All
deductions from the positive statements of the Scriptures are mere human
opinions, and should only receive the credit due to them as such. What
are confessions but human opinions?
CHRIST. Strauss was wrong in taking his cold view of Jesus. There was a
real historical personage whom we properly call Jesus. Nothing is
gained, but everything lost by resolving all the statements of the
gospels into myths. It is through Christ that salvation is attained, for
Christianity is the reconciliation of God and man as revealed to us in
the consciousness and life of Christ. He is the end of the law, the
second Adam, the fulfilment of prophecy, the head of a renovated
humanity. In him we find the revelation of a new religious principle in
man, a real unity with God, a filial adoption, freedom from natural
corruption, the pardon of sin, and victory over the world. Jesus became
the one man who bore in himself the fullness of the godhead.
Important concessions to Christianity seem to be made; nevertheless
subtle Pantheism underlies their statements.
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