CHRIST VICTORIOUS "FIRST-BORN OF ALL CREATION BEGINNING OF THE CREATION OF GOD FIRST-BORN FROM THE DEAD HEAD OVER THE UNIVERSE HEAD OF THAT CHURCH, WHICH IS HIS BODY PRIEST KING OF ISRAEL SAVIOR OF THE WORLD KING AND GOD OF THE EONS TO HIM THE GLORY 640 East 43d Street, Chicago, Ill. ANDOVER-HARVARD THEOLOGICAT LIBRARY CAMBHILA, MASS, H49,582 BX 9941 •J64 192 1921 Copyright 1921 By Joseph S. Johnston PREFACE The purpose, plan, and accomplishment of the work that the Creative Word was sent forth to do, are to be found in the Written Word. Certain aspects are taken up in this book, as will readily be seen by the chapter headings, mainly as they have a bearing on eschatology. "All things are out of God"-There was a beginning; "I am the Beginning, -I Jesus." There was a program according to which the knowledge of God was Divinely taught in orderly progression from Alpha to Omega. During the course of its five definite eons all creatures live, and move, and have their being, in the creating, sustaining Living Word.-"All things are through God." The Son of God is to carry on this work in the path of humiliation, the essential glory of His Godhood being veiled until He delivers a perfected Universe to The Father, when the last veil shall be removed, and the one only God is all in all in Fatherhood; for "All things are unto God." (See Eph. 3:11, the purpose of the eons; Isa. 55:11, My Word that goeth forth; Rom. 11:36, for out of Him, and through Him, and unto Him are all things, ta panta, the all; Rev. 22:13, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End." Heb. 11: 3, "The eons were planned by the continuous intention of God," but this is a matter to be accepted by faith in the Divine Statement. Rev. 1:1, The unveiling; I Cor. 15:22, delivers up the kingdom.) He is a God of order, of cosmos not chaos, and in a finished Universe there will be a place for everything and everything will be in its place. Christ will be Victorious. God will be satisfied, and the Universe will be blessed and harmonious under the Headship of Christ Jesus, the First-born from the dead. A spiritual perception of the exact teaching of the Bible on three points will decide for us the true view of the last things; a consistent doctrine of the eons, a doctrine of sin and its penalty, and a perception of the sphere and function of man's free will. A chapter is given to each of these. It is desirable also that every Scripture passage bearing on the subject should be seen to be in the harmony that its Divine inspiration involves. This can be done, if rightly divided, distinguishing things that differ. (See Chapters III and IV.) No doctrine should be considered apart from its vital connection with Christ Jesus, the Divine Head over all things, both in |