Christianity versus orthodox theology, or, The deception unmasked

Preface

The attentive reader of the Scriptures will not fail to find in the New Testament two distinct plans of salvation. The first of these plans is found in the four Gospels, and is the way which Jesus taught to his disciples. It is the religion of love : love God supremely and love thy neighbor as thyself. It is the religion of good fellowship, good works and deeds of charity and loving kindness one to another among men. "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so to them: for this is the law. ' ' By this plan salvation is the reward of obedience to the law, which is God's will, the highest of all law. "If ye would enter into life keep the commandments." If one commits a wrong, let him repent and ask the heavenly Father to forgive him, and he will surely be forgiven.

The reader will find nothing lacking in this plan of salvation. It is complete and perfect.

PREFACE.

This is the way which the Christ taught to the world of mankind and is appropriately denominated Christianity.

The second plan or way of salvation will be found in Paul' s epistles to the various churches. This plan is by God's free grace and not by the the law. Says Paul: "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast." "A man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." "By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified."

The fundamental fact on which Paul bases his theory of salvation is the dogma of original sin, the condemnation of the entire human race to eternal woe on account of the sin of Adam. This necessitated the sacrifice of Christ to redeem the fallen race from this original sin. The subordinate or incidental doctrines involved in Paul's plan of salvation and taught by the orthodox churches, are the divinity of Christ; his incarnation; the trinity of the God-head; the doctrine of election or the calling of some to be saved irrespective of their sins; vicarious atonemeiit; the sure effect of Christ's sacrifice to save the lost; the imputement of Christ's merits to the salvation of unrepentant sinners; faith wholly unrational and underived, and others. Let this suffice for a rough statement of Paul's scheme of salvation. Whatever this ma}* be it surely is not Christianity. It is a system of incomprehensible mysteries every feature of which is supernatural. To distinguish it from Christianity we denominate it Paul ism.

It will be seen at a glance that these two plans differ the one from the other, as widely as the heavens from the earth.

At a very early period, probably during the life-time of Paul, for one cause or another, the leaders of the church embraced Paul's doctrines to the prejudice of the plan of salvation as taught by Christ. Having adopted Paulism they misnamed it Christianity, and in due course made it the creed or constitution of the orthodox church. And the so-called Christian church has for eighteen centuries been falsely masquerading in the guise of Christianity.

The impossibility of comprehending the

PREFACE. 7

teachings of Paul and the uncertainty arising from two rival plans of salvation, threw the Christian world into doubt and spiritual anxiety; and caused schisms, divisions, sects, quarrels, disputes and personal enmities without number in the very bosom of the church. The history of the Church from the da}-s of Paul to this time is but little else than a history of its disorders and lack of harmony. No other subject of human interest has engaged half the learning, labor and talent wdxich have been employed to establish and maintain Paulism as the creed of orthodox theology.

The object of this little book is to point out the foregoing facts and to call the attention of ordinar3T readers to the great fact that the clergy of the orthodox churches of the present day (in so far as they adhere to their creed) are not teaching Christianity, but Paulism — doctrines widely different from Christianity and resting on no authority but the name of Paul alone.

The argument is that after so long a trial, with results so little encourasrius: it is full time

8 CHRISTIANITY VERSUS ORTHODOX THKOtOCY.

to discard Paulism, root and branch, and to embrace Christianity, a religion which no one doubts, the only true religion of humanity.

In writing these essays I have taken no pains to disguise ray thoughts. In this age of free inquiry, I know of no reason wli3T one should feel restrained in the expression of his opinion concerning religion more than in other matters. I have accordingly said plainly and directly what I think and believe. If I am wrong in an}- essential particular, I shall be glad to be corrected. A. B. L.

Clyde, Ohio, March 31, 1899.

CHRISTIANITY.

Chapter I

Christianity, or the Religion which Jesus taught to his Disciplhs.

In the four Gospels we have four separate and distinct accounts of the teachings and doings of the Savior while here among men. These accounts are the primal and only source of our knowledge of Christ and of the religion he taught. While these accounts differ one from another in some minor details, they agree substantially in all essential particulars. I propose, in a brief essay, to give an outline sketch of the religion which the Savior taught to his disciples, as the same appears on the face of the four Gospels.

Before proceeding, it is proper to sa3<T that, so far as concerns this essay, we wholly ignore the question of the divinity of Christ. In an}' case his religion must be judged on its merits, as these commend it to the human

10 CHRISTIANITY VKRSUS ORTHODOX THEOLOGY.

understanding ; and if this religion, as a whole, thus commends itself as true, it matters not whether the teacher was divine, or merely human.

In the very beginning of his ministry, Jesus announced to his disciples the object of his mission. This he did in terms that could leave no doubt in their minds as to the character of the work which he proposed to undertake. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." (Matt. 5:17). What law ? What is the law to which the Savior alludes? When the pharisee asked Jesus : "Which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus answered : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matt. 22: 36 to 40).

After some very apt and specific instructions illustrating the scope and development of the second commandment, Jesus, dropping particulars, sums up in a single expression, all the obligations and duties which men mutually owe to each other : "Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the laze and the prophets." Matt. 7:12. These citations leave no doubt as to what was the law which the Savior came to fulfill This is the law because it is the expression of the Sovereign Will. It is the line traced for the spiritual guidance of man in this erring world. It is the line that separates right from wrong, truth from error. All our discursions, however widely they may range in search for an ultimate basis or standard of moral truth or right, end here. The whole duty of man in his relation to his fellow- beings is summed up in this expression so plain, so complete and so comprehensive, that the simplest can scarcel}' fail to understand and appl}r it — "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for, (because) this is the law." God's commandments are the expression of his will and are authority because they emanate directly from God, the Sovereign ruler of all.

Such is the law which Christ came to fulfill. It is the way to life, to the higher and better life. Jesus was not himself enacting this law, as the expression of His will. He was only declaring the existing law which he had come to revive and make operative again among his people. This law was as old as the time when Moses led the hosts of Israel through the Red Sea; and when he communed with Jehovah face to face and received from him the law on Mount Sinai. It is, indeed, the divine, fundamental, moral law of man's being, stamped by the hand of the Creator on the heart and the understanding of all men everywhere. Like man}' human laws this law of human rectitude has annexed thereto rewards and penalties. It is the nature of man to feel the impress of this law and to enjoy its merited rewards of obedience — peace, joy and the pure felicities that always wait upon the doing of God's will; and to suffer the alternative penalties of disobedience — pain, grief, remorse, fear and spiritual agony even to despair.

CHRIST'S MISSION.

In the beginning of his ministry Jesus, no doubt considered his mission limited to the Jews. "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Matt. 15: 24.) He even hesitated to bestow a blessing on a non- Jew. And when he commissioned his Twelve and sent them out to teach and preach his religion, he carefully instructed them: "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Matt. 10:5, 6.) But he manifestly afterwards changed his purpose and enlarged the sphere of his labor to embrace the Gentiles as well. "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. (Mark 16:15. See Matt. 24: 14; 28:19; Luke 24:47). Jesus found the Jews perverse and obstinately opposed to his doctrine and was thus compelled to abandon his purpose to reform them. He made very few proselytes from the Jews. It soon became obvious to his comprehension that his mission would be a failure unless he could establish his kingdom among the non- Jews. Hence his change of program. The incorrigibleness of the Jews was, no doubt, the real cause of this change; and the parable of the king who made a wedding feast for his son, as related in the 22nd chapter of Matthew 1- 10, is obviously the apology for this change. This change of purpose is also evidenced by Jesus' unmeasured denunciation of the scribes and pharisees. (Matt. ch. 15 and ch. 23).

Jesus had been born and reared in the Jewish faith. He had no doubt read and was familiar with the injunctions of the Jewish Scriptures: Ye shall not steal; neither deal falsely; neither lie one to another. And ye shall not swear by my name falsely. Neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God. Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him; the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning. Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind. Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment. Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty, but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor. Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among the people; thou shalt not hate thy neighbor in thy heart. Thou shalt not in any wise rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon him. Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. (Leviticus, ch. 19. See Exodus, ch. 20.)

Jesus was no doubt familiar with all these Scriptures of the Jewish law. But he saw that, however faithfully these may have been observed and obe}Ted in former times, in his day the Jewish religion had degenerated into a system of lifeless, unspiritual forms and ceremonies, and that the spirit of true religion was wholly wanting. Boldry announcing that he is come to save that which was lost, he denounces the Jews unsparingly. He characterizes them as hypocrites and blind leaders of the blind. "Woe unto you, scribes, pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye pay tithe of mint and annise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matter of the law: judgment, mercy and faith." Ye impose grievous burdens on your fellows. Ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Ye devour widows1 houses and for a pretense make long prayers. Of fair exterior you are full of extortions and excess — -full of dead men's bones and of all uiicleanness. And finally, "Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. " (Matt. ch. 23).

A terrible picture, surely, of religious degenerac}7. It was to correct this, to reform the Jewish religion and to bring the people back to a practical knowledge of God's law of righteousness and of mutual love and fellowship that Christ undertakes. His effort is to enable the people to comprehend and appreciate the perfect excellence of the law about which the Jews prated so much and practiced so little. He ingenuously tells his followers: "Straight is the gate and narrow is the way' ' which leads to that higher and better life to which he is trying to lead them; (Matt. 7: 14) and he labors incessantly and with the utmost pains to illuminate and to make visible and plain to all that narrow way that they might delight to walk therein.

The great Teacher was an extraordinary personality. His whole soul was enthused with the work in which he was engaged. His exalted spirit was able to view the situation from a higher plane than his cotemporaries could do. His view comprehended the entire existence of man here and hereafter. In the broad sweep of his vision he saw that man, after the brief day of this life is over, is destined to an endless life in a higher and nobler sphere. He felt how transient, trifling, unreal and unsatisfying, at best, are the enjoyments of this life as compared with those in store for those who do the will of God. He saw the whole world of mankind astray in by and forbidden paths, blindly groping their way in darkness and pain, while a richer and brighter life is freely offered to all who will seek after it; and his great sonl yearned to rescue and redeem them from their prison house of sin and to place them in the way of light and eternal life.

THE LOGICAL BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY.

Jesus, in the outset and without stopping to offer proof of what seemed to him an obvious and indisputable truth, assumed that God is God over all, that he is the Creator and Author of all, and that to his will, his law, is due the homage and obedience of all his creatures. "Call no man your father upon the earth for one is your Father which is in heaven." (Matt. 23:9) In like manner he assumes the immortality of the soul. On these self evident propositions he founds his doctrines. Nothing can be more absolutely consistent with reason or more in harmony with the human affections than the manner of his treatment of the relations and duties connecting man to his Maker. God is our heavenly Father; and we are his children. Thus by the mere choice of words is at once established between the author of the human race and each of* its members the relation of father and child with all the endearments, affectionate ties, and mutual obligations of that closest and most endearing relation. The earthly father is the head of the family and knows more than his children; and, b}^ virtue of his head-ship, parental authority and greater wisdom, knows .better what the child needs than the child itself knows. Children naturally feel that reverence and obedience are due to their parents to whom they look lor advice, instruction, guidance and support. They have no other resource but their parents. And the heart of man is so organized that one of his greatest pleasures comes from supplying the reasonable natural wants of his children. "If his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish will he give him a serpent? If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him." Jesus, in full harmony with this filial relationship, teaches his disciples to pray, not to a God of wrath and vengeance, a consuming fire, but to "Our Father which art in heaven," who is full of love, compassion and tender mercy toward all those who seek to do his will. What can be more reasonable than for children with such a Father to be obedient and loving?

As we are all children of one Father, so are we all brethren. And as members of one and the same family, all on a common level one with another, all affected by like wants and weaknesses, defects and sinful tendencies and all alike needing mutual aid and support, we ought to love one another, forbear each other's faults, freely pardon all offences and thus preserve and promote the harmony and happiness of all. This is just what our heavenly Father desires of his children. IyOve your neighbor as you love yourself. Your neighbor is your brother. Do him no wrong, but do him all the good you can, because he is your brother and the child like yourself, of the heavenly Father.

God knows that if we truly love one another there will be an end of strife and enmities among men everywhere, and peace and harmony will prevail, and that will be the kingdom of heaven.

THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.

The kingdom of heaven occupies a very conspicuous place in the first three Gospels. This phrase seems to be synonomous with 'The kingdom of God. " The one or the other of these expressions meets the eye of the readervery often in the pages of Matthew, Mark and Luke; but neither of them is found in John. The general effect of reading these three Gospels is, that the establishment of the kingdom of heaven is the final consummation of Christ's mission. This is the goal towards which he is always striving and towards which helabors to direct his followers. But the phrase is used so variously and in so many different connections, that it is not easy to fix in the mind a clear idea of what the kingdom of

22 CHRISTIANITY VERSUS ORTHODOX THKOLOGY.

heaven precisely is. To illustrate we make a few references.

Men are everywhere invited and urged to get into the kingdom of God as the goal of their salvation.

On the other hand: ''The kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:21).

It puzzles the average reader to understand how the kingdom of God can be in a man and the man to be in the kingdom of God at the same time.

Says the Savior: "My kingdom is not of this world." (John 18:36).

Again he says: "Blessed be ye poor; for yours is the kingdom of God." (Luke 6:20).

How are the poor to have the blessings of the kingdom of God if that kingdom is not of this world?

Again all are commanded to seek the kingdom of heaven. At the same time all are assured that the kingdom of heaven is coming to them and indeed is come.

Jesus says: "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force." (Matt. 11:12).

On another occasion, Jesus tells the Chief Priests and Elders in the temple: '"The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." (Matt. 21:43).

These various characterizations of a thing not tangible or realizable to the senses but resting only in language, are more calculated to confuse one's perceptions than to enlighten them. They incline one to imagine that "The kingdom of heaven" was, perhaps, only a convenient name for the new regime which they expected the Messiah to inaugurate, a common rallying word for the adherents of the new order. But this apparent confusion of ideas should not lead us to suspect that Jesus himself had not a clear conception of what he proposed to do. But the intellect of the people to whom he was laboring to impart his ideas, was exceedingly dull of comprehension and he accordingly varied his language and -illustrations to adapt his lessons to their varying and little capacity. It is no doubt in this view that the great Teacher resorted so frequently to the use of parables as a means of instruction. He tells them: "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man who sowed good seed in his fie^d" etc.

"The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed."

"The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman hid in three measures of meal. "

"The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in a field."

"The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking goodly pearls."

"The kingdom of heaven is like unto a net'*' etc. (For all these see Matt. ch. T3).

If the characterizations first alluded to leave the meaning of the phrase in doubt, the parables do but little to remove that doubt. It might be an interesting puzzle to propound to a party of young people even in this day, to guess: What is that thing which is like so many things totally dissimilar one to another? While the parables are all more or less descriptive of one or another of the Christian virtues, and teach us what every follower of Christ should practice, still these fail, like the other characterizations, to define the kingdom, of heaven. There is still one resource.

Who are fit subjects for the kingdom ot heaven? We will perhaps get the best idea of what the kingdom of heaven really is, or was in the mind of the Savior, by examining its contents: Who are they that may enter therein ?

The kingdom of God consists of "The pure in heart: Of those who hunger and thirst after righteousness: Of the merciful: Of peace makers:" (Matt. eh. 5). Of little children and of those who accept Christ's teachings as little children. (Matt. 18:3; Mark 10:15). Of those who do the will of God. (Matt. 12:50): Of all those who repent of their evil deeds and seek to know the truth: Of those who love their neighbors, forgive all their offenses and do good to them whether friends or foes. (Matt. 5). But let no one deceive himself with the beliet that any sham repentance, that anything short of a sincere desire to forsake his sins and do the will of God, can succeed. "Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doeth the will of nry Father which is in heaven. " (Matt. 7:21). ' 'Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5-20).

To be a fit subject for the kingdom of God one must subordinate all other motives, his avarice, coveteousness and selfishness in all their forms and his Worldly ambitions as well. It is needful to man to know that "A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth," (Luke 12:15) to put him in the way of that higher life which the Savior taught. "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:33). "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." (Matt. 6:24).

Perhaps the colloquy between the Savior and the rich 3roung man, narrated in the 19th Chapter Gf Matthew, is the most complete and instructive single text as to the qualifications required for entering into the kingdom of heaven. This, it will be noted, is not a parable or suppositious case, but an actual occurrence. The young man inquires of the Savior:

"What good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?" The question is fundamental ; it goes to the very bottom of Christ's teachings. The question, it will be observed, is not wdiat shall I believe, but what shall I do, to insure eternal life; and presupposes that the eternal life may be attained by the doing of good deeds. It is not supposable that, if the inquirer was wrong in this assumption, Christ would have suffered such an error to pass uncorrected. But it provokes not even the slightest comment from the great Teacher, which clearly authorizes us to infer that^the inquirer was right in that supposition. But we have no occasion to rely upon inferences. Christ's answer to the young man's inquiry is clear and direct :

"If thou wouldst enter into life, keep the commandments." The question and answer taken together constitute an unqualified affirmation that the inquirer's assumption was correct and that therefore the way to salvation — to the kingdom of heaven, to eternal life, is by obedience to the law.

The young man, as the sequel shows, was evidently short on the second commandment. He had failed to comprehend the broad scope and true meaning of the injunction: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." But I find nothing in the four gospels to diminish or vary the plain import of the Savior's language and teaching everywhere, to the effect that salvation— eternal life — is the reward of obedience to the law, and is therefore not of grace, and not of faith.

"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in mf- love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love." (John 15:10).

' 'He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him." (John 14:21).

"If a man love me he will keep my words and my Father will love him." (John 14:23).

These citations from John do but confirm the teachings of the other gospels. On the whole may we not justly conclude that: "The kingdom of heaven" is the reign of God's will in the heart of man ?

THE INTELLECTUAL BASIS OF CHRISTIANITY.

In view of the mythical and supernatural signification attached to religious faith in the current Christian Theology, it will be instructive to note the motive of the Savior as evinced in his method of teaching. It is patent everywhere on the face of the first three gospels that Jesus addressed his lessons solely to the rational understanding of his hearers. A mere inspection of the texts as we find them recorded reveals the unmistakable purpose of the Teacher to insure to his disciples a full intellectual comprehension of his doctrines as the basis of their faith in the truth of his religion. It is their understanding that he relies on. He makes no appeals to their faith, their passions, prejudices or fears. He does not urge them to accept and believe anything which they do not understand; and he takes great pains to make his instructions appear rational and therefore comprehensible to the common understanding. "He opened his mouth and taught them." His language to the multitude is: "Hear and understand." (Matt. 15: 10). "Hearken unto me, every one of you and understand. " (Mark 7: 14). Let one read the Sermon on the Mount with a special view of discovering the motive of the Teacher. Every line reveals the direct purpose of the Teacher to convey to the hearer a mental perception of the truth of what he was teaching. The Teacher himself saw the truth and the boundless wealth of joy embraced in it and his spirit yearned to assist others to know it and to feel it as he did. He knew that obedience to the law insures everlasting life, and he makes haste to tell them what the law is and how to obey it: Be merciful and kind to all. Be just in your dealings. Be charitable in your judgments of others, remembering that you are yourself imperfect. (Matt. 7:1-5)- Subdue your passions and moderate your ambitions lest they lead you out of the straight path. (Matt. 18:7-9). Be mindful of the poor to relieve their distress according to your ability and opportunity. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. (L,uke 10: 30-37). The scope of this injunction is very broad. It seems to embrace the whole human family. For a perfect sample of oral teaching read the last six verses of the fifth chapter of Matthew. "I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate yon." Why? "That ye may be the children of your Father in heaven" who is absolutely impartial in dispensing his. blessings. "For he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." With such an example of impartiality before your eyes what right have you to be partial in your treatment of your fellow beings? That is what God does and we should do as much like God as possible.