“The Gist of the New Theology”
By Editor
An English clergyman has written a book with the title “The Evangel of the New Theology.” In a recently published review of this book we find the following suggestive characterization of the author’s teaching: “The basal question of religion, as he observes, is the relation of God to the living world. The theology now being outgrown conceived of God and man as external to each other, beings apart, and out of this fallacious dualism the Unitarian controversy grew. But ‘the gist of the new theology’ is the oneness of the spiritual nature in God and man, so that humanity itself is ‘an incarnation of the divine life.’” It does not require any very close examination of this authoritative statement concerning “the gist of the new theology” to see that it shuts out the plain Biblical teaching of the entrance of sin into the world, of the atoning work of Christ, and of the necessity of faith in Christ in order to be brought again into oneness with God. And the necessary and strong tendency of these views is toward the Unitarian and pantheistic conception of God. This kind of apparent exaltation of God, which either belittles or ignores entirely the dignity and glory of the eternal Son and his wondrous condescension in behalf of fallen man, is one of Satan’s most pleasing sophistries. Under the pretense of honoring God this enemy of both God and Christ is inspiring in men’s minds such views as dishonor both the Father and the Son, and open the way for the final attempt on the part of the great rebel to make himself like the Most High. By this teaching a personal God is dissipated into a living Force, or an infinite Energy which is so closely related to the living world that they are to be regarded as inseparable. This is the gist of pantheism. By this teaching, Jesus the Son of God is no longer permitted to be regarded as one with God, but is represented as the most godlike example of human perfection which the world has ever produced. This is the gist of Unitarianism. By this teaching humanity as a whole becomes “an incarnation of the divine life,” and every man is therefore a temple of the Holy Ghost. This is that doctrine of the divine immanence which is being so widely accepted5and advocated, but which really denies to Jesus Christ the unique work of uniting divinity to humanity in himself as the only way of salvation. The fatal fallacy in the reasoning which leads to this conclusion lies in assuming that the blessings of life and health which are vouchsafed to all members of the human family through the gift of Christ are the proofs of that indwelling of the Holy Spirit which is assured only to the believer. This is the logical result of that evolutionary conception of Christianity which eliminates the life of faith, and views all spiritual attainment as the outcome of development rather than of the new birth. It is thus clear that “the gist of the new theology” consists in assuming the divinity of humanity. It consists in advocating a pantheistic conception of God, and then in claiming a saving union between God and man without any necessary place for the “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” In the third angel’s message we have a divinely ordained protest against this whole perversion of the truth of the gospel. And the present indications are that only those who receive the truth as it is found in this message will be saved from the sophistries and delusions which are now being advocated as new light upon old doctrines. We warn our readers against these false ideas under whatever guise they may come to them. To receive them is to abandon the true gospel of Christ the only Saviour. This is the real gist of the new theology.