It is a common -feature with these "religious extravagances" as Professor Moorehead aptly styles them, that they are absolutely unsound as to the Person of Christ. This marks their origin as from the bottomless pit.
"Pastor" Russell is pre-eminent in this respect, for he invented a theory all his own, the blasphemy of which one dislikes intensely having to pen. But it is necessary for our purpose to expose the lengths to which the unregenerate mind will go when under the influence of "spiritual wickedness in high places."
He said: "Neither was Jesus a combination of two natures, human and spiritual. The blending of two natures produces neither the one nor the other, but an imperfect, hybrid thing, which is obnoxious to the divine arrangement. When Jesus was in the flesh he was a perfect human being; previous to that time he was a perfect spiritual being; and since his resurrection he is a perfect spiritual being of the highest divine order" (Vol. I, page 179).
" Thus we see that in Jesus there was no mixture of natures, but that twice he experienced a change of natures; first, from spiritual to human; afterward from human to the highest order of spiritual nature, the divine; and in each case the one was given up for the other " (Vol. i, page 180).
There is no mistaking this language. The deity of the Lord Jesus is denied in toto. For if it could be predicted of Him in the days of His flesh that He was God; then it follows He was ever God, uncreated, self-sustained, that He could never be less than God, nor cease to be God. One Scripture suffices: "Christ came who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen " (Rom. 9:55Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. (Romans 9:5)).
Or again: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty " (Rev. 1:88I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. (Revelation 1:8)). "I am Alpha. and Omega, the first and the last " (Rev. 1:1111Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. (Revelation 1:11)).
Nor are we left in the slightest doubt as to whom this refers, for the Lord said to the Apostle John, as the One thus introduced: "I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold I am alive for evermore " (Rev. 1:1818I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. (Revelation 1:18)).
C. T. Russell affirmed that the Lord absolutely ceased to be a spiritual being when He became a man. If He was, according to this teaching, a man, without previous history, as all of us were, then it follows that the previous spiritual being was annihilated, and C. T. Russell came under the withering rebuke and exposure of Scripture: "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 4:33And 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 4:3)).
Scripture plainly brands such teaching as anti-christian.
Then again, we were told by "Pastor" Russell that the Lord absolutely ceased to be a man when He died on the cross. This is annihilation again.
Yet Thomas recognized Him in resurrection by the wounds in His hands and side, exclaiming: "My Lord and my God" (John 20:2828And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. (John 20:28)).
But Russell denied the resurrection of Christ.