Wednesday, December 8, 2021

Samuel Gray in "The Gospel Herald" (1883): The "Ancient of Days" is Jesus, not the Father

In the English periodical, The Gospel Herald, Samuel Gray of Brighton wrote an article wherein he argued that the “Ancient of Days” in Dan 7 is Jesus, not the Father. Further, he admitted something that many Trinitarians are often too hesitant to do—admit that their Christology is pretty incomprehensible:

 

I.—THE COMPLEXITY OF THE PERSON OF CHRIST. The golden girdle drew the sacred garments close about the body of Aaron, fitly setting forth the close—the inconceivably close—connection of the human with the Divine in our Great High-Priest. The high-priestly attire of the type is done away in the Antitype who took upon Him (or clothed Himself with) our flesh. The golden girdles was a curious one; it was manufactured with great skill. And, truly, the girdle wherewith the human nature is girded to the Divine in the person of the Lord Jesus is a curious one indeed! This is none other than a triumph of the skilful hand of Jehovah. Without controversy, "great is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh!"

 

His complexity is INEXPLICABLE. How the Ancient of Days is an infant of days, how the Maker and the made is one, how God becomes Immanuel, "God with us," is past finding out. We believe and we love the incarnate mystery, content to leave it a fathomless marvel.

 

"How it was done we can't discuss:

But this we know, 'twas done for us!"

 

He is not to be explained or understood; but worshipped, prized, and trusted. (Samuel Gray, "The Golden Girdle," The Gospel Herald 51 [1883]: 258)