(2/9/99 – Note to John Ross from Dr. Donald D. Owens —
"John – Here are the class notes of Dr. King’s Christian Theology class.  These notes were circulated and I obtained a copy.  During his subsequent lectures I made notes on them and entered references.  I hope these notes prove helpful.  Hang in there John!! – Don Owens" In an email from Dr Owens I asked him when these notes were taken and to the best of his recollection it was 1950. The text was Wiley’s Christian Theology in three volumes, and also the Introduction by Wiley and Culbertson. )

 REQUIREMENTS
I.  Reading – Outside   750 pages
II.  Term Paper    3,000 words or over
III. Examination every six weeks.

Introduction

1. Formal or systematic Encyclopedia or presentation of the information necessary to a study of theology.
2. Directions as to methods of study.
3. A History of Theology.

II. Nature and Scope of Theology Intro. p. 13, 14
1. Definition – Pope – "The science of God and divine things, based upon the revelation made to mankind in Jesus Christ, and variously systematized within the Christian Church.
2. Scope of Theology.
a. God as the source, subject, and end of all theology.
b. Religion as furnishing the basic consciousness in man.
c. Revelation as the source of the facts out of which systematic theology is constructed.
d. The relation of these facts to Jesus Christ, the Personal and Eternal Word in the revelation of God.
e. Christian Theology must be considered in its relation to contemporaneous thought.

III. .   The Relations of Theology  Intro p.21
1. The relation of all things to God and the relation of God to all things.
2. Theology and Religion. – It may be said that religion furnishes the basic consciousness in man without which there could be no capacity in human nature to receive the revelation of God.
3. Theology and Revelation. – Christian faith is not something which is self-created.  It has its source in objective revelation. 
4. Theology and the Church. – The Church was under obligation from the beginning, both as a teacher and a defender of the faith, to create a theology, by means of which to present its teachings.
IV. Divisions of Theology Intro. P.22-23
1. Christian Theology and Ethnic Theology. Ethnic – non-Christian.
2. Natural Theology – draws its sources from the facts of nature.
3. Revealed Theology – finds its sources in the Holy Scriptures as the authoritative revelation of God to man.
(1) Four main divisions
a. Exegetical Theology – Biblical Theology, study of Scripture.
b. Historical Theology
* Biblical History has to do with facts related in the Bible.
* Ecclesiastical History is regarded as the History of doctrine in shaping Christian faith into doctrinal statements.
c. Systematic Theology arranges in logical order, the material furnished by Exegetical and Historical Theology.
* Dogmatics – treats of the doctrines of the Christian faith held by a community of believers, the Church.
.*  Ethics – Moral Philosophy, refers to the outward manifestation.
*   Apologetics.  Justify the truth of the Christian religion at the bar of human reason.
d. Practical Theology – concerned with the application of the truths discovered in the preceding branches of theological study, and their values in the renewing and sanctifying of men.

SUMMARY – Exegetical Theology furnished the authoritative sources;
   Historical Theology gives perspective and balance;
   Systematic Theology provides the doctrinal standards of Church
Practical Theology seeks to make effective the knowledge gained in the previous departments.
 
 

  SOURCES OF THEOLOGY Intro. P.24 ff
 

I.    Authoritative Sources – Bible and Christ
1. The science of the one true and perfect religion is based upon the documentary records of God’s revelation of Himself in Christ.
2. The Roman Catholic Church held the Bible and tradition, and July 1870 adopted papal infallibility.

V. Subsidiary Sources
1. Experience.  In the sense of an impartation of spiritual life through the truth as vitalized by the Holy Spirit.
2. Confessions and Creeds.
a. To give living testimony to the truth.
b. To testify against error
c. To furnish a bond of union among those of the same belief.
d. To provide means of continuing the succession of those uniting in the belief, and instructing them and their children.
e. Three Ecumenical Creeds –
(a) The Apostles’ Creed; (150)
(b) The Nicene Creed (325);
(c) The Athanasian Creed.
3. Philosophy. – The formal or shaping source of theology.  Seeks first principles without finding them.
4. Nature – A Bible stated source, and recognizes the fact that nature reveals God.  God reveals Himself through His works.
 
 

  SYSTEMS AND METHODS Intro. P.26 ff.
 

I. Methods of Systematization
1. The Trinitarian Method – earliest method adopted by the Church. Doctrines of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
2. The Analytic Method.  Lutheran Church in Germany, Calixtus, who began with the assumed end of all things as blessedness, and work out means by which blessedness, is secured. 
3. The Federal Method.  Grew out of political science of the 16th century, in which federal headship was popular theory.
4. The Anthropological Method. – The idea of man — his sinful condition and his need of redemption.  (a) Consciousness of sin, and (b) Consciousness of redemption.
5. The Christological Method.  Idea is incarnation.  Christ centered.  Christ-centered theology is attributed to Fredrich Schleiermacher.
6. The Confessional Method.  The exposition of certain creeds and confessions in regular order.
7. The Allegorical Method. – Followers of Origen – Describes "man as a wanderer, life as a road, the Holy Sprit as a light, the Church as a candle-stick, God as the end, and heaven as the throne.
8. The Synthetic Method.  Dr. A. H. Strong.  Started from the highest principle, God, and proceeds to man, Christ, redemption, and finally to the end of all things. Cause and effect.  Method of Pope.
9. Miscellaneous Methods. (a) The Decretal Method, begins with the idea of the divine decrees; (b) The Patricentric Method arranges its material around the central idea of the Divine Fatherhood, and (c) The Historical Method, "begin and end with eternity, all great events and epochs in time being viewed."
a.    They give us a knowledge of the center of their author’s faith.
b. Materials which the writers had at their disposal, their mental characteristics, and the methods employed in teaching.
c. Furnish a foundation for the study of historical theology.

II. Theology, a Science.  It is said that theology is not a science because its subject matter is now drawn from knowledge, but from faith.  Science itself must be based upon faith, and Christian Dogmatics is not only a science of faith but also a knowledge grounded in and drawn from faith.  The methods of theology are as follows: 1.  Observes; 2.  Tests; 3.  Arranges facts, and 4.  Makes generalizations, using both deductive and inductive processes of argument, and depends upon the same primary laws as the other sciences.  No science is possible without faith in certain unfailable and unexpressable axioms.

THEOLOGY IN THE CHURCH Intro.p.30 & Vol.1 p.42ff.

I. The Earlier Period. – 7-730 A. D.

1. The Apologetic Period, from the Apostolic Age to the death of Origen (A. D. 7-254), and is peculiarly that of the Church Fathers who depended Christianity against paganism without any controversies against heresy from within.
2. The Age of Polemics, from the death of Origen to John of Damascus (A. D. 254-730).
3. The Great Councils of the earlier period.
a. The Council of Nicaea, (A. D. 325) called by Emperor Constantine to consider the Arian heresy.  Athanasius opposed Arius.  Athanasius was known as the "father of orthodoxy" because of his championship of the deity of Christ.
b. The First Council of Constantinople (A. D. 381), against the heresy that Christ had only a human body.
c. The Council of Ephesus, A. D. 431, over Nestorian controversy which taught a Christological dualism.
d. The Council of Chalcedon, A. D. 451, which condemned the Eutychian heresy that, confused the two natures of Christ.
e. The Second Council of Constantinople, A. D. 553 which condemned followers of Nestorianism.
f. The Third Council of Constantinople, A. D. 680.
g. The Second Council of Nicaea, A. D. 787 which extends into the mediaeval period – Iconoclasts.
4. The Development of Systemic Theology.
a. "First Principles, " A. D. 218.  Arranged in four books.
(1) Treating of God
(2) Of Creation
(3) Of Man’s moral and spiritual endowments
(4) Of Holy Scriptures

II. The Mediaeval Period - 754-1517. Intro.p.32

1. From the death of John of Damascus to the beginning of the Reformation, A. D. 754-1517.  Early part of this period is marked by constant strife in church and state.  Iconduli were image worshippers and the Iconoclasts were the image breakers.   – In the East.   The later part, 11th to 16th century is the Scholastic Period in philosophy and theology.  Transfer of theology to the schools in the West.  Following John of Damascus, who represented the theology of the East, were Anselm, Abelard, and Peter Lombard, who mark the beginning of systematic treatises in the West.  Duns Scotus began a movement in philosophy and theology, which finally resulted in the downfall of scholasticism, and the ushering in of the period of the Reformation.
2. The Development of Theology in the Scholastic Period.
a. The first great systematic work of the Scholastic Period was Peter Lombard’s "Four Books of Sentences."

III. The Reformation Period – 1517-1600. Intro p.33

1. Separation of the Church into two main divisions, Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
a. Roman Catholic positions expressed in the Tridentine Decrees, formulated by the Council of Trent, 1545-1563.
b. Protestant Reformation expressed in the Formula of the Concord, 1580, and the Canons of the Synod of Dort, 1618-1619.
2. The Theology of the Reformation Period.
a. The Lutheran division – deeply Sacramentarian, Luther and Melanchthon.
b. The Reformed division – intellectualistic and doctrinal.  Zwingli and Calvin.
3. The controversies of the Reformation Period.
a. The First Eucharistic Controversy, 1524-1529, between Luther and Carlstadt, and also between Zwingli and those who upheld Mass.
b. The Anabaptist Controversy, 1525, concerned with the subjects and modes of baptism.
c. The Antinomian Controversy, 1527-1566, Justification by faith, and not under law, against law.
d. The Adiaphoristic Controversy, 1548, concerned with questions of faith and morals, right and wrong.
e. The Synergistic Controversy concerned with the relation of human and divine elements in salvation.  Man and God. 
f. The Osiandric Controversy had to do with the nature of Justification.
g. The Second Eucharistic Controversy was between Luther and Zwingli – to develop and clarify the differences between Lutheran and Reformed Churches.
h. The Majoristic Controversy concerned the nature of good works.  Major declared that good works were essential to salvation.  Protestant doctrine that good works are a consequence of faith, but necessary as a condition of justification.
i. The Armenian Controversy dealt with the doctrine of grace.  It remonstrated against five points of Calvinism, called Remonstrants. 
j. The Deistic Controversy in England was a form of rationalistic controversy in a later period.
k. The Pietistic Controversy.  Reaction against the dogmatic formalism of the times. – Phillip Jacob Spener.
l. The Placean Controversy concerned with "mediate imputation."

IV. The Confessional Period.  1600-1800 Intro. P.33-35;Vol. 1 p.80-91

1. Paul was a logician and systematized and gives the Systematic Theology of the New Testament; while John was a seer, or prophet.
2. The Eastern and the Western Churches.  The Confessional standards were the Nicaea, Ephesus, and Chalcedon findings and the three Ecumenical Creeds.
a. Doctrinal differences were:
The East (1) rejects the doctrine of the papacy; (2) modifies the seven sacraments; (3) denies the Immaculate Conception of the virgin; (4) circulates the Bible in own language, and (5) asserts its own supremacy.
3. The Roman Catholic and the Protestant Churches. Roman Catholic is Sacramentarian – Protestant is evangelical.  Catholic include belief of Immaculate Conception and Papal Infallibility, 1870.  The three creeds.
4. Protestant Theology and its Divergent Types.
a. The Lutheran Dogmatic.  The Augsburg confession with its Apology, 1530; the Smalcald Articles, 1537; Luther’s Smaller and Larger Catechisms and the Formulas of Concord, 1577.
b. The Reformed Dogmatic.  Starting with the theology of Calvin there was a movement in the direction of overstraining his position.
c. The Armenian Dogmatic.  The Armenian or Remonstrant school arose in Holland at the opening of the 17th century, and came as a protest against the Calvinism of the day.  James Arminius, 1560.  Simon Episcopius, 1583-1643, became the leader of the movement in 1609, after the death of Arminius, and carried on the controversy before the Synod of Dort.
Among the Puritans in England, most noted evangelical Armenian was John Goodwin, 1593-1665.
John William Fletcher, 1729-1785, has been called the "Armenian of the Armenians."
John Wesley, 1703-1791, was the Father of Methodism, both in doctrine and polity of the Church.  The development of later Armenians, commonly known as Wesleyanism, occurs in the following century.
d. The Socianisn Dogmatic – Human Christ.  Laelius Socinus, 1525-1562, and Faustus Socinus, 1539-1604, are the founders of what is known in modern times as Unitarianism.  Father of English Unitarianism was John Biddle, 1615-1662.
5. Forms theology assumed due to varying influences of external circumstances.
a. The Pietistic Movement – against the barrenness of scholasticism.  Andreae, 1586-1654, and Spener, 1635-1705, waged war against a dead orthodoxy and proclaimed the need of a regeneration of theology.  Prayerful study of the Holy Scriptures.
b. The Rationalistic Movement – Influence of the systems of philosophy are felt upon Dogmatics. Separation between Natural theology and Revealed Theology became widened, and Natural Theology was exalted at the expense of revelation.  This issued in the Deism of England and the period of the "Enlightenment" in philosophy.
c. The Biblical Movement.  Against growing tendency toward rationalism.  There arose a Biblical Theistic tendency, which served to preserve the truth against the attacks of the rationalists.  Bengel, 1687-1751, with a firm faith in the inspiration and absolute authority of the Bible was perplexed at the great number of variations in text.  Bengel influenced John Wesley.  From Bengel’s study came the starting point for modern textual criticism of the New Testament.

V. The Modern Period.  Schleirmacher, 1768-1834, the "Father of Modern Theology". Intro. P.35,36;vol.1P.91-99

Introduced into modern thought the vitality of the evangelical teaching, much as did his contemporary, John Wesley, in the field of religion.
1. The School of Schleiermacher – belonging to the transitional school, which marks the distinction between the thought of the mediaeval and that of the modern period. Following Schleiermacher was Alexander Schweitzer, 1808-1888, who attempted to work out a system of theology based upon Christian consciousness.
2. The Rationalistic School, known as the Philosophical School, due to the fact that the theology of the period was largely influenced by philosophy.  Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel.
3. The Mediating School represented by theologians who sought to maintain evangelical principles and yet combine them with best thought of modern times.
a. The incomplete Dogmatic of Twesten, 1789-1876, who was inclined toward ecclesiastical orthodoxy, and Nitzch, 1787-1868, and Isaac A. Dorner, 1809-1884.
4. Ritschhle and His School.  Ritschhle of Bonn, 1822-1889, founded a distinct school of theology rejecting the scholastic position, and in fact all philosophy, maintaining that philosophy and theology have no valid connection with each other.  Insisted upon the Historical Christ, and the acceptance of the Scriptures as a record of revelation.  The term "value judgments" belongs to Ritschl and the school he founded.
5. British and American Theology.  Earliest Methodist writing of doctrine was John Wesley’s "Sermons,"  "Notes and Twenty-five Articles" John Fletcher, apologist of Methodism, member of the Established Church.  Richard Watson published Theological Institutes William Burton Pope, 1822-1903, "Compendium of Christian Theology." Ralston, "Element of Divinity," 1847.  A. M. Hills, "Fundamental Christian Theology", 1931.
a. Foreign works had influence upon Lutheran and Reformed Church in the United States.  Two different schools.  The Older Calvinism represented by Charles Hodge, 1797-1878.  The New School modified the older Calvinistic positions through successive writers from Jonathan Edwards, 1703-1758, to Horace Bushnell, 1802-1876.
 
 

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION Intro. P.37; Vol.1 P.100ff

Dr. Pope – "The eternal bond which binds man to God."
Definition of Religion.  Religion is a life in God. Stewart– "fellowship with God."
VI. Origin and Development of Religion
1. The History of Religion.
a. Primitive culture – objects of worship were:
(1) Nature worship
(2) Ancestor worship
(3) Fetish worship
(4) The worship of a Supreme Being.  Most primitive was the belief in man as a non-personal, but supernatural force.  Works to effect everything beyond the power of men and processes of nature.
b. The origin of religion must be traced to man’s original constitution.  Man was made for personal fellowship with God, and as originally endowed; he had personal integrity and a sufficient knowledge of God to preserve him in the state in which he was created.  With the fall, fellowship with God was broken and man’s mind became darkened through the loss of that spiritual light which forms the true principle of illumination in the things of God.  St. Paul outlines the decline as follows:
(1) A rejection of the true God.
(2) Judicial abandonment of a perverse will, desired to serve creatures more than the Creator, who is blessed forever.
(3) Judicial abandonment to a reprobate mind.
c. The Psychology of Religion.  Variety and validity of religious experience is established.
(1) Theory of Illusionism attributes the origin of religion to a (Lucretius of Rome) fear—especially the fear of death.  Feuerbach attributed it to the quest after life and happiness, from which issued Humanism.  From which came the foundation for the modern development of Freudianism and Marxianism — antagonistic to the Christian Faith.  Began with totemism to belated love and reverence bestowed upon animals, representative of the father, said to arouse the idea of God.
d. The Philosophy of Religion.  Has a different function from the science of religion.  The former deals with the mental processes of inward development, while the latter is concerned with material processes of outward development.
(1) Schleiermacher, 1768-1834, paved the way for modern developments in philosophy of religion.  First, to analyze and evaluate religion for its own sake, and his work was dominated by the desire to give expression to the work of divine grace in his soul.  Revival of religious philosophy.
(2) Hegel, 1770-1831, regarded religion as absolute knowledge.  It is the relation of spirit to Absolute Spirit and it is the Spirit only, which knows and is known.  God is Absolute Truth, and is in all experience.  God comes to knowledge of Himself through finite experience.
(3) Ritschl, 1822-1889, discounted philosophy as being detrimental to religion and regards it more from the volitional standpoint as power.
(4) Edward Caird, 1835-1908, and John Caird, 1820-1898, Neo-Negelians.  Religion as a rational consciousness.  Primary element of knowledge.  The idea of God is then described as "the ultimate presupposition of our consciousness."
(5) Martineau, 1805-1900, develops an ethical philosophy of religion.  Causality idea is that of Will, and that Will regarded as free.  "A conscious relation on our part, to a higher than we; and on the part of a rational universe at large, to a higher than all."

II. False Conceptions of Religion.  Philosophy has a tendency to usurp the place of religion and as such its influence is always baneful.
1. Religion is not mere feeling.  Feeling is the unity of consciousness in which knowledge and volition meet.  Religion is neither doctrine nor ceremony, but experience.  "Love out of a pure heart, and a good conscience and a faith unfeigned."  I. Tim. 1:5.
2. Religion is not mere knowledge.  Hegelianism has also emptied religion of its emotional content and left it barren and unfruitful.  Hegel says feeling is full of contradictions.  The value of religion lies in its rational content.  Hegel places sin merely as a relative matter.  It is only partial good.  It is regarded as evil, solely because we fail to see it in its higher meanings.  Holding to the exceeding sinfulness of sin as the Scriptures teach us, weakens the redemptive idea.  The emphasis upon development has weakened the belief in a crisis religion.
3. Religion is not simply action.  Attempts to identify religion with morality usually date back to the philosophy of Kant.  It is a fact that there can be no true religion without morality, nor no true morality without religion.  Religion is a power bestowed from above.  Morality knows no sin, as such, only a failure or deficiency.  The Moral life calls for action, but not worship.  Morality is obedience to law; religion is submission to a Person.

III. The Nature of Religion – Four fundamental characteristics.
1. There is a thought of a supernatural power – God.
2. There is a sense of need, which seeks this supernatural power.
3. There is the idea of reverence, and the feeling that it is incumbent to do homage in worship and to render willing obedience to the supernatural.
4. There is some sort of assurance of the manifestation of God.
a. Christianity is a Historic Religion.  Christianity is a redemptive power worked out on the plane of human history in the person of Jesus Christ.  The difference between Christianity and ethnic religions lies in the character of the founders — the infinite stretch between the human and the divine.
b. The founder of Christianity is Jesus Christ, the Divine Son of God.  It takes both its distinctive character and its exclusiveness from the personality of its founder.  Heb. 1:1,2.  (1)  Mediated through human Judaism – means – revelation.  (2) Now revelation can be perfect mediated through divine means.
c. Christianity is a Redemptive Religion.  Throughout the entire New Testament, Christ is regarded in his redemptive aspects. John 3:16.  Romans, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for…"
 
 

THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION Into. P.37-55

I. The Nature of Christian revelation, or Revelation.  Christian Theology is based upon the revelation of God in Christ.
1. General Revelation.   Disclosure of Himself which God makes to all men—in nature, in the constitution of the mind, and in the progress of human history.
a. Revelation through Nature.  Disclosure of God through the physical universe considered apart from man.  Miley, "Nature includes human faculties and Christian consciousness."
b. The Revelation of God in the Nature and Constitution of man.  He finds three aspects in the unity of this personality, or aspects of his being; that of intellect, feeling, and will.
(1) Conscience is the self-apprehending God and thereby distinguishes itself from God.  It knows that as a person it is made for fellowship with the Supreme Person.  Man is at once a creature in nature, and a personal being transcending nature.  Man, as a personal and spiritual being is supernatural.  God-called is a supernatural revelation.
c. The Revelation of God in History.  There is an inner directing Presence in history and an Authoritative will above it, which directs all to an expressed goal, a fullness of time.  This is the coming of the Word made flesh, the Incarnate Son of God standing out on the plane of human history as God manifest in the flesh.  Through this light we are able to look back at history and recognize purpose in its event; and we are able to look at the words of the prophets and see their predictions fulfilled.  This One must continue until, according to the Scriptures, all things are gathered together in one, both in heaven and in earth.
(1) Scriptures are the Revelation of Jesus Christ.  Faith extends to all of the acts, and facts of the Bible.  Faith’s supreme object is Christ and the truth is revealed in Jesus.

II. Special Revelation.  Refers to the redemptive purpose of God manifested in Christ Jesus, as over against the more general revelation of His power manifested in His creative works.  By the union of these two forms of revelation, man comes to know God not as mere law, but as a Supreme Personality, who has created men for communion with Himself.
1.  Christ’s Redemptive Mission.  "Revelation proper" says Pope, "is consecrated to the mystery hid with Christ in God, the one secret which it unfolds."    Christ is the sum of all revelation.
2. The Scriptures contain and are the Word of God.  Because Christ’s testimony is perfected in the Scriptures, they become the Word of God objectified.
a. The Scriptures and the Christian faith.
(1) Man has spiritual faculties.  This consciousness is universal.  A vacated spirit becomes darkness.
(2) The spirit who awakens faith generates the reason so that it humbles itself to receive mysteries, which he cannot understand.  Abraham received Isaac under unnatural conditions and when he was asked to sacrifice him he could reason that God would raise him up after he was dead.  A reasoned faith.  Faith and Reason go together.  No more difficult than to give him to him in the first place. Not unreasonable in the light of the first.

III. The Christian Book. Intro. P.41 ff.
1. Thus the Christian faith rests on the Christian book.  The Jewish law and nature were like schoolmasters to bring the people to Christ.  Paul traces all forms of religious faith and practices among the nations to a yearning for a revelation from heaven.  Acts 17:23; I Tim. 2:7. (Pope Vol. I, pp. 53fe – Dr. Owens)
2. The Relation of the Bible to Nature. The revelation of God in the Holy Scriptures is not to supersede His revelation in nature but to supplement it.
3. The Relation of the written Word to the personal Word.  The Bible is considered in relation to Christ the Living Word.
4. False Conceptions of the Bible
a. The Church by a certain group has been thrust into a false place.  The Church is a fellowship, not saving institution. It cannot take the place of the Bible.
b. The Bible has been forced into a false position.  The place held by the church.  The written Word can’t take the place of the Living Word.  The letter killeth.  Rested in the letter, and not in Him whose words are spirit and life. (Bibliolatry – Dr. Owens)
c. Reason was clothed by false authority.  The real message was destroyed.  The Bible points to, tells us of, and sets forth the letter of the law. The Bible was debased to the position of a mere book among books.

IV. The Credentials of Revelation.
1. The Evidence of Miracles.  There are many distinct terms used in Scripture to signify what we call miracles.  They are generally the works of God.  Sometimes these works are referred to as acts of the divine power that affects them.  Sometimes the purpose for which they are wrought is made emphatic, and they are signs.
a. Powers – look to the agency, which produces them.
b. Wonders – regards primarily the effect produces on the spectator.
(1) The wonders of Pentecost are called the wonderful works of God.  Acts. 2:11.  Faith recognizes the finger of God.  Ex. 8:19.  Reason admitting the supreme cause.
c. Signs – Intimates that God is present in certain miracles, and challenges attention to His own Words, or the words of his messengers.  Signs confirm to sinners and believers.
d. Miracles of the same kind seem to be necessary to accompany or sustain a new revelation from God.  They always satisfied the generation in which they were performed.  John 3:2.  They were always performed in the field worthy of God.  They were always properly authenticated so there could be no deception, as far as anything could be for the benefit of future generations.
2. Prophesy as a Credential of Revelation, "forthtelling," declaration of the will of God without reference to time order.  "Foretelling," – prediction.
a. Prophesy, as prediction is the divine impartation of future knowledge.
(1) Christ is its Supreme Subject.
(2) The Law of Progression.
(3) Law of Reserve – It is shut up to faith in spite of declared facts.  The office of the Holy Spirit is to take the things of Christ and reveal them to us. 
(4) Prophetic announcement.
3. The Inspiration of the Divine Hand in the Scripture. The Scriptures are divinely breathed.  Pope gives the Person of Christ as the highest credential.
 

THE INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES Intro p.48ff.

I. Definition of Inspiration.
1. "Inspiration is that influence of the Spirit of God upon the writers of the books of the Bible in such a manner that their productions become the expression of God’s will."  Pope defines it as "The inbreathing of God and the result of it."

II. Inspiration and Revelation.
1.  By Revelation we understand a direct communication from God to man of such knowledge as is beyond the power of his reason to attain.  By Inspiration we mean the actuating energy of the Holy Spirit, through which holy men were qualified to receive religious truth, and to communicate it to others without error.

III. Various Factors in Revelation.
1. "Superintendence," belief that God guides the writer so that the writings are kept free from error.
2. "Elevation," the minds of the chosen organs are granted an enlargement of understanding.
3. "Suggestion," a direct and immediate suggestion from God to man by the Spirit.

THEORIES OF INSPIRATION Intro.p.50 ff.

I. Four Theories.
1.  The mechanical or Dictation Theory. The personality of the writer is set aside, and is just a mere penman under the direction of the Holy Spirit.
2. The Intuition Theory.  The natural insight of men is lifted to a higher plane of development.  This theory denies the supernatural element in the Scriptures.
3. The Illumination Theory.  Differs from the proceeding in that it holds to an elevation of the religious perceptions instead of natural faculties.
4. The Dynamical Theory.  This is a mediating theory and is advanced in an effort to explain and preserve in proper harmony, the divine and human factors in the inspiration of the scriptures.

II. Scriptural proofs of divine inspiration.
1. The patriarchs received revelations from God.  "The Witness of the Old Testament;" Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and others.
2. The Declaration of our Lord.  Christ declared the Old Testament to be of divine authority, and His testimony must be final.
3. The testimony of the Apostles.

III. Value of the Subject for Theology.
1. The Holy Spirit as the Source of Inspiration.
2. The Organs of Inspiration.
3. The Holy Scriptures as a Divinely Inspired Body of Truth.
 

Christian Theology
Dr. Noble King
Bethany Nazarene College

     THE CANON Chapter IV. Intro. P.57 ff Vol. P.188ff.
 

The word canon means literally, a straight rod, or a measuring reed.  It is used in both an active and a passive sense — active as a test or standard of measurement, passive as applied to that which has been measured.

 The word canon is first found in the writing of Amphilochius, 380.

I. The Old Testament Canon.

The Christians accepted the canon in its integrity from the Jews, and the New Testament from the apostles, the Savior’s authority being on both.
1. The New Testament writers certify the Old Testament as we have it with apocryphal books excluded.
2. Our Lord assumed what Paul expressed, that to the Jews were committed the oracles of God.  By accepting these Scriptures, He confirmed this history. (Pope 195)  The universal tradition was assigned to Ezra and the "great synagogue" the arrangement of the Scripture.  The collection was finished just after the time of Ezra. 
3. The Old Testament Scriptures were arranged in three main divisions (1) The Law, (2) The Prophets, and (3) The Writings.

II. The New Testament Canon.
1. What the apostles wrote to the churches was regarded as veneration as much as circulation to churches.
2. What the apostles sanctioned as sacred was regarded with veneration.
a. Mark wrote under Peter.
b. Luke wrote under request of Paul.  These writing were not questioned.  (See Pope 199)

III. The Plenary inspiration of the Scriptures; implies their supreme authority in every court and justifies them. Pope comp. Vol. 1 p. 4o, 41.
1. There is a dignity and sanctity about the Scriptures that set them apart from all other manuscripts.  This is evident to a careless reader.  As Jesus, to those who knew Him personally, and to us who know Him, not having seen Him, He carries something different, so is the Scripture.  (See I. Tim. 6:16; Exodus 3:14).
a. The existence of God is innate and demonstrable.
(1) God and God alone can reveal Himself.
 
 

THE DOCTRINE OF God Intro. P.73 ff, Vol. 1 P 217 ff

Manual, Art. 1, Page 25.

1. There can be no religion without some form of supernatural Being.
2. No fetish worshipper can vest a divinity in a book or an image of any kind without the idea first of that thing.  Idolatry is thus born of religious degenerations in its lowest forms of degeneration.  Those facts seem to point to a previous original monotheism.

I. Definition of God.
1. "The first ground of all beings, the divine spirit which unmoved itself, moves all. Absolute efficient principle, absolute notion, absolute end."  (Aristotle)  Skepticism.
2. "God is the eternal mind, the cause of good in nature." (Plato)
3. "The moral order, of the universe actually operated in life." (Fichte)  Order without the Orderer.
4. "The absolute Spirit, the pure essential being that makes Himself object to Himself; absolute holiness, wisdom, goodness, and justice."  (Hegel)
5. "A being who by His understanding and will is the cause of nature and by consciousness the author; a Being who has all rights."  (Kant)
6. "God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchanging in His Being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth."  (Henry B. Smith)
7. Spinoza said, "God is the absolute universal Substance; the real Cause of all and every existence."  This is Pantheism.
8. Miley — personality is added; "God is an eternal personal Being of absolute knowledge, power and goodness.
9. Best Bible definition: 
"I am that I am." Exodus 3:14.  This implies personality self-existent, and eternity in the past, present and future, infinite and perfect in every attribute. 

II. Various proofs of existence of God.

1. Ontological Argument. (a priori)  Reason.  In our mind the idea of a Perfect Being would be of necessity have placed there by a Perfect Being as imperfect beings are incapable of producing such an idea.  Imperfection cannot create perfection.  There must be objective reality corresponding to this clear idea of a Perfect Being.  "A priori" — The proof of fact or effect from the knowledge of existing causes. Vol. 1 p. 235.
2. Cosmological Argument.  Requires the truth of three things.
a. The principle of causation.  The doctrine that all things must have a cause.  Eternity of being is an inevitable implication of causation.  Time cannot be the first cause, nor anything inherent within cause.
b. The dependence of the cosmos.  It is always dependent in something beside itself, whether that something is inherent within or without the cosmos; it still must be other than the cosmos.
c. The inadequacy of the force of nature to its formation.  All force of nature belongs to nature.  They are impersonal and back of them must be an intelligent person.
(1) The universe is of temporal origin and its existence must have an adequate cause.  There is no such cause in matter or physical forces.  The principle of causation required for existence of the universe is a personal God.
3. Teleological Argument.  Means the doctrine of ends or of rational purpose.  In the theistic argument it means the rational purpose or design in the construction of the cosmos as exemplified in the choice of ends and the use of appropriate means for those ends.  All things seem to be related in precision for purpose.
4. The Moral Argument.  The fact that man has a conscience that will warn him when he breaks the law of the Supreme Being is proof enough.
a. The Ontological Argument — Doctrine of Being.  (From necessary thought to being)  It is a revelation of God as Reality.
b. The Cosmological Argument. (From Change to cause)  It is a revelation of God as Power.
c. The Teleological Argument.  (From adaptation to purpose)  The revelation of God as Design.
d. The Moral Argument.  (From ideal to power adequate to realize it)  It is a revelation of God as Right.
 

ANTI-THEISTIC THEORY

Theism means the existence of a personal God who is creator and ruler of all things.  A theory which excludes those ideas is anti-theistic.  (Miley)
1. Atheism — The positive denial of the existence of God or positive belief in the non-existence of God.
a. Atheism is thus a system of positive negations.  Belief in God comes first and with God goes the Son of God, the incarnation, the atonement, and salvation.  There can be no spiritual existence, no mind or freedom of mind.  Matter must be all.
b. Miley seems to think such a state of mind may exist, but Pope says it is not possible.   (Miley 113)
2. Pantheism — Flourished in Hindu philosophy, and in the earlier Greek philosophies.  It appeared in Christian thought in the Middle Ages. Wiley Intro. P. 132
a. In principle it is Monistic.  There is the one substance of being.  That one substance is without personality and sensibility, will, consciousness.  Pantheism is thoroughly anti-theistic.  The various things are merely modes.  The laws of the human mind contradict this.  It cannot stand satisfactorily.
b. In such a system of thought man becomes just a mode of the infinite, appearing for a moment and eternally disappearing.  There can be no personal God and no spirit world.  It tends to atheism.
3. Positivism — It is newer in name than in principles.  It came into vogue with Comte in the earlier part of the 19th century.  It is supposed to have been built on positive facts alone.
a. It is a narrow system.  The only facts to be known and used are facts of nature phenomena.  Even here there is a narrow restriction.  All facts of consciousness are excluded.  Only external phenomena to the senses are admitted into the circle of positivist varieties, nor are these facts to be known in ground or cause.  There are merely physical facts.  Facts of change to be observed and known in the order of their succession and likeness or unlikeness.  With no perceiving mind, how could anything be perceived?
b. Positivism believes that the race passes through three stages: 
(1) Ages through which the Supernatural haunts the thought.
(2) The metaphysical in which change is attributed to the intrinsic force of nature.  Substance and cause.
(3) The positivistic — the ruling ideas of first and second are dismissed and science deals only with the phenomenon of nature.
c. The sciences are given the following order:
(1) Mathematics
(2) Astronomy
(3) Physics
(4) Chemistry
(5) Sociology
(6) Biology
For positivism there should be no mathematics for that is wholly mental.
d. Comte had a religion connected with positivism; ceremonies, priesthood; sacraments and supreme Collective humanity was symbolized in a woman, in an enthroned idol.  Huxley -  "A religion without a God."
e. The philosophy was anti-theistic.
4. Naturalistic evolution. Intro. P. 133 ff.  The theory of evolution involved two questions.
(1) Respecting the law of a process or the forces which determine the evolution.  Respecting those forces there are among evolutionists a marked difference of opinion.
(a) Respecting the question of fact.  The theory is that the higher form rises from the lower.  Process from beginning to man.  Man is possibly tops.  It is difficult to tell how an upward start was made and it continued.  Theistic evolution refers to divine agency in the process.  There are marked differences of opinion in regard to measuring this agency.  Some posit special interposition.  When new things appear, God steps in, (as in the origin of life) and in the origin of mind.  Others hold it the method of creation.
(2) A question of fact respecting the origin of species in the mode of evolution.  Thus the law of the supposed process is not fully settled on.  Just how it proceeded in naturalist evolution cannot be determined or how the divine process worked in the theistic aspect.
5.   Anti-theistic agnosticism —   "don’t know ism."  Pope, p. 389.  Society throws up its hands at the "no God" attitude.
a. The Pantheistic "all is God."  Personal God is a limited God.
b. Spencer takes similar view.  Wiley, p. 265 (Miley p. 137 Dr. Owens)
c. Mansel, Wiley, p. 263.  (Miley, p. 141 Dr. Owens)
d. Doctrine of the Infinite and Absolute.  God is revealed to us as a person.  When He reveals Himself to us, He does not limit His Being, but expresses His Omnipotence.  If He could not do that, He would not be Omnipotent.  Infinite and Absolute Person – Personality.  Personality embraces self-conscience, self-reflection, self-direction.  With these three you have personality.
e. Christianity posits the Infinite efficiency of absolute Personality.  Christianity sees creation as the result of a creative fiat, and finds its unity in the eternal Logos.  The world was thus created by the infinite eternal Logos, Divine Love being the originating cause, the Divine will the efficient cause, and the divine Word the instrumental cause. (Wiley, 1 pp. 288-289, Pope pp. 384, 385  Dr. Owens)
(1) Elohim – Power or effect of power. Name is plural with plural 
Adjectives.  The Christian fathers held this to indicate the plurality of the Godhead.  This belief is well founded.
(2) Jehovah – YHVH – Refers to self-existent or the Being.  This is only used in reference to the divine God.  Has reference to His being Personality.  "I AM THAT I AM," Exodus 3:14.
(3) El Shaddai — The strong or the mighty One, the Almighty, all sufficient. ("The God that is enough."  Dr. Owens)
(4) Adonai-Adoni — "Lord"; "Supporter"; "Judge"; "Master."
(5) El-Elyon — "The Most High"; "The Supreme".
(6) Elyeh — "I Am"; "I Will Be."
(Wiley pp. 217, 289, Miley pp. 57-141, Pope pp. 234-254; Field "Handbook to Christian Theology", p. 10.  - Dr. Owens)
 

    GOD AS A PERFECT PERSONALITY Vol.1.P. 290 ff.
     Chapters 13-15
 

We have considered God as the Absolute in the sense of the ground of all reality, and as the Infinite in the sense of efficiency; Cause of all.

Hebrews regarded Him as a Person from the first.  A Person possessed with self-reflection, self-consciousness, self-direction.  Self is the center and is a unit. (6th Century – Dr. Owens)  Boethius defined personality:  "A person is the individual subsistence of a rational nature." 

I. Necessary facts in Personality.  The so-called forces of nature have no entrinsic personal qualities.  In the lower animal order there are urges toward ends, but no evidences of the essential requisite of personality.  The intellect alone could not constitute personality.
1. Moral motives are necessary to personal agency and therefore to personality.  Moral motives call for a conscious interest in ends
2. Will is a central power of personal agency and thence necessary to personality.  Without will there could be no voluntary use or direction of the mental faculties.
3. Thus rational intelligence—(reason reasoning), sensibility and will are essential requisites of personality.  There must also be the freedom of personal agency.  With this there is true personality.
 
 

THE DOCTRINE OF God Chapter V.  Intro.  P. 73 FF.  Vol. 1.  P. 217 ff.

I. Definition of God.  "God is a Personal Spirit, absolute, infinite, perfect in every respect and in every attribute and characteristic.  He created all things that are and is Himself separate from His creation.  That which we call nature (law and power) is divine activity under fixed habit.  That fixed habit is not necessarily eternal or invariable.

II. The Divine Personality considered further.
1. There must be in God the three forms of Power, which constitute personality in us.  In the lack of any one, He could not be a person.  Self-consciousness, self-reflection, self-direction.
2. Personality is manifested in the various proofs of theism.  The argument of theism will prove God also in the original cause of the four arguments.
3. The theistic conceptions of the prophets, patriarchs, and apostles, must also be considered.  The Personal Son is a revelation of the Personal Divine Father.  "In the beginning was the Word, and The Word was with God, and the Word was God; All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made."
4. Thus, if God is not a personal Being the results are either Pantheism or Atheism.  There would be an end to worship.

III. The Divine Names.  It appears that the Personal names of the members of the Trinity are not given.  We cannot be overly dogmatic about this, but it appears so.  "And Jacob asked Him and said, ‘Tell me I pray thee, they name, and He said, ‘Wherefore is it that Ye ask me after my name."  Gen. 32:29.  And the angel of the Lord said unto Him, ‘Why ask ye after my name, seeing it is secret,’ ("wonderful") Jude 13:18.  Rev. 19:12b.  The names by which we know the members are characteristics, attributes, manward.
1. The Almighty
2. The Eternal
3. Strength of Israel
4. Father
5. Savior
6. Jesus 
"For He shall save His people from their sin."
7. Christ – anointed

IV. The Trinity.  There is little profit in dogmatizing in nature of a unit which we have no parallel, which cannot be defined by comparison or illustration.  "The unity of God is the basic truth in the doctrine of the Trinity."  All act with all the power of the Godhead.
1.  The Christian Church receives and adores the mystery of divine essence existing in a Trinity of equal substance related as Father, the Eternal Son of the Father, the Holy Spirit, eternally proceeded.  We have this in the priestly benediction and the Baptism formula.  (Pope, Vol. I, p. 259 – Dr. Owens)
a. The First Revelation of Plurality and Unity was revealed in Creation.  Gen. 1:26.  It is suggested in various appearances to the patriarchs. 
b. The three persons have recognized each other in public manner, evidently for the benefit of man.  On the Mount of Transfiguration the Father spoke.  Jesus prayed to the Father on the cross and He promised another Comforter.   He was to reveal the things of the Father and Son, and reveal them to man and to convict.  Jesus linked Himself with the Father in a peculiar way. 
c. The Trinity is a Tri-unity.  The orthodox believe that the unity is ever numerical, plural, and that in a sense unsearchable.  The entire Godhead is in each person.  (Text:  Pope, 271, 272 paracletos – interaction, intercommunion – Dr. Owens)

V. Errors concerning the Trinity. Vol. 1 p. 410
1. 160-180.  Praxeas taught that God was revealed in three (Jesus only) phases, according to dispensation of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Those who held to this belief were called patri-passianas. (Father suffered).   Sabellius of Ptolemias, 250 A. D., perfected it into Jesus onlyism.  Called Sabellianism.  Sometimes called Modalism.  (from manifestation of deity in 3 modes- Dr. Owens)
2. The idea of Subordination of the Son.  Some held Him as first created.  It included gradation of the Three.  God only, not created.
3. Arianism – Founder, Arius.  Held that the Son was purely a creature, and Son only by adoption.  The perfection and order of creation, made out of nothing, medium between God and universe.  This heresy was condemned by the First Ecumenical, Nicea, 325.
4. In refutation – Homousios – Of one substance – It was opposed even by orthodox as tending toward Sabellianism.  Changed word to "of like substance."  It opened door for Semi-Arianism.  Arius taught that the Spirit was first creation to the first born creator.  He held that Son and Spirit were intimately nearer to God than the created universe.  (Pope Vol. 1, p 101)
5. The council at Constantinople in 381 defended the personality of the Holy Spirit, but didn’t determine relation to God and Son.  In 594 at the Synod at Toledo the term "filioque" was added to Nicean creed defining that the Spirit proceeded eternally from the Father and Son by an eternal spiriation of the Spirit.  This double procession of the Spirit was the one cause of the rupture between the East and West. The West held the double spiritation and the East rejected it.
6. The Council of Nicea in 325 and the Council of Constantinople in 381 were the first Ecumenical Councils.  The Nicea vindicated the Son and the Constantinople the Holy Spirit.  These councils were universally accepted except by a slight clause by the East.
7. The Apostles Creed was not complete in present form until after Nicean Council.  Merely an expansion of Baptism formula.  Named this because it was what the Apostles believed.  They did not write it.
8. The Athasian Creed was not Ecumenically accepted being a private document produced in the 6th century by a school of Augustus – Elaborate in statement but contains dammatory clauses that are foreign to the profession of Faith.  The doctrine of the Trinity like that of the other creeds does not give due prominence to the Redemptional Aspect.
 

ATTRIBUTES OF GOD    (Chapter 14) Vol.1. P.320ff.

I. The Absolute Attributes, or those qualities which belong to God apart from his creative work.  They have their basis in the fact that God is, in Himself, Absolute Being.  They are the attributes of a Personal being, and may be summed up as spirituality, infinity, eternity, immensity, immutability and perfection.
1. Spirituality. "God is Spirit."  John 4:24.  He only hath immortality.  The essential, incorruptibility and relatent(?)Eternity.  We have created immortality.
2. Infinity.  We mean that there are no bounds or limits to the Divine Nature.  Does not refer to pantheism which says that everything is God, but says that God, as perfect Spirit is unlimited.
3. Immensity.  As eternity expresses the contrast with the temporal world in God’s mode of existence, so immensity expresses the same contrast with reference to the space world. "As time is born out of eternity, so space is born out of immensity."
4. Immutability.  Is meant His changelessness in essence of attribute, purpose or consciousness.  Time is the creation of the eternal God.  Eternity is placed in our heart.
5. Self-sufficiency.  A being who is an eternal necessity must be self-sufficient.
6. Eternity.  This is the sense of those scriptures which speak of the eternity of God.  "He is the same yesterday, today, and forever."
7. Perfection.  By the term perfection is meant the attribute which consummates and harmonizes all the other perfections.

II. Relative Attributes.
1. Freedom – God was free to do all He has done.  God’s will is a free will. This is necessary as the head of a moral order.
2. Omnipotence. The omnipotence of God is the ground of all that we call efficiency or causality.  The perfection of God by virtue of which He is able to do all that He pleases to do.
3. Omnipresence.  "When therefore, in harmony with Scripture, we speak of God as commensurable and everywhere present."  Always present everywhere.
4. Wisdom.  Absolute knowledge makes possible absolute wisdom. (Prov.15: 3,11; Hebrews 4:13; Ezek. 11:5; Acts 15:18.
5. Goodness.  (God wills good for all His creatures as such.  Psa 33:5, Gen. 1:31; Psa. 149:9 – Dr. Owens)

III. Moral Attributes of God.  Holiness – Love side by side, in the economy of Redemption.  Fundamental attributes, His holiness separates Him from man and His Love nevertheless communicates itself to the sinner.  The nevertheless is important.
1. Holiness – This is the ground of the adoration due to God.
2. Righteousness or Justice - This says Pope is "The Divine holiness applied in moral government and in the dominion of law."  God is the just dispenser of rewards and punishment.
3. Truth or Faithfulness of God – Support and guarantee the divine justice of God because of the Holiness of God.
4. Love of God - The holiness and love of God have direct relation.  Both holiness and love belong to the divine essence as well s to the attributes and cannot be separated except in thought.
5. Grace and its related attributes of God. As justice and righteousness may be regarded as transitive holiness, so grace and its related attributes, such as mercy, compassion, long suffering and forbearance, may with equal propriety be regarded as transitive love.  Grace is unmerited favor of God. Wiley Vol. 1 p. 365-392.

COSMOLOGY
Cosmology refers to the world.
Matter and God are eternal. 
Greek – God entered into matter and formed the world.  The cosmos was then eternal.  (Plato taught both God and matter were regarded as eternal.
 Zeno, the Stoic taught that the union of God with matter was Necessary, and therefore regarded as eternal. Vol. 1 P 441.

Hebrew – God was creator of matter and builder of the world.  Cosmos was later used by Greeks to describe beauty and order of universe.

I. Theories of Creation.
A. The Mechanical Theory.  This theory holds that the world was formed in a purely external and formal manner. It stresses the thought of transcendence and wholly disregards the divine immanence.  (Thomas Hobbes – Deism)
B. The Materialistic Theory.  This theory is closely related to dualism in that it presupposes the eternity of matter.  It rejects the idea of a fashioner of this material into the created forms, as we know them; and substitutes instead the theory of spontaneous generation.  It reads into matter everything necessary to what we have in the way of a cosmos.
C. The Emanation or Pantheistic Theory.  This theory holds that the world is to be regarded as an extension of the divine substance.
D. The Theory of Eternal Creation.  God was eternal and God was creative, hence worlds always were and always will be.
E. The Theory of Natural Evolution.  This theory was received with great applause when presented by Darwin and his school.  This is similar if not identical with that of spontaneous generation, but has assumed a more philosophical form.  However, it could hardly be expected to hold its ground against the Christian belief in creation.
1.  It has not been able to bridge the chasm between the inanimate and the animate.
2. It cannot pass from the diffused life of the vegetable realm, to the conscious somatic life of the animal kingdom.
3. It cannot pass from the irrational life of animals to the rational self-conscious life of man.  Only creative activity of God could have originated vegetable, animal and personal life, and set eternal bounds between them.
F. The Theory of Continuous Creation.  It took the form of theistic evolution.  It regards the divine immanence as the basic reality in contradistinction to the eternity of matter.  It regards and insists that organic development is due to divine power working within the organism.
 
 
 

THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE OF CREATION Vol. 1 P. 446-449.

The scriptural doctrine of creation maintains that the universe had a beginning, that it is not eternal in either matter or form, that it is not self-originated, and that it owes its origin to the omnipotent power and the unconditioned will of God.

I. Creation and the Trinity.
All three members of the Trinity entered into creation.
Cor. 8:6; Gen. 1:2; Psalm 104:30; Romans 11:36.

II. Creation and the Attributes of God.
Creation as we have shown, has its origin in the love of God; all other attributes display themselves also. 
Psalm 104:24.

III. Creation and the Logos. Logos, meaning Christ.
By what means did God create all things?  To this the Scriptures give answer, "By the word of His power."..
Psalm 33:6.  (John 1:1,3- Dr. Owens)

"THE DIVINE RECORD OF CREATION" Vol. 1 P. 449-454

Starts with the Trinity in Creative council.  Logos in creative acts.  Starts with the lower forms and swells to man, with burst of praise.

I. God created light from chaos first.
II. The dividing of the waters below from the waters above the earth.  (Expanse between heaven and earth – Dr. Owens.)
III. The dividing of the land and water on the earth.
IV. The vegetable kingdom was then formed.
V. Then, the sun, moon and stars.
VI. The lower animals, those that swarm in the waters and the creeping and flying species of the land.
VII. The beasts of prey.
VIII. Man. Man was blessed and given dominion and command to populate the earth.  God rested the seventh day.
 
 

"THE MOSAIC COSMOGONY" 

The Mosaic cosmogony has been interpreted in various ways, as to the account of creation.
1. The Mythological Interpretation.
2. The Allegorical Interpretation.
3. The Vision Hypotheses.
4. The Historical Interpretation.Authoritative according to Jesus.  Matthew 19:4.

I. The Days of Creation.
The Hebrew word Yom which is translated "day" cannot possibly be a day, as we know a day.

II. Creation and Cosmogony.  (Is. 1:1,21,27 – Dr. Owens)
The Genesis account of creation establishes a distinction between the first production of matter in the sense of origination, and secondary creation, or the formation of that matter by subsequent elaboration into a cosmos.  The Hebrew word Bara which appears to signify original creation, "causing to be"; it is possibly used three times in speaking of three creations. (Original matter, animal life, and human spirit - Dr. Owens)
Secondary creation  - yetsar.  This in itself is as wonderful as the original creation.
There is a past, present, and an age to come in which God’s purposes shall be consummated and fulfilled.  The kingdom ages and Paul refers to the ages to come.
 

PROVIDENCE

The God of creation is also the God of providence.
1. General Providence, by which is meant God’s care for the world as a whole and everything in it.
2. Special Providence, which refers more particularly to His care for the human race.
 

ANTHROPOLOGY

It is used in both a scientific and theological sense.
1. As a science, it deals with man’s specific characteristics, such as man development and progress.
2. As a theology, the term is limited to the study of man in his moral and religious aspects.

I. The Origin of Man. 
We shall observe certain evolutionary theories.
A. Materialistic and Atheistic in principles.  Matter is regarded as the only beginning and is eternal.  Originally it existed in the form of fire mist.  In this fire mist mind and everything existed.
B. Natural - Holds the same but admits creation of life by a creator.
      Originally Darwin held to this.  From the few simple forms of created 
      Life other things evolve.

C.  Creative - Holds that God was not only creative in the originating conception of life, but has continued His agency in the whole process of evolution.  So called creative evolution is probably its clearest expression.

The Scriptures teach that man was created out-right and created as man.

Heathen and Barbarianism are degenerations, without knowledge of God.  If the chief end of man is to walk and talk and commune with God in manly and upright perfection, he fulfilled it in the beginning.  Man was created in God’s image (a perfect finite person).  God is a perfect infinite God.  Man was given dominion over all.  No higher blueprint could be used; hence, man was God’s best possible (creation).
(Genesis 1:26; 28; 2:7).

II. The Time of Man’s Origin.
A. There appears to be considerable agreement among scientists that man came last and seems also to be agreed that in comparison with the forms of other animal life that man is recent.  The time measurement varies greatly in scientific fields and this within itself denies that they are infallible.  The scientific theories vary.
B. Biblical chronology is an open question.  Ussher’s chronology makes the origin of man to precede the advent of our Lord by 4,004 years.  But his statements in this matter are no part of revelation.  In many cases grandson and great-grandsons were called sons.  There is no reason for supposing that the race is older than is commonly acknowledged by the received chronologies of the Bible. (Dr Owens notes, Hales on grounds of the Septuagint reckons on 5411 B .C.)
Nothing is plainer than the use of begat and to bear as used widely.  In fact, the elastic term, son may mean a successor that has no blood relation.
C. The evidence for this antiquity of man may be stated by:
1. History – There is little of a date order before Abraham.  There are genealogies given and that is about all.
2. Archeology – This measuring line is futile, as there is little rainfall. 
Miley limits the existence of races to eight or ten thousand years.  Pope – probably less.
3. Geology – Drift deposits.
4. Language – Does not require a long time.  Language of 1,000 years would be intelligible today.
5. The distinction of races in color and features. 
6. It  has not taken long to produce the Mexican in both different color and feature.

III. The unity of mankind.  A question of the species. Wiley Vol. 2 p.20
A. The unity of man could not be a possible fact with a plurality of beginnings.  Each by special creation to match the others.
B. Naturalistic evolution holds that if there were but one distinct beginning, why not many such beginnings.
C. All the races and the racial variations are in keeping with one original pair (or person, Adam. Dr Owens note) There is no necessity in the history of relative facts for the agency of God in repeating original species of mankind.  An original single creation is the only rational explanation.
D. The Scriptures declare that the races have descended from one common pair, only one of which was made outright from the dust. One from dust; the other from the first.  The physical was made from one. (Gen. 1:27-28; 5:12; 10:l).
1. Paul’s statement to the learned Athenians must mean the same.  (Acts. 17:26).  The Athenians claimed for themselves a distinct and separate origin from others.  Paul stresses the truth of a common parentage to all mankind.
2. The prevalence of sin and the result and fact of death are also traced back to an act of one original pair.  Sin and death are universal.  (Romans 5:12; 17-19; I. Cor. 15:21-22).
E. The Constituent Elements of Human Nature.
1. Dichotomy – Holds that man is composed of two kinds of essence – body and spirit or soul.
2. Trichotomy – Holds that man is three-fold in nature, body, soul, and spirit.  Western church held to dichotomy, and the Eastern Church held to trichotomy.  No great doctrinal principle is involved in either one.
3. There are theories prevalent in regard to the soul or spirit.
a. Pre-existence theory.
b. Creationism – God creates each spirit at generation.
c. Traducianism – Holds that the souls of men as well as their bodies are derived from their parents.
d. (Socialism – a human soul only after social contact and development  -Dr. Owens)

IV. Pre-Adamism – Someone before Adam and Eve.
Polyorganism – plurality of organism.
A. Pre-Adamism started by a Romish Priest, Peyreries, about 1655.
B. Theory is that Adam is not to be regarded as the first man but the head of a distinct race that appears.
C. From incidents in the life of Cain the theory can be easily constructed if examination does not become too minute as to Adam’s descendents. Brothers and sisters married until Moses.
D. The theory of pre-Adamism would destroy the unity of the race.  It would then have several distinct beginnings.

V. Polyganism – More than one beginning.
In whatever form accepted, it is against Christian Doctrine.  Such doctrine regarding Anthropology would be unseated.  Neither Polyganism nor Pre-Adamism can adjust themselves to the fact of redemption as in Christ. Wiley Vol. 2 P. 20-21, Miley Vol. 1 P. 328-329.
 
 

HAMARTIOLOGY Wiley Chapter XVIII P.51-95.
 

Hamartia – which signifies a deviation from the way or end appointed by God. The term is applicable to sin, both as an act and as a state or condition.

I. The temptation and fall of man.
A. The Genesis account is an historical account.  Furthermore, the account is assumed as historical throughout both the Old Testament and New Testament.
B. Paradisiacal History – cannot be studied as we study history now, from our own experiences.  Paradisiacal experience must have differed from anything we know about.  The various steps are set forth by symbols, which leave room for varied interpretations.
1. The probation was necessary to glorify God by free creatively service.  Man was free, but not omnipotent, therefore sin was a possibility.  Adam’s will had sufficient power to remain in holiness but not sufficient power to make the fall impossible. Had he withstood the test that probably would have done just that.  As character is determined by moral action, character has to be formed, and is formed by rejecting and accepting.  The tree was there to be rejected and the prohibition was to be accepted.  Adam was not all-powerful nor all wise.  He sought to increase in both, which in itself was all right.  But he took the wrong way and knew it.
2. The fall of the Race – Fell by his own determination.  Man fell by his own will in a place where it was easier not to sin than to sin with full transcript of law and full measure of grace.  Thus, the origin of sin in the race was not due to a sinful state by a sinful act instigated by the Devil himself.  This in turn man inherited as an evil and sinful state.
3. Thus, the Bible connects sin with the abuse of freedom in free and intelligent creatures.  Racial deprivation follows to all in certain fields.  But sin is still an individual thing.

II. The Doctrine of Satan.  Man was tempted by a superhuman being, called in the Scriptures, the devil or Satan.  The conflict between good and evil is in the Scriptures represented as essentially a conflict between superhuman powers, into which man is drawn by way of temptation.  Satan is usually regarded as one of the fallen angels and consequently treated under this head.  Satan is not merely one among the many representatives of evil.  He is evil in person.  He is not merely evil in this or that relation, but evil in relation to creation. (Zech 3:1,2; "Wesley’s famous phrase." JR)
A. Satan in relation to creation.  The Christian view of sin terminated with Satan.  Evil is personal in its origin.
B. Satan is opposed to Christ. He does not confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.  (I John 4:1-3).
C. Satan is opposed to the work of redemption, by perversion and lying.
D. Satan and his angels are reserved for judgment.
E. Also a kingdom of evil or Satan.  He is the Prince of this world.  (John 12:31).

III. The nature and penalty of sin.
A. Variety of names for sin.
1. Few but distinct and clear.
2. Describe sin in two ways:
a. Reference to God.  Voluntary separation of the human will from God.
b. Relation to man.  Guilt.  Consciousness of personal wrong and liability of guilt.
c. Sin may be reduced to the following simple elements:
3. Sin may be reduced to the following simple elements:
a. Self-separation from God.
b. Transgression of law.
B. Consciousness of guilt.  Sin is guilt.
1. Consciousness of personal guilt and responsibility for sin by self.
2. Also consciousness of the judgment for it. 
3. Spiritual death is due to the withdrawal of the Holy Spirit as the bond of union between the soul and the God.
 

ORIGINAL SIN Vol. II P 96-140

Doctrine of sin itself.

I. Original sin in relation to the first Adam.  The Scriptures teach that the presence of death in the world is due to man’s sinning.  (Romans 5:12-14, 17, and 18).  Natural evil seems to be the result of moral evil.  Original sin and inherited depravity are identical though separated in thought.  All become or were constituted sinners.  Adam was the generic head of the race.  The race was in him potentially, certainly not consciously.

II. The second was provided for before children were born, and were therefore under the covenant. It is possible that the Second Adam made up what was lost in the first Adam.