THE NEW THEOLOGY IN NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13859, 23 March 1907, Page 4

THE NEW THEOLOGY IN NEW ZEALAND.

DR ROBERT LAMB AND THE REV. ISAAC JOLLY. The discussion which arose in tho Presbyterian Genera! Assembly, held in Dnncdin in November last, out of tho publication in the Outlook (the official organ of. tho Presbyterian Church of New Zealand) of an article by the Rev. J. Brierly entitled " Religion and Crime," will still he frcsli in the memory of many. As a result of that article, Dr Robert, Lamb (formerly a minister in the Now Zealand Presbyterian Church, and subsequently a missionary in the New Hebrides, now invalided* in New South Wales) wrote to the Outlook expressing his agreement with, and hearty approval of,'the main positions advanced by Mr Brierly. The Rev. Isaac Jolly, of Palnverslon North, thorenpon took Dr Lamb to task for his expression of opinion, which elicited from Dr Lamb a protest that Mr Jolly had cruelly misrepresented him. This charge, in a subsequent letter, Mr Jolly entirely denied, and in the course of the letter covering the denial proceeded to ask Dr Lamb n number of questions. Dr Lamb prepared a series of four articles in which lie elaborates his replies to Mr Jolly's questiohs. and offered them to the Outlook. the editor of which paper, however, did lint see bis way to publish them. Dr Lamb has fhoreforo requested us to publish these ..articles, and, as they have a distinct bearing upon the Now Theology discussion now so much in the air, wc ui\'o decided to accede to his request. Tho first article appeared on Saturday, 9tli inst., and the second last Saturday. We lifinfe the third of the .articles herewith, and tho final article will follow on next Saturday. DR LAMB'S REPLY. lII.—THE PESSIMISM OF THE LATIN THEOLOGY AS REFLECT'® IN PRESBYTERIAN STANDARDS. " Tho Holy Scriptures ... axe -tho only rule of faith . . . Larger Cat., q. 3. " The infallible rule o[ interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself; and therefore, when there is a question about the true Mid full sense of any Scripture (which is not manifold, but one) it must be searched and -known by other places that speak more clearly."— " Confession of Faith," chap, i., 9. It is a matter of congratulation that the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, which recently met in Dunedin, .authorised their committee (Book of Ord-or) to publish the standards— viz., the Larger and Shorter Catechisms and the Confession of Faith in a future edition of the Book of Order. As 500 copies of the latter have already been published, surely it would be wise, so as to avoid protracted delay, to issue also 500 copies of tho standards, with Scripture proofs, in booklet form to accompany tho Book of Order. They would then to available for immediate study, a thing to bo desired if, in tho language of their advocates, they may bo regarded as a preventative of "flimsiliess of doctrine." Nevertheless wo would emphasise the point that to a true-bhio Presbyterian there is only one supreme standard, or "rule of faith"—viz., the Scriptures—to which tho other standards are " subordinate," and by which they are ever to be tested and judged. We have no intention at present of so testing ilioni, nnless asked to do so, but would Jcavo that to the competent among your readers. It is only necessary to keep in mind the fact that he who would make a fetish of tho subordinate standards, and would oppose their authority to that of the Scriptures, is a traitor to the first principle of Frcsbyteriajiism and to tho subordinate standards themselves.

Having eai<l so much, let lis now note to how great a degree the pessimism of the Latin Theology is .reflected in these standards. The clauses in italics uro quoted from Kurtz's "Church History," a German text-book of the front rank translated by that stalwart champion of the standards, tho Rev. John Macphorson, M.A., Findhorn. I thus quote from Kurtz's summary of Augustine's leaching (vol. I. p. 345) that there may bo no disptito and no disparagement. , We may noto the following points:—■ 1. Tlie Hopeless Condition of Mankind in the Mass. Its'cause: "In Adam ... all mankind sinned, for lie was all mankind. By generation Adam's nature, as it was after sin, with sin and !iuilt, death and condemnation, but also the capacity for redemption, passed over to all his posterity."— (Augustine.) This doctrine is incorporated in our Standards thus: "By this sin they (Adam and Eve) fell . . . and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties nnd parts of soul and body. . . . Tho same death in sin and corrupted nature (v.erc) conveyed to all their posterity . . . whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made oppcsile to all good, and wholly inclined to nil evil."—Conf. Faitli, chaptcr vi. The result: " Tempted, by Satan ho (man) fell, and thus is became for him impossible that ho should not sin and die."— (Augustine.) The Standards express it thus: "He (man) is bound over to the wrath of God and curse of tho law, and so made subject to death with all miseries spiritual, temporal, and eternal."—Conf. Faith, chapter vi. 2. Mankind a Mass of Perdition. •" Mtissa perditionis" is the phrase used by Augustine to describe the whole fallen rate of man, out of which by an eternal unconditional decree God determined to savo some to the glory of his grace, and to leave the rest to their deserved doom to the glory! of his penal righteousness.— (Augustine.) In chapter iii of Iho "Confession of Faith" this is formulated into a series of articles with the addition that— "These angels and men, thus predestinated and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed; and their number is so certain and definite that it cannot be eiilier increased or diminished.''—(Standards). 3. Man is Hopelessly Disabled. Man, so Augustine teaches, can coniribule nothing to his conversion. Tho outcasts (Reprobati) can in no way appropriate grace . . . (he elect (eiceti) can in no way resist il.-(Augustine.) Tlie Standards express the same doctrine i lilts: "All those whom God hath prcdeslinatod unto life, and those only, he is pleased . . . effectually to call. . . . This effectual call is of God's free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man, who is altogether passive therein."—Conf. Faith, chapter x. .4. Only One Gate—Election.

If it is said: "God wills that all men should bo saved." that can only mean "all who are predestinated.''—(Augustine.) Tlijs limitation by Augustine of the grace of God in Christ is repeated by tho Standards, which go the length of distinguishing between "elect infants" and non-elect. "Elect infants, dying in infancy, arc regenerated and saved. . . . Others not elected . . . cannot be' saved: much less can men" not professing: the Christian religion be saved in any other way whatsoever, be thev ever so diligent, to frame their lives according to ihe light, of Nature and the law of that religion they do profess ; and to assert and maintain that I hey may is very pernicious, and to be detested."—Conf. Faith, x, 3-4. "All Ihe elect, and they only, are effectually called . . ."—fiarg. Cat., (j. 68. 5. The Nations Hopelessly Lost. To the heathens, even the noblest of them, he (Augustine) refused salvation, but made a distinction in the degrees of their penal torture. So. too. unbaptiscd children were all regarded as lost.! The Standards follow to the same effect, excopt in .regard to baptism. "The visible church . . . consists of all those throughout, the world that profess the true religion . . . out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation. I '—Conf. Faith,\ chap. xxv, 2. "Those who, having never heard the Gospel, know not Jesus Christ, and believe not in ITim, cannot bo saved. . . ' Larg. Cat., q. 60.. 6', The Consummation—Endless Torment for the Vast. Majority. Augustine leaves us with the prospect or an everlasting dualism of good and evil in which evil is predominant :f- ---" Out- of tho whole fallen race of man. massa perditionis, God has determined to save some .' . . and lo leave others to their deserved doom."—(Augustine.) So also the Standards. "The souls of the righteous." that is, the oleel "are received into Ihe highest heavens . . . the souls of the wicked" (reprobate) " are cast into hell, where they remain in torments and ittter darkness. . . . Tho righteous go inti' everlasting lifo . . . tho wicked shall bo cast into eternal torments."—Conf. Faith, chap, xxxii-iii. "Unspeakable' torments, botli bf body and soul, . . . for ever."—Larg. Cat., (]. 89. "T|ie punishments of sin in tho world to come arc everlasting separation from the comfortable presence of God. and most griovous torments in soul and body, without. intermission, in hell tiro for .ever."— Larg. Cat., (|. 29. The question will at once be asked by many of your readers, Is this teaching of Augustine not Scriptural? Certainly it is if wo .read tho Scriptures through Latin spectacles. In our next and last article on "The Optimism of tho Gospel" we shall lay, aside . these spectacles and e'ndoa.vour lo read certain passages of the Gospels and Epistles with undimmed vision. R. Lam. Wenhvoi'lh Falls, Blue Mountains, N.S.W., January 16.

DR ROBERT LAMB'S THEOLOGY. TO TEE EDITOR. Sin, —Tho facts that, Dr Robert Lamb specially mentions my name in bis article in your issue of the 9th inst., and that he deals with a. central article of the Christian Gospel, make it necessary that I tnko 6ome notice of tho article in question. If your readers, as a whole, were familiar- with those discussions, Dr Lamb's article might be safely left alone, for it does not represent cither the Old Theology or the New Theology, but. simply Dr Lamb's theology, and that is evidently a trifle peculiar. The central part of Dr Lamb's ai'tielo is the great distinction he would seek toestablish between "placato" and "propitiate"—or, to bo more exact, tho fact that he denies that tile averting of wratb enters into the work of propitiation. I give his own wo''ds: "The two words differ wjdely. both in their meaning and their uses. They resemble each other in this: the approaching of an offended divinity, false or true, by mentis of a sacrifice. But to propitiate conveys the idea of 'winning mercy' from the Deity, J rendering Him propitious,' and establishing a. relation of goodwill between Him and tho offerer. To placate, in contrast, means to avert wrath, ward off destruction. The one word is Scriptural, and is rightly applied to God; the other word is heathen—though introduced into Western theology by the Latins,—and is properly applied to a demon." On this supposed great difference of tho meaning of those words Dr Lamb would build his theology of tho Atonoment. In reply, I liave to say that Dr .Lamb's account of these words is true neither to the ordinary meaning of tho words themselves nor to tho teaching of Holy Scripture on Ihe subject. In both words wo get the element of the averting of I wratb and penalty which Dr Lamb denies in propitiation. For the moaning of tho words I go to recognised authorities. Dr Lamb, I observe, fails to do thi3. My Latin dictionary (Ainsworth's) gives tho following meanings to the verb

"placarc," from which wo get, the word " placate ":l " (1) To atone; to make propitious. (2)' To pacify, appease, quiet, content, or reconcile. • (3) To make calm, mild, or gentle. (4) Tp allay or satisfy or assuage." _ Then Ainsworth defines " propitiare " as "to appease, to atone, (o pacify." A iglance at tlicso definitions will show that Ainsworth kpows nothing of the great difference in-the meaning'of these words, on which Dr Lamb builds so much theology. Then when m turn to Webster's International Dictionary W find the same thing. Webster defines "propitiation" as: " (1) The act. of appeasing the wrath and conciliating tlic favour of an offended person: the act of-making propitious; (2) (Thcol.) that which propitiates; atonement or atoning sacrifice; specifically, the influence or effects of the death of Christ in appeasing the Divine justice and coticijiatin the Dirino favour." He defines "placate" a'.s: "To appease; to pacify: to conciliate," and tells ufi that " placarc" is akin to " pkccre—to please." Nor dc«s such a Latin scholar as Ueza, know anything of this great difference in the words. The word propitiation occurs twice in the Now Testament, and in bis Latin version of the Now Testament lieza renders it in the one place by "placamontum " (Romans' 3, 25). and l in the other place by "propiliatio" (1 John 2, 2). And West,colt, in his noto on 1 John 2, 2, tells us that, in rendering the Greek word into Latin, while " pro"itiatio" prevailed, 3 "placal.io" and other w(\T(ls wore alfo used. Yet in spite of tho dictionaries and the Latin vereions, 1 Dr Lamb builds his theology of atonement on tho supposed great difference bctwrcn "placate" and "propitiate." It is certainly building on a ho?.

But, more seriously, if tho word propitiation did! not include the clement of the averting of wrath, jt would not, meet, the requirements' of Scripture doctrine. That tho wrath of God is a reality, and that the averting of .wrath and destruction enters into the teaching of Scripture on the doctrine of salvation is nhsplutely certain, Tho following out of many parages of Scripture that might tic cited abundantlv Drove this. I <|uote from flic revised version: "Much more then, being now justified by Ill's blocd, shall we bn saved from tho wral.li of God through Him." (Romans 5, 91. ".losus, which delivcroth us from the wrath to come." (1 Tness. 1, 10). "For God bath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord .Tcsus Christ." " Christ redeemed us from the cuiso of the law, having become a curse for us."' (Gal. 3. 13). From three and other passages that might be cited, it, is clear that the averting of wrath and destruction outers into the Scripture doctrine of salvation. In 2 Tliess. 1., 8, 9, destruotion is sajd to lie the lot of the unsaved. And the certain teaching of Scripture is that this salvation comcs to lis through tho propitiation of .Tcsus Christ. From all this, it will lift seen that Dr Lamb, in leaving out the averting of wrath from the conception of propitiation, is going right, in tho teeth of the teaching of tho New Testament, and of the meaning of t.i'e world itself. When ho thus builds his doctrine of Atonement on an obvious blunder, one wonders whether it is worth while replying to him. It is nositively amusing to find a man who blunders in tbis fashion modestly proposing to reform the theology of tho whole western Church, both 'Protestant- and Roman Catholic.—l am, etc., Isaac Jout. Falmerston North, March 18.