The philosophy of Christian being

Introduction

Christianity has fundamentals. They are the cardinal doctrines relating to Jesus Christ. Destroy belief in any of them, and all are reduced to devitalized formulas of thinking and living.

One of these fundamentals, central to all, is the resurrection of Jesus. Without his resurrection, sin has no atonement, and there is no hope for our dead. Christianity itself is supported by false witnesses, as declared by the Apostle Paul.

Co-related to that subject are the incarnation, doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the death and ascension of Christ. These have been presented so many times in familiar form that their attractiveness is sicklied over. A fresh presentation from the scientific viewpoint by sound reasoning will do good.

The chapters of this volume have been constructed out of sermonic material, begotten by a yearning desire to convince doubters, answer disbelievers, and confirm Disciples of Christ. To render this threefold service, the author submits facts, quotes utterances of thinkers, applies Scripture and argues to logical conclusions from the premises he submits.

INTRODUCTION

An empty tomb at Jerusalem was the objective for which the Crusaders in their zealous struggles under mighty leaders like Godfrey and Richard Coeur de Lion battled. The possession of that empty tomb could make no contribution to the world's thought or salvation. The living, regnant Christ who emerged from that tomb as Conqueror of Death alone can lead the world's forces to victory. His resurrection accounts for its emptiness.

Mr. Brandenburg's trained mind, ardent love of research and genuine motive to serve make liis book worthy of study.

Enid, Oklahoma.

Preface

The author, in his study of Philosophy, came to the conclusion that the distance made to appear between Christian teaching on the one hand and philosophy on the other was largely imaginary. He felt that many who had written in one or the other of these realms of thought had done so with too little regard to the principles and teaching in the other; that the tendency of this policy, in the reaches of the years, had resulted in an almost complete separation of two kindred and very closely related branches of learning. Tliis situation had produced an impression among college professors and students generally that philosophy was a thing of the utmost importance, while Christian teaching was of little consequence, and that in all matters where there was conflict or seeming conflict, the voice and authority of philosophy was to be given the preference.

Thus no little injustice had been wrought upon both these branches of learning, for while philosophy seemed to have the advantage, yet that very condition made it a thing that was held in suspicion by large numbers of Christian people. Many seem to have the impression that if one is to study philosophy to any extent, his usefulness

PREFACE

in the ministry will thereby be diminished, if not entirely destroyed. On the other hand, there are those, not a few in number, who hold that for one not to study philosophy would mean, not only that he is limited in his range of thought, but that he is limited also in liis ability to tliink.

The writer soon came to the conviction that neither one of these two realms of thought has a monopoly upon any fundamental principle and its related truths ; that in so far as philosophy is true, its truths are universal truths. But the truths of Christianity are likewise universal truths. This fact, therefore, relates these two realms of thought inseparably. Hence, any classification of knowledge that makes it appear otherwise is arbitrary, and not real. Furthermore, all such classification is apt to be detrimental, rather than helpful, to the gaining of real knowledge. In the author's view, all fundamental principles, with all related truths, should be but bridges, spanning the seeming chasms between any two or more realms of human thought.

It has appeared to him that philosophy could fittingly act as a background upon which to paint the great fundamental doctrines of Christianity ; that this should be done by bringing into bold relief the doctrine of the Incarnation, the death and resurrection, the ascension and coronation, the incarnation of the Spirit, the beginning of the church, the law of its growth, and so forth, — these great first facts which were the soil whence

PREFACE

Christianity sprang. Set in this relationship, neither philosophy nor Christianity would suffer, but both would be strengthened inherently, and would enjoy a degree of confidence wliich probably neither has at the present.

This little volume has been designed in response to the earnest solicitation of many colleagues, student friends, and Christian workers in all phases of religious work, to whom much of the subject matter has been presented in conferences, ministerial institutes, and convention addresses. The volume is sent forth in the hope and belief that all students in colleges and universities, who are preparing for the ministry or other lines of church work, will find in it a mine of suggestiveness if taken either as a brief course or in connection with regular courses in theology and philosophy. The book, with the possible exception of the chapter on philosophy, will be found to be so simple in its presentation of the various themes discussed as to be readily understood by any and all who may have been troubled with misgivings upon some of the great basic facts of Christianity. It is, therefore, recommended to all Sunday School teachers and workers, all ministers in active sei^vice of the church, all Young Men's Christian Association secretaries and their classes and to all others who wish for a deeper and clearer understanding of the fundamental truths of Christianity, as these truths may relate themselves to any true philosophy.

The Author.

Contents

PAGE

I The Philosophic Basis for the Beginning OF Christianity 1

II The Word Made Flesh 33

II The Word Made Flesh

THE INCARNATION

In writing the Fourth Gospel, John goes back to creation's morning for his beginning. He states in the opening paragraph that Jesus had wrought with the Father in the creation of the world in its beginning. We are reminded of the statement in Genesis in which God said, " Let m make man in our own image and likeness."

But John's purpose was not to write of the physical, but of the spiritual creation. Consequently, he adds but a brief paragraph upon this. Then he makes brief mention of the one who came as a witness, to bear witness of the Light that was the true Light, coming into the world bearing light and life to all men. He then takes up the particular purpose of his narrative, which is to give a deep spiritual and philosophical narrative of Jesus — the Word made flesh. I direct your mind to the following text for our consideration.

" In the beginning was the Word, and the

Word was with God, and the Word was God.

. . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and of truth." ^ In this he suggests to us the Mystery, the Mission and the Message of Jesus — the Word made flesh.

The mystery of his coming into the world has become a stumbling block to the curious spirits of a superficial and artificial age. Hence, the virgin birth of Jesus is no longer accepted by those who court the favor of modem scientists. That there was any mystery about his coming into the world is rejected by them as unworthy of serious thought. To speak to them of the incarnation of Jesus is preposterous.

In fact, there was no incarnation. Jesus of Nazareth was the son of Joseph. He was conceived and bom just as other children, except that He was an illegitimate child in conception, but was legitimatized by Mary's marriage before His birth.

When Jesus was on the earth He freely entered the synagogues of the Jews everywhere and upon all occasions. He was honored in many instances by being called upon to read out of the law, to speak and to teach. It might be said of Him that He grew up in the synagogue. He went into the synagogue " as His custom was." He was found in the temple. He said, " Know you not that I must be about my Father's business ? " " They marveled at His teaching." " For He taught them as one having authority."

Yes, He entered the synagogues freely ; and all His critics and opposers were powerless to find a way to prevent Him. They knew all the time that their law forbade a " bastard to even enter the synagogue," much less to teach. Is it to be presumed that they would not have hurled this at Him upon every occasion had it been true? Yet, when His ringing challenge came, " Which of you convicteth me of sin.'' " they were helpless. In all their opposition to Him, this objection is never raised. He who " was tempted in every point," was also criticized in every conceivable way.

He graced the marriage occasion. He looked into the face of the water. Under His majestic presence it moved with the blush of life. He taught the sacredness of the marriage vow. The adultery of a heart that would " look upon a woman to lust after her." In parables He taught the purity of the church by comparison with the virgin, and the sacredness of the marriage relation. Yet, in all this He called forth no criticism upon His mother, no stigma upon His own character.

In the face of all this, our modern scientists see no inconsistency. They seem to feel that " scientific conclusions " can be drawn over irreconcilable inconsistencies. Jesus was never called upon to defend His character from the stain and stigma which these so-called scientists seek to throw upon it.

These same scientists would teach us, and perhaps with a good deal of truth, that the sense of shame in the mother stamps itself indelibly into the life of the illegitimate child; and bars the way to greatness or distinction on his part. But where was any sense of shame on Mary's part? Where did it ever stand out in the life of Jesus? If He was peculiarly bold and emphatic in any one line of teaching, it was in the realm of personal morality and sex purity.

Matthew and Luke stated the fact of the virgin birth, but knew no necessity of arguing it. It M^as never questioned in their day by any who were competent to know. They knew the fact and presented it, as we would present as axiom in mathematics. To them this truth was made self-evident by every deed that He ever did; and enforced by every principle He ever taught.

The early church placed no particular emphasis upon it; did not make it an essential article of faith. It, like many other facts, was taken by implication in the statement of the great confession. "Thou art the Christ, The Son of the living God." If " the Son of God," in the sense in which this part of the confession was understood by all the early Christians, then He was not the son of Joseph. He was the only begotten of the Father, and the child of the virgin Mary. But this is not emphasized, nor indeed, need it be. For the great confession is all comprehensive and all sufficient in its statements and implications.

Our creed makers in a later day made a blunder when they undertook to improve upon the simple, yet comprehensive, confession of the Apostolic Church.

It was not the virginity of Mary, but the divinity of Jesus, that concerned the early church. A clear note upon this, it seems to me, ought to be sounded in every pulpit in this day of rationalism.

" The Word became flesh," says John. In this, he states the fact of a great mystery, but adds no word of explanation or argumentation. The great apostle to the Gentiles is content to recognize and state the fact without comment. " Great is the mystery of Godliness : God was manifested in the flesh." ^ But our curious spirits of this age, confronted with and compelled to recognize mystery in almost every other realm, will have none of it in religion. Religion must conform to known natural laws.

What is there impossible about the mystery of the incarnation — the virgin birth — more than the impossible in scores of other mysteries recognized and utilized by these so-called scientists? Why should it be singled out and rejected?

Take John's statement of this mysterious fact; and what have we? Simply a statement that the immaterial has passed over into the realm of the material. " The Word (immaterial) became flesh (material)." The mystery does not consist in the method, but in the thing accomplished. This being true, may we not ask, are not similar mysteries in evidence all around about us? Do we not think? Do we not cause our thoughts (immaterial things) to find expression in material forms? What about the inventor? The genius? The author? The great captains of industry?

Not only so ; but we take of the material substances and cause them to pass into the immaterial realm. They become mental energy — sight — hearing — feeling — thought — power. They are ours to use in a great variety of ways in the immaterial realm. Thus in a thousand ways daily, in our human experiences, this mystery is before us. Material things are passing constantly into the immaterial realm, and vice versa. Millions of times within the life of any intelligent being these experiences are occurring.

Who are we, then, that we should assume to cry " impossible " when God chooses to cause His Word to pass over into the material realm and express itself in material form? " And the Word became flesh." Yes, the virgin birth is easily within the realm of mysterious probabilities.

But in the next place : the Mission. The Word not only " became flesh," but, it " dwelt among lis." The first question that naturally arises is, what for? What was the purpose? What was the Mission?

Whatever may be said of the works and teachings of Jesus, His mission culminated in the great fact of His suffering upon the cross. Indeed, if it did not consist in this. His works and teachings were incidental to, and in anticipation of, the cross. This was the one thing He had to do. Many other things He may or may not do. But this He had to do.

In this day, when the meaningless cry is heard everywhere, " Back to Christ and His teachings," it is well that there be clear thinking just here. If He expressed the love of God toward mankind, when, by His touch and teaching, He put new content into old teachings, new life and health into dead and diseased bodies ; by his suffering upon the cross, He expressed God's eternal hatred for sin. But more. He met the final issue of sin. He went to the extremest limits of sin's consequences. " He who knew no sin, was made sin for us." ^ " He bore our sins in His body upon the tree," says Peter.* When in the death agonies He exclaimed, " Why hast thou forsaken me.'^ " He was in a place of utter abandonment, God-forsaken, sin-cursed, with all nature in revolt against Him. He was suffering alone the consequences of the sins of a world. He was paying the penalty. He was purchasing liberty, life and immortality for a world. No man ever has or ever can die as He died. At most, a man abandoned by God, could suffer condemnation only for his own sin. Jesus, upon the cross, drank the essence of a world's sin in order to redeem that world. Well may we sing:

Jesus, my Savior, on Calvary's tree, Paid the great debt and my Soul he set free ; Oh, it was wonderful, how could it be? Dying for me. Dying for me.

Approaching the cross, in that greatest of all prayers, Jesus said, " Father, I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do." '^ In His last breath upon the cross He made the statement, " It is finished." ^ So far as He was concerned. He had taken the place and performed the work assigned to Him to do in heaven's plan for the salvation of men. His resurrection, ascension, coronation, the sending of the Holy Spirit, the establishment of the church, and the Spirit's message — these are all in the hands of the Father ; and are to be wrought out in the councils of heaven.

This brings us to the next thought — the Message. The coming of the Word into the world may be veiled in mystery, in the incarnation. The mission may pass into the realm of the incomprehensible, in the suffering upon the cross. But, standing in the light of the cross, we have a feeling that the message is clear. The dazzling beauty and the effulgent glory of the sun may forbid its analysis ; but this need not make us stumble when walking in its light.

Standing in the light of that cross, John said, " (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth." Here is an individual, who " dwelt among men," with a halo of glory round about Him, " full of grace and truth." That is John's adorned statement. Stripped of its adornment, the statement is, " The Word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth."

The Word of God; that is, the thought, purpose, plan, intention, will, of God. It was this that became incarnate ; and dwelt among us " full of grace and truth." The message springs out of the fullness of the " grace and truth." It did not come so directly out of what Jesus did and taught as out of what He was.

He did and taught many, many things of which we have no record. Much that He did and taught, we cannot do and do not teach. Of His recorded teachings, much as to the message was intended by Him as in no way final. It is not what He taught ; it is what He was.

He taught no theory of the atonement. He •was the atonement. He taught no theory of the resurrection. He said, " I am the resurrection." He had no theory of life. He was Life. He left no specific message. He was the message. He had no theory of the gospel. He was the Gospel. He was " grace and truth." Grace, mercy, pity on the one hand; truth, righteousness, justice on the other. Mercy and justice meet in Christ the Lord.

Paul says, " God set Him forth ... to show that He (God) might be just and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus." ^ That was the great accomplishment of Jesus. In Him, God is at once, all righteous and all merciful. He is " just and a justifier."

I repeat it, Jesus left no specific message. He was the message.

This is what Jesus left, in His last moments before leaving the earth. This was specific and final. He left a charge (command) and a promise to His chosen apostles. He promised them the baptism of the Holy Spirit ; and the abiding presence and power of the Spirit to guide them into all truth,* He repeated this promise and charged them to remain in Jerusalem for its fulfillment in a few days.^

The apostles returned to Jerusalem and assembled in the upper room. There they waited. After ten days Jesus redeemed that promise.^^ The Spirit came upon, and entered into, the apostles. He guided them into all truth. He endued them with all power necessary to the proper direction of the things of the kingdom. Through them. He enters into the lives of all Christians.

He gave to them a full message — a message full of grace and truth, for He revealed Jesus unto them. Jesus was the full message. He took of the things of Jesus and showed it unto them.

e John — 16. 10 Acts — 2.

They proclaimed that message as long as they lived, and wrote it when ready to die. In the providence of God, it has come through the centuries to us, and we have it substantially as they proclaimed it.

That message is Jesus the Christ. Not any theory about Him, but Christ, the babe in Bethlehem ; Christ in the agonies of the cross ; Christ in the tomb; Christ triumphant in the resurrection; Christ regnant on the throne; Christ in faith, in repentance, in confession and in baptism ; Christ supreme in the heart; Christ dominant in the life; Christ in Mystery, in Mission and in Message; Christ full of grace and truth.

May the twentieth century find men — full orbed men — to proclaim this full message until the whole world shall be filled with this full message of grace and truth.

Ill

THE NATURALNESS OF THE RESURRECTION

" Verily, verily, I say unto you. Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone." ^ Immediately preceding these words of Jesus is this statement, " The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified." ^ Following the text is the statement, " Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say.'* Father, save me from this hour." ^

Thus, getting the line of thought, we see that Jesus is here speaking of his death upon the cross, and of the results that will follow out to humanity and to the world because of that event. The death of Jesus and his resurrection are the two great facts in this text. These facts are here presented in the imagery of the deepest and most fundamental law of all existence: the law of sowing and reaping. I wonder if we have deeply and seriously thought how meaningful this law is when applied to the tilings of the kingdom, or more particularly, when applied to the death and resurrection of Jesus?

I would direct your thought into a study of the Naturalness of the Resurrection. I am not unmindful that the very wording of my subject seems to be paradoxical in statement. In the very beginning of Jesus' ministry, he placed the fact of his divinity upon the reahty of his actual bodily resurrection from the dead, when he said, " Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." * At the close of his ministry, he placed the condition of establishing his church on the earth upon the fact of his divinity, when he said, " Upon this rock, (the truth that he is the Christ) I will build my church."^ Thus, the church rests upon the fact of his divine sonship. And his divine sonship rests, humanly speaking, upon the reality of his bodily resurrection from the dead. Hence, the importance of our study.

The falling of wheat into the ground, and dying, in order that it may live, suggests to us the ground, the wheat, the sowing (falling into the ground), death and life. If it shall be seen that the death and resurrection of Jesus are in harmony with this most fundamental law of all life, then it must be conceded that, instead of being unnatural, the way of life in Christ Jesus is in full accord with the most fundamental of natural laws of which we have any knowledge; that it is in strict harmony with that most natural law of * John — 2:19. - 6 Maf^— 16: 18.

life known to the farthermost limits of the human family. So that if a man will not lift up his eyes and gaze into the heavens, and there behold the beauty, the order, the power, the wisdom and the loveliness of his Creator; if he is determined to be " of the earth, earthy " ; if he, like the ant that crawls at his feet, will know nothing but to fix his mind and heart and life upon the things of the earth, yet the Father would impel him, by the very intelligence with which he has endowed him, as he eats even the herbs of the forest, to familiarize himself with this most natural and fundamental law of life. If perchance, this might prepare him for an easier entrance into the way of life in Christ.

The ground into which this grain of wheat fell was of course the Jewish nation. This people had been prepared, through the many centuries of their history, for the coming of the Christ. In types and shadows: by precepts and commandments ; by rewards and punishments ; by protection and exposure; by slavery and freedom; by kingly greatness and national humiliation; by water and fire ; in prosperity and poverty ; through king and prophet ; by signs in the heavens and wonders in the earth; by all of these, and a thousand other devices, through the centuries, the Creator had been slowly but surely preparing a field into which this kernel of wheat was finally to fall.

Under the lash of the Egyptian master, in that most fertile of all agricultural lands, the Israelitish slave had learned the law of sowing and reaping, of death as the entry way into life, in all of its naturalness and beauty. In Palestine, a " land flowing with milk and honey," the " garden spot of the earth " — in freedom and national greatness, the Hebrew had beheld the " Rose of Sharon " and the " Lily-of-the-Valley," blossoming in response to this great natural law. He had beheld the " cattle upon a thousand hills," sustained by the same natural law. He had seen the " sower go forth to sow." He knew what it meant to see " the blade appear, and after that the corn, and then the full corn in the ear." He knew what it meant to " put forth the sickle at the harvest time." He had heard the tramp of the oxen upon the " summer threshing floor." With all of these things he was familiar in every detail. Yet, all of these things centered in this great natural law.

In tent, in tabernacle, in temple and in synagogue ; by prophet, priest and king, Israel had been developed, in mind and heart, into a condition of readiness for the coming of this grain of wheat. Indeed, she had been lashed by the experiences of captivity and servitude into a desire for His coming. If perchance, his coming might be a means of deliverance. Fain would Israel have planted this " finest of the wheat " into the mellowed richness of her own, the " fairest of hearts," and rejoiced to have seen it blossom into the Paradise of God. For, said Jesus, " From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." But no, the matter is not to be forced. It will take its own course. And that course will be in harmony with this most fundamental of natural laws.

The wheat must be such in nature, that when placed in the proper soil, it, like real wheat, will spring forth into life. We see the manifestation of life everywhere. Yet life itself eludes our gaze. We have never been able to say, " here is life." "This is life," or "that is Hfe." Now, that which manifests itself so abundantly must have existence in and of itself. Life must be more than simply manifestations. There must be a fountain, a source, a head.

If life does, then, exist in and of itself, and we were able to find it at its source, let it be embodied in whatever form, manifested in whatever way. It is quite unlikely that we would be able to destroy it. If the fountain of life — life, and the very source of all life was incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth, His body might be crucified, placed in the grave — in the sea or anywhere else ; and it will spring forth into life. As wheat, it possesses not only the germ of life, but life itself. This is what John is saying, " 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. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men." — " And this Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." — This is what Jesus means when he says, " I am the resurrection and the life." " You will not come unto me that you might have life." This is what Paul means when he says, Jesus " brought life and immorality to light."

It is into this prepared field of Jewish mind and heart and thought that this grain of wheat falls. It was placed there in the fullness of time, by the age working purpose divine. It remained for thirty-three years in the earth before it finally burst forth into life. Failing in their efforts to " take the kingdom by force," the leaders of the Jewish people, like the young lover, disappointed when his proposals are not accepted, these leaders spring into a rage, take the life of the object of Israel's love; and commit suicide for the nation.