SEVERAL years ago an assertion was publicly made in one of our northwestern states, in the presence of university and professional men, to the effect that the eminent Biblical critics of our day do not accept the deity of Christ, as distinguished from his divinity. The Sunday School Times was appealed to as to the correctness of this assertion.

In response, the Editor asked a large number of such scholars, on both sides of the Atlantic, to ex press their personal belief in this matter. The great majority declared themselves unequivocally as believing in the deity of Christ. Their replies were published in The Sunday School Times; and a few of these are given herewith, together with the statements on pages 9 and 24 of this pamphlet.

Sir William M. Ramsay, D.D., D.C.L., L.L.D.,
Litt.D., Aberdeen University.

The distinction of "divinity" from "deity" as applied to Jesus is new to me in that form; but I sup pose it is another way of expressing the idea that Jesus was purely man, who by his perfection of character attained to absolute freedom from the faults of men, and, so to say, became like unto God. I regard this theory as a mere juggling with words, and essentially irrational. To put an idea in words does not imply the possibility or reality of that idea. This idea has assumed many varying expressions in words, and is very old. No sooner is its irrationality in one form of words recognized and demonstrated than it finds a new dress, and is able for a time to deceive people who are not careful to scrutinize the real meaning of the words they use, and who in trying to avoid the apparent difficulty of the superhuman, or "miraculous," element in the Gospels, run into the real self-contradictoriness of this old-fashioned theory. I can see no rational explanation of the world's history or of the moral life of man, alike in the wide view over all history and in the narrow view of the individual man's life, except in the deity of Jesus Christ.

Professor C. A. Briggs, D.D., D.Litt., Union
Theological Seminary, New York City.

Any one who says that "the eminent biblical critics of our day do not accept the deity of Christ as distinguished from his divinity" does not know what he is talking about. One may object to the deity of Christ on philosophical or scientific grounds, but not on the grounds of biblical criticism, which in all its departments, lower, higher, historical, and theological, verifies the deity of Christ. It is necessary to deny the New Testament that criticism gives us, if you wish to deny the deity of Christ.

Professor W. H. Griffith Thomas, D.D., Old
Testament Literature and Exegesis, Wyellffe
College, Toronto, Canada.

With all my heart I believe in the deity as distinct from the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. It has fallen to my lot during the last few years to read pretty widely and fully on this subject, and to face as far as possible whatever has been written against the Christian position, as I regard it. I can only say that I am more convinced than ever that belief in our Lord's deity is at once true to the plain teaching of the New Testament, to the existence, growth, and continuance of the Christian Church, and to the deepest and most fundamental needs of the human soul. Not least of all, it is the only position in which any "gospel" or good news for the world can be found. Let any one preach either at home or abroad the divinity and not the deity of Jesus Christ, and he will soon find the truth of the statement attributed to a poor woman who heard such a message: "Your rope isn't long enough for the likes of us."

President Augustus H. Strong, D.D., LL.D.,
Professor of Systematic Theology, Rochester
Theological Seminary.

I most devoutly believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that in a sense quite distinguishable from his mere divinity. I understand the Fourth Gospel to teach expressly that he was in the beginning with God, and that he was God. I believe moreover that the Logos doctrine of John is only the necessary complement and explanation of the teaching of the Synoptics that the Christ who is to be the judge of all men, and who is omnipresent with his people, gave his life as a ransom for many and shed his blood for the remission of their sins. In short, I regard the proper deity of Christ as the central truth of Christianity, and the denial of it as logically involving the surrender of the whole Christian doc trine of salvation,

Willis J. Beecher, M.A., D.D., for many years
Professor of Hebrew Language and
Literature, Auborn Theological Seminary.

I accept without any discount the Trinitarian statement that Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh. As I set no limits to the true humanity of Jesus, so I set none to his true deity. The difficulties in the case I meet by recognizing the fact that all our formulas in the matter, being finite attempts to ex press the infinite, are incomplete. I do not see that the formulas which ascribe to our Lord a modified divinity or divineness have any advantage over those which ascribe to him true deity, and the latter certainly follow the Scriptures, and have the advantage of conciseness and positiveness. There is nothing absurd in them for a mind that is in the habit of recognizing the infiniteness of God, and the consequent limitations of human speech concerning him; and for a mind that has not this habit all possible statements of the matter are absurd.

George Frederick Wright, M.A., D.D., L.L.D.,
F.G.S.A., Professor Emeritus of the Harmony
of Science and Revelation, Oberlin
Theological Seminary.

I believe the true deity of Christ is clearly taught in the New Testament, and I do not know of any reason why we should not accept the fact as there revealed. Such reasons as are urged against it involve philosophical speculations concerning the ultimate nature of things which are not allowed to have weight in any other realm of fact. I prefer the word "deity" to divinity, because of the loose and hence ambiguous use which is now made of the latter word. The truth which has ever been the inspiration of the church is that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself"; that the Word which was in the beginning with God, and was God, became flesh and dwelt among us," and that the first disciples "saw his glory as the glory of the only begotten Son of God." This fact was confirmed by "signs and wonders and spiritual gifts." We are here dealing with facts and not philosophy. Physical science is dumb regarding the whole matter.

Professor James Orr, M.A., B.D., D.D.,
Apologetics and Theology, Theological College of
the United Free Church, Glasgow, Scotland.

I believe in the deity— the God-manhood — of Jesus Christ on grounds of history, of Christ's self-testimony (he only could testify of himself, John 8:14), of his miraculous origin, of his stainless character, divine works, supernatural claims, of the resurrection from the dead, declaring him to be the Son of God with power (Rom. 1:4), of the effects of his exaltation in Pentecost and the work of the Spirit in the church, of the continuous experience of the power and grace of the risen Christ through the ages.

Professor A. H. Sayce, D.D., LL.D., D.Litt.,
Assyriology, University of Oxford.

I do not think I can answer your question better than by quoting the words of the Nicene Creed, which every member of the English Church is required to accept: "I believe . . . in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, Begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of very God, being of one sub stance with the Father by whom all things were made." There is no room left here for quibbling as to whether or not the divinity of Christ implies his deity.