakness."[200]

He then qualified (to be our priest) by living a sinless life in sinful flesh.[201]

Christ ... was born into this world as a babe, born of a human mother, and thus partook of man's human nature.[202]

(a) The Son ... was sent "in the likeness of sinful flesh, ...

(c) When Christ "in the likeness of sinful flesh" resisted every temptation to sin,".[203]

In harmony with the great plan of redemption, Jesus was born of a woman into the human family. He accepted our humanity with its weaknesses, and became our brother.

(Hebrews 2:14-17 quoted)

Christ became a man equal to men in all things, with the exception of sin.[204]

(Christ) was born into the fallen human family. He became possessed of human nature.[205]

1944

Men seem to forget that Christ ... divested Himself of His kingliness and clothed Himself in sinful flesh.[206]

Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the only One who has ever lived a sinless life in sinful flesh, the only One who ever can. ... Christ lived a sinless life in sinful flesh: and He can and will do this in your flesh and in mine if we will permit Him, and will work with Him.[207]

1945

In His earthly nature was found all the needs and passions of men. ... Bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, life of our life, experience of our experience. ... The humanity of Christ is more than a fact in and of itself. It is the meeting point of a holy God with sinful man.[208]

To reach and redeem fallen men the Redeemer must be one with them. He must share their weakness. ... He must enjoy no privilege that is not within the reach of the weakest of His fellows. ... He came and took upon Himself the flesh He had made, not as it was when endowed with original strength, but after it had been weakened and corrupted by centuries of sin.[209]

He (Jesus) had no advantage over others, for "God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh" made Jesus take man's nature that He might reach man's needs.[210]

Jesus took upon Himself the nature of man. ... As the son of David, the descendant of David, He inherited all the frailties and weaknesses of His ancestral line ... (Hebrews 2:14-17 quoted). ... This scriptural doctrine of the incarnation is absolutely essential to a true conception of the atonement. ... Rome teaches that Jesus and even Mary, His mother, were "immaculate" in their conception. They were not born of the same flesh--subject to sin--as are the multitudes of men who inherit the weakness of Adam.[211]

He (Jesus) was born into this world like the rest of us. ... He took upon Him our nature and passed through our experiences. ... He united Himself with humanity--with the race that He came to save--by the ties of flesh and blood ... tied to us by the bonds of flesh and blood.[212]

1946

Though He was the Son of God, yet He had become a member of the human race, that He might endure the same trials and temptations as we, and understand by personal experience the trials of men who need a Savior.[213]

... The Son of God was born of a woman. He was born into this world like the rest of us. ... He took upon Him our nature and passed through our experiences ... taking upon Himself human nature, Christ was fitted to understand man's trials. ... He united Himself with humanity--with the race that He came to save--by the ties of flesh and blood. ... He took upon Him the seed of Abraham. "In all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren." As Son of God, yet tied to us by the bonds of flesh and blood, the Child that was born to us is not ashamed to call us brethren.[214]

1947

He would take man's fallen nature.[215]

Christ must partake of man's sinful nature.[216]

(Quoting Ellen White) "It would have been almost an infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man's nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam, He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity. " ...

Our first parents bequeathed to their descendants a legacy of temptation of sin. We pass through the same ordeal, and the Son of man was not excepted.[217]

Thus it was when God sent His Son into the world, "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us," and the Son of God became also the Son of man. In the Son, the Father was united to the fallen race.[218]

(Quoting Ellen White) He "accepted humanity when the race was weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity. What these results were is shown in the history of His earthly ancestors."[219]

He came to this world in the likeness of our sinful nature, at the risk of failure, to save us.[220]

1948

... while Mary was chosen by God to be the earthly mother of Jesus in His incarnation, the sole and only purpose of this choice was that Jesus might become a partaker of the flesh and blood of Adam's race.[221]

But the Scriptures have placed the identity of antichrist beyond either guesswork or confusion. The Bible has clearly named the guilty one. John says that he denies that "Jesus Christ is come in the flesh." (2 John 7) Let this be the first mark of antichrist by which his identity will be placed beyond dispute. The verse does not say that antichrist denies that Jesus is come, but that he denies "He is come in the flesh." Far from denying the existence of Christ, the text suggests that antichrist teaches that Christ has come but teaches a doctrine about his coming which denies that "He is come in the flesh." If the Catholic Church is guilty, as the Protestant Reformers claimed her to be, then her teaching concerning the nature of Jesus in His incarnation into this world as a babe will reveal it. Let us examine that teaching in the light of the text before us.

The Bible teaches that Jesus was born into the world through Mary, who was a direct descendant of Adam. By inheritance she partook of Adam's nature. Adam's nature was mortal and subject to death as a result of the transgression of God's will in Eden. His flesh was by nature that of the "children of wrath." Mary partook of this nature in all its aspects. She was a representative of the whole human race, and in no way different from others descended from Adam's line. She was "favoured among women" only because she was the one chosen of God through whom the "mystery of godliness was to be made manifest," and through whom Jesus was to be incarnated into the fleshly state of Adam's race. It was God's purpose that through a divine miracle Jesus should be brought from heaven, where He had been one with the Father in the Godhead, to be born into the human family, there to partake of all the temptations to which Adam's race is subject. This was possible only as He would partake of the nature of Adam's race. Of this Paul says, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same. ... Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren." (Heb. 2:14-17)

If further evidence were needed the same writer supplied it. In 1 Tim. 3:16 he records: "Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh." Here, he says, is the mystery of godliness, the ability of Jesus to come from heaven, suffer Himself to be manifest in human flesh, and yet to live sinlessly.

This latter fact antichrist was to deny. He was to deny that Jesus came in a divine manifestation which brought Him in all phases of His nature to partake of the weakness of Adam's race. He would deny that Jesus came "in the flesh," the same flesh as that of mortal men.

On this first count, the denial that Jesus "is come in the flesh," the Catholic Church stands convicted of guilt and thus is identified by the marks of antichrist. Through the teaching of the "Immaculate Conception of Mary," that she was preserved from all original sin, they in theory provide "different flesh" from that of the rest of Adam's race to be the avenue through which Jesus was incarnated into the plan of salvation. To state their teaching with authority, it will be the best to quote our evidence from Catholic authors.

Our first proof will be from the pen of Cardinal Gibbons in his book, "Faith of Our Fathers," pages 203, 204. He says: "We define that the blessed Virgin Mary in the first moment of her conception ... was preserved free from the taint of original sin. Unlike the rest of the children of Adam, the soul of Mary was never subject to sin."

Cardinal Gibbons has here clearly stated the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church concerning the sinlessness of the Virgin Mary. It is a teaching not taught in the Bible, but which has been introduced by Catholic teachers who claim to have authority even above that of the Scriptures, in matters of doctrine.

Here I would ask my readers, both Protestant and Catholic, to ponder carefully what this teaching does to the gospel plan. It means that if Mary was born without sin and was preserved from sin for the express purpose of bringing Jesus into the world, then Jesus was born of holy flesh, which was different from that of the rest of Adam's race. This means that He did not take upon Himself our kind of flesh and blood, and in His incarnation did not identify Himself with humanity. It means, too, that He was not tempted "in all points" as we were. It means that Paul was all wrong when he wrote the Book of Hebrews in which he declares that Jesus "also Himself likewise took part of the same" flesh as the rest of Adam's race, that "in all things" He was made "like unto His brethren." (Heb 2:14, 17) But above all this, if the Catholic teaching is true, then Jesus, not having come within reach of humanity by partaking of man's nature, cannot be the "one mediator between God and men." Nor can we "come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Heb. 4:16) All this plays conveniently into the hands of the Catholic plan of salvation. It opens wide the door for the intercession of the Virgin Mary and the respective "saints," who form part of the papal mediatorial system. And moreover, it places in the hands of the priesthood the power to usurp authority which God in the Scriptures has never delegated to them--that of being controllers of the approaches to the throne of mercy.

At this stage of our review of the subject of antichrist, I believe all fairminded people will acknowledge that if the Papacy is not the antichrist it has been singularly unfortunate in being so like the scriptural description of him. In the papal claim that Jesus was born of one who had been "preserved from every taint of original sin" and who, "unlike the rest of the children of Adam ... was never subject to sin," we find the first mark of antichrist indelibly implanted. The Papacy certainly teaches that Jesus Christ did "not come in the flesh."[222]

As the Son of man, He, who in the beginning possessed all power and revealed all glory, stripped Himself of this, and became "A man like other men."[223]

He will descend to the level of mankind--not to the level of man in His pristine purity--and He will take upon Himself sinful flesh. He will make Himself heir to all the weaknesses which sin has caused in the human family.[224]

He was made in the likeness of our sinful flesh. ... In our sinful flesh He lived a sinless life. (Emphasis his.)[225]

1949

(This statement is included, not because it says anything directly about the nature of Christ, but because it firmly rejects the concept of original sin defined as inherited guilt which gives rise to the need of a doctrine that Christ took the unfallen nature of Adam, in order to escape the guilt of original sin.)

Many teachers today have built an erroneous conception of the sinful nature of man on their misinterpretation of these verses in Romans 5 (verse 19). They call it "total depravity" or "original sin" ... (this) makes all guilty not because of what they have done but because of what Adam did when he first sinned.

How different from this false gospel is the spiritual freedom and victory taught by Romans.[226]

... it was the same flesh that we as children of the human family possess. (Emphasis his.)[227]

... the Son of God became the Son of man. ... Dressed in human flesh, united with the one fallen race in the universe.[228]

When we read His (Christ's) genealogy as given by Matthew and Luke, we know that His earthly forbears were men who were marked with human weakness.[229]

He was born as a babe in Bethlehem, subject to like passions as we are. ... If Christ had been exempt from temptation, without the power and responsibility to choose, or without the sin-filled inclinations and tendencies of our sinful nature, He could not have lived our life without sin.[230]

1950

(Reprint) I think of Jesus, who left the courts of Heaven, laid aside His royal robe, took off His kingly crown, and clothing His divinity with humanity. ... He humbled Himself that He might meet fallen men where they were.[231]

The Son of God ... wrought out a perfect life in human nature--the same weak nature that is common to us all.[232]

(Quoting Meade MacGuire) "The amazing condescension of Christ in uniting His divinity with our poor, fallen humanity, is difficult to grasp."[233]

(Quoting Ellen White) "Jesus was in all things made like unto His brethren. He became flesh even as we are."[234]

1951

9th April, 1951

The Editor, Signs Of the Times

Dear Sir,

Your article in the March issue of the Signs on "New Papal Dogma" has interested me. I am especially concerned in the Dogma of Immaculate Conception.

I have asked many Protestants to explain this to me but nobody seems able to do so. We would therefore be grateful indeed if you could find a little space in your "May" issue to explain this--perhaps in your column "The World Moves On." "Interested."

(We regret that the May number had already been printed when this was received, and the copy for the June number was already made up. This is the first opportunity we have had to reply. -ED.)

The Catholic Encyclopaedia, vol. 7, pages 674, 675, has this to say regarding the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception:

"In the Constitution, 'Ineffabilis Deus' of 8 Dec., 1854, Pope Pius IX pronounced and defined that the Blessed Virgin Mary in the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin."

The object of this teaching is to destroy the belief based on Scripture that Jesus was born into the human family heir to the same physical and spiritual disabilities as all other men, and that His victory over sin and temptation was achieved in spite of this mortal handicap. The Roman Catholic Church believes and teaches that Jesus, Himself, was conceived without original sin. "Our Lord, being conceived by the Holy Ghost, was, by virtue of His miraculous conception, ipso facto, free from the taint of original sin."--Ibid., page 676.

To make it even more certain that He could not have inherited original sin through His mother, this dogma was proclaimed. She, it claims, was also conceived free from the taint of hereditary sinfulness, and hence Jesus was a whole generation removed from His forebears' heritage of a sinful nature. Mary, it declares, was conceived in such a manner that "the formal, active essence of original sin was not removed from her soul ...; it never was in her soul. Simultaneously with the exclusion of sin, the state of original sanctity, innocence, and justice, as opposed to original sin, was conferred upon her, by which gift, every stain and fault, all depraved emotions, passions, and debilities, essentially pertaining to original sin, were excluded."--Ibid.

Thus, this dogma asserts categorically that Mary was a sinless being and hence did not share the normal human nature, which is inherently sinful. Since Jesus was conceived of her by the Holy Ghost, He is doubly immune to all stain or taint of natural human weakness. If this is true, then He was not a man in the sense in which we have been taught to regard Him, but a super-man who was easily able to conquer temptation to sin, since there was in Him only a divine hatred of evil and no natural human urge towards sin. But this is directly opposed to the plain statements of Holy Scripture, and hence should not be accepted by any Christian.

This is what God's Word declares: "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. ... For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." (Heb. 2:14-18)

The sinlessness of Jesus was achieved at the expense of anguish of soul and strong crying and tears to God. It was victory won on a hard field of battle, and not a simple push-over natural to a naturally sinless being, "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities: but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." (Heb. 4:15) "Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him." (Heb. 5:7-9)

Jesus had to endure every temptation natural to mankind, and felt the strong urge to indulgence which is born in each one of us. But by the grace of God, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and His own indomitable determination to obey God, He was able to conquer every temptation and win for Himself, and for all mankind, a glorious victory. By His death on Calvary He paid the price of original sin, and freed all humanity from its guilt. But He also expiated the individual sins of men, so that all who accept His sacrifice are freed from their own guilt as well as from the blight of original sin.

In order to rescue humanity from its desperately sinful plight, Jesus had to share our humanity, In order to obtain redemption and victory for mankind, He had to enter the conflict bearing the same nature as those He came to redeem. He had to inherit the naturally sinful nature of all the sons of Adam that His victory over temptation should be of value and significance for mankind. If He was born, as taught in the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, with a nature that was insulated from all taint of original sin, He was not made in all points like unto His brethren, and His example is one which we can not follow, or even attempt to emulate.

This dogma would destroy Christ's essential link with humanity and so remove Him from His position as a sympathetic Mediator between man and God. Not having borne the pangs of temptation under the weight of a sinful nature by birth, He could not understand or enter into our experiences. So, having destroyed the basis for His mediation, but recognizing the necessity of one to link mankind with God, the Roman Catholic Church has exalted His mother, Mary, to be mankind's mediatrix between humanity and her divine Son.

It was against just such "damnable heresies" (2 Pet. 2:1) that the apostle John warned the church. He gave a test for truth: "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world." (1 John 4:2, 3)[235]

He (Jesus) had to inherit the naturally sinful nature of all the sons of Adam that His victory over temptation should be of value and significance for mankind. If He was born, as taught in the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, with a nature that was insulated from all taint of original sin, He was not made in all points like unto His brethren, and His example is one which we cannot follow, or even attempt to emulate. This dogma would destroy Christ's essential link with humanity and so remove Him from His position as a sympathetic Mediator between man and God. Not having borne the pangs of temptation under the weight of a sinful nature by birth, He could not understand or enter into our experiences.[236]

(The Bible And Our Times, published in England, was available to us only for the years 1950, 1951, and 1952.)

1952

The birth of Jesus was the fullest demonstration of the love of "God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh."[237]

He is "touched" with our feelings and infirmities because He shares our nature.[238]

Only as a man with the same handicaps and limitations as other men, could Jesus be a perfect example for other men. It was necessary that there should be no natural difference between Himself and the men He came to save.[239]

1953

The controversy of the ages was on. Its issue was to be determined in the person of Him who became partaker of the same flesh and blood with fallen humanity.[240]

The Son of God also became the Son of man and He was man in every respect excepting that He committed no sin. And because He became man and was given to man He belongs to us.[241]

1954

Every day of His humiliation in sinful flesh was a day of suffering.[242]

1957

Jesus in His infinite sacrifice took fallen humanity, including yours and mine, to the cross.[243]

He became flesh and blood just as we are, and inherited from His mother the human nature that we inherit, but He did not sin.[244]

1958

Christ bore the sins and infirmities of the race as they existed when He came to the earth to help man ... with the weaknesses of fallen man upon Him. ... Since the fall the race had been decreasing in size and physical strength, and sinking lower in the scale of moral worth ... in order to elevate fallen man, Christ must reach Him where He was. He took human nature, and bore the infirmities and degeneracy of the race.[245]

The humanity of Christ reached to the very depths of human wretchedness, and identified itself with the weaknesses and necessities of fallen man.[246]

Notes:

1. Grotheer, An Interpretive History of the Doctrine of the Incarnation ..., page 56.
2. N. J. Waldorf, The Watchman, April 1916, p. 39, col. 2
3. C. P. Bollman, Conference President, Review Assistant Editor, RH 1/31/18, p. 9, col. 1
4. Editorial, The Watchman, April 1919, p. 26, col. 2
5. W. W. Prescott, The Doctrine of Christ, p. 53
6. J. L. Schuler, Evangelist, ministerial secretary, conference president, The Watchman, July 1920, p. 18, col. 2
7. G. B. Thompson, RH 2/24/21, p. 10, col. 1
8. Percy Brokner, RH 3/17/21, p. 12, col. 1
9. Sabbath School Quarterly, First Quarter, 1921, p. 16
10. Sabbath School Quarterly, Second Quarter, 1921, pp. 13, 14
11. G. B. Thompson, RH 9/01/21, p. 8, col. 2
12. E. Hilliard, RH 9/15/21, p. 18, col. 1
13. Millard Fillmore Thorn, RH 12/22/21, p. 4, col. 1
14. C. P. Bollman, RH 10/05/22, p. 5, col. 2
15. Ellen White, Testimonies to Ministers, 1923, p. 177
16. Ellen White, Fundamentals of Education, 1923, p. 400
17. Ellen White, Fundamentals of Education, 1923, p. 408
18. Calvin P. Bollman, Editor, AST 2/26/23, p. 6, col. 2
19. A. L. King, Associate Editor, AST 3/05/23, p. 4, col. 2
20. F. D. Nichol, Signs assistant editor, Review editor, RH 3/01/23, p. 7, col. 2
21. Asa T. Robinson, Conference President, pioneer missionary, RH 12/20/23, p. 4, col. 1
22. W. W. Prescott, AST 1/07/24, p. 12, col. 2
23. R. S. Owen, College teacher, College president, RH 3/20/24, p. 10, col. 1
24. W. W. Prescott, RH 5/01/24; p. 10, col. 1
25. John A. Rippey, AST 5/05/24, p. 13
26. Meade MacGuire, General Conference Department Secretary for Youth and Associate Secretary for Ministerial Department, The Life of Victory, 1924, p. 18
27. Mead MacGuire, The Life of Victory, 1924, p. 43
28. Answers to Questions, The Watchman, September 1924, p. 32, col. 3
29. Carlyle B. Haynes, Evangelist, author, administrator, The Watchman, November 1924, p. 14, col. 2
30. B. H. Shaw, RH 1/01/25 p. 11, col. 2
31. Edwin K. Slade, Conference Administrator, AST 2/09/25, p. 15, col. 2
32. Milton C. Wilcox, RH 2/19/25, p. 5, col. 1
33. Milton C. Wilcox, RH 4/30/25, p. 11, col. 1
34. P. C. Poley, AST 5/18/25, p. 2, col. 1
35. M. B. Van Kirk, AST 9/28/25, p. 12, col. 1
36. Stemple White, ST 1/05/26, p. 10, col. 2
37. Stemple White, AST 4/19/26, p. 8, col. 1
38. Stemple White, AST 4/19/26, p. 9, cols. 2-3
39. Allen Walker, The Watchman, April 1926, p. 29, col. 3
40. Editorial (Asa Oscar Tait, Alonzo L. Baker, Francis D. Nichol), ST 4/20/26, p. 7, col. 2
41. Editorial, Asa Oscar Tait, College teacher, Signs editor, General Conference, Departmental Secretary, ST 4/27/26, p. 10, col. 1
42. L. A. Hansen, Life and Health editor, ST 6/08/26, p. 14, col. 2
43. R. D. Quinn, RH 6/11/26, p. 14, col. 2
44. George W. Wells, The Watchman, July 1926, p. 25, col. 1
45. L. A. Hansen, ST 8/17/26, p. 14, col. 2
46. W. Howard James, AST 9/13/26, p. 11, col. 3
47. R. A. Salton, AST 11/15/26, p. 13, col. 1
48. Ellen White, AST 11/14/27, p. 1, Box
49. I. H. Evans, ST 1/18/27, p. 5, col. 1
50. M. B. Van Kirk, ST 4/12/27, p. 12, col. 3
51. W. J. Gilson, AST 5/23/27, p. 12, col. 2
52. L. A. Wilcox, ST 3/22/27, p. 5, col. 3, 4
53. W. Howard James, RH 5/26/27, p. 5, col. 1
54. C. P. Bollman, RH 6/16/27, p. 8, col. 2
55. F. C. Gilbert, General Conference General Secretary, ST 10/04/27, p. 13, col. 1
56. C. P. Bollman, RH 12/01/27, p. 7, col. 2
57. Meade MacGuire, His Cross and Mine, 1927, p. 17
58. Meade MacGuire, His Cross and Mine, 1927, p. 77
59. Meade MacGuire, His Cross and Mine, 1927, p. 79
60. Meade MacGuire, His Cross and Mine, 1927, p. 97
61. Ellen White, AST 10/15/28, p. 7, col. 3
62. I. A. Crane, RH 1/12/28, p. 8, col. 1
63. Editorial, AST 2/06/28, p. 12, col. 2, 3
64. H. E. Giddings, College teacher, College President, RH 11/22/28, p. 6, col. 1
65. William Wirth, ST 3/06/28, p. 6, col. 1
66. Leonard R. Harvey, AST 6/04/28, p. 9, col. 1
67. M. H. Whittaker, AST 7/23/28, p. 11, col. 2
68. C. M. Snow, Editor, AST 8/06/28, p. 7, col. 2
69. F. G. Rampton, AST 8/06/28, p. 9, col. 3, p. 10, col. 1
70. Louis F. Were, AST 8/06/28, p. 13, col. 1
71. L. A. Wilcox, ST 12/18/28, p. 9, col. 1, 2.
72. L. A. Reed, ST 12/18/28, p. 9, col. 2
73. Sabbath School Quarterly, First Quarter, 1928, p. 15
74. Ellen White, AST 7/22/29, p. 1, Box
75. W. W. Prescott, ST 1/15/29, p. 13, col. 2
76. W. W. Prescott, ST 1/22/29, p. 13, col. 1
77. R. A. Salton, AST 2/11/29, p. 7, col. 3
78. C. M. Snow, Editor, AST 3/04/29, p. 7, col. 2
79. Joseph E. Steed, RH 6/20/29, p. 13, col. 3
80. W. J. Gilson, AST 6/24/29, p. 8, col. 1, 2, 3
81. F. L. Sharp, AST 6/24/29, p. 11, col. 1
82. E. F. Hackman, Conference President, Union President, Division President, RH 7/04/29, p. 24, col. 1
83. Meade MacGuire, ST 7/09/29, p. 10, col. 2
84. W. J. Gilson, AST 7/15/29, p. 11, col. 1
85. A. R. Bell, ST 7/16/29, p. 10, col. 2
86. W. W. Prescott, RH 7/18/29, p. 8, col. 2
87. W. W. Prescott, RH 8/22/29, p. 5, col. 2
88. A. R. Bell, RH 9/05/29, p. 5, col. 2, 3
89. John R. Jones, ST 10/08/29, p. 11, col. 1
90. F. L. Sharp, AST 10/28/29, p. 2, cols. 1, 2
91. A. G. Daniells, Conference President, Union President, General Conference, President, RH 11/07/29, p. 5, col. 3
92. G. A. Roberts, RH 11/28/29, p. 7, col. 2
93. Joseph E. Steed, AST 1/27/30, p. 5, col. 2, 3
94. Alfonso N. Anderson, Missionary, administrator, teacher, editor, The Watchman, February 1930, p. 34, col. 2
95. Oscar Tait (Editorial), ST 4/08/30, p. 7, col. 1
96. William Wirth, ST 4/22/30, p. 6, col. 3
97. M. H. Whittaker, AST 5/19/30, p. 1, col. 1
98. Joseph E. Steed, RH 5/29/30, p. 8, col. 2
99. R. A. Salton, AST 6/30/30, p. 14, col. 3
100. Lionel Turner, AST 8/04/30, p. 2, col. 3
101. J. M. Hopkins, RH 9/18/30, p. 7, col. 1
102. James E. Cormack, AST 10/06/30, p. 13, col. 2
103. Raymond Reye, AST 10/20/30, p. 2, col. 2
104. W. W. Prescott, RH 11/06/30, p. 4, col. 2
105. A. R. Bell, ST 11/11/30 p. 3, col. 1
106. Allen Walker, ST 11/25/30, p. 11, col. 2
107. Ellen White (Reprint), ST 12/22/31, p. 10, col. 3
108. R. A. Salton, RH 1/08/31, p. 4, col. 2
109. A. T. Robinson, RH 5/21/31, p. 11, col. 2
110. Llewellyn A. Wilcox, ST 12/01/31, p. 2, col. 3
111. Walter E. Hancock, ST 2/16/32, p. 5, col. 2
112. R. A. Salton, AST 4/25/32, p. 10, col. 3
113. L. Ervin Wright, The Watchman, May 1932, p. 17, col. 1, 2
114. 114, Elva Zachrison, ST 6/07/32, p. 3, col. 1
115. William H. Branson, The Watchman, July 1932, p. 17, col. 3
116. William H. Branson, The Watchman, July 1932, p. 35, col. 2
117. Nels P. Nielsen. ST 7/19/32, p. 12, col. 2
118. Marion R. McLennan, AST 8/13/32, p. 9, col. 1
119. Joseph E. Steed, AST 10/31/32, p. 9, col. 3
120. Amelia L. Jones, AST 11/07/32, p. 9, col. 2
121. Joseph E. Steed, AST 11/28/32, p. 8, col. 3; p. 9, col. 1
122. Ellen White, AST 9/25/33, p. 3, col. 1
123. Llewellyn Wilcox, ST 1/03/33, p. 13, col. 2
124. Merlin L. Neff, Educator, author, editor, ST, 1/24/33, p. 5, col. 1
125. I. H. Evans, Administrator, General Conference vice-president, author, RH 4/06/33, p. 7, col. 2
126. William H. Branson, The Watchman, August 1933, p. 12, cols. 1, 3
127. C. M. Snow, Editor, AST 9/18/33, p. 8, col. 3
128. W. H. Branson, Evangelist, author, conference administrator, General Conference president, AST 10/30/33, p. 11, col. 2
129. I. H. Evans, Administrator, General Conference vice-president, author, AST 1/01/34, p. 9, col. 1
130. T. H. Jeyes, RH 3/01/34, p. 7, col. 2
131. I. H. Evans, RH 4/05/34, p. 6, col. 2
132. Allen Walker, RH 4/26/34, p. 10, col. 1
133. W. W. Prescott, Educator, administrator, ST 6/12/34, p. 14, col. 1
134. W. E. Howell, College President, General Conference Departmental Secretary, RH 8/02/34, p. 16, col. 2
135. Elva Zachrison, ST 10/30/34, p. 3, col. 2
136. Alfred S. Jorgensen, AST 12/17/34, p. 11, col. 1
137. C. H . Watson, Conference President, Union President, General Conference President, The Atoning Work of Christ, 1934, pp. 59, 64
138. C. P. Bollman, RH 2/07/35, p. 9, col. 1
139. C. H. Watson, RH 2/14/35, p. 3, col. 1
140. W. G. Turner, Conference President, Division President, General Conference, Departmental Secretary, RH 11/07/35, p. 4, col. 3
141. C. P. Bollman, RH 11/21/35, p. 12, col. 2
142. Leonard S. Barnes, AST 1/13/36, p. 5, col. 1
143. Bible Study, W. R. Carswell, AST 2/17/36, p. 13, col. 3
144. Carlyle B. Haynes, Author of forty-five books, Conference President, Division President, General Conference Departmental Secretary, RH 2/20/36, p. 4, col. 2
145. W. W. Prescott, RH 2/27/36, p. 7, box
146. A. L. King, Editor, AST 3/02/36, p. 4, col. 3; p. 5, col. 1
147. Marian M. Hay, Associate Editor, AST 3/02/36, p. 6, cols. 2, 3
148. W. W. Prescott, Educator, Administrator, AST 5/04/36, p. 7, col. 2
149. Marian M. Hay, AST 7/06/36, p. 6, col. 3, p. 7, col. 2
150. G. T. Smisor, ST 7/21/36, p. 11, col. 3
151. W. H. Branson, Union President, Division President, General Conference President, ST 8/11/36, p. 11, col. 1, 2
152. W. W. Prescott, AST 8/24/36, p. 12, col. 3
153. F. D. Nichol, RH 9/03/36, p. 4, col. 2
154. Merlin L. Neff, AST 9/14/36, pages 11, 12
155. W. W . Carswell (Bible Study), AST 10/19/36, p. 13, col. 2
156. Marian M. Hay, AST 11/23/36, p. 6, col. 3
157. Ellen White, AST 1/25/37, p. 7, col. 2
158. N. P. Nielsen, Mission Treasurer, RH 1/07/37, p. 1, box
159. W. W. Prescott, RH 1/07/37, p. 18, col. 1
160. Marian M. Hay, AST 1/11/37, p. 6, col. 3
161. Gwynne Dalrymple, Educator, author, AST 3/29/37, p. 2, col. 1
162. N. P. Nielsen, RH 4/08/37, p. 7, col. 1
163. W. W. Prescott, RH 4/15/37, p. 1, box
164. T. M. French, College teacher, RH 6/03/37, p. 8, col. 1
165. T. M. French, RH 6/10/37, p. 9, col. 1
166. T. M. French, RH 7/08/37, p. 8, col. 2
167. T. M. French, RH 7/15/37, p. 5, col. 1
168. Ida M. Raines. RH 7/29/37, p. 8, col. 1
169. F. M. Wilcox, Review editor, RH 9/30/37, p. 2, col. 1
170. W. H. Branson, AST 11/01/37, p. 8, col. 2
171. J. L. McElhany, Conference President, Union President, Division President, General Conference President, RH 11/04/37, p. 21, col. 1
172. N. P. Nielsen, AST 11/22/37, p. 11, col. 3
173. C. P. Bollman, AST 1/03/38, p. 6, col. 2
174. C. Lester Bond, Conference President, General Conference Departmental Secretary, RH 2/24/38, p. 8, col. 1
175. E. K. Slade, Conference President, Union President, RH 4/21/38, p. 3, col. 2
176. E. K. Slade, RH 4/28/38, p. 8, col. 2
177. C. P. Bollman, RH 6/09/38, p. 10, col. 1
178. J. E. Fulton, Missionary, Administrator, AST 9/05/38, p. 1, cols. 2, 3; p. 2, col. 1
179. J. W. Harvey, AST 12/05/38, p. 10, col. 3
180. C. P. Bollman, AST 1/09/39, p. 6, col. 3
181. A. R. Bell, RH 1/12/39, p. 5, col. 1
182. Dr. D. H. Kress, Physician, AST 7/24/39, p. 7, col. 1
183. W. Howard James, AST 8/07/39, p. 10, col. 3
184. Frederick Lee, Missionary, RH 11/02/39, p. 8, col. 1
185. Robert Hare, Evangelist, Writer, Editor, AST 11/20/39, p. 8, col. 2
186. D. A. R. Aufranc, AST 12/18/39, p. 2, col. 1
187. Ellen White (Reprint), ST 4/30/40, p. 10, col. 2; p. 11, col. 1
188. M. L. Andreason, Conference President, College President, Seminary Professor, RH 10/10/40, p. 5, col. 2
189. N. P. Nielsen, ST 5/27/41, p. 8, col. 1
190. J. C. Stevens, ST 8/05/41, p. 11, col. 1
191. J. E. Fulton, Missionary, Conference President, Union President, Divison President, RH 11/06/41, p. 13, col. 2
192. W. G. Turner, The Watchman, February 1942, p. 2, col. 2
193. L. H. Wood, AST 6/15/42, p. 2, col. 2
194. A. V. Olson, Conference President, Union President, Division President, General Vice-President, RH 8/06/42, p. 4, col. 1; p. 5, col. 1
195. Howard G. Davis, AST 8/17/42, p. 11, col. 1
196. J. K. Jones, AST 9/14/42, p. 9, col. 1
197. R. F. Cottrell, Missionary, Author, ST 10/13/42, p. 10, col. 2
198. Christian Edwardson, Author, Facts of Faith, 1942, pp. 204, 205
199. J. C. Stevens, ST 1/19/43, p. 14, col. 1
200. A. R. Bell, RH 2/11/43, p. 3, col. 2
201. J. C. Stevens, ST 3/02/43, p. 6, col. 2
202. F. M. Wilcox, RH 4/15/43, p. 2, col. 1
203. Bible Study No. 24, AST 4/26/43, p. 5, col. 3
204. J. B. Cooks, Signs of Times (South Africa) June, 1943, p. 4, col. 1
205. E. K. Slade, RH 11/04/43, p. 5, col. 1
206. S. George Hyde, AST 3/27/44, p. 1, col. 1
207. A. W. Truman, College teacher, RH 6/08/44, p. 8, col. 2, 3
208. A. Wellington Clarke. Signs of Times (South Africa), April, 1945, p. 5, col. 1
209. F. G. Clifford, Signs of Times (South Africa), June, 1945, p. 6, col. 2
210. J. A. Charlton, AST 9/3/45, p. 4, col. 2
211. Varner Johns, RH 11/01/45, p. 11, col. 2
212. A. R. Bell, The Watchman, December 1945, p. 14, col. 1
213. Leonard C. Lee, Minister, Author, Radio Speaker, AST 6/24/46, p. 8, col. 3
214. A. R. Bell, AST 12/23/46, p. 8, cols. 2, 3
215. Ellen White, Story of Redemption, 1947, p. 44
216. A. G. Stewart, Missionary, Administrator, Author, RH 1/09/47, p. 8, col. 1
217. Raymond Bullas, AST 10/06/47, p. 5, col. 1
218. Llewellyn Jones, AST 11/10/47, p. 5, col. 3
219. R. A. Grieve, Signs of Times (South Africa), Dec. 1947, p. 10, col. 1
220. R. A. Salton, AST 12/15/47, p. 4, col. 3
221. J. B. Conley, AST 5/10/48, p. 5, col. 2
222. J. B. Conley, AST 5/24/48, pages 4-6
223. W. G. Turner, RH 7/15/48, p. 8, col. 1
224. Dallas Youngs, RH 8/26/48, p. 9, col. 2
225. R. A. Salton, AST 11/22/48, p. 11, col. 3
226. L. H. Christian, Conference President, Union President, Division President, General Conference Vice-President, RH 1/20/49, p. 10, col. 2
227. Berthold H. Swartzkopf, AST 3/21/49, p. 7, col. 1
228. Robert Hare, AST 6/20/49, p. 7, col. 2
229. Mary Walsh, Bible Instructor, AST 10/24/49, p. 11, col. 1
230. Fenton Edwin Froom, Our Times, December 1949, p. 4, col. 2
231. Ellen White, RH 5/18/50, p. 7, col. 1
232. Marian M. Hay, AST 8/21/50, p. 5, col. 3
233. Mary Miles, Our Times, November 1950, p. 21, col. 1
234. W. E. Read, GCB 1950, p. 154, col. 3
235. Editorial, Signs of Times (South Africa), July, 1951, Pages 2, 3
236. G. Stevenson, editor, Signs of Times (South Africa) July, 1951, Vol. 28, No. 7, pp. 2, 10
237. J. A. McMillan, The Bible and Our Times (England) 12/11/52, p. 7, col. 2
238. J. A. McMillan, The Bible and Our Times (England) 12/11/52, p. 13, col. 1
239. G. Stevenson, editor, Signs of Times (South Africa), Vol. 20, No. 2, p. 3
240. Benjamin P. Hoffman, Missionary, College teacher, Seminary Professor, RH 4/09/53, p. 4, col. 1
241. G. J. E. Coetzee, Signs of Times (South Africa), Dec., 1953, p. 4, col. 1
242. H. L. Rudy, Conference President, General Conference Vice-President, RH 10/14/54, p. 3, col. 2
243. Meade MacGuire (Reprint), RH 2/14/57, p. 4, col. 2
244. Meade MacGuire (Reprint), RH 2/21/57, p. 6, col. 1
245. Ellen White (Reprint), Selected Messages, 1958, Vol. 1, pp. 267-268 (This entire chapter should be studied.)
246. Ellen White, Selected Messages, 1958, Vol. 1, p. 272-273