INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I

IDEA AND SCOPE OF BIBLICAL DOGMATICS

1. Theology and Religion. Theology is the science of religion, and a scientific treatment of the Christian faith must be a rational conception and statement of its fundamental truths. Religion is found to be an essential element in the spiritual nature of man. There is a necessary relation between man and God, and the consciousness of this fact accounts for the universal prevalence of religion among the various peoples. Religion appears under many different forms, and it has been in all ages an important factor in the progress of civilization. It cannot be accounted for as a product of human reason, or as an invention of priestcraft, or as an effect of ghostly and superstitious fears. Religion, like the moral sense, is a matter of personal consciousness and universal experience, and it compels some form of recognition among all The simplest explanation of these facts appears in the biblical teaching that God, the invisible and eternal Spirit, has in various ways revealed himself to all the peoples of the earth. That which may be known of God in his works of creation and in his opposition to all unrighteousness of men is said by Paul to have been revealed from heaven to the conscience and perception of the human soul, and such revelation has been in progress from the beginning until now. Accordingly, men of all nations show the work of a divine law written in their hearts, and their conscience and reason continually bear witness to these unmistakable facts.

men.

2. Universality of Religion and Revelation. That God, the eternal Spirit, has at different times and in many ways revealed himself to mankind is attested by the universality of the religious feeling. If there be any human heart destitute of religious consciousness, it must be either undeveloped or abnormal. Hence we conceive that all true elements of religion are matters of divine revelation. But not all these elements of religion have ever been given at any one time or place as a perfected whole. They have

been made known to men in various degrees of clearness, here in part and there in part. According to John i, 9, the all-pervasive, true, eternal Light illumines every man coming into the world. That which has commonly been called "natural religion" proves in its final analysis to be a matter of revelation, for the invisible attributes and powers of the Creator are made manifest through the visible forms of the things which have been made. But this fact that all religion, like the concept of God, is a matter of revelation does not exclude the further fact that various special and remarkable revelations have at different times been made to men. There have been distinctive epochs of religious activity, and there have appeared not a few transcendent teachers of religion, gifted above their fellow men in the knowledge of divine mysteries; and all these are entitled to our most serious and careful consideration. At the same time we should observe that a deep religious feeling may exist without a definite system of religious thought. Religious emotion may also very powerfully impress and actuate one's life, while at the same time his concept of God and the world. may be darkened by sundry low and delusive superstitions. One may seriously embrace a falsehood for the truth and propagate it with great zeal. His error may contain elements of truth, and so be the more enthralling. One may also perversely change the truth of God into a lie, or exchange it for a lie, and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator (comp. Rom. i, 25). The facts of religious aberration, bigotry, and bitterness constitute a mournful exhibit of human frailty. But on the other hand, a study of the efforts of the great and good to formulate their conceptions of God and of the relations between God and man is one of the most interesting and profitable occupations of the seeker after truth.

3. Philosophy of Religion. There are many different forms of religion in the world, and there have been many which, like the peoples who observed them, long ago ceased to exist. The fact that we can speak of "dead religions" and "living religions" is itself an indication that religion is an inseparable factor in the life and growth of nations. Aside from the lower phases of religion which appear among barbarous tribes, there are such conspicuous systems as Buddhism and Mohammedanism which are embraced by millions of enthusiastic devotees. Each of these

This fact has been admirably expressed by Professor R. H. Charles: "All true growth in religion, whether in the past or the present, springs from the communion of man with the immediate living God, wherein man learns the will of God, and becomes thereby an organ of God, a personalized conscience, a revealer of divine truth for men less inspired than himself. The truth thus revealed through a man possesses a divine authority for men."-Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life, p. 3. London, 1899.

great systems of faith has its own peculiar history and teachings, and they all demand the attention of the thorough student of theology. The "philosophy of religion," so called, has in recent years become a distinct department of study, and is based upon a comparative examination of all the religious cults known among the nations. It studies to reduce the facts of religion to certain fundamental principles, and to explain their origin, their nature, and their relations. Such comparative study is not fairly or profitably pursued without the aid of history, psychology, philosophy, and theology.

4. The Christian Religion. We maintain that the Christian religion is by far the highest and purest among all the great religions now existing. It acknowledges its direct historical connection with the religion of the Jewish people, and makes an important use of their ancient scriptures; but it assumes to supplement and supersede the older Hebrew system. The religious teachings of the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms of Israel stand aloft and unique; they are without parallel among all the sacred writings that originated in their time; but the teachings of Jesus Christ and his apostles surpass them all in their self-evidencing authority and adaptation to meet the spiritual wants of man. The doctrines of this superior religion are to be learned from the writings of the New Testament. In these simple but remarkable records the precious truths of the older scriptures, even to the jot and tittle, are seen in their higher pleroma (comp. Matt. v, 17). The Christian revelation fulfills and consummates the entire Hebrew cult. It is the purpose of Biblical Dogmatics to gather up and set forth in orderly arrangement the essential doctrines of this superior revelation as they may be clearly proven out of all these sacred writings.

5. Biblical Theology. Biblical Dogmatics, accordingly, differs in its scope from what is known as biblical theology. The latter aims to trace the genesis and growth of religious ideas, and to set forth the various types of doctrine apparent in the different biblical writers. It is, accordingly, a kind of historical discipline, while at the same time it belongs essentially to the department of exegetical theology, for its main task is to furnish a correct grammatico-historical explanation of the teaching of each biblical writer, and also to show as far as possible the origin and development of each distinct religious concept. Biblical Dogmatics, on the other hand, goes beyond the limits of this exegetical and historical discipline, and seeks a logical arrangement of the biblical doctrines into a systematic body of revealed truth. It appropriates the results of exegetical study as presented in biblical theology,

and combines them in their inner living connection and their higher unity."

6. Systematic Theology. Systematic Theology claims a still broader field than that of Biblical Dogmatics and of Biblical Theology. It goes beyond the limits of the biblical revelation, although acknowledging the Scriptures as the chief source of religious dogma. It recognizes the creeds and controversies of Christendom, and employs, as occasion offers, both the methods and the facts of science, of philosophy, and of all human research. It deals with doctrines of the Christian faith, sets forth the processes by which the several dogmas have been constructed into scientific statement and confessional formulas, and arranges the whole body of doctrines thus constructed into one complete, logical, self-consistent system. Systematic Theology, or Christian Dogmatics in the broad sense, may well claim the great creeds of Christendom as a magnificent inheritance. Certain specific formulas of doctrine may be discarded; many peculiar opinions of great fathers and teachers of the church may be seen to be no longer tenable; but the ecumenical creeds, the historic confessions, and such names as Athanasius, and Augustine, and Jerome, and Bernard, and Anselm, Luther and Melanchthon, Zwingli and Calvin, Arminius, Bunyan, Edwards, and Wesley are fairly canonized in the thought of the Christian world. We may freely test their statements by all the appliances of later research and we may find not a little in them to be set aside; but we should also appreciate and admire the inestimable substance of truth which they have transmitted to us in their luminous expositions of Christian doctrine.

7. Limits and Aim of Biblical Dogmaties. Biblical Dogmatics may adopt the method of Systematic Theology in the construction of distinctive doctrines of the Scriptures and in arranging them into an orderly and logical system, but it may not go beyond the proper exegesis of the Bible in its construction of doctrine, nor is it to deal with the creeds of the Church and the polemics of theologians. It may, so far as serves its purpose, proceed in the steps of biblical theology, point out the genesis and development of particular doctrines, and give due attention to the distinctive types of doctrine which appear in different biblical writers. So far as the books of the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms of

We cannot well overestimate the value of biblical theology to modern Christian thought. It is almost the extreme opposite of the older confessional dogmatics, for its trend has been virtually a revolt from the dialectic and speculative methods of a former time. It seems almost an ironical element, working unconsciously in theologians, when they insist in strong terms that the Scriptures are the "sole and infallible rule of faith," and yet make it their strenuous task to twist luminous statements of the biblical writers from their obvious meaning into a supposable harmony with preconceived extra-biblical schemes of doctrine.

the Old Testament show divergences of thought, or so far as the different books of the New Testament indicate any diversity of doctrinal expression, Biblical Dogmatics is bound to pay careful attention to all the facts. If there be found any contradiction of teaching in the various authors, or if early and imperfect religious ideas are corrected, supplemented or superseded in later times, Biblical Dogmatics should take due account of all such progress and changes of doctrine. At the same time it is the task of Biblical Dogmatics so to combine the truths of Scripture as to exhibit the higher and broader unity under which the varying individual concepts of different writers may be seen to be so many manifestations of the same Spirit.

8. Theology Old and New. The result of a faithful construction of Biblical Dogmatics should be an old and new theology. Not an old theology and a new one, as if they were twain and contradictory, but a theology which is at once both old and new. It is a theology which faithfully maintains and conserves the great religious teachings of the Scriptures, but which may be set forth in new forms of statement and with new life and beauty by the living Spirit of Christ which ever abides and coöperates with the enlargement of human knowledge. "Therefore every scribe who hath been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old" (Matt. xiii, 52). A notable part of the ministry of the Holy Spirit, whom the Father sends as an abiding Comforter, is to teach us and to guide us into all the truth (John xiv, 26; xvi, 13; 1 John ii, 27). By the guidance of this abiding Spirit the disciple of the kingdom of heaven may continually find new confirmations and enlarged conceptions of the truths of Holy Writ. He enjoys numerous advantages over the ancient fathers. There is today a more searching criticism of the biblical records than at any previous period; there prevails a sounder and better exegesis of those records; the comparative study of the great religions of the world and their sacred books has accomplished much for a broader view of the relations between God and man; scientific exploration and commercial and international intercourse have enlarged the knowledge and sympathy of men; the remarkable sociological movements throughout the civilized world and the profound study of the philosophy of human history have lifted whole classes to a higher plane of thought; discoveries in natural science and the inductive methods of investigation so prominent in modern research, the uplifting influence of great reforms and the marvelous achievements of modern Christian missions among the peoples of other faiths, the refining influence of enlarged