After reminding the Angel-Star of the Ecclesia in Pergamos that they dwelt where the throne of the Satan then was, the Spirit tells them that one of their works he had observed was, that they held fast his Name. This was a great thing in the midst of paganism, and the semiheathenism of the apostasy, with all its sanctimonious pretensions on every side.
In regard to this “Name,” we have already offered some remarks on page 98, to which the reader is referred. In addition to what is there written, it may be stated that the Spirit saith in Isai. 42 : 8, “I (am) Yahweh; this is my name.” The Spirit, then, declaring this to be his name, when he says that the saints in Pergamos held fast to it, the testimony is tantamount to saying, “thou holdest fast my name, Yahweh.”
In our remarks on “Jesus, ” referred to above, we have spoken of the etymology of this name. We repeat that it signifies He shall be: and in the form HUT1 ani Yahweh, signifies, “I, the Spirit, am He
who shall be.” The individual who was to be—he who was promised to Eve in Gen. 3 : 15 ; to Abraham in Gen. 15 : 4 ; 21 : 12 ; to Judah
in Gen. 49 : 10 ; to David in 2 Sam. 7 : 12-14 ; Isai. 9 : 6, 7—was the personage indicated by Yahweh He shall be, styled, in Hebrew “the Messiah;” in Greek, “the Christ;” and in English, “the Anointed.” Now, the Spirit said by the prophets, I shall be he; and here, in the apocalypse, we find the Spirit and Jesus speaking as one.
Now, the “Seed of Abraham,” genealogically considered, must partake of Abraham’s nature—must partake of flesh and blood. The Spirit, therefore, in effect said, I shall become flesh and blood. But how could this be? The answer to this is, that the fact depends not upon our ability to explain the mode in which spirit may be elaborated into flesh and blood. The Bible testifies that all things are out of Deity, who is spirit. The Eternal Power formed Adam out of dust. Spirit is the basis of all created things, and, according to the will of the Creator, becomes rock, dust, sea, vegetable, and animal, in all their diversity of form and beauty. All the resurrected who shall be approved, will become spirit; “for that which has been begotten of the Spirit is spirit”—begotten subsequently to their post-resurrectional appearance at Christ’s tribunal. If, then, flesh and blood thus become spirit, (and some flesh and blood will become spirit without tasting of death, Paul says,) why may not spirit become flesh and blood? It is but a reversal of results from a change of process.
The name, then, in connection with the testimony of the prophets, indicates a conversion of Spirit into flesh and blood, developed by the formative power of the Eternal, independently of and apart from the will of man. In the case of the first Adam, spirit, as it were leaven, mingled formatively with dust, and a flesh and blood man was developed, styled “Son of God;” but in the case of the second Adam, spirit acted upon the nervous system of Mary, as it had previously done upon Sarah, and Hannah, but to a further degree (for in these, it had only imparted strength for conception according to nature) in that it operated germinatively upon the contents of Mary’s ovarium; and caused an ovum, or “seed of the woman,” to be deposited in her womb. Here, as the spirit-germ of the second man it remained the usual “set time,” subject to the laws of the animal economy. At the appointed time it was born the babe of Bethlehem; and duly named Jesus, or He shall be who shall save—both “Son of God,” and “Son of Man,” which the first Adam was not. Adam was Son of God and Son of the Dust; Jesus was Son of God and Son of Man, being a creation of the Eternal Power from the substance of David’s daughter.
Such was the babe Jesus in preparation for the Sacrificial Man. His germination was irrespective of the lust of the flesh, the propensity excited in the first Adam by his guilty companion, and of which Cain
was the fruit. In this particular, the generation of Jesus was different from that of all other men. If Joseph had been his father, he would have been born of blood, of the will of the flesh, and of man, instead of the Spirit. He would have been son of man only, and not Son of God; and consequently would not have answered to the testimony of the name.
The Yahweh-Name, then, presents itself to us in prophecy and in history. To Israel it is incommunicable so long as they reject Jesus; for he is the historical and practical personal illustration of it. The Yahweh-Name in prophecy comprehends the things concerning the Christ in his birth, life, sufferings, resurrection, and glory. To understand the Yahweh-Name, as exhibited in the writings of the prophets, is to “know the joyful sound”—to believe “the gospel of the Deity which he had promised before by the prophets in the holy scriptures,” concerning his Son the Christ, made of the seed of David according to flesh, and constituted son of Deity in power according to spirit of holiness—Rom. 1:1-4: and to understand the same name historically and doctrinally expounded, as it is in the New Testament, is to understand “the things concerning the kingdom of the Deity, and the name of Jesus Anointed” of the Spirit—Acts 8 : 12. In the teaching of Jesus “the name,” “the gospel,” and “the kingdom of the Deity,” are interchangeably used. Thus in Matt. 19 : 29, he says, that every one who forsaketh any thing “for my name’s sake shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit aion-life;” in Mark. 10 : 29, he says, that there is no man that hath left any thing “for my sake and the Gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundred fold in this time with persecutions; and in the coming Aion Life aionian;” and in Luke 18 : 29, he says, there is no man that hath left any thing “for the kingdom of the Deity’s sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this time, and in the Aion to come life aionian.” Hence, to hold fast the Spirit’s Name and not to deny his faith, is to be “rooted and grounded in the faith, and not to be moved away from the hope of the gospel,” as in the case of the Pergamians. They were suffering tribulation for the kingdom and glory of the Deity, to which they had been invited by the gospel of the name they had obeyed. They held it fast as their hope; and, as Pliny testifies, no power or terror could compel them to abandon the position they had assumed in regard to it.
Not so, however, the Satan; they did not hold fast the name, and did deny the faith. As we have seen in treating of the Nikolaitanes, they denied that Christ had come in flesh; the consequence was that they logically rendered the Yahweh-Name ineffectual to the remission of sin: for if Christ did not come in the flesh and blood nature common
to all mankind, the condemnation of sin in the flesh which had sinned, as represented in the lambs slain from the foundation of the world, could not have occurred when he was crucified; and moreover, if his body had not been identical with ours, he could not have borne the sins of his brethren, the saints, to the cross. The denial of his true and proper humanity made him logically unfit for a sacrificial man, by whose stripes obedient believers should be healed.
The sin-covering efficacy of the Yahweh-Name depended upon the person bearing it being a flesh and blood Messiah; for “without the shedding of blood there is no remission.” The Spirit plainly testifies this in the prophets and apostles. In Lev. 17 : 11, he saith, “I have given the blood to you upon the altar for a covering upon your souls; for the blood itself shall cover the soul.” The reason given for blood being thus used is “because the soul of the flesh is in the very blood.” The soul, nephesh, or life is in the blood. The blood contains or covers it, as it were; and as it is a question of life or death—life forfeited for sin, the wages of which is death—that is appointed to cover sin which covers life, namely, the blood. In this sense, “the life, or soul, of all flesh is the blood thereof;” because the vitality of all animals is in the blood. Hence, a bloodless man could not, upon the principles of the divine law, be a covering for sin. He must have real blood in his veins containing life, as in redeeming flesh and blood nature from death, he had to give the same sort of life for the life to be redeemed.
Now the blood of Jesus was more precious than the life-blood of any other man. If it had not been so, it would have been inadequate to the purchase of life for the world. The Spirit testifies in David, that there is no man rich enough to redeem his brother, nor to give God a ransom for his soul that it should live forever, and not see corruption; “for,” he says, “the redemption of their soul will be costly, and it ceaseth to the Olahm”—Psal. 49 : 6-9. If the wealthiest be impotent for the redemption of one soul, how precious must the blood of the Yahweh-Name be, seeing that it can ransom “a great multitude which no man can number!”—Rev. 7 : 9. The blood of Jesus was the only blood of all the generations of Adam, that had not been generated by the lust of the flesh; and which had not energized a man to the commission of sin. Jesus was an unblemished man, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; for “he was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.”
This precious “blood of sprinkling, which speaks better things than the blood of Abel,” the sanctifying blood of the covenant shed for the remission of the sins of many, (Heb. 12 : 24 ; 10 : 29, 22 ; Matt. 26 : 28,) is the principle which makes the Yahweh-Name sin-cleansing, or a
covering for the hiding of sin, so that the believer upon whom the name is invoked, may have “no more conscience of sins,” or, as Peter expresses it, may have “the answer of a good conscience toward God”— 1 Pet. 3 : 21.
The purifying or sanctifying property of the Yahweh-Name being connected with bloodshedding, as prefigured in the law, necessitates the death of him who becomes the medium of its manifestation. The prophetic testimony is direct upon this point. “Thou, O Serpent,” said the Spirit, “shalt bruise the heel of the Woman’s Seed”—Gen. 3 :
- And this seed was to come out of Abraham’s son, as it is written “in Isaac a Seed shall be chosen for thee;” and to show that he was to be a sacrificial man, the Elohim told him to “offer him for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of the land of Moriah which should be shown.” In obedience to this command, Abraham travelled with Isaac a journey of three days, until they arrived at the mountain where the temple afterwards stood. He laid upon Isaac the wood upon which he was to be bound, and led him as a lamb to the slaughter. Having erected an altar, he laid him thereon upon the wood, and took the knife to slay him. This he would have done, but for the interference of heaven. God ordered him to spare Isaac, and to finish the offering by slaying a ram in his place. The release of Isaac was a resurrection to life—a type of the future literal resurrection of the Seed to descend from him—Gen. 21 : 12 ; 22 : 6, 9, 13. This was the death and resurrection of the Yahweh-Name bearer represented to Abraham dramatically. It taught him, that the Seed to be chosen for him, who was to “possess the gate of His enemies, and in whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,” should suffer a violent death, and then rise again to fulfil his destiny. Abraham saw this, and therefore named the place of the offering Yahweh-yireh, He who shall be will provide—“In the mount Yahweh shall be seen”—ver. 14.
The prophets are full of testimony illustrative of this remarkable representation. “The Songs of Zion” treat largely of the sufferings of the Spirit’s name. The Spirit in David says, “they pierced my hands and my feet”—Psal. 22 : 16 ; and “He shall be filled with iron and the shaft of a spear”—2 Sam. 23 : 7 ; and in Dan. 9 : 26, “Messiah shall be cut off;” and in Isa. 53, speaking of the Deity’s “righteous servant,” the Spirit saith, “Yahweh has caused to lay upon Him the iniquity of us all * * * for the transgression of my people was he stricken; when thou shalt make a trespass-offering of his nephesh, soul,” or life, “he shall see a seed; * * * through his knowledge shall my righteous servant make a justification for many; and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will apportion to him among the great
and the mighty; he shall divide the spoil; because that he hath poured out his nephesh or soul (contained in the blood) unto death.”
Such was to be Name of the Christ in fact and doctrine—a personage, the descendant and antitype of Isaac, in his sacrifice and resurrection, who should be the Sin-Bearer and Justifier of his people, through their belief of the things, or knowledge concerning him. When Jesus appeared, and was crucified and rose again, the Yahweh-Name was no longer absolutely a testimony to be fulfilled; it became a living reality —the Truth Incarnate; and “the Name of Christ” became “the Name of Jesus Christ;” and all that is predicted of the Spirit’s Name is to be fulfilled in Jesus and his Brethren.
The New Testament treats very largely of the mystery of the Name. After Jesus rose from the dead, and before his assumption to the right hand of power, the kingdom and the Name were the especial topics of conversation between him and his disciples. They understood the doctrine of the kingdom better than of the name, until he opened their understandings that they might understand the scriptures of the prophets —Luke 24 : 45. These in regard to the death, burial, resurrection, and assumption of the Name-Bearer, and the doctrinal use to be made of them, had been hid from their eyes—Luke 18 : 31-34. But when he had risen, the time had come to remove the veil, which still remains upon the understandings of all who do not comprehend “the truth as it is in Jesus.” “O fools,” said he to two of them, “and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken; ought not the Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself’—Luke 24 : 25. On a subsequent occasion, when all of them were convened, he said, that according as it was written in the prophets, “it behoved the Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead on the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem”—vers. 44-47. “In his name” is here an all-important phrase, for apart from this great name, there is no repentance nor remission of sins for Jew or Gentile. “There is salvation in no other; for,” continues the Spirit in Peter, “there is none other Name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved”—Acts 4 : 12; and again, he said, “to Him give all the prophets testimony, that whosoever believeth into him, shall receive remission of sins through his name”—ch. 10 : 43. The Name is expressive of a personal existence “among men.” In its first sojourn here, though it was the Deity’s Name, it was a name of no reputation; it was without rule, being the name of a servant, or a humiliated, oppressed, and afflicted man, abso-
lutely obedient to the will of the Deity, even unto the death of the cross. Wherefore “God also,” says Paul, in Phil. 2 : 9, “hath highly exalted him, and given him a Name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of heavenlies and of earth- lies, and of subterraneans; and every tongue confess that Jesus Anointed is Lord to the glory of Deity the Father.”
In this highly exalted name are repentance and remission of sins alone to be found. A man may be ever so intelligent in the scriptures, ever so excellently and piously disposed, ever so firmly convinced of “the truth as it is in Jesus,” still, if he have not been added to this name —if he have not laid hold upon it according to divine appointment— (and in no other way can it be laid hold of)—he is the subject neither of “repentance” nor “remission of sins;” and furthermore, if having laid hold of it, he follow not the example of the faithful in Pergamos, and hold it fast, the Spirit will “fight against him with the sword of his mouth.”
By grace are men saved, through faith that works by love, and purifies the heart—Eph. 2:8; Gal. 5:8; Acts 15 : 9. Assuming then, that a sinner “believes the things of the Kingdom of the Deity and of the Name of Jesus Anointed;” and that he has fallen in love with them; and that, loving what he believes, and the effect of this affectionate belief or “believing with the heart,” has been to alienate his affections from “the pleasures of sin,” and “earthly things;” and has caused him to set them upon the things anew, or exalted, where the Christ is on the right hand of the Deity sitting; assuming this to be the state of his mind and disposition, he is then in a condition to receive repentance, and to be saved from his past sins, and to obtain a right to eternal life, through the Name of Jesus Anointed, who is “the Lord the Spirit.” But, if the sinner have not this affectionate belief, he can receive nothing through the name; because he has no faith for justification, and no disposition such as Abraham had, to be reckoned for repentance. Without the faith that works by love and purifies the heart, it is impossible to please the Deity.
On the day of Pentecost, in the thirty-sixth year from the birth of Jesus, Peter addressed three thousand Jews, whose understandings and affections had been thus prepared by the things they believed. When they asked Peter, saying, “ What shall we do?” he replied, not knowing as yet, what their convictions were, “Change ye your mind, and every one of you be immersed upon the Name of Jesus Anointed into remission of sins.” They were to be immersed epi to onomati, upon and for the name of Jesus Anointed; because the gospel of the kingdom was preached to them to separate them from that evil generation
of Israel “for the name;” as it was afterwards preached to the gentiles for the same purpose—“to take out of the nations a people, epi to onomati, for the name of him”—Acts 15 : 14. They were immersed “for” this name that they might constitute a part of this name; for it is a name of multitude, all of whose constituents are “in Jesus Christ; in other words, “in Deity the Father, and the Lord Jesus Anointed”—1 Thess. 1:1. For a sinner, then, affectionately believing the truth, to be “immersed for the name, ” is for him to be added to the name of Deity; that, when that Divine Name is complete, he with Jesus may be manifested in power and great glory. “The righteousness of God through Jesus Christ’s faith is eis, for all and epi, upon all the believing”—Rom. 3 : 22.
This manifestation is the ultimate purpose of his addition to this name; but there is also a present reason and advantage resulting therefrom. “Be every one of you,” said Peter, “immersed upon the Name of Jesus Anointed into remission of sins.” When added to the name, the immersed believer is “en to onomati” in the name (Acts 10 : 48) as a man is in a robe when he has put it on. The name is regarded as a covering by which his “sin is covered"—Psal. 32 : 1,2. Now, immersion is the divinely appointed action by which a true believer is, and a true believer only can be, united, added, or married to the name; and in order to this, that he may be “in the name,” it is appointed for him to be immersed “eis, into, or for, the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”—a formula which is equivalent to the phrase, “the Name of Jesus Anointed;” for Jesus Anointed is the Father manifested in the Son, Jesus, by Holy Spirit; in other words, Deity manifested in flesh.
The believing and rejoicing sinner, then, who has followed the example of the Samaritans in faith and practice (Acts 8 : 12) is immersed in water “upon,” “for” and “into” the name, which is the same as being immersed into remission of sins. The Spirit, the water, and the blood are the three witnesses on the earth that are convergent into the one name—1 Jno. 5 : 8. “The spirit” which “is the truth,” works in him, who understands it, to believe, to will, and to do; “the water” is the medium of induction into the name; and no one since Pentecost, A.D. 35, can prove that he has been added to the sin-covering name, who has not passed through the water. “Except a man be born ex, out of water and spirit,” saith the King of Israel, "he cannot enter into the Kingdom of the Deity”—Jno. 3 : 5. The water will not bear witness in favor of the unwashed. The third witness is “the blood.” By faith in the testimony concerning the sin-covering efficacy of the blood of Jesus, the sinner who believes the covenanted promises,
is brought into sacrificial relation thereto. By faith in the testimony of Jesus he believes that sin was condemned in his flesh when he was crucified; that his blood is the blood of the New, or Abrahamic, Covenant by which it was dedicated, shed for the remission of the sins of the many; whose sins Jesus bore in his own body to the Cross. Believing that, without the shedding of the blood of Jesus there would have been no remission through the name, the blood becomes to him an important and indispensable element of the name, which he embraces for its purifying efficacy imparted to it thereby. He goes into the laver of the water, that he may approach the altar, Jesus, and be sprinkled by faith with his blood. This done, and he is “justified by faith,” “by grace,” “by his blood,” and “washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit of our God”—the truth, the water, and the blood all testify to his justification “through his name.”
Lastly, upon this subject we would at present remark, that there is a precise and definite point of time at which a sinner’s disposition and faith are granted to him for a change of mind or heart, and for remission; and this is in the act of obedience. Ananias said to Saul, “Arise be baptized and wash away thy sins, attaching thyself to the name of the Lord”—Acts 22 : 16. In the act of doing this, in rising from the water, Saul’s state of heart was granted to him for repentance, and his belief of the truth was counted to him for remission of sins—both in the act which effected his attachment to the name.
To perceive the force of the Spirit’s saying in the writing to the Star Angel in Pergamos, “thou boldest fast my name,” it is necessary to understand the doctrine of that name, therefore I have gone at some length into the exposition of it here; especially as there are so few in the world that have a scriptural comprehension of it. The teaching brethren in Pergamos still expounded it aright; although in such close neighborhood to the Satan’s head-quarters, where they were indefatig- ably sowing tares; and denying the foundation of the name, which is laid in the real humanity and sufferings of the sacrificial man, Jesus; “who was delivered for the offences, and raised again for the justification” of sinners, who affectionately believe the promises made to Abraham and David, and the truth as it is in Jesus. To these teachers resident in the Satan’s dwelling place and capital, the Spirit not only said “thou holdest fast my name,” but also, “and hast not denied my faith. ”