354
July 1929
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
An A stonishing B iblical Discovery B y E dw in N oah H ardy , D.D. Executive Secretary of the American Tract Society TT has been generally assumed that most, -*• if not all, of the teachings of the Bible upon the subject of the deity of Christ have been known from the beginnings of Christianity up to the present time. So when a leading Christian layman an nounces that, through investigations and research principally among ancient manu script readings and versions of the Old and New Testaments, he has discovered what clearly appears to have been the original apostolic evidence of the deity of Christ, and which appears to have been obscured if not wholly lost to the knowl edge of men since shortly after the end of the first Christian century, it occasions not only surprise but astonishment. The writer, after careful examination of the scholarly proofs of this discovery, believes that the investigator has made out his case and has brought to light the basic Biblical interpretation and proof of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ; ob scured for centuries, it also furnishes a most satisfactory explanation of the doc trine of the Trinity and through its im plications will largely contribute to the solution of many of the most difficult problems of the Christian faith. This discovery comes at a time in the history of Christianity when such proof of the underlying teaching of the Chris tian faith is imperatively needed because of the widespread denials of, and attacks upon, belief in the deity of the Founder of Christianity. Professor William Lyon Phelps of Yale University has recently said, “The su premacy of Christmas consists in this— that you cannot separate Jesus from God. The Christian religion, as a religion, is founded solidly on the Incarnation. The enemies of Christianity have always fought the Incarnation, because they know the moment you separate Jesus from God He becomes not only mortal but vulnerable” (Good Housekeeping, De- , cember, 1928). Without a belief in the essential one ness of Christ with God the Father, the New Testament loses most of its spiritual and moral authority over the minds and hearts of mankind. The Biblical discovery of which we now write gives a self-evi dent and undeniable proof of that one ness. It would have been strange indeed , if the original apostles of Christ had 1 failed to present such proof of that fact as would command belief, on Biblical grounds, in the minds of their auditors whose lives and faith were professedly grounded upon the Old Testament as the very Word of God. That they did pre sent such proof, which resulted in the conversion of and addition to the early; Church of many thousands of Jews, is : plainly shown in the recently recovered apostolic teaching which is briefly sum marized, in part, in this article. William Phillips Hall, known as the business-man evangelist, President of the American Tract Society, a Vice-President of the American Bible Society, and iden tified with other religious, educational, and social organizations and movements, is the one through whose studies and writings the astonishing Biblical discovery has come. Mr. Hall finds, first, that with the Jews
and Jewish disciples of Christ of the apostolic age the revelation of God was summed up in what they called ha Shem, or “The Name” ; that is, the name of God expressed in the Hebrew Old Testament by four Hebrew letters corresponding to the letters J H V H, or Y H W H in the English, which they believed might not be uttered, and which they habitually expressed as “Lord” in the languages em ployed by them. Second, Mr. Hall has discovered that that word “Lord” stood for, and was used by the Jewish apostles and disciples of Christ '(according to their creed, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord,” as quoted by the Lord Jesus Christ from Deuteronomy 6:4 of the Greek Bible and recorded in Mark 12:29) to express, the one eternal essential Being of all that God is ; or in other words, ac cording to Matthew 28:19, of the Triune God; and that that word “Lord,” as “The name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” was always invoked by Jewish believers in Christ during the apostolic age, in baptisms, in prayer, in blessings, in the performance of miracles, and for other purposes, in and through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Third, Mr. Hall also finds that the apostles taught that a belief in, and a calling on, or invocation in prayer of, the word “Lord” as the name of all that God is, in and through, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, was the only way of obtain ing that remission of sins and eternal life purchased for all mankind by His atoning death. Mr. Hall’s studies have also revealed the fact that the original apostolic sig nificance of the word “Lord” in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the name of all that God is, was greatly obscured, if not wholly lost, in many manuscripts and versions of the New Testament writ ten or revised after the end of the first century of the Christian era, by the omis sion of or the substitution of some other word for “Lord” in and as “the name of Tthe Lord] Jesus,” or of “the name of [the Lord] Jesus Christ,” in many read ings, mostly in the Book of the Acts of :the Apostles. An expert textual, critic, who confirms Mr. Hall’s findings of the fact just stated, declares that his study of one so-called “family” of New Testament manuscripts for the last thirty-two years has shown him more than one hundred cases in which letters and words in those manu scripts have been altered. The change has always been in one direction, to take away from the deity of Christ, and never in one single^ instance to bring out more clearly the witness of the apostles to His deity. After a thorough and critical examina tion of Mr. Hall’s astonishing Biblical discovery of the original apostolic sig nificance of the word “Lord” in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, an eminent the ologian recently wrote: “This thing is deeper than the translators realized. In fact, they failed to grasp it at all. It can not be made too plain.” Another Bible scholar, after a careful examination of the same studies in their preliminary stage, declared: “I am con scious of the question of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ being suddenly and finally lifted^above the level of theological dispute. It is not (or, no longer) a de batable question.”
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American T ract Society Evangelical, Inter-denominational, Inter-racial, International The century-old agency of the churches for the publication and distribution of Christian literature. Approved and recommended by the General Assembly The Society is now PUBLISHING CHRISTIAN LITERATURE in fifty languages' for new Americans: BROADCASTING annually hundreds of thousands of Scripture leaflets in twenty languages; ENGAGED IN WELFARE WORK a t Ellis Island and distributing over one hundred thousand pieces of lit erature among imm igrants: PROVIDING BIBLES for W est Point students and lit erature for sailors, soldiers, lumbermen, m iners, prisoners and other segregated classes: FURNISHING THE CHURCHES choice hymnals in many languages: DIS TRIBUTING CHRISTIAN LITERATURE where the need is greatest. “The m ost noteworthy book published this year” is the appraisal of distin guished church leaders. In this book the author throw s the searchlight of a thorough Biblical schol arship upon the m ost im portant subject before the C hristian Church today, th at is, the Deity of C hrist; and brings to the light and presents much long-ob scured and convincing evidence upon the subject. A Great Privilege Offered The privilege and opportunity of sh ar ing in the indispensable work of the American T ract Society. There is an in creasing demand for its free literature to m eet immediate and urgent needs among our foreign-speaking peoples, for prisons and hospitals and to counteract the influence of A theistic agencies. You can aid the Society through 1. Contributions from churches and individuals. 2. Bequests in your will. 3. Annuity gifts. Annuities Pay up to 9% A Guaranteed Life Income. A Safe and Sound Investment. A Gift Wisely Bestowed ANNUITY BONDS Elim inate Worry From Tomorrow A sem i-annual Income for life safe guarded against anxiety, shrinkage or other losses.^ A Gift to the work of a great C hristian organization a century old, publishing and distributing religious literature in fifty languages, and more needed today than ever before. Send for particulars concerning An nuities. AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 7. W est 45th Street, New York City A Remarkable Biblical Discovery By W ILLIAM PH ILLIPS HALL
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