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IF Jesus Christ were truly God, or if there existed such a coequal and co-essential oneness between the Father and the Son that they constituted but one being or divine essence, then what is true of one is true of the other, and a change of names and titles from one to the other cannot alter the sense of the text. Let us, then, substitute the titles found applied to the Son in the New Testament, to the Father, and observe the effect
“My Son is greater than I.” (John vii. 28.)
“God can do nothing of himself.” (John v. 19.)
“I must be about my Son’s business.” (Luke ii. 49.)
“The kingdom of heaven is not mine to give, but the Son’s.” (Matt. xx. 23.)
“I am come in my Son’s name, and ye receive me not.” (John v. 43.)
“God cried, Jesus, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. xiii. 28.)
“No man hath seen Jesus at any time.” (i John i. 5.)
“Jesus created all things by his Son.” (Eph. iii. 9.)
“God sat down (in heaven) at the right hand of Jesus.” (Luke xxii. 69.)
“There is one Jesus, one mediator between Jesus and men.” (Gal. iii. 20.)
“Jesus gave, his only begotten Father.” (i John iv. 9.)
“God knows not the hour, but Jesus does.” (Mark viii. 32.)
“God is the servant of Jesus.” (Mark xii. 18.)
“God is ordained by Jesus.” (Acts xvii. 31.)
“The head of God is Christ.” (Eph. i. 3.)
“We have an advocate with Jesus, God the righteous.” (i John ii. i.)
“Jesus gave all power to God.” (Matt. xxviii. 18.)
“God abode all night in prayer to Jesus.” (Luke vi. 12.)
“God came down from heaven to do the will of Jesus.” (John vi. 38.)
“Jesus has made the Father his high priest.” (Heb. x. 24.)
“Last of all, the Son sent the Father.” (Matt. xxi. 39.)
“Jesus will save the world by that God whom he hath ordained.”
“Jesus is God of the Father.” (John xx. 17.)
“Jesus hath exalted God, and given him a more excellent name.” (Phil. ii. 9.)
“Jesus hath made God a little lower than the angels.” (Heb. ii. 9.)
“God can do nothing except what he seeth Jesus do.” (John v. 19.)
Now, the question arises, Is the above representation a true one? Most certainly it must be, if Jesus and the Father are but one almighty Being. A change of names and titles cannot alter the truth nor the sense.
To say that Chief Justice Chase has gone south; Secretary Chase has gone south; Governor Chase has gone south; Ex-Senator Chase has gone south, or Salmon P. Chase has gone south, are affirmations equally true and equally sensible, because they all have reference to the same being; the case is to plain to need argument.
The above reversal of names and titles of Jesus and the Father may sound very unpleasant and rather grating to Christ-adoring Christians, simply because it is the trans-position of the titles of two very scripturally dissimilar beings, instead of being, as generally taught by orthodox Christians, “one in essence, one in mind, one in body or being, and one in name,” as the Rev. Mr. Barnes affirms. Most self-evidently false is his statement, based solely on scriptural ground. If Jesus is “very God,” and there is but one God, then the foregoing transposition cannot mar the sense nor altar the truth of one text quoted.