5. Annunciation.

“1 am the Alpha and the Omega, beginning and ending, saith the Lord, the Who is, and Who was,
and Who is coming, the Omnipotent” APOC. 1 . 8.
These words announce to us that He who is coming is “The Al¬mighty;” also that this almighty one pertains to the past, the present, and the future; that he has a “beginning” and also “an ending,” as symbolized by the first letter of the Greek alphabet “TO A,” and by the last, or “ TO 8 ”—“the Alpha and the Omega.”
But let the reader understand, that this annunciation is not an an-nouncement that the Eternal Theos, styled “the Father,” had a begin¬ning. If he had not always existed without beginning, there would have been no creation. To imagine a time, or point of past eternity, when Theos or Ail, commonly styled “God,” did not exist, would be to sup¬pose an epoch when there was nothing—no existing thing; and this supposition would be to make nothing the intelligent and wise creator of something, which is palpably absurd.
No; the annunciation before us carries us back no further than that “beginning" to which John had already introduced his readers, in the book he had already written, to convince men that Jesus is the Anoint¬ed One, the Son of the Deity; and that believing they might have life through his name—Jno. 20 : 31—the beginning of the preexistent Deity, by his Spirit-Effluence, or Logos, becoming Flesh; the begin¬ning of the “Great Mystery, Deity manifested in Flesh”—1 Tim. 3 : 16.
This manifestation, then, as we have shown, had its beginning. It began in Jesus, Son of David and Son of Deity. Of him it was pro¬phesied, “they pierced my hands and my feet.” He was cut off, or covenanted; and afterwards removed by Eteral Power from this sub¬lunary field of blood. But Jesus, though the Head, was not the Body. He had suffered, but his sufferings did not complete the sufferings of “His Body, which is the Ecclesia.” Hence Paul says, “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflic¬tion of the Anointed One in my flesh for His Body’s sake, which is the Ecclesia—Col. 1 : 24. But Paul did not consider that his sufferings, added to those of Jesus, would fill up the measure; for, in writing to the saints in Corinth he associates them with himself in the work. “As the sufferings of the Anointed One,” says he, “abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth through the Anointed One. But whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is operative in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope of you is steadfast, knowing that as ye are partakers of the suffer¬ings, so ye shall be also of the consolation—2 Cor. 1 : 5-7. “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him—2 Tim. 2 : 12.
Thus the Body is pierced with suffering as well as its Head; and as Jesus, “though a son, learned obedience by the things which he suffer¬ed,” so all his brethren must. It will be seen, then, that when the One Body is complete in all its elements, it will have been a suffering com¬munity. This is its Alpha, its Beginning, its ho on, or present condi¬tion. Most of its members are in the womb of death, shut up within “the gates of the invisible,” which are so securely locked that no power can open them save that which is eternal. The key or power, is with Jesus, through whom it will operate as it did upon him when the power or spirit of the Father raised him from the dead.
At present, the Saints sleeping in the dust, and the few that are liv¬ing in this generation, are all waiting for “The Adoption;” for living or dead, they were all immersed in hope of being planted in the likeness of the resurrection of their Elder Brother. Being thus “baptized for the dead,” they suffer with him, that they may be glorified together in the manifestation of the Sons of the Deity, who shall then “with him freely give us all things”—Rom. 6 : 5; 8 : 23, 17, 19, 32. As the brain in the head has property in the body, and calls it his; so the Logos in Jesus has property in him and his brethren, and styles them members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones; so that they all become one flesh; “which is a great mystery,” says Paul; “but I speak concerning the Anointed One and the Ecclesia”—Eph. 5 : 22-32.
When this great mystery shall be consummated in the resurrection and the subsequent anointing of the One Body, “ the Omega,” “ the Ending,” and “the Who is coming,” will be manifested. The whole multitude will be “DEITY MANIFESTED IN FLESH”—glorified flesh, which is Holy Spirit, or pneuma hagiosunes, the divine nature at present com¬mon to Jesus and the angels; and then participated in by all the Saints; all of which is the development of the principle affirmed by him to Nicodemus, that “that which has been born of the Spirit is Spirit."
Here, then, is “a multitude which no man can number,” evey indi¬vidual of which is Holy Spirit Flesh, glorified substance, “equal to the angels;” the ONE YAHWEH and the ONE NAME. When they all attain to this Omega state, there will be nothing lacking I he Ending will be manifest. There will be no further proclamation inviting Jews and Gentiles to the kingdom and glory of the Deity. The Body will be complete, and have attained through much tribulation to a high estate. Whatever may be the destiny of the earthborns of the Millennial na¬tions in relation to the post-millennial cycle, they will not be ranked with the Alpha and the Omega of this annunciation. The Second Adam and his Bride will be the embodiment of Eternal Power—the Almighty inheritor of the earth and all that it contains; for “it is his and the fulness thereof.”
The symbol in the text is very expressive. It is the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Between these two are twenty-two other letters, which, with the first and last, make one alphabet—twenty-four in one; an idea still further elucidated in the "twenty-four elders,” who are representative of the Almighty Alpha and Omega manifestation of Deity.
In connection with this annunciation, I would recall the attention of the reader to Isai. 41 : 4, where the Eternal Spirit says, “I, YAHWEH the First One and the Last Ones, I—HE; the isles saw and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came.” I have supplied the words one and ones to mark the singular and plural of the orig¬inal. In this, “the Last Ones” are “the Omega,” and “the Ending,” and the “He who is coming,” of the apocalypse.