Modern Christianity by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · May 17, 1906

Modern Christianity

By Editor

There is something bewildering about the modern perversions of the truths of Christianity. These advocates of the New Theology seem to be full of sweetness and light. They do not wish to quarrel with any one, but desire full permission to propagate their views without hindrance or opposition throughout the various denominations in which they happen to have church connection. There is a sort of fascination in their interpretations of the Scriptures. They almost dazzle the reader with beautiful statements, and appear to present a very spiritual view of both earthly and heavenly things.

We have steadily maintained that those who declare that every operation of God in nature is a miracle, and that all the natural is supernatural, have adopted the essential principle of the New Theology. This is the evolutionary conception of Christianity. It repudiates the idea of any special acts on God's part either in the original creation or in the course of nature or in conversion. Everything is developed under fixed laws, and the only remedy for imperfection is development. It demolishes the old-time views of the creation, the fall, the atonement, conversion, justification, inspiration, etc., and substitutes an entirely new system. It is the principle of evolution applied in the interpretation of Christianity.

Our attention has been called to this matter anew by an editorial in The Outlook (New York), a recognized defender and expounder of the New Theology, from which we take the following paragraph:—

There are three views of Christianity entertained to-day: the first, that man is left to grope his way as best he can to the truth, and that Christianity is the best solution of the enigma of life which he has yet reached; the second, that God has appeared to a special, chosen people, and given to them the solution, and that Christianity is that specially revealed solution; the third, that God is and always has been man's Companion, that revelation is as universal as aspiration, that all religions are partial revealings of God to man and in man, and that Christianity is the supreme chapter in this history of perpetual revelation. The first view eliminates the supernatural, the second regards it as an episode, the third believes in it as universal. . . . The Outlook, in common with an increasing number of Christians, holds the third.

The claim that the supernatural is universal appears at first thought to recognize God as in a closer relation to his works than is usually admitted by orthodox believers, but a more careful analysis of this teaching reveals the fact that it entirely sets aside the God of the Bible, and substitutes for this personal Being an infinite Power to which it ascribes a personality scientifically defined, and distributes it throughout the material creation under the name of the Universal Presence. When this evolutionary conception of God has been adopted, the affirmation that the supernatural is universal, and that the world is full of miracles, is simply another way of saying that the personal God of the Bible is not the god of the present day, and that the miracles recorded in the Bible are the product of a vivid imagination.

A legitimate consequence of this evolutionary principle is the view that "revelation is as universal as aspiration." The real meaning of this statement is that the writers of the Bible were in no sense inspired differently from what the writers of the present day are inspired, and of course the conclusion is that the Bible is of no more authority in matters of religion than any book of this day. And the sum of all this new philosophy is that God is in everything and in every man, and that religion consists simply in developing the good which is already within.

By selecting certain expressions in the Bible and interpreting them apart from their connection and in an evolutionary setting, and by giving to familiar passages a meaning entirely different from that which has been universally accepted for centuries, the advocates of this new system are able- to make it appear that their teaching is in harmony with the Scriptures. This is evidently designed to influence those who still hold that the Bible is the Word of God and a sufficient rule of faith.

It seems necessary to open up the meaning of the smooth phrases in which these sophistries are concealed in order to save our readers from being deceived by them. These things have been urged upon us both from within and from without the denomination, and it is time that we all understood what they mean. It is certainly our duty to heed the exhortation, "Be vigilant." "Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing."