Historical Idealists:
Milton S. Terry

"His coming through water and blood was the manifestation of the mystery of the ages, to which the Spirit of truth is ever pointing." (Biblical Dogmatics, p. 92)

(On Hermeneutical Approaches)
"The divers portions and divers manners" (Heb.  i, 1) of God's outward expression of "his everlasting power and divinity" (Rom. i, 20) may be traced in manifold phenomena to which it has not always occurred to man to apply a spiritual interpretation."  (Biblical Dogmatics, p. 21)

"From a New Testament point of view it appears that all the mysterious problems of the moral world center in Jesus Christ and must find their final solution in the manifestation of his person, his mediatorial activity, and the coming of his kingdom. For according to these Scriptures the Lord Jesus is a revelation of the invisible God. One of his most remarkable sayings is, "All things have been delivered unto me of my Father: and no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him" (Matt, xi, 27). Whatever other ideas we derive from the prologue of John's Gospel, this one thought is clear beyond controversy, that all saving grace and truth spring from the bosom of God.

This entire Gospel is pre-Grace and truth eminently a record of God's revelation from God. of himself through incarnation in the person of his Christ a revelation of God. only begotten Son," and the opening words of the First Epistle of John, written obviously by the same author, are a noteworthy comment on the statements of the Gospel, and a confirmation of them: "That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we beheld, and our hands handled, concerning the Word of life (and the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us), that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us." The language and style of this writer bear the peculiar marks of a devout mysticism, but we recognize in his various statements the testimony of a most real and vivid experience. He is no dreaming mystic that cannot distinguish between facts and fancies. He knows by unmistakable acquaintance "that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh," and he desires that others partake with him in the hallowed fellowship and joy. It was a saying of one of the early Christian fathers that the beloved disciple John had leaned so much upon his Master's bosom that he himself became almost another Jesus.

This revelation of God in Christ is often spoken of, especially in the writings of Paul, as a holy "mystery". In the twenty-seven passages of the Greek Testament in which this word occurs it always denotes some blessed spiritual truth, some hidden fact or mystical relation, which, though withheld from the many who care for none of these things, is made known to them that have the Spirit of God." (Biblical Dogmatics, pp. 15-17)

(On the Pan-Generational Revelation of God's Works)
"The regeneration and spiritual elevation of mankind are not effected in a moment of time, nor are human hearts, with all their emotions and intelligence, the creation of an instantaneous act of omnipotence. A human spirit, possessed of intellect, feelings, and the freedom of moral action, is not changed from darkness to light or from light to darkness by any sudden and arbitrary exercise of divine power. In accordance with these facts we shall find that the self-revelation of God is a process running through ages and generations.

"The great truths of incarnation may be shown to have had from the beginning both cosmical and personal expression in many different ways." (Biblical Dogmatics, p. 21)

(On the Parousia as the Incarnation)
"THE doctrine of John's Gospel is that the WORD, in whom was the life and the light of men, was in the johannine doctrine beginning with God, and in some inexplicable manner was God, became flesh, and dwelt (abode as in a tabernacle) among us. We recognize in this allusion an ideal derived from Exod. xl, 34-38, where it is said that the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle and hung like a luminous cloud above that sacred dwelling "in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys;" for the writer of the Gospel immediately adds: "We beheld his glory, glory as of an only begotten from a father;" and in verse 18 he says that "no man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him." Here is a very remarkable presentation of the doctrine of divine incarnation, and it would seem from the teachings both of John and of Paul that the great purpose of the ages, hidden from times eternal but disclosed through the manifestation and the mediation of Christ, was a marvelous INCARNATION OF DEITY." (Biblical Dogmatics, p. 20)

(On the Idealism displayed in other cultures)
"Before we pass to the more direct biblical teaching we may well point out some facts which go to show that God has been revealing himself unto all the peoples in their divers concepts of the incarnation of Deity. The myths, the vague conjectures, and even some of the strange superstitions of the heathen world may serve to indicate how the most ancient tribes of men had concepts of divine revelation and incarnation written in their hearts." (Biblical Dogmatics, p. 22) 

"The biblical doctrine, and a view to our thought much more truthful, is that man is in fact the highest visible image and likeness of the invisible God, and that the various ideals of incarnation traceable in the religious thought and the mythologies of the nations are so many evidences of the loving "Father of the spirits of all flesh" making himself known to his human offspring. " (ibid. p. 23)

"We are informed that the ancient Chinese fathers employed a primitive written character as a visible symbol of the idea of manifestation, or revelation, thereby expressing their belief in a real communication between Heaven and men."  (ibid. p. 23)

(On the Symbolism of the shedding of blood)
"The offerings which involved the shedding of blood, according to the ritual of Lev. i-vii, were of four kinds : burnt offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings, and trespass offerings (DCS). The first two were in large part, like the meal offering, expressive of self-dedication and thanksgiving. The "whole burnt offering" symbolized the offering up to God of all that the worshiper represented, himself body and soul, his family and household, his property of every sort. All these were regarded as God's gracious gifts to him, and were to be held in readiness for any service of God to which they might be put." (Biblical Dogmatics, p. 44)

"The classic passage in the Levitical law which defines the symbolical import of the expiatory offerings Symbolical significance of blood is Lev. xvii, 11 : "The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I haye given (appointed) it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that makes atonement by reason of the soul (life)." It is not the mere blood, as a material substance, that possesses the efficacy here ascribed to it, but the blood yet warm with the life of the victim. When the worshiper brought his offering and placed his hands upon its head he openly confessed hereby his guilt and obligation, and must have conceived that the animal offered was in some sense a vicarious sacrifice for himself; and when the lifeblood was "poured out before Jehovah" the symbolic rite was itself a public declaration that the life of the victim without blemish or spot was substituted in the mercy of God for the life of the transgressor. Whether the blood were poured out at the foot of the altar, or sprinkled on the horns of the altar, or at the golden altar of incense, or on the mercy seat within the veil, it was in every case regarded as a divinely appointed offering to make atonement for the souls of men." (ibid. pp. 48-49)

(On Christ Being "Lifted Up")
"In the last-named passage the writer understands Jesus to "signify by what manner of death he should die;" but the words "if I be lifted up from the earth" (out of the earth) are hardly compatible with the mere idea of being lifted up on the cross, and verse 33 has been suspected as an interpolation. But viii, 28, "When YE have lifted up the Son of man," indicates the crucifixion. " (Biblical Dogmatics, p. 80)

(On the "Bread of Life")
"The gracious provision of God in giving his Son that the world through him might be saved becomes effectual in the individual believer only as he personally accepts the wonderful gift of the Father's love, and inwardly appropriates the living bread from heaven. So "he that believeth hath eternal life" (verse 47). "  (Biblical Dogmatics, p. 81)

"This principle of sacrifice in order to reach some greater good is fundamental in the moral world, and the death of Jesus is its highest possible illustration." (p. 82)

"His coming through water and blood was the manifestation of the mystery of the ages, to which the Spirit of truth is ever pointing." (p. 92)

"The writer's thought is here turned to the more ordinary sufferings of our fleshly human nature in its struggle with temptations to sin. He who suffers in his struggle to overcome sin, and steadfastly refuses to yield to its power as Jesus did in the days of his flesh, "hath ceased from sin," that is, has utterly broken with it and ceased from its control. The brethren, therefore, who are exposed to fiery trial, are exhorted to rejoice in the thought that they are thus made "partakers of Christ's sufferings" (iv, 13). The writer of this epistle was himself "a witness of the sufferings of Christ" (v, 1), and he had confidence that he and all who followed the divine Master should also be partakers of the heavenly glory that was to be revealed" (ibid, p. 99)

"There is, no doubt, a certain mystical element, peculiar to Paul, in this manner of thinking and speaking (comp. Rom. vi, 5-n; Gal. ii, 20). All who partake of the saving grace of Christ are conceived as crucified and dying along with Christ. In this ideal but spiritually real sense these all die, because in fact and truth he died for the sake of all of them." (p. 102,103)