It seems that the time will never come when men will be content simply to believe certain incomprehensible statements of the Bible, and cease to raise speculative questions about them. Here follows a communication in in which an old question of this kind is presented, whether for the satisfaction of the writer or of some one who looks to him for guidance, I am not informed:

      DEAR BRO. MCGARVEY:--Will you kindly give the readers of the Christian Standard, in the department of "Biblical Criticism," what you understand to be the general belief of the Christian church on the nature of Christ and his relation to the Father?

      Does John 1:1 teach that Jesus is "the very and eternal God"? How could the Word be God and at the same time be with God?

      If Jesus was not the one God of the Decalogue, are we to understand that there are two Gods?

      When Jesus said, "I and my Father are one," did he mean to say that they were one in person?

J. W. I.      

      John 1:1 certainly does teach that Jesus, in his pre-existing state, was God. It also teaches that "by him were all things made that were made, and without him was not one thing made that was made." As he did not make himself, he was not made at all, but was eternal. He was God then, and he was eternal; but whether he was "very" or not the text does not inform us.

      To the question, "How could the Word be God, and at the same time with God?" I am not able to give an answer; and if the question had been, "How could God be in the beginning?" I could not answer that. I can not tell how God does anything, or even how he exists. I can as easily explain how the Word was God and yet [310] with God, as I can explain how God himself was there. When I am told on competent authority anything about an incomprehensible being, I can believe it; but from the very fact that he is incomprehensible I shall be forever unable to explain it.

      To the question, "If Jesus was not the one God of the Decalogue, are we to understand there are two Gods?" I can unhesitatingly answer, No. If he was in the beginning with God, and was God, as John asserts, there was and is only one God. And that there is only one God is a fundamental doctrine of both the Old Testament and the New.

      When Jesus said, "I and my Father are one," did he mean to say that they were one in person? No. Jesus, as a person, was then living in the flesh among men, and offering prayers to his Father in heaven. They were one in some other sense than in person, and if we never find out exactly what that other sense is, I don't think it will hurt us.

      I am not sure that I have given these answers precisely according to the wish of the querist: for he asked me for "the general belief of the Christian church" on the subject. I prefer, in all such matters, to tell what the general belief of the Christian church ought to be, rather than what it is. It ought to be what the Scriptures teach, and I aim to give this.

[SEBC 310-311]