1 Woe be unto the pastors [ro'im] that destroy and scatter the sheep [tzon] of My pasture! saith Yahweh.

The Sheep.

-- Who they are, Jesus makes plain:

"My sheep hear my voice: and I know them, and they follow me" (Jno. x. 27).

Here is their characteristic wherever found: men who submit to the word of Christ and do what he commands.

This is a more cordial and distinct type of discipleship than is common among the multitude who recognise the lordship of Christ in the abstract. It is the only type of discipleship acceptable with him, and the type acceptable with him is the only type of ultimate value. He spoke very plainly on this subject more than once: "He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me" (John xiv. 21). "Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I have commanded" (xv. 14). "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven" (Matt. vii. 21).

The apostles spoke with equal plainness. Thus Paul:

"If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Rom. viii. 9). Thus John: "He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also to walk even as he walked" (Jno. ii. 6). Thus Peter: "If; after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning" (2 Pet. ii. 20).

The men who submit to the word of Christ and obey his commandments are most aptly represented by sheep. The sheep is a strong but harmless animal, from which no living thing suffers injury. There could be no more powerful exhortation than the employment of such an animal to figure the disciples of Christ. He is himself the Lamb of God, and those who follow him are like him in the strength of their spiritual attachments and the guilelessness and inoffensiveness of their characters.

Nazareth Revisited Ch 29.

6 In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, Yahweh OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

YAHWEH-TZIDKAINU

He shall be our righteousness

..."another name" was to be proclaimed to Israel and Judah than any they were acquainted with in the days of Isaiah and Jeremiah. These both prophesied concerning it. The former says of the child born and son given,

"He shall call his name Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty Power, Father of Futurity, Prince of Peace ... upon the throne of David:" and the latter says of him, "the Great, the Mighty Power, YAHWEH of armies, his Name" (xxxii. 18)...

This is certainly a name of glory, honour, power, dominion, wisdom, and holiness. It is the name for the Olahm emanating from Deity: who shall bear it? Shall it be borne wholly and solely by Jesus; or shall a multitude share it with him? We, who have confessed that he is Lord to the glory of the Divine Father, rejoice that he hath already received it in part, which is an earnest of the whole.

The name of the Deity hath been written upon him; for he hath received a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow: the name of the New Jerusalem, which is his new name, has also been inscribed upon him; for he is the glory, the light, the wall, and the temple thereof.

The gospel of the kingdom was preached to Israel and the nations, that by faith in it a people might be separated from them for this name. All who accept it are baptized into this name and for it. All such are in this name, and anxiously looking forward to the time when the "New Name of the Deity" will be written upon them by the resurrection-power of the Father.

What Jesus now is they will become; for they are joint-heirs with him of all he inherits. He is Deity manifested in flesh; and so when those who are now in the name shall rise from among the dead, and put on incorruption, they also will be the Deity manifested in immortal flesh -- the "New Name" of glory, honour, incorruptibility, life, and power, will be written or engraved into their new nature -- incarnate focalizations of spirit-emanation from the substance of the Eternal Father.

"I, YAHWEH, will be to Israel and Judah for Elohim."

The resurrected saints are these Elohim, who arise to judge the earth; and to rule Israel when they become a righteous and truth-loving people. They are the Elohim of Truth elohai-amen -- in whom Israelites will bless themselves in the earth; to whom -- that is, to Israel and their Elohim -- the name of Israel, under the law and to this present, comparable to Jeremiah's good-for-nothing girdle, will be a by-word and a curse.

Eureka 3.2.8.

24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith Yahweh. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith Yahweh.

The Deity

We can follow the idea of the Creator to a certain small height, and there we stop. We cannot go beyond our little atmosphere. Overwhelming immensity bewilders: eternity and the ways of infinity stagger the mental man; and he drops his flight, and returns to earth with the stunned feeling of one who has ventured too high in a baloon.

We know that the person of the Deity is "in heaven;" but this knowledge is apt to mislead us. We are apt to think of Him as we think of ourselves, or those we know. We are apt to think of him as confined to the space His dazzling and inscrutable substance occupies. This were a great mistake; He "fills heaven and earth;" His being occupies boundless space—(Jer. 23:24; Psa. 139:7.)

His person "in heaven," is but the focus of His being as it were—the seat of that ineffable Intelligence which guides, and is embodied in Universal Power. His illimitable being is ONE. You cannot divide anything from God, or any part of Him from himself. He consciously fills all.

He is, as it were, an Intelligence of measureless vastitude, holding in himself all that exists or can exist, occupying all space by spirit, irradiant from His person, "in heaven," which is spirit intensely.

The Christadelphian, Oct 1869

28 The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith Yahweh.

We beg leave to say that we exclude no one, not even a Jew, Mohammedan, or Pagan. It is not we that exclude, for it is not our prerogative to do so. We learn from the Bible that there is a certain thing called "the Word." We did not invent this, and therefore we are not responsible for its definitions and testimonies. We believe that the Deity is its author, and that therefore He is responsible for all its hard and crucifying sayings, and the exclusion of all from his salvation except the few, whom He condescends to choose.

"Many" saith he "are called, but few are chosen;" "many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able;" and "strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth into life, and few there be that find it."

... What He hath purposed he hath purposed in himself for his own good pleasure. Eph. 1:9; Rev. 4:2. In this we acquiesce with perfect and entire satisfaction.

All, then, we have to do is to study this word, and to find out what it teaches for faith and obedience. We endeavor to discover how the word defines the few that shall be saved; and what it says of "the gate" and

"the way which leadeth into life."

We believe that we understand what the word teaches upon these important subjects; and we tell an unthankful and perverse generation what it says.

We show its "wise and prudent" who the word excludes, and who it does not; and because it excludes them and theirs that "wonder after" them, they hate it; but to conceal their hatred to the word, they handle roughly in their talk all who show the condemnation that word fulminates against them.

Thus while they hate God, as evinced in their "casting his words behind them," they transfer their attacks to them who are more accessible; for He is in the heaven but we upon the earth.

But never mind; their tongues may prevail against us now until the Ancient of Days shall come. Their rough handling we regard as little as their foolish talk; and surely, if they could only know our supreme indifference to it, they would change the subject of their conversation. But, doubtless, it gratifies; for it is so fine a thing to be thought "liberal and charitable." It makes us so popular with the Old Adam; and who can doubt it, when we denounce "exclusionists," and proclaim the salvation of all who believe a negative?

As to being "a divider of the flock," in the name of scripture and reason, what "flock" is that? A flock identical with the Michigan Conference? When was it ever united? Who can divide a heterogenous flock of Campbellites, Adventists, Marshites, et id genus omne? Division is the essence of such a flock, whose falling asunder is a matter of no concern in heaven above, nor in the earth beneath, save to those whose craft it is to feed or cram it with traditions palatable to the flesh.

Introduce the truth among them and it will throw them into uproar; and if there be any honest and good hearts among them, it will cause them to evacuate the house of Jezebel with all promptitude and dispatch, lest partaking in her sins they become obnoxious to the ruin which impends.

We glory indeed in being a divider of all such from so goatish a community. Christ's sheep are a flock who know the shepherd's voice, which is the truth. This never divides them, and they make no outcry against excluding wolves and goats, from their fold. They are particularly anxious that they should not be permitted to creep in at unawares. They do not like the scent of goats nor the teeth and claws of dogs and wolves.

They have no more tolerance for a great goat, or a big wolf in their fold, than for little ones. The greater the goat and the bigger the wolf, the more careful they are to make all the sheep see that though coated with much wool, they are but goats and wolves after all. And we never yet heard a real sheep say, "this is very offensive to us." Editor

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, June 1861