A New Witness for God (Vol. 1-3). B. H. Roberts

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СКАЧАТЬ to Christian missionaries—argues some weakness in a religion bottomed on divine revelation and sustained through all these centuries (so Christians claim) by divine power. To be compelled to admit after all these centuries favorable to the establishment of Christianity that now only a little more than one-fourth of the population of our earth is even nominally Christian is to confess that the results do not do credit to a religion making the claims and possessing the advantages of Christianity.

      Third, the existence of a broad and constantly widening stream of unbelief, not only in Christian lands and apart from Christian communion, but within the very churches claiming to be churches of Christ, together with the inability of the orthodox to meet and silence the infidel revilers of the Christian religion—tells its own tale of weakness; and bears testimony of the insufficiency of the Christian evidences to bring conviction to the doubting minds of many sincere and moral people.

      All these considerations proclaim in trumpet-tones

      "'Tis time that some new prophet should appear."

      Mankind stand in need of a new witness for God—a witness who may speak not as the scribes or the pharisees, but in the clear, ringing tones of one clothed with authority from God. The world is weary of the endless wrangling of the scholastics. They settle nothing. Their speculations merely shroud all in profounder mystery, and beget more uncertainty. They darken counsel by words without knowledge. Therefore, to heal the schisms in Christendom; to bring order out of the existing chaos; to stay the stream of unbelief within the churches; to convert the Jews; to evangelize the world; to bring to pass that universal reign of truth, of peace, of liberty, of righteousness that all the prophets have predicted—the world needs a new witness for God.

      Footnotes

      1. Such is the language, slightly paraphrased, which Mrs. Humphrey Ward puts in the mouth of the orthodox Ronalds in her dialogue entitled The New Reformation (See Agnosticism and Christianity—Humbolt Library Series, page 151); and it accurately states the claims of the orthodox Christian.

      2. "Agnosticism and Christianity," p. 151. The passage is paraphrased.

      3. I thus carefully qualify the statement for the reason that I believe the Christian religion—that is, the Gospel, has a much earlier existence than the birth of Christ. Messiah is spoken of in Scripture as "the lamb slain from the foundation of the world," from which expression in connection with many other evidences—too numerous to mention here (see the Author's work "The Gospel," ch. xxxii.)—I get the idea that the plan of man's redemption through the atonement of Jesus Christ is at least as old as the foundation of the world. It was revealed to Adam, and the Patriarchs, to Abraham, to Moses, and to some of the prophets; and finally through the earthly ministry of the Son of God himself; but it is an error to suppose that it came into existence first through the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth on earth.

      4. Æsop's Fables.

      5. Mosheim's Ecclesiastical Institutes, book iii., cent. viii., part i., chap. i. (Murdock's translation always quoted.)

      6. Mosheim, book iii., cent. x., part i., chap. i.

      7. Mosheim, book iii., cent. xii., part i., chap. i.

      8. "What the World Believes," Gay Bros & Co., New York. Dr. Hurst's "Outline History of the Church" (1875) gives the following population to the creeds:

      Christianity ........................ 407 Millions.

      Judaism ............................... 7 "

      Buddhism ............................ 340 "

      Mohammedism ......................... 200 "

      Brahmanism .......................... 175 "

      Confucianism ......................... 80 "

      All other forms of religious belief . 174 "

      While this is a little different grouping of the religions than that in the text, the computation is approximately the same. "Of the Christian populations of the world, 131,007,449 are assigned to Protestantism, 200,339,390 to Roman Catholicism, and 76,390,040 to the oriental churches. In the New World, comprising North and South America, the Roman Catholics are in the majority, having about sixty millions" (Behm & Wagner). The above is also quoted with favor by Dr. Joseph Faa Di Bruno in his work "Catholic Belief," p. 397.

      9. Burder's History of all Religions (1860), p. 140; also Buck's Theol. Dic., Art. Greek Church.

      10. Faith of our Fathers, p. 109.

      11. Christianity and Agnosticism, p. 161.

      12. "The true deist has but one Deity; and his religion consists in contemplating the power, wisdom and benignity of the Deity in his works, and in endeavoring to imitate him in everything moral, scientifical and mechanical. * * * * The Almighty Lecturer (Deity), by displaying the principles of science in the structure of the universe, has invited man to study and to imitation. It is as if he had said to the inhabitants of this globe we call ours, 'I have made an earth for man to dwell upon, and I have rendered the starry heavens visible, to teach him science and the arts. He can now provide for his own comfort, and learn from my munificence to all, to be kind to each other.' * * * * * In Deism our reason and our belief become happily united. The wonderful structure of the universe, and everything we behold in the system of the creation, prove to us far better than books can do, the existence of a God and at the same time proclaim his attributes. It is by exercise of our reason that we are enabled to contemplate God in his works and imitate him in his ways. When we see his care and goodness extended over all his creatures, it teaches us our duty towards each other while it calls forth our gratitude to him."—Thomas Paine.

      13. "It is not in the name of this or that philosophy, but in the name of constant experience that we banish miracle from history. We do not say 'miracle is impossible'; we say: 'there has been hitherto no miracle proved.' * * * * Till we have new light, we shall maintain, therefore, this principle of historical criticism, that a supernatural relation cannot be accepted as such, that it always implies credulity or imposture." Renan, Life of Jesus, E. T. pp. 44, 45.

      14. "Let the gospels be in part legendary, that is evident since they are full of miracles and the supernatural." "Renan, Life of Jesus, p. 19." Renan is one of the chief writers of the rationalistic school.

      "No just perception of the true nature of history is possible without a just perception of the inviolability of the chain of finite causes, and of the impossibility of miracles." Strauss, Leben Jesu, Vol. I., p. 64. E. T.

      15. "Canons," is the scientific term.

      16. "Inquiry into the Credibility of Early Roman History." (Sir G. C. Lewis) Vol. I., p. 2, of the Introduction.

      17. The whole world of profane history has been revolutionized: * * * * The views of the ancient world formerly entertained have been in ten thousand points either modified or revised—a new antiquity has been raised up out of the old—while much that was unreal in the picture of past times which men had formed to themselves has disappeared, consigned to that "Limbo large and broad" into which "all things transitory and vain" are finally received, a fresh revelation has in many cases taken the place of the old view, which has dissolved before the wand of the critic; and a firm and strong fabric has arisen out of the shattered debris of the fallen systems.—George Rawlinson's "Historical Evidences" (London Edition) pp. 28, 29.

      18. A footnote scarcely affords the space necessary in which СКАЧАТЬ