An Utterly Wrong Conception of Christianity
We clip the following from a Sunday paper: “Dr. Lyman Abbott is frequently denominated a Unitarian, but his own confession of faith just printed in The Outlook does not sound like a Unitarian’s utterance. ‘I believe that the supremest manifestation of God in human history is found in the life and character of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, and the world’s Messiah. I believe that He lived, suffered, died, rose from the dead, and lives in the church and leads His people, a personal living presence as truly in the world to-day as in the world nineteen centuries ago.’” All of which sounds fairly good, and yet one of the common theories of the present day is that every one is a son of God. Dr. Abbott very sedulously avoids saying that Christ is the Saviour of the world, the One who suffered and died to save men from sin. Many of those who deny the literal bodily resurrection will admit that He arose from the dead; or in other words interpret the resurrection as meaning leaving His body here upon the earth and ascending in His soul or Spirit to heaven. Orthodox Christianity takes Jesus Christ as the vicarious Redeemer of the world, of each and every man, not simply a leader in the church, not simply a supreme manifestation of God in human history, but the One who “saves to the uttermost” all that come to God through Him. From what we have heard Dr. Abbott say in his own lectures regarding the Bible and revelation at the present time, his words above quoted mean no more than what many Unitarians could say, unless he has wonderfully changed.