The Unsettling of Religious Belief
By L. A. S.
PROTESTANT church circles in New York City are much stirred up by a controversy which has arisen over the question of the divinity of Christ. That there could ever be any such question in the minds of people claiming to be Christ's followers is a mystery which could arise only from the spiritual perversity and blindness of this generation, which professing itself to be wise above the men who penned the sacred writings, has become vain in its imaginations. The controversy was precipitated by the Rev. M. J. Savage, of the “Church of the Messiah,” who in a Christmas day sermon declared that the doctrine of the divinity of Christ rested on no good proof either in the New Testament or in early church history. A newspaper report of the sermon started a discussion which soon overleaped newspaper bounds, and became the subject of pulpit discourses. The New York Sun, which in religion speaks from the Catholic standpoint, makes the following pertinent observations touching the cause and meaning of the controversy:— The discussion as to the historic Jesus, at this time pushed into prominence, is a natural consequence of the unsettling of religious belief which comes inevitably from a scientific examination of the narratives of the Bible; from the critical analysis of the Christian evidence which has been introduced at this period. If the Bible is not accepted dogmatically as the Word of God, and therefore unquestionable; if its accounts of the dealings of God with man; if its solution of the problem of existence, its miracles and its narration of events, even though contradictory of natural possibility, are not believed in, simply because they are in the Bible, the whole structure of Christianity falls to the ground. The Sun points out further that the real question in dispute is not whether proof of the divinity of Christ can be found in the New Testament, but whether the New Testament statements can be considered good proof for what they do assert. “The great question now agitating the Christian world is not as to the historic Jesus, whether the Gospels ascribe to him divinity, or agree or disagree in regard to his character, but whether the Gospels themselves are to be treated as historically indisputable, because supernaturally infallible, or are to be viewed as merely human documents of doubtful authorship and, chiefly, of no original historical authority.” “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” said Jesus, speaking of his second advent. The signs of the times call to mind these words of the Saviour, and point to his coming as an event that must now be close at hand. L. A. S.