Eleazar, an attempt has been made to suggest that the jioi man . . . was the rich man's own father.' See art. Lazari's.
Albeet Bonus. DIVINITY OF CHRIST.—
2. The movement ' Back to Christ.'
3. Certain results of the movement. Sases of Christological belief.
1. I'l-iniarily a new exi^erieiicG.
[lis self-consciousiicss : («) Ilis interior h (,i)Hi3 method in teaching, (y) Uis sinle: ness, 0>) His oneness with Uod.
DrV^IOTTY OF CHRIST
DIVINITY OF CHRIST
[c) His appeal to deeper personality.
[d) His teaching and works.
3. Validity of the experience. HI. Beginnings of the doctrine of Christ's Person in the NT.
1. General character of the doctrine.
2. Divine names applied to Christ.
3. Divine properties and acts attributed to Christ.
4. Divine relations as to God, man, the world. IV. Subsefiuent development of NT ideas.
1. Historj- of the doctrine.
(a) Patristic. (6) Media)val. (c) Modern.
2. Denial of the doctrine.
(o) Its history and motive.
(b) Its failure.
I. Preliminary Considerations.— 1. The myx- tery of Christ. — The historic question of Jesus to His disciples, ' Who do men say that I the Son of Man am ? ' (Mt 16'^ Mk S^', Lk 9''), was put not to confound, but to reveal, by awakening the desire for knowledge. The intelligent answer to the question preserves the precious truth, which is nothing less tlian God's age-long secret about Him- self. The di-sciples had been nurtured on a religi- ous literature in which the whole national and individual future was seen blending in one antici
there is given to Him dominion and glory and a kingdom which shall not pass away. This was the figure in which the Jewish imagination clothed the Jewish hope. Modem criticism dwells upon the factors in history which determined the form in which tliis hope took shape. The Hebrew religion, we are assured, was wrought out under constant pressure of disa-ster. It was the religion of a proud, brave people, who were constantly held in suDJection to foreign conquerors. Hence came a quality of intense hostility to those tyrannous foes, and also a constant appeal to the Divine Power to declare itself. The hostility and the appeal inspire the Messianic Hope. Wa-s there notliing more ? Surely behind the history and the imagination lay elemental forces of the soul. What lend essential and abiding worth both to the Hebrew hostility to Gentile oppression and the Hebrew appeal to Jehovah's righteous right hand are a faith and a passion which, if quickened into power by the vicissitudes of history, were themselves underived from history, and native to tlie spirit of the nation. Nor in tliis high convic- tion do the Hebrews stand alone. Everywhere, wherever thouL'lit lias advanced sufficiently near its Object, it has come to a yearning, at times poignant, for closer contact. Tlie numerous idola- tries of the lower religions are .simply the objec- tivation of this desire. The no less numerous conceptions of Di^^nity in more cultured peoples are due to flic same stros^. Tliore has been a cc:isrli'~> Ji'iiiaihl (if till' ImiM.iii r.irc fciran embodi- nii-nt of liriiy. 'rill- ilriii.iii.l i, -A. product of the huiipry liunmn licivt for il(»cr tomnumion -tt-ith God and larger loyalty to Him.
The existence of an instinct so universal is the gruarantee of its fulfilment. The two considera- tions, that the Hebrew race had worked out tlie conception of the Messiah, and that the ethnic peoples were quite familiar with Divine inc^irna- tions, processes both present admittedly' to the mind of the Early Church, furnish no evidence to the contrary. In themselves they prove nothing against a true Incarnation historically manifested, if it can lie shown that its historical manifestation is not wholly traceable to naturalistic origins in the Hebrew 'and ethnic genius. The i)resenfe, in particular, of many myths parallel to the Christian story need not mean that the Christian story is itself a myth. As has been well said, ' If "the Christian God really made the human race, would
not the human race tend to rumours and perver- sions of tlie Christian God ? If the centre of our life is a certain fact, would not people far from the centre have a muddled version of the fact ? If we are so made that a Son of God must deliver u.s, is it odd that Patagonians (and others) should dream of a Son of God ? ' (Chesterton, Beligious Doubts of Democracy, p. 18). False beliefs live by the true elements witliin them. A persistent belief occur- ring in many false forms is likely to be true, and may reasonably be expected to occur in a true form. Each redeemer of heathenism is a prophetic anticipation of the satisfying of human desires in Jesus Christ, precisely as the Messianic disclosures of the OT were to the people of whom according to the flesh He came. Tliey are anticipations only : since neither the pagan foregleams nor the Hebrew forecasts offered sufficient data for a complete or consistent delineation of an actual Person.* The earlier experiences of men made the gospel intelligil)le, but they had no power to pro- duce it. It satisfies and crowns them, but does not grow out of them. The Person, when He came, did more than satisfy the old instinct by which men had hope. He reinforced and extended it : His advent not only accomplished the past pro- mise, it gave earnest of greater things to come : He thus represented human ideals indeed, but still more Divine ideas. The highest prophecies of His appearance reveal, amid the circumstantial details, the element of mystery ; that mystery is not eliminated when the Life a^ipears. It is the sin- gular significance of Jesus Christ that both in the anticipations of Hira and in His actual appearance the details always lead on to inquiry as to what is not detailed, the facts to something beyond them- selves ; the Man and His words and works to the question Who is He ? and Whence is this Man ?