Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 43:170 (Apr 1886)
Article: New Theology
Author: James Edward Todd

BSac 43:170 (April 1886) p. 335

New Theology1

Rev. John E. Todd

When men leave the beaten tracks of religious belief, they usually continue to employ the familiar terms of the forsaken faith, giving them new and, as they flatter themselves, higher meanings. Their motive is, apparently, an unwillingness to break altogether with the sacred past, mingled, in some cases, perhaps, with a secret doubt of the security of the ground which they tread. Like colonists who name their settlements in a strange land after familiar places in the mother country, so long as they hear the well-known sounds they seem to themselves to be not altogether astray and lost, or at least they find a melancholy pleasure in being reminded of what was once dear to them. “It is a sad satisfaction to them to repeat the language although they have lost the faith of their forefathers.”2 By thus “holding fast to the form of sound words” they conceal from others, as well as from themselves, the fact, or at least the extent, of their aberration. It is, therefore, a prudent policy as well as a mournful pleasure. The works under review illustrate these observations. The old theological terms occur frequently in them, coupled with expressions of earnest belief in what they signify. “The voice is Jacob’s voice.” It is, therefore, not surprising that superficial readers should find

BSac 43:170 (April 1886) p. 336

little in them, and should wonder what others can find, to which to object. It is only on close examination that we discover that their theology is one of those “juggling” witcheries

“That palter with us in a double sense;
That keep the word of promise to our ear,
And break it to our hope;”

and that their gospel is a very different one from that which we have been accustomed to hear.

The doctrine of the Trinity as formulated in the Nicene Creed about fifteen hundred years ago, has been held by the great body of the Christian church in all its branches, with but trifling dissent. It is stated with substantial accuracy in the familiar words: “There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.”3 Our author holds that” God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that this is an eternal distinction, and is so set forth in the Scriptures; not three beings, but One, yet manifesting himself in threefold form, so that we may say of each that he is God; ‘God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God.’”