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Regeneration, Or the Doctrine of the Quickening
AUTHOR: | Oliphant, James H. |
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CHAPTER III - THE LAW-LOVE TO GOD AND MAN
Mr. Campbell Says, "I repudiate with my whole heart every idea of infant, idiot, and heathen regeneration." So with his whole heart he adopts a system that condemns forever seven-tenths of the nations of earth by the wholesale, and only such of the remaining three-tenths as understand the Bible as he does.
Paul calls our minds to the condition of the heathen as compared with others, in Rom., ii, 11 "There is no respect of persons with God." "For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;" "For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." Here he shows that persons, who do not have the law, as the Jews hid it, may keep it, and that those who keep it shall be justified. The law consists in loving God and our fellow creatures, as our Savior explains, Matthew, xxii; and here Paul informs us that those who are without law that keep it, shall be justified. In verse 14, he says. "For when the Gentiles which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves." Agreeably to this the Gentiles may do the very things the Bible requires, although they never saw or heard of the Bible; i.e., they may love God whom "they can clearly see from his works of creation," as Paul explains, and they may love their fellow creatures, and on these two hang all the law and the prophets. Here we learn that heathens may do this, although they are without law, and all such are justified before God. Cornelius was doubtless one of this class; all such persons are the doers of the law, and are justified. The Jews were none the better for having the law, who failed to keep it. It is the keeping of the law in all nations that proves men to be justified. In Rom vii, he shows that a will to serve God is accepted of God. "I delight in the law of God after the inward man;" and such a person, be he Jew or Gentile, whether he has the law or not, is accepted of God. In Rom ii, 15, after speaking of the Gentiles doing by nature the things contained in the law, he says, "Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bear witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another."
Paul accounts for the fact that heathens do the things contained in the law by saying, "Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts," and in fact it is the reason why any person on earth does the things contained in the law, be he heathen or not. The work of the law has been "written in their hearts." It is the new covenant written in their hearts. "I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts;" Heb viii, 10; also Jer. xxxi, 33; "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." Now, where Gentiles are found doing the things contained in the law we are taught to account for it from the fact that God has written his law in their hearts, taken away the heart of stone, and given one of flesh. It shows they have been born again, for "he that loveth is born of God." It is upon this the apostle says, "He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly." Paul, as well as Peter, embraced that broad, sensible view of God 's word that would teach us to expect to find God 's little ones wherever we go on the face of the earth, while Mr. Campbell would teach us that any human being that is deprived of the law is wholly destitute of "every spiritual thought, feeling, or emotion." Paul speaks of many of them as doing the things contained in the law, and ascribes it to the fact that the work of the law has been written in their hearts. I desire the reader to carefully notice these positions.
On page 309, Mr. Campbell says, "The word of the Lord is the Lord himself; where the Bible is not the Lord has no regenerating power." How differently Paul views it. Instead of consigning the race of heathens "who inhabit seven-tenths of the fairest and best part of the earth" to eternal woe, he presents us with a way of salvation suited to their needs, and bids us expect that "God will receive a revenue of praise out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;" Mr. Campbell teaches us that only out of those nations that have the written word; whole nations sinking into hell for want of the Bible, which could be furnished by the people if they could raise the money, and the money could be had if Congress would legislate wisely. He presents us a plan of salvation as dependent on man for its success as it is upon God. We are taught to believe that the heathens have no Savior until money is raised to send one to them. On page 295 he teaches us that the Spirit does not travel outside of the written word. God would be willing to go to heathen lands if the people would raise money and send him there. I consider Mr. Campbell's position in regard to the word, as being closely allied to the doctrine of transubstantiation, and to this point I invite particular attention. In Poor Man's Catechism, page 157, on baptism we read, "This is the only sacrament that can restore us to a spiritual life. Christ, who alone as Lord of nature and of grace is able to give natural things a virtue to produce supernatura1 effects, instituted it. The Spirit of God was carried on the waters, and gave them a virtue to produce living creatures. So baptism consists of water and of Spirit, and has a virtue to create a new life in us." In this quotation von will observe it is argued that Christ is able "to give natural things a virtue to produce supernatural effects." They tell us what Christ is able to do, and seem to think that this proves he does so. As to whether God is able to unite himself to the water, or the bread and wine, or the word, and thus communicate himself into the people by absorption or some such way, we are not concerned to know, but we do feel sure that there is no such evidence that he ever communicates himself to men in these ways. In "Romanism As It Is," page 423 they present the bread and wine as the actual flesh and blood of Christ, so that they who fail to take these will fail to have Christ, and Mr. Campbell as clearly presents the word of God as the actual and true God as the Catholics do the bread and wine i. e., he transubstantiates the word. Note the following quotations, page 295 "Where the Bible has not been sent * * there is not one single spiritual idea, word, or action. It is all midnight a gloom, profound utter darkness. If then, indeed, the Spirit of the Bible, the Holy Spirit of our God, did at all travel out of the record, and work faith, or communicate intelligence, without verbal testimony, methinks it is the proper field. And there being no evidence of his having done so, is it not a fact, as clear as a revelation from heaven-clear as demonstration itself-that the illuminating, regenerating, converting, sanctifying influence of the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation are not antecedent to, nor independent of the written oracles of that Spirit?" Here he insists that he does not at all travel outside of the record. This is stronger than Catholic transubstantiation, for they no doubt; admit that he is not always in the bread and wine. They allow he is sometimes in the water; But Mr. Campbell insists that he does not at all travel outside of the record." Again, Mr. Campbell says, "A spiritual, or moral, or creative power without the word of God is a phantom, a mere speculation;" page 309. In this he insists that God and his word are identical but if this is not sufficient to convince the reader that he held this view, hear him again, same page; "The word of God is the fiat of God" * * indeed we may go further, and say that the word of the Lord is the Lord himself. As the Lord Jesus is the Word of God incarnate, so is his word an embodiment of his power." Here he presents the word as being entitled to the same esteem as Christ. With him Christ has no more of Deity than the word; but hear him again: "The word of God is then the actual power of God." If his language express what he meant, he certainly deifies the word. His transubstantiation is not of the bread and wine, but of the word, and is as corrupt as the Catholic view. It is as well calculated to mislead the minds of the people, and is the same thing in principle. In his work all the way through he adheres to this principle God has no saving power in seven-tenths of the nations because his word is not there. This is his teaching.
God is as different from his word as a piece of land is from the deed that describes it. The Bible is not the Savior, nor is he in the Bible any more than he is in a brick. A house built of Bibles is no holier nor more sanctified than one built of stone. It is idolatry to speak of it as being the "embodiment of his power." The Bible is a hook made of ink and paper, that describes to us the Savior, tells how he saves, and whom he saves, and why he saves. It describes the condition of sinners, and tells us they are quickened by God. It has no more to do in our regeneration than it will have in our resurrection, but tells who does the one, and will do the other. It never claims to he the Savior, neither in whole nor in part. We would he better off without a Bible, than to so abuse it as to deify it.
Mr. Campbell seems to have an idea that the Bible, or word, is a written medium through which the Spirit is communicated. But remember that God is an omnipresent entity, and is not conveyed at all anywhere by any thing; neither by books, papers, men, nor angels. If any thing is communicated by the Bible it is instruction; nothing more. The written word is a nonentity, while the Spirit of God is aim entity. To say that a nonentity conveys an entity is an absurdity. To say that God is not an entity is to say there is no God. To say he is communicated by the word is to deny his omnipresence. Header, learn to distinguish between God Almighty, and the book that tells of his mighty acts.
I wish here to introduce Mr. Campbell's twelfth argument, and in the next chapter I will consider his third argument. He rests his twelfth argument on the fact that '' God, by his word, made the world and all that is in it." "Of course, then," he says, " we have no idea of any new creation or regeneration without the word of God." In this whole argument he associates the power by which the world was made with that by which men are regenerated. On page 309 he says, "God made man in his own image by his word, and he now restores him to that image by his word of power." "Every work of creation is represented as the product of his word." Before proceeding to show the inconsistency of this twelfth argument, I wish to notice an error in Mr. Campbell's reasoning. He says, "There is much wisdom of God in the fact that he has chosen the term Logos to represent the author of the Christian faith." "And hence John represents Jesus Christ as the Word of God incarnate." It is true that Christ is called the Word of God, but in all Mr. Campbell's treatise on spiritual influence he is calling our attention to the written word, not to the Word that was made flesh. No doubt there is a reason why John called Christ the Logos of God. Although I may not know why He was so called, I am sure that John had no reference to the written word. Logos is defined by Liddle and Scott: First, "The word by which the inward thought is expressed." The child Jesus was an expression of the inward thought of the God of mercy long hid in secrecy, but now published. Second, " The inward thought or reason itself" Christ was an open expression of the very thought and purpose of God. To know him and understand him in all his works and offices is to be familiar with the eternal thoughts of God in regard to our redemption, regeneration, and resurrection. But why Mr. Campbell should introduce this in his treatise I cannot tell. He has labored all through to show that "the record," "the written word," etc., is the instrument through and by which men are regenerated. But I will return to the twelfth argument.
This whole argument rests on the fact that God made the worlds by his word. I wish the reader to remember that he based his first argument on the constitution of the human mind, in which he labored to show that the mind is adapted to receive the word, and argues that the word benefits men through the understanding. Whatever good the word does it does by our understanding it. I accept all this. The constitution of the human mind proves that God intended to affect men through their minds by his word, its language suited to their car; and when written it reaches the mind through the eye. His first, fourth, and fifth arguments all rest upon the ground that men are in possession of mind, and the word is expressed in sentences of thought suited to mind, but now he offers the twelfth argument on the ground that the word of God was the instrument by which matter was arranged into a universe. His talk of the constitution of the human mind is nonsense, if the word operates on matter as well. If the atoms of the universe were affected by the word, then I can't see how he would evade the position that infants, and idiots, and heathens may be affected by it.
Mr. Campbell has insisted all the way along that the word is a moral force, designed of God to operate on mind. In this he is certainly correct, but this must all go for nothing if his twelfth argument is good, for in it he claims that the word operates on matter, and unless matter has mind, one of these arguments is against the other. The written word is a moral force and nothing more, and if regeneration be produced by teaching, the written word is adapted to that end, but if there is any thing in regeneration not effected by teaching, the written word is not suited to its accomplishment. Now with reference to the force by which God made the worlds, if it were done by moral force, a force that operates on mind, Mr. Campbell is right; but if it is done by another kind of force, one not suited to mind, Mr. Campbell has erred in his twelfth argument.
But is regeneration produced by teaching? Teaching, naturally, does not give natural mind. Think of this all the books on earth can never produce natural minds; they only instruct natural minds. Now, will spiritual instruction give spiritual minds? If so, why will not natural teaching give natural minds? He that is spiritual judgeth all things.'' The carnal mind is enmity against God." Is this enmity cured by presenting that to the mind against which it is enmity? Paul says the gospel is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." The believer is one that has "passed from death unto life." I conclude that if God intended to regenerate men by his word, it would be his power to men dead in sin but such men can not see the kingdom, nor its beauties, neither can they know them except they were born of the Spirit. Therefore they need another kind of force. Moral force is not sufficient. Paul speaks of the Ephesians, as believing "according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand;" Eph., i. 28. Now the working of God's mighty power was that which raised Jesus from the dead; not a power that may be expressed by the words teach, edify, etc. It was not that force that affects men through the "constitution of the human mind," when Mr. Campbell claims for the written word; it was another kind of force that had wrought in the Ephesians, and they were thus prepared to believe. the gospel. Mr. Campbell leaves his first position that the word operates on mind, and assumes that it operates on matter. There is no effect produced by the written word only what results from the understanding men have of it.
The Catholics seem to imagine that persons sprinkled with holy water receive a sort of sanctity or holiness by absorption, or inhalation, and are thus made better without being wiser, and so with the bread and wine; by these they imagine that some sort of goodness is imparted to men, not through their understanding. All this is sheer delusion, and it is equally delusion to suppose the word of God is to benefit men in any sense whatever, aside from the understanding they have of it. The same is true of baptism and the Lord's Supper; they only profit men, as they are sources of instruction. To say otherwise is superstition; but in this argument Inc argues that God, by the word, made the world, the same word that reaches men through the constitution of the mind also operates on matter, and creates worlds out of nothing.
John says, "This is the record that God bath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." He distinguishes between Christ and the record, and tells in which the life is. He says, " He that hath the Son hath life;" not "he that hath record hath life." In regard to the world's being framed by the word of God, I would say, if it were framed by the written word or its equivalent, it must have been upon some other principle than moral force, unless matter in general has mind. This I believe was held by some ancient philosophers but evidently matter does not have mind, and therefore the force that organized matter into worlds and things is not the force that is exerted by the written or preached word; and we must account for the beautiful order of nature in some other way than to suppose it was addressed by the voice or language of God, and heard and obeyed. God is an omnipresent entity, while words and sounds are nonentities. The universe is an entity; the matter of it is inanimate. Moral force will not affect it any more than an argument would burst an oak. Moral force has its field and sphere to operate in, and never operates outside of it. Therefore we must account for creation in some other way than say that it is the result of moral force. Let us lose sight of the written word in contemplating the true God that it presents; let us use it as astronomers use the telescope to behold the true God; don't imagine the word in some way to be vitalized, or Deified. Do not imagine the bread and wine to be different from other articles of food, but let these help to carry your mind to God Almighty; who is an eternal and an omnipresent entity.
Mr. Campbell quotes the words, ''Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters." ''Let there be light." "Let the dry land appear, to show these things were done by the word. These places must be understood either literally, or in an explained sense; if literally, then matter heard, understood, and obeyed, and it is no use to talk, of the constitution of the human mind," as the word operates on matter as well as mind, with the same, or greater accuracy. This view is too absurd to need exposing. These places must be understood in an explained sense. The fact that Mr. Campbell referred to these places shows that he felt hard pressed to find enough force in the written word to meet the needs of lots sinners. They show with what case creation was produced, and its parts arranged in beautiful order. As Xerxes could arrange his many hundred thousand men by his word, so God with greater ease could set in motion an infinite number of shining orbs. These places give us a grand view of God's omnipotence. He is potent, all potent in all immensity not local, carrying on his affairs by correspondence. Mr. Campbell's whole system tends to impress the mind that God is local in his being. If he has no power to regenerate men only where his word is, then his regenerating power is not omnipresent, but local, and confined to only a few nations of the earth. If Mr. Campbell is correct, that "God never travels outside of the record," it would follow that his regenerating power is not omnipresent, but local, and only to be found in about three-tenths of the nations of the earth.
Those passages that speak of the creation, as being produced by his word must be understood in an explained sense. In Ps., viii, 3, we read, "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers," etc. Here he speaks of creation, not as having been spoken into being, but as having been wrought by the fingers of God. One or both of these places must be received in a figurative signification. Again, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork." Here David ascribes the variety and beauty of earthly things to the hands of God, while Mr. Campbell says, "every work of creation is represented as the product of his word;" page 309. The truth is, all these places must be understood in other than their first meaning. God has neither hands, nor fingers, nor parts; he is a pure, eternal, and omnipresent essence. The passage in Jno., i, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God," etc. Word, here, is from Logos, and Mr. Campbell says it means one of the names of Christ; page 308. McHenry, in his notes on this verse says, "He made the world by his word; that is, by his essential wisdom and eternal Son and by his active will." There can be no doubt but that John here by the term word intended the "Son" and not the written word. In Col. i, 14--17, he says. "In whom we have redemption through his blood; * * who is the image of the invisible God; * * for by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible; * * and he is before all things and by him all things consist." Here he plainly tells us that God made all things by his Son. John commences his gospel, "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; and without him was not any thing made that was made." Here creation is ascribed to the Word of God, but not to his written word. The power that made the worlds was one that operates on matter, and not one that operates on mind.
Mr. Campbell, on page 309, says, "Indeed we may go further, and say the word of the Lord is the Lord himself." He means the written or spoken word; he holds that it is so vitalized that it becomes God. If so, the Jews were right when they thought they mad eternal life in the word. Again Inc says, "As the Lord Jesus is the Word incarnate, so is his word an embodiment of his power." So much Deity as was in Christ, even so, much Deity is in the written word, is the force of these words. There was enough Deity in Christ to entitle him to the praise of men and angels; and if Mr. Campbell were right, there is just as much Deity in the written word, and it may be worshipped without sacrilege. Again, on the same page he says, "The word of God is then the actual power of God; indeed in all those places that represent the word and Spirit of God as being the causes of the same thing this equivalency is clearly implied. Hence while Peter says, 'By the word of God the heavens were of old,' Job says, 'By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens.'" The reader can see that he regarded the word as being every way equal to its author. He did this because all throughout the Bible he saw that something more than moral force was needed in regeneration.
He quotes Solomon, "Where the word of a king is there is power," and then he explains, "there is the power of the king." A king has more than- one kind of power; all his legal power is in his word; but he has another power in his armies, and Solomon meant the legal power of a king in his word; authority was intended. A king with no power save that in his word would be a feeble king. When Paul at different times spoke of the gospel as the "power of God," he meant authority, and not the force by which men are saved. He says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ," and then tells why: "For it is the power," authority, "of God unto salvation to every one that behieveth." He is not speaking of the force by which men are saved, but of the authority by which God saves sinners. He also gives the reason winy it is "the power of God unto salvation; " "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith," etc. It is God's right and proper authority, or power to save sinners, because it reveals the righteousness of God. To suit Mr. Campbell's theory it would read, "For it is presented in language to suit the constitution of the human mind," or, "It presents terms and conditions on which men can be saved." But Paul, in telling why it is the power of God, tells us it reveals a righteousness. Paul believed in a revealed, and an imputed righteousness. In Rom., iii, 26, he says, "To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that me might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth." Also Rom., iv, 13 "As David describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works." So it is clear that Paul taught the doctrine of a revealed and imputed righteousness. The gospel then is the document that contains the authority of God in saving guilty men. It reveals that Christ, as their Head, Husband, Priest, and Shepherd, died for their redemption that he might bring them to God; that his righteousness is imputed to them; and that they are to be saved entirely for his sake: all this constitutes the real authority by which God proceeds in the work of salvation. It is such a scheme that God can be just, his throne remains white and pure and yet "save his people from their sins." Mr. Campbell's gospel is one that requires a righteousness. He never mentions a revealed righteousness. He holds that God has no power but what is in his word. Page 309; "A spiritual, or moral, or creative power of God without his word is a phantom." Paul told the Ephesians that they "believed according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him up from the dead." This shows that God has more than one kind of power. Was Christ raised from the dead by a moral force? Was it God's power to reason, as in Job's case? No; it was another kind of power. Paul says, "If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." Will God raise up the dead by words or language? Will it be done by the force of gospel truth? Certainly not. Then God, like his intelligent creatures, has more than one kind of power.
In order to receive Mr. Campbell's theory, you must believe that the word of God, written or spoken, was the means by which he made the worlds; that all of his power of every kind whatever is in his word. You must believe that although his word was sufficient to reach the remotest atom of creation, and set all worlds in motion and in order, yet he cannot by it reach the heathen, idiot, or infant. To agree with him you must say, "I repudiate with my whole heart all idea of infant, idiot, or heathen regeneration." That is, you must be capable of believing that God's written word contains all the power he has on earth to regenerate men; that he can immediately speak to and control the starry heavens, but can not speak to heathens, idiots, or infants. You must believe that seven-tenths of the human family are entirely destitute of the regenerating power of God, and only such of the remaining three-tenths as chance to be within the boundary of a certain circle: "The circumference of which is humility and the center of which is God himself."
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