The Divinity Of Christ
The divinity of Jesus Christ has challenged the attention of both honest and dishonest men for centuries. No apology is offered for this article on a subject which is just as live today as when Jesus hung his head on the cross and said, "It is finished," In fact, the subject is getting "livelier" all the time. Critics of every brand, agnostics of every school and infidels of every sort (including the present day modernists) have gone about their destructive work in one way or another to discredit faith in Jesus Christ and the Bible. One thing is common among them all, they accept with gullish fervor just about anything which is supposed to disprove the divinity of Christ or discredit the inspiration of his word.
It is not the purpose of this article to cast reflection upon sincere seekers for truth, but it is common knowledge that many, if not most, of the people who scoff at the evidences which concern divine history are themselves gullible to historic proof (?) of profane events which have far less to establish them than is offered in proof of the divinity of Christ. Not only so, but many of these scientific experts (?) who laugh at the combined proof of forty historians whose work has stood the test of twenty centuries, accept without question the assertions of some little "one-gallous" scientist whose work has carried him little further in the realm of real research than to gaze in the glass cases at the Smithsonian Institute. These critics often balk at the ponderous array of literature twenty centuries old, but swallow the ten-year old writings of a novice, hook, line, and sinker.
Faith in the divinity of Christ is based upon evidence just as tangible and just as concrete as the evidence that George Washington was the first president of the United States. There isn't a person alive today who ever saw Mr. Washington. Hence, we rely (and properly so) upon the evidence passed on to us by the scribes who wrote the record. Some days ago I stood at Mount Vernon and looked in wonder at the tomb of George and Martha. That they lived upon the earth, that he was President of our country—yes, that he even threw a silver dollar across a river somewhere, as the majority of the historians stoutly affirm—I have not the slightest doubt. In brief, I believe the facts concerning "the father of his country" because the evidence is so overwhelming. We might add that in a small way this is an example of how we get our faith in Christ, for "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
The Bible Record
The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the divine Son of God. When the angel made the announcement to Mary, the mother of Jesus, he said, "That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." (Lk. 1:35). He had just finished saying, "He shall be called great and shall be called the Son of the Highest. And God shall give unto him the throne of his father David...and of his kingdom there shall be no end."
When Christ was baptized, of John, the voice of God thundered from heaven, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." (Matt. 3:17) Concerning this, John says, "And I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God." Later, on the mount of transfiguration, God's voice again rang through the air, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him."
When Jesus questioned his apostles in Caesarea Philippi, after hearing them tell the rumors which were abroad, he asked them who they believed him to be. And Peter answered, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." It was the same Peter who told the leaders of Jerusalem's angry populace, "This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head of the corner." (Acts 4:11) These men were threatened and told to keep quiet about this business of Jesus Christ being the Son of God; but for them silence was impossible. They shouted it from the housetops, and preached it in every city. The line which they drew between Christianity and Judaism was the fact that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. That was the real issue. Upon it hung everything else; and the very men who saw the evidence, and wrote it down, gave their lives up rather than surrender their belief in the fact they declared,
Confirmation Of Profane History
Not only does the Bible declare Christ's divinity, but profane history adds its monumental weight in confirmation of that great fact. Every reliable historian, and particularly those who lived and wrote closest to those fateful days when Christianity was first being spread over the earth, throws the weight of this testimony upon the side of those who contend for this thing which "was not done in a corner." They wrote thousands of words, historically, about the very men who actually lived during the lifetime of Jesus and who were active in preaching the gospel A bibliography which might be devoted to the proof of the statements in the foregoing paragraph would contain hundreds of names in the most imposing array of scholarship which the world has ever beheld as authority on any one subject. Yet, in the face of such overwhelming evidence, occasionally some "doctor" of philosophy, who has glanced through the reading list of a course in infidelity, rears back on his dignity and proposes to disprove the divinity of Jesus Christ the Son of God!
Just outside Atlanta, Georgia, is a great mound of solid granite, known as Stone Mountain. It rises hundreds of feet into the air and is of such an enormous dimension at the base that it takes hours to drive around it in an automobile. It is one great rock weighing millions of tons. According to our story a man was once seen picking a little hole in the base of this gigantic mound of solid stone. Presently he took a pinch of powder from his pocket—about as much as is usually found in a cartridge of 22 caliber. Carefully he packed the powder in the hole, tamped in some clay about the fuse, applied a match and ran for his life. A fellow-traveler, later, noticing the smile of satisfaction on the maniac's face, inquired the cause of his joy. "I've just blown up Stone Mountain," was the gleeful reply!
The next time you pick up your Bible, remember that there is more evidence extant in the world today which proves that Jesus Christ is the Son of God than there is evidence that Columbus discovered America or that George Washington was the first President of the United States, X—0—X Set Versus Sit When a wife gets set on her ideas, a husband might as well sit on his.