What and Where is God? A Human Answer to the Deep Religious Cry of the Modern SoulSwain, Richard La Rue
Religion
What and Where is God? A Human Answer to the Deep Religious Cry of the Modern Soul
Swain, Richard La Rue
Christianity; God (Christianity)
I told the friend who in a previous meeting had stripped Jesus of all
His divinity, that he had very successfully demolished some antiquated
psychology, but strange to say had completely overlooked the new
psychology which, in my opinion, fully restored Christ's divinity. As to
his statement that "Jesus was a good man only," I reminded him that
there is no such being. For, each one of us, in so far as he is "only,"
is a bad man. It requires the oneness of God and man to make a _good_
man. When a human soul is separated from God, he ceases to be a complete
person. God and the true self always come or go together; in order to be
a human soul, in any worthy sense, one must be both God and man in one.
A man severed from God is but the fragment of a man, a limb broken from
the tree, a lifeless branch. To touch the living branch of a tree is to
touch the tree. The fruit of the branch is likewise the fruit of the
tree. That any person can be a "good man only," is an idea contrary to
the New Testament and modern psychology.
4. Can modern psychology any longer believe in the Deity of Jesus?
The Scriptures certainly do not teach that Jesus was God only; neither
do they teach that He was man only. It is my own deepest conviction that
Jesus was very God and very man. Furthermore, I believe this to be the
teaching of the Scriptures, and the idea that best conforms to modern
psychology. To come to Jesus is to come to God; likewise to come to God
is to come to Jesus. He is at once God in man, and man in God. I
believe in the God of Jesus, and I believe in the Jesus of God. How
modern psychology can avoid believing in both the deity and humanity of
Jesus, I do not see. Some who believe in Christ's divinity do not
believe in His deity. They say, "Yes, He is divine, He is incomparable,
He is altogether lovely; but He is not Deity, because Deity is God
Himself." But my thesis is that Jesus was "very God and very man."
To picture this truth to our minds will be our next task. An old-time
friend, while reporting to me the installation of a minister whom I
knew, said:
"Would you believe it! Mr. G. told the council that he not only believed
in the divinity, but that he believed in the Deity of Jesus." Here my
friend threw his head back and laughed heartily, expecting me to laugh
with him. When he had finished laughing, I told him that I also believed
in the deity as well as in the humanity of Jesus; and that if I did not
believe in His deity I did not think I should believe in any religion at
all. This proved to be quite a surprise to my friend. So to his puzzled
look of inquiry I replied:
"And I could make you believe it." As his curiosity deepened at this
remark, I asked him,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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