Apologeticae sive Theologiae Fundamentalis, Tomus I: Demonstratio Christiana

The Christology that the apostles preached and practiced immediately after the departure of the Master is set forth by Luke the physician in the Acts of the Apostles. From the catecheses of Peter, Stephen, Philip, and Paul, delivered shortly after the death of Christ and recorded in the first part of the Acts of the Apostles, we learn that the disciples proclaimed to the Jews above all the messiahship of Jesus of Nazareth.¹ In describing the nature of the Messiah Jesus, moreover, they profess him to be the Son of God and Lord.

a) Son of God. On the day of Pentecost Peter dares to say before the people and the rulers: "The God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Son Jesus, whom you indeed delivered up and denied before the face of Pilate ... To you first God, raising up his Son, sent him to bless you."² The first believers pray: "For truly there assembled in this city against your holy Servant Jesus, whom you anointed, Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel ... Stretch forth your hand to heal and to work signs and wonders through the name of your holy Son."³ Philip demands of those to be baptized faith in "Jesus Christ, the Son of God".⁴ The same faith is the most essential part of the gospel of Paul, who preaches "in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God"⁵ and affirms that it is written of Jesus in the second psalm: "You are my Son; today I have begotten you."⁶ That the apostles speak of the natural, not the moral, Son of God is evident. For Jesus as Son of God is to them the "author of life",⁷ the source of all salvation; the mediator of the remission of sins; "appointed by God judge of the living and the dead".⁸ All these things can be said of the natural Son of God alone.

b) Lord. Everywhere in the primitive church Jesus is called: "ὁ κύριος, the Lord", "the Lord Jesus Christ",⁹ "our Lord",¹⁰ "our Lord Jesus Christ". "Lord" is the proper name of Jesus. It would be useless to insist on this truth, since it lies open on almost every page of the Acts.

That Jesus, however, is called "Lord" not in a profane sense,¹¹ but in a religious sense, in which "Lord" is the same as Adonai, Yahweh, the true God, is easily proved. For:

1°. The name "Lord" is given indiscriminately to God the Father and to Jesus Christ. The name "Lord" is read a hundred and ten times in the Acts. Of these texts about a third refers to God the Father; a third to Jesus Christ; and the remaining third to either the Father or Jesus Christ: e. g. in Acts 11, 20 sq. the word "Lord" is found three times, and indeed it is applied first to Jesus, then to God simply, and thirdly to God and Jesus together. Therefore Jesus as "Lord" is plainly placed on a level with God.

2°. Divine attributes are predicated of the "Lord" Jesus. The Lord Jesus converts Saul and heals the sick.¹² In the name of the Lord Jesus the disciples work all their miracles and confer baptism for the remission of sins.¹³ Faith in the Lord Jesus and the grace of our Lord Jesus save.¹⁴ For the Lord Jesus the disciples shed their blood;¹⁵ to him Stephen, dying, commends his spirit, just as Jesus had earlier done to the Father.¹⁶ The Lord Jesus is the "author of life" and "Lord of all".¹⁷ Finally, to the Lord Jesus are attributed all those things which are attributed in either the Old or the New Testament to the Lord God, Adonai, Yahweh. Therefore Jesus is the same as Adonai, Yahweh, the true God. This becomes even clearer from the fact that:

3°. "Lord" Jesus is the object of the religious worship of the first Christians. The invocation and adoration of the Lord Jesus were the distinctive worship by which Christians were distinguished from the Jews. Peter, on the very day of Pentecost, applies to the Lord Jesus the words of Joel: "Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord [Yahweh], shall be saved."¹⁸ Stephen prays: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit ... Lord, do not hold this sin against them."¹⁹ Saul is baptized "calling upon his name", that of the Lord Jesus.²⁰ In Damascus the faithful are simply called men "who call upon that name" of the Lord Jesus.²¹ From the beginning, therefore, Christians worship Jesus with the same latreutic worship with which in the Old Testament Yahweh alone was worshipped, and for that reason they also transfer to Jesus the name of Yahweh, Adonai, ὁ κύριος, the Lord.

This faith of the primitive church, moreover, takes its origin from Jesus Christ himself. For unless Jesus Christ himself, while living on earth, had revealed himself as Lord God, the disciples would never have devoted to him the supreme worship which they had until then devoted to Yahweh alone, who commanded them:²² "You shall worship the Lord your God [Yahweh ha Elohim] and him only shall you serve."²³