THE OLD THEOLOGY

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 11875, 8 July 1924, Page 8

THE OLD THEOLOGY

REPLACED BY LOFTIER CONCEPTION.

REMARKS BY REV, ELLIB

At the Unitarian Church on Sunday the Rev. Ellis made reference to a Book of Sermons preached by ministers of the Church <rf Scotland prior lo 1830, in whichl the anthers plainly 'stated that they regarded “The sections of the old theology which treat of sin and salvation as spepially un tenable.”

Those Scottish preachers of 40 years ago, be stated, were quite in line with modem views and liberal religious thought. They were amongst the illustrious men who broke down the old orthodoxy expressed in the Westmin. ster confession, and the 39 articles and blazed the trail that led hack to Galilee and Olivet, qnd the unpolluted teachings of Jesus concerning the activities the immanence and beneficence of God.' The attempts to force out worn creeds and stereotyped belief or to intelligent and thoughtful minds had signally failed, and instead there had grown up a loftier conception and men had grasped “the wide horizon’s grander view, the larger thought Jf God.”

In creation, the thought of six days labour, and. an eternal rest, of God ar Creator ever resting, was simply unthinkable, and the assertion that no new forms of life have arisen since the creation of man, on the sixth day, waj of all silly things the silliest. The teaching of the churches concerning the raturo of sin, its supposed origin and the means ot its eradication was quite incredible. Jesus taught the righteousness of God and the. possibility and practicability of the righteousness of man, and the old Methodist doctrine of Christian perfection was one that no church need be ashamed of. The “imputed” righteousness of the old theology found no place in tho philosophy of Jesus who insisted on man’s actual righteousness. “This-do and thou shalt live.” Man is not the failed and (polluted and depraved creature, the miserable sinner some hypocritically proclaim themselves to be. He is the child of God, with" a high and exalted destiny, and it was the desire and purpose of Jesus that he should walk worthily. The things that remain to the truly religious man are the thoughts that God lives, and reigns and works righteousness in the earth.