Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 25, 1908

Defining the Terms

A NEW book has been issued with the title, “Passing Protestantism and Coming Catholicism.” In a review of this book, the Outlook says:—

Is it true that Protestantism is passing, and Catholicism is coming? This depends upon what we mean by Protestantism and Catholicism. If by Protestantism is meant individualism in religion,—that is, that religion is a purely personal matter between the individual soul and God, with which no other individual has concern,—then it is passing. If Catholicism means the embodiment in religious institutions of the catholic spirit, broadmindedness in faith, respect in every religious organization for the sincere faiths and the devout rituals of other religious organizations, then Catholicism is coming. But if Catholicism means the doctrine that Jesus Christ established an ecclesiastical organization , then Catholicism is not coming. If Protestantism means that Jesus Christ simply imparted, and still imparts, to all who believe in him a new spiritual life, and that he leaves them perfectly free to form their own organizations, frame their own creeds, and establish their own rituals, then Protestantism is not passing.

It is plain to all that a revolution is taking place in the religious world; but some of the revolutionists seem inclined to avoid the appearance of any change by putting new meanings into old terms. Nevertheless the departure from old paths is just as great as if the old terms had disappeared with the old faith. The Protestantism of the sixteenth century, based upon an appeal to the Bible as the infallible Word of God, and emphasizing faith in the atoning work of Christ as the only means of salvation from sin, has been supplanted by a “New Theology” which substitutes human philosophy for a “Thus saith the Lord,” and faith in one’s own divinity for the righteousness of Christ. There is a crying need now for the proclamation of “the everlasting gospel” of “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”