With an Open Mind
[EGW
editors preface: This article is an excerpt
from the book Seven Questions in Dispute: Shall Christianity
Remain Christian? by William Jennings Bryan, published in
1924 by Fleming H. Revell Company.
My first real familiarity with
William Jennings Bryan was that he appeared for the prosecution
in the 1925 Scopes trial in which a teacher was tried for teaching
evolution in the classroom. Researching Bryan in the
encyclopedia I learned that he lived from 1860 to 1925 and was
active in national politics as U.S. congressman, as a presidential
candidate, and later as U.S. secretary of state under Woodrow
Wilson. He was also described as a staunch advocate
of the religious Fundamentalism movement resisting popular liberal
theology which tried to redefine Christian teachings in light
of the scientific and historic thought of the time. This
advocacy helped explain to me his participation in the Scopes
trial. (Since including this article in 2005, I've
learned that Bryan died only a few days after this infamous trial
and also that he was raised a Baptist, but became a Presbyterian
at age 14.)
If you have not yet read the editors note
defining and caveating the purpose of the With an Open
Mind column, please do so at this time before continuing
with the article.]
The Deity
of Christ
by William
Jennings Bryan
When
one considers that for nineteen hundred years the deity of Christ
has been the cornerstone of the Christian church, it may seem
strange to my readers that they need consider at this time the
question: Was Christ God or just a man? But even
a casual perusal of the pages of the religious press not
to speak of the secular press will convince one that the
issue between these two views of the Saviour is a very vital
one.
There are in nearly all of the
Bible-believing churches members, and even ministers not
many, but a few who openly reject orthodox teachings in
regard to Christs personality. Besides those who
boldly dissent, there is a still larger group of timid doubters
who cling to the orthodox terms but give these terms an interpretation
which destroys their meaning.
Take,
for instance, the word divinity as used in describing the supernatural
element of Christ. Until recent years, one claiming to
believe in the divinity of Christ would be accepted without question
as a real worshiper of the Master. But in recent times
some who regard Christ as merely a good man and a great teacher,
but entirely human, acclaim His divinity, explaining that He
was divine in the sense in which all men have something of divinity
in them.
The interpretation which they give
to the word divinity robs Christ of His Lordship and makes Him
differ from men in general only in the degree to which He approached
the perfection of the Heavenly Father.
This,
of course, opens the way to as many different valuations of Him
as there are members of the dissenting class.
According to the extent of their
own apostasy and the courage with which they announced their
views, Christ has been described as the perfect man,
the most perfect man, a man of rare virtue,
an extraordinary man for His time, a teacher
of repute, and the like.
When once a follower of Christ
departs from the highest conception of the Master, there is no
logical stopping place until he reaches an entire repudiation
of Christ as a supernatural being.
The only knowledge we have of Christ
is found in the Bible, and a rejection of the Bibles description
of Christ invalidates the authority of every mention of Christ
and of every quotation from His words.
One does not care to be guilty
of an absurdity, yet it is an absurdity to say, as some do, in
substance: While the Bible writers falsify the
record of Christs birth and Sonship, still I am willing
to believe certain quotations from what Christ is reported to
have said; and relying for my information upon these discredited
authorities, I am inclined to think that Christ said some things
which commend themselves to our judgment and are, therefore,
wise.
Of what value is such an endorsement
of Christ?
A
few have been frank enough to carry their logic to its ultimate
conclusion and classify Christ with ordinary men even
below many men prominent in history.
For instance, a book was published
entitled Confessions of an Old Priest, in which the author denies
that Christ was born of a virgin, that He spoke words of supernatural
knowledge impossible for other men, healed lepers, restored palsied
limbs, gave sight to the blind, raised the dead, and He Himself
ascended from the tomb. He even goes so far as to say:
To
the great treasure of human knowledge, it cannot be said that
He (Jesus) added anything
. In science, literature,
government, economics, He seems to have been upon the same level
as the average uneducated man of His time
. He gave
no counsel as to the right ordering of human affairs. He
offers no cure or readjustment.
Proceeding,
he asks, Was He good? and answers as follows:
As
an example to copy, His manner of life will not serve
.
It does not furnish the material
. I was driven
to confess to myself that His teaching
not only could
not but ought not to be followed.
This
author thinks that the goal to which religion would seem to be
moving is a church freed from bondage to history, untrammelled
by Scripture.
What a Postmortem Reveals
This
author said publicly what many preachers and professing Christians
say privately while accumulating the courage necessary to enable
them to defy criticism and break with former religious associates.
As a postmortem examination often
reveals diseases that were not suspected during the life of the
deceased, so confessions, after the repudiation of religion,
often disclose an attitude of mind and heart that was concealed
from the public for many years.
It is easy to understand why one
would hesitate to distress religious associates until his doubts
became stronger than his former convictions. It is also
easy to respect the honesty of heart of those who prefer to endure
criticism and the loss of Christian fellowship rather than profess
what they do not believe. But it is not so easy to excuse
those who continue to call themselves Christians after they have
rejected all that is essential in Christianity and still more
difficult to justify those who attempt to deny to a majority
of the church a very large majority the right to
determine the churchs position on matters of doctrine.
As The Watchman-Examiner said in
an editorial: The Bible and the Bible only can
settle the questions at issue. Let fundamentalists and
liberals come forth to battle armed with their Bibles.
Scripture Declares Christs Deity
The
Bible, from beginning to end, teaches the deity of Christ. In
the Old Testament, His coming is foretold, and His divine character
is plainly announced. Seven hundred years before His incarnation,
Isaiah said He shall
be called
mighty God, The everlasting Father
. Of
the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end. Isaiah describes also the
substitutionary atonement of the promised Messiah.
Matthew
announces the virgin birth of Jesus, who was to save his people from
their sins.
Luke describes in greater detail
the conception of Jesus by the Holy Ghost and says that of his kingdom there
shall be no end.
The Gospel of John begins: In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God
.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us [men].
We are also told that God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
John
describes Him as the
only begotten of the Father
(John 1:14).
Paul describes Christ as God
manifest in
the flesh (I Timothy
3:16). Paul also says of Christ:
Who, being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
But made himself of no
reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was
made in the likeness of men:
And being found in fashion
as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath
highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every
name:
That at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth,
and things under the earth;
And that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God
the Father. (Philippians
2:6-11).
Again
the great apostle says, For it pleased the Father that in him
should all fulness dwell
(Colossians 1:19) and In
him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9).
Christ
laid claim to power that only God could possess.
In Johns Gospel we read:
Jesus answered
.
Your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.
Then said the Jews unto
him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
Jesus said unto them,
Verily, verily,
I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
(John 8:54-58).
Here
we have His own declaration as to His existence with the Father
before He took upon Himself the form of man and offered Himself
a sacrifice for the sins of mankind.
At
the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, the people recognized
that He spoke as
one having authority, and not as the scribes.
This
assumption of authority was manifest in all His utterances. From
the very beginning He not only spoke with authority, but He exercised
authority, driving the money changers out of the temple because
they had made His Fathers house a den of thieves; casting
out devils and rebuking the devilishness in man, as when He brought
an indictment against those who devour widows houses, and for a
pretense make long prayer.
Christ and God Identical
He
not only declared His pre-existence with the Father, but He identified
Himself even more intimately with the Father, saying, I and my Father are one (John 10:30). And again:
That
ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in
him (John 10:38).
We have His word for it that He revealed the Heavenly Father
to man:
If ye had known me, ye
should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye
know him, and have seen him.
Philip saith unto him,
Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Jesus saith unto him,
Have I been
so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how
sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
Believest thou not that
I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that
I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father
that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
Believe me that I am
in the Father, and the Father in me.
(John 14:7-11).
But Jesus answered them,
My Father
worketh hitherto, and I work.
Therefore the Jews sought
the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath,
but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with
God.
Then answered Jesus and
said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but
what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he
doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
For the Father loveth
the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he
will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.
For as the Father raiseth
up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth
whom he will.
For the Father judgeth
no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:
That all men would honour
the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth
not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. (John 5:17-23).
That
He has power to forgive sin is proven in Luke 5, verses 24 and
25:
But that ye may know
that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sins, (he
said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and
take up thy couch, and go into thine house.
And immediately he rose
up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed
to his own house, glorifying God.
The
omniscience of Christ is declared by Paul: In whom are hid all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge
(Colossians 2:3).
His immutability is asserted: Jesus Christ the same
yesterday, and to day, and for ever
(Hebrews 13:8).
That Christ is to be the Judge
of all, in Heaven as well as on earth, is the testimony of Paul:
For
we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ (II Corinthians 5:10).
And also: The Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his
kingdom (II Timothy
4:1).
He
is to be worshiped as God: Let all the angels of God worship him (Hebrews 1:6).
Christ is to be glorified as God:
To
him be glory both now and for ever
(II Peter 3:18); With
all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our
Lord, both theirs and ours
(I Corinthians 1:2).
The dead will rise at His call:
Verily, verily, I say
unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall
live.
all that are in the graves shall
hear his voice.
(John 5:25,28).
Peter,
in reply to the question, Whom say ye that I am? answers, Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God;
to which the Saviour approvingly rejoins, Flesh and blood hath
not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
His Deity Establishes Our Duty
The
churchs commission incomparably the greatest commission
ever issued to any organization could only have been announced
by one of the Trinity.
All power is given unto
me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I
am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. (Matthew 28:18-20).
These
words were uttered by our crucified and risen Lord. He
had passed through a sham trial and had been treated with a contempt
seldom, if ever before, so despicably expressed; He had
been mocked and jeered by those who believed Him to be merely
a man an incumberer of the earth at last removed forever;
He had been crucified and buried; and then He had risen
triumphantly from the grave and had appeared to His disciples
and to others. This was His final communion with His followers.
His claim to power was without
limit; His Gospel was for every human being; baptism
was to be in His name also; His words were to live
every word and be taught to everybody; He promised
to be with His people always, even unto the end of the world;
and in His hands was all the power in Heaven and earth.
True or False?
Christs
claims to divinity were either true or false; there is
no middle ground. It is not a question of interpretation, for
the language is clear and unmistakable.
Robert E. Speer says:
The
question of the deity of Christ is the question of the truth
or falsehood of Christianity. Either Jesus was divine,
God and man in one historic personality, or He was merely a man.
Was
He an impostor? If so, He was the greatest impostor of
all time. Think of it; an unlettered Galilean peasant
perpetrating so stupendous a fraud for nearly twenty centuries
on so large a fraction of the most intelligent of the worlds
population!
Not an Impostor!
It
is impossible that He should be thought an impostor. Even
the Jews who rejected Him do not call Him an impostor; they
think Him deluded.
The book Jesus, the Jew,
contains the following passage:
Yet,
these things apart, who can compute all that Jesus has meant
to humanity? The love he has inspired, the solace he has
given, the good he has engendered, the hope and joy he has kindled
all that is unequaled in human history.
Among the great and good that the
human race has produced, none has even approached Jesus in universality
of appeal and sway. He has become the most fascinating
figure in human history. In him is combined what is best
and most enchanting and most mysterious in Israel the
eternal people whose child he was.
The
Jew cannot help glorying in what Jesus thus has meant to the
world; nor can he help hoping that Jesus may yet serve as a bond
of union between Jew and Christian, once his teaching is better
known and the ban of misunderstanding is at last removed from
his words and his ideal.
But could honest delusion produce
a character who, in the love he had inspired, the
solace he has given and the hope and joy he has kindled
is unequaled in human history?
No, it is impossible to conceive
of such a character acting under a delusion. If that were
possible, then delusion would be a happier state than reason
can create.
King of Kings!
But
if not an impostor and if not deluded, how shall we explain Christ?
As King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, as the
only begotten Son of God who came down to earth and became
flesh, suffered in mans stead that man might be redeemed
from the Fall, and is now at the right hand of God as mans
Intercessor.
Does it make any difference to
the church whether it shall preach Christ, the Son of God, or
Christ, the son of Joseph?
Yes, the same difference that there
is between an infinite God and finite man. If Christ were
but a man, He was but one among millions, and that, too, handicapped
by false pretense if He were an impostor or by an inexcusable
mistake if He were deluded. But if Christ was as the Bible
proclaims Him to be, a part of deity, separated from the Father
for a few brief years and now reigning with God through eternity,
He stands alone among the leaders of men and is the only Saviour
as well.
Is
it material to the church what its doctrine is to be on this
subject? Yes, it determines whether the church is to be
a stagnant pool or a living spring a fountain that pours
forth a refreshing and invigorating flood of the water
of life.
A pool is a pool because it receives
from the sloping sides around it and gives forth nothing. A
spring is a spring because it is connected with a source that
is higher than itself it is just an outlet for the waters
that flow through it from above.
Can
there be any doubt as to the effect upon the church of an abandonment
of the Bibles view of Christ?
It is not a matter of prophecy;
it is a matter of history. There have always been
a few who tried to exalt the human side of Christ while rejecting
the divine side, but they have made no headway. Such
a doctrine has furnished a refuge for some dissenters who were
reluctant to give up Christ entirely, but there has been no propaganda
in such a doctrine. It does not beat back the boundaries
of heathenism or stir men to the sacrifices that are necessary
to the spread of religion.
The story of Jesus, the Son of
God, has been translated into every tongue and has been read
as if it were actually spoken in the language in which it is
read. The story of a man-child named Jesus, if just a worker
of magic or a self-deceived visionary, would not have survived
the generation in which He lived.
To
be a living, vital force, a civilizing influence and a spiritual
power, we must be true to the Christ of the Bible. Apostasy
means death to the church and despair to civilization, for civilization
finds its only hope in the regenerating power of the blood that
flowed from Calvary and in the illumination that comes from the
Heaven-born wisdom of the only begotten Son of God. |