SUNDAY DEBATE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 230, 28 September 1936, Page 3

SUNDAY DEBATE.

THE CHARACTER OF JESUS. c RATIONALIST V. MINISTER. There was an audience of several hundred people at the Strand Theatre yesterday afternoon to hear the last of a series of . debates between Mr. J. S. Langley, Australian Rationalist leader, and Auckland ministers of religion. The subject was "Jesus of Nazareth: God or Man?" and the affirmative was taken by the Rev. W. W. Averili, vicar of All Saints' Church, Ponsonby. Mr. E. E. Kitchener presided and the proceeds were given to the St. John Ambulance, and the crippled children's fund. Mr. Averili referred to documentary evidence that Christ had claimed to be God and that His acquaintances were satisfied thdt He had proved His claim. He said the .documentary evidence was principally contained in the New Testament Scriptures. Christ was definitely regarded as God, and the Epistles definitely stated that He was so accepted and received by the body oi Christians who already believed in what the Epistles taught. Friends and enemies alike accepted the fact that the character of Christ was unique in the history of the world, said Mr. Averili. To hold that the character of Christ was an invention necessitated the existence of a greater genius than Christ. Mr. Langley lipid that the evidence that Jesus was a god made by the myths oi man was overwhelming. The evidence of these man-made myths was broadcast in the Gospels themselves. It did not matter whether the manuscripts were reliable or were from truthful hands. The contents showed clearly that the writers were moving in a realm of myth and legend. It was intellectually wrong to heed such stories. Christian scholars were busily engaged in deciding whether God did give 11.5 a Jesus who claimed to be God or one who claimed to be a prophet. Theologians tlie world over were divided on that very question. As far as the unique character of Christ was concerned, Christian scholars in increasing numbers were candidKadmitting that there was nothing original 111 the teachings of Christ and that they were unfit for modern civilisation.