Study on the Nature of the Christ

Translation of the postumous writings of Allan Kardec on the study of the nature of Jesus Christ

Sources of evidence on the nature of Christ

The question of the nature of Christ has been debated since the early Christianity and we can say that it has not been solved, as it continues to be of discussion. It was the divergence of views on this point that gave rise to the majority of the sects that divided the Church eighteen centuries ago. It is remarkable that all the chiefs of these sects who were bishops or titled members of the clergy, many of them talented writers, judges in theological science, did not find conclusive reasons in favor in dogma of the divinity of the Christ. However, as today, opinions have settled more on abstractions than on facts. Above all, what was sought was to know what the dogma contained plausibly, or irrational, leaving themselves, on the one hand and on the other, to point out the facts to shed a decisive light on the issue. But where to find these facts, but in the acts and words of Jesus? As He wrote nothing, His only historians are the apostles, who wrote nothing while Christ was still alive; since there is no other document about his life and his doctrine beyond the Gospels; it is only there (in the Gospels) that one must look for the key to the problem.

All the subsequent writings without excluding those of Saint Paul are only simple comments or appreciations, reflections of personal opinions, often contradictory, that in no case could they have authority over the narrative of those who received instructions directly from the Master. On this issue, as well as on all dogmas, in general, the agreement between the Fathers of the Church and other sacred writers would not be invoked as preponderant argument, nor as irrefutable proof in favor of the opinion of some others, since none of them mentioned a single fact concerning Jesus outside the Gospel; that none of them discovered new documents that their predecessors did not know. The sacred authors were only able to rotate within the same circle, producing personal opinions, deducing ideas according to their points of view, commenting on the opinions in a new form. Belonging to the same party, they all had to write in the same sense, in the same terms - under penalty of being declared heretics, as were Origen and many more. Origins of Alexandria (185 - 253): philosopher, theologian and priest because of his ideas (among which the reincarnation), was persecuted and excommunicated from the Roman Church, later to be arrested, tortured and killed .The Church became rigorous and inflexible in its beliefs and intolerant of ideas. The agreement of the doctors of the Church expresses nothing conclusive, since they form a unanimous agreement, by means of the elimination of elements. If it were a confrontation of everything written for and against, it would become difficult to tell which side the scale would tip. This does not detract from the personal merit of the supporters of orthodoxy, nor from the value who have demonstrated as writers and men of conscience. Being advocates for the same cause and defending it with unquestionable talent, the same conclusions. Far from trying to point them out in whatever way, we only wanted to challenge the value of the consequences that it is intended to derive from the agreement of their opinions. In examining the question of the divinity of the Christ that we are going to do, putting aside the subtleties of scholasticism - which served only to shuffle everything without clarify anything - let us rely exclusively on the facts that stand out from the text of the Gospel and that, examined coldly, conscientiously and without taking sides, allow all means of conviction that can be desired. Now, among these facts, there are no more important ones, nor more conclusive ones than the very words of Christ. They can be interpreted in different ways, no one can pretend to know better than Jesus what He meant, how anyone can claim to be better informed of its nature. Since He comments on his words and explains them to avoid any misunderstanding, it is to Him that we must resort, unless we deny Him superiority attributed to it and overlap with His own intelligence. If He was mysterious in certain points - by using figurative language - with possible misunderstanding, but before we examine the words, let us see the acts.

The miracles provide the divinity of Christ

According to the Church, the divinity of Christ is established by miracles, which testify to a supernatural power. This consideration may have had some weight at a time when the wonder was accepted without examination; but now that science has carried its investigations to the laws of nature, there are more unbelievers than believers in miracles, to whose disbelief the abuse of fraudulent imitations and the exploitation of these imitations have contributed much. Faith in miracles was destroyed by their own use of them, whence it turned out that many people now regard the miracles of the Gospel as purely legendary. In fact, the Church herself takes miracles out of the reach as proof of the divinity of Christ, declaring that the devil can operate them as prodigious as those others. If the devil has such power, it is evident that the facts of this kind are absolutely devoid of divine character. If He can do astounding things, even able to deceive the elect, how can mere mortals distinguish good miracles from evil ones?

Is it not to be feared that by observing similar facts they confound God and Satan? Giving Jesus a rival with such ability is a great misfit; but in matters of contradictions and inconsequence, things were not considered very carefully at a time when it would be a matter of conscience for the faithful to be aware of the fact that the philosophy of the Church in the Middle Ages based on the attempt to give rational support to Catholic dogmas in accordance with the rationalism of the Greek philosophical tradition, especially with Plato and Aristotle they should think for themselves and discuss the smallest article that would impose on their belief. There was no progress, and no one cared that the reign of blind and naive faith could come to an end-a comfortable reign, like a reign of pleasure. The preponderant role played by the Church in attributing to the devil produced disastrous consequences for the faith as men felt themselves capable of seeing with their own eyes. After having been successfully exploited for some time, it became the instrument of demolition placed in the old belief building and one of the causes of unbelief. We can say that the Church - for the purpose of taking it as an indispensable aid - fed in her womb the one who would turn against her and undermine her foundations. Another no less serious consideration is that miraculous facts are not the exclusive privilege of the Christian religion. In fact, there is no idolatrous or pagan religion that does not have its miracles as wonderful and as authentic to its adherents as to Christianity. And the Church has deprived itself of the right to contest them, since it has assigned to the infernal powers the power to operate them. In the theological sense, the essential character of the miracle is to be an open exception in the laws of Nature, which, consequently, makes it inexplicable by these same laws. A fact ceases to be a miracle, as long as it can be explained and linked to a known cause. In this way, the discoveries of science placed many effects in the realm of natural things that were called prodigies, while we did not know their causes. Later, knowledge of the spiritual principle, of the action of the fluids upon the general organization of the invisible world within which we live, of the soul faculties, of the existence and properties of the perispirit, allowed the explanation of the psychic phenomena, proving that these phenomena do not constitute, more than others, annulments of the laws of Nature, which, on the contrary, are almost invariably derived from the application of these laws.

All the effects of magnetism, sleepwalking, ecstasy, double vision, hypnotism, catalepsy, anesthesia, transmission of thought, prescience, instant healings, possessions, obsessions, apparitions and transfigurations, etc., which form almost all the miracles of the Gospel, belong to that category of phenomena. We now know that such effects result from special aptitudes and psychological dispositions; which has been produced at all times and in the midst of all peoples and who were considered supernatural for the same reason as all those whose cause was not perceived. This explains why all religions have had their miracles, which are no more than natural facts, almost always, however, enlarged to the point of absurdity by fanaticism and now reduced to their fair value by the present knowledge, which allow us to detach from them the part due to legend. The possibility of most of the facts that the Gospel quotes as operated by Jesus is now fully demonstrated by Magnetism and Spiritism as natural phenomena. As they arise in our sight - whether spontaneously or when provoked - there is nothing abnormal in that Jesus possessed abilities identical to those of our magnetizers, healers, sleepwalkers, seers, mediums, and so on. From the moment these same capacities to varying degrees meet in a multitude of individuals who have nothing divine-even heretics and idolaters-they do not imply in any way the existence of a superhuman nature. If Jesus Himself qualifies his acts as miracles, it is that in this, as in many other things, He had to appropriate His language to the knowledge of His contemporaries. How could they grasp the meanings of a word that even today not everyone understands? To the layman, the extraordinary things He did and that seemed supernatural at that time and even long ago were all miracles. He could not give them any other name. It is a noteworthy fact that He used this denomination to attest to the mission He had received from God according to His own terms, but He never prevailed from miracles to present Himself as the possessor of divine power. It is important then to trace the miracles of all the tests on which one intends to found the divinity of the person of Christ. Let us now see if we find them in His words.

The words of Jesus provide His Divinity

"Whoever receives me receives the one who sent me, because he who be the least among all of you will be the greatest of all. " (Luke, 9:48)

"Whoever receives in my name a little child like this, me receive; and he that receiveth me receiveth not me, but receiveth Him that sent me." (Mark 9:37)

"Whoever receives me receives the one who sent me, because he who be the least among all of you will be the greatest of all. " (Luke, 9:48)

Then Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but He sent me.” (John 8:42) And Jesus said unto them, "I will be with you a little longer, and then I am going to Him who sent me." (John 7:33)

“The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects Him who sent me." (Luke 10:16)

The dogma of the divinity of Christ was based on the absolute equality between His person and God, because, because of this dogma, Jesus himself is God. This is an article of faith. Now, these words, which Jesus so often repeated: He who sent me, not only prove a duality of people, but also - as we have already said - exclude the absolute equality between them, since the one who is sent necessarily is subordinate to the sender. By obeying, he practices an act of submission. An ambassador, speaking of his sovereign, shall say, "My lord, he who sends me; but if he who comes is the sovereign in person, he will speak in his own name and will not say: He who sent me, since he cannot send himself. Jesus said it in categorical terms: I did not come from myself; He sent me. These words: He that despiseth me despiseth Him that sent me, do not imply equality at all, let alone identity. In all At times, the insult to an ambassador was considered as an insult to the sovereign himself. The apostles had the word of Jesus, like this one of God. When He tells them: He who hears me hears me, certainly did not mean that his apostles and He were one and the same person, equal in all things. The duality of persons, as well as the secondary and subordination status of Jesus to God, emphasize without equivocation also possible the following passages: "It was you who always stood with me in my temptations. That is why I prepare the Kingdom for you, as my Father prepared it for me, so that eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and be seated on thrones, to Judge the twelve tribes of Israel. " (Luke, 22: 28-30)

"From me I say what I have seen with my Father; and you, you do what you have heard your parents." (John 8:38)

At the same time, there appeared a cloud that covered them and from that cloud came a voice which He did if He heard these words: "This is my beloved son, listen to Him." ("The Transfiguration" - Mark, 9: 7)

"Now when the Son of man comes in His majesty, accompanied by all the angels, shall sit on the throne of His glory; and when all the nations were gathered together, he shall separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those in his right: Come, you who have been blessed by my Father, possess the kingdom that was prepared for you from the beginning of the world. " (Matthew, 25: 31-34)

"Whosoever shall confess me and acknowledge me before men, I also I will acknowledge and confess before my Father who is in heaven; the one to give me up in the presence of men, I myself will renounce it before my Father who is in the heavens. " (Matthew 10:32, 33)

"Now, I declare to you that he who confesses to me and acknowledge me before men, the son of man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God; but if I will repudiate him before the angels of God. " (Luke, 12: 8, 9)

"For if any man be ashamed of me and of my words, let him also the Son of man shall be ashamed, when he is in his glory, and in the glory of his Father, and holy angels. " (Luke 9:26)

In these last two passages it even seems that Jesus holy angels, components of the heavenly tribunal, before which he would be the defender of the good and the accuser of the wicked. "But whether you sit on my right or my left, do not it is my duty to grant them; it shall be to them whom my Father hath prepared. " (Matthew 20:23)

When the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: "What do you think of Christ? Of whom is he a son? "They answered," Of David. "He replied," How then is it? David calls him in spirit his master, in these terms: The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right, until I reduce your enemies to serve as a cushion for the foot? "Now if David calls him his master, how can he be his son?" (Matthew, 22: 41-45)

But, teaching in the temple, Jesus said to them, "As it is, the scribes say that the Christ is the son of David, since David himself says to his Lord, "Sit down to my right, until I have reduced your enemies to serve as a cushion for your feet? For if David himself calls him his Lord, how can he be his son? " (Mark, 12:35 to 37, Luke 20: 41-44)

By these words, Jesus consecrates the principle of hierarchical difference that exists between the Father and the Son. He could be David's son by corporal affiliation, as descendant of his race and that is why he was careful to add: As he call your Lord in spirit? If there is a hierarchical difference between father and son, Jesus, as the son of God, cannot be equal to God. He confirms this interpretation and acknowledges His inferiority in relation to God, in terms that leave no room for doubt. "They heard what was said, You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.’ " (John, 14:28)

A young man is approached and says: "Good Teacher, what good should I do to to reach everlasting life? "Jesus answered him," Why do you call me good? good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments. " (Matthew, 19: 16-17, Mark, 10:17, 18, Luke 18:18, and 19)

Not only did Jesus not, in any circumstance, judge himself equal to God, step affirms positively the opposite: it is considered inferior to God in goodness. Now, to declare that God is above him, by power and moral qualities, is to say that he it is not God. The passages that follow support those quoted and are also quite explicit. "I have not spoken for myself; my Father, who sent me, it was He has prescribed by his command what I must say and how I should speak; And I know that your a commandment is eternal life; therefore, what I say is according to what my Father has commanded me let him say it. " (John 12:49, 50)

Jesus answered them, "My doctrine is not mine, but he that sent me. He who wills to do the will of God will acknowledge whether my doctrine is his, or whether I speak for myself. He who speaks on his own initiative seeks his own glory, but he that seeketh the glory of him that sent him is true, there is in him no unrighteousness. " (John 7: 16-18)

"He that loveth me not keepeth not my word, and the word which thou hast ear is not mine, but my Father's which sent me. " (John 14:24)

"Do you not believe that I am in my Father and that my Father is in me? What I say to you do not say it of myself; my Father who dwells in me, he himself does the works that I do." (John 14:10) "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Whereby day and hour, no one knows, nor the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. "(Mark 13:32, Matthew 24:35, 36)

Jesus then said to them, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man on high, they shall know what I am, for I do nothing of myself; But, I say what my Father taught; and he that sent me is with me, and hath not left me alone, for I which is pleasing to him. " (John 8:28, 29)

"I came down from heaven, not to do my will, but to do my will of him who sent me. " (John 6:38) "I can do nothing of myself. I judge according to what I hear, and my judgment is just, because I seek not to satisfy my own will, but to the will of him that sent me. " (John, 5:30) "But of me I have a greater testimony than that of John, for the works which my Father has given me the power to do, the works, I say, that I do bear witness of me, that it was my Father who sent me. " (John 5:36) "But, now they seek to kill me, to me that I have told you the truth that I learned from God; is what Abraham did not do. " (John 8:40)

Since he says nothing of himself; that the doctrine he preaches is not his, that she came to him from God, who commanded him to come and make her known; who does nothing but what God gave him the power to do; that the truth that he teaches he learned from God, the whose will is subject, is that Jesus is not God, but only his envoy, his messiah and his subordinate. It would be impossible to refuse in any more positive way any God, nor determine its main role in more precise terms. In the above excerpts There are no hidden thoughts under the veil of allegory, which can only be interpreted to find out. They are thoughts expressed in their own sense, without ambiguity. If they object that God - because he did not want to make himself known in the person of Jesus - provoked an illusion about his individuality, we could ask in that such an opinion is founded, who has the authority to probe the thinking and to give words a meaning contrary to what they express. Because that in the life of Jesus no one regarded him as God; that all, on the contrary, they considered him a messiah, if he did not want them to know who he was, it would he said nothing. From his spontaneous affirmations one must conclude that he was not God, or that if it was, voluntarily and without utility, made a false statement. It is notable that John, the Evangelist on whose authority the of the divinity of the Christ more sought to support themselves, is precisely what offers the more numerous and more positive arguments to the contrary. It is that any person can be convinced by reading the following passages, which certainly add nothing to the evidence, but corroborate them because of such duality and inequality of the two entities: For this reason, the Jewish authorities persecuted Jesus and wanted to kill him, that is, for such things on the Sabbath day. But Jesus said to them, 'My Father works to this day, and I I work too." (John, 5:16, 17)

"For the Father judgeth no man; but gave to the Son all the power to judge, the so that all may honor the Son, as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son, he does not honor the Father who sent him. " "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believe the one who sent me, has eternal life and does not fall into condemnation; before, it is over death to life. " "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour cometh, and it hath come, wherein the the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live; because, just as the Father has life in himself, also gave the Son to have life in himself and gave him the power to judge, for he is the Son of man. " (John, 5:22 to 27) "The Father who sent Me has Himself testified about Me. You have not heard His voice at any time, and you haven't seen His form." (John 5:37, 38) "When I judged, my judgment would be worthy of faith, for I am not alone; my Father who sent me is with me. " (John 8:16)

When Jesus had said these things, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, "My Father, the hour is coming; glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee. How did you give him power over all men, that he may give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Why life? eternal is to know you who are THE ONLY true God and Jesus Christ who Translator you sent. "

"I have glorified you on earth; I finished the work you gave me. And you, my Father, glorify me, now also in yourself, of that glory which I had in you before the world. "

"Soon I will not be in the world; but, as for them, they are still in the world, and I return to you. Holy Father, I hold in your name those whom you have given me, so that they are as we are. "

"I gave them your word and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, as I myself am not of the world. "

"Sanctify them indeed. Your word is the truth itself. Just like me sent me into the world, and I have sent them into the world - and sanctify myself for them, that they also may be sanctified in the truth. "

"I ask not only for them, but also for those who believe in me their word; so that they may all be united, as you, my Father, are in me and I in you; that they, likewise, be one in us, that the world may believe that thou You sent."

"My Father, I desire that, where I am, there are also those who gave me, that they may behold my glory, the glory which he gave me, because he loved me before the creation of the world. "

"Righteous Father, the world hath not known thee; but I have known you; and These have known that I am sending. I made them to know your name, and I will make the so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I myself in them is." (John, 17: 1 to 5, 11 to 14, 17 to 26. Jesus' prayer)

"This is why my Father loves me, because I leave my life to take it back. No one to snatch it from me; it is I who leave it to myself; I have the power to leave you and the power to resume it. It is the commandment I have received from my Father. " (John 10:17, 18)

They took away the stone and Jesus, looking up to heaven, said these words: "My Father, I thank you for exalting me. I knew that I would always exalt myself; but, I say this to these people who surround me, so that I may believe that it was you who sent me. " (John, 11:41 and 42. Death of Lazarus)

"I will not tell you any more, for the prince of the world will come, though there is nothing me, but that the world may know that I love my Father and that I do the which my Father commands me. " (John, 14:30 and 31)

"If they keep my commandments, they shall abide in my love, as I, that I have kept my Father's commandments, I abide in his love. " (John, 15:10)

Then, loudly shouting, Jesus said, "My Father, into thy hands I deliver my Spirit.” And having uttered these words, he expired. (Luke, 23:46)

If Jesus, when dying, surrenders his soul into the hands of God, is that he had a a soul distinct from God, submissive to God. Therefore, he was not God. The words that follow indicate, from Jesus, a certain human weakness, certain apprehension about the sufferings and death that will be inflicted on him, which contrasts with the divine nature attributed to it. However, they demonstrate time a submission from bottom to top.

Then Jesus came to a place called Gethsemane and said to his disciples: "Sit here while I go and pray." And having taken with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, began to grieve and be in great distress. He then said to them: "My soul is in mortal sorrow; stay here and watch with me! "And, going a little further, bowed with his face to the ground and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, I turn this cup away; however, not as I will, but as thou wilt! " then to his disciples, and finding them asleep, he said to Peter, "Why not? Could you watch an hour with me? Watch and pray, that you may not fall into temptation. O Spirit is ready, but the flesh is weak. "He went away again to pray a second time, saying, "My Father, if this cup cannot pass away unless I drink it, your will be done." (Matthew 26:36 to 42. Jesus in the Garden of Olives)

Then he said to them, "My soul is in a sorrow of death! “And when he had departed a little, he prostrated himself on the earth, praying that if it were possible, that hour would move away from him. He said, "Abba, my Father, everything is possible for you, this cup is far from me; but that your will be done and not mine. " (Mark 14: 34-36)

And when he had come to the place, he said to them, "Pray, lest you should succumb to temptation! "And when he had parted from them about a stone's throw, he knelt down, saying, "My Father, if thou wilt, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will be done, but thine. "And there appeared unto him an angel from heaven to strengthen him: and when he was in an agony, He redoubled his prayers. There came a sweat of drops of blood running down to the floor. (Luke, 22: 40-44)

At the ninth hour Jesus uttered a loud cry, saying, "Eli, Eli, Lamma Sabachtani? "Which means" My God! My God! Why did you leave me?" (Matthew, 27:46)

And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out, "My God, my God! Why did you leave me?"" (Mark, 15:34)

The passages that we are going to transcribe could leave some doubt and give rise to believing in an identification of God with the person of Jesus; but, in addition to which they could not prevail against the precise terms of the preceding ones, they bring with them the proper rectification.

They asked him, "Who are you then?" Jesus answered them, "I am the beginning of all things that I speak unto you. I have many things to say to you; but the one who sent me is true and I say nothing but what I have learned from Him. " (John 8:25, 26)

"What my Father has given me is greater than all things and no one can snatch from the hands of my Father. My Father and I are one. " (John 10:29, 30)

This means that His Father and He are one in thought, because Jesus expresses the thought of God, because he has the word of God.

Then the Jews took of stones to smite him. Jesus told them: "Many works I have done good things before you, by the power of my Father. “The Jews answered him," It is not by any good work that we stone thee; but because of your blasphemy, because as a man you make yourself God. "Jesus replied, "Is it not written in your law, 'I have said that they are gods'? Now, if they call deities to those to whom the word of God was directed and the Scripture not being destroyed, as they say blasphemous, whom my Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, because he said that I am a child of God? If I do not the works of my Father, do not believe me; However, I will do them, when they will not believe in me, believe in my works, that they may know and believe that my Father is in me and I in him. " (John, 10:31 to 38)

In another chapter, addressing his disciples, he says: "On that day you will recognize that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you." (John 14:20)

From these words, we cannot conclude that God and Jesus are one we would also have to conclude, in the same the apostles and God were one.