SIR ROBERT ANDERSON
Secret Service
Theologian
THE LORD FROM HEAVEN
PREFACE and CONTENTS
Some years ago the Author was asked to mediate between the
Committee of one of our Missionary Societies and certain of their younger
agents, whose faith had been disturbed by Moslem hostility to the truth of the
Sonship of Christ. Though not unversed in the literature on the subject, he
could find no book that definitely met the difficulties of the missionaries,
and the project of writing such a book was suggested to him. And a recent
correspondence disclosed the fact that, by those who deny the Lord's Deity,
that truth is supposed to depend on the special texts which teach it
explicitly. These pages accordingly seek to unfold the doctrine of the Sonship,
and to call attention to some of the indirect testimony of Scripture to the
Deity of Christ. The book is not controversial. It is a Bible study. And if the
perusal of it proves as helpful to any, as the writing of it has been to the
Author, its purpose will be satisfied.
He wishes here to acknowledge help
received in the preparation of it. To the Bishop of Durham he is under very
special obligations for kindly and valuable criticism and counsel. And his
labours were lightened by his friend, Miss A. R. Habershon, who, besides aid
freely given in other ways, prepared for his use New Testament "concordance" of
the names and titles of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It may be well to mention
that in these pages the references to Scripture do not specify which of our
Versions is quoted, save where it is desired to call special attention to the
reading adopted.
TO THE SECOND EDITION
THE publication of
this book has brought me many striking proofs that a book of the kind is
needed. The mass of men are unreached by learned works upon this great subject,
and mere popular treatises fail to convince the thoughtful. But in these pages
there is nothing which any Bible student cannot follow, and yet they contain
enough to satisfy all who accept the authority of Christ as a divine Teacher,
or the authority of Holy Scripture as a divine revelation. And this, being the
scheme of the book, I have refrained from quoting the writings of theologians;
and my acquaintance with ancient controversies has been used solely to enable
me to shun the heresies which provoked them.
It would seem that very many
who, by habitually repeating the creeds, give a conventional assent to the
doctrine of the Deity of Christ, are practically agnostics in relation to it.
And to me this discovery is made still more startling by the fact that their
doubts seem to be confirmed by the language of the very formulas which were
intended to set the question at rest for ever. For the phrase, "the persons of
the Trinity," apparently conveys a meaning wholly different from that which the
original words were intended to express. And to the illiterate it suggests
error which leaves them an easy prey to the Unitarian propagandist.
As the
Latin Dictionary tells us, the word persona is "from per-sono, to sound
through"; and it means "a mask, especially that used by players, which covered
the whole head, and was varied according to the different characters to be
represented." And, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, our word
"person" means "(1) a character sustained or assumed in a drama, or the like,
or in actual life; part played; hence function, office, capacity; (2) an
individual being." It will thus be seen how closely the primary and classical
signification of "person" is allied to the Latin persona, and what slight
affinity it has with the popular and ordinary meaning of the word. And yet its
ordinary meaning has a definite influence upon the minds of ordinary people
when they speak of "the persons of the Trinity."
The Deity is not to be
likened to a triumvirate acting in unison. God is One. But He has manifested
Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and the crowning manifestation of
Himself was in the Son. At the coming of Christ He was "manifested in flesh."
The somewhat doubtful revised reading of 1 Timothy iii. 16 in no way affects
the force of the passage. The statement that the Man of Nazareth "was
manifested in flesh" would be nothing better than a grandiloquent platitude.
"He who was manifested in flesh" must refer to God. The words are the
equivalent of John i. 18, which tells us that the Son has declared H im.
But, we are asked by people who own that they are in the habit of repeating the
creeds, "How could the Son be God, seeing that He prayed to God, and spoke of
God as a Being distinct from His own personality?" This is a real difficulty;
and it is not to be met by attempting to explain "the mystery of God, even
Christ," but by freely owning that the mystery is one which reason cannot
solve. How strange it is that while, on "the authority of the Church," men give
an unquestioning assent to the superstitions of what they deem to be " the
Christian religion," we hesitate to accept the mysteries of the Christian faith
upon the authority of the Word of God! And with great humility I hazard the
opinion that, in their zeal for the truth, the orthodox Fathers went to unwise
lengths in analysing and defining the Deity. But be that as it may, certain it
is that the formularies of those days create difficulties in many devout minds
in our own times.
In presence of the mystery of God, which, we are
expressly told, we cannot fathom, our part is simply to accept the "It is
written." But let us see to it that what we accept is really what is written. I
am here reminded of help received many years ago from having my attention
called to the Greek text of John i. 1. My lesson was learned during a railway
journey, and my teacher was a Roman Catholic friend, one of H.M.'s judges of
the Supreme Court, who pointed out to me the significance of the presence of
the Greek article in the one clause, and its absence in the other clause, of
the familiar passage, (rendered in Greek) - Our English idiom fails us
here; but if we might use the word "Deity" as a synonym for "God," any one
could appreciate the difference between the statement that the Word was with
the Deity, and the further statement that the Word was Himself Deity.
Of
course the Unitarian fritters away the force of this. But even in days when the
language of Scripture is treated with reckless freedom, the significance of the
words which follow cannot be evaded. For we are told, "All things were made by
Him"; and if the Creator of all things be not God, language has no meaning.
Classic paganism, indeed, could fall back on the figment of a subordinate God-
a conception which modern enlightenment rejects- and the Arian heresy would
never have gained such a hold in the Patristic Church had not the minds of so
many of the Fathers been corrupted by the paganism of their early training (see
p. 54 post). Indeed, we learn from 1 Corinthians viii. that even the Christians
who enjoyed the benefit of direct Apostolic teaching were not wholly free from
pagan error in this respect.
We need to keep this in view in reading that
chapter, for the 6th verse, "To us there is one God the Father," is the
Unitarian's charter text. And this, we are told, is rendered the more emphatic
by the sequel, "And one Lord Jesus Christ."
But the teaching here is aimed
at the pagan errors which then prevailed; and, in view of the immediate
context, it is an impossible suggestion that the Apostle Paul intended to teach
that the Lord Jesus Christ was but a creature. For the added words, "by whom
are all things," unequivocally declare the truth which is more fully revealed
in Colossians i. 15-17, that the Lord Jesus is the Creator of the universe. And
if this do not assert His Deity, I again repeat, words have no meaning. He "by
whom are all things" must be God. Any one, therefore, who refuses the truth
that the Lord Jesus is God, must acknowledge two Gods. The Christian reads the
passage in the light of the words, "I and My Father are One." But, we are told,
these words are to be explained by His prayer to the Father on behalf of His
people, "that they may be one even as we are One" (John xvii. 22). Surely we
might suppose that even a child could understand the difference between perfect
unity and essential oneness. When Hooker wrote, "Our God is one, or rather very
oneness," he was not giving expression to a mere platitude, but to divine truth
about the God whom we know as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The prayer of
the betrayal night points to the time when the unity between His people and God
will be as perfect as the unity between the Father and the Son. But that is
vastly different from essential oneness. Will that unity empower them, either
corporately or as individuals, to create worlds, to forgive sins, or to give
life to whom they will! And these supreme prerogatives of Deity pertain to the
Lord Jesus Christ. There is no escape from the dilemma in which this places us.
If there be not two Gods, we must own that the Father and the Son are
One.
But, some one demands, "How then do you explain"? Without waiting
to hear what form the inquiry assumes, we reply at once that we do not attempt
to explain "the mystery of God." "No one knoweth the Son, save the Father." And
the force of this is intensified by the sequel, "Neither doth any one know the
Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal Him." The
truth of the Fatherhood is a mystery revealed in Christ: the truth of the
Sonship remains an unrevealed mystery which transcends reason, but which faith
accepts. In teaching our children we often find that what to us seems clear is
beyond the mental grasp of childhood; and yet we fail to recognise that divine
truth may be beyond the capacity of finite minds. "Canst thou by searching find
out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection ?" The Arian
controversy assumes that we can / Heresy trades upon isolated texts, and the
Unitarian heresy, as we have seen, ignores even the context of the words on
which it relies. Take another striking instance of this. At the grave of
Lazarus "Jesus wept." And presently "He lifted up His eyes and said, Father, I
thank Thee that Thou hast heard me." What proof this gives of His humanity, and
that His relation to God was that of a man dependent on the divine Father? Yes,
truly; but at that same time, and in that very scene, it was that He spoke the
words, "I am the resurrection and the life." No Gentile, perhaps, can fully
realise what those words conveyed to a devout Jew. If He who uttered them was
not divine in the fullest and most absolute sense, the men who crucified Him
were obeying one of the plainest commands of the divine law in putting Him to
death.
In, saying this we assume, of course, that the Lord actually spoke
the words attributed to Him. For these pages are addressed to Christians; and
if the Gospels be not the divinely accredited records of His ministry, the
Christian faith must give place to agnosticism in the case of all but the
superstitious.
And while utterly rejecting the Kenosis theology -that our
Lord's words were at times the expression of divine truth, and at other times
of Jewish error -we may notice that, as these particular words were in such
violent opposition to all Jewish thought, they must, even on that profane
hypothesis, be accepted as divine. With some people religious doctrines seem to
be kept in water-tight compartments. And thus they can hold divine truth along
with human error which conflicts with it. But truth is really one, and if any
part be assailed the whole is imperilled. If, for example, we let go the Deity
of Christ, which is the foundation truth of Christianity, the doctrine of the
Atonement is destroyed. For in the whole range of false religions there is not
a more grotesquely silly superstition than that the death of a fellow-creature
could expiate the sin of the world.
But in these days the need of expiation
is largely ignored. And this because the ordinary conception of sin is so
inadequate as to be practically false. Therefore it is that the truth of the
Lord's Deity is held so lightly. For men are content with a vague belief in a
reconciliation brought about in some undefined way by the example of a perfect
life and a self-sacrificing death. And even this is lost by those who adopt the
figment that the Lord belonged to a higher type of creaturehood than humanity.
Certain it is that He who died for men must Himself be man.
And yet were He
only man His death would avail us nothing; for, as the Bishop of Durham puts
it, "A Saviour not quite God is a bridge broken at the farther end." And we
must be on our guard against another error. The popular conception of "a divine
man," "a God-man," a being half human and half divine, savours of old-world
paganism. The Lord Jesus Christ is "very man" and yet "very God." He is the
"type" and pattern of humanity, and yet He is the Son of God in all which that
title signifies. He is the only God the world shall ever know. Apart from Him
"no one has ever seen God": apart from Him no one of mankind can ever see
Him.
And He it is who died for us. For "He who knew no sin was made sin for
us." And if it be demanded how could this be? we answer with Bishop Butler,
"All conjectures about it must be, if not evidently absurd, yet at least
uncertain." "And," as he adds, "no one has any reason to complain from want of
further information unless he can show his claim to it," God here retreats upon
His divine Sovereignty, and faith accepts the divine "It is written."
But
everything depends upon the Deity of Christ; and, therefore, as Athanasius said
long ago, in contending for that great truth "we are contending for our
all."
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY:
THE QUESTION AT ISSUE.
Prof. Harnack quoted-The Divinity of
Christ is now admitted, but His Deity is denied-Renan quoted-The Tubingen
School-The Schmiedel School-The New Testament teaches the Deity of Christ-The
Crucifixion proves that the Lord laid claim to Deity-The answer made by
Unitarianism.
CHAPTER II
THE MEANING OF "SON." IN SCRIPTURE . 7
Ordinary
meaning of the word-Its figurative meaning- The distinction between "Son" and
"Child"; ignored In Anthorised Version-The Christian as such Is a "Child," but
Is not called a "Son "-Illustrative passages cited-Personality of the Apostle
John- Meaning of Barnabas' name.
CHAPTER
III
THE SON OF MAN . . . 14
Meaning of that title-The Lord's use of it-It connotes a heavenly glory-It does
not refer to His human birth -As Son of Man He is Lord of the Sabbath, forgives
sins, and has all judgment committed to Him-How and when we shall see
God.
CHAPTER IV
THE SON OF GOD . . 27
Christ the mystery of
God-An incident in the French Chamber-An unscriptural definition of the
Sonship- "The Only begotten Son"-Meaning of the term, and its use in
Scripture-The perversion of Paul's defence of the Resurrection illustrates the
evil of "explaining" such mysteries-The Virgin Birth-The Lord laid claim to
Deity.
CHAPTER V
THE TESTIMONY OF THE FIRST GOSPEL . 89
The
distinctive characteristics of the Four Gospels- Matthew and John compared-The
Sermon on the Mount was a claim to Deity-In Matt. XI, xvi., and xxiv. the Lord
laid claim to Deity-Dr. Edersheim and Is. lxiii.-"Silly Billy" on the Trinity.
CHAPTER VI
THE TESTIMONY OF THE FOURTH GOSPEL. 50
The
omissions of the Fourth Gospel an evidence of Inspiration-The purpose of the
Fourth Gospel-The Arian conception of a subordinate God was due to paganism
-Passages in John to illustrate the Lord's claim to Deity-His Deity proved by
the resurrection of Lazarus, and by the Apostles' miracles.
CHAPTER VII
THE
TESTIMONY OF JAMES AND THE HEBREWS . . 60
Edersheim quoted in
illustration of it-Character, value, and date of James's Epistle, and his
testimony to the Deity-The testimony of Hebrews-Character and authorship of
Hebrews, and Paul's connection with It-If Christ be not God, He must be a
creature -The indirect evidence of the Deity-The faith of the first
disciples.
CHAPTER VIII
THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLE PAUL 70
The
testimony of Spiritualism to inspiration-The training of a prophet-The Apostle
Paul's sufferings-His stoning at Lystra-His "thorn in the flesh "-His turning
to Jerusalem-His personality and antecedents lend weight to his testimony to
the Deity-Quotations from his Epistles.
CHAPTER
IX
THE TESTIMONY OF THE REVELATION
85
The unity of Scripture exemplified by Revelation-Import-ance
of the book-It refutes a "Christ after the flesh" religion-The present-day
attacks on Scripture-The Apocalyptic visions establish the Deity-The only
tenable alternative stated in the language of the " New Theology."
CHAPTER X
"FOR
THE SAKE OF HIS NAME" . . . 97
The Lord's claim to Deity, and to
Divine honour-Prevailing irreverence in naming Him-Christendom copies the
Jewish exorcists-Queen Victoria's letters-The mode in which the Lord is named
in the Gospels; and in the Epistles-The practice of Paul; and of Peter- A
closing appeal for reverence.
CHAPTER
XI
THE REVELATION OF GRACE, AND THE LIFE
TO COME 109
The Eden promise-The primeval revelation and ancient
mythologies-The seeming incredibility of Christianity
-The faith that
overcomes the world-Conventional beliefs and real faith-Organised Christianity
has failed-The Christian revelation apparently falsified by facts-The
explanation of this-Grace a lost truth The Lord In the Synagogue of
Nazareth-The day of grace, and the day of vengeance-Punitive action against sin
awaits the day of judgment-A pandemonium and a bonfire -That the Church will
convert the world is a grotesque figment-The coming of Christ is the hope of
both Church and world- Conclusion.
APPENDIX
NOTE TO CHAPTER
IV. . . . 122
The argument of Arius, and the answer to It-The false
inferences based on the word "only begotten "-The Virgin Birth-Why it is not
mentioned in the Epistles -The meaning of the word' firstborn"
(prötotokos), and the passages in which the word occurs.
NOTE TO CHAPTER X. . . 126
Illnstrative
publications: a syllabus of addresses, a theological work, a publisher's
circular, and a book of piety-The rationalistic character of modern theological
works-Irreverence in naming the Lord-The practice of the Fathers-The mode in
which the Lord is named in the Gospels, and in Acts and the Epistles -Comments
on the prevailing practice-" The Lord's death, till He come" -Our
hymnology-"Safe in Jehovah's keeping."
THE LORD FROM HEAVEN
Literature | Photos | Links | Home