In the August 1938 issue of the Berean Christadelphian’s newsletter, we read the following article by an “M.J.” identifying the “Ancient of Days” with “Jesus” by means of the “God-manifestation” or Phanerosis doctrine:
THOUGHTS ON THE TYPES AND TITLES OF
JESUS CHRIST.
x. —ANCIENT OF DAYS.
Two fundamental doctrines stand out prominently in the vivid
contrast afforded between the Truth and the errors of an apostate Christendom —
God manifestation and the natural condition of man. Whilst there have been at
various times some who have rejected the myth of the immortality of the soul,
only those whose minds have been illuminated by "the whole counsel of
God" can have the slightest conception of those things revealed concerning
"the Name."
Wonderfully interwoven as a golden thread in the beautiful
fabric of the "eternal purpose which He hath purposed in Christ
Jesus" is the Memorial Name of God, first revealed to Israel (Ex. iii. 14,
15) as His chosen, and later to all becoming related to the covenants of promise
in the appointed way (Matt. xxviii. 19).
Through the prophet Daniel is outlined (for the understanding
of such) two great systems in the earth—one present, the other to come. The
Kingdom of God is to supplant the kingdoms of men, the broad survey of which is
given in the visions of Nebuchadnezzar (ch. ii.) and of Daniel himself (ch.
vii.).
After four world-wide empires had passed away—characterised
by four metals in the one case, and by four great beasts in the other—Daniel
"beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit,
whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool:
his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire" (vii.
9). Conquest by fire is the work appointed to Christ when he "shall be
revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, taking vengeance on them that know
not God" (2 Thess. i. 7, 8).
As Daniel's visions of the night unfolded, and he witnessed
the slaying of the beast, in its Papal and Protestant phases, and its body
(politic) "given to the burning flame," another personage appeared,
coming with the clouds of heaven (see 1 Thess. iv. 17), and was brought into
the august presence of the Ancient of Days.
Literally, it is not one person, but a composite body, and is
styled, as Dr. Thomas shows, "a (not the) Son of Man." Although
having in the vision the form of a man, it is that cloud of witnesses, or
multitudinous seed of Christ, redeemed from the world and constituted a part of
that mighty congregation of the saints who will presently execute judgments in
the earth. Of them, the Ancient of Days, in the time of his fleshly
manifestation, declared that he had "manifested the Father's name unto
them" (John xvii. 6), as a result of which "they have known surely
that I (Jesus) came out from thee.”
Later, in "the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God
gave unto him to shew unto his servants," the Apostle John saw "one
like unto the Son of Man," whose characteristics were similar to those
seen by Daniel.
The identification is simple, for he speaks, declaring
himself to be "he that liveth, and was dead, and is alive for evermore,
Amen.” He is the head of the body, the perfect man (Eph. iv. 13).
To quote the author of Eureka: "The Ancient of Days is
'the Lord the Spirit,’ the 'Quickening Spirit,’ the Logos in David's flesh, who
is the Head of this Son of Man" (i. p. 166). In controversy with the
religious leaders, this One claimed, much to their consternation, "Before
Abraham was, I am.” Their minds could extend no further than their fleshly
descent as a nation, but "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us" (John i.).
Four thousand years elapsed, and in a dream, Joseph, the
espoused husband of Mary, was comforted by the assurance that she was to bring
forth a son, whose name (as the Spirit in Isaiah had foretold) should be called
Immanuel—God with us.
Nineteen centuries have rolled on, and we are waiting to see
him "so come" in like manner as the disciples saw him go from the
Mount of Olives, and to participate, if found worthy, in "the dominion and
the glory which shall not pass away.”
The events of the future are vividly portrayed in the
Exposition of Daniel as follows: —
"The coming of the Ancient of Days is a great event in
this prophecy. He is said to sit, and one like the Son of Man to be brought to
him. When the prophecy was delivered he had not manifested himself in the
flesh—the Son of Man had not been born; hence that peculiar representative mode
of expression: but he has since been born, or manifested, and gone into a far
country, where the manifested Son has appeared in the presence of the Ancient
of Days, or the Father, for the purpose of receiving from him ‘dominion, and
glory, and a kingdom, that all people, and nations, and languages, should serve
him; and all rulers obey him.’ . . . When the times arrives, as the Ancient of
Days embodied in holy spiritual nature, he will come and ‘sit in Jerusalem, the
Holy City, to judge all the nations round about. . . .’ When the manifested
Ancient of Days comes, the judgment is set and the books are opened; and
whosoever is found written in the Lamb's Book of Life awakes to everlasting
life."
The initial work confronting the saints of the Most High is
demonstrated in Daniel vii., which has been of sustaining power to many a
fainting pilgrim, bowed down by the difficulties and injustices inseparable from
the kingdoms of men.
Opportunity to wear out the saints will no longer exist, for
their time will have come to assist with Spirit invested authority in bringing
the world to a recognition that the Most High rules in the kingdoms of men.
Once more will the Divine prerogative be exerted, for though man is subject to
decay and death, and in his brief span of mortal existence is in constant
rebellion against the law of God, the Lord's arm is not shortened.
Amongst the many sublime pictures through Isaiah with which
we comfort ourselves in these days of waiting, those words contained in ch. li.
surely stimulate in this respect:
"Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord;
awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. The redeemed of the
Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and ever-lasting joy shall
be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning
shall flee away." (M.J. "Consider Him," in The Berean
Christadelphian: A Magazine Devoted to the Exposition and Defence of the Faith
Once For All Delivered to the Saints as Opposed to the Dogmas and Reservations
of the Papal and Protestant Churches [August 1938]: 304-5)
For more, see the following posts on the Christadelphian founder, John Thomas, and his understanding of Jesus being the "Ancient of Days":
On the Christadelphian movement itself, see:
