Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1893-03-17
JESUS A MAN.
A MIDWAY OPINION, BETWEEN
TWO EXTREMES.

A MIDWAY OPINION, BETWEEN
TWO EXTREMES.
The Unitarian Creed Neither Af.
firms Nor Denies, but May Bt
Considered Gtiliinrian in IL,
Scope.
One OF the local papers, week before
last, published a nearly two-column
report of a sermon delivered by one ol
the local clergymen in his pulpit, on
the Sunday preceding. The Unitar.
ians receive more drubbing in the dis.
course mentioned than the devil. In
the discourse under consideration the
Unitarian belief in any of its phases is
the iniquity to be summed. Now il
there is anything we are teaching
and believing concerning Jesus that
is more harmful to our present and
eternal welfare by far than any moral
iniquity or basencss, it is surely our
interest to know it. suppose it will
generally be admitted that Unitarians
are human beings. Although they
may be cowardly and mentally stupid,
yet it may be granted that even such
people would prefer to keep out of the
fire, even if they should be compelled
to go through little water as sort of
insurance policy. Therefore, when
the preacher, in the discourse, speaks
OF the mental incapacity of Unitarians,
I am inclined to think he is about
right, judged by his standards. Uni
tarians have always had kind Of con-
stitutional mental disability to see
how two and two can be five. Or,
more to the point, how two persons
can be the same person, or three can
be on one, or how father and his son
can be the same individual. In other
words Unitarians have constitutional
mental disability that prevents them
from believing in the doctrine of the
trinity, as it is set forth in the great
church creed and rs it is taught from
many pulpits. But on close study Of
the discourse in question, l find that
the preacher himself does not believe
in the trinity of the old-faslioned
church creeds.
That is to say the preacher express
ly declares that the people, "however
learned and devout, who appear to
affirm that Jesus is very and eternal
God, of one substance and equal with
the Father. do 80 in the face of Jesus
own statement when he said MY
Father is greater than L and in the
face of the evident truth that God
must be greater than any manifesto
ton of himself that he can make to
man." Wherein then is the dangerous
mental Obtuseness of the Unitarians?
| A large part of the discourse is
given to prove that the Unitarians
are wrong in their conception of Jesus
and that Jesus himself took special
pains to tell who he was and thus cor.
rect the Unitarian notion. The Uni
tartan position, according to this
preacher, consists in believing that
Jesus is very more of one substance
and only equal with Father Adam.
That will be news to all the Unitarians
am acquainted with, for under
stand that they believe Jesus was
something of an improvement on
Adam. The discourse labors to prove
that the Unitsrians do not believe
enough about Jesus, while some de-
vout and learned people on the other
hand believe u little too much; but
not believing enough is considered a
great deal more dangerous than be-
lieving too much. And what is the
correct belief about Jesus? If he was
not man, and was not God either,
what in the name of common sense
was he! Why we are told that he
was the only begotten son of God.
That is to say he was the only one of
his kind. He had no brothers or
sisters. Indeed he proves his superb
ority by refusing to recognize his
mother as such; this is the argument.
We are told that Jesus takes special
pains to make it plain to his disciples
lust who he was and the nature OF his
origin. We are told that the fourth
gospel was expressly written to prove
that Jesus was the Son of God, and
here let me add is the very reason
why this fourth gospel ranks the
lowest in historical value of all the
four. 1t was written not 80 much as
history as to make out case.
Let us notice briefly how much
pains Jesus takes according to the rec
ords of the other three gospels to
prove that he is the Son of God. 1
have just re:ead the whole of Matthew
and Mark, and with the aid of con.
cOrdance have looked up the passages
bearing on the subject in Luke. How
many times does Jesus, in speaking OF
himself, use the words Son of God?
Not once, so far as can find. The
only ones who use those words in ad.
dressing him, or with reference to
him, are the disciples, in one or two
instances, Satan and the numerous
devils and unclean spirits that it is
said Jesns cast out. There is but one
recorded instance which shows that
Jesus took any special pains to know
even what other people thought OF
him. Peter reports the current opin-
ion, and on being asked his own he
declares that he believes that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
Although Jesus accepts the appellation
as correct, he says to Peter Get be-
hind me Satan," in almost the next
breath. But it would be pertinent to
ask, what are the words with which
Jesus refers to himself in the first
} three gospels? / note that he uses