The Nature of Christ

THE Golden Censer is a paper which we have always read with pleasure, and welcomed it to our table whenever we have acted as editor where it was received as an exchange. Its general religious tone is good. But it certainly is not above a deep-seated prejudice. In its issue of March 27 it contained an article on the divinity of Christ, in which it sets down the Adventists as Arians. It says:—

"The leaders, so far as representative men can, have put themselves on record as opposed to the doctrine. For instance, the declaration of Mr. Waggoner in these words: 'Of course we cannot believe what men say about his (Christ's) being co-equal with God in every respect, and that the divine Son of God could not suffer nor die.' By this we see that they do not believe that Christ took on him the seed of Abraham; but that he had no other nature than the nature of the seed of Abraham. They believe that Christ was all mortal, and had but one nature, and that the human."

We cannot forbear recommending the writer of the above to read carefully and considerately Ex. 20:16. He quotes from our work on "The Atonement," and we would consider him somewhat excusable in drawing his conclusion, had we not in the plainest terms declared directly to the contrary. We do not believe that Christ "had but one nature, and that the human." And our statement to the contrary is so plainly made that no one can possibly mistake it. In justice to Seventh-day Adventists and to our readers we shall early take opportunity to give our views on this subject.

We cannot believe, as does the editor of the Censer, that the sacrifice of Christ was merely human; we hold that the divine being, known in the Scriptures as "the Son of God," died for our fallen race. Any other view destroys the great "mystery of godliness," 1 Tim. 3:16, and degrades the atonement. The sufficiency of the atonement rests upon the dignity and divinity of the offering made to the infinitely holy law of God. To hold that "the Christ" merely took on him a human nature for a season, and let that die, while the divine Son of God neither suffered nor died, belittles the gospel system and brings the doctrine of the atonement down to the level of the lowest Socinianism; it is to make our salvation depend on a merely human sacrifice. Did Christ die, or did he not? And who is Christ? These are important questions,—of such transcendent importance that we do not like to stand misrepresented before the world in reference to them. We hope that our opponents, one and all, will remember that no amount of zeal and pious feeling will excuse an act of injustice.