CMP Review 2023-10-15

“It is not a light thing to claim to be God,” wrote Watchman Nee in 1936. “A person who makes such a claim falls into one of three categories. He must belong to one of these three categories; he cannot belong to all three. First, if he claims to be God and yet in fact is not, he has to be a madman or a lunatic. Second, if he is neither God nor a lunatic, he has to be a liar, deceiving others by his lie. Third, if he is neither of these, he must be God.”

Many of those who heard Christ speak on earth chose the first option. “He is mad,” they said. This false shepherd, they said, was demonic.

Charlotte Mason’s poem on Christ the Shepherd dramatizes the words of these men. We feel the force of their objection. But in her poem we also read a response.

“There is no need for us to prove if Jesus of Nazareth is God or not,” wrote Watchman Nee. “All we have to do is find out if He is a lunatic or a liar. If He is neither, He must be the Son of God. These are our three choices. There is no fourth.”

Read or hear Mason’s poem here which brings the third option to light.

@artmiddlekauff