The Pursuit of God

Chapter 3: Removing the Veil

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the Christian’s privilege of present realization. According to its teachings we are in the presence of God positionally, and nothing is said about the need to experience that Presence actually. The fiery urge that drove people like M’Cheyne 14 is wholly missing. And the present generation of Christians measures itself by this imperfect rule. A less than noble contentment takes the place of burning zeal. We are satisfied to rest in our judicial possessions 15 and for the most part we bother ourselves very little about the absence of personal experience. Who is this within the veil who dwells in fiery man ifestations? It is none other than God himself, “one God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things, visible and invisible,” and “one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God; begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God; begotten, not made; being of one substance with the Father,” and “the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified.” 16 Yet this holy Trinity is one God, for “we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in unity; neither confounding the persons, nor dividing the substance. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, is all one: the glory equal

14 Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813–1843) – Very youthful, ardent, and devout Scottish Presbyterian minister in Dundee, known best through Andrew Bonar’s spiritual classic The Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1844). 15 Judicial Possessions – Legal standing. 16 Quoting the Nicene Creed.