WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY? by J. O. C.

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Dec 15, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Volume 41, Number 49

WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY?

By J. O. C.

Is Christ Divine in No Higher Sense than that Some Men Are Divine?

Is there No Divine Power Outside of Man to Lift Him Up?

Is Christianity a definite personal quality, or is this a generic term by which to distinguish between civilization and the lower grades of humanity? From much that is written, one would almost conclude that the latter view obtains in the estimation of many who claim to stand in behalf of Christian service.

In a recent volume by Prof. Rudolph Eucken, entitled, “Can We Still Be Christians?” he proceeds to answer his question in the affirmative on a basis of his own arranging, rather than by the criterion of divine sentiment. This is his statement: “We can and must be Christians on the one condition that Christianity is recognized as a progressive historic movement still in the making, that it be shaken free from the numbing influence of ecclesiasticism, and placed upon a broader foundation.”

If the conditions here named mean anything, they must have their apparent import, which is the elimination of such vital

teaching as the divine indwelling and an entire dependence upon heavenly support for success in one's religious leanings. This would be to have a Christianity without Christ in the life, while recognizing Him as a personality of historical “preeminent significance.” But if that is all Christ is to be in one's Christianity, what influence can He have in regulating the life, any more than George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, both of whom were personalities of historical preeminent significance?

That the comparison here used is not irrelevant, may be seen from a statement by this Jena professor. He says that “the fact which is more than all else responsible for the shattering of ecclesiastical religion is that the truth which it once championed as fundamental—that, namely, of the incarnation and the mediatorial office of Christ—is no longer tenable in the present phase of our intellectual developments.” With Christ thus eliminated from Christianity, what part of it is left for faith to grasp?

ONLY A HUMAN DIVINITY

To preserve a semblance of the old way-marks, the author attempts to maintain the divinity of Christ, but only in the sense in which an exceptional man has divinity. This is to place man on an equality with Christ, and so raise him above the need of Christ's power to save him from the consequences of the fall. This is but another addition to the rapidly extending force of believers in the “religion of humanity,” under the name of Christianity.

As the theory of democracy grows in importance in civil matters, the strong tendency is to apply its principles to religious topics, and thus bring the church and the state near to each other. So “humanism,” or trust in human power, is making great progress toward establishment as a great religious system, in fulfilment of prophetic declaration. One has only to study the thirteenth chapter of the book of Revelation to get an inspired comment upon the present situation. It is there foretold that a two-horned beast would appear to advocate certain tenets of religious belief, and attempt to oblige every one to accept the same, under penalty of death. Summing up the whole history of this beast, the prophet declares that the number or sum of this beast is that of a man.

THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS

As early as 1908, Dr. Rodolphe Broda published, in the International for March, a review of the world's progress. In that article was this statement: “One of the most significant features of our own times is the religious crisis through which all the civilized races are now simultaneously passing.” The principal cause of this world-wide crisis, Dr. Broda asserts, is the discoveries of modern science, which, he says, “in demolishing the legends of the creation of the world and man, have also uprooted in the educated mind the faith in the divine inspiration of the books and traditions which taught these legends, and which were the basis of all the accepted religious beliefs.”

He sees in the present movement a unification of all the old “positivist religions,” of every kind, and concludes that “at last the time must come when a single world federation of religion, the church of man, will rise out of the ruins of the ancient faiths, when the great religious crises of the world will be at an end, and the strife between the logical necessity of the modern scientific world concept and the psychic necessity of religion will be solved in the ultimate harmonization of both.”

WOULD DO AWAY WITH FAITH

No one can fail to see that this propagation of the “solidarity of man” leads directly to the rejection of such Scripture teaching as the necessity of faith in Christ's indwelling power, to save one from final destruction. It also does away the thought of individual salvation, by creating the impression that salvation is a collective or social affair. This doctrine aims to set aside the consequences of sin in men, without getting rid of the sin itself. While it gives Christ recognition as a great historical character, in some mysterious sense divine, yet it allows Him no place in the human heart, to put away sin. In other words, He is not recognized as having assumed human form, in order to taste death for every human soul.

Further extravagances of this modern religious view might be cited, but enough is contained in the foregoing to show the dangerous tendencies it metes out to all who adopt it. For if, as Mr. R. J. Campbell, pastor of the London City Temple, says, every human being has within himself the only and infallible source and judge of truth, then man can not look to any higher source for help in time of need, and no necessity exists for a divine revelation to point the way from earth to heaven. It is well to distrust all such theories; for they can never comfort the inner man, as the good “old Book” has ever done. It is better to stay by the old landmarks, and leave the result with the God who rules on high.

J. O. C.