Foregleams in nature of redemption in Christ...

Front matter

OF

Redemption in Christ

B. W. PIERCt

Preface

This volume is largely the work of widely separated moments. The line of argument is a new one, and for this reason references are made almost exclusively to Nature and the Bible.

The problem of evil and suffering and the remedy is the theme. Some modern writers attempt to find in science a more sure foundation for morality than is afforded in the Bible. The author leaves all such to extract, as best they may, a system of morality from their country cousins, ''the mice and the frogs, the insects and the birds,'' and chooses for himself the study of man in the light of nature and history, of revelation and experience. The work takes square issue with the so-called modern scientific doctrine that the knowledge of evil through experience is necessary to the knowledge of good. It repudiates that theory which, while ignoring the Bible account of evil, makes suffering a necessary step in the process of lifting man to a higher plane — a divinely ordained means for calling out the higher energies of the soul. Nor is suffering "merely an aid to religion.''

Suffering, in our present but fallen state, serves, no doubt, a wise purpose in that it warns against wrong-doing, and, in connection with a physical remedial system, it inspires in man the hope for a restoration into harmony with his Creator. Admitting the fact of sin, suffering is a present governmental necessity. It was not originally so. In our

4 PREFACE

present school of experience it is an object-lesson against sin; at the same time it is a means in the process of restoration, Man cannot sin with impunity is the lesson. Suffering is the result of man's own choice to disobey. It never will be removed until that choice is reversed.

Nature foreshadow^s the Spiritual Remedial System. If this be not true, no argument can be made from the view-point of science in favor of the latter. But if true, no argument can be framed by science against the doctrine of a Spiritual Remedial System. This solves the problem of evil. It gives man a view-point from which he can clearly see the wisdom and the justice and the mercy and the love of God in permitting the sinner to suffer. Suffering is the result of man's choice of evil. Suffering makes man feel his relation to moral law here and now. In connection with the remedy it leads him to believe in a higher remedial system. It goes farther and makes it morally certain that he will be a subject of moral law beyond the grave. The love, the compassion and the forgiveness of God have all been foreshadowed in Nature, and the means of restoration have been clearly set forth in the Gospel.

This Gospel saves the individual, sanctifies the home, purifies society, exalts the nation and brings the race into vital and eternal fellowship. For it looks beyond the grave. It takes away the sting of death and robs the grave of its terror. It fills the soul with peace, begets a new love, a new life, a new hope, and assures the believer of an immortal destiny. The book of Nature and the Bible agree. How well this doctrine has been established the reader will judge for himself. B. W. Pie^rce:.

II. Fact of Providence 17

III. Fact of Redemption 19

Universality of Disease 19

Universal Belief in Remedy 24

Conclusion 25

II. FULFIIvLKD PROPHECY— PART I

I. Preservation of the Race 28

IE. Laws for Prevention of Disease 28

III. Laws for Heai^ing 31

IV. The Fact of Amputation 32

V. The Fact of Speciai, Cures 34

Case of Hezekiah 34

Case of Naaman 34

Conclusion 37

6 a'ABLE Oli^ CON'TKNTS

Page

Method of^Proof in Rkwgion 39

BeIvIKF— Obkdibnck — ^The Answer 42

I. Evidence of Chosen Witnesses 42

II. Evidence of Chosen Nation 43

III. MONUMENTAI, EVIDENCE 44

The Sabbath 45

The Passover 45

The Pentecost 46

The Atonement 47

The Feast of Tabernacles 49

Foregleams of a Better Hope , 50

III. Fulfilled Prophecy— Part II

I. Marks of Identification 54

II. His name 55

III. His Introduction 56

IV. John's Testimony 60

A Subject of Prophecy 60

People's Estimate of John 60

The Rulers' Estimate of John 61

The Final Testimony of John. 62

V. The Father's Testimony 65

The Father Alone Could Reveal 65

The Testimony at the Baptism 66

Why the Jews Crucified Him 68

False Notion of Messianic Kingdom 68

Deed Was Done Before the Evidence Was In 68

Jesus Rebuked Their Leaders 69

VI. The Testimony of His Works 71

Summary of A. Campbell , . 71

Object of Christ's Mission „ 72

General Claims 73

Specific Claims , 74

TABLE OF CONTENTS 7

Page

Case I.— Paralytic Healed 74

Case II.— Blind Restored 76

Case III.— Healing at the Pool 78

Case IV. — Lazarus Raised 79

Lazarus a witness; the ruler's purpose; new evidence; Jesus' popularity; council for execution;

arrest and trial; the motive 81-85

The World Represented 85

The World Guilty 87

A Seeming Triumjih 88

VII. Testimony at the Crucifixion 89

On the Cross 89

In the temple 89

At the Grave 90

The Great Issue 90

The Interested Parties 91

VIII. The Argument from Prophecy 93

The Statement of Argument 94

The Empty Tomb 94

The Guard's Statement 95

The Large Money 95

The Apostles' Statement 96

IX. A.RGUMENT from THE GrEAT COMMISSION 97

The Analysis 97

Remarkable Document 98

If Christ Did Not Rise 98

If Christ Did Rise 99

Tarry at Jerusalem 99

Promise of a New Comforter 100

Necessity for Such Guide 102

A Very Unpopular Theme 102-103

End of an Old Dream 103

X. Lesson from the Ascension 105

New Conception of Christ's Kingdom 105

Coming of the Spirit 106

8 TABLE OK CONTENTS

IV,

Page

FULFIIvLED PROPHECY— PART III.

The Reign of Christ .107

I. The Basic Fact 107

II. Peter's Argument in the Case 112

I.— The Accusation 112

II.— The Vindication 113

III.— The Lordship of Jesus 114

IV.— The Cry for Mercy 115

V. — ^The Amnesty Proclamation 115

III. Ten Arguments Based Upon the Presence oe

A Divine Power 117-126

IV. Christ's Conception oe the Messiannic King-

dom Unique 127

V. Kpisti^es Not Forged 129

VI. On the Resurrection 132

VII. Jesus the Savior of the Soui. 135

VIII. That So-cai,i,ed Most Ineamous Passage 137

IX. The Soi^e Issue of the Gospeiv 139

X. The Record as a Unit 143

XI. The Harmony oe Our Ci.aim 145

A C0NC1.UDING Chapter. 147-155

Foregleams in Nature of Redemption in Christ.

The idea of a Supreme Being is as old as our race. We may suppose that idea to have come to man through direct converse with the Supreme; or, through angelic teachers; or, through a divine impress upon man, i, e.^ by intuition; or, in some instances, through reason; or, in other instances, through unusual experiences (Dan. II.); or, by all these means combined. But however that idea came, it must accord with reason to have weight with the world to-day. Now since the first two methods are not possible to us, we are limited in our discussion to the fields of faith, intuition, reason and experience. Passing by, for the present, the field of faith, we are ready to affirm:

If the facts of Creation and of Providence and of Redemption are not written upon this world of ours so as to be clearly perceived by intuition, reason and experience, then, we may well doubt the existence of God, and hence also the certainty of a divine revelation to man. But, if nature unmistakably affirms the existence of a physical remedial system for man, and hence also of a Great Physician; and if nature,

in addition, certainly points to His coming to our 2 (9)

lO KORKGIvBAMS IN NATURE

earth, then, the skeptic may well pause to consider the claims of that book which alone professes to record His visit to our suffering race.

We readily concede that to demonstrate from nature alone the great facts alluded to, and especially the latter, in the sense of a life of happiness beyond the grave, is no easy task. But, be that as it may, we are not confined in our reasoning to the testimony of a single witness.

We assume, for the present, the existence of an All- wise Being who created the universe; who saw the end from the beginning; who knew that adequate proof would be demanded by man in order to his belief in a future life; and who, therefore, purposed, as we shall show, to bridge the chasm which divides this life from the one beyond the grave. But since our proposition is to be established in the minds of men and women, we pause to inquire what manner of being man is, in order to ascertain the method of proof in harmony with his constitution, and hence the best adapted to the end in view.

Man is a trinity, i, ^. , a physical, intellectual and spiritual being. Or, to express his nature more accurately and clearly — man is a spirit sustaining a threefold relation to His Creator. In the first, he is related to his Creator, through the realm of matter, by a union with a material body. In the second, he is related, through the realm of reason, by a mind that perceives and interprets objects of thought, objective and subjective, in their relations. In the third, lie is related, through the realm of spirit, by consciousness, conscience, faith, hope and love. By the first, man became a subject of the law of God in inanimate nature and in his own body, and hence amenable to physical law. By the second, he became a subject of the law of God in human government, and hence amenable to civil law. By the third, he became a subject of the law of God in conscience, and hence amenable to moral law. And hence it follows there is, for man, neither nook nor corner in the whole universe where divine law does not reign, so that freedom apart from that law is absolutely impossible. He must be a poor student, indeed, who cannot, under these instructors, learn of God.

Not only is man such a being as here defined, but, as respects development, he is such an one, and in the order here named; and hence a Physician who seeks to educate and develop and perfect our spiritual nature, is compelled, by virtue of our constitution, to touch us first along the line of the physical, then of the intellectual, in order to lay a firm foundation for our faith in Him as the Physician for the spiritual man. This is precisely what has been done for man, and in proof of this allegation we now introduce our first witness. Our plan of argument requires that the evidence must address the present needs; must afford a basis for belief in the coming ages; and in doing so, must lay a sure foundation for belief in a future state; must so marshal events as to i^ kore:gi.kams in nature:

make present approval or disapproval a factor in governing conduct in this life; and, finally, must give such tangible and conclusive proofs of a future life and its conditions as will, when acted upon, bring man into harmony with God, and hence into happiness supreme.

OF RlBiDKMPTlON IN CHRISI" I3

NATURE AS A WITNESS AND PROPHET.

Thk atheist, assuming to possess the teaching of universal experience, deduces therefrom the inviolability of the laws of nature. From this new assumption, he deduces the immutability of the laws of nature both as to the past and the present. From this latter assumption, he deduces the eternity of nature and the perfect uniformity of her operations, whence he readily concludes: There is no God! Miracles are impossible! For if nothing can be that has not already been, the wheels of progress must cease to roll. Not only so, but Deity Himself, according to this logic, would have been estopped in the act of Creation; and hence the universe and all things therein must always have been, or they are not and never can be.

To this reasoning we reply as follows: Universal experience is not competent to determine what is impossible even for man to perform. Steam as a motor, electricity as a message-bearer, light-producer and motor; the telephone, audiphone, wireless telegraphy, and ten thousand modern inventions; the processes of obtaining a beautiful metal from the clay beneath our feet, and of calling forth so many beautiful and variegated colors from coal, and of converting even granite rock into imperish-

able garments for man, — were all, nntil recently, entirely hidden from universal experience! But these are facts nevertheless. Can the present universal experience, with the past before it, declare what even man may not yet accomplish?

But, really, have these gentlemen ever had in their possession the testimony of universal experience? Have they not driven from the witness-box all the Jews of antiquity? And must not all the apostles and primitive Christians keep mute before this impartial court of inquiry? And, finally, the judgment of millions of believers of to-day is held to be incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial, in order for these gentlemen to obtain an universal experience suited to their purpose! And yet these same would pose as the counsel for all mankind and the logicians of all ages!

I. THE FACT OF CREATION.

We wish now to read a few brief chapters from this same wonderful text-book of nature. We cordially invite our atheistical friends to criticise. We present these chapters as we read and penned them when a boy, so that we feel assured that our readers will be able to master them.

^ ^Chapter I. — Only matured animal forms reproduce their kind. The species must, therefore, have existed prior to the first reproductive act, and hence it follows that nature, as we now see it, did not

O^ REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 1 5

originate animal forms — she can only reproduce. A miracle, therefore, must have preceded man.

^'Chapter II. — As to the origin of the vegetable kingdom, we read that it could not have preceded the mineral kingdom, and hence began to be. A single example will cover the whole field of discussion: Which was first, the oak or the acorn? As far as our argument is concerned, we care nothing at present for the answer. But one thing we do know, that, according to our present text of nature, neither could have preceded the mineral kingdom. But again, according to the present law of reproduction, one or the other must have been first. But if either was first, then a miracle must be admitted to account forthat first oak, or that first acorn. (Gen. II.).

"Chapter III. — Now as to the beginning of the mineral kingdom, we inquire. Which was first, the whole or the parts? the earth or its strata? the smallest particle of matter visible to the eye, or the invisible particles composing the visible? We shall let an able thinker answer: ''The things which are seen are temporal." And ''the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." The seen came from the unseen. This is true of every plant, and every animal, and is as certainly true of the mineral. No microscopical analysis or metaphysical speculation can set aside our conclusion founded on the logic of facts.

"Chapter IV. — The mineral does not now convert itself into the vegetable, nor does the vegetable

1 6 FORKGLKAMS OF NATtTR^

convert itself into the animal tissues. If nature ever did so, a miracle there must have been, /. ^., to say the eternal uniformity of natural law is a hoax. Evolution from the lower to the higher is not effected by an upward push, but by an upward pull. The higher always reaches down and pulls up the lower. The vegetable feeds upon the mineral, but does not derive its being from the mineral. The animal feeds upon the vegetable, but does not derive its being from the vegetable. The chain of atheistic evolution can never bridge the chasm between the non-living and the living, between the unconscious and the conscious.

''Chapter V. — All life we now see manifested is the product of antecedent life. The growth of living tissues is the result of antecedent life, animal or vegetable, utilizing food products. It is not effected by the conversion of living substances into living tissues of a higher kind, but by a change from non-living substances into living tissues, plant or animal. Life alone can bridge that chasm between the non-living and the living. This is evidently true as respects the conversion of non-living substances into the living tissues of our own bodies. It was true with our first parents, who, as we have seen, were not reproductions, nor were they derived from the mineral or vegetable, but were necessarily the product of miracle — of an antecedent Life. Thus nature's thread of life leads us up from the non-living to the living; from the living to ante-

OI^ REDEMPTION IN CHRIST 1 7

cedent ancestral forms of like nature; from these to primitive forms of like nature; and from primitive forms to an antecedent Life of vastly superior powers — to a Creator. Nature has no lesson of succession beyond; analogy is at an end, and human reason, for want of data, is estopped from pursuing investigation farther. Life must be postulated to account for life on the globe. To assume that there may be a succession of creators, as with creatures, is consistent only with the creed of the agnostic, who neither knows that there is a Creator, nor how He exists, and yet who knows beyond all doubt, that, if a Creator exists, He must have had a Superior! On any assumption he may make, the reality of miracle is maintained. There is a regnant, vital force in nature, and life is lord over death. See Steele^ s Popular Chemistry ^ p, i86,^^

We are now ready to introduce our creed respecting the origin of the universe, and especially of life on our planet. We shall let another word it for us: ''Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." The material is the manifestation of the unseen — the spiritual.'' God is spirit." So much for atheism.

II. THE FACT OF PROVIDENCE.

"While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." (Gen. 8 : ^2). In connection with this covenant with Noah, we read our text: ''God has not left Himself without witness in that He did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." (Acts 14 : 17).

Let us now suppose ourselves to be standing before a wheel of fortune. The number of rotations it will make with a given impulse and the point of stopping are not supposed to be known to any present. A wagers B that it will stop at a certain point, and it does so. B, still thinking the wheel to be governed by chance, accepts a second wager and loses; a third, and loses. What now would B think of that mechanism as to its being governed by chance? But we continue to observe, and find that for ten times in succession, a hundred, a thousand, yea, for six thousand times, without a single failure, the wheel stops at the identical point indicated by A. Who of us would now contend that such mechanism is governed by chance? So in our supposed world of chance. A single failure in the seasons would have swept the human race from the earth. But man is here, and an increasing series, too, and hence it follows that not a single cog in the perpetual motion of the heavens has slipped. Everything is in harmony, on time, and serving its purpose. No chance- work here! The perpetual motion of the heavens is a fact. But man is incompetent to produce perpetual motion on any scale whatsoever. So

OI^ REDEMPTION IN CHRIST I9

that the regularity of the seasons and the perpetual motion of the heavens can be accounted for only upon the hypothesis that there is a '^God over all and through all and in all," ''who is rich unto all that call upon Him,'' and this because ''He upholds all things by the word of His power. ' ' He never forgets nor overlooks the wants of His creatures, "seeing He gives to all life and breath and all needful things.''

III. THE FACT OF REDEMPTION.

We do not wish to drive our skeptical brother from the witness-box in order that we might make a stronger plea. We desire his presence as a witness ; for we purpose now to build an argument on universal experience. We believe there is common ground on which every son and daughter of the race may stand and render a unanimous verdict according to the truth; and in this instance the voice of the people is the voice of God indelibly written upon our very groans and tears, filling us with hope. Please examine our first witness.

Man IS Physically Diseased. — All sane minds will admit this fact. The body is as real as the spirit. Pain is an universal experience. It is a fact of consciousness. To deny the fact of pain is to deny the veracity of consciousness. To deny the testimony of consciousness is to ignore the very foundation of certainty — even of our doubts, to be-

20 F'ORBGI.EAMS IN NATURE

come thoroughly agnostic. The notion that pain is the product of belief is neither sense, nor philosophy, nor science, nor religion — not even respectable moonshine. Pain produces the belief, and not belief the pain: produces the conscious knowledge of the fact of suffering.

The vast army of physicians and their innumerable host of patients indicate that disease is very general. That it is universal, we prove by an appeal to the reader's every source of information, viz., his consciousness, intuition, observation, memory, judgment, reason and faith. We have no live-forevers on our planet. (Heb. 9: 27). Perfect physical health presupposes at least three things, viz., perfect organization at birth, perfect environment and perfect obedince to the laws of adaptation. Under such conditions we might rationally expect to have perfect digestion, perfect assimilation; also the elimination from the system of all dead, innutritions and poisonous substances, thus leaving the physical man in a normal state. But man is finite in wisdom and power, and hence he cannot forecast physical changes, nor anticipate their injurious effects, nor can he, at the imperative moment, command the means of adapting himself to changes in environment; so that, if finite wisdom be left undirected, or infinite wisdom being given to man yet unheeded by him, disease must necessarily follow. A perfect physical man is, upon any other supposition than that of a complete trust in, and perfect obedience to, the Infinite, an impossibility, as much so as a perfect spiritual man would have been under the law. (Rom. VIII.) If there be any imperfection here, it must have sprung from man's want of trust in the Infinite. In a word, complete trust in God, supplemented by knowledge vouchsafed to man, would have prevented sin and all its consequences. I can conceive of but two possible methods of educating man, constituted as he was and now is, into the likeness and perfection of God. One is through a perfect faith and perfect obedience leading into the light, the life, the liberty and the happiness of the sons of God who never sinned. The other is through faith supplemented by the bitter lessons of experience in sin. Without attempting an argument at this point, we assume that man was not always conditioned as we now see him. He was created, we learn, neither mortal nor immortal, but conditionally mortal and provisionally immortal. Provision was made for the perfect repair of wasted energies, but access to that Tree of Life was conditioned upon man's complete trust in his Creator and perfect obedience to His law. Man's failure, then, originated in his own heart — in disbelief and disobedience; but the effect has reached the entire man. Through one act of disobedience man severed himself from the fountain of perpetual youth, so that now he is a mortal stripped of divine aid, save through a scheme of mercy that demands of him complete submission of his will to that of his Creator.

22 KORKGI.BAMS IN NATURE

Behold man, unbeliever in God that he is, but a firm believer in himself, surrounded by poisons and subject to unforeseen changes, hopefully making his wilderness journey to a land where there is no death!

''Hope springs eternal in the human breast. Man never is, but always to be, blest. ' '

But the Tree of Life is guarded still, so that proud and rebellious man is compelled to learn in the school of bitter experience the lesson he would better have learned through humility and faith: ''Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

We readily grant that all natural appetites, desires and passions are right in themselves, but their tendency is to excess — sin; and hence these must be held in subjection to the higher laws of intelligence, conscience and the written will of God. But just what constitutes excess, appetite cannot determine in advance, if ever, and hence we read: "By law is the knowledge of sin." Written law defines in advance the bounds of legitimate desire and gratification, and thus reveals sin to the sinner. Just as certainly, but not so clearly, suffering from pain or disease reveals the fact that a law of health has been violated. In either case, law, as given in advance in the Scriptures, or as revealed in the penalty in nature, convicts man of sin.

Sin is born of "ignorance and unbelief," the fruitful ancestors of a perverse will ; but knowledge comes through faith in God, obedience to His law, and experience arising therefrom, and hence, being at first in possession of the former and almost devoid of the latter, all we^ like the primitive pair, have fallen short of the coveted glory of God. (Rom. 3 : 23). Thus it has come to pass, through inheritance and personal acts and acquired habits, the whole human family now groans on account of sin. Man's dependence upon God must be learned by man even at the cost of life itself. But we are sufferers in hope. (Rom. VIII.) God did not subject the race to suffering without hope. In our present state, suffering, to the sinner, is undoubtedly a blessing in that it reveals a wrong course of action on his part, and urges him to repent and do right. Besides, a remedy in nature fills him with the hope of recovery, and prophesies mercy along the line of the spiritual. God has thus subjected man to '^suffering in hope," says Paul; and to this agrees universal experience. According to this view, suffering for wrong-doing is just and right, and ought to continue and will continue to be, so long as man continues to rebel. This drives us to the conclusion foreshadowed in nature and corroborated by the experience of centuries, viz., that all men must ultimately learn to do right, or that some must suffer endless punishment, or else be annihilated. Man cannot sin with impunity. Whether hope will be a possibility to the sinner beyond the grave, I see no warrant in Scripture and have no reliable data in nature for presuming that such condition will exist. But this by the way.

We are now ready to state our second universal premise.

Standing upon the indisputable fact of the universality of disease, we proceed to state our second universal premise: Belief 07t the part of man in the existence of an efficient remedy in nature for each of the ills flesh is heir to^ is also universal. Upon this belief and its complement^ viz. , that skilled physicians have ascertained^ or may yet discover^ what are the proper remedies for the various physical ailments ^ — the entire practice of medicine is founded^ and without which it could 7tot exist for a single day.

We use the term remedy in its broadest meaning — anything that will prevent disease, alleviate pain, or aid the organs in regaining their normal state. The reader will observe that in just so far as we are wrong in our second premise, the practice of medicine is a delusion and a cheat. But that such is true of the practice we positively deny. Many patients, we are aware, have lost all hope of deriving any aid from the skill of their physicians, but who, nevertheless, firmly believe that adequate remedies exist somewhere in nature. It may be that a resort to drugs, unknown as yet, or tired nature's restorer, or a change of climate, or mineral springs, or a new moral atmosphere is needed; but in any event, we have never known one to doubt the fact of the existence in nature of efficient remedies. Does the reader doubt it, or ever hear of such doubter?

Physicians, of course, are honor bound to admit the fact of such remedy, or to concede that they practice deception whenever they practice medicine. The whole medical profession are shut up to our conclusion. The patient will never dispute it. The Creator has written in man's very groans the universal, unwavering, and therefore instinctive belief in the existence of a remedial system in nature. How earnestly physical pain calls for a remedy! What a prophecy of its existence! Here, you philosophers of universal experience, make a note.