p. 195 | The New Theology by J. E. Rankin

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 27, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 13.

The New Theology.

By J. E. Rankin

THE new theology, so called, gives us a new theory of last things. It is with this new theory of last things that this brief and hurriedly-prepared paper will have to do. The trouble in the minds of the advocates of this new theory of last things is this: it seems to them that a vast majority of mankind, especially the heathen, have not, under the present economy, had a fair chance; and that, in order to vindicate his moral economy, God must give them a future probation. It is not claimed that there is much in Bible authority for this view. One solitary text of disputed interpretation, like the single thread by which Mohammed's coffin was suspended between heaven and earth, is what is especially relied upon. It is claimed that St. Peter teaches in this solitary text that between his crucifixion and his resurrection the Lord Jesus Christ preached to spirits of the antediluvians, giving them a second chance, though they had a first chance when Noah, "a preacher of righteousness," was building the ark; and though in his next epistle St. Peter cites the same antediluvians as illustrations of God's knowing how to "reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished;" which passage certainly implies a denial of any second chance before the day of judgment. If the passage proves anything, it proves too much. These antediluvians were disobedient when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing. Noah's carpenters were ordained evangelists. Every nail driven was an epistle of God's forbearance. And if St. Peter's interpretation of this event in Noah's life be true, the event itself was symbolic of the believer's salvation by the resurrection of Christ Jesus. The Saviour himself has described to us how Noah's contemporaries carried themselves: "But, as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For, as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not till the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Did he not know that he was to preach to these people, and that they were not finally overtaken? How, then, could the coming of the flood be taken as the analogue of the coming of the Son of man, which would be without remedy?

But the new theory of last things, although its advocates try to make St. Peter father it, has very little patristic support. According to Professor Shedd, who will be accepted as fair authority in history, if not in theology, the ancient church, with only two considerable exceptions—Clement and Origen—regarded the punishment of the future endless; doubtless an understatement of the truth, for the sake of brevity. And Clement is careful to teach that the doctrine of endless punishment must be preached in order to deter men from sin, although the hope of the final salvation of all is permitted to the thinker; showing what he thought about the practical immortality of the doctrine. The church of the Middle Ages was a unit in believing, as Dante did, that he who entered the realms of the lost left hope behind. And, until recently, no considerable number of preachers out of the ranks of Unitarians or Universalists have given public utterance to any other view.

Let us look a moment at this matter of heathenism. How does it come about? There are, doubtless, perhaps hundreds of them, within the shadow of this building where we meet; thousands, tens of thousands, in this great city. I will not say—for I desire to be charitable to all my hearers, especially those of the Congregational name—I will not say there may not be heathen in this very presence. What is the process by which heathen are made? Geologists tell us that if we want an object-lesson in the science of geology, if we want to see how the thing is done which we read in the rocks, go to the delta of the Mississippi or the Nile. There Nature is making her deposits and building solid earth, crowding back the seas, saying, in the Creator's voice, "Thus far, and no farther!" We look at those vast heathen regions, where whole continents know not God, and they are like the great ages of geology—we cannot understand them. They seem a blot upon the work of the Creator, inexplicable exceptions to his economy. But you and I can see how, from inherited tendency to evil, from neglect of parental training, from the pride and luxury of the Christian churches, from the licensing of those breathing-holes of perdition, liquor saloons—you and I can see how, in the third, or even in the second generation, a heathen can be made right here in this metropolis out of the child of Christian parents. Has not the man had a fair chance? He has heard church bells from the day of his birth; he actually bears upon his brow the seal of Christian baptism. But to-day he is just as ignorant of the way of salvation as a Hottentot. And this has come to him mainly through the law of solidarity, according to which God has constituted the human race; a law which is thus recorded in the decalogue: "For I, the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments." According to that law, this man has become a heathen. Let him and his children alone for generations, and this heathenism becomes only the more perfect and awful, until it will be true of them that "knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." And this, as the apostle claims, is because they would not retain God in their knowledge; they would not recognize him in the things of nature, in their own things, in his things.

You say, you "do not believe in any such law of solidarity; any such constitution of mankind." Believe in it or not, you cannot help being the fruit of it. The qualities which distinguish you as a man you have got from the loins of your ancestors; you have got from your domestic and social surroundings; they have come down to you through angels descending and ministering to you in answer to the prayers of the dead and living; as they ministered to Jacob of old in his dreams. This law of solidarity, of moral and spiritual heredity, is just the same law whichever direction it takes, whatever its results. If it is just in your case and my case, what is its injustice when it works the other way? There are men in this presence, whose names will occur to you at once, who bear about in their threefold being a heritage of family graces richer than that ever coming through the loins of kings. Their ancestors believed, and taught, and acted on this law of God's moral government; and it has made their children what they are. It remains to be seen whether, denying it, their children will be worthy to bear the name they themselves bear.—Rev. J. E. Rankin, D. D., in Christian Union.