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LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
PRINCETON, N. J.
PRESENTED BY
the Ssto.te of Finley DuBoic Jeiilvins
BL 51 .P38 1921
Paul, John.
What is new theology?
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By JOHNPAUL. D. D.
OF ASBURY COLLEGE
LECTURER FOR INTERDENOMINATIONAL CONVENTIONS. JAPAN.
1917. SPECIAL EVANGELIST.
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^^^ DEPARTMENT OF PUBLICATIONS, ASBURY COLLEGE.
WILMORE,KY.
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INTRODUCTION.
v. -*'' The author of this volume preceded his ef- fort with lateral readings and review work "/ in science, philosophy and theology intended to lead up to a large volume or two of sys- tematic theology. With all deference to the superior works we now have in systematic theology, it was thought a work was needed from an evangelical source which addressed | —f- itself more to the new points of emphasis and the issues which have arisen from these new angles of discussion. The so-called liberal works in systematic theology, which lay principal claim to the field so far as new pub- y/ lications are concerned, have narrowed the ' '■' province of the subject. In keeping with the modern method of specialization, they have broken it up into many topics, some to be handled by scientists, some by linguists, some by sociologists or historians, and some by preachers. It is implied that one individ- ual takes too much upon himself when he undertakes to adhere to the old method of presenting the tenets of theology in a com- prehensive system. While there is a defence for this new division of labor in the field of theological literature, it is believed by many that a comprehensive approach to the great subject offers peculiar advantage to the av- erage reader.
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But we have turned aside from our task to deal first with the vitals of our subject, in undertaking to introduce our readers to the new theolog>^ sifter and call attention to the old theology wheat. We would not be so conceited as to liken this little volume to Moses' challenge, "Who is on the Lord's side?" Yet the book is confessedly a feeler for the theological pulse of the hour, and its writer desires to hear personally from every one who reads, even if the expression is adverse. We venture to assure the reader that this is an unsectarian exposition of those verities of religion without which no church may have final success; and that, though our illustrations and methods of ap- proach may be new, the volume contains no J eccentric views in religion, while in its
/ 'i science it takes care to exclude everything
i:^^*^, .,/ that the scientists kn^ to be incorrect, though many of them may think differently. It is expected that every reader who believes
^ »■ in the fundamentals of the gospel will find
*'• here reflections which will refresh his faith, and that those who think the formula of or- thodoxy needs to be rewritten will find them- selves in an arena of fair and healthy dis- cussion for testing the soundness of their own views.
In these chapters we undertake to offer a statement of the case. Whether we shall go on and produce the extended work in system- atic theology depends upon providential indi-
^«'^^"
cations. Is it needed? If needed, will some one better qualified, or with more leisure to do the work, be raised up to supply the ■^ ^"^"^^uWCul need? This writer is quite willing to let the ji^^^. small volume here introduced end his part of L - '^^'^ the task by serving as a kind of signal in. r**"**"*^ *- the theological mulberry trees. It assumeal'^ ***^*-^ -' to furnish to its readers the gist of thoughtj -t^^^j^ J which they may need to write their own! >f / / chapters or build their own sermons, and itl "^
may be that divine providence will indicate! •'^•i-^^c-*^ individuals to write the chapters and build " ^ '
the sermons needed, and leave the architect of this small blue print at liberty to go on with an evangelistic message.
Our first thought was to have an intro- ductory expression from serious chief pas- tors of the several evangelical denomina- tions. There are such, in every church, who are deeply concerned with the light manner in which the fundamentals of Bible Chris- tianity are being revised at the behest of an uncertain modern philosophy. Some have read our advance chapters, and have evi- denced a willingness to lend them such a seal of approval. It is not conceit that has made us avoid this ; but, in keeping with the above explanation, a desire that in its first editions the work should be like Gideon's fleece of wool, getting responses on the merit or de- merit of its pages, without a borrowed prestige.
Wilmore, Ky. JOHN PAUL.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER. PAGE.
Introduction 3
I. The Parting of The Ways 9
II. Evolution and Faith 18
III. The God of The New Theology ... 34
IV. 'Christ And The New Theology. . . 55i
V. The Authority of The Bible 79
VI. The Atonement and Modern
Thought 104
VII. The Gospel Program 129
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CHAPTER I.
THE PARTING OF THE WAYS.
By the new theology we mean that system ^
of Christian doctrine, identifying itself as "TZf > theistie,^' Svhich is entirely amenable to \h&_ {^^^^^^ po&l^n of modern science; especially toi —————' those assumptions of induction known as the conservation of energy and the uniforynity of nature; and to the doctrine which is the historic out- growth of these assumptions, namely, the evolution of the earth and its inhabitants. By a process of analogy, the whole scheme of origins is brought over from the physical to the social, religious and political, and made to dovetail with data which seems to con- firm the theory. The injection of new forces, ' under the head of the supernatural, is impps- ) '"^ " sible in the premises. The ethics of the ten ^i%/MA ' commandments could not have been handed ^
down from Sinai by the Almighty, nor could any other epoch-making contribution have come in from outside the natural order. Many in the evangelical field who undertake thus to defend the integrity of natural law and find common ground for evolution and* re vela- tion will think our boundaries too sharp in
9
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1 10 / WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
^^»^
» jidefining new theology; but anything less khan one hundred per cent consistency in fcis field is inconsistency. A new theology that leaves a niche for the spiritual or the supernatural is new theology improperly so- called.
Let it not be supposed that we question
Hhe common ground of true religion and true science. There is no area which they
/ would dispute, any more than there could be an area disputed by sunlight and at- m^osphere. Atmosphere is a mundane quan- tity and sunlight is a solar quantity ; but the eartli and the sun were devised by the same ^. a- architect, "^e have no fanatical brief to .t^v^'^^f^V maintain against evolution. The point is this: The conservation of energy and the
. uniformity of nature explain all that exists
I today and determine all that shall take place tomorrow, or they do not. Clearly, there is no middle ground.
LAISSEZ FAIRE RELIGION.
While the big interests of German, Eng- lish and American culture have furnished us men with nothing to lose or to fear, who do not trim from the new theology any of its logical implications, the evangelical schools have furnished us some grown men in the new theology, who can eat its strong meats, but who recognize the need of giving milk to them that are not of full age ; hence the form
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WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 11
of the new theology as we find it in the sem- inaries and Biblical departments of colleges of evangelical churches does not answer literally to our definition. This is not be- cause our definition is wrong, but because they have arbitrarily modified the system of new theology, under the influence of the yet unspent momentum of orthodox traditions. There is here a more sympathetic type of teachers of the new theology, who refuse to be ruthless. They believe in journeying gently with the tender children and the flocks and herds. Unlike the Esaus of ra- tionalism, they feel that their crude brethren of the old school are worth saving. They speak caressingly of the old tenets, and make a place for them that are too deeply rooted as yet to be uprooted. This form of d^iplomacy or casuistry is given ethical standing by no less an authority than Her- bert Spencer, who says in his autobiogra- phy:
"I have come more and more to look calmly on forms of religious belief to which I had in earlier days a pronounced aversion. Holding that they are in the main naturally adapted to their respective peoples and times, it now seems to me that they should severally live and work as long as the condi- tions permit, and further, that sudden changes of religious institutions, as of political institutions, are certain to be followed by reactions."
The people who submit to these modifica- tions, these mixtures of wool and linen in the
12 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
same garment, do not care to have their teaching classed as "new theology" ; but per- manent bodies of philosophy or theology go in systems, each part related to the others, and constituting a strong argument if not an absolute proof for the other parts in the system. Any point that does not thus fit in- to a system of teaching may at its worst be incompatible; but, it may abide in the sys- tem as innocent alien matter, harmless in he absence of inflammation, like a splinter ncysted in the flesh of a man, which got here in his childhood. Such is the doctrine jot angels, good or evil; for which science has no place. Such is the thought of a sep- ty in. man, known as the soul. In his list come miracles and all forms of supernaturalism, as: divine providence, the immediate operation of God's Spirit in con- viction, regeneration or assurance; answers to prayer, excepting as in mere subjective consequences; the inspiration of the Scrip- tures; the miraculous element in prophecy; the preternaturalness of the origin of sin; the doctrine of divine judgment, with its logic of rewards and penalties; the super- naturalness of the birth of Christ and his divine person ; the Biblical doctrine of atone- ment for sin. Not one of these "tradition- al" positions has a consistent place in the new theology, but it may readily be seen
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 13
that all these conceptions cannot be uprooted at one stroke. Indeed there are scholarly- men, with reverence for the past, for whom the new theology has charms, but whose whole nature would revolt against a proposal to renounce all these incompatible old tenets. But these old doctrines are excrescences in the new theology, the tenets of which, under present day prestige, are so much more virile that the old doc- trines tend to slough away or pro- trude so conspicuously that they have to be pruned away. The strain in a mongrel breed which decides the classification will cause all other kinships gradually to be forgotten; nor is that strain always the superior strain. It has been observed that the evolution of' the new theology usually requires more than one generation; that what a teacher with "liberal" tendencies cannot himself spare, can be easily dispensed with by his diciples and cordially antagonized by their disciples. The regressive evolution from orthodoxy to new theology, if evolution it is, has illus- trative specimens in all stages, each in his ecclesiastical stratum; from the slightest re- shapement to the handsomest reconstructed state.
THE AGE OP ORIGINALITY.
Enough of the mental bacteria of our new age has entered the psychology of educated
14 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
orthodoxy to remove its maiden reserve, its primitive tenseness, in the presence of criti- cal deliverances on fundamental truth, and to save it from strained literalism. In the name of this improvement, the nev^^ the- ology camel often gets his head into the or- thodox tent. The inability of the average preacher and Bible teacher to distinguish an interpretation or doctrine which fits only in the new theology system leads to an unde- fined sense of awkwardness, a want of men- tal rest, when once such a doctrine is ac- cepted. In course of time tliis will culminate 'in a virtual surrender to the new theology as ,a system. The awkward situation may be lendured for one generation, but the next generation will probably find relief along the line of least resistance. Throwing tradition to the winds they will enforce consistency in the body of their doctrines.
The arbitrary way is often the easier way to hold a doctrine, even when that doctrine is true. The habit of eliminating all misfits, of putting nothing but round pegs in round holes, of requiring comity between the neigh- boring units in a body of doctrine — in short, the ability to escape the necessity of doing business partly upon borrowed or reflected convictions is thought to belong only to a few profound theologians. In the true situation, it should be popularized. We should seek in
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 15
the Church a high level of enlightenment, where the average disciple of Christ can see his faith as a system and be able to sense every vain philosophy that is incompatible with faith.
When an individual has a derived convic- tion, when he believes a thing because of his breeding, because it represents the atmos- phere in which he became a Christian, or the school in which he was educated, we say that the reason for his belief is psychological rather than logical. We cannot deny that such a basis of belief may be valid and useful, .^cience or Scriptural truth may be held this way, just the same as error; doctrines that bless, the same as doctrines that blight. But a man who holds a true doctrine for psychological reasons, who ac- cordingly lacks originality in his convic- tions, suffers two disadvantages. He will not be intelligently aggressive, and he will not be proof against encroachments. Referr- ing to the former, a conviction must be part of a man before he can represent it with due effect ; he must not only have it, but it must have him. A man who holds a position under- standingly and consistently will not be want- ing in the psychological ground of his faith, but is the more irresistible in his conclu- sions because he has "the reason of the hope" in him. To illustrate the latter disad-
16 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
vantage, a Calvinist of the psychological type may accept or reject any of the ''five points" at will. He can teach final perseverance and reject unconditional election or irresistible grace; or, he can teach unconditional elec- tion and reject limited atonement, without suffering a moment of mental unrest in the fact that he has bisected his system and let in principles that cannot be assimilated. An eclectic theologian is like a nursery- man who tries to graft a mulberry branch into a walnut stock. Faith has its psycho- logy and its logic ; it is not good for these to be put asunder and one of them to be alone. The faith that lacks originality of conviction is quite becoming and efficient in a child, or in one whose status must needs be like that of a child. But if it is a faith worth pro- moting, the time is due to come, in all nor- mal instances, when it must be one's own, by which the fitness and unfitness of every thought that is companion to it will be ad- judged, and such thoughts accordingly will be rejected or espoused. Thus are we to be invulnerable on the one hand and irresistible on the other.
It is not forgotten that bigots who ride a hobby without any sense of orientation are sometimes "invulnerable" and "irresistible", and that in bringing all Scripture to serve their point of contention, and repelling every
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 17
counsel that crosses their preachments, they seem to illustrate in more immediate per- spective the thought developed in the latter part of this chapter. But they only illustrate this thought as a counterfieit bill illustrates a genuine. A bigot is one whose convictions are intensive without being comprehensive; whose belief is more in the nature of an obsession, which unfits him to estimate the harmonies of thought, puts a temperamental bias in his exegesis, and tends to make him intolerant and impatient of contradiction. A man is not a bigot be- cause he maintains powerful convictions. Something is bound to be definitely true; and when a man has powerful convictions he may be living just where a man ought to live.
CHAPTER II.
EVOLUTION AND FAITH.
If we are permitted to assume some un- certainty in regard to that doctrine of evo- lution which so largely holds the viewpoint of the average author of text books in science and philosophy today, the uncertain- ty must transfer itself immediately to the \ new theology, and its pressure must fall equally upon almost every part of the sys- tem. We shall, therefore, deem it in keeping with the unity of this book to insert here some considerations on the status of the doctrine of evolution down to date. The ap- propriateness of this is more apparent when we remember that the new theology has eliminated its departments on cosmology and r^ anthropology and passed them over to be
» decided and explained as branches of natural
science, refusing to have a voice in the de- ^ " cision. Even those not wholly committed to the rationalistic program have adopted this method,* thus showing their whole-hearted faith in science and in the illuminated judg-
*F.O'r illiusttratv;)n of this, see "An Outline of CihrLstian Tbeologv" by W-illiam Newtomi Clarke; D.D., p. 222 f.
18
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 19
ment of scientists, even upon questions which are beyond the reach of scientific an- alysis.
That there is something true in evolution we need not undertake to deny. But we shall not need to rehearse any arguments in defense of this concession. As the library shelves are groaning with arguments favor- ing evolution in its full twentieth century connotation, we can afford to reserve the space in this book to examine its weak points. In recent years, a directly adverse view has been hard to find among teachers of good attainment in scientific thought. Since the last decades of the nineteenth cen- tury the bold materialism of the doctrine has been greatly softened, and its atheistic notes largely silenced. Until it showed these better tendencies, its influence among theologians of the conservative school was scarcely discernible ; but in the last third of a century the new alignment in text books and modes of thought has been almost cat- aclysmic in most of the leading evangelical seminaries. There is an impressive para- dox in the fact that "old" theology means less than fifty years old in evangelical Christendom; that the definite revision of everything to match the hypothesis of evo- lution has proved to be a veritable revolu- tion. Some reasonable doubt might be pre-
\
20 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
sumed as to the dependableness of a new position reached almost by stampede when that new position is so far reaching as to require the digging away of materials which but yesterday were unanimously acknow- ledged to be the essential foundation of Christianity.
THE BLENDING OF FACT AND FICTION. The story of biological evolution, heard of, is uninviting; but actually heard, it may possess a hypnotic charm. Darwin's fas- cinating style gave this beautiful fable a momentum in thought by which it has as- sumed the attributes of reality for many who write upon it today. It has become an affair of the heart with certain great schol- ars, and their primitive religious instinct, formerly inhibited for want of terms in which to express itself, bursts forth in elo- quence as it pronounces its eureka over what they willingly conclude to be a har- monious, self-consistent hypothesis. Enforc- ed with series for motion screens and pic- ture books, with missing links filled in by invention, showing the progress of organic life from a protozoan to a United States Sen- ator, evolution bids fair to become a part of the average man's creed for several gen- erations. As a story estimated by a stan- j dard of facts, and taken from its alpha to ! its omega, the evolutionary hypothesis
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 21
ranks half w^ay between Jack and the Bean Stalk and the engineering of the pyramids. It is sustainable at certain points and it floats in the air at other points. But it is one of those departments of conception where the imaginative easily fuses with the historic and the mind instinctively gives historic re- lief to the entire composition.
Since the acceptance of evolution as a principle in the scientific world there has been quite a checking up and revision of views, as the specialist in physics showed a doctrine that would not work, or the special- ist in chemistry broke down an "explana- tion," or the specialist in astronomy found a conflicting fact, or the specialist in geology made a new survey, or the specialist in biology became exceedingly frank, or the specialist in archaeology unfolded yester- day's comment upon the "psychozoic" mil- lenniums. Consequently, the schools contain no fifty-year-old text books in science, and no scientist believes there will be any fifty- year-old science texts in the schools fifty years hence, or a thousand years hence.
The "old" science, fifty years ago or less, believed in the nebular hypothesis as an ex- planation of the origin of the solar system ; but this was upset by modern physics, and displaced by a belief "dynamically more satisfactory," that the sun was the original
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posit,* and that a tidal disruption was caus- ed in the sun by a passing star, and thus were the planets and asteroids formed. This is accepted as a resort, in face of the admit- ted fact presented by the specialist in math- ematics, that our sun has only one chance in 1,800 of having- been near any star in the last billion years ;t but it is conceded that our sun may have drawn the lucky number. Other difficulties have to be met in this more recent, and, we may grant, more probable hypothesis as to how God made the worlds, but we will leave the student to read of these elsewhere. Suffice to say that this theory had to have a supplement in the theory of the ''growth of the earth," which also is plausible, and meets the requirement until finite man can develop something better. It assumes that in the disruption of the sun by a passing star the region between the sun and Neptune's present orbit was filled with material from the size of dust to the size of an asteroid. That gradually, as conjunc- tions of position were favorable, the molten earth, through thousands or millions of years, it is not yet agreed which, grew from'
♦■We ishalil not go baek to tihe more mythical phase of the newer hypothesis, -which traioes the oriigin of the hot orb from eolifl, dark materials, scattered through space. The theory of tidal disruption is not 'new; ibut in its re- vised state.inent, as accepted today, it is a recent annex to sfientiflc hypothesis.
tLectui-e by Prof. Joseph iBarrell, of YaJle University, in 'The Bvolutioni oif the Earth omd Its ImhaMtants", p. 23.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 23
about half its present diameter and one- eighth of its present volume, until in its heated condition it was from two to four hundred miles greater in diameter than it is today.
THE NEW GEOLOGY.
It may be profitable here to tabulate a list of the statements, representing the position of the "newer geology" at this date upon how the present world evolved from the situation presented in the above paragraph.
During the molten condition of the earth, the outer crust of its substance where the continents now stand was, as it is now, a lit- tle lighter than where the seas now are;* and, before the cooling and chemical trans- formations which formed water, the ocean beds sank and the continents rose. The old Geology is declared to be wrong in teaching that continents have changed their position.
Volcanic conditions, of which we still have small lingerings, were common, as the crust formed and the molten matter repeatedly broke through the increasing pressure. This condition continued, covering not less than one-eighth of geologic time. Possibly forty million years after the earth was "grown."
In view of the assumption that the volume
*The speciflc gravity of the beds of the sea now averages about three per cent more than that of the •continents; but, instead of this causing the seas, imay it mot be due to the <;on)den'sin,g, consolidatijig effect of the seas?
24 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
of water has increased, it is believed that the continents were at one time near twenty-five per cent larger than now. By erosion the continents constantly flow out into the sea, making sea shelves which displace the water, which, in turn flows over the lower parts of the continents, to find room for its displaced volumes. Hence we have the historic "trans- gressions of the sea."
The earth has shrunk in diameter from two hundred to four hundred miles, from six to twelve hundred in its girth, since it "grew." This has taken place in epochs, in- cluding several minor readjustments and at least six major, in which new mountain ranges were formed and continents were in some instances literally lifted for miles, to be dragged down through another geological cycle. The time intervening between these major readjustments, according to the latest authorities, would seem to range from ten million to a hundred million years. The cal- culation is based mainly upon the length of time necessary for the dissolution of rocks, to produce the present percentage of salt in the sea.* Fifty or sixty miles must have been the aggregate lift, as, according to their calculation, this much of continental crust has been dissolved in the geological ages. It
*But iis it not possible that the young earth fosteretl Immense mines of sodium chLorid o-n Its orlg-inal surface? If so, -would mot this basis oif calculation be valuelesg?
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 25
has not been "long," possibly a few hundred thousand years, since the last major read- justment, as all of the continents are now "standing far higher above sea level than has been the rule throughout geologic time." The ice ages have been due to these epochal con- tinental elevations and the rarity of atmos- phere, though some admitted difficulties re- main at this point.
LIFE PROBLEMS ARE DISTINCTIVE.
Thus far in the premises we are not asked to believe anything that violates any known law of nature, nor is it contrary to the word of God to assume that matter and force have been in existence for measureless ages past. Furthermore, we do not have a right to fly in the face of facts and say that there has been no evolution in the vegetable and animal sub- kingdoms and in human society; but we should not be asked to ignore the equally po- tent law of regressive evolution and the oth- er laws of spiritual and moral inertia which have in all time circumscribed the human race, excepting as we got help direct from our Maker; nor should any theory demand our patronage when it forbids us to heed nature's immutable proclamation that all progress must be within the impassable boundary lines of the species, which we are taught were created by divine fiat, and the denial of which upon purely hypothetical
26 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
grounds is intolerable presumption. Not that we would deny to anyone the personal privilege of regaling himself with Darwin- ian speculations upon the origin of the spe- cies, so long as he does not demand that these speculations shall be standardized and en- forced through educational channels as a part of the thought life of our children, and so long as his theory does not vaunt itself as a militant opinion, proposing destruction to the religious faith which has been the chief factor in producing the greatest civilization the world has ever knovni.
We are required to grant that there are many more species today than existed at the beginning of historic times. But these have usually been developed, not spontaneously, but under the direction of rational mind; and they are not species in the fundamental sense. More species of dogs or chickens or bugs or cabbage or melons simply means a looser employment of the term, which makes a genus out of the real species and gives the dignity of species to various subspecies which are not susceptible of having impassa- ble boundaries created between them. If a Plymouth Rock chicken is ''species" number one and a game is "species" number two, "species" number three can be produced in less than a year, by combining these and obliterating their boundary.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 27
The origin of such "species," therefore, has nothing to do with evolution in the tech- nical use of that word, but is due to another set of laws in which the time element varies, and where the word evolution, though often used, is a misnomer.
A recent re-reading of the effort of great scientists to account for the origin of life re- minds us that we are no nearer the solution of this mystery than they were in the days of Aristotle. The strained hypothesis of highly compounded chemicals on the bosom of the warm sea water and of life germs rid- ing in upon meteorites are discarded as un- tenable or as merely shifting the problem to a more remote shore, and the frank admis- sion is made that the origin of life is possi- bly involved in some metaphysical explana- tion.*
HELP FROM HIGHER UP.
On the point of regressive evolution, nat- uralists observe a widely prevailing uniform- ity in the vegetable and animal kingdom, which expresses itself in the decline of most any species or group left to itself, whether it be a patch of strawberries or a tribe of hu- man beings. They try to account for this in such high sounding terms as over-specializa- tion, but it is a weird law residing in mys- tery, a mute but stubborn answer to the
♦Lecture on "The Origin of Life" by Prof. Loranide Losg WoQidruff. Itiid p. 86.
28 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
hasty conclusions which we find in the specu- lative realm of science. It is found, on the other hand, that almost all upward develop- ment, illustrative of progressive evolution, among plants, animals and men, is due to outside aid, supplementing and manipulating the potential laws embosomed in the species or tribe. Thus are the finest fruits, vegeta- bles and flowers developed ; thus are the best animals produced, and to this do the best il- lustrations of human civiHzation owe their existence, without a proved exception. The Biblical assumption is that the pre-Christian nations which possessed a civilization got their cue or contribution: (1) from an an- cestry in fellowship with their Maker, or (2) from a direct revelation of God, or (3) from another nation which got its help in one of the two ways. We calculate that the ascent which any of them took would have been im- possible under nature's uniformity as every- where illustrated today, except there had been with them an exotic influence ; an agen- cy, personal or impersonal, which, though in them, was not of them. Always, where progress is the watchword, the creature has, figuratively or literally, an upward look ; the look is not backivard, to some metaphysical god of mystery that planted its original seed, but to an ever present higher agency, whose intervention to water the plant seems as es-
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 29
sential to progress as was the germ of the original planting. That higher agency in the non-rational universe is usually man; in the rational universe it is God, or else it is a more advanced race or tribe who derived their facilities of advancement directly or in- directly from God. In the Christian centur- ies, all that is best in human advancement harks back to Jesus Christ.
Out of the identity of all protoplasm, the similarity of all cell life, the similarity of blood, the similarity in the anatomy of cer- tain creatures, and the similarity of life functionings and reproduction, coupled with the very skimpy and sometimes contradic- tory illustrations of the fossil world, the phi- losophy of the spontaneous origin of the spe- cies is composed. In estimating the length of the inductive leap in reaching this conclu- sion men are usually influenced by the at- mosphere in which they do their thinking. That the conclusion does not have a one hun- dred per cent existence in the premises, that an inductive leap is necessary, all serious thinkers will admit. Nor does a man have to live in an atmosphere of superstition and ignorance for the leap to seem too long to be logical. All these things prove the fact of unity in the source of animate creation, but where we employ the same data to prove the form or method by which that "Source"
30 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
gave us these species, we must read into our data conclusions which are not there. It is entirely rational for us to exercise faith in revelation's statement that God made them. It is not irreverent for man to pry into the modus operandi of creation, but he should not permit his prejudice or his irreligious predisposition to cause him to forget that his field is inevitably speculative, for all time to come, that schemes have been worked out in other generations by brilliant minds who be- came arrogantly sure of their ground, but that their conclusions are now as grotesque to him as his will appear to scholars a few generations hence.
) PRACTICAL RESULTS OF THE THEORY.
Many have undertaken to estimate the practical effect of the doctrine of the sponta- neous origin of the species, when educated society loses consciousness of its hypothetical character and begins to confuse it with the verified tenets of science.
First of all, it exerts a super-normal strain on the joints of human judgment, in those students who try at once to hold on to their Bibles and to keep "up with the times." The strain is so great that many yield their faith, under their imagined necessity of surrender- ing to the decree of "science."
Evolution as thus stated furnishes us a de- cree with reference to the philosophic rela-
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 31
tion of all historic events, and the origin of all institutions of society, the Hebrew and Christian religion not excepted. This de- cree is iron clad, and alternatives or parallel assumptions can no more be tolerated than could a Quaker be admitted to heaven by a strong advocate of baptismal regeneration. Thus wc have a form of "higher criticism," as discussed in another chapter, which, though devoutly accepted by some suscepti- ble religious people who would rather be dead than out of the fashion, was devised to harmonize with the assumption that the in- stitution of religion as represented in the Old and New Testament did not come to man by means of divine revelation, but in the process of evolution; which by its own criterion of consistency feels compelled to iron every contrary indication out of Biblical history and out of the history of Biblical books.
'■'The survival of the fittest" grew as a theory out of the doctrine of spontaneous origins. Unlike the latter, there is much in nature to illustrate it, if illustrations could provide sufficient proof. Because it is so available as a text from which to expound a philosophy of life, the doctrine of the survi- val of the fittest, traced to its sequences, ia found to be a medium for raising evolution into a working force. If there is no intelli- gent providence presiding over the phenome-
32 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
na of creation, if all the changes of the nat- ural world are due to an unfolding of ener- gies residing within the creature or in na- ture, competition must be as truly a law as is the unfolding, and also as sacred. If "duty" is merely another name for compulsory com- pliance with necessary law, and if the strong do compete successfully with the weak in the sub-kingdoms of vegetation and animal life, it is the duty of intelligent beings, where coUision of rights is threatened, to fit them- selves better than their competitors and de- stroy the competitors. If evolution of the species is true, evolution of politfcal, social, and religious institutions is also true; and if might was the only argument for rights in the lower realm it must at least be legiti- mately the final argument for one's rights in the higher realm. Thus are we brought within a short step of the doctrine that might is right ; and, while few leaders have permit- ted their lips to pronounce that doctrine in plain terms, some have lived up to it ; and its subtle influence in certain systems of educa- tion is held by various writers* to have en- tered into the main causes of the world's greatest war. There is a way to evade the doctrine that might is right and still hold the doctrine of spontaneous generation. This is done by introducing the supremacy of the
••Cf. "The Science of Power." By Benjamin Kidid ; p. 62 fif.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 33
principle of sacrifice and service over force. This evasion is by a very narrow margin, and is hardly valid without a doctrine of divine interposition ; but it has produced a distinction between the national policies of the Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon peoples. While the Teutonic people have been more true to the logic of the doctrine of the sur- vival of the fittest, the English speaking world has escaped its worst consequences simply because Anglo-Saxons are more prac- tical than logical.
Only outside or superior forces can pre- vent the operation of a grim law of the sur- vival of the fittest, with its conclusion that might is right. But since we recognize ev- erywhere the presence of Him who controls the wind and flood and knows the sparrow's fall, our faith refuses to ascribe the dignity of a "law" to the mere coincidence of the survival of the fittest, however replete may be its illustrations. "The race is not to the \ swift nor the battle to the strong, neither yet I bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of. ( understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill ; a but time and 'chance' happeneth to them ' all"* and "Promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the ' south: but God is the judge; he putteth down one, and setteth up another."!
♦Boclesia Sites 9:11. tPsalim 75:6, 7.
CHAPTER III.
THE GOD OF THE NEW THEOLOGY.
"Theistic evolution" mu'st draw the line at spontaneous generation, with its logical se- quence in religion, or blunt its perception of truth and lose its soul. Current develop- ments are serving constantly to illustrate the truth of this assertion.
In recent centuries, many new lessons have been learned by reading the oracles of na- ture, God's other book. In the light of a fan- cied conflict between nature and revelation some scientists who were not religiously in- clined have grown arrogant ; and some churchmen who were not scientifically in- clined have become panic stricken. The lat- ter was due either to an unconscious weak- ness of faith in the divinity of the Scriptures or a stupid assumption that there was lack of unity in the universe of truth. A few de- vout patriarchs thought that a general belief that the sun was the center of the solar sys- tem would send all the Bibles to the garret. A zealous church tribunal wanted to ana- thematize a man when he advanced the in- duction that the behavior of Uranus implied the existence of an eighth planet. Seven was
34
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 35
a sacred number; and any cold hearted worldling who disturbed people in this val- uable collateral of faith would hurt the cause of religion as well as spoil man's apprecia- tion of "the music of the spheres," But the discovery of Neptune grew out of this, and the Christian faith stands firm as ever; and the heavens declare the glory of God with a majesty that fails not with the flight of years.
Evolution in its modern meaning, as first expounded in the nineteenth century by Haeckel and his kind, was atheistic. A cer- tain class of more alert and sensitive Chris^ tian thinkers feared it as an itinerant ped- dler would fear a prairie fire. At the first challenge it seemed like a death struggle. To the sanguine believers it would finally mean the death of an evolutionary philosophy; to the despondent, the death of Christian theistic faith. For a while, in many circles, there was no thought of assimilation or com- promise. But atheistic evolution had scarce- ly begun to utter its brusque tones when it met with answers so conclusive that its champions vanished, or lost the ear of the thinking world, and theistic evolution was accorded the courtesies of the arena.
Apprehensive, and not knowing just how much of their old articles of faith would have to be dismantled, an influential element
)
36 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
of Christian scholars availed themselves of this opportunity to make terms and conclude a compromise which would enable them to hold caste with higher education in its new attitude. Naturally, there could be no con- cert of action among the various segments of Christian thinkers to determine what con- cessions m.ust be made to square up with facts, or where the line should be drawn in the interest of facts already in their posses- sion. Some were like a man unacquainted with the markets, trying in war time to buy a suit of clothes from profiteers, when its actual value was seventy-five dollars and the merchant had it marked five hundred dollars. After a distressing argument, the customer agreed to a price of two hundred and fifteen dollars and fifty cents and went home with a triumphant feeling.
EVOLUTION AND PROGRESS NOT IDENTICAL.
A "theistic evolution" that substitutes an unproved ascent of man for the necessary truth of divine creation must so revise its idea of God as to make him purely a creature of the human imagination. It must adduce a private interpretation of the Bible that makes the God of Genesis inferior to the God of Paul's epistles. It must hold a theory with reference to the inspiration of the Scriptures which denies them the dignity of a revelation from God and makes each book
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 37
of the Bible merely a reflection of the age in which it was produced.
This is one of several turns taken by the new theology which appear to have some- thing in fact on which to hang its conclu- sions. It is a fact that the requirements of divine law in each succeeding age as repre- sented in the Bible are in advance of the pre- ceding age; that divine judgments are ad- ministered differently and on a more ad- vanced plane in each age; that in the stand- ard of worship for the new dispensation the appeal to the senses by symbols of faith is at a minimum, and spiritual excellencies take the place of material splendor; that in each era God seems to have been bringing the hu- man custodians of his revelation steadily to the advanced plane which should character- ize the age ahead of them.
These are facts which lend themselves to the imagination of those already convinced that man ascended from the level of lower animals, and that the ages of biological his- tory contain some kind of tropic of cancer or Capricorn marking his passage into the estate of a human being, at which time, whether gradually or in the presence of some august ceremony, man's "Maker" imparted to him a living soul. This extraordinary fea- ture has to be injected into the scheme of evolution by those who would unite Chris-
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38 WHATISKEir TEEOLOGY?
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WHAT I NEW THEOLOGY? 39
of the idea of Gd. The God who winked at men's errors in ne times of their ignorance* held the same tandards then that he did when he commnded all men everywhere to repent. While eremonial laws, with pro- found objects 0 tuition and discipline, were made to vary ith the centuries, one will seek in vain foiu fundamental moral law in the New Testaient that is annulled by di- vine approval i the Old. The New Testa- ment goes deepr into the inner meaning of the law as reveled in the Old, but it is ab- surd to say the this is due to an improve- ment in God. The Old Testament in its frank, unvarniaed record gives account of specific sins or persistent low standards in some men who vorshipped God, and some- times fails to rcord God's disapproval ; but the absence of ach a record would not mean anything unles.^a man had a theory to take care of. The act that men escaped chal- lenge in Old Tc.tament times with sins for which they wer rejected in New Testament times means noiing but that they had more light in the lattr period.
The changin character of divine judg- ments in succeemg dispensations is thought by many to suport the evolutionary view, and has presered difficulties for honest souls who have aken no interest in the evo-
♦Acts 17:30.
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38 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
tianity and spontaneous origins; a thing which must be very amusing to the non- Christian evolutionist, and a position so inar- ticulate in itself that it affords a stumbling- stone , causing many a new theologian to "backslide" during his study of functional psychology, and cease from trying to cor- relate his "science" and his "religion."
JEHOVAH, THE SAME IN EVERY AGE. A fuller consideration of the evolutionist's assumption that each book of the Bible is a reflection of the age in which it is written will be given in our chapter on the "Authori- ty of the Bible" ; but we will here take time to observe that the Scriptures, when intelli- gently interpreted, furnish no support for the statement that our idea of God is evolved. The Bible professes the very opposite. Man is represented as getting his idea of God from God himself, by direct revelation. That man, because of sin, was slow to apprehend God's will or comprehend his attributes is recognized throughout, and that a "lost" race was dealt with on its own plane, borne with, instructed, and brought forward from one dispensation to another on progressive scales, is an express admission which the Bi- ble makes. But it requires a most cunning invention to show that the standards and methods of the succeeding eras prove dif- ferences in God and set forth the evolution
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 39
of the idea of God. The God who winked at men's errors in the times of their ignorance* held the same standards then that he did when he commanded all men everywhere to repent. While ceremonial laws, with pro- found objects of tuition and discipline, were made to vary with the centuries, one will seek in vain for a fundamental moral law in the New Testament that is annulled by di- vine approval in the Old. The New Testa- ment goes deeper into the inner meaning of the law as revealed in the Old, but it is ab- surd to say that this is due to an improve- ment in God. The Old Testament in its frank, unvarnished record gives account of specific sins or persistent low standards in some men w'ho worshipped God, and some- times fails to record God's disapproval; but the absence of such a record would not mean anything unless a man had a theory to take care of. The fact that men escaped chal- lenge in Old Testament times with sins for which they were rejected in New Testament times means nothing but that they had more light in the latter period.
The changing character of divine judg- ments in succeeding dispensations is thought by many to support the evolutionary view, and has presented difficulties for honest souls who have taken no interest in the evo-
*Acts 17:30.
40 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
lutionist's contention. Outstanding among these difficulties are the use of God's people to execute judgments upon perverse nations; the ehmination of entire families, including children, by judicial or military execution ; the imprecations or curses upon the enemy as we find them pronounced in the Psalms. All this, we are reminded, has much in com- mon with the customs of the nations general- ly in those days.
We shall not try to handle this to the sat- isfaction of those who do not believe in di- vine judgments. Our point will be that the King and Judge of this universe, as revealed then and now, has undergone no change ex- cept in the methods and agencies employed. His view of death is different from ours. With him, the passing of a child or an inno- cent victim of other people's sins may take place appropriately, accompanied by violence or suffering, which in itself may carry a re- flex ministration that we cannot fathom ; but for which no doubt he has provided compen- sations that we fail also to understand. The souls of the children who were torn by bears after they had laughed in derision at the re- ported ascension of Elijah,* and sportingly challenged Elisha to "Go up, thou bald head," were in better keeping than if they
*2 Kings 2:24.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 41
had remained under the nurture of parents who had instilled such sentiments in them.
We grant that it is hard in our day for one to see how God's chosen people could have been used as his chastening scourge, as he now uses storm, earthquake, or pestilence, without involving hurt to themselves. Per- haps it was possible then, but a decided ad- vance in human sensibilities calls for a dif- ferent economy now. It still remains a fact, however, that God believes in death, and that he takes people from the earth sometimes by special dispensations, of an exceeding sad character, for administrative reasons. But there is one identity in his law for all dis- pensations, namely, he teaches us to hold sa- cred the person of our fellow man ; and, out- side of the execution of a direct judgment, conferring Jehovah's own prerogative of life and death, his law at all times has forbidden the taking of human life.
THE PSALMS OF JUDGMENT ARE IMPERSONAL.
A few suggestions and illustrations for in- terpreting the Psalms which pronounce a curse upon the enemy may help some honest soul to see that no theory of a change in God is necessary, but that we can identify in these excellent expressions of the ancient worshipper the same Jehovah whose ethics shine through the sermon on the mount and the twelfth chapter of Romans. A compari-
42 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
son of Hebrews 3:7 with the 95th Psalm, be- ginning at the seventh verse, will show that in the estimation of the New Testament the Psalms represent the utterances of the Holy Spirit, rather than the individual sentiment or animosity of the persons who penned them. If we read Psalm 129, a judgment Psalm, and note carefully verse one in con- nection with the Psalm, we will observe that the language is put in the mouth of Israel, and that the judgment is pronounced upon the nation's foes instead of some one against whom the Psalmist has a personal grudge. It may always be safely assumed that the judgments are prophetic, and imply no in- dorsement of personal revenge. If the new theologian thinks that the God of the thir- teenth of 1st Corinthians had not evolved in the Old Testament, and that emulators of Je- hovah could not think in terms of non-resis- tance, he ought to review those instances, so full of pathosi, where David had Saul repeat- edly in his own hand and spared his life. It will be remembered that David wrote some of these imprecatory Psalms, yet it may be safely said that in all his wonderful life he never resented personal insults or permit- ted a man to be harmed for wronging him when it was purely a personal matter. But when it came to the defense of Israel, or the execution of what he understood to be a
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 43
righteous judgment of God, no man could stand before him, and no personal feeling could prevent the firmness of his hand. At times the Holy Spirit represents Christ as speaking in the Psalms, and the enemies mentioned, instead of being enemies of the inspired writer, or even of Israel, are ene- mies of Christ. An illustration of this will be found in the 86th Psalm, the ninth verse of which directs special attention to our point.
paganism's derelict conception of god.
Outside of revealed religion, the "progres- siveness" of the idea of God is a pure inven- tion. Just as plants and animals of higher grade deteriorate when left to themselves, just as man also when left without help from the outside goes down hill instead of up in civilization and the scale of being, just as animate nature commonly illustrates the ab- sence of any law of advancement within it- self, tending more to regressive than to pro- gressive evolution, so the religions of the world as observed in historic times usually fail to show any improvement in their idea of deity, excepting as they catch reflections from Christianity. Indeed there is good reason to infer that many of the great hu- man religions have had nobler ideas of God, but have lost them through this universal downward tendency. Zoroastrianism, the
44 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
religion of Cyrus the Persian, shows its evo- lution in Parseeism today. Tangora , the Polynesian deity, is an illustration of the same tendency to decline in human ideals of deity. Proof is very scarce for the conten- tion that the idea of deity even among the crudest barbarians is v^holly the product of evolution. Among the various heathen re- ligions of the world evidences are frequently found that they have witnessed better days, with a higher instead of a lower conception of deity, and some possess traces that make it entirely reasonable to assume that in the remote past their ancestry had in some de- gree a knowledge of the true God.
NEW THEOLOGY NOT THEISTIC.
The new theology in its doctrine of God is unwilling to be identified with deism, which separates God from his universe; a philoso- phy which so frankly challenged, instead of trying to swallow, Christianity two hundred years ago. It boasts a more modem par- entage on the scientific side. It insists that it is not against Christianity as were the deists, but that it is Christianity in the most highly evolved form, the only form that can stand the full exposure of the rays of scien- tific light. It denies the charge of plagiar- ism, and does not think it in any sense con- stitutes a case of history repeating itself, - though many of us who have escaped the in- ' ^
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 45
fatuation of the new theology think that his- tory is replete with instances of conclusions and modes of apprehension which answer to what the new theology is now giving us.
While the new theology identifies itself as theistic, we make the point that a system which denies all supernaturalism is not theistic* Suppose God did ordain the for- ces. The conservation of energy forms a closed circuit; it is held by all who do not spoil the system with ill fitting, antiquated doctrine, that the original deposit of the Creator held all the laws and potentialities necessary to the unfolding of the present order, and much beyond this. It therefore follows that God answers prayer by immuta- ble laws reposed in nature millions of years before the prayers are uttered; that the special providences in which the Bible abounds, and in which evangelical Chris- tians delight as a warm token of God's near- ness, were timed by law in the beginning of the ages; that miracles are the operation of natural laws for which there is no visible ex- planation, and never an interception of Him who presides over his universe; that indeed he does not preside ; that his immanence con-
*"Without a iSU'pernatupal providence we islnk irnto the bleakness of deism, and might as well sink into material- IsiDi or pantheism. Theism ds supernaturalism. If there is a personal G-od there Is a isnperniatural providence." "Systematic Theoloig-.y," by John Miley, D.D., LL.D., Vol. I, p. 1'36.
46 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
sists in the fact that he is inseparably iden- tified with nature, operating with unaltera- ble regularity through its channels, as he or- dained them in the beginning of the ages.
And so we find in much of our modern re- ligious literature the innate religious nature of man, bursting forth in primitive form, treating the phenomena of nature as mani- festations of God and referring to them in terms of worship which belong to a personal God.* They do not worship these forces of nature as if some immanent deity were slightly hidden in their bosom awaiting the homage of man, but it is easy to believe they are traveling the same road of decline from true theistic faith that was traveled by the ancestors of the sun and moon and nature worshippers of the great prehistoric civili- zations. It will not be understood that we are apathetic in our attitude to nature. The proper appreciation of nature brings man
*"A flre-mist and a planet,
A crystal and a cell, A jelly-flish and a saurian,
And caves Tvihere ttbe cave-men dwell. Then a sie^nise of law of beauty,
And a face turned from tbe clod — iSome call it Evolution,
And others call it Gad.
"A haze on the far ihorizon.
The infinite, lender sky. The ripe, rich tints of tJhe cornfields,
And the wild geese isadling 'bigh. And all over upland and lol^^'land Tihe cfhiarra of the goldenrod — ISome of us call it Autuimn, And others call it Goid." Fro.m poem, "Each In His Oiwn Tongue" ; by Wm. Herbert Carruth.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 47
closer to his Creator. Our criticism is di- rected at the class of homilies now popular in some circles which would make a pious play into the adoration of nature to escape all assumptions of the supernatural; which would offer nature's phenomena as a substi- tute for the consolations of the Christian as- surance that God in his providence presides personally over his universe every moment.
THE DOCTRINE OF "DIVINE IMMANENCE."
A generation ago a certain class of writers gave form to what they deemed a better ap- prehension of God. Their conception was expressed in the words, "Divine immanence" or "the immanence of God." The literature of Tennyson and other beautiful writers, con- sciously or unconsciously, inculcated the view ;* and no doubt it has served as a spir- itual tonic in the meditations of many aes- thetic souls. It has put a new beauty and majesty in all of nature, and induced a spirit of reverence in all who caught the idea.
This doctrine of divine immanence has 'been appropriated by the new theology. It fits admirably into the system ; and, while it does not assert itself pro or con upon the
*Dark is tlio AvorkI to thee: rtiyse'lf art b'lie reason wliiv ; For is He not all hut thiou, ttoa't hasit ipowpr to feel "I am I"? ******
Speak to Him thou for He 'hears, aind Spirit with Spirit
can lueet — Closer is He than breathinig, and nearer than .hiands and
feet.
—The Hiigher Pantheism, by .\jlfred, Lord Temniyson.
48 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
subject of miracle and supernatural provi- dence, it prepares the way for the new theo- logian's adverse position, in which he is free to do away with the supernatural by overdo- ing it or resolving everything into the super- natural. It is like the argument that if a man gives all, he does not need to give the tenth ; if he keeps every day holy, he does not need to keep the Sabbath. So great is the subtlety that some of the most orthodox be- lievers have taken to it ardently. The late Methodist philosopher, Dr. Borden P. Bowne, in his book, "The Immanence of God," quotes an illustration from that ultra champion of orthodoxy, the Sunday School Times, to show the homology of miracle under natural law. A young man looks into a clear pool which portrays an acorn as it falls on the landscape and, while he gazes at the reflection, the acorn bursts, sprouts, springs into a sapling, and then a massive oak. The observer ex- claims that this is a miracle ; but his instruc- tor awakens him to the fact that he has lost his sense of time. That eighty years have flown since he began to gaze in the pool, and that his hair and beard are long and gray and his garments are threadbare and rotten. Then the observer recalls his words, and says, It is no miracle, it is only nature. The conclusion they draw is that miracle is na- ture in the role of the unusual, but that na-
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 49
ture in the usual with its sunrise, sunset, and bud and blossom, is just as truly miracu- lous, as truly the work of God. It is divine activity all the same, whether mediated or not.* "The presence of God in nature," says Dr. Bowne, "does not mean that God is here and there in the world performing miracles, but that the whole cosmic movement de- pends constantly upon the divine will and is an expression of the divine purpose."! Me- diaeval Calvinism had a way of making ev- ery miracle and supernatural providence, along with the ordinary phenomena of life, part of a stereotyped plan laid out by the Al- mighty, with drastic precision, before the foundation of the world. With them, God does everything, and moral agency, in men and angels, is an illusion. The more sane champions of this view did not contend that the divine activity in history was unmedia- ted; but a more fanatical subdivision of the fatalistic view, under the doctrine of Occa- sionalism, taught that God caused the fall of every rain drop and the bursting of every bud, by an act of his will, and that he thus actuated every event, including the ordinary movements of the human body. This was mysticism, denatured by being carried furth- er in the direction of its own excess.
*"Tbe Immanence of God," by Borden P. Bowne; p. 48. (IMd. p. 43.
50 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
Indeed every new error of our age is an old error dressed in modern clothes. The subtle fallacy which gives standing to the doctrine of divine immanence today finds good soil for growth in the group psychology of two classes : the theological sons of the old ultra Calvinists who have a left over meas- ure of the momentum of middle age theology, showing itself in their notion of providence and the supernatural; then the rationalists of the scientific world, who, if they must tol- erate God, are only content to make his per- sonality at present as meaningless a/s possi- ble, and if they must grant that he caused anything, let it be understood that he was the first cause, but that with the initiation of the world order his freedom ended, so that now he is restricted merely to the upkeep of the system he caused, without freedom to de- viate from any course laid down from the foundation of the world. Indeed such free- dom is not needed under this scheme of de- terminism. All this is very bald unless we feature it with the fond embellishments of the divine immanence, as conceived in Bowne's philosophy and Tennyson's poetry. Yet when one has soared in these heavens of Bowne and Tennyson he must sometimes light to meditate upon the distinctions be- tween divine providence and natural law. Dr. Bowne grapples with this in these
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 51
words: "An opportune storm, a drouth or flood, a good or bad harvest, an outbreak of an epidemic would he far more significant to many than the greatest mental and moral progress of society."* "Sometimes the his- torical crisis is such, and the co-working of complex factors so marked that we seem to he aware of a divinity that shapes our ends. Then we speak of a guiding or overruling Providence. But commonly life runs on in the familiar routine, and we seem left to our own judgment to find the way. At such times we have nothing to say of Providence. But it is clear that the only difference is that sometimes the divine purpose seems mani- fest, while at other times it is hidden."*
If we admit that there is a third factor in the world, due to a doctrine of moral agency in men and angels, good and evil, — if there- fore we admit that God has a set of laws dealing with persons instead of forces, it is our privilege to expect interceptions of the divine Ruler, to meet situations which may arise. We may not always be able to distin- guish these interceptions, because of their resemblance to natural events. If there are circumstances connected with the "oppor- tune storm, drought or flood" which afford proof that there has been a special intercep-
*I.tiicl. p. 45. »I.bid. p. 53.
52 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
tion of the divine hand it is quite proper to attach peculiar significance to it, and out of place to confuse the value of a providential manifestation by making- an invidious com- parison between it and some great general order like ''the mental and moral progress of society." It would be easy thus to chide peo- ple with the charge of misplaced emphasis, but it is quite as intelligent as it is human for us to be eager in such events to get a glimpse of God ; and no man is a true theist, and no man has his orientation as a student of the Bible, who says that the speech uttered by the flowers and sunshine and recurring seasons constitutes as much of a manifesta- tion of God as does an obvious providence or a direct answer to prayer, in which we see the workings of a sympathetic, personal God. This is proved in the fact that atheism and its slightly less pernicious allies of pan- theism, deism and polytheism have never found it necessary to break camp under na- ture's manifestations of God, whereas, the slogan of the supernatural, with its creden- tialed prophets, its divided Jordans, its an- swered prayers, its risen Lord and its reveal- ed Bible, has caused whole nations to recog- nize God.
If our chapter may descend to a criticism we should say that Dr. Bowne hands every- thing over to rationalism when he says: "It
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 53
is clear that the only difference is that some- times the divine purpose seems manifest, while at other times it is hidden." Putting divine providence everywhere is equivalent fo putting it nowhere, in our system of teach- ing. Just as extreme socialism, which makes government everything, becomes identical with anarchism, which makes government nothing; just as two men traveling in oppo- site directions to get as far apart as possible will finally arrive in the same neighborhood, the divine immanence people and the deists, when the former have worked their logic to a finish, give us a teaching identical in its ef- fect, however much the one may sing their pious anthems and denounce the wickedness of the other.
No finite man can comprehend how mani- fold and how vast are the forces in this world aside from the chemical and mechani- cal, which, except as God restrains, checks or overrules, may shorten human lives, de- stroy souls, or spoil nations. These forces are explained by the multitude of spiritual and human intelligence which surround our glob-?. Personality and free agency have never been understood, but it is too late in the day to ignore them. In denying or ignor- ing them, the theologian takes himself back to the middle ages, and the scientist buries his head in the sand. The true and living'
54 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
God is he that upholds all things by the word of his power; who presides over all the forces, known and unknown to us, and who must reign till all enemies are under his feet.*
Our position is, that if we exempt the new theology from being classified under deism, it must be identified as a modern form of pantheism. Pantheism holds that the uni- verse is God, that it evolved or emanated from, him, and that in all its phases it is simply a manifestation of him, a part of him. Essentially, that is the position of the new theology. However, in its practical work- ings, the absence of an intensely religious spirit and of all tendencies to fetish devo- tion would seem to save the new theologians from classification under pantheism; but since the universe of creatures which are capable of some conception of divine being is included under the five heads of theism, pantheism, deism, polytheism and atheism, we shall have to ask these brethren to choose their position under pantheism or deism.
*1 CorintJilans 15:25.
CHAPTER IV.
THE CHRIST OF THE NEW THEOLOGY.
There are just two great generic truths in the universe of thought; Creation and Sal- vation. Almost every other topic with which man has to reckon may be classified as to its subject matter under one of these heads. The position upon either of these questions will have almost everything to do with our body of doctrine as a whole, pro- vided we are coherent. None can deny the ills of life and the evils of the world ; but he who contrives a scheme of creation without God will most certainly devise a plan of re- demption without God, usually having theo- rized t?ie world's ills into as mild a form as rhetoric and analogy can effect, extenuat- ing sin and abolishing Satan. Again, he who reduces to a minimum the divine ele- ment in creation will reduce to a minimum the divine element in redemption.
The scientific mind wishes to conceive the universe in as simple a form as possible. It shrinks from ascribing complexity to any of its data ; but whatever the complexities of a problem, the tendency is to revolt against the supernatural. All things must be re-
55
56 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
garded as belonging to a closed system, whose laws articulate with nature's other laws, admitting no exotic forces. If it finds something that fits none of its classifications and answers to none of its known laws, it reacts to that something as to the nearest resembling familiar object; as did the coun- tryman who drank out of the finger bowl. This is not a fact peculiar to the scientific mind ; it shows rather that in a more refined and lofty fashion a law that inheres in the psychology of the illiterate persists in the mind of the world's scholars. Obedient to this bent of nature, leaders of thought in ev- ery century have been trying to interpret the person of Christ and fix a self-consistent es- timate of him without the aid of faith, not- withstanding the statement of his greatest disciple that he cannot be properly estimated except in the realm of the supernatural.* Science has no articles of faith. The mo- ment it enters the realm of faith it becomes philosophy. But nearly all scientists are philosophers; and, in our day, nearly all philosophers expect to be listed as scientists. Modern philosophy has articles of faith with reference to subjects beyond the reach of in- vestigation, if the removal be in time or space ; but it has no place for either the pre- ternatural or the supernatural.
*"No man can say that Jesus is the Liord, but by the H'>ly Spirit." 1 Corinthians 12:3.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 57
HISTORIC ERRORS CONTRASTED.
During apostolic times, the person of Christ was disparaged by scholars outside of Jewish circles, not because of its supernat- ural challenge, but because they were averse to giving preeminent recognition to a Jew. The over confidence which belongs to a peo- ple who have made vast conquest of the ele- ments and laws of nature did not belong to that age. A few Greeks were slightly af- fected with this, but usually all were dis- posed to admit the existence of a class of un- solvable data. With the Jews who were un- friendly to Christ he was disparaged because of his Galilean origin and other particulars aside from a sober estimate. The early Christian Jews did not get their conception of Christ from a sound interpretation of Isaiah and the other prophets, but from; the sectarian interpretation of their time, which recognized his Messiahship [to the Jews and failed to see him as the world's Re- deemer, the Mediator between God and man. The facts were placed before them by the Master in the early part of his ministry, and they were permitted gradually to develop in- to the true apprehension of him. Peter's "coinfession"t was the result of extended ob- servation, sober reflection and divine revela- tion. Instead of being forced out of a pre-
f'Thou art the Clrrist, the Son of the living God." Mat- thew 16:16.
58 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
disposed belief by an abrupt disclosure, John was brought steadily, by all the laws which enter into a normal conviction, up to where he could declare : "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."*
With the new theology, all things emana- ted from God in the original posit, endowed with manifold natural laws which stand in God's stead; and all things proceed back in the direction of God, as represented in the highest manifestation of evolution's law, the "fittest" surviving, the inferior being doom- ed. This doom involves the elimination of inferior individuals of the highest species and the ultimate dissolution of the lower species. It supposes immortality only for the fittest ; and the more common tendency is to make this immortality racial instead of individual. Under this interpretation, it is consistent also to concede the immortality of all the higher and more fundamental species of living creatures. t This illustrates the fact that the new theology in its conception
*1 Jcyhin 2:2.
tThis is made relative by the pihitosoptoers' view of the durability of the solar system. It lias been calculated that in la given number of miiillions of years the sun would burn down to a dharred imass aimd life would disaippear frem our system. Then, of course, -with the physiological correlate would pass tlie ipisychic p'henoimena ! PhyiSics canmot flgure around the net'essiity 'Of putting a time limiiit on tlhe longevity of onr universe. But even soience ad- mitis that there' is a way around some things that mairt cannot figure around because of the magnitude of the cal- culation and the absence of some of the terms.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 59
of deity seems at once to share the view of pantheism and deism.
With the conservation of energy granted in such a way as to make the universe a closed system, and with the Darwinian doc- trine of origins assumed, it is impossible to grant that Christ came down from heaven. J There is only one place to accord him; he is an outstanding result of progressive evolu- tion ; a kind of promontory in a distant con- tinent, which humanity's ship is approach- ing; the first fruit of a golden period yet to come, creating by his personality and exam- ple an idea of a millennial age, the idea it- self being "the kingdom of God", gradually fastening upon the imagination of mankind, by means of those instrumentalities invoked by the Church. That he was mistaken in himself and his mission, it is logically nec- essary, from this standpoint, to conclude; also that, with his perfect moral and spir- itual conceptions, he was intellectually crude, trammelled by the supersti- tions of his day, and in no sense in- formed ahead of the uninformed schol- arship of the time of his ministry.* It
J'No man hath ascenrled up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, >sven the Son ;of Man whioh Is in heaven." John 2:1?..
*"JeS'Us sharerl the iginiora.nce of men, not only in his
boyhood, but thrwrglhout 'his life was possessed dn
the last months or years of his liLfe by a paissdonate convic- tion ■wihioh in its Mteral form can only be called a ipatlhetic delUiSion." "ProMems of Religion," iby Durant Brake, p. 143.
> ^
60
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
will be seen readily where, in the estimation of the new theology, is placed the incarna- tion, the preexistence of Christ, which he teaches us to recognize, the virgin birth, his resurrection from the dead, and other re- lated doctrines. Instead of admitting that these facts corroborated the truth of his di- vinity, the new theology' holds that they are inventions, on a par with fables, growing out of the assumption of his divinity. t Ev- ery estimate of him, every account of his works, set forth in his biography, must be levelled by a steam roller of a priori reason- ing till it tallies with the Christ of modern philosophy.
NO MIDDLE GROUND.
While skepticism or avowed intidelity is more logical than the new theology in that it refuses the impossible ta-sk of disparaging Christ and at the same time tning to cling to him, the new theology is more logical when it recognizes that he cannot be evaded or ignored. The simple fact, announced by him and verified a thousand times since, is that every one who is sufficiently enlighten- ed to reckon with him at all must be wholly for him or wholly against him ; that is, he must yield his allegiance as to an undi-
f It is always to be remembered, however, tbat it is tbe character and life of Jesus, -which led us to l^elleve in the virjrin birth, and not the virgin birth which led us to be- lieve in Jesus." "New Testament History," by Harris Franklin Rail, p. 35.
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WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 61
nninished, uri disparaged Christ, the eternal Son, as he represented himself, or be identi- fied with those who, admitting that he was a genius, regard him as an imposter.* In so regarding him they make him the perpetra- tor of the world's greatef^t fraud, the perpet- uation of whose name and influence reflects the idiocy of mankind. Unitarianism and all forms of humanizing Christology are committed to an impossibility. Attempt has been made, under the strongest patronage, to found great ecclesiastical systems around the conception of a disparaged Christ, but it has been a uniform failure. Such a Christ is less than no Christ, and there is no cohesion in the nucleus formed around him. The Unitarian Church is today one of the most respectable and cultured bodies in the world, with antecedents of scholarship dating back to the Renaissance and the Enlightenment; yet, they number a membership of less than a hundred thousand. They symbolize the shelter and church life of those who are too consistent to ignore Christ, and not consis- tent enough to accept his own representation of himself. Due to the fact that modern thought has prepared a favorable ground, they have been a leavening influence in many of the great orthodox denominations during recent decades. Some of the seminaries of
*"ITf! that Is not with me i,s affnlnst me: and ihe that gatherc-'th not with me, soattereth abroad." Matthew 12:30.
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60 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
will be seen readily where, in the estimation of the new theology, is placed the incarna- tion, the preexistence of Christ, which he teaches us to recognize, the virgin birth, his resurrection from the dead, and other re- lated doctrines. Instead of admitting that these facts corroborated the truth of his di- vinity, the new theology holds that they are inventions, on a par with fables, growing out of the assumption of his divinity .f Ev- ery estimate of him, every account of his works, set forth in his biography, must be levelled by a steam roller of a priori reason- ing till it tallies with the Christ of modern philosophy.
NO MIDDLE GROUND. While skepticism or avowed infidelity is more logical than the new theology in that it refuses the impossible task of disparaging Christ and at the same time trying to cling to him, the new theology is more logical when it recognizes that he cannot be evaded or ignored. The simple fact, announced by him and verified a thousand times since, is that every one who is sufficiently enlighten- ed to reckon with him at all must be wholly for him or wholly against him ; that is, he must yield his allegiance as to an undi-
flt is alwiayis to be remembered, howerer, that it is the character and life of Jesus, which ied us to believe in the virg-in birth, and not the virgin birth which led us to be- lieve in Jesus." "New Testament History," by Harris Franklin Rail, p. 35.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 61
minished, undisparaged Christ, the eternal Son, as he represented himself, or be identi- fied with those who, admitting that he was a genius, regard him as an imposter.* In so regarding him they make him the perpetra- tor of the world's greatest fraud, the perpet- uation of whose name and influence reflects the idiocy of mankind. Unitarianism and all forms of humanizing Christology are committed to an impossibility. Attempt has been made, under the strongest patronage, to found great ecclesiastical systems around the conception of a disparaged Christ, but it has been a uniform failure. Such a Christ is less than no Christ, and there is no cohesion in the nucleus formed around him. The Unitarian Church is today one of the most respectable and cultured bodies in the world, with antecedents of scholarship dating back to the Renaissance and the Enlightenment; yet, they number a membership of less than a hundred thousand. They symbolize the shelter and church life of those who are too consistent to ignore Christ, and not consis- tent enough to accept his own representation of himself. Due to the fact that modern thought has prepared a favorable ground, they have been a leavening influence in many of the great orthodox denominations during recent decades. Some of the seminaries of
*"He that is not with me is against me: and \he -that g-athereitli not with me, soattereth abrotad." Matthew 12:30.
62 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
evangelical Churches would easily pass for Unitarian schools today. But what is the result? A shortage of candidates for the ministry, and a decline in the average num- ber of additions to the Church, with sages shaking their heads in perplexity, and ec- clesiastical philosophers trying to show where the trouble lies. The alternatives of this age are Christ and anti-christ ; and the imoment we dlisparage the personality of Christ we cease to gather with him and be- gin to scatter abroad.
THE VIRGIN BIRTH AND CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES.
In some of our seminaries today, teachers are accorded shelter who advance the sophis- try that the doctrine of the virgin birth of Christ is not necessary to Christianity; oth- ers say that the doctrine of his resurrection from the dead is not an essential among Christian evidences. To declare unessential a truth that is essential amounts to the an- nulling of that truth, and paves the way in- fallibly to a policy of opposition to it if it works a hardship upon the new program; and certainly these truths make such hard sledding for the new theology that we can- not regard it a mere incident when some professor rises in his place to pronounce them "unessential." We are bound to sus- pect in him a fellowship for the new pro- gram, and we have never heard of an in-
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 63
stance where developments proved the sus- picion unfounded.
It is a favorite fallacy in new theological literature and with a certain class of clever professors who even assume sympathy for the virgin birth and kindred mysteries con- nected with the beginnings of our Lord's earthly history, to say that the volume of his influence accruing since he left the earth is necessary, to prove the virgin birth in the logic of the times. The inference is, that such presentations as the virgin birth are superfluous among Christian evidences now, though valid and useful at the outset, and that we would gain a point in our mod- ern statement if we quietly dropped these things as encumbrances. Dr. Lyman Abbot includes the resurrection of Jesus among the encumbrances of modern faith.* This is as intelligent in sound as it is defective in sense. Those things in the beginning were among the evidences ; and we cannot disen- tangle them without suspending our whole system in mid air. I might as consistently say that the Bible was my proof that the Son of God had power to forgive my sins, but since I had experienced forgiveness, the practical proof had annulled the necessity for the initial proof, and I did not need that part of my Bible any more.
♦Article on "A Relig-ious Revolution." "The Ou'tlook," 'Siepteimiber, 1915.
64 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
The difficulties of believing in the virgin birth are not specific. They come and go with man's general aversion for the super- natural. It may be held that this constitutes a phase of the supernatural gratuitously in- jected into the situation ; but this is not for finite man to decide. No one holds that God could not have devised some other way to bring about the incarnation ; but those who accept the fulfillment of prophetic utter- ances as something more than an accident or an invented dovetail are bound to take seriously the report of Matthew and Luke and the early Christians regarding the vir- gin birth. A bona fide prophecy, from one of the least questioned of all prophetic sources* reads : "Therefore, the Lord him- self shall give you a sign; Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Evasive writers might say this meant no promise of an un- usual thing, referring merely to the first child of a young woman ; but the prophet protects us against this interpretation by saying that it was to be something unusual, a '"sign", which "Jehovah himself" should give. There is no chance of historic mistake in the fact that Jesus Christ was begotten out of wedlock. No one would have thought
♦Isaiah 7:14. If tbere were "two Isaiahs" this was the original one.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 65
to invent this as an advantage in founding a fraudulent religious enterprise. With a minimum credit for the historicity of the story as a whole the sequence shows that Mary and Joseph were people of chaste char- acter, with ideals which were strenuously high. Clean things do not come out of un- clean things ; and we remember that the greatest enemies of Christ paid tribute to his character. This argument should have its required supplement for the modern Chris- tian critic when he remembers what the pur- ifying stream of Christianty has meant to the world. He would violate all his instincts of logic to say that it sprang forth under false pretenses ; or, assuming the doctrine of the virgin birth to be a subsequent inven- tion, he would go back upon his conception of moral coherency in saying that such holy results could come from such unholy as>- sumptions.
INCARNATION FALSE AND TRUE.
It is a fact brought out by the study of comparative religions, that the idea of divine incarnation was not peculiar to the Hfe^ brews, and not new at the time Christ ap- peared. The schools of skepticism and or- thodoxy have used this fact as the basis of conclusions which are diametrically opposite, the former accusing the church of construct-
66 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
ing its idea of the person of Christ out of borrowed material. But, on the side of the truth, it has been shown that the church got its idea of Christ from himself*, whose credentials were and have continued to be so imposing that to challenge them is like questioning the validity of the tides or au- diting the source of a sunbeam. If the sun looks in through your window and says, I am Sol, the day spreads its mantle over the land to confirm his profession.
Everything is grist for the evolutionist's mill; and the evidence from antiquity of a widespread wish among the nations for a manifestation of God in the flesh has been taken as a symptom of an innate outreach which has explained man's rise from the animal kingdom. They accept this as a part of nature's wisdom; but, while they credit nature with great precision in reach- ing her objectives on other lines, they fail to recognize the possibility of a valid an- swer to humanity's cry for an incarnation. The outreach of humanity's heart for "the desire of all nations" is to them like the ten- dril of a climbing vine, reaching for a shad-
*"I .amd my Father nve one." .Tohn 10:30.
"I ciiine fnirt'h from the Father, mnd am come into 'the WiOiid: A sain. I leiave the world aud go to the Father." John n:28.
"The Jews »ns\s'ered liim, sayin,g, For a giootd work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a wjn, miakest thyself God." .John 10:33.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 67
ow or a fictitious rafter; whereas, when things go as nature would have them the di- rection of the tendril's reach may be taken infallibly as the direction of the pole. The widespread expectancy of the incarnation, working itself out in mythical compositions and concrete impostures is a voice of the ages proclaiming the advent of Immanuel. This is confirmed by scores of analogies. As light is made to answer to the eye, as sound to the ear, as food is made to answer hun- ger, and the same God made them all, so the cry of man's worshipping nature, startling- ly portrayed through the findings of com- parative religions, was induced by the same God, who manifested himself among men in the person of Jesus Christ, with adequate facilities to answer that cry in all who vv^ould receive him.
THE CLIMAX IN MIRACLES.
It is not necessary to encumber this chap- ter with a formula defending the fact of Christ's resurrection from the dead. It was prophesied that he would rise, that he should not see corruption*, and he foretold his own resurrection,! The report that he did rise could not have grown out of a buoyant ex-
^PsMilim 16:10; Acts 2:27.
f'Fpam that time fortih beg.an Jesus to slhow unto hts (lliiseipleis, liow that he must go unto Jerusalem, amd suf- fer many thinars of the elders .and chief priests and s<?ribes, and he killeii, and he raiised Again the third d'ay." Matthew J 6:21.
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cextstin prospect^ and wsnuld rmiy leiie^er lat had ria«i w1i«i compeiled to do i«> by at;. - bom evidencfiil: In its more^ ertremg- Q)rni, tile new rfaeoloi^ wnuid hare is bptfeye tfasK^ tbe Lord did nor die, bur simpiy paoaed throu^ a tzance, to retire iirtD ofaaearity; and lat^r die a "■ — "": ieatii; or eJse *±a*: his Mraids did pr .^^^7 -rceai Ms body' and start a false repoir. as' vaa stated aTrroTrpf ■±e opposing .Jews. The evidKice of his L^esiir- rection has beei cieariy pointed out" in many aialy written voiumes. and is be6)re is in. ti» very life of this age. Ever attemiir to explain it away is: 30 paipabiy weak and 50 evidentiv due to a desire to tx^oe caiR ode acience or something eise. tliar we may sain nothing here by trying ro reeicon witir ifc This outstanding event of history, riie cer- tainty of which increases in volume wrtii eatih turn of the wheel of time, serves as an immortal proof -text for tlie gospei we preach. The fact tttat J^us lives, that he^ liv^es* on the triumphant side of tbe grave, has explained not only that contagious u^er-- taintj' which ha& marked the succesaiui ex-
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WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
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ponents of the Gospel in every age, but this thrilling fact, settled beyond all chance of refutation, has put into the disciples of Christ a spirit of daring, a sentiment of self denial, a willingness to invest their all, which has been the amazement of every thinking man who was unacquainted with the under- lying secret. As the sun at his rising would dissolve the halo of the street lights, so this has been the miracle that swallowed up all other miracles. So loftily does it stand out upon the horizon of the past that no other miracle is deemed necessary as a credential for the gospel. Miracles may be worked today, bringing consolation or relief to the ser\'ants of God, but they are no longer need- ed, and should be no longer offered as cre- dentials for the Gospel. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead renders the Gos- pel no longer an unconcluded argument, but a grand proclamation. However the faith of men of other ages might have come, '•'faith comes by hearing"* in every normal instance of our day. If a man can be justi- fied he can be glorified ;t but he cannot be justified without faith. t The resurrection of Jesus Christ is offered by the Scriptures as a sufficient basis for justifying faith.**
*RomaBS 10:17.
tRomans 8:30.
jRomans 5:1. Hebrews 11:6.
♦♦Romans 4:20-25.
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pectancy in the minds of his disciples, for, having been unable to believe that he would die, they had failed to arm themselves with a faith to offset the shock when he did die. Consequently, they were resigned to an un- certain prospect, and would only believe he had risen when compelled to do so by stub- born evidence. t In its more extreme form, the new theology would have us believe that the Lord did not die, but simply passed through a trance, to retire into obscurity, and later die a natural death ; or else that his friends did probably steal his body and start a false report, as was stated among the opposing Jews. The evidence of his resur- rection has been clearly pointed out in many ably written volumes, and is before us in the very life of this age. Every attempt to explain it away is so palpably weak and so evidently due to a desire to take care of science or something else, that we may gain nothing here by trying to reckon with it. This outstanding event of history, the cer- tainty of which increases in volume with each turn of the wheel of time, serves as an immortal pro of -text for the gospel we preach. The fact that Jesus lives, that he lives on the triumphant side of the grave, has explained not only that contagious cer- taintv which has marked the successful ex-
^.Luke 24:11. 31, 22. Jo'lin 20:25.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 69
ponents of the Gospel in every age, but this thrilling fact, settled beyond all chance of refutation, has put into the disciples of Christ a spirit of daring, a sentiment of self denial, a willingness to invest their all, which has been the amazement of every thinking man who was unacquainted with the under- lying secret. As the sun at his rising would dissolve the halo of the street lights, so this has been the miracle that swallowed up all other miracles. So loftily does it stand out upon the horizon of the past that no other miracle is deemed necessary as a credential for the gospel. Miracles may be worked today, bringing consolation or relief to the servants of God, but they are no longer need- ed, and should be no longer offered as cre- dentials for the Gospel. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead renders the Gos- pel no longer an unconcluded argument, but a grand proclamation. However the faith of men of other ages might have come, '■'faith comes by hearing"* in every normal instance of our day. If a man can be justi- fied he can be glorified;! but he cannot be justified without faith. J The resurrection) of Jesus Christ is offered by the Scriptures as a sufficient basis for justifying faith.**
*Riomams 10:17.
tRomans 8:30".
JRomans 5:1. Hebrews 11:6.
**Romans 4:20-25.
70 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
THE FAILURE OF LABORATORY ANALYSIS.
The "traditional" view of the person of Christ is not traceable to mere traditions of the past, nor is the "critical" view the result of scientific findings. The new position gets its support rather from the psychology of the present time. "The Christ of the new theology" is the natural product of a line of emphasis in the education of today, which line is bound to be shifted after the spot light shines on it a few more decades. Those who would bring the person of Jesus Christ to the laboratory for analysis, or who would subject him to an investigation in the matter of his genesis, his advent, his pro- gram and his future, may expect to be baf- fled with more than one unanswerable ques- tion. The difficulties are not reduced by turning to evolution or the new theology for a solution. To be consistent, evolution must compliment him with the distinction of be- ing in his day the highest product of pro- gressive evolution ; but it must also, to be consistent, expect a greater than Jesus, as the millenniums pass. Even a new theo- logian would regard such a position as anti- Christian ; but honest, outspoken infidels, who, instead of trying to supplant and take the property and title of Christianity, are frankly declaring themselves against Christ, will admit the logic of our position. It is a
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 71
case of trying to accept him and reject him at the same time, when one holds him as the Christ for every age and at the same time refuses to see in his advent a new addition to the cosmic system from the divine uni- verse above us; an exotic force, beyond the natural order.
Naturally, there are many problems en- countered when we begin to study the per- son of Christ. His existence from eternity, his relationship with the Father as the "only begotten" Son, his incarnation, his temporary humiliation while in the flesh, with the question of his resignation of rights and limitation of knowledge, his subjection of himself to the necessity of meeting human conditions, including supplication and obed- ience unto death. These, more seriously than his subsequent "glorification" and his coming majesty, present us themies which are hard to comprehend, and in the accept- ance of which we must have recourse to faith. We cannot figure them out or expound them after a rational scheme. We can re- concile our intelligence, however, in two re- flections : All thes€ phenomena, w^hile beyond reason, are not contrary to reason ; and all other schools, being bound to accept Christ as a fact, have tried in vain to account for him on a basis which involves any less of difficulty or which brings half as much bene-
72 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
fit and blessing to mankind as that which accepts him just as he represented himself. The careful student of the life of Christ is well aware that pre existence from eternity and divine attributes were claimed for him in the days of his ministry and in apostolic times ; and the man of reverence and faith will also recognize that the claim was back- ed by overwhelming credentials during those times and it has been unceasingly confirmed by the results of his influence in the world through the ensuing centuries; an influence which was never so great as today, after nineteen centuries have passed.
PREEXISTENCE, SONSHIP AND LIMITATIONS
How, then, shall we dismiss our difficult questions? There is no syllable of proof that the supreme being is triune in his man- ifestation, with a person in the Godhead called "the Son," excepting as we find it in holy writ, or get it from the statement of Christ. It is a fact which vaguely appears in the Old Testament, but awaits its clear de- finition in the New. We may infer that "the Son," being a term borrowed from the an- alogies of this life, presents one way, of which there are others, for enabling the human mind to form a profitable apprehen- sion of Christ's place in the Godhead. It fol- lows, therefore, that the word "begotten," when applied to the eternal Son, is entirely
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 73
free from one of its meanings as we iholdi it in the analogy of human generation, and is employed, not to imply that there was a time when Christ was not, but to impress us with the vital oneness of Christ with the Father. A small minority of orthodox teach- ers have narrowed the reference of this term and its equivalents to the work of the Holy Spirit in the natural generation of Jesus, assuming that his existence in the Godhead from the eternities past was to be appre- hended under some other analogy; but the sound position, which orthodoxy generally favors, recognizes the fact that from the be- ginning, when God out of his love contem- plated the gift of Christ as the world's Savior (John 3:16) he was the "only be- gotten Son." The problem of his incarna- nation we have already studied, to the satis- faction of one who has faith; but if one is predisposed to unbelief, it is a part of the divine economy to give him a way of escape from the necessity of believing, as no con- scripts are wanted in the way of faith.
It is evident that Christ represented some of his divine attributes as being suspended during the yeans that he lived in human flesh and subjected himself to natural laws. He refers to an item of knowledge which was kept from him during his humiliation,*
•Acts 8:33; Mark 13:32.
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74 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
and we may infer that, though during th period of his Spirit-filled ministry his di^^ cerning power was extensive,! other item of knowledge were temporarily put aiwa; from him as a part of his emptying.J Hi authority while in the flesh, vast as it wa over disease, devils, and forces of nature may have had limits; but it was made in finite after his resurrection.** Exactly t' estimate the status of the great Christ afte the measure of a man or after the measur of God, during the several periods betwee the nativity and the ascension, would be im possible. It was never intended that h should be an available specimen in anybody'^ laboratory of psychology or metaphysics. 11 is easy for the unsympathizing critic, read ing the conversations and sermons of Jesm and the record of his deeds, to say that hi.' knowledge was circumscribed, and that h€ partook of the superstitions of his day. But in ansiwer to the former, we may be remind- ed that though Jesus made free use of near ly all the subjects which now furnish the basis of the several sciences, he never madf a scientific blunder. This is the more re markable when we remember that most any preacher or orator today drawing topics from subjects in which he is unread is liable
tJ'Oihii 2.24-25; Luke 5:22. tPhilipipians 8:6-8. •*Matthew 28:18.
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to make conspicuous mistakes, and when we bear in mind the fact that other literature coming to us from that time commonly ex- hibits a crudeness of understandinp when it undertakes to handle scientific data and a very quaint flavor in most of its philosophy.
DE\ILS AND DISEASE,
About all the charge of superstition hinjfes around his recognition of the existence of devils, and his seeming accord with the pre- vailing belief, still common in certain pagan nations, that there is intimate relationship bet\\een ordinary physical afflictions and the possession of evil spirits. The most that can be got out of this is that Christ admitted that such a relationship sometimes existed. It is quite certain that he ascribed some af- flictions to the sins of the individual, with- out reference to demoniacle possession.* It i.s also clear that he admitted the possibility of grave physical affliction without any sin whatever being connected with the cause.! To what extent he deliberately adapted him- self to the erroneous views of those who waited upon his ministry we have no way of telling; but a resort to this is a doubtful method for explaining difficult questions. His recognition of the existence of devils, especially of the existence of Satan, needs
•John 5 14. tJobn 9.3.
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74 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
and we may infer that, though during the period of his Spirit-filled ministry his dis- cerning power was extensive,! other items of knowledge were temporarily put away from him as a part of his emptying. $ His authority while in the flesh, vast as it was over disease, devils, and forces of nature, may have had limits; but it was made in- finite after his resurrection.** Exactly to estimate the status of the great Christ after the measure of a man or after the measure of God, during the several periods between the nativity and the ascension, would be im- possible. It was never intended that he should be an available specimen in anybody's laboratory of psychology or metaphysics. It is easy for the unsympathizing critic, read- ing the conversations and sermons of Jesus and the record of his deeds, to say that his knowledge was circumscribed, and that he partook of the superstitions of his day. But, in ans'wer to the former, we may be remind- ed that though Jesus made free use of near- ly all the subjects which now furnish the basis of the several sciences, he never made a scientific blunder. This is the more re- markable when we remember that most any preacher or orator today drawing topics from subjects in which he is unread is liable
t.Toihn 2.24-25; Lmke 5:22. tPhiJipipians 2:6-8. •♦Matthew 28:18.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 75
to make conspicuous mistakes, and when we bear in mind the fact that other literature coming to us from that time commonly ex- hibits a crudeness of understanding when it undertakes to handle scientific data and a very quaint flavor in most of its philosophy.
DEVILS AND DISEASE.
About all the charge of superstition hinges around his recognition of the existence of devils, and his seeming accord with the pre- vailing belief, still common in certain pagan nations, that there is intimate relationship between ordinary physical afflictions and the possession of evil spirits. The most that can be got out of this is that Christ admitted that such a relationship sometimes existed. It is quite certain that he ascribed some af- flictions to the sins of the individual, with- out reference to demoniacle possession.* It is also clear that he admitted the possibility of grave physical affliction without any sin whatever being connected with the cause.f To what extent he deliberately adapted him- self to the erroneous views of those who waited upon his ministry we have no way of telling; but a resort to this is a doubtful method for explaining difficult questions. His recognition of the existence of devils, especially of the existence of Satan, needs
*John 5rl4. tJohn 9;3.
76 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
no apology, excepting in the arena of the new theology, where apology is needed also for his miracles, and for all that pertains to the supernatural, including the experiences of grace in the Christian heart. That the word devil, as employed in the New Testament, might sometimes stand for an evil disposi- tion or a sinful principle is quite generally conceded. Casting out devils is the New Testament expression for what we mean by getting people converted ; but the question of belief in devils resolves itself to the ques- tion of whether we shall believe in the super- natural or the spiritual realm at all. When the latter is settled there is no difficulty about the former. The repeated efforts of such scholars as those composing the So- ciety for Psychical Research to grapple with the phenomena of the occult, the divided courts which have often resulted from these investigations, the unsolved metaphysical problems which continue confessedly to hang over the horizon of science, including the sublime phenomena described in Begbie's Twice Born Men, all serve to make us in- fallibly sure that science is not infallibly sure there is no devil. Any discussion, therefore, which would reflect upon the intelligence and integrity of Jesus Christ, whose phenomenal assets are so great, with so few liabilities to offset them, should be shifted from those
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 77
points where modest scientists can claim no certain knowledge, and confined to questions of established fact.
THE LAST WORD IN EVIDENCE.
This done, and we believe that the un- friendly critic will soon become as silent as the lawyer of old, who durst ask him no more questions. The communities where the Lord Jesus Christ has been fairly and fully represented present a marked advancement over all other communities. The better in- fluences now dominant in the world are traceable to him; whether it be in the in- stitutions of mercy for the afflicted, the open- ing of the door of equity to the poor, the humble and the toiler, the elevation of wo- man from vassalage to the queenly position for which she was made, or the movements for man's higher developement mentally and spiritually. But when a proponent eludes these proofs and satisfies himself that the world without Jesus could have had all these things, we have remaining, as facts of his- tory past and current, thousands of men and women redeemed from shackles of habit and depths of degradation from which no cult of earth has ever been able to bring them, and no device of science at its best has ever been sufficient to recover them.. The Mary Mag- dalenes and the erry McAuleys are not the least among the glorious credentials of the
78 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
Christ of orthodoxy. The question arises, could the Christ of the new theology have cast the devils out of them?
This Christ who has such a significant past, to whom the present bears such vol- uminous testimony, claimed for himself a future more glorious than all ; and, after all that has come in the way of proof, who is so hardy as to doubt that there is something in his claim? The inducements for one to identify himself with this same Christ through an unquestioning faith, accepting his progTam and not trying to make a new one, supporting his standards without trying to trim them, were never more attractive than today. Not only does his way present to us the brightest path that wisdom has ever found, but it is the only safe way for nations or for men to reach the desired haven.
CHAPTER V.
THE AUTHORITY OF THE BIBLE.
It is generally believed that when a man goes beyond what he can learn through his sense faculties, his knowledge is only ap- proximate ; and that it must undergo re- vision and seek improvement till he goes hence into the light of a clearer day. This is true, as it touches fields of speculative thought ; but on questions vital to human sal- vation and hope a more sure word is needed. As the need is so natural and so uniform, it is in harmony with all the analogies of na- ture for us to expect a supply, to answer the need. Orthodox Christianity affirms that such a supply is found in the Bible. To the Bible we ascribe an infallibility for human guidance which is only qualified by imper- fections of copying, translation, and of in- terpretation. It is admitted that these three sources of error have produced quite an ob- scuring effect, varying in its density in dif- ferent generations, and in different circles in the same generation. It is held, neverthe- less, that these obscuring factors do not place the sincere student at a hopeless disad- vantage ; the facilities for determining all
79
80 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
the books that are canonical have furnished conclusions which are almost as exact as a process in mathematics, and the resources for checking up the work of copyists and translators are so manifold as to make the list of disputed renderings surprisingly small. Most of the confusion of tongues, ecclesiastically speaking, has grown out of conflicting or diverging interpretations. To the opposer of divine revelation this is a proof that the Bible contradicts itself ; an asi- sertion which two generations ago was left to Thomas Payne and Robert Ingersoll; but which is now made by "devout" scholars in our seminaries and in theological litera- ture with a seriousness which would imply that a caveat is entirely out of the question. It would require a master of metaphysics to explain the manifold divergencies in in- terpreting the Bible. He would have to show how sentiment, the fruit of environment or heredity, would color the premises of a syl- logism; how prejudice or selfish ends could influence the processes of thought; how habit in reacting could make individuals and groups mistake a psychological process for a logical method ; how beliefs could become epidemic, whose subjects admire their skies and pay little attention to their grounds ; how personal equation would make a dozen as- tronomers write as many different reports
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 81
of an eclipse of the sun, or produce a per- ceptible difference in the rendering of the same piece of instrumental music by artists at Berlin, London, Rome, Boston, Nashville, and Tokyo. It is certain that without any strain he could account for the conflicting interpretations of the Bible and not have to charge that sacred book with inconsistency or self contradiction. And as for the minor disagreements in the text, men who have made so much of the debauching results of the copying and interlining of old manu- scripts cannot turn and charge minor dis- parities to the Biblical writers without ex- hibiting prejudice or betraying lack of sin- cerity. Indeed the small verbal contrari- eties in the Holy Scriptures have been met and explained in our standard commentar- ies by methods of exegesis entirely satisfac- tory to sympathetic readers.
THE FIRST DESTRUCTIVE STROKE.
Modern destructive criticism frees itself for action, first by denying the peculiar au- thority of the Bible. This is accomplished by puncturing every theory of inspiration that has historic standing. The believer is relieved of the breath-taking result of an ab- rupt fall by the assurance that Jesus Christ had authority, that historic methods can sufficiently determine the gist of his teach- ing to make us safe in having something to
82 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
guide us, and that this gist, supplemented by the results of his life, projected down through the centuries, serves as a touch- stone by which to interpret the allegories of Old Testament history, and to correct the crude standards which are imbedded in the sixty-six books; especially in the thirty-nine.
The spirit that negotiates this high hand- ed denial of inspiration does not believe in the supernatural. In former centuries its school could not get together on a slogan for substituting the Biblical account of the ori- gin of the earth and its inhabitants and of civilization, morality, and religious institu- tions. Now, these are all solved in the one word evolution; and a key is at hand with which to account for each book of the Bible and to interpret its contents.
It follows, therefore, a priori, that the first five books in the Bible were written at a date much later than Moses. They teach that God creat-ed all things, that man in his lowly condition, where history first finds him, re- presents a descent from diviner conditions instead of an ascent from animal forbears. They teach that the religion that has typed the world's chief civilization originated by revelation in an epochal compass of time and that the fundamental ethics of life, while true to nature's criteria, did not orig- inate from nature, but were given in one day
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 83
from the hand of God, and that the revela- tion which God made of himself at that time included the tuitionary system of Levitical laws with a magnificent ritual, unfolding al- most in a day, in the camps of a "primitive, barbarous, illiterate" people. Such teaching must be false if spontaneous generation be true. The institutions and civilization im- plied in the Pentateuch had to come about gradually, allowing centuries of time for their developement after the exodus.
Consequently, we are asked to look for proof that the five books of Moses were written hundreds of years after Moses, in the ripe years of the history of the Hebrew nation, by clever literary men who collected old documents containing the myths and folklore of the centuries and wove them into a history interspersed with legend, to give their highly developed laws and ritual an ancient setting, and, in keeping with the customs of the nations, assign to themselves a past full of fictitious glory. This is the key, the Rosetta stone, of the modern critical method, in the schools which deny the doc- trine of divine revelation ; and much of its method has been taken over by schools that still claim to believe in an orthodox inspir- ation of the Scriptures. But it is self-evi- dent either that such schools do not believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures or that
84 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
they have not yet thought their problem through and found the ground on which they really belong.
PRO AND CON OF MOSAIC AUTHORSHIP.
All our readers will not count us fair in saying that the first assumption against the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch was a priori ; that students were "asked to look for proof" against the orthodox position. It was not a priori to those who learned it as par- rots. Students of the seminaries today, where denial of Mosaic authorship is incul- cated, are usually brought into this hypo- thesis from inductive sources. After being shown a presumptive ground against the Mosaic authorship in the thought that Moses was a man of action, a practical man of af- fairs, and that writing was out of his line, they are offered as concrete proof against Mosaic authorship, the argument that Bib- lical history from Joshua to the exile "ig- nores Levitical law" ; that geographical des- ignations in the Pentateuch, such as, "On the other side of Jordan," etc., indicate the au- thor as located in Palestine, where Moses never entered; that certain weights and measures and other objects of Moses' time are defined by the writer of the Pentateuch as if he were writing later; that historic source books and other features belonging to Moses' time are quoted in the Pentateuch as
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 85
belonging to a date earlier than the time in which the author was writing; and, finally, that the original Hebrew gives the books of the Pentateuch a stratified or composite ap- pearance, as if they had evolved or had been compiled from miscellaneous sources, the streaks being manifest in the translations ; as, e. g., the two accounts of creation in the opening of Genesis.
These arguments point out difficulties so elementary that the average reader may sur- mount them in a few moments of re- flexion, after comparing contexts. A brief discussion from a safe source is found in "Old Testament Introduction" by Dr. John H. Raven, pages 93-114. It is easy to as- semble chapters of proof in favor of the Mosaic authorship that is highly assuring to those who are not pre-induced by an oppos- ing atmosphere or obsessed with a theory which makes Mosaic authorship impossible in the premises. The following is a line of proof in gist which is susceptible of most satisfying development : (1) A large part of the Pentateuch professes to have been written by Moses. (2) References to it, by Old and New Testament writers uniformly ascribe it to Moses. (3) Jesus Christ always treated it as the work of Moses. (4) The Jews of Christ's time believed that Moses wrote the five books. (5) Many texts in the
86 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
Hebrew, referring to Egypt, prove the au- thor's familiarity with that country. (6) The original contains Hebrew words of Egyptian flavor, not usually found in the other Old Testament writings. (7) Customs peculiar to Egypt are referred to as existing when the Pentateuch was written. (8) The laws, said by critics to be of later origin, show marks of having originated under the author's circumstances, e. g.. Lev. 25:1, 2. They also show a primitive intermingling of civil, economic, moral and religious codes.
But the men of originality, who founded this new hypothesis, approached it by deduc- tive methods. They were ultra evolution- ists, and they felt that the Bible had to be for their theory or not be at all. They began their investigation expecting to find that the Pentateuch was a more modern document; and, true to a maxim of psychology, they found what they expected. They found it not, however, till they had borrowed the shrewd arguments that European deism had framed in the past three hundred years for the destruction of the authority of Moses' writings and the annihilation of revealed re- ligion, and had analyzed with pathetic minuteness the smallest philological tech- nicalities of the Hebrew manuscripts. About all that we must concede is that this ancient charter of revealed religion contains diflfi-
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 87
culties ; and this concession was made before evolutionary criticism arose to magnify the difficulties.
"contributions" of destructive criticism. It is diverting to read of v^^hat this "scien- tific" method of investigation has done for Biblical interpretation. Let us inquire what new facts have been brought to light by evolutionary criticism. What do they know that the scholars before them did not know in the form of data for estimating the books of the Bible? Some other manu- scripts have been found, but these make no special contribution to Biblical criticism, excepting to add weight to orthodoxy and increase the critic's problem. Some excava- tions have been made, but destructive critics are usually shy of the spade, for it has flatly disputed their word and driven them from their former assertion that people could not read in the days of Moses ;t and as the arch- aeologists continue to dig there is immanent danger to evolutionary critics, for they have found the ancient city of Troy which the "critical method" pronounced a myth,* and they are likely at any time to dig up a section of the Pentateuch among the antiqui- ties of Moses' time. What have they new to offer us on the subject of Mosaic authorship?
tThe Deciding Voice of the iMonuiments on iBilblLoal Clrit- 'icism." by M. G. Kyle, LL.D., p. 83 f. *rbid. p. 38.
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8S WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
Nothing but a fond doctrine of evolution and a clever formation of rhetoric which, deny- ing the Mosaic authorship, makes a forgery out of the first five books of the Bible, and then shows us how to exercise respect for that forgery and derive help from its moral teachings.
The doctrine of inspiration denied, the theory of allegory, fable, fiction and super- stition easily provides explanation for all that we have from the pens of the Old and New Testament writers which might em- barrass the assumptions of science ; and time is so magnanimous in its burial of circum- stantial evidence that it has been found pos- sible to manipulate authorship and dates of the several books so as to protect the plausi- bility of allegory and fiction theories. Pro- tection for the plausibility of a thing is all that a man wants to warrant its use as a keystone in his arch, provided it is the only thing that will fit in well enough to keep his arch from falling. The subtleties of argu- ment are always sufficient to give scientific airs to any theory which does not fall upon the mishap of a categorical refutation.
Happily for the interests of the Church of God — and, since a divine decree has guar- anteed the Church's interests so that it needs no human defenders, — happily for the in- terests of unsophisticated humanity, the ef-
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WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
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forts of destructive criticism to treat the first five books of the New Testament by a method parallel with their method of treating the Pentateuch have failed. If the position could have stood unexploded, that the synop^ tic Gospels were written by ingenuous preachers of the second century, over the names of Matthew. Mark and Luke, it would have been just as consistent as saying that the Pentateuch was written by a clever pen- man several centuries later than Moses, and it would not then have be«n so difficult to say that the Christ of the Gospels was manu- factured by his disciples, who, at a period so late that no one would be in a position to deny their assertions, took a life a little above the ordinary, which ended with a tragic death, and exalted it into a life of deity, covering it with a fictitious halo and filling it with legendary miracles. It is now conclusively proved* that these Gospels orig- inated before the death of the Apostle Paul, at a time when much literature could have been launched in answer to the extraordin- ary claims which they set forth for Christ, had not the world been so aghast at the time vnth the astomiding facts of his life that no one in that generation felt wan-anted to make reply. It turns out that the centuries of the Christian era have not been long
*Cf. "Freedom of Tihou.g'hi; lu Keldg'Lo'US TeaoMng," by R. J. Ocokw. D.D.. LL.D., p. 98 ff.
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Nothing but a fond doctrine of evolution and a clever formation of rhetoric which, deny- ing the Mosaic authorship, makes a forgery- out of the first five books of the Bible, and then shows us how to exercise respect for that forgery and derive help from its moral teachings.
The doctrine of inspiration denied, the theory of allegory, fable, fiction and super- stition easily provides explanation for all that we have from the pens of the Old and New Testament writers which might em- barrass the assumptions of science ; and time is so magnanimous in its burial of circum- stantial evidence that it has been found pos- sible to manipulate authorship and dates of the several books so as to protect the plausi- ibility of allegory and fiction theories. Pro- tection for the plausibility of a thing is all that a man wants to warrant its use as a keystone in his arch, provided it is the only thing that will fit in well enough to keep his arch from falling. The subtleties of argu- ment are always sufficient to give scientific airs to any theory which does not fall upon the mishap of a categorical refutation.
Happily for the interests of the Church of God — and, since a divine decree has guar- anteed the Church's interests so that it needs no human defenders, — happily for the in- terests of unsophisticated humanity, the ef-
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 89
forts of destructive criticism to treat the first five books of the New Testament by a method parallel with their method of treating the Pentateuch have failed. If the position could have stood unexploded, that the synop- tic Gospels were written by ingenuous preachers of the second century, over the names of Matthew, Mark and Luke, it would have been just as consistent as saying that the Pentateuch was written by a clever pen- man several centuries later than Moses, and it would not then have been so difficult to say that the Christ of the Gospels was manu- factured by his disciples, who, at a period so late that no one would be in a position to deny their assertions, took a life a little above the ordinary, which ended with a tragic death, and exalted it into a life of deity, covering it with a fictitious halo and filling it with legendary miracles. It is now conclusively proved* that these Gospels orig- inated before the death of the Apostle Paul, at a time when much literature could have been launched in answer to the extraordin- ary claims ivhich they set forth for Christ, had not the world been so aghast at the time with the astounding facts of his life that no one in that generation felt warranted to make reply. It turns out that the centuries of the Christian era have not been long
*Cf. "Freedom of Tihoug'lit in Reldg'LOTis TeaoMng," toy R. J. Cooke, D.D.. DL.D., p. 68 fif.
90 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
enough to bury the circumstantial evidence proving the apostolic origin of the Gospels. Even the rationalists of the present time who make any pretence to broad investiga- tion concede this; and, though they are not disposed to let this inning of orthodoxy agi- tate much attention, we are quite sure that when history records the rise and fall of de- structive criticism it will mention this as their Waterloo.
CREATING AND OPPOSING CARICATURES.
It is destructive to the new theologj^ and contrary to its spirit to admit any theory of inspiration which would give unqualified au- thority even to a correctly rendered, rightly interpreted Bible. It is committed to a pro- gram of opposition at this point. The method of administering this iconoclasm is ad pop- ulum. They first pit the authority of the Scriptures against the authority of Jesus Christ, and please the orthodox reader by deferring to Christ, choosing a person in- stead of a document. Seemingly, his utter- ances are treated as a higher form of inspir- ation to be preferred before the other writ- ings of the Bible ; but it soon turns out that his authority is taken to the exclusion of the authority of the Scriptures, of which he says, "They are they which testify of me"; and eventually, when Christ has been used to substitute the Scriptures, we are asked
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 91
to deny his deity and treat his authority as that of a man. The treatment of the subject of inspiration is illustrative of the treatment of the subjects of atonement, depravity, fu- ture punishment and other phases of ortho- dox teaching. The crudest mediaeval modes of apprehension are described and then de- molished, the work of destruction not ceas- ing till the pupil is brought securely over to the side of rationalism. The straw men which have been destroyed in new theology pulpits and class rooms during recent de- cades would make a considerable decoy regi- ment. In preparing a nauseating gorge on the subject of inspiration we are reminded of the Greek oracles, of heathen trances, and of the rhapsodies of pagan priests, during which times they are supposed to make exalted utterances, and we are asked to view this as illustrative of the evangelical con- ception of inspiration. We are told that there is no middle ground between this and the poetic muses of Tennyson, which, while they may have secured him against prosaic and mediocre expressions, were no guaran- tee against inaccuracy.
The essential doctrine of inspiration as retained by Christianity holds the following maxims.
EVIDENCE THAT GOD HAS SPOKEN.
1. Things cannot be made without a mak-
92 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
er. A cause must be equal to an effect, and it is easily presumed to be greater. It is un- thinkable that he who formed the eye cannot see, or he that planted the ear cannot hear. It is inevitable that average humanity in its best stage of reflection should feel sure of the existence of a Supreme Being in no sense averse or indifferent to the interests of those creatures which represent the high- est product of his creative power, and en- tirely able to occupy their viewpoint.
2. Without attempting to account for the obvious chasm between the Creator and his intelligent creation, by which direct and common communication is excluded, only one inference is possible in the average judg- ment, and that is, that our Maker is disposed to communicate with us. (a) Instinctively we want to hear from him and express our- selves to him. (b) It is plainly seen by
malogy and contrast that we are in trouble; something is the matter, (c) We have a will, and we know he must have a will ; and we are almost unanimously assured that if some way is devised by which his will can be communicated to us it will be better for us.
3. It is inevitable, therefore, that man in his mood of better intelligence should expect to find on the earth a communication in some form from his Maker. True to this assump- tion, investigation proves that virtually all
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 93
peoples, throughout human history, have been expecting a communication from God; and in their eagerness they have fostered manifold superstitions as fancied fulfill- ments of their felt need. Like travelers in a desert, crazed with thirst, they have chased the mirage and drank the libations of their ow^n feverish imaginations.
4. It turned out, as the centuries advanc- ed, that certain men of exalted character, the moral and spiritual elite of the world, claimed to have received communications from God. Certain ear marks different from all figmental revelations should have lent plausibility to their claims, (a) The one speaking out from the shadows demanded holiness, separation from sin.* (b) Though choosing a family or tribe through which to make effective his communication to man- kind, he represented himself not as a tribal God, but as recognizing the unity of the world of created intelligences, and as having ultimately an equal interest in all.f
5. The influence of these men and of their professed divine revelation has never per- ished, has had essential causal relation to the best philanthropy and the best ethics of the modern civilized world; and these chosen representatives of humanity have, as a re- sult of their alleged mediation between the
♦Genesis 15:6; 17:1. tGenesis 18:18.
94 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
Creator and the creature, become citizens of the world, inhabitants of the centuries, co- adjutors with the world movers of every gen- eration since their time. There is scarcely one of them who could be called an exception, whether they figure in the revelation of the old or the new dispensation.
6. From the hands of this outstanding group of humanity's peers have come manu- scripts out of which have been sifted, with painstaking care, by the profoundest scholarship, a collection of books, sixty-six, as they are now divided, whose authors im- plied by tone or express statement that they were writing in the capacity of seers, "moved by the Holy Spirit,""' whom deity had select- ed as representatives of the ages to record a collection of facts, illustrations, counsels and laws in such a shape as to embody in avail- able form the essential truth pertaining to man's origin and destiny and a disclosure of the will of his Maker.
7. The writings of these professed receiv- ing agents of humanity originated within a period of about fifteen centuries of the worlds' history; and, notwithstanding the variations of temperament, education, or chronological vantage ground, they show a uniformity in their ideals and breadth of sympathy and a unity in scheme and objec-
*2 Samuel 23 :2 ; 2 Peter 1 :21.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 95
tive which argues for the fact that they were all under the dominion of one central, gov- erning mind. The presence of the local color- ing of the age of each writer, with the re- lentless portrayal of human nature as a set- ting for these gems of divine thought, are more confirming to our faith in the authen- ticity of the documents than would be a studied uniformity which undertook to re- fine away all sensuous data. Like the stars of the heavens observed with a natural eye, the Scriptures present a unity of lustre in their ideals, and a uniformity in their ma^ terials, with no apparent systemization ; but, like the stars again, under the lens of devout analysis they present a system, so manifold in its conjunctions and so extensive in its reach that scholars not blinded by the conceit of unbelief have felt that this life was too short to complete even an elementary chart of the heavens of divine truth.
8. Wherever the salt waters of the sea transgress the earth, the fruits and flowers fail and the desert wastes abound. If we had no other way to determine the quality and chemical content of these waters this would be sufficient. The Koran, the writings of Confucius, the oracles of Buddha, indeed every formula for solving man's problems and enriching his hopes, when given suffi- cient time for the dead weight of its inertia to
96 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY ?
consolidate, has constricted the germ of civ- ilization and given us a community that had to have outside help to prevent its going from bad to worse. But the Bible, fairly placed in any community or nation, or as- similated in the life of any individual, has taken away sterility, released the best germ forces, and brought bud, blossom and fruit- age as when irrigations from a mountain lake are turned upon the alluvial valley.
9. When a man has in his mine a sub- stance that will fuse metals or absorb gas or exert some other singular influence, and, in trying to convince me of the merits of his mine, he gives me some of its product and challenges me to try it, I am not fair if I lay it away on a shelf to be covered with dust and use my influence as a gainsayer to heckle him in the sale of his stocks to develop his mine. The Bible contains many striking prophecies which have been fulfilled and are being fulfilled before our eyes. Scholars can only fail to see this by having their minds prejudiced through abstractions about the Bible. It contains scores of promises which the sincere heart may put to a test any day, and which have been tested and brought blessing to thousands of people whose in- telligence and ability to estimate proof would not be questioned on any material subject.
10. There is no questioning the malignity,
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 97
and, sometimes, the sincerity, of the age- long attack which has been made upon the Bible. There is scarcely any thinkable re- source which has not been drawn upon as a means of opposition. We grant that opposi- tion is a good advertiser, and sometimes a generator of sympathy for the victim; es- pecially where it is actuated by animosities or emotions of fancied virtue. But there is a form of opposition which is laid in deep design; which forgets no law of psychology; which takes its time and calls to its service an alliance of all the available weapons, di- rected by the best generalship that training can produce. This form of opposition has buried philosophers, destroyed armies, sunk navies, annihilated cities, and so completely destroyed nations that the historians cannot unearth data to write a chapter of their history. That same style of opposition, spanning centuries with its persistency, has been directed against the Bible, shaped and reshaped by kings, statesmen, philosophers, ecclesiastics, false prophets, blackguards and outlaws. The weapons have been in all forms ; from the bonfire, the shaft of sarcasm and the profane curse, to that of denaturing sophistry, perversion, substitution, destruc- tive lower criticism and destructive higher criticism. Laws of state and laws of church have been invoked. Although laws are
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multiplying- to safeguard religious liberty, and although we hear no one profanely swearing- at the Bible today, it was never in history subjected to an attack which had a better show of success than now. It was never opposed with less apparent spleen, never with more confidence of success, never with more serene complacency, never with a greater illusion of superior scholarship, and never with a more subtle intoxication of the sense of their own noble virtues. But this word of God is a thing- of life. Its claims of divine origin are sustained in the way it has stood the test of opposition and remained proof against breakag-e and proof against alloy. Its elements are so unique that it will not take up a mixture which earthly alchemists may devise to denature its con- tent; and in the matter of stability it is as permanent as the mundane heavens.* The names of most of its opposers of former gen- erations have disappeared from history. Many of them have come to a sad end. Move- ments revolving around other centers, con- trary to the Bible, have cracked and crumb- led and been abandoned by the children of their own champions ; but the word of God abides. In estimating this unanswerable credential of God's word, a humble author of thirtj'-five years ago wrote a four verse
♦Matthew 5:17, 18; Luke 1G:17; 1 Peter 1:23, 25; Isaiah 40:8; Psalm 119:39
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poem, from which we quote the first two verses, neglecting the latter, in which he makes his application :
"Last eve I stood before a blacksmith's door And heard the anvil ring its vesper chime; Then looking in I saw upon the floor Old hammers worn with beating years of time.
" 'How many anvils have you had,' said I, 'To wear and batter all these hammers so?' ^
'Just one,' he answered; then with twinkling eye—) 'The anvil wears the hammer out, you know.' "f
THEORY AND FACT.
There are short-sighted people who sup- pose that the fact of inspiration must be held in suspense till the theory is determined. They suppose that the point at which the student must first go to work is to determine whether it is "verbal" or "substantial," whether God elected to employ the maximum or the minimum of miraculous elements to se- cure the accuracy of Holy Writ, whether Bib- lical writers lost themselves in the Spirit or whether their personal traits, education and peculiar mode of expression were appropri- ated by the Holy Spirit and used as they were found; whether historic events were refined out of the crudities of profane his- tory and the then existing traditions, or directly given from the Lord ; whether events and conversations of the time of the Biblical writer were miraculously represent-
tC B. Cake in "The Current"; Chieag'O, Dec. 27, 1884.
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98 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
multiplying' to safeguard religious liberty, and although we hear no one profanely swearing at the Bible today, it was never in history subjected to an attack which had a better show of success than now. It was never opposed with less apparent spleen, never with more confidence of success, never with more serene complacency, never with a greater illusion of superior scholarship, and never with a more subtle intoxication of the sense of their own noble virtues. But this word of God is a thing of life. Its claims of divine origin are sustained in the way it hasi ■stood the test of opposition and remained proof against breakage and proof against alloy. Its elements are so unique that it will not take up a mixture which earthly alchemists may devise to denature its con- tent; and in the matter of stability it is as permanent as the mundane heavens.* The names of most of its opposers of former gen- ^ erations have disappeared from history. Many of them have come to a sad end. Move- ments revolving around other centers, con- trary to the Bible, have cracked and crumb- led and been abandoned by the children of their own champions; but the word of God abides. In estimating this unanswerable credential of God's word, a humble author of thirty-five years ago wrote a four verse
*MattluMv r,:17, 18; Luike 1G:17; 1 Peter 1:23, 25; Isaiah 40:8; Psialm 119:89
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 99
poem, from which we quote the first two verses, neglecting the latter, in which he makes his application :
/ "Last eve I stood before a blacksmith's door a
And heard the anvil ring its vesper chime; Then looking in I saw upon the floor Old hammers worn with beating years of time.
" 'How many anvils have you had,' said I, V
'To wear and batter all these hammers so?' /
'Just one,' he answered; then with twinkling eye-—) 'The anvil wears the hammer out, you know.' "t
THEORY AND FACT.
There are short-sighted people who sup- pose that the fact of inspiration must be held in suspense till the theory is determined. They suppose that the point at which the student must first go to work is to determine whether it is "verbal" or "substantial," whether God elected to employ the maximum or the minimum of miraculous elements to se- cure the accuracy of Holy Writ, whether Bib- lical writers lost themselves in the Spirit or whether their personal traits, education and peculiar mode of expression were appropri- ated by the Holy Spirit and used as they were found; whether historic events were refined out of the crudities of profane his- tory and the then existing traditions, or directly given from the Lord ; whether events and conversations of the time of the Biblical writer were miraculously represent-
tC B. Cake in "The Curreat" ; OMeagio-, Dee. 27, 1884.
100 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
ed to the writer, or whether he kept notes with a view to his purposed authorship, or only gave the substance of those convei'sa- tions which are ostensibly verbatim, being preserved against error in essence and meaning, but not against deviation in mode of expression. Whether the inspiration of different parts of the Bible varies all the way from a passage from the very mouth of Je- hovah, one hundred per cent verbal inspira- tion, to a genealogical document, copied from the archives by a clerk on routine duty. It is said that a gentleman unacquainted with law. when called upon to preside over a court of law, asked some advice of Lord Mansfield. The advice was: ^\^len you are called upon for a ruling, give it directly, and firmly, according to your best judgment, and you will nearly always be right; but do not try to expound your reasons for a ruling, for in this you will nearly always be wrong. In the light of the fundamental proofs of the fact of inspiration it is hard to see how any can remain unsettled, excepting they have previously been spoiled through vain philoso- phy;* but when we leave the fact and under- take to expound the modus operandi of in- spiration we are nearly sure to make some mistakes, because the acceptance of facts was God's original design for us, and the fa-
•Colossians 2:8.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 101
cilities for constructing an adequate theory explaining the how of inspiration have not been placed in our hands. We would not on this account shut the door of research or hush the instinct of interrogation in the hu- man mind ; indeed we would not object to un- folding our views on all the questions above suggested, if space permitted ; but we must hold ourselves to recognize that the main point of emphasis is in the fact of inspira- tion, which is gloriously settled ; and if we do not know just how it took place, which we do not, this limitation need not affect the con- sistency and vigor of our faith.
INDISPENSABLE AND SUFFICIENT.
In every age there have been scriptures (writings) which seryed their purpose and perished, or were filed with the antiqui- ties, but the Scriptures are inbreathed of God,* who knew that there was one branch of knowledge which could not be extorted from the bosom of nature, or built from the materials of this world. Man may begin with a hand full of pebbles and a string, and attain a system of mathematics by which he x:an measure the dimensions of the universe ; but if he wishes to correct his own heart he must turn to the Word of God. He can begin
*"A11 Soriptnre is ftiven by Inspiration of God, and is prafltable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for in- stniction in rishteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thorong-hly furnished unto alll good works." 2 Timothy 3:16, 17.
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102 WHAT IS NEW THEODGY?
Willi llu' pfiniary laws of thoupt and write voliiiiK's 1)1' worldly wisdom; bu if he wants roliablo instruction in the way f righteous- ness he must tuni to the Bible. le may syn- t-hcsi/e I he fragrance of flowers n his labor- atory ov coax the fruits of the fiid into high dc.u'roes of perfection ; but he wb is highest an\on>;- created things must turito the Most Hich when he would seek the frfection of his soul. This recourse to Od is had through the exceeding great ad precious invmises of his word.* Man <.n find the fuel for his winters and tap the toling veins of the earth for his summers; bt when he wishes to furnish his life with ood wcarks at\d Iwvme skilled in the higher rts of ser- vivv to Gixi and man. he most tke coaosd t>v^n\ the Hol>- Scripttires.
The surticiency of the Scripturj has ;j(nu«cK\i tv^ as an inductive pr?«c^that o«nvf flrv>n\ G<»d. He who ci-i ai Aey
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ductions, thir most impressive imagery, to- gether with he spirit of their strongest ap- peals and te keynote of their every psalm of hope. Tke its influence out of the libra- ries of the 'orld, and they would be sterile; take its inrtence out of the social life of the world and II ideals of human brotherhood would stager into the shadows. Take its influence ou of the political government of the world nd the average civilized man would wish or death.
It is up 0 date. Like a highly polished mirror it rflects the scenes of the passing days; and 'hen it does not supplement the intuitions c wise men so as to show them the major even^ of the world in advance of their arrival, it o interprets the output of time's revolving 'heel that when events do come their meanig is more promptly defined and their issue more wholesomely solved by leaders wh read and respect the Holy Scrip- tures.
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with the primary laws of thought and write volumes of worldly wisdom; but if he wants reliable instruction in the way of righteous- ness he must turn to the Bible, He may syn- thesize the fragrance of flowers in his labor- atory or coax the fruits of the field into high degrees of perfection ; but he who is highest among created things must turn to the Most High when he would seek the perfection of his soul. This recourse to God is had through the exceeding great and precious promises of his word.* Man can find the fuel for his winters and tap the cooling veins of the earth for his summers ; but when he wishes to furnish his life with good works and become skilled in the higher arts of ser- vice to God and man, he must take counsel from the Holy Scriptures.
The sufficiency of the Scriptures has been alluded to as an inductive proof that they came from God. He who claims that they need something added to fulfill the object for which they are given, proves his lack of ac- quaintance with their manifold instructions. Consciously or unconsciously, the writers of the libraries of the world have derived from this Book the best ideals of their own pro-
*2 Peter 1 :S, 4. "Acoordling as hits divine power hath griven unto us alil tlhing's that pertain unto life amd godli- ne.sis, througlh i!he kncwled'ge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby ^are given unto us exceeding great and precious (promiiises; that by theise ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corrup- tion that is in the world tbr<>ugh lust,"
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 103
ductions, their most impressive imagery, to- gether with the spirit of their strongest ap- peals and the keynote of their every psalm of hope. Take its influence out of the libra- ries of the world, and they would be sterile ; take its influence out of the social life of the world and all ideals of human brotherhood would stagger into the shadows. Take its influence out of the political government of the world and the average civilized man would wish for death.
It is up to date. Like a highly polished mirror it reflects the scenes of the passing days; and when it does not supplement the intuitions of wise men so as to show them the major events of the world in advance of their arrival, it so interprets the output of time's revolving wheel that when events do come their meaning is more promptly defined and their issues more wholesomely solved by leaders who read and respect the Holy Scrip- tures.
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CHAPTER VI.
THE ATONEMENT AND MODERN THOUGHT.
The objection of the new theologj' to the atonement in the blood of Christ is based upon a new theory of man's relation to his Maker. The new theory of relationship be- tween God and man is contingent upon the doctrine of spontaneous generation.
If we are to view man in a higher scale to- day than he has ever been before, if we are to think of his attainments in a line of grad- ual unfoldings, starting at zero, in archaic ages, and neglecting all epochs in his ascent, each millennium in our backward glance will show man less responsible, less amenable to law, and less capable of apprehending law, till the imagination follows him back to a stage of consummate innocency. with a nega- tive sinlessness like that of a post or a head of cabbage. In line with this reasoning, sin means nothing but that man is below the standard. Not that he icas above and fell below, but that he has never been above ; he is only on his way up, and hence there rests upon the race no great generic blame, no "Adamic sin;" and no preternatural system
104
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WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY
105
of evil exists in the world.* Man has not broken the law, but has simply come in sight of its ideals and begun to learn to keep it with uncertain degrees of constancy, which improves with the advance of centuries. Un- der this scheme, his responsibility is no high- er at any juncture than his attainments. Not that individual offenders are to be excused; they may even be cut off, as false branches that spoil the s\Tnmetr\' of a tree in its gTo\\i:h; but sinners, even criminals, are to be regarded purely in the light of unfortu- nates, who have no part in the breaking of a fundamental law of the universe, who there- fore need no atonement to make possible their recoverv^ to rectitude and blessedness.t On this thought is built a doctrine of salva- tion through education and human uplift. The more favored members of the race are the sa\iors of the less favored. In this
•"The race was horn with passaions of ammalism aod self-wi'l that were not sinful until the higher life of the Bpirit had become developed. Bat when the estate of ?ea- Bine hum.inlty bad been reached, animalism and self-will were not normal to it, but were false and degrading ele- ments, fatal to the hig-her life unless they were rejected ; and through the con sent of the hmnan will to the now ab- normal rule of lower powiers, what had before been inno- cent passed into sin."
'An Outline of Christian Theology", p. 240. Wriiam Newton Clarke, DJ).
tSo far from being new or exalted in its antecedent:?. this in substance is the same view on sin and atonement as held by Mohaniniedanism. With them it is said : "The potency of sin is not re:-ognized: evil is only an Indilvld- nal, not an historical power : hence there is no ne'='d of re- demption." "Islam: A Challeng-e To Faith," p 120 Sani- nel iL Zwemer. F. E. G. S.
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CHAPTER VI.
THE ATONEMENT AND MODERN THOUGHT.
The objection of the new theology to the atonement in the blood of Christ is based upon a new theory of man's relation to hia Maker. The new theory of relationship be- tween God and man is contingent upon the doctrine of spontaneous generation.
If we are to view man in a higher scale to- day than he has ever been before, if we are to think of his attainments in a line of grad- ual unfoldings, starting at zero, in archaic ages, and neglecting all epochs in his ascent, each millennium in our backward glance will show man less responsible, less amenable to law, and less capable of apprehending law, till the imagination follows him back to a stage of consummate innocency, with a nega- tive sinlessness like that of a post or a head of cabbage. In line with this reasoning, sin means nothing but that man is below the standard. Not that he was above and fell below, but that he has never been above ; he is only on his way up, and hence there rests upon the race no great generic blame, no "Adamic sin;" and no preternatural system
104
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 105
of evil exists in the world.* Man has not broken the law, but has simply come in sight of its ideals and begun to learn to keep it with uncertain degrees of constancy, which improves with the advance of centuries. Un- der this scheme, his responsibility is no high- er at any juncture than his attainments. Not that individual offenders are to be excused ; they may even be cut off, as false branches that spoil the symmetry of a tree in its growth; but sinners, even criminals, are to be regarded purely in the light of unfortu- nates, who have no part in the breaking of a fundamental law of the universe, who there- fore need no atonement to make possible their recovery to rectitude and blessedness.f On this thought is built a doctrine of salva- tion through education and human uplift. The more favored members of the race are the saviors of the less favored. In this
*"T'he race -was born with passHons of animailiism aind self-wi!il that -were not sinful until the ihlgiher life of the spirit hart beciome developed. But when the leistate of gen- ■ndne ihumanity hiaid been reiached, animalism amd self-will were not nonmal to it, bait were false and ideigrajding ele- ments, fatal to the Ihig-her life unlesis they were rejected ; and througrh the consent of the ^huiman will *o the now ab- normfal rule of lower po-niers, what haid ibefare been inno- cemt paissed Into sin."
"An Ontline of Cihrastia;n Tiheoilogy", p. 240. William Newton Clarke, D.D.
iiSo far from being new or exalted In its antecedents, this in substaince is the same view on sin and atonement as iheild by :\Iohaimimed'anism. With ifihem it is said : "The poteiaey of .sin is mot recognized; evil is only an indilvid- Uia'l, not an hisitorical power; hence there is no need of re- demption." "Isikum: A ChaMenig-e To Faith," p. 120 iSa.m- nel M. Zwemer, F. R. G. S.
106 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
scheme Christ is indeed accorded the highest place ; but he differs only in degree from oth- er champions of human salvation. We fol- low him when we serve mankind unselfishly ; and the unperishable magnitude of his influ- ence at this point, including the climactic sacrifice in his death, makes him the leader of all leaders in the upward march of hu- manity, and justly entitles him to be called the Savior. In keeping with this thought, Christ's death was an unfortunate, unnec- essary tragedy ; but good has come out of it, because of its powerful appeal to motives of unselfish service; and that which need not have been becomes a mighty asset to the church as an incentive to noble service and a basis of appeal to erring humanity.
As for the hope of humanity, the salvage scheme of the new theology is characterized with undimmed optimism. In answering the question, "Watchman, what of the night?" it holds all the cordial that a heavy hearted inquirer could wish. The faithfulness of the church may hasten the realization of a sin- ner's hope, but nothing can finally defeat this realization. Human nature may be re^ lied upon to reform and come to its own, somewhere down the line. If man has an immortal soul and a future life, inductions based upon the nature of God and the known instances of human response lead the new
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 107
theologian to say that there is a probation beyond the grave, in which, somewhere in the vale of mysterious shadows, every sinner will finally get to God.*
PRESCRIBING FOR THE WORLD'S EPIDEMIC.
Thus in brief have we stated modern relig- ious thought in its effort to carry forward the allegiances of the past and connect the proposed Christian institutions of tomorrow with the revered, but discarded Christian in- stitutions of yesterday. It will be seen that we have not undertaken to prejudice their case by an unfair emphasis or ironical de- scription. While this statement cannot em- body all the inflections of individual expo- nents of the new theology tendency, its terms in the mean would be proudly espoused by scores of the foremost instructors of theolo- gy in our seminaries and Biblical depart- ments of Church colleges, as well as by a large number of forward looking city pas- tors, in evangelical denominations.
No one can deny the cleverness of the new theology plan of salvation. Its diagnosis of its patient's ailment is hypothetical ; but, as-
*Even one who has been accorded a place in the orthodox class boirrows this view from the "progressives" and 'han- idles -sympathetically the theory that "it is not like G-od ibo fix a lime heyiomd ■wbicTi he win not allow change, if change is iposslble in the nature of the case; that judgment upon the deeds done in the body, final so far as thiis life is (con- cerned, does not preclude judigments UipoTi future pertiodiS in their season; that the ihints of Scripture in 1 Pet. 3:18- 20, 4:6, denote in the apositolic mind the thought that ohaoge is posaiible In ithe. life beyond." Ibid, 474.
108 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
suming the diagnosis to be correct, the reme- dy is rational and scientific; and the most inconsistent people in the world, religiously, , are those evangelical Christians who are ed- j ucated up to the Darwinian view of man's ' origin and still try to make place for an , epoch of spiritual regeneration. While the \ rank and file of evolutionists may feel that their position on the nature of sin is in its substance final and conclusive, the profound philosophers who lead the procession of hu- man thought are not quite so sure. With them, it is felt that another word may yet be spoken upon the meaning of sin, upon the weird mystery of heredity, along with the unexpounded metaphysics of the psychic world. But, while they wait for that more illuminating word, the old prescription re- jected, there must be an emergency formula. The new theology gospel of social service and education is the emergency prescription for a very sick man, upon whom a diagnosis has been made, but one which, in the judg- ment of the greatest doctors, is not final, since it fails to demonstrate the origin of the trouble. But, painful as it is, in the mind of one who wishes to be expert in his pro- fession, it sometimes becomes necessary to^ prescribe for an epidemic before the malady is perfectly understood. This prescription is called empirical. It is like grandmother's
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 109
treatment for appendicitis; it may help, but it does not cure.
The preachers of the old gospel which weathered the Roman persecu- tions of the first centuries after Christ, which turned cities upside down, to which we owe the founding of all the great mission movements of the pagan world, and which has sustained its martyrs in the lion's den and at the fiery stake, believe in education and social service. They rejoice that social seivice is being reduced to a finer art in this more enlightened day, and they recognize in it a child and a handmaid of the gospel of Christ. They are certain, however, that it may be a palliative but not a cure, and that he who in this connection would substitute the tvord "cure" has imposed a criminal de- ception upon a suffering world. Education and social service treat the symptoms of a disease which no human mind can compre- hend, but which has been identified by our Maker, through his revealed word. It is held by the old gospel, and verified with a good show of success, that though sin is a disease whose symptoms will persist in this life, after the basic trouble has been healed, edu- cation and social service can relieve the symptoms, and that this indeed is their func- tion. These movements of humanitarianism are good in their place, they are a fine emer-
110 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
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gency prescription; but soothing syrups can- not take the place of cathartics, and oint- ments cannot remove gangrene. If the old gospel must go there must be a better subati- txite than has yet been found ; but, since this gospel cost the supreme sacrifice of the Son of God, we may be sure that a better substi- tute IS unavailable.
ATONEMENT BASED ON HUMAN NEED.
What is the goax>eI of the cross? Just as there is a modem thought denaturing or re- jecting it, there is a modem thought appre- hending it. It is not rational to say that the analogies by which we appreciate the atone- ment cannot be better understood. Nothing is gained by a dogged contention for the theoretical phases of the question, the inflec- tions of the doctrine which do not affect the fact; and the ortiiodox writer who excites himself into seeing "logical" sequences from analogical premises, and who berates his brethren, either pro or con, upon irresistible grace, final perseverance, or the necessary content of substitution, need not feel that all who treat Mm as mediaeval do thereby class themselves as unorthodox and destructive. It will be in place at this time for us to go briefly into the essentials of the Biblical fact of the atonement.
Divine law L^ revealed to man, not evolved in human society. VVTiile man's appreciation
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gency prescription ; but soothing syrups can- not take the place of cathartics, and oint- ments cannot remove gangrene. If the old gospel must go there must be a better substi- tute than has yet been found ; but, since this gospel cost the supreme sacrifice of the Son of God, we may be sure that a better substi- tute is unavailable.
ATONEMENT BASED ON HUMAN NEED.
What is the gospel of the cross? Just as there is a modern thought denaturing or re- jecting it, there is a modern thought appre- hending it. It is not rational to say that the analogies by which we appreciate the atone- ment cannot be better understood. Nothing is gained by a dogged contention for the theoretical phases of the question, the inflec- tions of the doctrine which do not affect the fact ; and the orthodox writer who excites himself into seeing "logical" sequences from analogical premises, and who berates his brethren, either pro or con, upon irresistible grace, final perseverance, or the necessary content of substitution, need not feel that all who treat him as mediaeval do thereby class themselves as unorthodox and destructive. It will be in place at this time for us to go briefly into the essentials of the Biblical fact of the atonement.
Divine law is revealed to man, not evolved in human society. While man's appreciation
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? Ill
of this law has been progressive, he has known from the beginning its essential point, calling for obedience and loyalty.
We have no obligation to explain moral agency, which can only be understood in the light of a more perfect world ; but man had the power to violate divine law, and he did so, early in the history of the race, placing himself subject to a penalty without which law could not exist; and, by the one act, bringing the entire race into an automatic condemnation.
Man not only placed himself subject to a penalty when he sinned, but the penalty went immediately into effect,* producing spiritual death. Spiritual death is a synonym for separation from God. It is the first, and only immediate penalty for sin. There are dire consequences, of every description, ex- pressed in the words, "The way of transgres- sors is hard"t, "The wicked shall come to sheoljt, and "These shall go away into ever- lasting punishment."**
Separation from God, which in the fact of the fall is the portion of the whole human race, has in itself no demerit, but it results from the demerit of sin. It followed man's
*"In tbe day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt isairelv idie." Genesis 2:17. Cf. also Isaiaih 59:2; Romans 6:23; 2 Corintihianis 5:14 and 1 Jiohn 3:8.
tProverbs 13:15.
tFsalm P:17, R. V.
**M.itthew 2o:4C.
112 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
sin as a direct execution of justice, to pre- serve the sanctity of law and the integrity of divine government. As a result of this sep- aration there is a separateness of nature, a divergency from the will of God, in the heart of every child of man. This, we call de- pravity or original sin. The words of Paul could have meant no less than this when he said that in Adam all die, and all have come short of the glory of God.** We have ground to believe that this separateness of nature, resulting automatically in the fact that man is separated from God, is also en- hanced by the direct perverting energy of Satan. The situation is therefore so complex that no one can analyze and expound "origi- nal sin." To assume the universal sinfulness of man is necessary to make intelligible the class of utterances bearing upon the subject in the Scriptures. It is necessary to explain the universality of the atonement revealed in the Scriptures,* and the universality of the need of justification by faith, f which proofs* are valid only to those who believe the Bible. evolution's failure to explain.
But, laying the Bible aside, the inherent sinfulness of man is the only explanation for the universal trend to perverse conduct, base
**1 CorintManis 15:22; Riomaims 3:28; Epheisirans 2:3. *Jobn 3:16; 2 CorintMans 5:15; 1 Timottny 2:6; 1 J«hn 2:2.
tRomiaas 3:19-31.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 113
actions, and violation of natural and moral law, in every human tribe on earth. No- where among the creatures below man do we find a widespread inherent tendency to vio- late the laws of their being. In this respect the chasm is measureless, between the most innocent human tribe and the most degener- ate species of animals; the animals, follow- ing the bent of their nature, unrestrained, come out as animals ought to come ; but the people, unbridling their tempers, their lusts and their avarice, go in as men and come out as devils. If the evolutionary hypothesis were true, of the ascent of human tribes by radiating sectors from primal apes, we should expect occasionally, on some side of the earth, to find a tribe of people who had not strayed any farther from the laws of their being than have the apes ; and we should expect, also, to find some of the tribes of higher civilization in whom evolution had done its best, arriving at a high level of hereditary rectitude, where simple training could insure universal virtue. But in this latter field of proof the new theology's expla- nation of sin breaks down more seriously than elsewhere; for it is almost invariably the case that people in the middle walks of life, with medium attainments, are naturally freer from diabolism and perverse living than the upper strata of society.
114 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
THE SYMBOLISM OF BLOOD. While the principle of sacrifice and substi- tution is deeply written in the analogies of nature and the annals of human history, all that we know about a divinely conferred atonement is what we learn from the Scrip- tures. When they say that without the shed- ding of blood there is no remission of sin,* and carry that assumption consistently through the era of tuitionary types, to be cli- maxed in the voluntary suffering, as an al- leged necessity,! of Him around whom all sacred writings find their center of gravity ; when they find in the blood of the most worthy One a mysterious voice of authority Iby which alone ultimate deliverance may come to the souls of men,$ the human phi- losopher may be amazed; but only he who denies the existence of mystery will set him- self to making light of that which he cannot understand. A tribe is growing up today, very near the altars of the sanctuary, who are so sure that the saints of all ages have made a one hundred per cent mistake in their faith in blood atonement that they are free to laugh in derision at the crude con- trition of their brethren. It is wondered how the same generation could contain such
*'Levltlcus 17:11; Hebrew »:22.
tJoJhn 10:17, 18; Matthew 16:21; Mark 6:31; »:12; Luke 9:22; Acts 17:3; Hebrew 9:16; Daniel 9:26. JHebrew 12:24; 9:14; 10:12.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 115
extremes of deficient and ample attainment; could hold a class of people so far behind the norm of truth and a class so well up. But we might be reminded that a religion whose refinements left out the revolting sym- bolisms of blood is not exclusively new and modern,** nor does it necessarily follow that its champions have reached a more dependa- ble plane in their ideals of kindness, mercy and justice.*
DOGMATISM AND ITS CONTRAST.
A fact is a theory which has reach- ed the experimental stage; which has been verified by the tests of a unanimous jury. A theory, if correct, is a symbol or apprehension of a yet unrealized fact. A matter may therefore exist in the form of theory, espoused or rejected, in one segment of humanity, when it has taken the propor- tions of a fact with another class. Such, for instance, was the Copernican "theory" that the sun is the center of the solar system. When this first began to take the place of the Ptolemaic theory that the earth was the cen- ter of the solar system, there were two
**"In prooS'PiS of time it came to pass that Cajin broug'lit of tlie fruit of the griOiund an ofEering unto tJhe iLord. And Abel, he also brought of the flrstlingSi lof Ms flock and of the fat thereof. Amd the Lord haid respect unto Abel and his offerings-. But unto Caiiu and ihis offering he had not respect." Genesis 3:3-5.
'"And Cain wis very wrotth, and his oountenanee fell .... And Cain talked with Ihis brother : and it came to paisis, when ithey -n'ere In the field, that Oain rose up against Abell 'Ms brother and slew ihim." G-e'nesis 4 :.5-8.
\
116 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
schools of thought; but, finally, that which though seemingly a fact, had never been any- thing but an illusion, was forced out of re- cognition, as the world received a mathemat- ica] demonstration of the Copernican "the- ory." Today we are so friendly to the doc- trine that none but a Parson Jasper would feel like using the word theoiy. It is a fact. Here is the province of dogmatism. Dog- matism consists in that note of confidence with which an individual announces a fact, as distinguished from the spirit of investiga- tion and tolerance in the tone with which he announces a theory. A dogmatist, in the worse sense of that word, is one who allows no quarters to his audience when he an- nounces a theory. Some of our modem in- structors want their students to come with "open minds," meaning that they would have them scrap their facts with their theories and start anew. The thought is, that the spirit of the age demands freedom from dogmatism; but this is a fallacy. The age demands facts, and the ear-mark of a mes- sage from a man who has the facts is a kind of serene, respectful dogmatism. This kind of authority is what gave power to the words of Christ* If I know that I am seated on a chair, I gain nothing for the reputation of scientific discourse by weighing the specu-
•Mark 1 :22.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 117
lations'of men who wish to take my time and the time of the audience asking me to make sure that it is not a boulder. A theo- logical professor who asks a student to treat as untrue and prove again the experiences of grace which are in his heart or the fact of the atonement and the essential verities of the gospel which have been confirmed by a million witnesses and tested thousands of times in the audiences of mankind, has re- quired his student to stultify himself. The., way to study theology is to put down the facts as a posit and build around them; not lay them down and go oif with "open mind" and leave them, promising to return and take them up when school is out, provided we do not find something that suits us better. If a man is led to commit such a presumptuous blunder he is sure to find something that suits him better, for when a man tampers with his faculty of perception it goes back on him and puts him in a world where things are not what they seem.
MEANING OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST.
As Christians, we are authorized to teL people that Jesus Christ died for them.. Thig is found to attract attention everywhere. There is a catchword in this announcement that human psychology may account for. It is like many other wonderful and beautiful
118 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
things that have happened in the history of mankind ; and as such it marks a line of thought that never fails to impress the finer sentiments and move the emotions of the un- sophisticated ; of all, indeed, but those whose glutted ears have spoiled the law of reac- tion in their souls. Naturally, the New Tes- tament announcement of Christ's death ex- ceeds all similar sacrifices in its appeal be- cause of its compass of sympathy ; and the sincerity and intelligence of this vast scheme of substitution is confirmed in his deliberate appraisal of all human beings, which preceded the tragic transaction, and in the coolly wrought out program for carry- ing to the last man due information of the efficient sacrifice which was being made in his behalf. Both of these measures were revolutionary in their day. The world wag made up of castes; and the thought of an equal intrinsic worth of the soul of a slave and the soul of a king* was exotic. It was peculiar to Jesus Christ; there was nothing in the soil of the human thinking of the times that would have produced it. It in- cluded that thought of the equality of the rights of labor and capital and of the equal footing of man and woman before the door of opportunity, which has characterized the higher civilization of our day. The concept
* Revelation 1:6; 5:10.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 119
in the opening words of the American "Dec- laration of Independence"* could hardly have been sprung in the human mind had it not been initiated and fostered as the ration- al background of the purpose of Jesus Christ to lay down his life for "the whole world." And as for the publicity program, the plan of "world evangelism," which Christ coupled with this theory of human worth, his view of the value of souls and the reach of his vision into the future made that so ambitious in its aspects, so unlike the wildest dream of any living sage, that the human imagination of his time could only grasp at it, without be- ing able to entertain it.
But in accounting for the effect on the human mind, produced by the Gospel's main announcement, that Christ died for us, we are called to appreciate another law. Deeper than the natural appeal of unselfish sacrifice, deeper than the revolutionary effect of hisi levelling appraisal of mankind, is that heav- enly mystery of the atonement, upon which the human mind, unspoiled by vain philoso- phies, so readily lays hold by a kind of in- tuition. There is something wonderful, a wisdom superhuman, involved in the death of Christ. This is attested by the thousands of volumes in which the wise men of the cen-
*"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endoT\'ed by thetlr Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that lamong these are Life, Liibeity, and the pursuit d Happiness."
120 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
turies have tried to interpret the mystery, or make it sufticiently available for mankind to realize upon its provisions. It was so outstanding in its significance that prophets foresaw it and spoke of it with a wisdom not of themselves or of their time. We are not certain but that angels have been students of the philosophy of the atonement. f
THE UNDISPUTED FACTS.
The early church had less leisure for in- vestigation and was more serene in the pres- ence of mystery, perhaps because they wit- nessed more mysteries and were not flushed with so much success in the field of analysis as is the modern man. At any rate, they confined themselves to preaching the atone- ment as a fact, under the slogan that Christ died for us ; and they gained much by their concentration and simplicity.* The greatest breach in Christendom grew out of a depar- ture from this, when the philosophy of the converted Greek mind undertook to elaborate and extend the Scriptural analogies upon the subject and insist upon their having an es'- sential logical sequence.
There are two lists of utterances upon the atonement ; one under the head of facts and the other under the head of theories. These maxims are not disparate, and it is not im-
tl Peter 1:12.
*1 Peter 2:24: Isaiah S3.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 121
possible for an item under the latter head to be shoved up to a place under the former, ac- cording to the rule by which theories turn to facts. But the atonement is such a divine affair that its facts are patent, and theories usually are destined to remain theories till we go hence into the realm of more perfect understanding.
The utterances of New Testament preach- ers may be safely accepted as facts. They taught :
1. That the atonement made by Christ necessitated his suffering and death ;
2. That it was an extreme demand grow- ing out of the fact that the whole human race was fallen and hopeless;
3. That the one making the atonement had and must have unique qualifications — divine attributes for the sake of worthiness and human attributes for the sake of media- torial fitness;
4. That the one making the sacrifice must make it voluntarily on his own part, as well as by bequest or free gift on the part of the Godhead with which he was identified ;
5. That the atonement was a measure in the mind of God long before its execution, to meet an anticipated need;
6. That it was adequate in its merit and eflnciency to save from the lowest depth of
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122 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
sin to the highest level of holiness and hap- piness.
These are the facts undisputed in the main channel of the Christian system from the be- ginning; and there is no change of verbiage or new statement for the sake of modern modes of thought that can budge one of these unequivocal facts without introducing a pro- cess which will infallibly denature the Christian religion. Two more "facts" may be added, which received the cool treatment of mere theories for a long period but which were evidently assumed among the earliest preachers of the gospel and which are rap- idly gaining the support of the e>rponents of the gospel in this modern, practical age with its feeling of internationalism and human equality. They are these:
7. The atoning blood of Christ has full provisional value for ever\- human being, and all may accept its benefits.
8. Its benefits are conditional, to all who are able to meet conditions of obedience and faith ; and all who are able to meet the sim- ple conditions and neglect or refuse to do so shall fail to realize any benefit from the death of Christ excepting the stay of execu- tion which they will have enjoyed during their days of grace.
Frequently in this study our references have included passages of Scripture plainly
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supporting one or another of this list of facts; but we are simply giving the New Testament as our proof text for this formal list of axiomatic positions on the atonement, which are accepted without question by the great bulk of active, orthodox Christians in the world today.
THE MOOTED QUESTIONS.
The theories of the atonement ask the questions: Is justice absolute, or is it only relative, having no abstract existence? Is the justice, therefore, which made impossi- ble the sinner's recovery without an atone- ment purely rectoral, something that in- heres in government ; and does this alone make necessary the punishment of sin, or is there a mysterious something in the very na- ture of God which makes true the assertion that God must punish sin in order to be true to his perfect nature? The doctrine of relative justice belongs to the "governmen- tal theory" and the doctrine of absolute jus- tice belongs to the ''substitution theory." In the less modern centuries we had theologians who thoroughly understood those distinc- tions, who saw no middle ground, and spent much time on the metaphysics of the ques- tion. But later, theologians began to appear who saw satisfaction analogies in the gov- ernmental theory, and governmental analo- gies in the satisfaction theory. We are to-
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sin to the highest level of holiness and hap- piness.
These are the facts undisputed in the main channel of the Christian system from the be- ginning; and there is no change of verbiage or new statement for the sake of modern modes of thought that can budge one of these unequivocal facts without introducing a pro- cess which will infallibly denature the Christian religion. Two more "facts" may be added, which received the cool treatment of mere theories for a long period but which were evidently assumed among the earliest preachers of the gospel and which are rap- idly gaining the support of the exponents of the gospel in this modern, practical age with its feeling of internationalism and human equality. They are these :
7. The atoning blood of Christ has full provisional value for every human being, and all may accept its benefits.
8. Its benefits are conditional, to all who are able to meet conditions of obedience and faith ; and all who are able to meet the sim- ple conditions and neglect or refuse to do so shall fail to realize any benefit from the death of Christ excepting the stay of execu- tion which they will have enjoyed during their days of grace.
Frequently in this study our references have included passages of Scripture plainly
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 123
supporting one or another of this list of facts; but we are simply giving the New Testament as our proof text for this formal list of axiomatic positions on the atonement, which are accepted without question by the great bulk of active, orthodox Christians in the world today.
THE MOOTED QUESTIONS.
The theories of the atonement ask the questions: Is justice absolute, or is it only relative, having no abstract existence? Is the justice, therefore, which made impossi- ble the sinner's recovery without an atone- ment purely rectoral, something that in- heres in government; and does this alone make necessary the punishment of sin, or is there a mysterious something in the very na- ture of God which makes true the assertion that God must punish sin in order to be true to his perfect nature? The doctrine of relative justice belongs to the "governmen- tal theory" and the doctrine of absolute jus- tice belongs to the "substitution theory." In the less modern centuries we had theologians who thoroughly understood those distincr tions, who saw no middle ground, and spent much time on the metaphysics of the ques- tion. But later, theologians began to appear who saw satisfaction analogies in the gov- ernmental theory, and governmental analo- gies in the satisfaction theory. We are to-
124 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
day more modest in denying remote con- ceptions that we cannot disprove, and carry- ing analogies into identities, as if an analogy were a photographic exposure of the real thing instead of a suggestive mode of ap- prehension not applying at all points. We know that God's thoughts are higher than ours, and that we are such lame thinkers that we have to go on crutches, made from the timber of every day experience; that we have to pass from the known to the unknown in a very childish way, and that we should be modest on the theoretical side. Men on crutches should not strut. Perhaps rectoral justice is also absolute and absolute justice is rectoral. Perhaps man is mistaken when he thinks he can conceive of a period ante- dating the time when God first had a gov- ernment, with intelligent subjects whose re- lation to each other and to him had to be standardized in terms of law.
The theories of the atonement ask the question, further: Is separation from God the only decreed penalty for sin for which an atoning Savior would be needed to find a remedy? Are all the other consequences of sin, the miseries of life and the horrors of perdition, automatic, following as a sequence similar to natural law, so that a man goes to hell by a kind of gravitative necessity, be- cause of the fact that he is not fit for heaven
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 125
and for no other reason? One form of the governmental theory answers yes; the satis- faction theory in its old standard form knows no difference between an event of nat- ural law, a "'consequence," and a direct fiat of divine will as when man sinned and was cut off. It knows no "permissive provi- dence" ; and all the afflictions that a sinner brings upon himself are sent of God because they were eternally involved in the organi- zation of the universe. So, also, his banish- ment into hell is an act of the great Judge. On this theory, the atonement in Christ was accepted as an equivalent sacrifice in substi- tution for our deserts in hell as well as our penalty of separation from God.
SUBSTITUTION.
So far as we know the philosophical as- pects of the atonement which take rise from the above questions were never even consid- ered by the preachers and writers of the early church. Substitution, where life is given for life, or imprisonment taken for imprisonment, is impossible under the more perfect modern theory of government; for a citizen's life is "unalienable", as is his liberty also. This is because he owes himself to so- ciety, and cannot ignore this debt to assume that of some other. But if the individual were to come in from another realm, having none of these obligations on his own account,
126 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
the situation would be different, and he could give his life or liberty in substitution for another. The grandfather of this writer, having no military obligations, because he was below military age, gave himself in 1815 in one of America's greatest defensive bat- tles, to be shot at as a substitute for a man who had a family and was subject to con- scription. Substitution prevails today also in the discharge of civil obligations, where the state lays a requirement upon its citi- zens of a certain age, and where the substi- tution is offered by exempted citizens or cit- izens of another state. Equivalent substitu- tion is also true to governmental precedents, as when some years ago an indigent citizen of a certain nation was sentenced to banish- ment for an offense, the alternative being ten thousand pounds in gold. A wealthy rela- tive, not known in the community of the condemned man, came down and surprised the court by paying the ten thousand pounds, which, by the way, he had inherited from an ancestry which was common to him and his poor relative.
The references of the New Testament compel us to concede that these analogies of equivalent substitution are on some scale germane for setting forth atonement in Christ. The mistake has been in trying to be too exact in insisting upon the "logic" of
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 127
the analogy. Analogies have no logic. Wherever they fit they are available, and where they fail to fit they are annulled. The great mass of old style writers have rea- soned that if Christ was our substitute the substitution must have been in the nature of paying all penalties, which amounted to a man's absolution before he was born and made his salvation inevitable and his regen- eration non-forfeitable if he should be among the elect. Whatever may be the direction of truth in the questions of election and final perseverance, modern thought is en- tirely too practical to accept a view that ex- empts men from obligation and makes inevi- table the salvation of all for whom Christ died. Such a position forces us to say one of two things : That Christ died for only part of the race and that the damnation of the rest is decreed; or that Christ died for all and the salvation of all is decreed, regard- less of their impenitence. Both positions are so destructive to true evangelism and para- lyzing to the untrammelled better judgment of our day that they are found only in musty creeds, to be recited by the habitually devout in their absent minded moments.
It is here, in matters beyond the human understanding, that Christendom has wasted its strength in centuries of division; but this is a valley in which the Christianity of
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128 W1L\T IS NEW THEOLOGY?
today is un wiling to sojourn and waste the time that it should devote to its appointed task. We may sto^ dispassionately these metaphysical intricacies ; but no longer can we let them be sources of friction without condemning ourselves before the world and at the bar of our own moral judgment. I Back to the u£ity of pentecost in our pur- j poses, and back to the simplicity of the apostles in our expression, should be the watchword of all contenders for the faith.
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CHA? . ^R VU. THE GOSPEL PR0GKA3L
It is Jigiead Ickai: m.'e dearh oi a diviii<;? Sci- TOsr was aeeKsary. to provioe salvarioa f\?r jBOOL Tlos dhrme S&vior h;:^^ died : ;iiid niov aH HKn are pfovisiorji-Iy javvd. AH men are saved, except: is i:}iey lose them^*?h*^^ by personal ^in. Adam's sin. T±LOiL^ ics- ^^*ts linger ydzh us in ihe weird mysterj- of "or:^:- frral sin."* can damn no one. I-s legal re- sch ••> ■-■.";•;" iirionally removed in :he v:ca- ric— - -i-. _ - : :he Son ^.^i God.* Bur thoc^ lie decree oi rhe fall is provisionally ended by one stroke of a Savior's love, the eif eot of it in human society is an open sore : and the mighty agencies of moral and spiritual de- struction occasioned by man's break with God cannot be dismiss»?d in a daj'. More- over, it is sad to saj* that thes^ agenciee^ of (iestruction cannot be stemmed in time to avert tbe eternal los^ of cwintlees thou- sands whose ?'---■ •> :■" ~~^ with the spirit of evil and w: , ^: .::„> . , "n> dark to ap- pn^iend the t'^w:. ;; salv, , ,
The main task of the church is; to publish the good newrs, to let men know that they
129
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128 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
today is un wiling to sojourn and waste the time that it should devote to its appointed task. We may study dispassionately these metaphysical intricacies; but no longer can we let them be sources of friction without condemning ourselves before the world and at the bar of our own moral judgment. Back to the uiiity of pentecost in our pur- poses, and back to the simplicity of the apostles in our expression, should be the watchword of all contenders for the faith.
CHAPTER VII.
THE GOSPEL PROGRAM.
It is agreed that the death of a divine Sa- vior was necessary, to provide salvation for man. This divine Savior has died ; and now all men are provisionally saved. All men are saved, except as they lose themselves by personal sin. Adam's sin, though its effects linger with us in the weird mystery of "orig- inal sin," can damn no one. Its legal re- sult is unconditionally removed in the vica- rious death of the Son of God.* But though the decree of the fall is provisionally ended by one stroke of a Savior's love, the effect of it in human society is an open sore ; and the mighty agencies of moral and spiritual de- struction occasioned by man's break with God cannot be dismissed in a day. More- over, it is sad to say that these agencies of destruction cannot be stemmed in time to avert the eternal loss of countless thou- sands whose blood is on fire with the spirit of evil and whose minds are too dark to ap- prehend the plan of salvation.
The main task of the church is to publish the good nev^, to let men know that they
*Romaas 5:19; 1 Carlnthiams 15:22.
129
130 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
are saved through the death of Christ; and "T;hat now they have the privilege to hand themselves over to the restoring agencies of ^heaven and turn their faces back toward their lost paradise. Modern orthodox! thought makes much of the restoring agen- cies of heaven. It sticks to the contention that blood atonement for sin was necessary ; (but it is not unanimous in supposing that blood atonement was necessary for the re- pair of misfortunes, the enrichment of pov- erty, the binding of broken hearts, the heal- ing of disease, the dispelling of ignorance, and the restoration of Edenic glory. It is easy to believe that angels can do those things when the right is given them by blood divine — when the sinner gets by the cherubim and flaming sword that guard the gates against guilt. If a man could have fallen over the battlements of heaven, down into some quagmire of material corruption, and become battered and helpless, and if his calamity could have been overlooked for a millennium, until he had lost touch with heavenly light and his intelligence had be- come encased in confusion and ignorance, there would have been no need for any to die in his behalf as a vindication of justice or to protect the integrity of divine govern- ment in bringing him back. Angels could have spanned the chasm and brought with
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 131
them all things necessary for the man's re- covery. There would have been a thousand different agencies of repair available in the kingdom above. So, we may say, only man's break with God, and not his innocent miser- ies, has cost the blood of God's dear Son.* And once this legal barrier of condemnation is surmounted, through repentance and faith in Christ, man's lost inheritance is restored; and heaven's resources are as open to him as if he had never sinned; and heaven's agen- cies will address themselves to repairing the wreck as rapidly as the wrecking crews can connect up with the various scenes of disas^ ter.
What angels are having to do with the gos- pel program we cannot say.** They are a force in the background, an unseen host, available as God may will.t Perhaps they have no direct part in the ministry of the gospel proper. But after the gospel has ibeen published and accepted, we have rea- son to believe that they are eager allies with the "wrecking crew," which represents no small part of the gospel program. When re- ceiving the atonement for sin one becomes an heir; and heaven shows great eagerness that everything necessary to his restoration should be supplied.J
*1 Peter 3:18; Romanis 5:10; iColasslans 1:12-14. *Heb. 1:14; Matt. 4:11. tMat. 26.53: 2 Kings 6:15-17. JRomans 8:32; 2 Peter 1:3.
132 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
The ministry of human relief, uplift, and education, is a distinct department in the mission of Christ and the task of world evan- gelism, a distinct department. In theory it is event number two, ultimately worthless without salvation from sin, and very disap- pointing" in its results. But it may progress along side the direct dispensing of the good news, serving as a nucleus to reflect the light, as an illustration to corroborate the gospel message in the mind of the multitude, and as a concrete inducement for men to turn from idols and serve the living God.
The "wrecking crew" needs no credentials, excepting to be free from the marks of selfishness and to have a respectable qualifi- cation for its task. By this sentence we mean to say that the vast field of human re- lief and uplift may be entered by any person or group of persons or cult or government. And it is quite natural that an impulse in this direction should be felt by many, es- pecially since Christianity has imparted the vision of service to the world and begotten the impulse. Works of mercy and human relief have been taking form in the better civilization ever since the Master introduced his examples of sympathy and relief in Pal- estine and Phoenicia. From the impulse of the first Christian revival grew the world's first hospitals and asylums for the unfortu-
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 133
nate. But we are only playing with the re^ construction and relief of a race broken by the fall, as compared with the restoration program of God and the angels* after this broken race has made confession of sin and, being reconciled to God through faith in the merit of the atonement, has acknowledged the Lordship of Jesus Christ. To get peo- ple Scripturally converted may not be as big a showing to the superficial observer as to get them scrubbed and doctored and educa- ted ; but it takes this conversion to put them in line for the major program of reconstruc- tion which God has scheduled for the age to come; an age which they cannot even enter except as they have salvation in Christ. The repairs that human organizations can bring to a race which has suffered breakage by the fall are ample to show a loving heart; but they are quite inadequate. And as for the uplift, we can only bring them to the level where we are, which in the case of many a social service movement will mean but little in terms of spiritual values.
INFORMATION AND EVIDENCE.
First and foremost, the program of th« gospel is to preach the good news to every creature. t The assumption is that every re- sponsible creature, in order to be saved, must
♦RevelatioTi, Ch«iptws 31 »nid 33. tJtt* 18515.
134 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
believe the gospel; and it is impossible for one to believe a thing that has not been in- troduced to him.* Ignorance and faith are incompatible. It does not follow that all who hear shall be expected to believe. They must have more than the mere announce^ ment or even the urgent discourse indicated by the word "preach." They must have the evidence in the form of witnesses, whose life and speech proclaim the power of Christ to save from sin. The responsibility for serv- ing in this capacity and inciting humanity on valid grounds to trust Christ's provision for their salvation and follow him is not con- fined to an ordained ministry. Every one who is saved through Christ goes automat- ically upon the invitation committee, becom- ing himself a sample of the work and a wit- ness with a personal knowledge of facts to reinforce the proclamation. f
"State what you know in this case" is the method by which the courts give recognition to one in the capacity of a witness. It re- fers to a knowledge resultant from personal experience and not from inductive conclu- sions. This also is the "knowledge" of the Bible; and a witness is one who knows. In earlier apostolic times the word witness re- ferred to one who had seen Jesus personally ; Tbut this high function was widened to make
•Romans 10:14.
tAjote l:ld; Mattbaw 90.4-16; 2 Oorintbians 3:2.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 135
eligible the discipleship of all the centuries' to come, when they shall have met the con- dition for the fulness of the blessing of the gospel in their own souls. $ The simple sit- uation is, there is in all the world one remedy for sin, and we have found it. In finding it we found attached to it an order to bear the information of our find to the last man, and to supplement this information by per- sonally showing what the remedy had done for us. An innate law of propriety should have saved us from a quietness which would have made our salvation virtually a secret reserved for our selfish use, a quietness which must condemn us either as being ab- normal or as having missed in our ovvm soul the deeper meaning of the secret. The Great Commission does not ask the Church to as- similate an alien mental state or fuse into its life a new set of emotions. It tallies with the feeling of every truly awakened heart and only reinforces us with an added ex- cuse and an authority from higher up, for coming to the tribes of earth exactly as the better dictates of human nature would have us come.
RESULTS THAT WE MAY EXPECT.
The painful slowness with which the gos- pel claims response from the human race is due to one of three things: As in the last
JActs 5:32; 1:8.
136 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
stage of drowning, the race is so badly de- pleted in the effect of the fall that it is moral- ly unable to perceive an agent of rescue and so maddened as to make the work of rescue a dangerous adventure; or, the agencies of rescue are down in their efficiency by not being duly saved from that from which they are seeking to save their fellows — ^the res- cuing swimmers are strangled; or, there is some mistake about this sublimely conceived plan of salvation and we must set about look- ing for a better way. The latter hypothesis has influenced many an ill advised educator and reformer ; but it is too late even to con- sider an agency that proposes to rival Jesus Christ in presenting to all mankind the ideal that challenges and the agency that saves. The two former explanations are sufficient to account for the slowness of the spread of the gospel, and each stricture bears in its very face the evidence of fact, which would retard the success of any salvage movement that infinite wisdom could produce, the same as it frustrates the gospel program.
But how, and to what extent, are we war- ranted in hoping to overcome this in the sweet by and by, and to have the kingdoms of this world become our Lord's ?* Any one fairly informed with reference to God should know without consulting a document that he
'"H'tmleMon 11 :1S.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 137
will finish what he has begun. The doctrine of personal freedom applies to individ- uals, but divine decrees are back of poli- cies and involved in the destiny of nations and the orbit in which worlds must swing". Throughout the pages of Holy Writ the for- tune of the world is told, the destiny of devil, the fate of the Man of Sin, the future of Christ, together with all who follow him and choose to have their destiny bound up with him.t
True, the mills grind slowly; and worthy authorities differ as to the relative part to be played by the activities of the church and the cataclysms at the coming of the Lord and the end of the age; but none who read the in- spired fortune Book can doubt that it promises success to the enterprise of the Redeemer, whatever may be the unrepaired casualties of the fall in the form of lost souls; and this is the one grievous misfor- tune that ultra optimists have tried in vain to evade.*
Whatever may be one's tentative views as to the situation that must characterix^e the end of this age, and however his tempera^ ment and conviction may incline him to fear a climax of carnage, the gospel program should be put on foot as if he expected to be
tisaiah 11; Zechariah 14; DaDiel 2:44; 12:3; 2 Thessta- lonians 2:8; Rievelation 11:15; 19:19, 20; 20:1, 2. •PflaJm 9:17; MabUbew 10:28; 25:46; Lube 16^26.
138 WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY?
crowned ultimately with one hundred per cent success. It is the power of God unto salvation. It has saved as discouraging and improbable cases as any now dwelling amid the fellowships of ignorance and vice. It must, by the decree of its author, be pub- lished among all nations before the history of this age can be written. f Just after the Master gave two discouraging parables ac- counting for the slow progress of the gospel because of the depraved and unresponsive situation of the human heartj and the mal- ignant intelligence that opposes** it, he re- assures us with two more parables,*** fore- casting the sure progress of the gospel. That "the gates of hell", the aggressive forces of evil, shall not prevail against the church of Christ seems to be a divine decree, independ- ent of the mistakes of its human custodians. These may be set aside and deprived of their charter; the invisible ark may not continue in the same camp; the leadership in world evangelism may be transferred tomorrow from the hand of those who held it yester- day; thousands may prove unfaithful to their trust and lose their crowns ; but "many shall be purified and made white and tried" ;
tMairk 13:10.
tTbe parable of ttoe soiwer; Matthew 13.
•♦Parable of the itares; Ibid.
***The miustard seed lamd the leaven ;, Ibid.
WHAT IS NEW THEOLOGY? 139
and though in the sifting time workers may drop out of the ranks, and though the grim reaper shall take his annual toll even from the ranks of the faithful; God, who anon may change his workers, will carry on His work.
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