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Show j DIVINITY JJf CHRIS j Christ the Eternal and Only Son of God j Scriptural Proofs Extraordinary i ! Claims Made by Christ .Acknowl-j .Acknowl-j : edged the Rights of Those Who Objected Object-ed to His Claims Appeals to His Works to Prove His Claims Gives "Signs From Heaven. !' j The promt article, which is a continuation of I Is-! week's, deals with the foundation on which ; Christianity rest?, in its appeal to the belief of the I vorld. f ;X..w. tlie whole vast fabric of the Catholic i fbuivii rots on one sole fact, or truth the divin-i divin-i -;?y .losus Christ which, consequently, is her fundamental doctrine. With this, she must stand ; or full. It is not necessarv to occupy any of my brief spa.-e by givinjr any lengthy proofs of this. Miiiiii.-in Christian doctrine to you. my dear read- ei. who, I am sure, believe and accept it as firmly ! s;k1 sincerely as do Catholics themselves. However, j s I am not so sure you believe it in the same sc' I doom it necessarv to give you the Catholic (j.vTriro villi a few proofs, which, because scriptural. scrip-tural. I suppose you will accept as such. : The Catholic church teaches that Jesus Christ i- if' a mere elect child, or special creation of God, or in any sense or manner a creature, but that he the fternal and only Son of God; God of God; Light f Light; the expression of the Eternal j Larkr. with whom he is one in nature and sub-! sub-! rwrf; and to whom he is equal in all divine attri- l lire-, power and glory. St. John the Evangelist. I (Cap. 1) calls him "Logos.' that is. the eternal rnrd nr expression of God. and expressly states lhat this word was in the beginning with God, was God; !- became incarnate, was made flesh and dwelt amongst us. Christ himself constantly and publicly rloirr.cd for himself real divinity, and his hearers, j tp Jews, evidently undestood him to make this I rjgim. Tt was on account of this claim, which, ae- r-T'liiig to the Jewish law. was blasphemy, and .-to punishable by death, that he was con-I con-I omrd and finally crucified. "Being man." says lis accusers, '"he maketh himself God." (John 10.) Vt re-pfatedly made use of words and expressions vi.icli could have no meaning except that he was I vy nr.d truly God. "T and the Father Are One.'' ; i.T"hii H.') Jle claimed all the essential attributes i K (ir.-i. rven his omnipotence. "All power is given rv- in heaven and on earth' (Matt. 2.) Of course. : ";;e nor si of these yet unsupported statements fr,Vo Christ to be God. Even hi extraordinary rt.aractor only renders them less reliable, less wor- thy r-f belief. A person is not God because he says c Xo one understood and realized this better "bn did Christ himself, who. accordingly warned h followers against believing the vain cries -and rroiiudloss statements of future false Christs. The vli (.- ter.or of his words and actions clearly shows " ''.:;.' ho fully recognized the demands of rational r.iiture in religious matters and, consequently, in :!!tre.j'.ifing his religion and in asking man to ac- : rrr,t ir, he did not wish man to believe or act E;r.iiv. or. in fact, to sacrifice or ignore a single r?v of ihe lipht of reason. lie made it evident to 'hat he came on earth to treat man as man, to V'f;;k to him as man. to teach, convince, save, and .' him to the very portal of heaven, as man, that a n rational and reasoning being, for as such ''" i be a subject of religion and capable of j'hevir.g and practicing it, and as such worthy of ;,' -f'i and God. In fact, so far from treating I :n this unreasonable manner he, on the eon- ulls linn to hold fast to his reason and not ';':--' the eHst step towards him except in and 5" 1- h-Snt. ''I give not testimony of myself, or if J ";'" my testimony is nolliing. Tliere is one in l-if-;:-", v:ho giveth testimony to me." "If you be- ' f' in me, believe mv works." And to the : fi:-ci;,ir emt by the Baptist to ask him wdio he : lie said: "Go back and tell John what you ; ' tr'n ami heard; that by my power, my word, ' ti:r binid ee, iho rlcaf b.ear. the sick are healed, the jrprr. nro cleansed, and the dead come forth from ''''r gravec." Thse will tell John the Baptist bct-"j bct-"j riny words of mine who and what I am, "!.::. C,nd js in me, with me, and working through rr. ' b Ciiri-t came on earth with n very extra-ry extra-ry cljni. indeed, but he took great care to i r'M " xtraordinary. adequate proofs. By wonders ;! ,i : :.-;k ps io jiubliely wrought he clearly showed ; ' " ' was master of life and death and that all ' r' p"-.vrrs a)), forces of nature, even the winds ':.! :o wave;:, were subject to his will and word, ?V)t consequently, lie made no idle boast when .o cfl;(. .. priVrf,r js given no in heaven and on 'Wti.". "N'or were these wonderful and divine works V'-ri 'o:-me. ,n secret, in ihe dark or behind screens rTj'i c;;r'air,e. but they were all wrought in the midst o; 4!:n iiht of day, on the public streets and high-".v-, n;i the tops of mountains, and in the pres-r'-rri --f hmidreds. Fometimes of thousands, friends Uy r-.f-mies. And when lie saw that this long array r,f v:vr-r.K rJ r)0f convince the Jews of the truth rf hi' clain. and that they still clamored for greater rrnr.fr -Sip. frnni Ivaven" ftltliouffh he mildly I'rrddf-d them for their incrednlitv and unreason-cl,1f unreason-cl,1f -y -: vet. fearing lest the full demands of rea-fr'T' rea-fr'T' iv this all-important matter may not yet have "t .Mi.-fied. he 1ells them that he will give ihem inorp sirm surely from heaven that is. the vip- rif jfr, 1fl r'wn jr:fi( 10dy. his own resur-'tir,., resur-'tir,., froni tir, ,cfld the greatest sign that even r,rJ . cWp to man. ''Destry this bodv ef mine r'"' )! !l"-"e d-ivs I will build it up again." A'yl tjat 1 did build it xxs to the satisfactiou of his friends and the civilized world and in sight of the powers of hell, is a fact firmly fixed in the firmament, firma-ment, of history, as are the pyramids on. the sands of the desert. St. Paul challenged the philosophers of Greece and Borne to disprove this fact of the resurrection, on which as a foundation, he rested the whole Christian cause. "If Christ is not risen, vain is our preaching, vain our faith." But the philosophers "and the world, instead of overthrow-' ing it, built upon it their faith and hope for time and eternity. Xow, reason is caught here between the two horns of a dilemma. Jesus Christ was God, as he claimed, or he was not. If he was not, that is, if he were man or a creature, however special, then, (pardon the expression) he was a liar and an impostor, im-postor, who deliberately and purposely deceived the . noblest and best of our race since his time and will continue to deceive them to ihe end, by passing himself as God, and who consequently bound mankind man-kind in the fetters of a code of a false morality and has caused, and daily causes, the destruction of thousands of martvrs in the lying cause of his assumed as-sumed and pretended divinity. If he was not God, then human reason has good cause for asserting that there is and can be no God, or, at' least, no God that cares anything about mam For, how could God, in such a case, have suffered the wor-jdiip, wor-jdiip, the honor, the love due to him alone to have bepn' usurped by eo sacrilegious and, at the same time, po specious 8n idolatry. "Xo." cries out the great Xapolcon. when dving on the barren rocks of St. Helena, "there would exist no God in heaven if it had been possible for a creature to conceive and execute with similar success the gigantic scheme of usurping the supreme worship by usurp-in"" usurp-in"" the name of God." "On the other hand, if he is God. then his word is truth, his precepts the obligatory rule of life; his commandments the world's law; his judgments infallible and inevitable; his promises unfailing, ami the church that he established must be heard and obeyed. ' ,, .. i n (To Be Continued.) |
