PAPER 161
FURTHER DISCUSSIONS WITH RODAN
161:0.1 ON SUNDAY, September 25, A.D. 29, the
apostles and the evangelists assembled at Magadan. After a long conference
that evening with his associates, Jesus surprised all by announcing that early
the next day he and the twelve apostles would start for Jerusalem to attend
the feast of tabernacles. He directed that the evangelists visit the believers
in Galilee, and that the women's corps return for a while to
Bethsaida.
161:0.2 When the hour came to leave for Jerusalem,
Nathaniel and Thomas were still in the midst of their discussions with Rodan
of Alexandria, and they secured the Master's permission to remain at Magadan
for a few days. And so, while Jesus and the ten were on their way to
Jerusalem, Nathaniel and Thomas were engaged in earnest debate with Rodan. The
week prior, in which Rodan had expounded his philosophy, Thomas and Nathaniel
had alternated in presenting the gospel of the kingdom to the Greek
philosopher. Rodan discovered that he had been well instructed in Jesus'
teachings by one of the former apostles of John the Baptist who had been his
teacher at Alexandria.
1. THE PERSONALITY OF GOD
161:1.1 There was one matter on which Rodan and the
two apostles did not see alike, and that was the personality of God. Rodan
readily accepted all that was presented to him regarding the attributes of
God, but he contended that the Father in heaven is not, cannot be, a person as
man conceives personality. While the apostles found themselves in difficulty
trying to prove that God is a person, Rodan found it still more difficult to
prove he is not a person.
161:1.2 Rodan contended that the fact of personality
consists in the coexistent fact of full and mutual communication between
beings of equality, beings who are capable of sympathetic understanding. Said
Rodan: "In order to be a person, God must have symbols of spirit communication
which would enable him to become fully understood by those who make contact
with him. But since God is infinite and eternal, the Creator of all other
beings, it follows that, as regards beings of equality, God is alone in the
universe. There are none equal to him; there are none with whom he can
communicate as an equal. God indeed may be the source of all personality, but
as such he is transcendent to personality, even as the Creator is above and
beyond the creature."
161:1.3 This contention greatly troubled Thomas and
Nathaniel, and they had asked Jesus to come to their rescue, but the Master
refused to enter into their discussions. He did say to Thomas: "It matters
little what idea of the Father you may entertain as long as you are
spiritually acquainted with the ideal of his infinite and eternal
nature."
161:1.4 Thomas contended that God does communicate
with man, and therefore that the Father is a person, even within the
definition of Rodan. This the Greek rejected on the ground that God does not
reveal himself personally; that he is still a mystery. Then Nathaniel appealed
to his own personal experience with God, and that Rodan allowed, affirming
that he had recently had similar experiences, but these experiences, he
contended, proved only the reality of God, not his
personality.
161:1.5 By Monday night Thomas gave up. But by
Tuesday night Nathaniel had won Rodan to believe in the personality of the
Father, and he effected this change in the Greek's views by the following
steps of reasoning:
161:1.6 1. The Father in Paradise does enjoy
equality of communication with at least two other beings who are fully equal
to himself and wholly like himself -- the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit.
In view of the doctrine of the Trinity, the Greek was compelled to concede the
personality possibility of the Universal Father. (It was the later
consideration of these discussions which led to the enlarged conception of the
Trinity in the minds of the twelve apostles. Of course, it was the general
belief that Jesus was the Eternal Son.)
161:1.7 2. Since Jesus was equal with the Father,
and since this Son had achieved the manifestation of personality to his earth
children, such a phenomenon constituted proof of the fact, and demonstration
of the possibility, of the possession of personality by all three of the
Godheads and forever settled the question regarding the ability of God to
communicate with man and the possibility of man's communicating with God.
161:1.8 3. That Jesus was on terms of mutual
association and perfect communication with man; that Jesus was the Son of God.
That the relation of Son and Father presupposes equality of communication and
mutuality of sympathetic understanding; that Jesus and the Father were one.
That Jesus maintained at one and the same time understanding communication
with both God and man, and that, since both God and man comprehended the
meaning of the symbols of Jesus' communication, both God and man possessed the
attributes of personality in so far as the requirements of the ability of
intercommunication were concerned. That the personality of Jesus demonstrated
the personality of God, while it proved conclusively the presence of God in
man. That two things which are related to the same thing are related to each
other.
161:1.9 4. That personality represents man's highest
concept of human reality and divine values; that God also represents man's
highest concept of divine reality and infinite values; therefore, that God
must be a divine and infinite personality, a personality in reality although
infinitely and eternally transcending man's concept and definition of
personality, but nevertheless always and universally a personality.
161:1.10 5. That God must be a personality since he
is the Creator of all personality and the destiny of all personality. Rodan
had been tremendously influenced by the teaching of Jesus, "Be you therefore
perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect."
161:1.11 When Rodan heard these arguments, he said:
"I am convinced. I will confess God as a person if you will permit me to
qualify my confession of such a belief by attaching to the meaning of
personality a group of extended values, such as superhuman, transcendent,
supreme, infinite, eternal, final, and universal. I am now convinced that,
while God must be infinitely more than a personality, he cannot be anything
less. I am satisfied to end the argument and to accept Jesus as the personal
revelation of the Father and the satisfaction of all unsatisfied factors in
logic, reason, and philosophy."
2. THE DIVINE NATURE OF JESUS
161:2.1 Since Nathaniel and Thomas had so fully
approved Rodan's views of the gospel of the kingdom, there remained only one
more point to consider, the teaching dealing with the divine nature of Jesus,
a doctrine only so recently publicly announced. Nathaniel and Thomas jointly
presented their views of the divine nature of the Master, and the following
narrative is a condensed, rearranged, and restated presentation of their
teaching:
161:2.2 1. Jesus has admitted his divinity, and we
believe him. Many remarkable things have happened in connection with his
ministry which we can understand only by believing that he is the Son of God
as well as the Son of Man.
161:2.3 2. His life association with us exemplifies
the ideal of human friendship; only a divine being could possibly be such a
human friend. He is the most truly unselfish person we have ever known. He is
the friend even of sinners; he dares to love his enemies. He is very loyal to
us. While he does not hesitate to reprove us, it is plain to all that he truly
loves us. The better you know him, the more you will love him. You will be
charmed by his unswerving devotion. Through all these years of our failure to
comprehend his mission, he has been a faithful friend. While he makes no use
of flattery, he does treat us all with equal kindness; he is invariably tender
and compassionate. He has shared his life and everything else with us. We are
a happy community; we share all things in common. We do not believe that a
mere human could live such a blameless life under such trying circumstances.
161:2.4 3. We think Jesus is divine because he never
does wrong; he makes no mistakes. His wisdom is extraordinary; his piety
superb. He lives day by day in perfect accord with the Father's will. He never
repents of misdeeds because he transgresses none of the Father's laws. He
prays for us and with us, but he never asks us to pray for him. We believe
that he is consistently sinless. We do not think that one who is only human
ever professed to live such a life. He claims to live a perfect life, and we
acknowledge that he does. Our piety springs from repentance, but his piety
springs from righteousness. He even professes to forgive sins and does heal
diseases. No mere man would sanely profess to forgive sin; that is a divine
prerogative. And he has seemed to be thus perfect in his righteousness from
the times of our first contact with him. We grow in grace and in the knowledge
of the truth, but our Master exhibits maturity of righteousness to start with.
All men, good and evil, recognize these elements of goodness in Jesus. And yet
never is his piety obtrusive or ostentatious. He is both meek and fearless. He
seems to approve of our belief in his divinity. He is either what he professes
to be, or else he is the greatest hypocrite and fraud the world has ever
known. We are persuaded that he is just what he claims to be.
161:2.5 4. The uniqueness of his character and the
perfection of his emotional control convince us that he is a combination of
humanity and divinity. He unfailingly responds to the spectacle of human need;
suffering never fails to appeal to him. His compassion is moved alike by
physical suffering, mental anguish, or spiritual sorrow. He is quick to
recognize and generous to acknowledge the presence of faith or any other grace
in his fellow men. He is so just and fair and at the same time so merciful and
considerate. He grieves over the spiritual obstinacy of the people and
rejoices when they consent to see the light of truth.
161:2.6 5. He seems to know the thoughts of men's
minds and to understand the longings of their hearts. And he is always
sympathetic with our troubled spirits. He seems to possess all our human
emotions, but they are magnificently glorified. He strongly loves goodness and
equally hates sin. He possesses a superhuman consciousness of the presence of
Deity. He prays like a man but performs like a God. He seems to foreknow
things; he even now dares to speak about his death, some mystic reference to
his future glorification. While he is kind, he is also brave and courageous.
He never falters in doing his duty.
161:2.7 6. We are constantly impressed by the
phenomenon of his superhuman knowledge. Hardly does a day pass but something
transpires to disclose that the Master knows what is going on away from his
immediate presence. He also seems to know about the thoughts of his
associates. He undoubtedly has communion with celestial personalities; he
unquestionably lives on a spiritual plane far above the rest of us. Everything
seems to be open to his unique understanding. He asks us questions to draw us
out, not to gain information.
161:2.8 7. Recently the Master does not hesitate to
assert his superhumanity. From the day of our ordination as apostles right on
down to recent times, he has never denied that he came from the Father above.
He speaks with the authority of a divine teacher. The Master does not hesitate
to refute the religious teachings of today and to declare the new gospel with
positive authority. He is assertive, positive, and authoritative. Even John
the Baptist, when he heard Jesus speak, declared that he was the Son of God.
He seems to be so sufficient within himself. He craves not the support of the
multitude; he is indifferent to the opinions of men. He is brave and yet so
free from pride.
161:2.9 8. He constantly talks about God as an
ever-present associate in all that he does. He goes about doing good, for God
seems to be in him. He makes the most astounding assertions about himself and
his mission on earth, statements which would be absurd if he were not divine.
He once declared, "Before Abraham was, I am." He has definitely claimed
divinity; he professes to be in partnership with God. He well-nigh exhausts
the possibilities of language in the reiteration of his claims of intimate
association with the heavenly Father. He even dares to assert that he and the
Father are one. He says that any one who has seen him has seen the Father. And
he says and does all these tremendous things with such childlike naturalness.
He alludes to his association with the Father in the same manner that he
refers to his association with us. He seems to be so sure about God and speaks
of these relations in such a matter-of-fact way.
161:2.10 9. In his prayer life he appears to
communicate directly with his Father. We have heard few of his prayers, but
these few would indicate that he talks with God, as it were, face to face. He
seems to know the future as well as the past. He simply could not be all of
this and do all of these extraordinary things unless he were something more
than human. We know he is human, we are sure of that, but we are almost
equally sure that he is also divine. We believe that he is divine. We are
convinced that he is the Son of Man and the Son of God.
161:2.11 When Nathaniel and Thomas had concluded
their conferences with Rodan, they hurried on toward Jerusalem to join their
fellow apostles, arriving on Friday of that week. This had been a great
experience in the lives of all three of these believers, and the other
apostles learned much from the recounting of these experiences by Nathaniel
and Thomas.
161:2.12 Rodan made his way back to Alexandria,
where he long taught his philosophy in the school of Meganta. He became a
mighty man in the later affairs of the kingdom of heaven; he was a faithful
believer to the end of his earth days, yielding up his life in Greece with
others when the persecutions were at their height.
3. JESUS' HUMAN AND DIVINE MINDS
161:3.1 Consciousness of divinity was a gradual
growth in the mind of Jesus up to the occasion of his baptism. After he became
fully self-conscious of his divine nature, prehuman existence, and universe
prerogatives, he seems to have possessed the power of variously limiting his
human consciousness of his divinity. It appears to us that from his baptism
until the crucifixion it was entirely optional with Jesus whether to depend
only on the human mind or to utilize the knowledge of both the human and the
divine minds. At times he appeared to avail himself of only that information
which was resident in the human intellect. On other occasions he appeared to
act with such fullness of knowledge and wisdom as could be afforded only by
the utilization of the superhuman content of his divine
consciousness.
161:3.2 We can understand his unique performances
only by accepting the theory that he could, at will, self-limit his divinity
consciousness. We are fully cognizant that he frequently withheld from his
associates his foreknowledge of events, and that he was aware of the nature of
their thinking and planning. We understand that he did not wish his followers
to know too fully that he was able to discern their thoughts and to penetrate
their plans. He did not desire too far to transcend the concept of the human
as it was held in the minds of his apostles and disciples.
161:3.3 We are utterly at a loss to differentiate
between his practice of self-limiting his divine consciousness and his
technique of concealing his preknowledge and thought discernment from his
human associates. We are convinced that he used both of these techniques, but
we are not always able, in a given instance, to specify which method he may
have employed. We frequently observed him acting with only the human content
of consciousness; then would we behold him in conference with the directors of
the celestial hosts of the universe and discern the undoubted functioning of
the divine mind. And then on almost numberless occasions did we witness the
working of this combined personality of man and God as it was activated by the
apparent perfect union of the human and the divine minds. This is the limit of
our knowledge of such phenomena; we really do not actually know the full truth
about this mystery.
