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A Defence of Revealed Religion (1871)
by Joseph Deans
Eternal Suffering
4196774A Defence of Revealed Religion — Eternal Suffering1871Joseph Deans

LECTURE I.

THE FALL AND ATONEMENT.

"As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."
1 COR. XV, 22.

IN his appeal, Mr. Voysey tells us that his aim is to "meet and correct the prevailing error as to our wide and almost hopeless separation from God; to meet and correct the false and mischievous theories which make it seem that God is not the Father of men, and that we are not His dear children." This aim is a high one, well worthy of the efforts of the brightest intellects of earth, and of the hearts touched by the warm love of heaven.

In pursuing this object, Mr. Voysey vigorously assails the popularly received doctrines concerning some of the most important articles of the Christian Faith, concerning the Fall, Original Sin, the Atonement, the Eternity of Hell, and the Divinity of Jesus Christ. He argues with all the earnestness pertaining to sincere minds against views that He believes tend to the degradation of the divine character, striving to present God in a more loveable light than that in a which He is generally contemplated, and repudiating, in the most uncompromising manner, every human tradition which would from ignorance and carnality attribute to God feelings and conduct that might with greater propriety be considered to belong to the devil. We can throughout the teachings of Mr. Voysey trace this motive, which is most highly commendable, and which might well excuse errors of judgment, if such are found in his appeal.

The questions of the Divinity of Jesus Christ and the Eternity of Hell we shall reserve for future comment—to-night we purpose to state and examine Mr. Voysey's views on the Fall and Atonement, as set forth by himself in his address to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

Mr. Voysey admits that the following six propositions are truly charged against him: 1. Mankind are not by nature the children of God's wrath; 2. Mankind are not separated from God by sin; 3. Mankind are not under God's wrath; 4. Mankind are not under a curse; 5. Mankind are not in danger of endless suffering; 6. That there is no curse to remove by the shedding of the innocent blood of Christ. Mr. Voysey also admits having taught that the commonly received doctrine of the Fall is totally at variance with the teaching of Christ.

One of these propositions, the one concerning end less suffering, we shall not further touch upon to-night.

In defence of the propositions just cited, Mr. Voysey, in the course of his appeal, says: "Though men are by nature sinful, they are God's children and the objects of His love. To affirm that men are the children of God's wrath is not merely to affirm what is not in the Articles, but to talk pure nonsense. . . . The Articles of Religion only affirm that the sin of man is the object of God's wrath, and they do not affirm that the persons of sinners are so. . . . The Articles of Religion nowhere say that men are under God's curse: they do not even quote the passage about 'Christ being made a curse for us.' They do say that a certain tendency or disposition in us deserves God's wrath, and this I have continually maintained. Even more I have affirmed: that our sinful tendency not only deserves God's wrath, but inevitably and surely meets its due punishment. The wrong tendencies in our own children deserve and bring down the anger of their parents, but are the children therefore under their parents' curse P Is not the righteous anger of God against evil-doing itself a blessing and not a curse to the evil-doer? I will now briefly state what I have aimed at contradicting in the sermons cited under the articles of charge. What I have denied, is the theory that Adam was morally perfect, whereas by common consent he is believed to have fallen at the first temptation, as most of his posterity do now. I have never denied that God is angry with sin, but have declared my belief that He will and does punish us justly for everything we do amiss, and that His anger and punishment are designed to work for our improvement. I have only denied that God is unjust or excessive in His anger, and that He is hostile to sinful men. I have understood that, according to the common idea, the 'curse of God' means a sentence passed upon Adam and all his race for inherited as well as actual guilt. I have denied this with all the energy that I could summon."

Mr. Voysey also admits having maintained "that the commonly received doctrines of intercession and mediation by Christ, and atonement or reconciliation to God by the death of Christ, are all opposed to the perfect harmony and simplicity of the love of God, and to the teaching of Jesus Christ."

Such in brief are the teachings of Mr. Voysey concerning "The Fall and Atonement." He asks to be judged not by old traditions and prejudices, but at the bar of reason by the evidence of truth. The demand is a just and fair one—let us, casting aside the lesser question of their legality, examine them in the light of the testimony of the Word of God. The first great theme is the perfect and unchanging love of God even to sinners. This is the basis upon which Mr. Voysey seeks to build up his system. Let us test its soundness. Upon this question we are thoroughly at one with him. "God is love" says the Apostle, thus expressing the fact that this is His essential nature. Love is not merely an attribute of God, it is the very foundation of His being. "God Is love." He being infinite in every respect—if He were capable of anger he would be infinitely angry. But infinite anger and infinite love cannot co-exist in the same mind; and since God is love and changes not, He must ever love, and love all. That sinners are separated from God, and that punishment always follows sin, we believe to be incontrovertible facts. The cause of this separation and punishment we shall endeavour to shew in our next—at present our subject only requires that we should substantiate the idea that they do not originate in the anger of God. The Psalmist tells us that "the Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works." The assertion is grandly broad, putting out of question the idea that upon sinners He pours out the vials of vengeance and wrath. Sinners are those that have taken up an attitude of enmity against God; yet what says our Saviour: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of the Highest, who is kind even to the unthankful and to the evil. He causes His sun to shine upon the evil and the good, and His rain to descend upon the just and the unjust." Is that a love to be destroyed and turned into anger by human sin, which is described in the tender address—"Can a woman forget her sucking child? Yea, she may forget, but I cannot forget thee." And do not all the Divine invitations to the acceptance of forgiveness and pardon, and all His earnest calls to repentance, teach us that nought can cause Him to withhold His love, that nought can so reverse His nature as to make Him angry with us. "The Lord has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." He gives to us according to our necessities rather than our deserts; and at no time do we need His love so much as in the day when we have succumbed to the allurements of sin. "As our days, so shall our strength be"—in our hour of need He will be with us though we have rejected Him. This is our ideal of a perfect Deity; and we cannot picture God in too loveable a guise, for He is the Author and the Origin of all that is pure and holy. "He is the Father of lights, in whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning"—pleading ever that we would avail ourselves of His mercy and taste His love.

It is indeed a noble purpose to try to present the world with such a conception of God as will awaken a higher reverence and a deeper love for Him in the hearts of men, and to aid in the dissipation of those views of Deity which have induced an aversion in the minds of men towards their Father in heaven.

In the commonly accepted views concerning the Fall and Atonement, Mr. Voysey recognizes stumbling blocks standing in the way of man's approach to God as his loving Father.

Firstly:—The Fall. That man has fallen away from purity, and heaven, and God, is a fact that none can question. The humanity of our day is prone to evil; and we cannot for a moment suppose that he would have been so created by his Heavenly Father. Mr. Voysey seems in the assertion "I have denied the theory that Adam was morally perfect" to doubt the generally received idea that man's first parents were pure and innocent. But to doubt this is to reflect upon the loving mercy of God. Man was the creation of God, called into being that he might receive the rich blessings of his Maker. "For Thy pleasure they are and were created;" and the pleasure of God can only be in that which is free from sin. We can only reconcile man's present moral state with the belief in God's all-embracing love, by accepting as an undoubted fact the belief that man has fallen. Created in innocence, he has by the abuse of his freedom perverted his whole nature. Looking towards and crawling upon the earth, instead of aspiring towards heaven, he is now by nature a sensual and selfish being, the merest wreck of his former self.

"Though traces remain of the splendour of Eden,
The trail of the serpent is over them all."

What then were the results of the fall, in so far as they affected the relations between God and His creatures P. With Mr. Voysey, we cannot for a moment imagine that God doomed all their descendants to endless suffering simply because our first parents sinned. Such an act would more befit a barbarous tyrant of earth than the merciful Ruler of heaven. Through the prophet Ezekiel it is distinctly laid down—"The soul that sinneth it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." This is the sum of the teaching of the whole of the 18th chapter of the prophecy through Ezekiel.

The fall did not at all affect God's attitude of loving mercy towards man, though it altered man's attitude of obedience towards God. Our fallen parents transmitted to their posterity not the curse of God, but the curse of man—not the curse of an angry Deity, but the curse of a sinful and depraved humanity. There is a law of God impressed upon all living things, animal and vegetable, that we call the law of natural heritage. The formula of this law is "like begets like." Man in his purity was endowed with the faculty of reproduction, by virtue of which he might aid in calling into existence other beings like himself. But when this pristine purity was corrupted, the children of men began to inherit tendencies towards evil. This is the curse of the fall. We are born into the world full of tendencies towards evil and sin. But we are not punished simply for inheriting these tendencies—punishment only overtakes us when we ultimate these tendencies in life, and voluntarily choose them and adopt them as our own. We "die in Adam" when we follow his example, and deliberately transgress the known commandments of God. The commonly received doctrine is that since God demands a perfect obedience to His law, and men are imperfect owing to the fall, consequently the best efforts of man are altogether unavailing to procure the divine favour. Such a theory we cannot entertain. The Lord is revealed to us as a "just God;" and no just Being would demand from man an obedience which He knows cannot be given. We do not mean to say that man can of himself fulfil the divine requirement, but we believe that he can do so by the divine help. The Lord can only ask us to do our best. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him; for He knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we are dust." It is a libel on the character of God to say that because one man sinned He laid all future ages under the curse of His wrath, or to assert that He ever asked man to do anything unless He had previously bestowed upon him the power. We live under the curse of Adam, and the love of God impelled Him to give the world an antidote.

This antidote was the work of Redemption—the Atonement. Not that God demanded the sacrifice of innocent blood to appease His anger—not that He refused to be reconciled to man unless His justice was satisfied by the death of an all-sufficient substitute. God regarded more the misery of man than His own satisfaction—He thought more of man's persistent sinfulness than of His own broken laws. He would have been well satisfied with man's return to Him, and would willingly have forgiven him and blotted out his sin for His mercy's sake. The obstacle in the way of human salvation was not the inappeasable wrath of God, but the persistent obduracy of man. Like the father mentioned in the parable he was ever anxious to meet the returning prodigal with open arms, and even to meet and embrace him while yet a great way off. This is plainly taught in the prophecy from which we previously quoted. "When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right; if the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he had robbed, walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live, he shall not die. None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him: he hath done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live."

The work of Atonement was not rendered necessary by the anger of God; on the contrary, it was "in His love and in His pity He redeemed us." It was not because He was angry with the world on account of the sin of Adam, but "God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believed on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." The idea that God needed reconciling to us is in direct opposition to the testimony of Scripture, which affirms that it was man that needed reconciling to God. "If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.""And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled.""All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation: to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." This we see is the very reverse of the popular doctrine of reconciliation.

So also in respect to the Atonement, which is mentioned but once in the New Testament, and in these terms: “We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." It is man, not God, who receives the atonement.

So further, the scriptural view of the deliverance wrought by the Saviour is nowhere described as a deliverance from the wrath or anger of God; on the contrary, "for this cause was the Son of God manifested in the flesh, that He might destroy the works of the devil.""Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people: that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of them that hate us: that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life." God was never our enemy; He was always our best friend—"a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." From these, and similar testimonies and considerations, we are impelled to believe with Mr. Voysey, "That the commonly received doctrines of intercession and mediation by Christ, and atonement or reconciliation by the death of Christ, are all opposed to the perfect harmony and simplicity of the love of God, and to the teaching of Jesus Christ." Thus, in so far as Mr. Voysey's opinions negative the ideas contained in the popular doctrines of the Fall and Atonement, we heartily agree with him. The Scriptures do not teach us any views so degrading to our heavenly Father; and if the Voysey Case only leads men to examine the foundation of old beliefs, it will not be without its use. Men are no longer to be satisfied with the mere traditional beliefs of bygone days. A spirit of inquiry is abroad in the world, investigating everywhere—often with little reverence for the opinions of the past. The beliefs that are founded upon truth have nothing to fear from this scrutiny—the more clearly they are seen the more heartily they can be understood. Men will no longer be impeded in their search after truth by the cry of mystery—wherever a mystery is presented to them they endeavour to find its key. We hail these phenomena as signs of a healthy progress—they indicate the approach of a time when merely traditional dogmas shall be swept away, and prejudice shall be no more permitted to stifle truth. They bespeak a greater earnestness, and a stronger thirst for a more close acquaintance with the teachings of the great Creator. It may seem at present as if the spirit of inquiry had raised up a species of scepticism or infidelity in the world. This may be expected at the first onset. Many minds, on being led to see the fallacy of their old faith, will in the strength of their recoil be disposed to doubt all faith. But investigation does not necessarily imply doubt; and we have that faith in the truth of the religion of Jesus Christ as to believe that it will not only survive the scrutiny, but that it will continue to shew to humanity an ever expanding system capable of meeting its wants in all time. The cry for more light shews that men are not content to have their eyes bandaged by mysteries and traditions and legends. They are not content to see the truth through other men's eyes, they will see for themselves. Religion must be rational as well as devout to meet the demands of the new age. Men want a God that they can love for His perfectness, and refuse to prostrate themselves before a deity tainted with the sins and weaknesses of wicked men. The final issue will be a firmer faith, a deeper trust, a more absorbing devotion—leading the world onward from its grander conceptions of Deity to a holier life of love to God and man. It is because we believe that Mr. Voysey's vigorous protest will awaken a wider interest in the new school of thought that we have gladly welcomed it.

We do not coincide with all Mr. Voysey's conclusions. Far from it. We believe that his earnest longing after a higher conception of God has caused him to reject views which, seen in their true light, would be found quite in harmony with the infinite and perfect love of the Lord.

Thus, in regard to the question of the Atonement, although we do not know what Mr. Voysey's views are affirmatively, we know that his rejection of the Divinity of Jesus Christ will prevent him accepting the one we regard as the grandest.

No view can give us a more favourable idea of the infinity of the Divine Love than the New Church doctrine concerning the Atonement. It teaches us that it was God Himself that came upon earth, clothed in the vestments of humanity, to save and redeem His children—that Jesus Christ was in very deed our "God manifest in the flesh," our "Emmanuel, God with us." Men having wandered far away from Him, in His love He followed them, He became as one of them. "God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory;" and as it is elsewhere expressed,—Heb. ii. 9-18.

Human nature was fallen—He came to show that it might again be exalted. Men were the slaves of hell—He came to make captivity captive and give good gifts unto men. He came to bridge over the great gulf—to be the Mediator between God and man. None but our God could do this; and He did it because He pitied and loved us. This is a grander conception of Deity than even Mr. Voysey can present us with. It is a picture of marvellous, matchless love!

We might adduce numerous testimonies from the Word in support of the view that it was no Second Person, nor no human being, that accomplished the work of our Redemption, but shall reserve them until we separately consider the subject of the Saviour's Divinity. At present we would confine our attention to this view as it affects our conception of Deity. In it we see that the grand work of bringing about reconciliation between God and man was not delegated to another, or performed by a substitute. "He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore His own arm brought salvation unto Him." It was a work involving suffering and temptation; for against the personification of virtue wicked men and evil spirits leagued themselves together to accomplish His downfall.

But the Saviour conquered all His foes by the power of truth and love. His weapons were from the armoury of divine truth, and His breast was animated by the ardour of divine love, while His arm wielded the force of divine power. He was in truth very God, and very man.

Thought fails to see how God could more clearly manifest His love than by an act like this—coming down that He might help men to rise—not by keeping the law instead of them, but for their sakes. He came not to do our work, but to enable us to do it. "To them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in His name."

"As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."

We "die in Adam," when, imbued with his spirit of disobedience, we follow his example—we "live in Christ," when, imbued with His spirit, we follow His example. Thus there is a parallelism between the Fall and Atonement. We neither fall nor rise by proxy—the curse of the fall, "eternal death," and the blessing of Atonement, "eternal life," are alike the results of our own choice and conduct.

Our hereditary nature leads us to sin. "We have all sinned, and come short of the glory of God.""The Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor His ear heavy that it cannot hear : but our iniquities have separated between us and our God, and our sins have hid His face from us." But yet He does not spurn us. In the words of Jesus we hear His universal calls to peace and pardon: "Whosoever cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out;""Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

"In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.""If a man keep My saying, he shall never taste of death."

We regard the "fall" and its curse as incontrovertible facts, to be seen in our everyday experience. But the fall is perpetually going on in those who confirm themselves in sin, and the curse is self-inflicted. We deem the Atonement a necessary work for the deliverance of man and his reconciliation with God; but it was the love and not the anger of God that deemed it necessary: it was a deliverance from our spiritual enemies, the power of darkness, and the great obstacle that stood in the way of perfect forgiveness was the stubbornness of man.

God never needed the offering of any sacrifice of innocent blood to induce Him to forgive. He ever said, "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that he should turn from his ways and live." Justice could not be satisfied; it would be further outraged by the punishment of the innocent instead of the guilty; but the just may voluntarily suffer for the unjust, not in their stead, but for their sakes.

He came to help us—to give us comforting and cheering words, a bright and peerless example, a new and mightier power, from whence we might receive new courage and emulation and strength to resist and subdue our internal foes. With this view of the Atonement before us, we may contemplate God with feelings of greater veneration and respect. We no longer behold Him as angry and refusing to forgive unless a price is paid (in which case He does not forgive at all)—we no longer behold a terrible God that the child-like mind cannot love—we no longer behold a divided Deity, one part demanding a sacrifice of suffering, another part consenting to suffer, and an other part apparently quite unconcerned in the matter. The world (of Christianity) has long felt a difficulty upon this subject; and while men have tried to love the Father even as they have loved the Son, the effort has been in vain. Human hearts have clung to Jesus Christ, the hope of the dying has been in Him, and their last breath has pronounced His name, and though prayers have been offered to the Father, they have been "for Jesus' sake." The angry God has been loved little and feared much—the merciful Son has been loved much and feared none at all.

It is time that this divided allegiance should be disavowed; and indeed many have denied the Godhead of Jesus Christ as their only way of escape from it. Others, however, with (what we believe to be) a clearer insight into scriptural teaching, have acknowledged Him as God alone, "in Whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Upon another occasion we shall ask you to attentively follow us while we endeavour to prove the Sole Divinity of Jesus Christ—we have only here alluded to it in an incidental manner, as presenting us with a nobler conception of our Father in heaven than is presented in the popular views concerning the Fall and Atonement.

The highest conception that we can form of God must be far short of the reality, but we may be sure that His perfections do not partake of the nature of human imperfections—"His ways are higher than our ways." The unforgiving, angry, relentless spirit is an infirmity in man; and surely it cannot exist in the Author and Giver of every good; surely our God cannot perpetually want pleading with and reminding of an offered sacrifice.

Oh, no! the divine mercy is all sufficient to ensure our full pardon, and the divine power is all sufficient to endow us with the means of availing ourselves of the pardon if we are so disposed.

"The quality of mercy is not strained:
It droppeth as the gentle dew from heaven
Upon the place beneath.It is twice blessed:
It blesses him that gives, and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mighty: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown."