07-19-2026, 10:13 AM
XVI. Does Protestantism believe in Jesus Christ?
— Thank God there are yet Protestants, honest and religious, who believe in Jesus Christ. But is it because they are Protestants that they believe in him? Not at all. You can be a Protestant, a genuine one, ay more, a Protestant pastor of souls, without being in the least obliged to believe in the divinity of the Redeemer. The pastor Coquerel, of Paris, has just published a thick volume (La Christologie), for the purpose of developing this doctrine. It has been a general belief, for the last eighteen hundred years, that to be a Christian it was necessary to believe that Christ was the incarnate God. According to M. Coquerel, this is a mistake. It matters very little whether Jesus be God, or some supernatural being, or a common man. Why bother one's head about it? After all, one can be a very good Christian without making so many distinctions.
Mr. T. Colani, the learned editor of the "Protestant Theological Review," published in Strasbourg, takes particular pains not to contradict his brother of Paris, and teaches his pupils, who are trained to be ministers of the Gospel, that one can indeed be a Christian without believing in Jesus Christ, and then he unctuously adds, "that were both Jesus Christ and his sanctity taken from us, it would be a great calamity for the world; but there would still remain faith, — faith in the Father, faith in God." (Revue de Theologie, Vol. vii., p. 242.)
Thus M. de Gasparin, an ardent champion of French Protestantism, congratulates himself on a triumph, as it were unexpected, that of seven hundred ministers two hundred at least believed in the divinity of Christ. (Interets generaux du Protestantisme, p. vii.)
It has been proclaimed, from the most illustrious pulpits of the Reformation, that "the Saviour was only a Jewish Socrates, the author of the best practical philosophy."
According to some of the most celebrated ministers, he was "a simple Rabbi, but so many of the people persisted in believing that he was the Messiah, that at last he believed it himself; still he taught only a pure Mosaism, and he was condemned to death, and nailed to a cross, and laid out having the appearance of a dead man, and came to life again after the third day, and lastly, after having revisited his disciples on different occasions, he abandoned them without seeing them any more."
Nor is it in the writings of Voltaire or Rousseau that I find this infamous parody of the symbol of the Apostles; I read it in the Christian Theology of Wegscheider (Theol. Chr. Dogm. §121), which has gone through seven or eight editions, and has been adopted as the text-book for those who aspire to the ministry.
It is no wonder, then, that Mr. Leblois, a minister of Strasbourg, being formed after those principles, should have, on the 31st day of December, A.D. 1854, publicly maintained from his pulpit, that the worship of Jesus Christ is a superstition, severely denouncing the Protestant sects that have retained this remnant of Popery, and protesting that we must put a stop to this idolatry, so repugnant to both reason and Gospel.
Some years ago, the King of Prussia, who is both head and doctor of the Prussian Church, expressed uneasiness about the orthodoxy of the ministers and professors of his faculty of divinity in Berlin; whereupon the Dean indignantly protested in the name of his colleagues, and solemnly declared that all, none excepted, believed . . . that Jesus had really existed. It was an effort, an exertion for which we must really compliment the theologians of Berlin. For, their brethren in Germany protest not only against the divinity of Christ, but even against the reality of his person and of his existence. Such, at least, are the logical deductions from the assumptions of Strauss, whilom professor of Protestant divinity in Zurich, who is the leader of a numerous school in Germany. And all these gentlemen call themselves Christians, and after the example of Luther, Calvin & Co.; less bold, however, they palm themselves off as the reformers of Christianity.
It is long since the Venerable Company of Pastors — for, thus they style themselves — assembled in Geneva, formally forbade their preachers, by a regulation of the 3d of May, 1817, to speak from the pulpit about the divinity of Christ. The few old fogies, who still persisted in this belief so incompatible with the principle of free examination, were obliged to separate themselves, and are to this day sneered at by the National Church, and nicknamed Momiers.
Were it not that my limits are narrow, I might here pass in review the different Protestant countries, and prove, from public and universal facts, how Luther's reformation abandons everywhere and denies the sacred and essential dogma of the divinity of Jesus Christ, — a dogma without which Christianity cannot exist. However, what we have quoted is more than sufficient to warrant our asserting, in the words of the unfortunate M. de Gasparin, "The majority of Protestants are not Christians!"
The dogma of the divinity of Jesus Christ, as well as all Christian teachings, are handed down to us by the Church, the living and infallible depositary of the authority of God.
I do not hereby mean to say that the Holy Scriptures do not prove to us the divinity of the Saviour in the clearest terms. But I merely assert that the Scriptures themselves deriving all their divine authority from the infallible teaching of the Church, whoever rejects the Church must needs lose at once the foundation of his faith in Christ.
The Protestants have discarded this authority, — hence they have no more any sure guidance in their belief, and thus, for the last three hundred years, their dogmas have dropped off one after another. They will end, if they are consistent, in framing, after a well-known Protestant, their formula of faith, thus: I believe in nothing.
After having rejected the Church, Protestantism rejects Jesus Christ; after having rejected Jesus Christ, it must reject God himself, and thus it will have accomplished its work!
This impious work has been already consummated in a large portion of Germany. There exists a powerful and widely-spread association, The Protestant Friends, who recognize for their leaders the three ministers Uhlich, Wislicenus, and Sachse. These three men have obtained the adhesion of a vast number of German pastors; and the pastors of Berlin, with whom those of France so closely fraternize, have very often rendered the homage of sympathy to those Protestant Friends. Now, here is Uhlich's profession of faith, and his public catechism: —
"Our belief is to have none."
"The being which is called God is only a fictitious one."
"The true object of our veneration is ourselves."
The Protestantism dominant in northern Germany, and above all in Prussia, consists in this bold Atheism. It is the legitimate deduction from genuine Protestantism. It cannot exist but on condition of giving to human thought a perfect freedom, or rather an unlimited license. It is that or nothing.
— Thank God there are yet Protestants, honest and religious, who believe in Jesus Christ. But is it because they are Protestants that they believe in him? Not at all. You can be a Protestant, a genuine one, ay more, a Protestant pastor of souls, without being in the least obliged to believe in the divinity of the Redeemer. The pastor Coquerel, of Paris, has just published a thick volume (La Christologie), for the purpose of developing this doctrine. It has been a general belief, for the last eighteen hundred years, that to be a Christian it was necessary to believe that Christ was the incarnate God. According to M. Coquerel, this is a mistake. It matters very little whether Jesus be God, or some supernatural being, or a common man. Why bother one's head about it? After all, one can be a very good Christian without making so many distinctions.
Mr. T. Colani, the learned editor of the "Protestant Theological Review," published in Strasbourg, takes particular pains not to contradict his brother of Paris, and teaches his pupils, who are trained to be ministers of the Gospel, that one can indeed be a Christian without believing in Jesus Christ, and then he unctuously adds, "that were both Jesus Christ and his sanctity taken from us, it would be a great calamity for the world; but there would still remain faith, — faith in the Father, faith in God." (Revue de Theologie, Vol. vii., p. 242.)
Thus M. de Gasparin, an ardent champion of French Protestantism, congratulates himself on a triumph, as it were unexpected, that of seven hundred ministers two hundred at least believed in the divinity of Christ. (Interets generaux du Protestantisme, p. vii.)
It has been proclaimed, from the most illustrious pulpits of the Reformation, that "the Saviour was only a Jewish Socrates, the author of the best practical philosophy."
According to some of the most celebrated ministers, he was "a simple Rabbi, but so many of the people persisted in believing that he was the Messiah, that at last he believed it himself; still he taught only a pure Mosaism, and he was condemned to death, and nailed to a cross, and laid out having the appearance of a dead man, and came to life again after the third day, and lastly, after having revisited his disciples on different occasions, he abandoned them without seeing them any more."
Nor is it in the writings of Voltaire or Rousseau that I find this infamous parody of the symbol of the Apostles; I read it in the Christian Theology of Wegscheider (Theol. Chr. Dogm. §121), which has gone through seven or eight editions, and has been adopted as the text-book for those who aspire to the ministry.
It is no wonder, then, that Mr. Leblois, a minister of Strasbourg, being formed after those principles, should have, on the 31st day of December, A.D. 1854, publicly maintained from his pulpit, that the worship of Jesus Christ is a superstition, severely denouncing the Protestant sects that have retained this remnant of Popery, and protesting that we must put a stop to this idolatry, so repugnant to both reason and Gospel.
Some years ago, the King of Prussia, who is both head and doctor of the Prussian Church, expressed uneasiness about the orthodoxy of the ministers and professors of his faculty of divinity in Berlin; whereupon the Dean indignantly protested in the name of his colleagues, and solemnly declared that all, none excepted, believed . . . that Jesus had really existed. It was an effort, an exertion for which we must really compliment the theologians of Berlin. For, their brethren in Germany protest not only against the divinity of Christ, but even against the reality of his person and of his existence. Such, at least, are the logical deductions from the assumptions of Strauss, whilom professor of Protestant divinity in Zurich, who is the leader of a numerous school in Germany. And all these gentlemen call themselves Christians, and after the example of Luther, Calvin & Co.; less bold, however, they palm themselves off as the reformers of Christianity.
It is long since the Venerable Company of Pastors — for, thus they style themselves — assembled in Geneva, formally forbade their preachers, by a regulation of the 3d of May, 1817, to speak from the pulpit about the divinity of Christ. The few old fogies, who still persisted in this belief so incompatible with the principle of free examination, were obliged to separate themselves, and are to this day sneered at by the National Church, and nicknamed Momiers.
Were it not that my limits are narrow, I might here pass in review the different Protestant countries, and prove, from public and universal facts, how Luther's reformation abandons everywhere and denies the sacred and essential dogma of the divinity of Jesus Christ, — a dogma without which Christianity cannot exist. However, what we have quoted is more than sufficient to warrant our asserting, in the words of the unfortunate M. de Gasparin, "The majority of Protestants are not Christians!"
The dogma of the divinity of Jesus Christ, as well as all Christian teachings, are handed down to us by the Church, the living and infallible depositary of the authority of God.
I do not hereby mean to say that the Holy Scriptures do not prove to us the divinity of the Saviour in the clearest terms. But I merely assert that the Scriptures themselves deriving all their divine authority from the infallible teaching of the Church, whoever rejects the Church must needs lose at once the foundation of his faith in Christ.
The Protestants have discarded this authority, — hence they have no more any sure guidance in their belief, and thus, for the last three hundred years, their dogmas have dropped off one after another. They will end, if they are consistent, in framing, after a well-known Protestant, their formula of faith, thus: I believe in nothing.
After having rejected the Church, Protestantism rejects Jesus Christ; after having rejected Jesus Christ, it must reject God himself, and thus it will have accomplished its work!
This impious work has been already consummated in a large portion of Germany. There exists a powerful and widely-spread association, The Protestant Friends, who recognize for their leaders the three ministers Uhlich, Wislicenus, and Sachse. These three men have obtained the adhesion of a vast number of German pastors; and the pastors of Berlin, with whom those of France so closely fraternize, have very often rendered the homage of sympathy to those Protestant Friends. Now, here is Uhlich's profession of faith, and his public catechism: —
"Our belief is to have none."
"The being which is called God is only a fictitious one."
"The true object of our veneration is ourselves."
The Protestantism dominant in northern Germany, and above all in Prussia, consists in this bold Atheism. It is the legitimate deduction from genuine Protestantism. It cannot exist but on condition of giving to human thought a perfect freedom, or rather an unlimited license. It is that or nothing.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre