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Preface

OOST people inherit their religious beliefs, as they do their political opinions, from their ancestors. The child naturally follows in the footsteps of his father. He learns to look upon what his father does as right, and to regard what he believes as true. Children are early taught the religious beliefs of their parents, and as dutiful children they accept them without question.

Thoroughly schooled in this or that sectarian belief, as a general rule they grow to riper years in the same faith. True or false, it makes no difference. It is according to what they have been taught, and they know no other religion ; or, they believe all other religions to be erroneous. They do not investigate Truth for themselves. They simply accept what they have been taught as the sum total of truth, and seek no further information. They have been taught that it would be impious to do so. It would be casting aspervi Preface.

sions upon the faith of their parents, and profaning their early instructions.

Men enter the ministry, and preach for years the particular phase of religion in which they were educated, never doubting but that they are preaching the truth according to the Word of the Lord ; when in fact they are proclaiming the dogmas of some particular creed, and seeking to confirm them from the Word. In this way, aud by such means, truth is often falsified, and error is confirmed as truth.

One can never know " what is truth " until he is taught of God. When, in humble sincerity, he seeks with all his heart to know the truth, God will not leave him in darkness. It is according to his promise that the Holy Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, shall lead us into all truth, and reveal to us a knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. But the mind must first be divested of preconceived and erroneous opinions. God will not reveal to any man a knowledge of his Holy Word, while he seeks to confirm from it the dogmas of men. These must be laid aside, and truth alone must be taught for the truth's sake.

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Then the promise of our Lord shall be verified, " And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.'* When we are willing to follow where the Lord leads, to receive what He gives, to accept what He teaches, and fearlessly to proclaim what He unfolds to our comprehension, then are we his servants indeed, and then are we free indeed, and in bondage to no man and no body of men.

Of course, it requires a struggle to divest the mind of the influences of early training, and the habits and modes of thought that have shaped and moulded our religious development. But wdien the Master's voice is unmistakably heard, bidding us come and learn of Him, and we confer not with flesh and blood, the yoke becomes easy and the burden light. Then for the first time we learn to love truth for its own sake. It becomes sweet to our taste, and more precious than rubies in pur experience. The Lord opens our spiritual eyes, and we discern clearly the deep and hidden things of the Spirit. He opens to our view the internal sense of the Word. We thus learn what He means when He says : " It is the Spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth nothing : the words viii Preface.

that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." (John vi. 63.)

Under the Lord's teaching, the Bible becomes an unsealed Book, whose open pages we read with ever-increasing delight. Its hitherto dry and uninteresting portions become pregnant with meaning, and meaning of deep and absorbing interest. Beneath type, and symbol, and metaphor, and allegory, and parable, we behold the Lord in his Divine glory, and his Church adorned like a bride for her husband.

It is unquestionably the right of every one to investigate truth for himself; and it is not only the privilege but the imperative duty of ministers of the Gospel and students for the ministry, to bring their respective creeds to the light of the Word for comparison, not to confirm error as truth, but io detect error if any exist, and put it away.

The various orthodox creeds were formulated many years ago, when the light of science and of Revelation shone much more dimly than at the present day. Besides, men in those days were no more commissioned of God to publish authoritative standards of religious belief, than

Preface. ix

are the men of the Church in this age of the world.

Every minister, and every student preparing for the ministry, should boldly assert his right to test every system of doctrine by the Word, the only Divine standard, and the only rightful authority over the conscience. Neither self-interest nor worldly policy should deter them from putting the creeds of men into the Divine crucible.

Of course, those who love the praise of men more than the praise of God, will not do this ; but the true servants of God should seek above all things to honor Him by understanding and doing what his Word teaches. They can honor Him in no other way. And He says : " Them that honor me, I will honor." No fear of ostracism, persecution, or disfellowship should have the weight of a feather in determining their course. We are to seek to please the Lord, not men ; for if we seek to please men, we shall not be the servants of Christ.

The Lord is greater than man, and Truth is greater than any man-made creed. Ministers, I know, are expected to teach the dogmas of the creed, and to confine their preaching within its x Preface.

limits, or withdraw from the people with whom they have been affiliated. But they should do neither, unless the Lord by his providence so orders. They should keep right on preaching the truth more and more faithfully as the Lord reveals it to them, and their people are able to receive it. If, in answer to earnest prayer and long-continued seeking, the Holy Spirit imparts to them clearer light, purer love, and a deeper insight into the precious things of the kingdom, what must be done? A perversion of spiritual truth thus revealed by the Lord, would be blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. Silence, when the Lord bids us speak, would be scarcely less blamable. It would be to smother our convictions, disregard the Lord's teachings, and do despite to the spirit of grace. Is it a question whether ministers should obey God or men? Whether they should follow the higher law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus as of supreme authority, or quietly ignore that law that they may keep their own traditions, and obey the doctrines and commandments of men ? In the one case the authority of the creed is honored, while God is dishonored and his Word made null

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and void. In the other the absolute authority of the Word is recognized, and the Lord is glorified by implicit obedience on the part of his ministers, who clearly know that no man and no body of men have the right to fetter the souls and bind the consciences of God's embassadors with mere human decrees or regulations. The Lord himself declares that we worship Him in vain when we teach for doctrines the commandments of men.

The following discourses are the result of breaking loose from ecclesiastical bondage, and following the guidance of the Lord in the investigation of truth. They are heartily indorsed by a large majority of the Church to which the author ministers. He bespeaks for them a careful and , candid perusal, with the mind divested as far as possible of all prejudice and preconceived opinions.

They are not put forth as an exhaustive argument, but as suggesting thought outside of the usual channels. The author has been greatly helped to a clearer understanding of the Bible in its teachings, by a study of the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, Clowes, Giles, Barrett, Noble, Madeley, Bayley, Horace Bushnell, E. H.

xii Preface.

Sears, and others, — among whom may be mentioned Doughty, Mercer, Farnsworth, and T. S. Arthur. For many years he was blinded by a deep-seated prejudice against Svvedenborg and his teachings. He judged and condemned them without a hearing. He utterly refused to investigate their claims, or even to give them a respectful consideration. Finally God took away the prejudice; and never has any other writer so completely lifted the veil that obscured the ineffable glory of the Word. God be praised for the revealed Science of Correspondences, by which the true meaning of the Word — even its spiritual and celestial sense — is made known. It is impossible to describe the joy, and peace, and abiding satisfaction, and holy pleasure, and clear understanding with which the Sacred Scriptures are now contemplated. That similar rich showers of blessing may descend upon all who will candidly and prayerfully read the following discourses, is the author's devout and earnest prayer.

K F. R.

Contents

PAGE

I. — The Doctrine of Three Persons in the Godhead Contrary to Reason and Revelation 15

II. — The Atonement of Christ in no Sense

I

THE DOCTRINE OF THREE PERSONS IN THE GODHEAD CONTRARY TO REASON AND REV- ELATION

SCHOOLED in the commonly received doctrines of " orthodox " religion formulated into mere human creeds, and published as the authorized standards of religious belief, I accepted them without question, — even as the oracles of God. For years I preached the gospel according to those standards. It never occurred to me in the earlier years of my ministry that the creed of my Church was not the truth precisely as taught in the Sacred Scriptures., I had inherited all my religious ideas, which were accepted implicitly with the utmost credulity ; and those to whom I ministered received my preaching in 15 the same unquestioning manner. At length I was led to study the Word without the aid of " commentaries," " expository notes/' " pulpit helps," or " theological tenets." I wanted to know the Truth, and I sought it in the Word alone. Divesting my mind as much as possible of all preconceived notions and theories, I gave my heart to the Lord, and invoked his Holy Spirit to " open my eyes that I might behold wondrous things out of his law." And most graciously did He vouchsafe his Divine illumination.

The foundation of all religion, the doctrine concerning God, claimed the first consideration. The popular theory of the Trinity was contrasted with the plain teaching of the Word. I did not expect to find any want of agreement. I had always supposed the creed of my Church and the Truth were " one and inseparable." Hence I expected to confirm my faith in the dogmas of my Church, by acquainting myself with the statements of the Word of God.

I had learned from the accepted standards of doctrine that there were three separate and distinct Persons in the Godhead — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; that each Person was very and truly God, possessed of every Divine perfection, infinite, uncreated, and eternal. And yet I was taught that there was only one God, whose name was Jehovah, end that these three infinite and almighty Persons, each of whom was God, constituted that one God. I said to myself, "How can these things be?" How can three separate and distinct Persons constitute one God? The Father as the infinite, eternal, and almighty Jehovah, fills immensity. How, then, can there be room for two other infinite, eternal, and almighty Beings, each one of whom also fills immensity? And if each of these three Persons is really and truly God, how is it that you do not have three Gods? Or how, consistently with sober reason, can you say they are one God ? If the Three are one in essence, without body or parts, then what are they as to their Personalities? In the one case, you have an impersonal Deity, which destroys the Divine Personality altogether. In the other, you have three distinct and separate Persons, each of whom is God ; hence, three Gods.

Logically, there is no escape from this conclusion. As far as possible, the question is evaded, and the inquirer is put off by one pretext or another ; but when this is no longer possible, the whole subject of the Trinity is remanded to the realm of impenetrable mystery, into which the finite mind should not seek to enter.

But this does not satisfy. There is neither wisdom nor knowledge exhibited by religious teachers who thus deal with those that come to 2 thera for instruction. The investigation of old dogmas cannot be put off in this manner.

It is impossible to conceive of an impersonal God, without body or parts, having no form or substance. There is no difficulty in comprehending the revelation of Jesus Christ as " God manifest in the flesh." We can draw near intelligently, and communicate with Him as friend with friend. But in what form is the Father? and in what shape is the Holy Spirit ? They are declared in the creeds of men to be separate and distinct Persons, and hence must have separate and distinct forms distinguishable from that of Jesus Christ. He is in fashion and form a man, because He assumed our humanity, and appeared in the material world as a man. And when He glorified that human and made it Divine, He still preserved the human form.

Many admit the existence of a great First Cause operating in the construction of the universe, but they give that Cause no form or personality. But it is absurd to suppose the existence of an almighty Being, of infinite wisdom and knowledge, without form or substance by which He could be distinguished from the various elements of the universe which He has produced, and every part of which He certainly fills with his creative energy. Force is one thing, but the

Intelligence that produces and operates that force, is another.

Electricity, light, and heat are called " forces of nature/' and, operating according to " natural laws," certain effects are produced. But it would be preposterous to suppose that those forces of nature, operating by means of natural laws, are themselves invested with intelligence and wisdom. They were powerless to build the world, or construct the universe, or exhibit design, or show the relation of means to ends, or cause to effect. The infinite Designer, who is Himself the Creator of these forces of nature, employs them as his agents, operating in the natural or material world ; and He has endowed man with a sufficient degree of wisdom and understanding by which he may comprehend the existence of these forces, and the laws by which they operate, so as to make them subserve the general good of mankind.

Now, if God be without form or personality, then He cannot be separate and distinct from these " natural laws " and " second causes ; " hence, they are themselves God, or " modes " of the Divine existence. And if so, matter is eternal, and man is, as the Pantheistic school of philosophy declares, the highest mode or manifestation of God. Now, upon the one hand you have the philosophy of Pantheism, which denies the personality of God, while upon the other you have the popular theology which teaches tripersonality of God. The one is Pantheism; the other is Polytheism. Between these two extremes of Polytheism, with its three personal Gods, and Pantheism which declares that there is no personal God, lies the truth as to the existence and personality of God. We learn that truth solely from the Word.

Upon the hypothesis either of Polytheism or Tri theism, and Pantheism, no man can understanding^ worship God. We must throw intelligence and reason to the winds, and ignorantly worship with the ancient Athenians we know not what ; and with them rear altars inscribed " to the unknown God ; " or, we must accept the revelation of Jesus Christ as Jehovah God of the Old Testament, as " God manifest in the flesh " in the New Testament, and as the only God of heaven and earth.

At this point in my investigation, I bade the commandments, traditions, and councils of men an everlasting farewell ; and took the Word of God, and his Word only, and the holy spirit of truth as my Teacher and Guide, that under his Divine enlightenment I might enjoy the freedom which the knowledge of the truth imparts. For our Lord says, "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. ,, (John viii. 32.) And, " if the Son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (ver. 36.) " Howbeit, when He, the spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." (John xvi. 13.)

I realized that I could not have these Divine promises fulfilled in my own experience while my mind was filled with preconceived notions, and while I was blindly following the counsels and traditions of men, without any thought of keeping the commandments of God, or of putting myself in the way to receive his divine illumination. And I am perfectly satisfied that, if we sought wisdom and knowledge of God more, and of men less, we should have a clearer understanding of truth, and a deeper experience of its cleansing and regenerating power.

When I came to search the Scriptures with a single desire to know the truth for its own sake, and with a mind divested as far as possible of all notions and opinions, I utterly failed to find anywhere taught the doctrine of three Persons in the Godhead. That the Father is one Person, the Son another Person, and the Holy Spirit another, is a statement not found in the Bible. God being revealed as a Trinity in unity, under the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, theologians have assumed that there must of necessity be a trinity of Persons. But it is an assumption merely, and nothing more. It is opposed both to reason and to Revelation.

The uniform and harmonious teaching of the Scriptures is unmistakably against the popular idea of the Trinity ; and it is astonishing beyond measure that those who profess to be guided solely by the Word, should persist in confirming themselves in such a falsity. It only illustrates the tremendous power of human tradition and early training.

But I would invite the candid reader to accompany me through the sacred pages in quest of testimony concerning the unity of God. It is everywhere taught in Moses, the Psalms, and in all the Prophets. " Hear, O Israel : The Lord our God is one Lord. And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, .and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." (Deut. vi. 4, 5.) "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre. ,, (Ps. xlv. 6.) In Hebrews (i. 8) this language is applied to Christ. "Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the Lord of Hosts : I am the First and the Last, and besides me there is no God. Is there a God besides me ? Yea, there is no God ; I know not any." (Isa. xliv. 6, 7.) Now, if there was, or was to be, another God, or almighty Being, equal in every Divine perfection with Jehovah God, the inspirer of the above language, He, certainly, as the omniscient One would have known it. But He declares there is no other God.

In Rev. i. 8 and xxii. 13, the same language is uttered by our Lord concerning Himself, showing most conclusively that Jehovah God who revealed Himself to Moses and the Prophets was identical with the Lord Jesus Christ, who was " God manifest in the flesh," and " in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily," and who was declared by the apostle to be " the true God and Eternal Life." Jesus says, " I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, saith the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty." (Rev. i. 8.) " For unto us a child is born ; unto us a Son is given ; and the government shall be upon his shoulder ; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." (Isa. ix. 6.) Who in all Christendom does not know that this prophecy refers solely to the child born of the virgin Mary ? Yet He is called the mighty God and the everlasting Father. Hence Jesus says concerning Himself, " If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also. And from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him. Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father : And how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? " (John xiv. 7-9.)

Certainly no language can be more explicit, and no instruction more convincing, than the above words uttered by our Lord himself. He leaves no room to suppose that there exists anywhere in all the universe any mighty God or everlasting Father distinct and separate from Himself. He says, " Believe me, that I am in the Father and the Father in me." (John xiv. 11.) Now, if we believe that the Father is a separate Person from Jesus Christ, then we do not believe his w T ord. For He declares in the most positive manner that the Father is in Himself, and not out of or separate from Himself. It is impossible for God to lie ; and yet Jesus whom the tripersonalists believe to be God, did lie, if the doctrine of tripersonalism is true. If Christ's Word is true, the dogmas of men concerning God are not true. And if they are true, the statement of our Lord is false. Let the reader choose between these conflicting authorities ; and it will not take those long to. decide, with whom the Word of God is supreme.

Again : " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." (John i. 1, 14.) Again we read: "And the Lord shall be King over all the earth ; in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one." (Zech. xiv. 8.) Thus we find the unity of God taught everywhere in the Holy Word ; and we find also that the Lord God of Israel, revealed in the Old Testament as the only God, the Maker of heaven and earth, and the Creator of all things, was also declared to be the Saviour, and the only Saviour and Redeemer, who would, in the fullness of time, come into the world to save his people from their sins. And when He came, it was, " In the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his Person." (Heb. i. 3.) " Before me there w r as no God formed ; neither shall there be after me ; I, even I, am Jehovah, and beside me there is no Saviour." (Isa. x. 11.) " Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel the Saviour." (Isa. xlv. 15.) "But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation; for thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth, and made it ; He hath established it ; He created it not in vain ; He formed it to be inhabited ; I am the Lord, and there is none else ; and there is no God else beside me ; a just God, and a Saviour, there is none beside me." "Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth ; for I am God, and there is none else." (Isa. xlv. 17-22.)

How grand and glorious these revelations of Jehovah God, the world's Creator and the world's

Saviour and Redeemer! Who cannot see that whether as Creator, Saviour, or Redeemer, the one God is always spoken of in such a manner as to leave no possible ground to infer a plurality of Persons ? " For thus saith the Lord God : Behold I, even I, will both search my sheep and seek them out. ... So will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day." (Ez. xxxiv. 11, 12.) Here God is revealed as a shepherd seeking out and leading his sheep ; and in the Gospel of John, our Lord Jesus Christ is presented in the same character, " calling his own sheep by name and leading them out," as "the Good Shepherd that giveth his life for the sheep." Jehovah God the Shepherd of Israel, and the Lord Jesus Christ the Shepherd of his spiritual sheep, are one and the same Divine Being. " My people hath been lost sheep," etc. (Jer. 1. 6.)

Compare the above with John x. 8, and you will see the God of Israel and Jesus the Good Shepherd to be the same. " Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no God but me: for there is no Saviour beside me." (Hosea xiii. 4.) As there is no God save the Lord, so there is no Saviour beside the one God. The God of the Prophets and the Lord of the Gospels are one and the same Divine Jehovah.

The name of the Lord Jesus Christ, is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. In that name the Apostles were commanded to baptize, and in obedience to that command, they went and baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus : showing conclusively that they did not understand the Divine Trinity to be a trinity of Persons. Is it not astonishing beyond measure that a vast system of irrational and contradictory theology should have been built on such an assumption ? For the entire system of orthodox religion among all the so-called evangelical sects in Christendom, rests solely upon the theory that there are three separate, distinct, infinite, eternal, and uncreated Persons in the Godhead. They are declared to be equal in every divine perfection ; and yet the Father is represented as a Being of infinite wrath and vengeance, and as determined to turn the whole w T orld of mankind, his helpless creatures, into the everlasting torments of hell, because Adam and Eve, in disobedience to an arbitrary command, ate some material fruit from a certain tree in the garden of Eden, which is understood to have been a natural locality. Before a human tribunal, Adam and Eve could not have been convicted even of petty larceny ; and yet the creeds of men have made the act of such a heinous nature, as to involve the countless millions of earth in eternal ruin and everlasting torment.

Not one jot or tittle of mercy will God the Father show to any soul of man until He has been paid, in suffering, to the uttermost farthing, either in the eternal damnation of a world, or the wreaking of his vengeance upon the head of his own innocent Son. His sense of justice must have satisfaction, and that satisfaction consists in the infliction of his w r rath to the uttermost upon the innocent instead of the guilty. But who satisfies the Son's justice? He is admitted to be God, and equal with the Father in every Divine perfection ; and yet there is nothing said about the wrath and vengeance and violated law of the Son. Upon whom did He pour the vials of his wrath ? He had no wrath, no vengeance, no purpose to destroy mankind, do you say ? Then He was not like the Father, either in nature, disposition, or act.

Indeed, according to the popular theory, fhe Father and Son would not be taken to be related to each other in any sense. One is lovely, the other unlovely. One is all wrath and vengeance, the other is all love and mercy. One damns, and the other saves. One inflicts infinite suffering upon the innocent, the other extends pity and compassion to the guilty, and even prays for his enemies and murderers. From this contrast of character, the idea that the Father and Son are just alike as distinct Persons, possessing equally the same divine perfections, is seen to be absurd. And how can

The Divine Triniti/. 29

two Beings so dissimilar be said to be one in any sense ? And what would you think of an earthly parent who would compel a disobedient child to walk ten rods on burning coals of fire ? Or what would you think of a man who would cause his only son to be subjected to the tortures of a lingering death, though innocent of any misdemeanor, to satiate his wrath toward his enemies who had trespassed on his premises? In either case you would not think such monsters of cruelty and injustice fit to live anywhere on this green earth. Yet these creeds of men have made God, the Father, infinitely more monstrous, cruel, and unjust than either character supposed, in that He will be satisfied with nothing less than the eternal damnation of mankind, or the murder of his own innocent Son at the hands of wicked men.