THE term New Theology in the eyes of the general public is principally connected with the Rev. R. J. Campbell's teaching. However, its distinctive tenets are very ancient, and in the main Unitarianism, pure and simple.
Mr. Robert Blatchford, editor of "The Clarion," an infidel and socialistic newspaper, declares "Mr. Campbell is a Christian minister and I am an infidel editor; and the difference between his religion and mine is too small to argue about." Mr. Blatchford has written an infidel book called, "God and My Neighbor." Mr. Campbell's book, "The New Theology," he asserts is "God and My Neighbor" with the soft pedal on. "It is," continues Mr. Blatchford, "Thomas Paine in a white tie." Indeed, Thomas Paine, the author of "The Age of Reason," at which the Christian world of that day was aghast, might have been to-day the Rev. Thomas Paine without shocking the sensibilities of the adherents of the New Theology.
Colonel Ingersoll was the Charles Bradlaugh of the United States. Mr. Blatchford says of Mr. Campbell's book it is "the Ingersoll fist muffled in a boxing glove.”
Then he goes on to say, "Mr. Campbell thinks Jesus the most perfect man that ever lived. I think there have been many men as good, and some better. But beyond these differences I think I may venture to say that there is nothing Mr. Campbell believes that I deny, and nothing I believe that he denies. Beyond these differences I am as much a Christian as is the Rev. R. J. Campbell, and the Rev. R. J. Campbell is as much an infidel as the editor of The Clarion.'
“Mr. Campbell rejects the doctrine of the fall and the atonement. He deities the divinity of Christ, the virgin birth, and the resurrection. He denies the inspiration and infallibility of the Bible, and he rejects the idea of divine punishment and an everlasting hell. So do I.
“Mr. Campbell abandons the orthodox theory of sin, and says that selfishness is sin, and that unselfishness is morality and salvation.
“These are bold assertions, and perhaps Mr. Campbell may think them too sweeping; but the proof is easy.
“The best proof is a comparison of The New Theology ' with my ' infidel' books.”
Nor will the reader think that in mentioning Mr. Campbell's name we are indulging in personalities, for Mr. Blatchford writes in highest praise of Mr. Campbell, and we choose his remarks to show exactly what the New Theology affirms and denies. In truth, it affirms very little and denies very much. We are not concerned with Mr. Campbell's private life; but as he voices certain teaching, we are within our province to examine it. It is not a question of the teacher, but the teaching.
And, further, it is not merely an academic subject that we are discussing. It is not a question of mere theology. Believe me, reader, it is intensely vital. You cannot afford to stand aloof in this matter. Your salvation is involved in it. Your heaven or hell is decided by it.
There are four points we will briefly examine: (1) Christ's divinity. (2) The atonement. (3) The resurrection. (4) Inspiration of the Bible.
Mr. Campbell denies them all. He belittles the apostle Paul, and treats his writings as so much opinion and not inspired. No wonder, for the apostle says: "If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." (Gal. 1:9.) And Mr. Campbell preaches another gospel.
(1) Christ's divinity. The New Theology and Unitarianism are one in denying that Jesus is God.
Some years ago I was passing through a Yorkshire mill village. My friend pointed out to me a Unitarian chapel, and told a striking incident in connection with it. One Saturday morning the minister was sitting in his study preparing his sermon for the following morning. He had chosen the first chapter of John's gospel for his subject. He read:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God.
“The same was in the beginning with God.
“All things were made by Him.”
Lower down in the chapter he read:
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt
among us ... .” (Verse 14).
"John bare witness of Him." (Verse 15.)
As he studied the chapter he saw, for the first time in his life, that the Bible claimed that Jesus was God. As the light began to break in upon his soul he was entranced. Hour after hour he sat. The subject fairly overmastered him. He was absolutely revolutionized. In short he was converted. He had found out that Jesus was God, and that He became man in order to become his Savior by making atonement on the cross.
How to face his audience the next morning he knew not. In the end he determined to fly the place. Do not be too hard upon him, reader. He was young and unmarried, a very babe in the faith and un-established. All his thoughts had to be readjusted, and how could he preach that Jesus was a mere man, a good man, but nothing more, when the glorious light of His deity had revolutionized him? He remained away for some months, until, thoroughly established and confirmed, he returned to testify to the grace of God. Would that many more might have a similar experience as to their thoughts, including the pastor of the City Temple.
If a careful study of John 1 does not convince the earnest enquirer after truth that Jesus is God then he must not be able to grasp the plainest presentation of truth, for the truth of the deity of Jesus lies on the surface.
If Jesus was a mere man how is it that untold thousands of Christians have believed that He is God? How is it that such a belief has revolutionized lives, rendered its adherents fearless in persecution, as witness the bloodstained, heather-clad hills of Scotland, the catacombs of Rome, the cells of the Spanish Inquisition? Have the tears of the Church been wept for a sham?
If Jesus is not God then the Bible is the falsest book ever printed. Yet one Bible society has upon its shelves translations of it in over 400 languages, and has circulated over 200 million copies. Have good men been deceived by it? Is not its influence invariably for good, making the thief honest, the adulterer pure, the drunkard sober, lifting up the poor benighted savage, converting, purifying, uplifting, blessing, wherever it has gone? Is this the influence of a false book? Vast numbers believe in the Koran, but if you weigh instead of counting those who believe it, the preponderance of evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of the Bible. The late Lord Kelvin is one witness for the Bible; the Sultan of Turkey one for the Koran. But put the two men in the scales. Weigh the evidence—their environments, their lives, their influence, and any reasonable man would see that Lord Kelvin's single testimony is worth that of the whole Ottoman empire. But more as to the Bible later on.
(2) The atonement. Here again, spite of Mr. Campbell's denials, the Scriptures are plain. "It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." (Lev. 17:1111For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. (Leviticus 17:11).) This is plainly shown to be the life of an innocent victim, whose blood upon the altar was the figure of substitution, and the prophecy, or type, of Christ's atoning death on the cross. Mr. Campbell charges the apostle Paul with being warped by Jewish teaching, instead of seeing that he had grasped its divine significance, teaching its fulfillment in Christ in his writings. So the writer of the Hebrews says, "Without the shedding of blood is no remission." And John says plainly, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John, 1:7.) Unless there be atoning efficacy in the death of Christ, then on that count also the Bible is the falsest of books, for by figure and shadow in the Old Testament, and fulfillment and substance in the New, atonement, substitution, propitiation, is woven into the very web and woof of the Book.
(3) The resurrection. You have but to read 1 Cor. 15 for proof of that. Surely the eyewitnesses who could testify that they had seen the Lord after His resurrection were too numerous and the testimony too circumstantial and complete to leave any doubt. See the list. The apostle Peter, the twelve apostles, five hundred believers at once, James, then all the apostles again, and finally Paul, who saw Christ in glory. And when he penned the list the majority of those cited as witnesses were alive, and could have contradicted the story had it been false. From the earliest days of Christianity Christians believed the great fact, and yet men professing the Christian faith, and drawing large salaries for professing to preach its verities, can be found to deny its very foundations. The apostle Paul leaves us in no doubt as to its vital meaning. He says, "For if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins." (1 Cor. 15:1717And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. (1 Corinthians 15:17).) Again, if the resurrection is not true, the Bible is the falsest book in existence, for it affirms it over and over again, building its doctrines around it, proclaiming Christ risen and ascended to heaven,
(4) Inspiration of the Bible. Here we come to what is essentially vital. Either the Book is inspired by God, or it is the falsest, most pernicious and blasphemous book that has ever been written.
It is a remarkable fact that the Lord Jesus and-the Bible are alike called the Word—one the living Word, God; the other the written Word, God's book. The two stand or fall together. The Old Testament Scriptures foretold how Christ should come into the world and for what purpose; and when He came He quoted the Scriptures as authoritative and divine.
Very much can be said to prove the inspiration of the Bible. One unassailable proof is prophecy. There are over three hundred prophecies in the Old Testament concerning Christ, and these have been strikingly fulfilled. It is impossible, in the nature of things, that the prophecies could be made to fit the fulfillment; or the fulfillment the prophecies.
When the late King of Spain died, the nation waited and hoped that an infant should be born who would prove to be the King of Spain. Suppose a prophet arose and announced that the expected infant would be a son, his prophecy might be fulfilled, but thereby he could not lay claim to anything more than a happy guess. But suppose he ventured on over 300 prophecies, many of them of an extraordinary nature, covering the life and death of the King, and prophesied hundreds of years before the event, and every prophecy was fulfilled, what conclusion could you come to then?
Yet this is the case before us. And when we think that it was not one prophet but several, that types and shadows were prophetic as well, we can only stand amazed that anyone can question the divinity of the Book, save that the Book itself explains why. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him." And that is just where such as the Rev. R. J. Campbell and the like are hopelessly discredited by the Book they assail.
Then, again, how can the lives of the saints be explained away, for there have been and are real saints? There are no saints in Mohammedanism or heathendom. The moral grandeur of the book, its history, its present hold upon converted men and women, are such as to convince any candid, earnest enquirer of these things.
Indeed, infidel writers have rightly affirmed that to imagine such an exalted life as is depicted of Jesus would be a greater miracle than the life itself; and I say that to imagine the Bible to be uninspired, and in its most vital assertions false, is to make the Bible a greater miracle than if true.
In the very short compass of this small paper it is impossible to do anything like justice to such a theme, but the writer's object will have been served if the reader sees that there is all the difference in the world between being a Christian in the true sense of the word and an infidel, whether he be of the type of Mr. Blatchford, who honestly asserts his position, or one who puts "Reverend" before his name as Mr. Campbell does.
To be a true Christian it is a vital necessity that you should believe that Jesus is God, that as man He wrought atonement on the cross, that God has proved His satisfaction in that work by raising Him from the dead, and that the Scriptures are the Word of God. Further, you must put your personal faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. Only thus can you be a Christian. If the Scriptures are not the Word of God, then what knowledge have we at all of God?
May the reader be like Thomas of old, who had to confess of Jesus, "MY LORD AND MY GOD." "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God bath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Rom. 10:9.) Blessed words, which the writer has experimentally proved to be true and which he prays many of his readers may prove likewise.
As to the adherents of the New Theology, we can say, "Lo, they have rejected the Word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them?” (Jer. 8:9) A. J. P.