The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-01-30
(San Franisco Monitor.)

New Testament >why, then, die the put Him to
death?
This difficulty is thus answered by Father Lam
bert
"The argument Of this question is. that because
the Jews put Christ death, they did not believe
IL Ills miracles as recorded in the Gospels. But
this conclusion is false. The Jews believed that
God had forbidden them to abandon the law Of
Moses, even if prophet performing miracles re-
quired them to do so. From the time of Christ
down to the present the Jews have always and uni
formly believed in the reality of the miracles of
Christ. If you do not believe this, consult their
Talmuds
well. then. you will ask. if they admitted the
fact Of His miracles, why did they not accept Him
the Messias? While they admitted the miracles,
they did not believe that they proved Him to be the
Messias. Their prophets had performed miracles
under the Mosaic law. They had even raised the
dead. The Jews IN the time Of Christ could not
understand how miracles could be worked TO abro-
gate that law. Fixed habits and preiudices, then.
caused them TO reject the evidence of His miracles
while they admitted the fact of them. They at
tributed them TO Beelzebub.
again, they believed that tie promised Son of
David was to be a great temporal prince, that He
to free the Jewish people, and establish great
Jewish empire, restore the Jewish mobility, and
raise the Aaronic priesthood to its ancient pre-
eminence and glory. His preaching and humble life
gave no encouragement to these hopes, and they
refused TO believe in Him the promised Messias
while they admitted His miracles And they
put Him to death as they had put to death their
acknowledged prophets" Iambert, |'Notes on
Ingersoll" chap. xvi. PIP. 140 141).
Is it not incredible that God should become man?
What proofs are there that Jesus Christ was the
May not the texts in which Christ speaks of unity
With the Father imply only the moral unity Of
adopted sonship?
Cannot man reverence Jesus as the highest and
most perfect type of the without acknowledging
Him to be divine? I believe that men should strive
His divinity.
''We need to appreciate that the doctrine of
the Incarnation is not hard one to accept. There
Is revolt IN the natural mind against the
thought of God becoming man. 1t is not thought
which arouses aversion in us. Indeed we give it
welcome That man should be raised to a par
5icipation III a divine nature is a difficult thing
to understand if the word is meant to imply full
and clear comprehension. But the human race or
any part of it has never felt it to be incredi-
bic. The dignity of suggests the
possibility of the Incarnation; the aspirations of
man suggest Its probability; the degradation of
man cries out for it, and implores its immediate
gift elliott Life of Christ" Epilogue, pp
i.-yii)
The divinity of Christ is the fomdation-doc-
tI'ine of the Christian religion. Deny Him as the
Son Of God, and at once the whole fabric of reve-
iation falls to pieces confess Him to be divine,
and the logical mind grasps at once the necessity
of divine infallible teacher in the world today
speaking in His name and with His authority.
The arguments for the divinity of Christ are:
First Throughout the four gospels Christ
clearly asserts His divinity.
lie claims perfect equality with the Father
the Jehovah Of the Jews-in absolute oneness of
essence ('I and the Father are one."-John Y 30).
IN parity Of working power ("My Father worketh
until now, and | work. john v. IL; ''What things
soever the Father doth, these the Son also doth in
ike manner. 49,, in eternal Being ("Before
Abraham was made, l anl."-John viii 5s). in the
equal rights to the homage of mankind (''That all
may honor the Son they honor the Father
John Y. %; cf. xiv. l, 13; Ky. 10; Matt. X 30.
Ii is evident that our Lord, in John " 80 spoke
OF His absolute essential oneness with the Father
because He was addressing earnest monotheists.
keenly alive TO the essential distinction between the
life of the Creator and the life of the creature and
reigiously jealous of the divine prerogatives The |
Jews did not understand Christ's claim to be one
with the Father In any moral spiritual, or mystical
sense. Christ did not encourage them so to under
stand it. The motive of their indignation (s'we |
stone Thee for blasphemy, because that Thou be-
ing man. maketh Ihyself God.'-John X 33) was |
NOT disowned by Him. They believed Him to mean
that he was Himself a divine Person; and He never
that construction of His language I
(Liddon, "Ihe Divini&- Of our Lord" Lecture iv. /
pp. 186 1S9).
Again, the Jews evidently understood our Savior
10 claim right TO break the Sabbath as the Lord |
OF the Sabbath, the equal of Jehovah who had pre-
scflDed the Law, ana tor that reason they sought
10 Kill Him, because He said God was His Father |
making Himself equal to God" John Y: 49, A |
third time they stoned Him as a blasphe1ner (John
viii. 3d. when He claimed to be the Il am who am
Of Israel (Exod. iii. IA, the eternal 'Now"
Every one who studies the life of Christ must /
admit that He sincere (John Vi. %; xiii s. |
xviii, 37), rnselfsh (John V 80: vi 3S X II; Matt
XVI. 39), and humble (Luke viii. 81; Matt TX 90;
Mark viii. II; Matt. xi. 99). But "is He if He be
not God, really humble! Can Jesus bid us TO be-
Iieve in Him (John xiv. j.. love Him, obey Him
(John XIV. 100, live by Him John vi 5s) live for
Him (Matt xvi. 24); can He thus claim to be the
universal Teacher CMatt xviii. 20) and the unver-
sal Judge (Matt. 31-34, the Way. the Truth.
the Life of Humanity (John xiv. 81 if He be indeed
only man If Jesus Christ be not God. is
he really unselfsh! He bids men make Himself
The center of their affections and their thoughts
<John xiv. 6, a. x %; xiv. VI. 20; v 49, viii AZ;
XIV. %; xiv. -, etc.) and when God does this He is
out calling man to that which is mans proper duty.
10 the true direction and law of mans being But
deny Christs divinity and what will you say to the
iisinterestedness of His perpetual sef-assertionp
if Jesus Christ is not God, can we even
say that He is sincere! For if He is not God.
where does He make any adequate repudiation of a
construction Of His words so utterly derogatory to
he great Creator, so necessarily abhorrent to
good mans thought! Would not purely
human Christ have anticipated the burning words