THE GREATEST QUESTION CHRIST EVER ASKED REV. WM. B. RILEY, D.D. Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Minneapolis, Minn., and President of the Northwest Bible School, Bible teacher and lecturer Mr. Chairman, Brethren and Sisters: I am very happy to address this audience, and to bring to you the theme announced for the evening. I want, however, preliminary to its discussion, to remind you of the context as well as the text suggested by this subject, and you will permit me to read some verses from the 16th chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, verses 13 to 20. "When Jesus came into the coasts of Cæsarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that Thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged He His disciples that they should tell no man that He was Jesus the Christ." It was as Jesus approached Cæsarea Philippi that He, with His little company, halted; probably to rest a few minutes from a weary journey, and, possibly, to receive and take the next meal. While waiting, He snatched the opportunity for some further instruction of those first students in the true "Christ's College." Like all great teachers, He questioned; and, like the wise teacher, He prepared His questions with reference to their progress in study and understanding. The time of His decease at Jerusalem was not far away, and that it might be properly understood and sanely interpreted, they must properly understand Him and sanely interpret Him. Hence the question, "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" Beyond controversy, this is the greatest question Christ ever asked. The question, with Peter's reply and Jesus' remarks, involves the three central facts of the New Testament Scriptures. These facts might take the form of themes, and be expressed in three phrases, around which every word uttered, from Matthew 1:1 to Rev. 22:21, clusters and circulates. They would be these: the Christ of God, the church of God, and the kingdom of God. The order of their statement is the order of their appearance in Scripture, and suggests also the program inspiration follows in the development of the themes themselves. THE CHRIST OF GOD He was the occasion of this question of the centuries. "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" Before that question all others pale; even the most important ones seem insignificant indeed. To that question, there are three answers that claim attention, at least upon the ground of age: the answer of natural reason, the answer of scientific research, and the answer of divine revelation. THE ANSWER OF NATURAL REASON! Possibly the most ancient exponent of this was Satan himself. Whether he actually doubted the Deity of Christ, not recognizing Him when first he saw Him in the flesh, we do not know; but certain it is that in the wilderness, following our Lord's baptism, he called into question every essential feature of His deity. He questioned His power to work miracles, and proffered Him a stone to be turned into bread as a test, he questioned His captaincy of the an gelic host, and dared Him to cast himself down and give proof of their allegiance in the swiftness of their descent from heaven to suspend Him in mid-air, and he questioned his inheritance of the earth-or his final lordship, in the same, and asserted a self ownership. The leading modern exponent of this reply was Strauss. In the last century that great skeptic gave to the world his mythical theory of Jesus, contending that no such person, as pictured in the New Testament, ever lived, save in the minds of the imaginative apostolate. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Peter, Paul and others "materialized Him out of the star dust of their Messianic hopes and training." As one expresses the Strauss conception, by that infatuation which sometimes befalls men, as a result of an inordinate affection for a natural leader, they magnified a plain peasant into a god of all grace and power, and, by a process of corporate scheming, palmed Him off on the world as a supernatural being. The weakness of the modern mind, and the intellectual incapacity of some modern ministers, was never more clearly demonstrated than by the fact that Strauss' irrational explanation has been so widely received. The time came, however, when the more thoughtful doubters reached the logical conclusion that the disciples of Jesus were no more able to invent such a character as the Christ of the Gospels, than they were to create the character itself. Beyond dispute, one colossal figure has crossed the centuries, and that figure is Christ. Who is He? This fact gave rise to the second reply. IT IS THE ANSWER OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH! That answer is in line with what some said, even in Jesus' time. Peter reports their opinion of Jesus after this manner: "He is John the Baptist, or Elias, or Jeremias, or one of the prophets." They had seen too much of Him; they had studied Him too carefully; they had examined His conduct and character too scientifically, to join in the Strauss-skeptic reply. The true scientist tries conscientiously never to ignore facts! Even so long ago as Christ's time, honest students saw that, while He looked like a man, and behaved like a man, He was both in appearance and accomplishment more than the ordinary man. They deemed that He was at least such as John, or even Elias, or Jeremias. How modern that sounds! How much in line with the clerical skeptic of this day! A modern religious leader consents that Jesus was not an ordinary man, but seeks to explain Him by saying, "He is only a man; yet He is the only Man." That paradox, however, while seeking a way of escape, puts its author into much more perplexing questions still. We cannot overlook its utter lack of logic. The poet says, "If Christ were a man, And only a man, I say, That, of all mankind, I would cleave to Him, |