06 - Chapter 6
Chapter VI. The Omnipresence of our Lord Jesus Christ,
THERE arey we think, very few who profess to believe the record God has given of his Son, who would avow the doctrine that the Almighty was confined to any particular location. Very few Christians would fall in -with the idea that Jehovah could be in only one place at a time. There is but one omnipresent being of which we can possibly form any conception whatever* That being that can be present in all parts of the world and in the celestial regions at the same time, must be omnipresent. If that being is not omnipresent, we have no proof of any omnipresent being. But that there is such a being, no believer in God will deny, or seriously doubt. If, then } we can prove that Jesus Christ is omnipresent, that is, that he can be in more places than one at the same time, we shall prove him to be God, in his divine nature. We will appeal to his own words on this point. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20. “ Lo I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” Matthew 28:1-20; Matthew 20:1-34. ee And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven.” John 3:13.,
1. Wherever his children meet for worship, there says the Savior, AM t. While his saints are assembled, they do not have to wait for him to come, but he is already there. Ten thousand congregations meet on every holy Sabbath in his name, and a find his promise verified. The old, grey-headed. veteran of the cross, while in the sanctuary of God, feels his heart warmed with the presence of his Savior* and “with his countenance brightening up with rapture, exclaims, “ I know my Redeemer lives, I feel him in my soul, the hope of glory.” Says the young convert, while tears gather in his eyes, *5 I know in whom I have believed; I feel he is with me now.” If, indeed, the blessed Jesus was not omnipresent, what a death-blow would it strike at the root. of Christian enjoyment. The Christian says from the centre of his soul:
“ Blest Jesus, what delicious fare, How sweet thine entertainments are, Never did angels taste above, Redeeming grace and dying love.”
Take Jesus out of the assembly, and all is gone; and while he is present, if a prison, or a pit, is the home of the Christian, he feels that he has the best of company. The martyr has found him to be present to help him in the curling flames, while the hosts of heaven -meekly bow before him and cast their crowns at his feet. Christian reader, do you not feel and know him to be with you while you meet for his worship? Would not the chill of death freeze your devotions, if you thought that Jesus was not present with all his children? and with you?
2. Wherever his people may be, his promise -can cheer them. “Lo I am with you.”^ While the missionary is crossing the trackless deep, Jesus is with him, ’and at the same time he feels that he is with his brethren and sisters whom he has left, and upon whose faces he has gazed for the last time until he meets them “ where no farewell tear is shed.” The minister of Jesus, while he faces the storms of opposition and of hell, confides in his omnipresent Savior. If this were, not so, how sad must be his soul, while called to leave his father, mother, brothers, and sisters, and no Jesus to go with him. How this idea must paralyze his zeal for God. But to know he has his Jesus within, reigning in his soul, and fighting his battles for him, nerves his heart with holy ardor for the arduous task. Every Christian in the dying hour, wants a present Savior, and may have even him who died and lives forever more, “All hail! triumphant Lord, Eternal be thy reign, Behold the nations wait, - To wear thy gentle chain. When earth and time are known no more,’
. - Thy throne shall stand forever sure.”
3. What he said to Nicodemus proves beyond the shade of a doubt that he was omnipresent.
While he is now speaking to him, and conversing with him, he says he is even in heaven. No one will pretend that he was trying to deceive Nicodemus, yet if he was not omnipresent, he was practicing a most infamous deception upon him declared the ubiquity of his nature in positive terms. Who, we would ask, but “he who fills heaven and earth,” could, in truth, make such a declaration as our Savior ’here made? Now the question is, shall we believe what Jesus Christ said, or shall we not? If we do credit his assertion, can we believe him to be a mere creature? After all he has said on this subject, Unitarians maintain that he is not an omnipresent being, but a finite creature, and the Holy Spirit only an energy, attribute, or power of Jehovah. Let the candid reader now say, if we have not proved the omnipresence of the Lord Jesus Christ? According to his own words, can he not be present on earth and in heaven at the same time? Truth will answer he can. If he is omnipresent, Unitarianism is found to be erroneous in a most fundamental point. We have on no point yet exhausted the Bible testimonies, nor do we wish to, for it would be quoting almost the entire Bible. The doctrine of the divinity of Christ, and of the trinity in unity of the Godhead, runs through the whole blessed volume. If two or three positive declarations of God’s word, will not prove a proposition, which is in accordance with the general tenor of the Bible, to be the truth, we must despair of proving any thing by the Bible.