Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 48:189 (Jan 1891)
Article: Natural Religion Prophetic Of Revelation
Author: Frederic Perry Noble

BSac 48:189 (Jan 1891) p. 52

Natural Religion Prophetic Of Revelation

Frederic Perry Noble

When the present writer began the study of comparative theology, he had no other object than an intelligent knowledge of the faiths of man. But the witness of humanity to its unknown God unsealed his eyes to a remarkable prophetic element in it. No student, so far as he was aware, had specially investigated the pre-Christian “Christianity” of the natural religions. As this appeared to open a new vein, an unbiassed and painstaking study was begun, of which this sketch contains the substantial results.

The induction yielded by investigation is that there has been a Messianic prophecy among the Gentiles, and that, beyond question, there existed at history’s dawn a lofty idea of God. The ethnic creeds all speak in their own tongues of his everlasting power and divinity. That which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God, despite human limitations and liabilities to error, manifested it unto them by the divine light placed in every soul. Does not Luke state that Zacharias, filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesied that God spake by the mouth of his holy prophets which have been since the world began? That the invisible things of Him since the creation are clearly seen, being perceived by the things which are made, is the unanimous testimony uttered by the records of the past in Egypt, Chaldea, Persia, India, and China. God left himself not without witness.

The historical facts warrant such conclusions as these: Man is a religious animal. Himself from God he cannot

BSac 48:189 (Jan 1891) p. 53

free. He makes God in the image of ethical ideals, spiritual, and one. He feels himself made to know and love God, and to dwell with him. He has a sense of alienation, and ascribes it to a difference in his own character, generally regarding the unlikeness as moral and evil. God sympathizes with man, is propitiable, revealing his truth or will, sending prophets and messages, bestowing holy books, and granting inspirations. Man thinks of God as threefold, either in relations or in personality, as naturally as he ascribes height, length, and breadth to matter. He sees that man cannot save himself, but requires some divine provision. He stammers out that God can best approach man and secure his heart by bodily existence and especially by human indwelling; that only a divine redeemer can justify him with a divine judge, a god-man making sacrifice of his life for men, and that moral righteousness is accepted through regarding divine righteousness as now man’s.

The bearing of these inductions upon materialistic theories of evolution is obvious and important. A new chapter in Christian evidences is unfolded. It makes no difference what the orig...