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The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

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eye of a spectator, at the same distance, would suffice to cancel the orbit of<br />

the earth; <strong>and</strong> the breadth of a hair would blot out the whole planetary<br />

system. But a star having this parallax is at a moderate distance in<br />

comparison of innumerable others, in which no parallactic motion<br />

whatever can be distinguished. Supposing the distance of one of them to<br />

be only a thous<strong>and</strong> times greater, a ray of light darted from it would travel<br />

between 3,000 <strong>and</strong> 4,000 years before it reached the earth; <strong>and</strong> if the star<br />

were annihilated by any sudden convulsion, it would appear to shine in its<br />

proper place during that immense period after it had been extinguished<br />

from the face of the heavens. Pursuing speculations of this kind, we may<br />

conceive, with Huygens, that it is not impossible that there may exist stars<br />

placed at such enormous distances that their light has not yet reached the<br />

earth since their creation." 535<br />

Now, if the presence of Christ is merely local, if He is above all<br />

heavens only by confinement to one place, His ascension to this one place<br />

involves something which may claim to be natural, but which is really<br />

super-supernatural. If the doctrine of the supernatural invites faith, the<br />

figment of the super-supernatural dem<strong>and</strong>s credulity. Calvin interprets<br />

"above all heavens" as meaning "beyond this created universe. <strong>The</strong><br />

heaven in which Christ is, is a place above all the spheres...Christ is distant<br />

from us by interval of space...for when it is said above all the heavens, it<br />

involves a distance beyond that of the circumference beneath sun <strong>and</strong> stars,<br />

<strong>and</strong>, consequently, beyond that of the entire fabric of the visible Universe."<br />

VIII. Objection. Christ is at God’s right h<strong>and</strong>.<br />

VIII. Another shape which the same objection takes is: "Christ<br />

sitteth at the right h<strong>and</strong> of God, <strong>and</strong> therefore He is not on earth." This<br />

assumes that the "right h<strong>and</strong> of God" is a locality; <strong>and</strong> to this it is sufficient<br />

to reply, by asking the question, If the right h<strong>and</strong> of God be a place, in<br />

what place is God's left h<strong>and</strong>? Where is the place that God's right h<strong>and</strong> is<br />

not? If God's right h<strong>and</strong> means place at all, it means, not one place, but all<br />

place. If, moreover, Christ's human nature<br />

535 Encyclopaedia Britannica (Eighth edition), Art.: Astronomy, iv. 81.

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