"What the Latins have done in this text (1 John v, 7) the Greeks have done to Paul (1 Tim. iii, 16). They now read, 'Great is the mystery of godliness; God manifest in the flesh'; whereas all the churches for the first four or five hundred years, and the authors of all the ancient versions, Jerome as well as the rest, read, 'Great is the mystery of godliness, which was manifest in the flesh.' Our English version makes it yet a little stronger. It reads, 'Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.'" In conclusion Newton says: "If the ancient churches, in debating and deciding the greatest mysteries of religion, knew nothing of these two texts, I understand not why we should be so fond of them now the debate is over." 483 Christ is declared by the Christian creed to be "the very and eternal God." God, it is claimed, is omnipotent. Was Christ omnipotent? "The Son can do nothing of himself" (John v, 19). "I can of mine own self do nothing" (30). 484 God is omniscient. Was Christ omniscient? Referring to his second advent he says: "Of that day and hour knoweth no man, ... neither the Son" (Mark xiii, 32). 485 God is omnipresent. Was Christ omnipresent? "I am glad for your sakes that I was not there" (John xi, 15). "Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come" (vii, 36). "And now I am no more in the world" (xvii, 11). 486 God is self-existent. Was Christ self-existent? "I live by the Father" (John vi, 57). "He liveth by the power of God" (2 Corinthians xiii, 4). 487 Did Christ have a preexistence? "Before Abraham was, I am" (John viii, 58). According to the Synoptics his existence began with his life on earth. 488 Was he infinite in wisdom? Luke: He "increased in wisdom" (ii, 52). If he increased in wisdom his knowledge was limited, and limitation of knowledge is not an attribute of an infinite God. 489 Was he infinite in goodness? "Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God" (Mark x, 18). 490 Was he infinite in mercy? "He that believeth not shall be damned" (Mark xvi, 16). "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire" (Matthew xxv, 41). "Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not: Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida!... It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of Judgment, than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell" (Matthew xi, 20-23). 491 His resurrection is adduced as the chief argument in proof of his divinity. Did he raise himself from the dead? Peter: He did not. God raised him. "Jesus Christ of Nazareth, ... whom God raised from the dead" (Acts iv, 10). If Christ, then, did not rise from the dead by his own volition, was his resurrection any proof of his divinity? No more than the resurrection of Lazarus was proof of Lazarus's divinity. 492