remain as to the fact that He did actually confess His own Deity. On the other hand, if He really laid claim to that position and dignity, it cannot be denied that His claim was true. This is what actually happened. From our study of the Gospels and the Book of Revelation it will become clear to our readers that the Lord Jesus Christ, not only to His own disciples but also on several occasions in the presence of the Jews and of their learned men too, who were His enemies, clearly stated and confessed His own divine nature. Hence it was that, in large measure because of this claim of His, they plotted to stone Him and kill Him, as we learn from the Gospels.

In dealing with this subject we shall first, with the help of God, adduce those passages in which Christ claimed for Himself the divine attributes, or used of Himself the word God, or permitted it to be used about Himself; secondly, we shall quote the verses in which He asserted His own Sonship (ابنيّة); and thirdly, we shall mention the passages in which an angel or a voice from heaven called Him the Son of God (إبنُ اْلله). But we shall take the first and second class of passages in some measure together for the sake of brevity, because frequently in the same verse in which Christ claims certain divine attributes He also asserts His Divine Sonship. It will be necessary for us later on to

discuss the meaning of the title Son of God, in order to guard against misunderstandings; but before this we must show that the title is really given to the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament. In order to show what the New Testament Scriptures teach upon this subject we must appeal to the whole of the books which compose that volume, and request our readers to study them carefully, reverently, and with heartfelt prayer, humbly beseeching the Most Merciful One to enable them to understand what He has revealed therein. Meanwhile, however, we proceed to quote a few passages from the Gospels, in which the Lord Jesus Christ uses such language about Himself, His own nature, His relation to God, His possession of divine attributes, that any unprejudiced reader, who studies these verses in connexion with their context, will see that there can be no doubt that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God (كلمةُ الله) solemnly and repeatedly claimed for Himself a place and a dignity which could not belong to any created Being.

i. (1) One of the divine attributes which the Lord Jesus Christ claimed and exercised was that of the forgiveness (أمُرزش ـ مغفرة) of sins. An instance of this is given by Matthew, Mark, and Luke ¹ in their account of the healing of the