13-01.04.02 � Of Protestant Creeds (part 2)

SECTION II.

Let us now look into the constitution of the creeds, and observe the materials of which they are made. In the first place, they give false views of the Christian faith, by exalting metaphysical speculations to an equality with the divine facts revealed and assured to our belief. Not content with the simple faith of the first Christians, they embody speculative views concerning the divine nature, the human mind, the origin of evil, the necessity and freedom of the will, the eternal decrees of God, etc. etc., as parts of the faith of the gospel; and then the acceptance of creeds thus formed is made a prerequisite to membership. Thus undue importance is given to matters which, if treated of at all in revelation, are always distinctly subordinate. Things are assigned to the first place in the creeds, which in the Bible have the second. Take, for example, the subject of Election. In those creeds which embrace it in any of its phases, it forms a prominent and essential part of the faith; and, as a matter of course, it must be looked into, weighed, and studied over by every one who desires and proposes to join the church,--and his mind must be satisfied upon it before he can, as an honest man, come forward and publicly profess to believe it as it is recorded in the confession before him. Whereas, Peter and Paul, on the contrary, said nothing whatever on that subject in preaching to the world. With them, it formed not a part--of the faith, but of the subsequent instruction. They also were primarily concerned in inducing men to accept the grace of God, rather than in perplexing their minds with the question, whether it were possible to fall from or lose that grace. This belonged to a subsequent period. And so of every speculation upon every "doctrinal" subject in the various creeds of Christendom, whether true or false, in themselves considered, they are false in the position they are made to occupy. They were never presented to the world by the Apostles as primary objects of faith. Indeed, no doctrine of the Bible is, independently, or in itself, an object of faith. It is embraced in the great fact that Jesus is the Christ. We are required to believe in him, and this involves the acceptance of all he teaches; while the doctrine is not commended to us by testimony concerning itself, but by testimony concerning Him who teaches it. In this appears the propriety of the order observed by the Apostles. They first presented Jesus and him alone, in all the glory of his Sonship and Messiahship--his person and offices, accompanied by testimonies calculated to make men " believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." Having produced this faith in him as Prophet, Priest, and King, they did not have to convey his doctrine "in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth," but simply to propound and enforce it by his authority, in the words of his Spirit, as something which they were pledged by their faith to receive. All sound Christian doctrine, then, stands or falls with this faith. Take it away, and all the speculations of the creeds, allowing them every one to be true, will vanish "like the baseless fabric of a vision." Not being themselves fundamental, not being independent objects of belief, so soon as the faith from which they have sprung, and by which they are supported, is destroyed, they must fall with it. Hence, as all true doctrine upon all spiritual subjects flows directly and necessarily from the intelligent and implicit belief in Jesus, embracing the profound and ample significance contained in the proposition that he was and is the Christ, the Son of God, this is the only primary and fundamental object of the Christian faith,--the true center from which radiates all the light and truth of the Bible. Hence, too, all those systems which equalize this faith with metaphysical speculations, and doctrines not fundamental, whether those doctrines be true or false in themselves considered, destroy the symmetrical proportions of the Bible, and place men in false positions from which to study Christ’s institutions. Every creed, therefore, which contains more than is necessary to constitute a man a Christian, is unapostolic, pernicious, and schismatic; generating strife and division, and debarring worthy persons from the privileges of the church; while every one which contains less, is worthless by falling short of saving faith, and delusive by keeping this deficiency out of sight. Now the only faith in Christendom which contains neither more nor less than what is essential to the constitution of a Christian, is that preached by the Apostles in the original propagation of the gospel. To make this evident, we have only to place the respective advocates of the various creeds on the stand, and hear them testify to the non-essentiality of their most cherished points. We take a Calvinist, for example, and ask him, Can a man be a Christian w ho does not believe your doctrine of eternal, unconditional, and personal election? And notwithstanding he may be a most strenuous advocate of the dogma, he will solemnly respond in the affirmative. Then, we answer, that doctrine is not essential to the constitution of a Christian, and has been unduly and unwarrantably exalted in being placed among the necessary and fundamental articles of the Christian faith. We next take an Arminian and put the same question, Can a man be a Christian who rejects your peculiar views as distinguished from Calvinism? And dear as those views are to him, and zealously as he has advocated them, he is constrained by the force of truth and conscience to answer in the affirmative. Then we make the same charge against him--that he has corrupted the simple faith of the gospel, by introducing as articles of faith matters which belong to a different category. And so if we should go through the several articles in the various creeds and confessions of Protestant sects, we should find them filled--not only in the judgment of their opponents, but also in that of their advocates--with matter which, being extraneous and non-essential, must necessarily be schismatic and pernicious. But suppose we apply this test to "the faith which was once delivered to the saints,"--that which is common to all, that which gives to all alike the title to be recognized as Christians even by their opponents,--and how different the response 1 Can a man be a Christian who does not believe that the Christ has come in the flesh, that Jesus of Nazareth was and is that Christ, that he is the Son of God? In short, can he be a Christian who does not believe the gospel? The answer is an emphatic No! without the least hesitation, from every shade and type of Protestantism. The reason is, that this faith is recognized and felt to be that which is essential to the constitution of a Christian. Nothing short of this is sufficient; nothing more is necessary. But to believe this is to oblige one to obey all the commandments, to heed all the instructions, and to cherish all the promises of the Saviour, either oracularly delivered in person or by those to whom he delegated the authority. In fact, the whole Bible is but a radiation from this glorious personage; and all its facts, precepts, promises, hopes, fears, and enjoyments, are intimately and indissolubly connected with him. To believe in him, then, is to believe in and accept the whole Bible; and to have no other faith is to reject all but the Bible, which brings us, literally and practically to the great cardinal principle of Protestantism--THE BIBLE, THE WHOLE BIBLE, AND NOTHING BUT THE BIBLE. And standing at this angle, all the doctrine of revelation, whether on the subject of election, predestination, sin, holiness, sacrifice, atonement, grace, faith, works, justification, redemption, glory, honor, immortality--in short, every divine communication, will be viewed not as revolving around the centers of Calvinism, or Arminianism; of Lutheranism, Universalism, Trinitarianism, or Unitarianism; but around Christ, the great central sun of the spiritual solar system. All the motives and temptations for distorting the Scriptures will be taken away, and the distortion itself must cease. Men having no system of their own to support, and being connected alone with the system of Christ, will be willing to let the Bible mean what it says; and ceasing to dogmatize as proficients, they will begin meekly to study as disciples.