Son of God



The term "Son of God" is used in the Hebrew Bible as another way to refer to humans who have a special relationship with God. For Chirstians Jesus Christ God is the Unigenite Son of God the Father, while other Christians are adopted by God as His sons.
Quotes
[edit]A
[edit]- "When all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him: that God may be all in all." (1 Cor 15:28) ... Are not all things now subject unto Him? ... How, then, will they be brought into subjection? In the way that the Lord Himself has said. "Take My yoke upon you." (Mat 11:29) It is not the fierce that bear the yoke, but the humble and the gentle. This clearly is no base subjection for men, but a glorious one... all things were not made subject before, for they had not yet received the wisdom of God, not yet did they wear the easy yoke of the Word on the neck as it were of their mind. ... Will any one say that Christ is now made subject, because many have believed? Certainly not. For Christ's subjection lies not in a few but in all. ... we divide Christ as long as the human race disagrees. Therefore Christ is not yet made subject, for His members are not yet brought into subjection. But when we have become, not many members, but one spirit, then He also will become subject, in order that through His subjection "God may be all and in all." But as Christ is not yet made subject, so is the work of God not yet perfected; for the Son of God said: "My meat is to do the will of My Father that sent Me, and to finish His work." (John 4:34)
- St. Ambrose, Exposition of the Christian Faith, Book V, 166.-169.
- Now, as the Word of God is the Son of God, so the love of God is the Holy Spirit.
- Thomas Aquinas, On the Apostles' Creed (c. 1273), Art. 8
Through Him who is the only-begotten Son of God by nature, we are made adopted sons: “God sent His Son... that we might receive the adoption of sons,” as is said in Galatians 4:4 ff. Hence, in acknowledging that God is our Father, we should do so in such a way that the prerogative of the Only-begotten is not disparaged. In this connection Augustine admonishes us: “Do not make any exclusive claims for yourself. In a special sense, God is the Father of Christ alone, and is the Father of all the rest of us in common. For the Father begot Him alone, but created us” [really Ambrose, De sacramentis, V. 19]. This, then, is why we say: “Our Father.”
- Today is the beginning of our salvation,
And the revelation of the eternal mystery!
The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin
As Gabriel announces the coming of Grace.
Together with him let us cry to the Theotokos:
"Rejoice, O Full of Grace, the Lord is with you!"- St Athanasius, troparion for the feast of the Annunciation, Speaking the Truth in Love: Theological and Spiritual Exhortations, by John Chryssavgis, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomu 2010 ISBN 978-0-8232-3337-3 page 85
- A monk used to say: "The prayer Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me; this is the foundation of monastic life."
- Athonite Fathers, An Athonite Gerontikon (2003), p. 476, Ch. 37: On the deifying virtue of prayer which contains all the virtues
- For when God said, “Let there be light, and there was light,” if we are justified in understanding in this light the creation of the angels, then certainly they were created partakers of the eternal light which is the unchangeable Wisdom of God, by which all things were made, and whom we call the only-begotten Son of God; so that they, being illumined by the Light that created them, might themselves become light and be called “Day,” in participation of that unchangeable Light and Day which is the Word of God, by whom both themselves and all else were made. “The true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” — this Light lighteth also every pure angel, that he may be light not in himself, but in God; from whom if an angel turn away, he becomes impure, as are all those who are called unclean spirits, and are no longer light in the Lord, but darkness in themselves, being deprived of the participation of Light eternal. For evil has no positive nature; but the loss of good has received the name “evil.”
- Now this ratio of the single to the double arises, no doubt, from the ternary number, since one added to two makes three; but the whole which these make reaches to the senary, for one and two and three make six. And this number is on that account called perfect, because it is completed in its own parts: for it has these three, sixth, third, and half; nor is there any other part found in it, which we can call an aliquot part. The sixth part of it, then, is one; the third part, two; the half, three. But one and two and three complete the same six. And Holy Scripture commends to us the perfection of this number, especially in this, that God finished His works in six days, and on the sixth day man was made in the image of God. And the Son of God came and was made the Son of man, that He might re-create us after the image of God, in the sixth age of the human race.
- Augustine of Hippo, On the Trinity (ca. 417) Bk. IV, as quoted in The Works of Aurelius Augustine, Bishop of Hippo A New Translation (1873) Vol. 7, p. 116, ed. Marcus Dods, Tr. Arthur West Hadden.
- “You are complex.”
“No. Within this giant house of flesh lives a quiet man who would prefer working at a trade. Or perhaps he is a poet whose dreams are too large for his words. “My home is among the mountains. Men destroy what they do not understand, as they destroyed the son of God when he chose to walk among them. I do not wish to be understood. I wish to be left alone. Your Johannes has done this. He is a kind man, a thoughtful man.”
“Are you never lonely?”
“When would I not be lonely? When a man is one of a kind, he will be lonely wherever he is. I am a man apart but have become adjusted to it. I have the mountains, and I have my books. I also have the friendship of Johannes.”- Louis L. Amour, The Lonesome Gods (1983), Ch. 57
B
[edit]- The spirit in man is undying; it forever endures, progressing from point to point, and stage to stage upon the Path of Evolution, unfolding steadily and sequentially the divine attributes and aspects... The immortality of the human soul, and the innate ability of the spiritual, inner man to work out his own salvation under the Law of Rebirth, in response to the Law of Cause and Effect, are the underlying factors governing all human conduct and all human aspiration. They condition him at all times, until he has achieved the desired and the designed perfection, and can manifest on earth as a rightly functioning son of God.
- Alice Bailey, The Reappearance of the Christ, p. 146/147, (1947)
- He (the Risen Christ) will not this time demonstrate the perfected life of a Son of God, which was His main mission before; He will appear as the supreme Head of the Spiritual Hierarchy, meeting the need of the thirsty nations of the world – thirsty for truth, for right human relations, and for loving understanding. He will be recognised this time by all, and in His Own Person testify to the fact of the resurrection, and hence demonstrate the paralleling fact of the immortality of the soul, of the spiritual man. The emphasis during the past two thousand years has been on death; it has coloured all the teaching of the orthodox churches; only one day in the year has been dedicated to the thought of the resurrection. (9 – 151).
- The Destiny of Nations (1949)
- Christ's Passion, viewed from within, is of a diversity that the biblical texts and images leave hidden; but numerous mystics through the centuries have been allowed to experience a great deal of it in ever-varying aspects—if only by drops, as it were, compared with the Son of God.
- Hans Urs von Balthasar, First Glance at Adrienne von Speyr (1968)
- I entreat you to devote one solemn hour of thought to a crucified Saviour — a Saviour expiring in the bitterest agony. Think of the cross, the nails, the open wounds, the anguish of His soul. Think how the Son of God became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, that you might live forever. Think as you lie down upon your bed to rest, how your Saviour was lifted up from the earth to die. Think amid your plans and anticipations of future gaiety, what the redemption of your soul has cost, and how the dying Saviour would wish you to act. His wounds plead that you will live for better things.
- Albert Barnes, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 72.
- The Holy Spirit is the coming of the man Jesus, who is the Son of God, to other men who are not this but with whom He still associates* And the witness of the Holy Spirit is the disclosure to these men, and therefore their discovery, of the fact that because they are associated with Him they can be called what they are certainly not called of themselves, and be what they can certainly never become or be of themselves children of God, children of light who in the midst of death are freed from the fear of death because as sinners they are freed from the curse of sin, and as such messengers to all those who, because they do not see the light, are still in darkness, but are not to remain in this darkness.
- Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics (1932–1968), 4:2
- Oliver Cromwell, Frederick B. Tolles, in his address "Quakerism and Politics" (9 November 1956)
- Now let us gather into one bouquet, from the King's garden, these seven fragrant flowers: Jesus the Son of God; Jesus our sin-bearer; Jesus the giver of eternal life; Jesus the keeper of our undying souls; Jesus the hearer of our prayers; Jesus the chastener who can turn crosses into crowns; and Jesus the wonder-worker who changes us into eternal likeness unto Himself! These flowers will keep sweet till heaven dawns.
- Theodore L. Cuyler, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 102.
D
[edit]- [T]hough not being absolutely the same as ours, the difficulties for a Saint Peter or a Saint Paul in believing were no less strong. Nor were those of their successors, the Origens and the Cyrils , the Ambroses and the Augustines. Modern man flatters himself when he judges that the Copernican revolution or the Kantian revolution dug out a new hiatus between his thought and the thought of the Ancients. It was as hard to believe then as it is today! It was hard, for a Jewish monotheist—"Listen, Israel! Your God is one!"—to believe in the divinity of a man. It was hard to believe in the crucifixion of the Son of God. It was hard for a reasonable man, who had been able to see up close the Son of Man in his humiliation, to believe in the resurrected Christ.
- Henri de Lubac, Theology in History (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1996), translated by Anne Englund Nash from Théologie dans l'histoire (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1990), 2 volumes, "The Light of Christ" (1949), p. 214
- I’m the son of God. I mislead you slightly. I’m the son of the man who creates gods. Again, I mislead you slightly. I’m a son of the man who created and founded Dianetics and Scientology, which creates gods. I’m a son of L. Ron Hubbard. This book is my dying declaration. My last will and testament. My father will order my death. My father does not use the word ‘murder.’ He prefers to use the word ‘suicide.’
- Ronald DeWolf, The Telling of Me, by Me (1981)
E
[edit]- You trust in your own doings to appease God for your sins, and to incline the heart of God to you. Though you are poor, worthless, vile, and polluted, yet you arrogantly take upon you that very work for which the Son of God became man; and in order to which God employed four thousand years in all the great dispensations of His providence, aiming chiefly to make way for Christ's coming to do this work. This is the work that you foolishly think yourselves sufficient for; as though your prayers and performances were excellent enough for this purpose. Consider how vain is the thought which you entertain of yourself. How must such arrogance appear in the sight of Christ, whom it cost so much? It was not to be obtained even by Him, so great and glorious a person, at a cheaper rate than His wading through a sea of blood, and passing through the midst of the furnace of God's wrath.
- Jonathan Edwards, 'Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 541.
- Incarnation, central Christian doctrine that God became flesh, that God assumed a human nature and became a man in the form of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the second person of the Trinity. Christ was truly God and truly man. The doctrine maintains that the divine and human natures of Jesus do not exist beside one another in an unconnected way but rather are joined in him in a personal unity that has traditionally been referred to as the hypostatic union.
- The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, in Incarnation,Encyclopædia Britannica
- You trust in your own doings to appease God for your sins, and to incline the heart of God to you. Though you are poor, worthless, vile, and polluted, yet you arrogantly take upon you that very work for which the Son of God became man; and in order to which God employed four thousand years in all the great dispensations of His providence, aiming chiefly to make way for Christ's coming to do this work. This is the work that you foolishly think yourselves sufficient for; as though your prayers and performances were excellent enough for this purpose. Consider how vain is the thought which you entertain of yourself. How must such arrogance appear in the sight of Christ, whom it cost so much? It was not to be obtained even by Him, so great and glorious a person, at a cheaper rate than His wading through a sea of blood, and passing through the midst of the furnace of God's wrath.
- Jonathan Edwards, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 541.
- Even though Jesus may be the only miracleworking Son of God that people know about today, there were lots of people like this in the ancient world.
- Bart D. Ehrman, How Jesus Became God (2014), Ch. 1: 'Divine Humans in Ancient Greece and Rome'
- In scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the following explanation is given to Enoch by God:
"And our father Adam spake unto the Lord, and said: Why is it that men must repent and be baptized in water? And the Lord said unto Adam: Behold I have forgiven thee thy transgression in the Garden of Eden.
Hence came the saying abroad among the people, that the Son of God hath atoned for original guilt, wherein the sins of the parents cannot be answered upon the heads of the children, for they are whole from the foundation of the world."- Enoch, a fourth great-grandson of Adam, in "Selections from the Book of Moses", Moses 6:53-54 in "The Pearl of Great Price", pp. 18-19, (c) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
F
[edit]- No true work since the world began was ever wasted; no true life since the world began has ever failed. Oh, understand those two perverted words "failure" and "success." and measure them by the eternal, not by the earthly standard. When after thirty obscure, toilsome, unrecorded years in the shop of the village carpenter, one came forth to be preeminently the man of sorrows, to wander from city to city in homeless labors, and to expire in lonely agony upon the shameful cross — was that a failure? Nay, my brethren.it was the death of Him who lived that we might follow His footsteps, it was the life, it was the death of the Son of God.
- Frederic William Farrar, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 113.
G
[edit]- Great undulating banners red as blood. And the brass bands. And the manly thud of uniformly set-down boots. And the rage inside the happy shouts. A hundred thousand spleens have found a mouth. Curtains of sperm are flung up the side of the sky. Hell has fertilized heaven. And now the hero comes—the trumpet of his people. And his voice is enlarged like a movie's lion. He roars, he screams so well for everyone, his tantrums tame a people. He is the Son of God, if God is Resentment. And God is Resentment—a pharaoh for the disappointed people.
- William H. Gass, The Tunnel (1995), p.155
- As a creature, human beings are "in relationship". Transcendence which characterizes man in relation to other creatures is like the case of a gardener who is responsible for the whole creation. That is why our land is holy. Likewise it is the habitat chosen by the son of God. Nature is the manifestation of the revelation of a God full of goodness.
- Step by step, He had raised their conceptions of Him nearer the unspeakable grandeur of His true nature and work. At first the Teacher, He had, after a time, by gradual disclosures, revealed Himself as the Son of God veiled in the form of man; and, now, since His crucifixion and resurrection, He had taught them to see in Him the Messiah, exalted to immortal and Divine majesty, as the conqueror of Death and the Lord of all.
- 'John Cunningham Geikie, 'The Life and Words of Christ (1886), p. 607
- [F]acts and events have ultimate meaning only within and by virtue of the context of the world view in which they are conceived. Hence, it is a vicious circle to argue that a given fact (say, the resuscitation of Christ's body) is evidence of a certain truth claim (say, Christ's claim to be God), unless it can be established that the event comes in the context of a theistic universe. For it makes no sense to claim to be the Son of God and to evidence it by an act of God (miracle) unless there is a God who can have a Son and who can act in a special way in the natural world. But in this case the mere fact of the resurrection cannot be used to establish the truth that there is a God. For the resurrection cannot even be a miracle unless there already is a God. Many overzealous and hasty Christian apologists rush hastily into their historical and evidential apologetics without first properly doing their theistic homework.
- Norman Geisler, Christian Apologetics
- I’ve always suspected that Judas was the most faithful of the apostles, and that his betrayal of Jesus was not a betrayal at all, simply a test to prove that Christ could not be betrayed. The way I see it, Judas hoped and expected that Christ would have worked some kind of miracle and turned away those soldiers when they came for him. Or perhaps he would not die on the cross. Or perhaps—well, never mind. In any case, Jesus didn’t do any of these things, probably because he was not capable of it. You see, I’ve also always believed that Christ was not the son of God, but just a very very good man, and that he had no supernatural powers at all, just the abilities of any normal human being. When he died, that’s when Judas realized that he had not been testing God at all—he’d been betraying a human being, perhaps the best human being. Judas’s mistake was in wanting too much to believe in the powers of Christ. He wanted Christ to demonstrate to everyone that he was the son of God, and he believed his Christ could do it—only his Christ wasn’t the son of God and couldn’t do it, and he died. You see, it was Christ who betrayed Judas—by promising what he couldn’t deliver. And Judas realized what he had done and hung himself. That’s my interpretation of it, Auberson—not the traditional, I’ll agree, but it has more meaning to me. Judas’s mistake was in believing too hard and not questioning first what he thought were facts. I don’t intend to repeat that mistake.
- David Gerrold, When HARLIE Was One (1972), Section 37 (p. 216)
- A mightier love for the Son of God, to overpower and subdue and lead captive these wayward and truant affections of the natural heart — this is what is needed.
- Adoniram Judson Gordon, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 396.
- ’’’And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.
And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.
He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?
And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.
For with God nothing shall be impossible.
And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.’’’- Gospel of Luke, 1:26-38, KJV, other versions: Luke, 1:26-38.
- ‘’’Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.’’’- Jesus, in the Gospel of John 5:24-25 (KJV)
- Variant translation:
- He who hears my word, and believes him that sent me, has eternal life, and comes not into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
- ’’’Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, "Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick."
When Jesus heard that, He said, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it."
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So, when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was. Then after this He said to the disciples, "Let us go to Judea again." [...]
Then Jesus said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him."’’’- Lazarus of Bethany, John 11,1-7;14-15 (NKJV).
- And then, to sink the roots of this fear deep, the church introduces the idea of evil and the devil to children, for it knows that if it can cut early psychological scars it has a better chance of holding on to the minds thus wounded.
All religions are anxious to proselytise the young. Society seems not to see either the absurdity or the danger in the fact that pupils in one school are taught, as truths of history, that the Normans conquered England in 1066 and that Jesus is the son of God, in another that the Normans conquered England in 1066 and Jesus is not the son of God but that Mohammed received the definitive divine revelation, in a third that the Normans conquered England in 1066 and that neither Jesus nor Mohammed is of any significance besides Guru Dev—and in a fourth that the Normans conquered England in 1066 and all three of Jesus, Mohammed and Guru Dev are false distractions, attention to whom is likely to provoke God’s jealous wrath.
Yet in schools all over the country these antipathetic “truths” are being force-fed to different groups of pupils, none of whom is in a position to assess their credibility or worth. This is a serious form of child abuse. It sows the seeds of apartheids capable of resulting, in their logical conclusion, in murder and war, as history sickeningly and ceaselessly proves.- A. C. Grayling, Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God (2002), Chapter 9, “Evil” (p. 34)
- In God's matters all princes ought to bow their sceptres to the Son of God, and to ask counsel at his mouth, what they ought to do. David exhorteth all kings and rulers to serve God with fear and trembling.
Remember, Madam, that you are a mortal creature... And although ye are a mighty prince, yet remember that He which dwelleth in heaven is mightier.- Edmund Grindal, Letter to Queen Elizabeth (20 December 1576), quoted in The Remains of Edmund Grindal, D.D. Successively Bishop of London, and Archbishop of York and Canterbury, ed. Rev. William Nicholson (1843), p. 389
H
[edit]- What Jesus spoke was Truth; the way He spoke was gracious. He spoke the truth in love. God is love, and the Son of God spoke lovingly.
- James Hamilton (1814-1871), Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 64.
- The Son of God goes forth to war,
A kingly crown to gain;
His blood red banner streams afar:
Who follows in His train?
Who best can drink his cup of woe,
Triumphant over pain,
Who patient bears his cross below,
He follows in His train.- Reginald Heber, "The Son of God Goes Forth to War", st. 1 (1812); lyrics reworked by Rudyard Kipling in The Man Who Would Be King (1888):The Son of Man goes forth to war,
A golden crown to gain;
His blood-red banner streams afar—
Who follows in his train?
- Reginald Heber, "The Son of God Goes Forth to War", st. 1 (1812); lyrics reworked by Rudyard Kipling in The Man Who Would Be King (1888):The Son of Man goes forth to war,
- To understand man on the basis of Christ, who is himself understood on the basis of God, in turn rests on the crucial intuition of a radical phenomenology of Life, which is precisely that of Christianity: namely, that Life has the same meaning for God, for Christ, and for man. This is so because there is but a single and selfsame essence of Life, and, more radically, a single and selfsame Life. This Life – that self-generates itself in God and that, in its self-generation, generates the transcendental Arch-Son as the essential Ipseity in which this self-generation comes about – is the Life from which man himself takes his transcendental birth, precisely since he is Life and is explicitly defined as such within Christianity. He is the Son of this unique and absolute Life, and thus the Son of God. The tautological expression “Son of God” – tautological in that there are no sons except in Life and thus in God – conceals the profound truth that man’s essence, that which makes him possible as what he really is, is not man as we understand him, and still less some humanitas or other. Rather, it is the essence of divine life – that which makes him one of the living, and that alone.
- Michel Henry, I am the Truth. Toward a Philosophy of Christianity, translated by Susan Emanuel, Stanford University Press, 2003, p. 101
- The interpretation of man as “Son of God,” or, more precisely, as “Son within the Son,” has many weighty implications. But before we pursue them, there is one question that cannot be differed. If men are really Sons of God within Christ, how can we explain that so few of them know this and remember it? If they bear within them this divine Life in all its immensity – because there is no other Life but that, and the living can only bow before its profusion – how can we understand why they are so unhappy? In the end, it is not the tribulations visited upon them by the world that oppress them; rather, it is with themselves that they are so discontented. It is their own incapacity to achieve their desires and plans, it is their hesitations, their weakness and lack of courage, that provoke the deep malaise that accompanies them throughout their miserable existence. If they never tire of attributing the cause of their failure to circumstances or to others, it is only to fool themselves and to forget that the real cause lies within themselves. As Kierkegaard puts it: “Consequently he does not despair because he did not get to be Caesar but despairs over himself because he did not get to be himself.” But how can one despair of this me if it is nothing less than the coming into us of God within Christ? Such despair is possible only if, one way or another, man has forgotten the splendor of his initial condition, his condition of Son of God – his condition as “Son within the Son.” It is this forgetting that we must now attempt to understand.
- Michel Henry, I am the Truth. Toward a Philosophy of Christianity, Man’s forgotten of his condition of “Son of God” , The real man understood as “Son of God”, translated by Susan Emanuel, Stanford University Press, 2003, p. 132
- The Son of God is nailed to the cross; but on the cross God conquers human death. Christ, the Son of God, dies; but all flesh is made alive in Christ. The Son of God is in hell; but man is carried back to heaven.
- O venerable father Bernard, I lay my claim before you, for, highly honored by God, you bring fear to the immoral foolishness of this world and, in your intense zeal and burning love for the Son of God, gather men [cf. Luke 5.10] into Christ's army to fight under the banner of the cross against pagan savagery. I beseech you in the name of the Living God to give heed to my queries.
- Hildegard og Bingen, Letter to Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, 1146-47
- Now, O son of God, set in the valley of true humility, walk in peace without pride of spirit, which, like a precipitous mountain, offers a difficult, or near-impossible, ascent or descent to those who attempt to scale it, and on its summit no building can be built. For a person who tries to climb higher than he can achieve possesses the name of sanctity without substance, because, in name alone without a structure of good works, he glories in a kind of vain joy of the mind.
- Hildegard of Bingen, Letter to the Monk Guibert, 1176
- Believe in Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Redeemer, the Son of God, who came to earth and walked the dusty roads of Palestine-the Son of God-to teach us the way of truth and light and salvation, and who, in one great and glorious act offered an atonement for each of us. He opened the way of salvation and exaltation for each of us, under which we may go forward in the Church and kingdom of God. Be not faithless, but believe in the great and wonderful and marvelous blessings of the Atonement.
- Gordon B. Hinckley, Selections from Addresses of President Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, Mar. 2001, 64.
- ’’’“His [Christ’s] point of view, of the literal divine-son ship of every lowliest and most sinful and sinning spirit, committed him logically to the assertion of the implicit equality of all spirits with each other, far as concerns their moral powers and destination no matter what their actual and contingent state; and also of their potential equality with God. His doctrine may well be summarised in the consecrated phrase, usually applied only to himself, "The son of man is the son of God."” ‘’’
- George Holmes Howison, ‘’The Right Relation of Reason to Religion’’, p.251
I
[edit]- People would have said the same thing to Jesus, 'Who the heck are you? You're a carpenter's son.'
- Icke: The best way of removing negativity is to laugh and be joyous, Terry, so I'm glad that there's been so much laughter in the audience tonight.
Wogan: But they're laughing at you. They're not laughing with you.
Icke: I don't care. - We/I am a son/daughter of God. In fact, we are all expressions/projections of the Infinite Conciousness, which is love, that is what I mean when I say "I am a son of god "GOD"!"
- Interview with David Icke and Terry Wogan, Wogan (1991).
- ... Newton was harbouring a terrible secret. He believed that the central Christian doctrine of the Trinity was a diabolical fraud and that all of modern Christianity was tainted by its presence. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was not equal in any sense to God the Father, although he was divine, and was worthy of being worshipped in his own right. Newton did not arrive at these beliefs as a result of pursuing some dilettantish hobby; nor were they the result of studies he pursued at the end of his life. Instead, they lay at the heart of a massive research programme on prophecy and church history that he carried out early in his career. This was at least as strenuous, and, in his eyes, at least as "rational" as his work on physics and mathematics.
- Rob Iliffe, "Introduction: A Rational Christian". Priest of Nature: Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton. Oxford University Press. 2017.
- As an act of kindness Mr. Woodsworth visited Mr. Paine every day for six weeks before his death. He frequently sat up with him, and did so on the last two nights of his life. He was always there with Dr. Manley, the physician, and assisted in removing Mr. Paine while his bed was prepared. He was present when Dr. Manley asked Mr. Paine "if he wished to believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God," and he describes Mr. Paine's answer as animated. He says that lying on his back he used some action and with much emphasis, replied, "I have no wish to believe on that subject." He lived some time after this, but was not known to speak, for he died tranquilly.
- Robert G. Ingersoll, repudiating accounts of Paine embracing Christian traditions on his deathbed, in A Vindication of Thomas Paine (1877); Ingersoll also recounted the incident in A Christmas Sermon (1891)
- Therefore, as I have said, one must not call this gift and grace spiritual prayer,
- but the offspring of pure prayer which is engulfed by the Holy Spirit.
- At that moment the understanding is yonder, above prayer;
- and at the discovery of something better, prayer is abandoned.
- Then the understanding does not pray with prayer,
- but it gazes in ecstasy at incomprehensible things that lie beyond this mortal world,
- and it is silenced by its ignorance of all that is found there.
- This is the unknowing that has been called higher than knowledge.
- This is the unknowing concerning which it has been said.
- ‘Blessed is the man who has attained the unknowing that is inseparable from prayer,’
- of which may we be deemed worthy by the grace of the only-begotten Son of God.
- Isaac of Niniveh, Homily 23, pp. 245
- of which may we be deemed worthy by the grace of the only-begotten Son of God.
J
[edit]- My aim in that was, to justify the character of Jesus against the fictions of his pseudo-followers, which have exposed him to the inference of being an impostor. For if we could believe that he really countenanced the follies, the falsehoods and the charlatanisms which his biographers father on him, and admit the misconstructions, interpolations and theorizations of the fathers of the early, and fanatics of the latter ages, the conclusion would be irresistible by every sound mind, that he was an impostor. I give no credit to their falsifications of his actions and doctrines, and to rescue his character, the postulate in my letter asked only what is granted in reading every other historian. ... I say, that this free exercise of reason is all I ask for the vindication of the character of Jesus. We find in the writings of his biographers matter of two distinct descriptions. First, a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms and fabrications. Intermixed with these, again, are sublime ideas of the Supreme Being, aphorisms and precepts of the purest morality and benevolence, sanctioned by a life of humility, innocence and simplicity of manners, neglect of riches, absence of worldly ambition and honors, with an eloquence and persuasiveness which have not been surpassed. These could not be inventions of the groveling authors who relate them. They are far beyond the powers of their feeble minds. They shew that there was a character, the subject of their history, whose splendid conceptions were above all suspicion of being interpolations from their hands. Can we be at a loss in separating such materials, and ascribing each to its genuine author? The difference is obvious to the eye and to the understanding, and we may read as we run to each his part; and I will venture to affirm, that he who, as I have done, will undertake to winnow this grain from its chaff, will find it not to require a moment's consideration. The parts fall asunder of themselves, as would those of an image of metal and clay. ... There are, I acknowledge, passages not free from objection, which we may, with probability, ascribe to Jesus himself; but claiming indulgence from the circumstances under which he acted. His object was the reformation of some articles in the religion of the Jews, as taught by Moses. That sect had presented for the object of their worship, a being of terrific character, cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust. Jesus, taking for his type the best qualities of the human head and heart, wisdom, justice, goodness, and adding to them power, ascribed all of these, but in infinite perfection, to the Supreme Being, and formed him really worthy of their adoration. Moses had either not believed in a future state of existence, or had not thought it essential to be explicitly taught to his people. Jesus inculcated that doctrine with emphasis and precision. Moses had bound the Jews to many idle ceremonies, mummeries and observances, of no effect towards producing the social utilities which constitute the essence of virtue; Jesus exposed their futility and insignificance. The one instilled into his people the most anti-social spirit towards other nations; the other preached philanthropy and universal charity and benevolence. The office of reformer of the superstitions of a nation, is ever dangerous. Jesus had to walk on the perilous confines of reason and religion: and a step to right or left might place him within the gripe of the priests of the superstition, a blood thirsty race, as cruel and remorseless as the being whom they represented as the family God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. They were constantly laying snares, too, to entangle him in the web of the law. He was justifiable, therefore, in avoiding these by evasions, by sophisms, by misconstructions and misapplications of scraps of the prophets, and in defending himself with these their own weapons, as sufficient, ad homines, at least. That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore. But that he might conscientiously believe himself inspired from above, is very possible.
- Thomas Jefferson, Letter to William Short (4 August 1820) on his reason for composing a Syllabus of an Estimate of the Merit of the Doctrines of Jesus and referring to Jesus’ biographers, the Gospel writers. Published in Thomas Jefferson: Writings, Merrill D. Peterson, ed., New York: Library of America, 1994, pp. 1435–1440
- Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
- in John 20:30-31 as quoted in www.ewtn.com
- ’’’Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”
- When Jesus heard that, He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
- Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.’’’
- John 11, 1-5 (NKJV).
- ’’’Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about [a]two miles away. And many of the Jews had joined the women around Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother.
- Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”
- Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
- Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
- Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
- She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
- And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, “The Teacher has come and is calling for you.” As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying, “She is going to the tomb to weep there.”
- Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”
- Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.’’’
- John 11, 18-33 (NKJV).
- ’’’But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.’’’
- John 20:31
- I have said that God is pleased with nothing but love; but before I explain this, it will be as well to set forth the grounds on which the assertion rests. All our works, and all our labours, how grand soever they may be, are nothing in the sight of God, for we can give Him nothing, neither can we by them fulfil His desire, which is the growth of our soul. As to Himself He desires nothing of this, for He has need of nothing, and so, if He is pleased with anything it is with the growth of the soul; and as there is no way in which the soul can grow but in becoming in a manner equal to Him, for this reason only is He pleased with our love. It is the property of love to place him who loves on an equality with the object of his love. Hence the soul, because of its perfect love, is called the bride of the Son of God, which signifies equality with Him. In this equality and friendship all things are common, as the Bridegroom Himself said to His disciples: I have called you friends, because all things, whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you.
- John of the Cross, Spiritual Canticle of The Soul and The Bridegroom, Notes to the Stanzas, Note to Stanza 27
- As long as we dwell in the shadow, we cannot see the sun itself; but Now we see through a glass darkly, says St. Paul. Yet the shadow is so enlightened by the sunshine that we can perceive the distinctions between all the virtues and all the truth which is profitable to our mortal state. But if we would become one with the brightness of the Sun, we must follow love, and go out of ourselves into the Wayless, and then the Sun will draw us with our blinded eyes into Its own brightness, in which we shall possess unity with God. . . . In his outpouring, He wills to he wholly ours: and then He teaches us to live in the riches of the virtues. In His indrawing touch all our powers forsake us, and then we sit under His shadow, and His fruit is sweet to our taste, for the Fruit of God is the Son of God, Whom the Father brings forth in our spirit. This Fruit is so infinitely sweet to our taste that we can neither swallow It nor assimilate It, but It rather absorbs us into Itself and assimilates us with Itself.
- Blessed John Ruysbroeck. From Evelyn Underhill, [1] Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage
- Thirdly, he must have lost himself in a waylessness and in a darkness in which all contemplatives wander around in enjoyment and can no longer find themselves in a creaturely way. In the abyss of this darkness in which the loving spirit has died to itself, there begin the revelation of God and eternal life. For in this darkness there shines and is born an incomprehensible light which is the Son of God, in whom one contemplates eternal life. And in this light one becomes seeing.
- Blessed John Ruysbroeck.
- This is what the Son of God desires of you: that he might be able to embellish, perfect and gain you lustre with the fullness of his gifts. Since he is so taken by your Beauty, which flows and gushes from him to you, as I have said, what he desires of you is that he might have the supreme pleasure of an eternity enjoying you and his gifts. Thus, everyone who proceeds to live in a way that is contrary to his own self, lives in God; his whole being is God-orientated; he sees nothing but God and himself.
- John of St. Samson, from A Letter to a Religious
- If he was in his room and you wanted to see him, you didn’t just knock and wait for him to respond. What you did was knock and say “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us”, and when he responded with an “Amen”, you walked in.
- Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco, Memories of the Living Saint John and Testimonials On Occasion of the Twenty Fifth Year Anniversary of His Glorification, (29 June 2019)
- But why do you not cease to call Mary the mother of God, if Isaiah nowhere says that he that is born of the virgin is the "only begotten Son of God" and "the firstborn of all creation"?
- Julian (emperor), Against the Galilaeans (c. 362)
- Since the Devil is the adversary of Christ he should occupy a position equivalent to his and be the Son of God as well. Satan would be the first Son of God and Christ the second.
- Siccome il Diavolo è l’avversario di Cristo dovrebbe occupare una posizione equivalente alla sua ed essere pure lui Figlio di Dio. Satana sarebbe il primo Figlio di Dio e Cristo il secondo.
- Carl Jung, Essai d’interprétation psycologique du dogme de la Trinité, in Essai sur la symbolique de l’esprit, Paris, 1991, p. 207. As quoted in Curzio Nitoglia, Satanismo nella Psicologia Analitica di Jung: peggio della Psiacanalisi di Freud, Qui Europa (July 4, 2016)
- Siccome il Diavolo è l’avversario di Cristo dovrebbe occupare una posizione equivalente alla sua ed essere pure lui Figlio di Dio. Satana sarebbe il primo Figlio di Dio e Cristo il secondo.
K
[edit]- A Son of God, Lord of the World, born of a virgin, and rising again after death, and the son of a small builder with revolutionary notions, are two totally different beings. If one was the historical Jesus, the other certainly was not. The real question of the historicity of Jesus is not merely whether there ever was a Jesus among the numerous claimants of a Messiahship in Judea, but whether we are to recognise the historical character of this Jesus in the Gospels, and whether he is to be regarded as the founder of Christianity.[4]
- Albert Kalthoff (1907). "Was There An Historical Jesus?". The Rise of Christianity. Translated by Joseph McCabe. London: Watts. p. 28. 1904: "Was There An Historical Jesus?", How Christianity arose: New contributions to the Christ-problem
- There's a devil inside me which cries, "You're not the son of the Carpenter, you're the son of King David! You are not a man, you are the Son of man whom Daniel prophesied." And still more: "The Son of God! And still more: God!"
- Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ (1951) , Ch. 10
- The Son of God became a Man for our sake. To redeem us He died upon the cross. To re-present His bloody sacrifice of the cross in an unbloody manner, to memorialize it until the end of time and to apply its fruits, He instituted the New Testament priesthood and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It is this priesthood and this Mass that the reformers have tried to take from us. But God has not allowed them to be completely successful. I have no doubt myself that He raised up Archbishop Lefebvre to contribute to the continuation of the priesthood and the true Mass. And now by God's mercy we also are in a position to help contribute to the continuation of the priesthood and the true Mass. For this we are grateful to him and to the late Bishop Alfred Mendez who, as one priest said, took a 'most courageous step for the preservation of our holy Catholic Faith in this age of modernism.'
- The ninth chapter shows us the new step of sovereign grace in the conversion of Saul to be the witness of an ascended Christ, Who owns the saints as part of Himself, and calls the persecutor to be His chosen vessel to bear His name before Gentiles, kings, and children of Israel, the deepest in truth, the largest in heart, the most abundant in labour of all the apostles. No wonder the gospel of Christ's glory marked him, who first saw and heard the Lord thus; yet a simple disciple baptised him who forthwith, in the synagogues, preached Jesus as the Son of God.
- William Kelly, God's Inspiration of the Scriptures, §32. The Acts of the Apostles (discussion of 9th chapter), pp. 363-364, London, 1903
- This bread and wine are the simple but eloquent monument to the infinite love of the Son of God, around which we gather with tender, tearful gratitude, because He loved us'so, and because we know that our garlands of affection and consecration are pleasing to Him.
- Abbott Eliott Kittredge, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 371.
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[edit]- As man lives, and moves, and has his Being in the Divine Nature, and is supported by it, whether his Nature be good or bad; so the Wrath of Man, which was awakened in the dark Fire of his fallen Nature, may, in a certain Sense, be called the Wrath of God, as Hell itself may be said to be in God, because nothing can be out of his Immensity; yet this Hell, is not God, but the dark Habitation of the Devil. And this Wrath which may be called the Wrath of God, is not God, but the fiery Wrath of the fallen Soul.
And it was solely to quench this Wrath, awakened in the human Soul, that the Blood of the Son of God was necessary, because nothing but a Life and a Birth, derived from him into the human Soul, could change this darkened Root of a self-tormenting Fire, into an amiable Image of the holy Trinity, as it was at first created.
This was the Wrath, Vengeance, and vindictive Justice that wanted to be satisfied, in order to our Salvation; it was the Wrath and Fire of Nature and Creature kindled only in itself, by its departing from true Resignation, and Obedience to God.- William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728), Christian Regeneration.
- I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would be either a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (1952), Book II, Chapter 3, "The Shocking Alternative"
- As men, we have God for our King, and are under the law of reason: as Christians, we have Jesus the Messiah for our King, and are under the law revealed by him in the gospel. And though every Christian, both as a deist and a Christian, be obliged to study both the law of nature and the revealed law, that in them he may know the will of God, and of Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent; yet, in neither of these laws, is there to be found a select set of fundamentals, distinct from the rest, which are to make him a deist, or a Christian. But he that believes one eternal, invisible God, his Lord and King, ceases thereby to be an atheist; and he that believes Jesus to be the Messiah, his king, ordained by God, thereby becomes a Christian, is delivered from the power of darkness, and is translated into the kingdom of the Son of God; is actually within the covenant of grace, and has that faith, which shall be imputed to him for righteousness; and, if he continues in his allegiance to this his King, shall receive the reward: eternal life.
- John Locke, The Reasonableness of Christianity, as Delivered in the Scriptures (1695), § 228
- ‘’’So when the centurion, who stood opposite Him, saw that He cried out like this and breathed His last, he said, "Truly this Man was the Son of God!"’’’
- Longinus (Bible), Mark 15,39 (NKJV).
- Now, if there is anyone dissatisfied with the fact, that there is a whole race of human beings, with the rights of human beings, created with a skin not colored like our own, let him go mouth the heavens, and mutter his blasphemies in the ear of the God that made us all. Tell him that he had no business to make human beings with a black skin. I repeat, I feel no responsibility for this fact. But, inasmuch as it has pleased God to make them human beings, I am bound to regard them as such. Instead of chattering your gibberish in my ear bout negro equality, go look the son of God in the face and reproach him for favoring negro equality because he poured out his blood for the most abject and despised of the human family. Go settle this matter with the God who created and the Christ who redeemed.
- Owen Lovejoy.As quoted in His Brother's Blood: Speeches and Writings, 1838–64 (2004), edited by William Frederick Moore and Jane Ann Moore, p. 177
- Labour therefore diligently, that not only out of the time of temptation, but also in the time and conflict of death, when thy conscience is thoroughly afraid with the remembrance of thy sins past, and the devil assaileth thee with great violence, going about to overwhelm thee with heaps, floods and whole seas of sins, to terrify thee, to draw thee from Christ, and to drive thee to despair; that then I say, thou mayest be able to say with sure confidence: Christ the Son of God was given, not for the righteous and holy, but for the unrighteous and sinners.... If he gave himself to death for our sins, then undoubtedly he is no tyrant or judge which will condemn us for our sins. He is no caster-down of the afflicted, but a raiser-up of those that are fallen, a merciful reliever and comforter of the heavy and broken-hearted. Else should Paul lie in saying: "which gave himself for our sins."
- Martin Luther, A Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians (1535. Translation revised 1953 by Philip S Watson. On Galatians 1:4.)
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[edit]- God never gave a man a thing to do concerning which it were irreverent to ponder how the Son of God would have done it.
- George MacDonald, Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 250.
- Those executioners of tyranny and barbarity arrived at the garden of Khizrabad at seven O’clock at night. They entered the room where the afflicted prince was walking up and down repeating the words referred to: Muhammad mara mi-kushad, ibn-ullah mara jan mi-bakhshad [Muhammad kills me, and the Son of God gives me life; interpreted as Dara’s desire to convert to Christianity at this moment]. They laid hands upon him, and, showing neither compassion nor respect, flung him to the ground and cut off his head. Leaving the body to welter in its blood, they carried the head with all haste to Aurangzeb’s presence. It was then eight O’clock at night, and he was in the garden of the palace. Such was the tragic and lamentable fate meted out to the unhappy prince Dara, first-born and heir to the Mogul empire, loved and cherished by his father, Shahjahan, and respected by the people. Neither his good qualities nor his rank sufficed to deliver him from the evil designs of Aurangzeb, nor from the ill-effects of his own bad qualities.
- Niccolao Manucci quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume III Chapter 16
- The rhythms of the knowledge that comes from faith are slow. That is why revelation must also be hidden, veiled. Man's freedom is unable to bear the full weight of God's revelation. Thus the parables spring from the heart of Jesus urgency of the gospel; they are spontaneous, not artificial, they spring from life itself. The parables are, in this perspective, one of the most beautiful fruits of the mystery of the Incarnation, the frontier to which language is pushed by the Son of God, so that it may be adapted to communicate the mystery of the Kingdom in respect to the concrete situation of man.
- Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, quoted in Le sorprese del linguaggio di Gesù, avvenire.it (February 28, 2011)
- All true development tends ever to God. Its objective aim is the restoration by the second Adam of the Divine image forfeited by the first; and, incidentally, it transmutes grief into gladness and sighs into songs. But it is always a development in Christ, since it is only " in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God " that any of our race can come "unto a perfect man."
- John McClellan Holmes, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 216.
- The English word “evangelical” comes from a transliteration of the Greek noun euangelion, which was used by the writers of the New Testament to signify the glad tidings-the goods news-of Jesus’ appearance on earth as the Son of God to accomplish God’s plan of salvation for needy humans. Translators of the New Testament into English usually employed the word “gospel” (which means goods news or glad tidings in Old English) for euangelion, as in passages like Romans 1:16-“I am not ashamed of the gospel (euangelion), because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (NIV) Thus, “evangelical” religion has always been “gospel” religion, or religion focusing on the “good news” of salvation brought to sinner by Jesus Christ. Already in the middle ages the word was applied, for example, to Isiah as “the evangelical prophet,” because of how later Christians read this Old Testament book as describing the work of Christ. IT was also applied to the followers of St. Francis, because their abandonment of worldly possessions was regarded as a clear imitation of Jesus’ own life.
During the sixteenth century, the word “evangelical” began to take on a more specific meaning associated with the Protestant Reformation. In this usage, the evangelicals were those who protested against the corruptions of the late-medieval Western church and who sought a Christ-centered and Bible-centered reform of the church. Because of these efforts, the word became a rough synonym for “Protestant.” To this day in many places around the world, Lutheran churches reflect this older sense of the term (for example, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America or the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil). In contemporary Germany, evangelisch retains the older meaning attached to the Lutheran churches descended from the Reformation, while evangelikal is a new coinage to designate those who are often called “evangelicals” in other parts of the world.- McDermott, Gerald R., ed. (2010), “The Oxford Handbook of Evangelical Theology” (2010), p.21
- I think of the stable where Jesus was born and the smell of oxen, donkeys, sheep and wet wool. The reality of the stable is brought home to me: it was a bare, smelly, dirty and unlikely place for the Son of God to born, a poor place. Yet, isn't that just like God? To do the unexpected? The surprising? The mystery of Christmas is that it happened at all.
- Bound upon the accurséd tree,
Faint and bleeding, who is he?
By the eyes so pale and dim,
Streaming blood, and writhing limb;
By the flesh, with scourges torn;
By the crown of twisted thorn;
By the side so deeply pierced;
By the baffled, burning thirst;
By the drooping death-dewed brow:
Son of Man, ’tis thou!’t is thou!
Bound upon the accurséd tree,
Dread and awful, who is he?
By the sun at noonday pale,
Shivering rocks, and rending veil:
By earth, that trembles at his doom;
By yonder saints who burst their tomb;
By Eden promised, ere he died,
To the felon at his side;
Lord, our suppliant knees we bow:
Son of God, ’tis thou! ’tis thou!
Bound upon the accurséd tree,
Sad and dying, who is he?
By the last and bitter cry;
The ghost given up in agony;
By the lifeless body laid
In the chamber of the dead;
By the mourners come to weep
Where the bones of Jesus sleep;
Crucified! we know thee now:
Son of Man, ’tis thou! ’tis thou!
Bound upon the accurséd tree,
Dread and awful, who is he?
By the prayer for them that slew,—
“Lord, they know not what they do!”
By the spoiled and empty grave;
By the souls he died to save;
By the conquest he hath won;
By the saints before his throne:
By the rainbow round his brow;
Son of God, ’tis thou! ’tis thou!- Henry Hart Milman, "Bound upon the Accurséd Tree"
- God entrusted two sublime two missions to Saint Joseph, the greatest of all the saints: that of husband to the Queen of Angels and Saints, the Blessed Virgin Mary; and that of foster father to the Son of God, Jesus. Such a task is even more ineffable and inexpressible than human words can express.
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[edit]- “To reach your goals, you cannot use wrong means brother. What is Haram to them is also Haram to you. When you are wishing Merry Christmas to them, you are agreeing that he is the son of God and that is Shirk (sin). Because they believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Irrespective of whether they are practising Christians or not, they celebrate the day because of His birthday,” Zakir Naik emphasised.
. “Is saying Merry Christmas wrong? I am telling you it is wrong. It is 100% wrong according to me,” he reiterated.
Naik further added, “If you don’t know what Christmas stands for and happen to wish someone, Allah may forgive you. If you drink alcohol, mistaking it for Pepsi, Allah may forgive you. But if you are doing it to build a relationship after knowing what Christmas stands for, you are building your place in Jahannam (Hell). Therefore, for reaching good means, you never have to follow bad means. You have to follow the guidance of the Quran and the Sunnah (literature based on life and deeds of Prophet Muhammad).”…- Zakir Naik, Popular Muslim preacher Zakir Naik: If you say ‘Merry Christmas,’ ‘you are building your place in hell’ December 21, 2020 [2] [3]
- Religions are all founded on miracles — on things we cannot understand, such as the Trinity. Jesus calls himself the Son of God, and yet is descended from David. I prefer the religion of Mahomet — it is less ridiculous than ours.
- Napoleon, Letter from St. Helena (28 August 1817); as quoted in The St. Helena Journal of General Baron Gourgaud, 1815-1818 : Being a Diary written at St. Helena during a part of Napoleon's Captivity (1932) as translated by Norman Edwards, a translation of Journal de Sainte-Hélène 1815-1818 by General Gaspard Gourgaud, t.2, p. 226 Flammarion -->
- Laudes Christo redempti voce modulemur supplici ...
- Praise to Christ, with suppliant voices,
Let His ransomed people sing:
Let the world which now rejoices
Bless the Son of God, its King. - Notker the Stammerer, Translated by R. F. Littledale, in Lyra Messianica (1864), p. 331; The People's Hymnal (1867), no. 116; Resurgit (1879), p. 42
- Praise to Christ, with suppliant voices,
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[edit]- A heavy charge may be brought against Friar John himself, in so far that he did not oppose, though we have no reason to believe that he instigated, the severe measures which were adopted in this reign against the Jews. ...Occasionally a prelate would take part against them, urged, by religious motives, to act against those who, in their unbelief, crucified the Son of God afresh. Such was the case with Peckham, and even with the more enlightened Stephen Langton. But the prelates, who were statesmen and lawyers, were generally on the side of Government, whose policy it was to extend protection to that great class, which formed a considerable part of the monied interest of the country.
- John Peckham, Georg Herzfeld, ed., An Old English Martyrology (1900), Issue 116; Issue 118
- The apostle Paul … was conscious of the new in his apprehension of the gospel over against the primitive Jewish-Christian Church, and based the right of his apostolic preaching not upon human tradition, but upon the revelation of the Spirit of Christ in his heart. ... The “Christ according to the Spirit,” as Paul preached him, was certainly not identical with the “Christ according to the flesh,” as he lived in the recollection of the Primitive Church. For Paul had stripped off the Jewish in this individual phenomenon, in order to bring forth and exalt as an object of faith to gentiles and Jews alike the universal religious principle alone. His Christ is the ideal Son of God, i.e. the personification of the religious idea as it lived in the soul of Jesus, of the love of God and men as it had been the impelling principle of his life-work.
- Otto Pfleiderer, Evolution and Theology (1900), p. 21-22.
- God the Father + commands you. The Son of God + commands you. God the Holy + Ghost commands you. Christ, the Eternal Word of God made flesh, commands + you, Who humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death (Phil 2:8), to save our race from the perdition wrought by your envy; Who founded His Church upon a firm Rock, declaring that the gates of hell should never prevail against her, and that He would remain with her all days, even to the end of the world. (Mt 28:20) The sacred mystery of the Cross commands you, along with the power of all mysteries of Christian Faith. + The exalted Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus, + commands you, who in her lowliness crushed your proud head from the first moment of her Immaculate Conception. The Faith of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul and the other Apostles + commands you. The blood of martyrs and the devout prayers of all holy men and women command + you.
The Son of God became incarnate to infuse into the human soul the feeling of brotherhood. All are brothers and all children of God. Abba, as he called the Father. I will show you the way, he said. Follow me and you will find the Father and you will all be his children and he will take delight in you. Agape, the love of each one of us for the other, from the closest to the furthest, is in fact the only way that Jesus has given us to find the way of salvation and of the Beatitudes.
- Pope Francis, Interviewed in "How the Church will change" by Eugenio Scalfari in La Repubblica (1 October 2013), as translated from Italian to English by Kathryn Wallace
- He considers Jesus as a master alongside others. The only difference from other men is that Jesus is "awake" and fully free, while others are not. Jesus is not recognized as the Son of God, but simply as the one who teaches us that all people are children of God.
- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) in Vatican Notification condemning many of the writings, ideas, and purported ideas of Anthony de Mello (24 June 1998)
- O summam Dei patris liberalitatem, summam et admirandam hominis foelicitatem! Cui datum id habere quod optat, id esse quod velit. Bruta simul atque nascuntur id secum afferunt (ut ait Lucilius) e bulga matris quod possessura sunt. Supremi spiritus aut ab initio aut paulo mox id fuerunt, quod sunt futuri in perpetuas aeternitates. Nascenti homini omnifaria semina et omnigenae vitae germina indidit Pater. Quae quisque excoluerit illa adolescent, et fructus suos ferent in illo. Si vegetalia planta fiet, si sensualia obrutescet, si rationalia caeleste evadet animal, si intellectualia angelus erit et Dei filius. Et si nulla creaturarum sorte contentus in unitatis centrum suae se receperit, unus cum Deo spiritus factus, in solitaria Patris caligine qui est super omnia constitutus omnibus antestabit.
- Oh unsurpassed generosity of God the Father, Oh wondrous and unsurpassable felicity of man, to whom it is granted to have what he chooses, to be what he wills to be! The brutes, from the moment of their birth, bring with them, as Lucilius says, “from their mother’s womb” all that they will ever possess. The highest spiritual beings were, from the very moment of creation, or soon thereafter, fixed in the mode of being which would be theirs through measureless eternities. But upon man, at the moment of his creation, God bestowed seeds pregnant with all possibilities, the germs of every form of life. Whichever of these a man shall cultivate, the same will mature and bear fruit in him. If vegetative, he will become a plant; if sensual, he will become brutish; if rational, he will reveal himself a heavenly being; if intellectual, he will be an angel and the son of God. And if, dissatisfied with the lot of all creatures, he should recollect himself into the center of his own unity, he will there become one spirit with God, in the solitary darkness of the Father, Who is set above all things, himself transcend all creatures.
- Giovannni Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man (1496), 6. 24-31; translation by A. Robert Caponigri
- Alternate translation of 6. 28-29 (Nascenti homini omnifaria semina et omnigenae vitae germina indidit Pater. Quae quisque excoluerit illa adolescent, et fructus suos ferent in illo.):
The Father infused in man, at birth, every sort of seed and sprouts of every kind of life. These seeds will grow and bear their fruit in each man who will cultivate them.
- Alternate translation of 6. 28-29 (Nascenti homini omnifaria semina et omnigenae vitae germina indidit Pater. Quae quisque excoluerit illa adolescent, et fructus suos ferent in illo.):
- Giovannni Pico della Mirandola, Oration on the Dignity of Man (1496), 6. 24-31; translation by A. Robert Caponigri
- Oh unsurpassed generosity of God the Father, Oh wondrous and unsurpassable felicity of man, to whom it is granted to have what he chooses, to be what he wills to be! The brutes, from the moment of their birth, bring with them, as Lucilius says, “from their mother’s womb” all that they will ever possess. The highest spiritual beings were, from the very moment of creation, or soon thereafter, fixed in the mode of being which would be theirs through measureless eternities. But upon man, at the moment of his creation, God bestowed seeds pregnant with all possibilities, the germs of every form of life. Whichever of these a man shall cultivate, the same will mature and bear fruit in him. If vegetative, he will become a plant; if sensual, he will become brutish; if rational, he will reveal himself a heavenly being; if intellectual, he will be an angel and the son of God. And if, dissatisfied with the lot of all creatures, he should recollect himself into the center of his own unity, he will there become one spirit with God, in the solitary darkness of the Father, Who is set above all things, himself transcend all creatures.
- When the adversary of the race of the righteous, the envious, malicious, and wicked one, perceived the impressive nature of his martyrdom, and [considered] the blameless life he had led from the beginning, and how he was now crowned with the wreath of immortality, having beyond dispute received his reward, he did his utmost that not the least memorial of him should be taken away by us, although many desired to do this, and to become possessors of his holy flesh. For this end he suggested it to Nicetes, the father of Herod and brother of Alce, to go and entreat the governor not to give up his body to be buried, "lest," said he, "forsaking Him that was crucified, they begin to worship this one." This he said at the suggestion and urgent persuasion of the Jews, who also watched us, as we sought to take him out of the fire, being ignorant of this, that it is neither possible for us ever to forsake Christ, who suffered for the salvation of such as shall be saved throughout the whole world (the blameless one for sinners), nor to worship any other. For Him indeed, as being the Son of God, we adore; but the martyrs, as disciples and followers of the Lord, we worthily love on account of their extraordinary affection towards their own King and Master, of whom may we also be made companions and fellow-disciples!
- Your participation of the holy communion must be regarded as the fresh act of your espousals, as the solemn renewal of your covenant; as your surrender, entire and unhesitating, to the service of the Lord. It is thus that you confess Christ, and witness of Him to the world. If you eat and drink without discerning this great purpose, you eat and drink unworthily; if you repudiate such purpose, either in thought or act, you crucify in your measure the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame. By your profane use of the means of grace without the slightest desire for the grace of the means, it is as if you cut and wounded the Saviour in this the house of His friends, and sharpened the daggers of your treachery upon the tables of the violated law.
- William Morley Ponshon, 'Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 374.
- Some of His children must go into the furnace to testify that the Son of God is there with them.
- ]Elizabeth Prentiss, 'The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss (1882), Ch. VIII: "The Pastor's Wife and Daughter of Consolation", § II, p. 247.
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[edit]- Surah ix. 30: "The Jews say Ezra is the Son of God; and the Christians say that the Messiah is the Son of God; that is what they say with their mouths imitating the sayings of those who misbelieve before - God fight them! - How they lie!"
- Quran, Quoted from T.P. Hughes: Dictionary of Islam.
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[edit]- If you feel proud, let it be in the thought that you are the servant of God, the son of God. Great men have the nature of a child. They are always a child before Him; so they are free from pride. All their strength is of God and not their own. It belongs to Him and comes from Him. (124)
- Ramakrishna, Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna (1960)
- Many stories have been written about Christmas. Charles Dickens’ “Carol” is probably the most famous. Well, I’d like to read some lines from a favorite of mine called, “One Solitary Life,” which describes for me the meaning of Christmas. [He then read the full story.] . . . I have always believed that the message of Jesus is one of hope and joy. I know there are those who recognize Christmas Day as the birthday of a great and good man, a wise teacher who gave us principles to live by. And then there are others of us who believe that He was the Son of God, that He was Divine. If we live our lives for truth, for love, and for God, we never need be afraid.
- Ronald Reagan, “Remarks on Lighting the National Community Christmas Tree,” December 15, 1983
- I strongly recommend that all read the autobiography of St. Theresa. In spite of the fact that this work went through the "spiritual" censorship of the Church, some amazing pages have been preserved. By propagating the dogma of Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God, the Church contradicts the very sense of the prayer given to us by Jesus Christ himself, "Our Father which art in heaven." And also the words of the Scriptures, "So God created man in his own image." (Genesis 1:27) Thus, by claiming the exclusiveness of sonship and divine origin for Jesus Christ, the Church, by that very claim, forever divorced him from mankind. From this came a whole train of grave events; the exclusion of Jesus Christ from the life of humanity, the obliteration of his human Sacrifice and the awful suggestion implying that the death of Christ on the Cross saved humanity from "original" sin (?!) and from all subsequent sins.
- Helena Roerich, in Letters of Helena Roerich II, (2 April 1936)
- There is only one door, one bridge, one ladder, between earth and heaven,—the crucified Son of God.
- J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: St. John (1865–1873),Vol. III, John XIV: 4–11, p. 60
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[edit]- And blessed is he man who stands
Before his God in pain
And on his back a cross of woe
His wounds a gaping shame.
For this man is a son of God
And hallowed be thy name.- Bobby Sands, Miscellaneous poems,Trilogy, pt. 3 "Torture at H Block"
- All Christian missionaries say that Jesus was a very calm and peace loving person. But in reality he was a hot-tempered persons destitute of knowledge and who behaved like a wild savage. This shows that Jesus was neither the son of God, nor had he any miraculous powers. He did not possess the power to forgive sins. The righteous people do not stand in need of any mediator like Jesus. Jesus came to spread discord which is going on everywhere in the world. Therefore, it is evident that the hoax of Christ’s being the Son of God, the knower of the past and the future, the forgiver of sin, has been set up falsely by his disciples. In reality, he was a very ordinary ignorant man, neither learned nor a yogi.
- Dayanand Saraswati, "Hindu Nationalists of Modern India" by Jose Kuruvachira, p. 20
- The Second Coming is the one event in time which time itself can not affect. For every one who ever came to die, or yet will come or who is present now, is equally released from what he made. In this equality is Christ restored as one Identity, in Which all Sons of God acknowledge that they all are one. And God the Father smiles upon His Son, His one creation and His only joy. Pray that this Second Coming will be soon, but do not rest with that. It needs your eyes and ears and hands and feet. It needs your voice. And most of all it needs your willingness. Let us rejoice that we can do God’s Will, and join together in Its holy light. Behold, the Son of God is one in us, and we can reach our Father’s Love through him.
- Helen Schucman in A Course in Miracles, workbook, (1976)
- Questioner: So, I figure you've probably heard this before, but C. S. Lewis makes the argument that because of Jesus' exclusive claims, that he is either a liar that intentionally led people astray, a lunatic that believed he was the son of God and he wasn't, or he is Lord. Would you put him in one of those categories, or would you put him in another, separate category?
Ben Shapiro: So, I mean, because I'm a Jew, I'm just gonna, I mean… look, I'm a Jew, so obviously, for those who are not particularly versed in Judaism, the reason we are not Christians is because we don't believe that Jesus was the Messiah or a physical iteration of God. … So the option from within Judaism is to suggest that Jesus was actually a historical figure who was saying a lot of things which Jews would agree with, because if you read a lot of the New Testament, it, as you would expect, mimics a lot of things in the Old Testament; and that he was actually a political figure; and that the Romans crucified him because he was a political figure who was attempting to lead a rebellion against their tyranny. That's the Jewish historical claim about Jesus.
- [I]t is not always wise to relate all the truth. Even Jesus, the Son of God, had to refrain from doing so, and had to restrain His feelings many times for the safety of Himself and His followers, and had to conceal the righteous purposes of His heart in relation to many things pertaining to His Father's kingdom.
- Joseph Smith, Jr., Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 392 (27 June 1844)
- I do not think it necessary for salvation to know Christ according to the flesh : but with regard to the Eternal Son of God, that is the Eternal Wisdom of God, which has manifested itself in all things and especially in the human mind, and above all in Christ Jesus, the case is far otherwise. For without this no one can come to a state of blessedness, inasmuch as it alone teaches, what is true or false, good or evil. And, inasmuch as this wisdom was made especially manifest through Jesus Christ, as I have said, his disciples preached it, in so far as it was revealed to them through him, and thus showed that they could rejoice in that spirit of Christ more than the rest of mankind. The doctrines added by certain churches, such as that God took upon himself human nature, I have expressly said that I do not understand; in fact, to speak the truth, they seem to me no less absurd than would a statement, that a circle had taken upon itself the nature of a square. This I think will be sufficient explanation of my opinions concerning the three points mentioned. Whether it will be satisfactory to Christians you will know better than I.
- Letter 21 (73) to Henry Oldenburg, November (1675)
- Baruch Spinoza, Variant translation: The eternal wisdom of God … has shown itself forth in all things, but chiefly in the mind of man, and most of all in Jesus Christ.
- The key issue is whether Jesus really did return from the dead and thus authenticate his claim to being the unique Son of God. As a skeptic, I was shocked to find that the historical evidence for the resurrection is so solid. We have, for instance, a report of the resurrection that goes back to within months of the death of Jesus, which is like a news flash in ancient history. This is historical gold! Whereas much of what we know from ancient history is derived from one or two sources, we have no fewer than nine ancient sources, inside and outside the New Testament, corroborating the disciples’ conviction that they encountered the resurrected Jesus. That’s an avalanche of data. I was thoroughly stunned by the quantity and quality of the evidence for Christ.
- Leo Strobel, The Case for Christ: An Interview with Lee Strobel (September 7, 2016)
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[edit]- [And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)] What must be noted here is the plural form used in the statement, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us....” It is not only in Jesus the Christ that the Word dwelt. The Word of God—the Holy Name of the Buddha—dwells in all people and that is what is appearing as the physical body. It is stated here, “... we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Here, St. John is saying that within us dwells the Word of God, that is, the Holy Name of the Buddha, that he saw the glory of it, that this was the glory of God’s only begotten son. This means that we are all the only begotten of God. There are a large number of only begotten sons. People who are lost because they do not realize that they are the only begotten of the Father are like the “prodigal son” who has lost his way. Christians who stick to the usual explanation on this point think that Jesus was the only begotten son of God. However, St. John tells us that we are all children of God, that the glory of God dwells in all human beings, that we are all shining forth, and that we are all the only begotten son of the Father.
- Masaharu Taniguchi, The Taniguchi Commentary on the Gospel According to St. John, The Taniguchi Commentary on the Gospel According to St. John (1988), p. 11. (English translation by Hideo Mimoto, translated from the 1960 Japanese book Yohane-den kogi ヨハネ伝講義)
- Again, there are other things associated with these matters, all bearing more or less upon the same points. When God selected Joseph Smith to open up the last dispensation, which is called the dispensation of the fullness of times, the Father and the Son appeared to him, arrayed in glory, and the Father, addressing himself to Joseph, at the same time pointing to the Son, said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him."
- December 31, 1876
- Journal of Discourses 18:325-6
- When Jesus sent forth his servants formerly he sent them to preach this Gospel. When the Father and the Son and Moroni and others came to Joseph Smith, he had a priesthood conferred upon him which he conferred upon others for the purpose of manifesting the laws of life, the Gospel of the Son of God, by direct authority, that light and truth might be spread forth among all nations.
- March 2, 1879
- John Taylor (Latter Day Saints), Journal of Discourses 20:257
- ‘’’When the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.’’’- The Temptations of Christ, as reported in Matthew 4:1 - 4:11 (KJV)
- If, also, He exercised no right of power even over His own followers, to whom He discharged menial ministry; if, in short, though conscious of His own kingdom, He shrank back from being made a king, He in the fullest manner gave His own an example for turning coldly from all the pride and garb, as well of dignity as of power. For if they were to be used, who would rather have used them than the Son of God? What kind and what number of fasces would escort Him? what kind of purple would bloom from His shoulders? what kind of gold would beam from His head, had He not judged the glory of the world to be alien both to Himself and to His? Therefore what He was unwilling to accept, He has rejected; what He rejected, He has condemned; what He condemned, He has counted as part of the devil’s pomp. For He would not have condemned things, except such as were not His; but things which are not God’s, can be no other’s but the devil’s. If you have forsworn “the devil’s pomp,” know that whatever there you touch is idolatry. Let even this fact help to remind you that all the powers and dignities of this world are not only alien to, but enemies of, God; that through them punishments have been determined against God’s servants; through them, too, penalties prepared for the impious are ignored. But “both your birth and your substance are troublesome to you in resisting idolatry.” For avoiding it, remedies cannot be lacking; since, even if they be lacking, there remains that one by which you will be made a happier magistrate, not in the earth, but in the heavens.
- Tertullian, On Idolatry, Chapter XVIII, Dress as Connected with Idolatry
- The man who persisted in calling himself the "son of God" — he later acknowledged that he had many brothers — was demanding nothing less than that the military ruler of all England should forthwith disavow all violence and all coercion, make Christ's law of love the supreme law of the land, and substitute the mild dictates of the Sermon on the Mount for the Instrument of Government by which he ruled. In a word, Fox would have him make England a kind of pilot project for the Kingdom of Heaven. Fox was a revolutionary. He had no patience with the relativities and compromises of political life. His testimony was an uncompromising testimony for the radical Christian ethic of love and non-violence, and he would apply it in the arena of politics as in every other sphere of life. It is not recorded that Cromwell took his advice. Neither is it recorded that Fox ever receded an inch from his radical perfectionism.
- Frederick B. Tolles, in his address "Quakerism and Politics" (9 November 1956)
- Among those stones, which witnessed the incarnation of the Son of God, that intuition was born in Chiara from which infinite horizons would open, which hope to be enlarged and realized by all who have received her legacy.
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[edit]- Religion effectually cures man's sense of idealistic isolation or spiritual loneliness; it enfranchises the believer as a son of God, a citizen of a new and meaningful universe. Religion assures man that, in following the gleam of righteousness discernible in his soul, he is thereby identifying himself with the plan of the Infinite and the purpose of the Eternal. Such a liberated soul immediately begins to feel at home in this new universe, his universe.
- Jesus is said to have said on the cross, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" Because Jesus was insane and the God he thought would rescue him did not exist. And he died on that cross like a fool. He fancied himself the son of God and he could barely convince twelve men to follow him at a time when the world was full of superstition.
W
[edit]- Mary’s openness to God is an essential element in God’s plan for our salvation. By her openness to bear the Son of God, she becomes a primary instrument in our salvation. Now, we are also invited to be instruments of God’s plan for our salvation and the salvation of others. We do so first of all by responding to God’s offer of mercy personally and striving to become holy persons. We do so secondly by being instruments of grace and mercy as we help others to become holy. An image I often use to convey this is that of an electrical charge flowing through a copper wire. The wire cannot store up the electrical charge, but only allow it to pass through. If it cannot pass through the wire, it never enters into it. Mercy acts very much like this. If mercy does not flow through us, it never actually enters into us. Paradoxically, it is when we allow it to pass through us that we grow in grace.
- Mgr. Michael Willliam Warfel, Jubilee Year of Mercy (January 31, 2016)
- Every time that a man has, with a pure heart, called upon Osiris, Dionysus, Buddha, the Tao, etc., the Son of God has answered him by sending the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit has acted upon his soul, not by inciting him to abandon his religious tradition, but by bestowing upon him light — and in the best of cases the fullness of light — in the heart of that same religious tradition. … It is, therefore, useless to send out missions to prevail upon the peoples of Asia, Africa or Oceania to enter the Church.
- Simon Weil, Letter to a Priest (1951), Section 8
- The Sovereign of the universe was not alone in His work of beneficence. He had an associate—a co-worker who could appreciate His purposes, and could share His joy in giving happiness to created beings. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.” John 1:1, 2. Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father—one in nature, in character, in purpose—the only being that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God. “His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6. His “goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” Micah 5:2. And the Son of God declares concerning Himself: “The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting. ... When He appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.” Proverbs 8:22-30.
- No one who begins a biography of Jesus with the words "The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" or concludes an account with "these things have been written so that you might believe" is attempting to be neutral about the subject matter. The question that should be raised about such accounts is not whether they amount to a form of advocacy—because of course they do—but whether the interpretation of Jesus offered illuminates or obscures the historical subject matter that is being treated.
- Ben Witheringotn III, ‘’New Testament History : A Narrative Account (2001)’’, Prolegomenon
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[edit]- There is a distinguishing difference of meaning between Jesus and Christ. His given name was Jesus; his honorific title was "Christ." In his little human body called Jesus was born the vast Christ Consciousness, the omniscient Intelligence of God omnipresent in every part and particle of creation. This Consciousness is the "only begotten Son of God," so designated because it is the sole perfect reflection in creation of the Transcendental Absolute, Spirit or God the Father.
It was of that Infinite Consciousness, replete with the love and bliss of God, that Saint John spoke when he said: "As many as received him [the Christ Consciousness], to them gave he power to become the sons of God." Thus according to Jesus' own teaching as recorded by his most highly advanced apostle, John, all souls who become united with Christ Consciousness by intuitive Self-realization are rightly called sons of God.…- 'Paramahansa Yogananda, 'The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You (2004)
- There are sins that men commit for which they cannot receive forgiveness in this world, or in that which is to come, and if they had their eyes open to see their true condition, they would be perfectly willing to have their blood spilt upon the ground, that the smoke thereof might ascend to heaven as an offering for their sins, and the smoking incense would atone for their sins, whereas, if such is not the case, they will stick to them and remain upon them in the spirit world … I do know that there are sins committed, of such a nature that if the people did understand the doctrine of salvation, they would tremble because of their situation. And furthermore, I know that there are transgressors, who, if they knew themselves, and the only condition upon which they can obtain forgiveness, would beg of their brethren to shed their blood, that the smoke thereof might ascend to God as an offering to appease the wrath that is kindled against them, and that the law might have its course. I will say further; I have had men come to me and offer their lives to atone for their sins. It is true that the blood of the Son of God was shed for sins through the fall and those committed by men, yet men can commit sins which it can never remit. As it was in ancient days, so it is in our day.
- Journal of Discourses 4:53 (September. 21, 1856)
- Brigham Young describes the doctrine of Blood Atonement
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[edit]- It was given to her what belongs to no creature, that in the flesh she should bring forth the Son of God
- Huldrych Zwingli, In Evang. Luc., Opera Completa [Zurich, 1828-42], Volume 6, I, p. 639
Films and TV
[edit]- Billie Dean Howard: The Holy Ghost merely whispered in the Virgin Mary's ear and she begat the son of God. If the Devil's going to use a human womb for his spawn, he's going to want a little more bang for his buck.
- ’’American Horror Story/Murder House’’, Halloween (Part 1) [1.04]
- Trapped in the blood, athirst for air,
Christ, who once was employed as single Son of God
Now finds Himself among three billion on a billion
Brother sons, their arms thrown wide to grasp and hold
and walk them everywhere
Now weaving this, now weaving that in swoons…- Ray Bradbury, Christ, Old Student in a New School (1972)
- The Captain
- "I gave birth to a fire it's like it's features where burning. I'm in control, I am the son of God."
- God & Satan
- "I talk to god as much as I talk to satan 'cause I want to hear both sides."
- "I slap the water and watch the fish dance to the ripples of us."
- Born On A Horse
- "I pronounce it al-u-min-ium, 'cause there's an 'I' next to the 'U' and 'M'."
- Mountains
- "Nothing lasts forever except you and me. You are my mountain, you are my sea."
- Shock Shock
- "Well you scratch and you scratch ‘til your face comes away, replaced by a hole, a vortex just waiting to play. I commend your violence."
- Cloud of Stink
- "Fuck if you wanna fuck, if you wanna cum. Sleep if you wanna sleep, talk more in the morn’"
'*God and Satan' "I talk to God as much as I talk to Satan cos, I want to hear both sides."
- ’’Biffy Clyro’’, Only Revolutions (2009)
- Sister Helen Prejean: You are a son of God.
- Matthew Poncelet: [in tears] Thank you. I've never been called a son of God before. [laughs slightly] I've been called a son of a you-know-what plenty of times, but I've never been called a son of God.
- Catholic Clergyman: It's the foundation of our belief that Christ is most properly referred to as the Son of God. It's the Son of God who takes the sins of the world upon himself, so that the rest of God's children, we imperfect beings, through faith, may enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
- Eddie Mannix: So, God is - split?
- Catholic Clergyman: Yes! And no.
- Eastern Orthodox Clergyman: There is unity in division.
- Protestant Clergyman: And division in unity.
- Eddie Mannix: I'm not sure I follow padre.
- Rabbi: Young man, you don't follow for a very simple reason. These men are screwballs.
- ’’Hail Caesar!’’
- House: Classic Neurohecatia. Two days of anticholinergics, you'll be walking out of here.
- Ramon: Really?
- House: No. I just made that up to see your reaction. Diagnostic test. This is awesome. 33-year-old carpenter presenting with narcissism, delusions of grandeur, hallucinations.
- Taub: He hasn't had hallucinations.
- House: I'm not talking about him. I'm talking about "him" with a capital "o-m-g."
- Chase: You want us to do a differential diagnosis on Jesus?
- Masters: Hears voices, thinks he's the son of God. Probably Schizophrenic.
- When we hear the old bells ringing out on a Sunday morning, we ask ourselves: can it be possible? This is for a Jew, crucified two thousand years ago, who said he was the son of God. The proof for such a claim is wanting.
- ’’Human all Too Human’’. Religious Life, Aphorism 113
- Tsion Ben-Judah: You are false prophets! Claiming to know the secrets to God's kingdom!
- Witness Eli: For God will bring every deed into judgment, Ben-Judah. Including every hidden thing, whether it is good, or evil. "I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind. And I will give every man according to his ways, and according to the things he has done."
- Tsion Ben-Judah: I have kept the commandments since my youth.
- Witness Moishe: By the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified in His sight. For by grace, you are saved through faith. It is not for yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not by works, so that no one can boast.
- Tsion Ben-Judah: I don't understand.
- Witness Eli: We are ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.
- Witness Moishe: For God so loved the world, that He gave us His one and only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. He who believes in the son is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because, he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God.
- Tsion Ben-Judah: And the name of the son of God?
- Witness Moishe & Witness Eli: [In unison] He is the Christ, Jesus.
- I want to be your voice, the voice of those who cannot speak. The voice of those who are silenced. The voice of the worker who can no longer wait for the full recognition of his dignity as a man and the Son of God.
- Narrator: [first lines] In the beginning was the word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. I am He. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him, was made nothing that has been made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of man. And the light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness grasped it not. The greatest story ever told...
- King Herod: The child of imagination is the child I fear.
- John the Baptist: [repeated line] Repent!
- The Dark Hermit - Satan: A long climb, wasn't it? A long hard climb...You know, some people think the whole of life should be like that, hm..."An easy life is a sinful life". Not so, my friend...A man's life can be as easy as he wishes to make it. And it can be easy, my friend. If one knows the way to power and glory in this world.
- Caiaphas: Jesus of Nazareth, your crimes are so many I scarcely know where to begin.
- Pontius Pilate: [to Jesus] You claim to be the son of God. Which one? Mars? Hercules? Jupiter? Which God are you the son of?
- The Centurion: [after Jesus dies] Truly, this man was the Son of God.
- [to Jesus in the World without the Crucifixion] You see, you don't know how much people need God. You don't know how happy He can make them. He can make them happy to do anything. Make them happy to die, and they'll die, all for the sake of Christ. Jesus Christ. Jesus of Nazareth. The Son of God. The Messiah. Not you. Not for your sake. You know, I'm glad I met you. Because now I can forget all about you. My Jesus is much more important and much more powerful. Thank you, it's a good thing I met you.
- Jeroboam: His spirit actually appeared to you. He treated you like a royal visitor. He recognized you for something.
- Jesus: He couldn't have recognized me for anything. I only came here to serve God. That's all. That's all God wants from me. I'm sure of it.
- Jeroboam: Think of how you're blessed. God actually makes himself known to you. I don't know what God wants from me. All my life I've wanted to hear God's voice. I've dedicated my life to him. Sometimes...I think I feel him, but I'm never really sure. But you always know. God took you by the hand and brought you here.
- Jesus: You think it's a blessing to know what God wants? I'll tell you what he wants. He wants to push me over! Can't he see what's inside of me? All my sins.
- Jeroboam: We all sin.
- Jesus: Not my sins. I'm a liar. A hypocrite. I'm afraid of everything. I don't tell the truth. I don't have the courage. When I see a woman, I blush and look away. I want her, but I don't take her, for God, and that makes me proud. Then my pride ruins Magdalene. I don't steal, I don't fight...I don't kill. Not because I don't want to, but because I'm afraid. I want to rebel against you, against everything...against God, but...I'm afraid. You want to know who my mother and father are? You want to know who my God is? Fear. You look inside me and that's all you'll find.
- Jeroboam: But the more devils we have inside of us, the more of a chance we have to repent.
- Jesus: Lucifer is inside me. He says to me, You're not the son of King David. You're not a man, you're the Son of man. And more, the Son of God. And more than that, God. Do you want to ask me anything else?
- David: I don't look upon this like it's the end, I look upon it like it's moving on you know. It's almost like my work here's done. I can't imagine Jesus going, "Oh, I've told a few people in Bethlehem I'm the son of God, can I just stay here with Mum and Dad now?" No. You gotta move on. You gotta spread the word. You gotta go to Nazareth, please. And that's, very much like...
- ’’The Office’’ (British TV series), Series 1, Interview [2.06]
- Vic: You fell in love!
- Sharon: Yes.
- Vic: Wait 'til he finds out about you.
- Sharon: Oh, he knows all about me.
- Vic: Is he as bad a boy as I am?
- Sharon: I think you should meet him.
- Vic: You told him about me?
- Sharon: I told you. He knows everything.
- Vic: He's rich, right, he's some rich guy and you fell for some line of his.
- Sharon: You could love him too, Vic.
- Vic: You fell for some rich homosexual!
- [doubles up laughing]
- Sharon: He's the Lord Jesus Christ, Vic. He's the Son of God.
- Jackie: Wha- Did you hear that?! D.J.'s gonna take something that's dead and bring it back to life- that's like playing God!
- Darlene: I'm sure God was thrilled by that comparison. [She walks over to where D.J. is thawing the bee] Ooh, nice- we haven't cooked out in a long time!
- D.J.: It just takes a minute.
- Jackie: I feel like there oughta be spooky music playing! [she makes lame spooky sounds]
- Darlene: Please, please be a killer bee! Why don't you just zap it in the microwave?
- D.J.: Tried that. Blew up.
- David: [walks in] What are you doing?
- Darlene: Bringing a bee back to life.
- David: Okay [leaves]
- Jackie: Y'know, D.J., bees are very intelligent creatures, and their amazingly devoted. I read someplace that if you kill one, the whole hive comes and finds your scent and kills you.
- Darlene: Actually, it's his scent that tends to kill them.
- D.J.: D'you see?
- Jackie: Oh, my God Darlene look, it's a miracle, the bee's alive.
- Darlene: [very bored] Truly, He is the Son of God.
- D.J.: See, I told you I could do it! Look, he's getting ready to take off- there he goes!-
[Darlene smashes the bee with a newspaper against the window]
- Darlene: Now, if you bring that one back, I'll be really impressed!
- Rhetta: So, what are you going to say to Earl the next time you see him?
- Grace: Get the hell out of my dream.
- Rhetta: Don't you want to get a list of questions together? I would!
- Grace: Like what?
- Rhetta: Like: Is Jesus the son of God? Was he conceived by the Holy Spirit? What happens when we die?!
- Grace: What's the deal with cramps?
- Alex: Mary would be the mother of the son of God.
- Rachel: Mary. With an "M" for Mary, show her head covering. Mary.
- ’’Signing Time!’’, Act Six
- A glorious band, the chosen few / On whom the Spirit came; / Twelve valiant saints, their hope they knew, / And mocked the cross and flame. / They met the tyrant’s brandished steel, / The lion’s gory mane; / They bowed their heads the death to feel...
- Who: Daniel "Danny" Dravot
- Notes: Character and Peachy Carnehan are captured by the angry natives in Kafiristan, and the former is forced to cross the rope bridge over the gorge. As one of the natives cuts one rope, he sings the third verse of "The Son of God Goes Forth to War", and Peachy joins him; but soon the rope is cut completely, causing the bridge to topple over and Danny to fall to his death. Distraught, Peachy finishes the verse for him: "Who follows in their train?"
- The Man Who Would Be King (1975)
- Angel: Fear not, for you have been favored by God to conceive and bear a son.
- Mary: A... A son? But...how?
- Angel: The Holy Spirit will overshadow you, and the child will be called the Son of God, for nothing is impossible with God.
- Mary: Thank you. Do I say "thank you"? I mean, yes, let it be done, just as you say.
Literature
[edit]- The resurrection of Jesus is vitally important because it proves that He really is the Son of God and that everything He said is true. No one else has ever come back from the dead never to die again.
- ’’An Anchor for the Soul’’, p. 86
- "No man cometh unto the Father but by me" does not mean that I am in any way separate or different from you except in time, and time does not really exist. The statement is more meaningful in terms of a vertical rather than a horizontal axis. You stand below me and I stand below God. In the process of "rising up," I am higher because without me the distance between God and man would be too great for you to encompass. I bridge the distance as an elder brother to you on the one hand, and as a Son of God on the other. My devotion to my brothers has placed me in charge of the Sonship, which I render complete because I share it. This may appear to contradict the statement "I and my Father are one," but there are two parts to the statement in recognition that the Father is greater.
- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 1. The Meaning of Miracles: Principles of Miracles, T-1.II.4
- The betrayal of the Son of God lies only in illusions, and all his "sins" are but his own imagining. His reality is forever sinless. He need not be forgiven but awakened.
- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 17. Forgiveness and the Holy Relationship, T-17.I.1:1–3
- ‘’’I should leave walking on water with the Son of God. Fortunately, I tripped over an angel.
- I shall be down in history as the man who opened a door!
- ’’Ever After’’, Leonardo da Vinci’’’
- I am convinced that if we could tell the supernatural story of Christ word for word as of a Chinese hero, call him the Son of Heaven instead of the Son of God, and trace his rayed nimbus in the gold tread of Chinese embroideries or the gold lacquer of Chinese pottery, instead of in the gold leaf of our own old Catholic paintings, there would be a unanimous testimony to the spiritual purity of the story. We should hear nothing then of the injustice of substitution or the illogicality of atonement, of the superstitious exaggeration of the burden of sin or the impossible insolence of an invasion of the laws of nature. We should admire the chivalry of the Chinese conception of a god who fell from the sky to fight the dragons and save the wicked from being devoured by their own fault and folly. We should admire the subtlety of the Chinese view of life, which perceives that all human imperfection is in very truth a crying imperfection.
- Hand by hand we shule us take,
And joye and blisse shule we make;
For the devel of helle man hath forsake,
And Godes Son is maked our make.
A child is boren amonges man,
And in that child was no wam:
That child is God, that child is man,
And in that child oure lif bigan.- Let us gather hand in hand
And sing of bliss without an end:
The Devil has fled from earthly land,
And Son of God is made our friend.
A Child is born in man's abode,
And in that Child no blemish showed.
That Child is God, that Child is Man,
And in that Child our life began. - Middle English Lyric, "Hand by hand we shule us take", line 1; Celia Sisam and Kenneth Sisam (eds.) The Oxford Book of Medieval English Verse (1970) p. 183. Translation: Brian Stone Medieval English Verse (1964) p. 30.
- Let us gather hand in hand
- Victory and triumph to the Son of God
Now entring his great duel, not of arms,
But to vanquish by wisdom hellish wiles.
The Father knows the Son; therefore secure
Ventures his filial Vertue, though untri'd,
Against whate're may tempt, whate're seduce,
Allure, or terrifie, or undermine.
Be frustrate, all ye stratagems of Hell,
And devilish machinations come to nought.- Paradise Regained, Lines 173–181
- The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God — a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that — and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen-year-old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end.
- The Great Gatsby, Ch. 6, p. 98
