THE NEW THEOLOGY by L. A. S.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 15, 1901

THE NEW THEOLOGY.

By L. A. S.

EVER since the falling away from the truth of God which took place when the churches rejected the message sent from God sixty years ago,—“Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come,”—there has been coming into the place of the old truth, in those churches, a new theology; which, however, professes to be like the old in containing the truths that relate to human salvation, but to be far in advance of the old in the point of agreement with reason and science.

The time has now come when this new theology has developed far enough to permit of being formulated in a series of definite propositions, drawn up in contrast with the propositions of the old religion; and this we find has been done by the Rev. R. Heber Newton, one of the foremost expounders of the new teaching. It will be instructive to note some of the statements and contrasts made by him touching this vital theme.

“It is a new reformation,” says Mr. Newton, “through which we are passing; a reformation, or refashioning, of the old theology—not a new formation, much less a mere destruction. It is a movement repeating, on a large scale, the Reformation in the sixteenth century. The issue of that mighty change was at the time expected, by timid foes and by overzealous friends, to prove an utter break with historical Christianity. It proved to be a recrystallization of the old elements of faith, temporarily thrown into a state of flux, in much the same old forms, enlarged and ennobled.

“Notwithstanding the vastly greater change now going on, there is good reason to believe that the issue of this new reformation will be, not the loss of religion, nor yet wholly a new religion, but the old religion purified and evolved, made reasonable and moral.”

After thus intimating that the old religion, taught by such men as Bunyan, Wesley, and Whitefield, was neither reasonable, nor moral, this disciple of the new ‘faith’ proceeds to contrast it with the old. Some of his contrasts are as follows:—

“The old theology teaches the dogma of original sin—the guilt handed on from the fall in Eden. The new theology translates ‘original sin’ into ‘the law of heredity,’ which dowers us to-day with the inherited appetites and passions of the brute man from the ages past.

“The old theology sees in the hereafter two worlds—the one of perfect, unalloyed bliss, the other of hopeless, horrible suffering—into one of which every man passes immediately, through death, to abide therein forever. The new theology sees in the hereafter all varieties of experience, following upon all varieties of earthly life; each man’s lot there being the natural consequence of his character here; the mercy of God enduring forever, and the love of God being mighty to save there, as here, unto the uttermost.”

As the reader will perceive, this is simply the religion of evolution. The new theology, or “reformation,” as its apostles style it, is simply the Darwinian doctrine of evolution in a religious guise. Mr. Newton continues:—

“The old theology sets forth a dogma of sacrifice which sees in Jesus Christ a voluntary victim to propitiate the wrath of the Father; by His death placing in man’s hands a quit claim from Jehovah for the full payment of all debts of humanity to Him. The new theology sets forth the natural law of sacrifice, which runs through all creation, and is an expression of the very heart of God himself; under which individuals and classes and races are all slowly being fitted into the human life divine. . . .”

“The old theology teaches men to believe in a God outside of nature, who wound up the mechanism of the universe six thousand years ago, and now occasionally interferes in it, by suspending its laws, in order to attest the mission of His messengers. The new theology teaches men to believe in God as the Spirit indwelling the universe, whose will energizes in its forces, whose mind thinks in its laws, whose nature is imperfectly revealed in nature, whose character is seen as in an image in man—‘Our Father who art in the heavens.’”

“The old theology propounds a dogma of incarnation which represents God as coming down through space, from somewhere, at a certain moment of history, to embody himself in a man, whom men vainly tried to think of as being both God and man, being indeed neither very God nor yet very man. The new theology, returning to the original philosophy of the Church, propounds a doctrine of incarnation which conceives of the divine Spirit dwelling in the universe, embodied in nature, ensouled in man, as coming out from within ‘the abysmal deeps of personality,’ and so filling one man that ‘in Him dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily’—making Him the sacred symbol of the universal reality through which man receives power to become the son of God, a partaker of the divine nature.”

The language of evolution, as applied to religion, is necessarily somewhat vague and mystical, as is this that we have quoted. But the purpose of the new theology is very plain. It takes the edge off the old religion with its clear-cut doctrines of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. It deadens the sense of human accountability before God, and substitutes the idea that somehow, through some law of evolution, the soul will gradually mount upward to a higher life, without any such struggle and sacrifice as comes in the crucifixion of self with Jesus Christ. And if no transformation of character is made in this present world, there will still remain an unending opportunity for its attainment in some state of future existence. Nothing could be better calculated to lull the soul into the sleep of carnal security.

False dogmas from paganism which ever since the first falling away and the establishment of the papacy have defiled the pure gospel preached by Christ and the apostles, have fertilized the soil for the growth of the new theology. These false dogmas were unscientific, hence the necessity was felt for new doctrines that would harmonize with science and reason. “We have had,” says Mr. Newton, “an unscientific theology, and, by reaction, an irreligious science. We may have scientific theology, and thus a religious science.” But instead of turning to the science of salvation as revealed in the gospel, the professed teachers of Christianity have turned to “science falsely so called,” and have produced a mixture of religion and evolution, which points man to himself for salvation rather than to his Creator.

First, the churches of to-day rejected the message sent from God proclaiming the hour of the judgment and the duty to return to the true worship of God by observing His Sabbath, which message would

have separated them from papal errors, and have prepared them for the second advent of Christ. They turned from that light and pronounced it darkness, and the darkness to which they turned is heralded by them as advanced light. How fully, therefore, is the prophecy of Isaiah fulfilled to-day, that “darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people.” And therefore how necessary, also, that the remaining part of that prophecy should be fulfilled now in us, that “the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee.”

L. A. S.