Article June 6, 1908 Issue

I do not quarrel with people who call Jesus God, if by...

Rev. N. S. Hoagland

Lowell (Mass.) Courier-Citizen

I do not quarrel with people who call Jesus God, if by that they mean his godliness, for whatever Jesus was, we are or may become. Man means more than any of us can tell. We are just beginning to understand his powers and capacity. Jesus never claimed powers for himself alone; never affirmed of himself capacities which he did not also recognize as the equal heritage of his disciples. Greater things than I do shall ye do, was his high affirmation. He calls himself repeatedly "the Son of man." Eightyfour times is that expression used in the Gospel records. The name man was sweet to him; but when Peter called him "the Son of the living God," he accepted the title with joy, for "Son of man" is "Son of God," and Peter was commended for his spiritual discernment. The essential things about Jesus, or about any great character of history, are not the accidents or circumstances of his birth and death. The immaculate conception and the bodily resurrection of Jesus are not the central things in his life and influence. . . . The divine paternity and holy motherhood were not exhausted by the birth of one Godlike child in Palestine two thousand years ago. That were heresy indeed. We know, too, that the spirit of Jesus is in the world to-day, more widely active in our social and civil life than ever before. We know that great souls do not perish with the body's death, but live again in minds made better by their presence.

The miracles of Jesus, which once we stumbled at accepting as supernatural, or rejected altogether as amiable delusions, we may now accept on purely scientific grounds. Jesus did not make any exclusive claim to these unusual powers, and there is abundant evidence that many of his disciples and followers in every age had the power to heal the sick and cure disease in the same way that Jesus did. More than that, there is plenty of well attested evidence that many people to-day possess remarkable powers that seem to be independent of the bodily functions by which matter as well as mind is influenced and controlled. Hitherto orthodox Christianity has called the miracles claimed in support of other religions false, and our rationalists have called them all a delusion; but now, without running any risk of being called fanatical or unscientific, we may look upon all of them as hints of the soul's power innate in man as a child of God. Was Christ a man like us? Then let us see if we too can be such as was he.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

I do not quarrel with people who call Jesus God, if by...

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access