The Revelation of Christ as the Savior

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord—Luke 2:10-11.

The Existence of God

Who can by searching find out God? This question of the ancient Patriarch remains to this day unanswered and unanswerable. Eighteen centuries ago the agnostics of Athens built an altar to an unknown God. They knew Him not; but thinking it wise to be on the safe side, they erected a fane¹ to His honor, and “ignorantly worshipped Him” (Acts 17:23).

Eighteen centuries pass away, and once more we hear of an unknown God; but our modern Athenians in their superior wisdom have decided that He is not only unknown, but unknowable, and therefore that, if He exist at all, He has no claim upon Our homage. To Him they build no altar and consecrate no shrine. Of Him, we are duly warned, we know nothing, and can know nothing; we are neither in a position to say that He is or that He is not. If He does exist we can only guess at His character and attributes, and are utterly incapable of entering into any direct relations with Him, and can therefore owe Him no allegiance, and offer Him no love.

Against all this Agnosticism, ancient and modern, what have we to set? Is there not a great deal to be said for it? Does not the very greatness and infinity that we attribute to the idea of Deity constitute an argument in favor of their position? for have we not to divest our minds of all that constitutes knowledge in order to approach the idea of the Infinite? We arrive at all our knowledge by a process of conscious or unconscious definition; but in approaching the Infinite we endeavor to exclude all ideas of definition from our mind. What is this vast abstraction then but a stupendous negation? and how can the soul ever find rest in a mere negation, however august?

¹Sacred place—PCAM.