OCR Text |
Show The Trinity and Divinity of Christ Father Lambert Takes a New York Unitarian Minister to Task "Scholarly Interpretation" Some Spicy Arguments. (Continued From Last Week.) In compliance with Rev. Mr. Savage's request to tell him of our Church Father who taught the divinity of Christ in the first two centuries and a half that is, before the year 230 A. D. we quote St. Ignasius, a disciple of St. John the Evangelist. Ignatius died a martyr for his faith in Christ. He was thrown to the lions in -the Flavian arr.phitheatre at Rome in or about the year 107. In the letter which he wrote on the way to execution to his brethren at Ephesus, from which we quoted, he declares Christ to be "our God." At the same time he wrote a-letter a-letter to the brethren in Rome asking their prayers. In it he wrote: "Permit "Per-mit me to imitate the passion of Christ my God." Rev. Mr. Savage's request indicates that he knew nothing about this witness. wit-ness. His next request was for evidence evi-dence that a considerable portion of the Church during the first 230 years of the Christian era believed in the divinity di-vinity of Christ. In compliance witU this we quoted St. Augustin's statement state-ment that the writers on the subject previous to him taught the doctrine. We will now give some further evidence evi-dence taken from times previous to the year 250. Corinthus and Ebion are the first on record who denied the divinity of Christ. They lived in the first century, cen-tury, in the time of the Apostle and Evangelist St. John, and it was mainly main-ly to refute their heretical teaching that St. John wrote his Gospel. The next denier we have record of-- was Theodotus, who'lrved in the end of the second century. And the record that terts of his teaching tells also tha the was promptly condemned and excommunicated by Pope Victor about the year 190. Contemporary with Teo-dotus Teo-dotus were Sabillius and Noctus and Artemon.. They were, with equal promptitude condemned and expelled from the Church as heretics. Contemporary Contem-porary with these was Cajus, a Roman priest, who wrote, in refutation of them, a book entitled. "The Labyrinth." To the statement of Artemon that the doctrine of the divinity of Christ was new, Cajus replied, and, after pointing to the well known sentiment of Justin, Miltiades, Tatian, Clemens, Irenaeus and Melito, he asks: "How many psalms, hymns and canticles were written from the beginning by the brethren, and transcribed by the faithful, faith-ful, in which Christ the Word of God is celebrated for no other than God indeed. in-deed. And, these being adopted in the churches, how is it possible that our ancestors, until the time of Victor (Pope in year 192), should have so preached, when the true ecclesiastical sentiment for so many years is certainly cer-tainly known to all the world? How can they thus shamelessly report of Victor, when they know for certainty that Victor Vic-tor excommunicated Theodotus the tanner, tan-ner, who denied the divinity of Christ, because he was the first who affirmed that Christ was a mere man? If Victor, Vic-tor, as they report, had been of their blasphemous opinion, how is it likely that he would have excommunicated Teodotus?" (Eusebius' Church History, His-tory, book V., chapter 8.) The next anti-Trinitarian of note was Paul of Samorata. in 2S0. He was promptly called to account by the Council of Antioch in 264. He dissembled dis-sembled and protested that he had never professed such errors and that he had . always followed the Apostolic dogmas. On this the bishops were satisfied. sat-isfied. In a short time, convinced of his insincerity, they assembled again at Antioch and explicity condemned the new doctrine introduced by Paul. As, however, he promised to renounce and retract his errors,' he escaped the Church's anathema a second time. But Paul did not keep his promise, and it was reported that he still professed his former errors. Then, for the- third time, the bishops met in Antioch, in 269. In this council Paul was convicted con-victed and excommunicated from the , Church. Then came the most conspicuous conspicu-ous denier. Arius, who was anathematized anathema-tized by the Council of Nicasa in 325, the greatest parliament of Christendom Christen-dom that had ever assembled up to that time. The prompt and severe treatment of the deniers of the divinity, of our Divine Di-vine Lord is. the strongest possible proof of the universal belief of the early Christians in that dogma. Even Socinus, the great apostle of unitari-anism unitari-anism since the Reformation, is a wit-'ness wit-'ness .to the ancient and universal belief, be-lief, for he assured his disciples that to worship Christ was the ancient and universal practice of saints and martyrs. mar-tyrs. Was Rev. Mr. Savage ignorant of these facts when he asked for evidence evi-dence of the common belief? But, besides these Christian witnesses, wit-nesses, there is outside pagan evidence as to the common belief of the Christian Chris-tian church in those early times. Cel-sus, Cel-sus, a pagan philosopher who lived in the second century, was a bitter opponent oppo-nent of Christianity. He twitted the Christians with making a god of one who was crucified as a criminal in Palestine Pal-estine by Pontius Pilate. He was an- swered by Origen. Pliny, the younger, young-er, when governor of r.ythinia in th.? year 103, in making his report to th.; Emperor Trajan, spoke of the Christians Chris-tians sinking "hymns to Christ as To a god." Lucian, a pagan philosopher of the second century, in his "Philo-patris," "Philo-patris," ridiculed the Christians for worshipping God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. In his "Peregrinus" ho stated that the Christians worshipped Christ. Savage Justin Martyr expressly says: "There is a Lord of the Lord Jesus, being his Father and God and cause." Justin Martyr, in his "Apologia," addressed ad-dressed to Antoninus Pius about the year 139, said: "He (the Son), since he is the first-born Word of God, is also God. . . Who was made man of tho Virgin, according to the will of the Father, for the salvation of those who believe in him." In his second "Apologia," "Apol-ogia," addressed to Marcus Aurelius about the year 162, he replied thus to the charge of atheism made against the Christians: "The pagans tax U3 with atheism, and we frankly confess the charge, that, in respect to the gods in worship among you, we are atheists. But we are far otherwise in respect to the most true God, the Father of righteousness, right-eousness, purity and every virtue, a God infinitely removed from the least mixture of evil: Him and His only-begotten only-begotten Son. together with the Spirit, who spoke by the prophets, we worship wor-ship and. adore." Here in the year 162 we have testimony testi-mony of the worship of the Trinity, tha . Father, Son and Holy Ghost. And yet Rev. Mr. Savage tells us that "it was in the latter part of the fourth century cen-tury that the Trinity was completed by adding the third person to the other two.;' But more of this further on. This same Justin devoted the second sec-ond part of his celebrated work, "Dialogus Cum Tryphone Judaeo," to demonstrating that Christ is God the Saviour, by proving the following points: 1. That He is the Messiah promised in the Old Testament; 2, that the Old Testament speaks of a second divine person? 3, that the Old Testament Testa-ment speaks also of the supernatural birth and divine dignity of Christ; 3, of His crucifixion and of the redemption redemp-tion by the cross; 4, of the resur-, rection. The Rev. Mr. Savage may now exercise exer-cise his scholarly ingenuity in reconciling recon-ciling St. Justin Martyr with his isolated iso-lated and uncited quotation from him. Savage Tertullian testifies that when the doctrine of the Trinity was first talked of the greater part of believer3 were startled as by an innovation. Here is what Tertullian testifies to in his book against Praxias: "We believe be-lieve in one only God, recognizing at the same time the Son of God, III. Word who proceeded from him, by whom all things were made, and without with-out whom nothing was made. We believe be-lieve that the Word was sent by tha Father in the womb of the Virgin; that he was born of her, both God and man, the Son of man and the Son of God, and called Jesus Christ; that he suffered, suf-fered, died, and was buried, accord-cording accord-cording to the scriptures; that he was raised by the Father, that he ascendad into heaven and sits at the right hand, of the Father, whence He shall come to judge the living and the dead; that, according to his promise, he has sent from the Father the Holy Ghost, tha consoler and sanctifier of the faith of " i " those who believe in God, and in the Son, and in the Holy Ghost." He adds that this rule of faith is as ancient as the gospel; that it is anterior to all heresies, and particularly to the heresy; here-sy; that one should, therefore, follow" it, because that which was taught firs't is true, and that which came afterward after-ward was false and strange. In tho same book against Praxias he defines the dogma against that heretic, and makes it consist in the unity of substance sub-stance and the trinity of persons, and distinguishes the names of Father, San and Holy Ghost, paying that they are but one God, because the three have but one only substance and one only power. "In the meantime," he continues, con-tinues, "the name of two Gods or two , Lords never escapes from our mouth; not that the Father is not God, that the Son is not God, that the Holy Ghost is not God; each person is God." Here again is a witness for the belief of the Trinity. He lived between the years 180 and 240. As Rev. Savage quotes this author he must be assumed to know what he taught. Why, then, does he say the doctrine of the Trinity was not completed till the end of the ( fourth century, when the author he quotes says it is as old as the gospels? Savags When Athanasius championed cham-pioned the dogma, Gregory Nazianzen ' ! tells us that at "first he stood alone, or' with a very few." f : Here is what Gregory Nazianzen say3 j (Continued on rase. 3-1 ' THE TRINITY AND DIVINITY OF CHRIST. (Continued from Page 1.) in his fifty-first oration: "Nor do we separate (in Christ) the man from the divinity; but we believe that there is but one Christ, who before was not man, but God and the only Son of God before all ages, without body, without anything corporal; who at last was made man for our salvation; passible in the flesh, impassible in the divinity; limited by the body, unlimited by the spirit; at the same time terrestrial and celestial, visible and invisible, comprehensible compre-hensible and incomprehensible; lastly, that man fallen entirely into sin be raised up by Him who is perfect man and at the same time God. If any one believes not Mary to be the Mother of God. he is outside the Divinity. ... There is in Christ two natures, God and man." . Now. is it likely that this great champion of the divinity of Christ against the Arians would reproach his friend and fellow champion with being the first to innovate that doctrine? St. Gregory of Nazianzen was too scholarly a ' man not to know of the Council of Antisch and its'-excommunication of Paul of Samosata for denying the divinity of Christ. It was only about sixty years before his time. He was also too scholarly a man : to be ignorant of the writings of Tertullian, Origen, Irenaeus. Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Theophilus of Antioch, Clement of Alexandria, Hippolitus and his philosophumina. And, knowing these and the action of the Council of Antioch, and Pope Victor's condemnation condem-nation of Teodotus, he would not being : -r 1 a holy man have stated what he knew to be false. St. Gregory Nazianzen has fortunately fortunate-ly left on record his opinion of St. Athanasius, the champion of the divinity di-vinity of our Lord. In his oration, "Contra Gentes," he said: "When I praise Athanasius, virtue itself is my theme; for I name every virtue as often oft-en as I mention him, who vas possessed pos-sessed of all virtues. He was the true pillar of the Church. His life and conduct con-duct were the rule of bishops, and his doctrine the rule of the orthodox faith." Would he have thus spoken of one whom he believed to be the promulga-; tor of a herterodox doctrine? Savage: "Augustine has left on record rec-ord the saying that he was in the dark until he found the true doctrine concerning con-cerning the Divine Work in a Latin translation of some Platonic writings.? j His light came from Plato, and not from the New Testament." , i There is here an unscholarly subterfuge subter-fuge and an unworthy sophism as well. First, as to the subterfuge. The question ques-tion the reverend gentleman had in hand was as to the. Divinity of Jesus of Nazareth, and he would leave the impression in the reader's mind that St. Augustine first learned of His divinity di-vinity from Plato, who lived over 400 years before Jesus of Nazareth was born. The question he was dealing with was not as to ehe existence of the eternal Word, but the existence of that Word in time in human flesh, in Jesus of Nazareth; and he would leave the impression that this latter truth was learned by a Christian bishop bish-op from a pagan philosopher. Is this either scholarly or honest? Augustine, when a Christian and a saint wrote a book his Confessions giving an account of his mental experiences experi-ences when he was a young man and before he became a Christian. Up to the time that the Platonic books came into his hands he believed the Manichian doctrine that there were two gods one essentially good and the other essentially evil. In the Platonic books he found certain teachings that i he afterwards learned to be Christian j truths. These truths were that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And after quoting several more verses from the first chapter of St. John's Gospel, he . says the truths he found in the Platonic books were not in those exact words, but, to his mind, ! they meant what St. John teaches regarding re-garding the eternal Word. Continuing, Augustine says and this is the point Rev. Savage had in hand "But that he (the Word) came unto his own and his own received him not; but as many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God, believing be-lieving in his name, I did not find in these (in those Platonic books). Again, I read here that God the W.ord was born not of flesh, nor of blood, not of the will of man, neither of the flesh, but of God. But that this Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, I did not read there." Continuing to state the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation Incarna-tion and Divinity of Christ, Augustine repeats again and again these' words: "I did not find there;" that is, in those Platonic books. (See St". Augustine's Confessions, Book VII., chapter 9, and following.) And yet the Rev. Savage would leave the impression,. that St, Augustine, ., a Christian bishop, knew nothing about the divinity of Christ until he learned it from a pagan philosopher. Just here is found the unworthy spphisty. Is it honest? '?'!. .. , There are several other statements in the Rev. Savage's letter that are on a par with those we have examined that is to say, equally false, sophistical or of no practical value. But we believe we have treated of those that, bar directly on the issue he raised. The doctrine 'of the Trinity and of the di vinity of Christ has been taught through the ages, as the records show; and it has been thoroughly discussed, with the result that, with the exception excep-tion of a comparatively few called Unitarians, the whole Christian world believes it, as it has done from the beginning. The Unitarian has only the alternative of accepting the doctrine of the Trinity or holding that the Christian Chris-tian world has been in error from the beginning. i |