I. WHAT THE CHURCH HAS TAUGHT
—
THERE can be little doubt that the writers of the New Testament teach the deity of Christ, even though they did not, and could not, in their state, perceive how Father and Son were united. They accepted the deity of Christ as a fact of experience and belief in a decidedly practical way; but there are many evidences to show that they regarded Christ, in spite of what they themselves put down concerning his deity, as somehow subordinate to the Father. For example, John, whose Gospel teaches the deity of Jesus most unequivocally, states near its close: "But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah), the Son of God; and that believing, ye might have life through his name." (John 20:31.) This is precisely the statement upon which Jesus himself told Peter that his church was to be founded, namely, that he was the Messiah, the Son of God.
