((■) Without following in detail the progress of thought in the Apostolic teaching, and the develop- ment in later ages, we may notice one or two points in ChristoJogy where the question of Christ's om- nipotence comes more prominently into view. The Logos theory developed into the Two-nature con- ce])tion of Clirist's Person, which last remained as tlie authoritative doctrine of the Church. The proldem of Christ's Person was not thereby solved ; and ever- recurring attempts Avere made to harmon- ize the facts of weakness, ignorance, and growth with a Divine cpva-i's possessed of all Divine powers. Either the human nature was conceived as exalted to the Divine, or the Divine was conceived as limiting itself, and so placing itself on a level Avith the finite iiuman nature. The boldest attempt in the first direction was that made by the Lutheran theologians of the 16th and 17th cents., who taught that all Divine powers were personally communi- cated to the human nature of Christ, but that in His earthly state the use of these powers was ordinarily veiled, if not surrendered. The other direction of thought is seen, e.g., in Thomas Aquinas, who strives to bring the Divine omni- potence of Christ into harmony with His human life, by affirming that He shared in the Divine
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omnipotence only so far as He needed it in His mission, and, further, tliat He ordinarily limited His own power voluntarily so as to be able to partake of human weakness. A more strenuous attempt in the same direction is to be found in the Kenotic doctrine of last century, which athrms that Christ in becoming man emptie<l Himself of the attributes of omnipotence, etc., and so became subject to the ordinary conditions of a jeal human life (see Kknosis). All such attempts to unify inconsistent characters end in depleting the Person of Christ either of His Ui^'inity or of some part of His humanity, and so serve only to show the inadeciuacy of the Two-nature theory from which they start. The problem is to be solved only l)y (1) a new conception of what constitutes Divinity, and (2) by pressing back to the historical Christ as presented in the Synoptic Gospels. So long as God is characterized mainly by His basal attributes, the doctrine of the God-man is a simple unintel- ligibility : it is here that the proposition fnituni 71011 rapax infiniti verilies itself to our minds. But as religious faith presses on to a recognition of the inner being of God, it comes upon attributes that are at once more central and at the same time essentially communicable to humanity. Holiness, justice, faithfulness, love, are the innermost attri- butes of God, and they also rei)resent the goal of human life ; and in the measure man attains to tiiese, does he attain to union with God. It is through the jjossession of these qualities that Christ is one with the Father, and ai)proves Him- self as the Son of God. This must be the starting- point for a revision of the thought of Christ's onmipotence. Christ's power is not coextensive with God's ; it is the power of omnipotent goodness and faith, the omnipotence of One who m<akes Himself the channel of the Divine will. Even His miraculous power must be subsumed under the same category ; it is a power granted to faith (Mk 11-3, j^it 17-"). If it be said that this spiritual power and sovereignty are not yet omnipotence, we shall not quarrel about Avords. Christ does not possess absolute onmipotence, any more than He IS God simplicitcr. But He who lives in fullest fellowship with the Father, who is one with God in heart and purpose, and who consciously makes Himself the instrument of the Divine will in carrying out His work of grace among men, may surely claim to share in the Divine omnipotence.
Literature. — Kostlin, art. 'Gott' in PRE^; Schultz, Gottheit Cliristi and OT Theol. [Clark's tr.] ; Kaftan, Dogmatik, 41-47; A. B. Bruce, Miraculous Element in the Gospels, ch. vii. ; Thomas Aquinas, Surnma, iii. Qu. 13; B. B. VVarfield, The Power of God unto Salvation (1903), 91. J. DiCK FLEMING.
OMNIPRESENCE.— The distinctive conception of omnipresence which meets us in the Gospels may briefly be expressed thus : God is able to exert His activity anywhere. God's children cannot be where He is not. He is spiritually present with all earnest, seeking souls everywhere.
1. If this be so, it is evident that Christ's dis- tinctive teaching on this subject was not meta- physiml. He does not speak of God in terms of philosophy. Such terms as 'the Absolute,' or 'the Infinite,' or ' the Unconditioned ' are never found on Christ's lips, and, what is more, the ideas im- plied by these terms are absent from His horizon. We do not find in Christ's discourses any disquisi- tion on the nature and attributes of God. With the exception of the solitary phrase ' God is Spirit ' (.In 4^), which is certainly rich in implications, but, when originally uttered, was meant merely to check material and local conceptions of the Deity, we have no instance in which Jesus expounded the nature or even the attributes of God as such. His method was rather to reveal the character of God
by portraying His activities in relation to the lives of men, and especially of Christian men. Not only so, but Christ's st<trtin(f-point was different from that of the metaphysician. To the latter, God is a postulate of the Reason. God is a necessary assumption to explain the origination and continu- ance of the woild. Keason claims satisfaction ; and therefore insists that God must essentially be that which will subsume mind and nature under the unity of an intelligible notion. The meta- physician seeks for proofs of the existence of God — for indications of the real behind the phemnuenal, the great First Cause behind the congeries of events which seem to be effects. In the teaching of the \m\A Jesus, God is the postulate of the rdifjlous consciousness. When religious experiences are re- duced to terms of thought, and the religious con- .sciousness of the individual and the community is expressed in terms which are intelligible to the intellect, it is at once recognized that the God who is so real to His pe(q)le, wherever they may be, — who is the source of strength and joy and light to His jjcople everywhere, — must have tlie attribute of omnipiesence predicated concerning Him. Christ's conception of the presence of God is thoroughly re- ligious. It is always a presence to the religious consciousness, trust, prayer, and fellowshi}).