The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-07-08
THE AWFUL DOCTRINE OF DOOM.
Probable Action Of tho Presbyterian
Committee Of Twenty-Five.
pIooYn;eyd (.if;zan

Probable Action of tho Presbyterian
Committee Of twenty-five.
Bloomfield Citizen.
The terms in which The doctrine Of cleo
ton and Reproduction are set forth in the
Westminster Confession and catechism are
fearfully clear and distinct. By the decree
OF God. for the manifesto ton of His glory
some men and angels are predes!inated
unto everlasting life, and others
are ordained unto everlasting death.
Those in each class are particularly
and unchangeably designated. Their num-
Der is so certain and definite that it cannot
De either increased or diminished. Those
predestinated unto life were chosen in
Chrlst unto everlasting glory out OF Gods
mere grace and love. without any fores ght
OF iaI,h or good works or any other thing
IN the creature as conditions or causes
moving Him thereunto. None others are
redeemed by Christ but the elect only.
The wretched non-elect. descended from
Adam by ordinary generation, sinned in
him and fell with him in his first trans
gression. They are guilty of Adams first
SIN. Tney are born with q depraved ma
ture. They go on SHINING through life
and can do nothing else. unless regenerated
BY the sovereign power and grace of
God, which 1t is certain because eternally
decreed they never will experience. They
are doomed and subject to all the
niseries OF this life and to the tormenting
pains of hell forever. For them there is no
way OF escape. no door of deliverance, no
gIeam OF hope. no chance of redemption.
because for them no redeemlng Christ has
died. Yet these wretched ones are mex
cusable in their guilt. and deserve their
dreadful end. which is 10 glorify the i'm
mutable justice of the sovereign God.
Whatever may be thought OF this tre-
mendous doctrine. it 10 not yelled or put in
feeble. evasive terms in the Presbyte
standards. The clear, precise. sonorous,
and majestic English is grand!y suited to
the theme. The men who in that strenu-
Gus time announced it to the world be-
Heved what they said. Their meaning is
plain. The diciion of the confession and
catechisnl needs no revision The stately.
rhythmic, dirge-like style BELTS the awful
thoughts OF doom.
The widespread discomfort with the doc
trlRat statements referred to above had
found expression in every feasible way; in
pubic and private discussions. in the
secular and the religious press. OF all the
members of the cara oga assembly, it is
probably true that majority would have
liked the confession revised accordingly
Yet nothing of the kind was done On the
contrary, 1t was unanimously resolved not
TO do ii, and this is the surprising result.
u.
The matter of revision was referred by
the assembly to committee of twenty
nve. Nine members of the committee are
opposed to any revision at all. They were
appointed as anti-revisionists. Among
them are the ablest, most resolute most
active members that sat in the assembly,
me men, In TACT, who were its dominating
Oalvinlstic tyR who commended to the last
that any movement toward revision was
unnecessary and bad.
Ine presence of these men on the COM
mittee, overwhelming in strength though
inferior IN numbers 10 their associates,
would have been sufficient guarantee
against report favorable to any imper-
tant or substantial change in the existing
standards. But to make it absolutely GER
tam that none should be made, the assem-
bly,, on the demand of the anti-reyisionists,
unanimously resolved:
That this committee on revision be and here
DIV are instructed that they sha not propose
way impair the integrity of the Reformed or
CaiVinislc system OF doctrine taught in the
Confession OF Faith.
1t is impoI tant to observe the insertion
In the resolution of the defining and, in
theological sense, the strictly technical
word Caivinistic. an insertion not desired
by the liberal revisionists, who wished only
the general words. ''syst N of doctrine"
But these customary words, always deemed
heretofore sufficient, and, by many sensi-
tive minds, much too rigid and exact, were
not regarded precise and flexible enough
by the anti-revisionists, and the insertion
OF the additional words, Reformed or CAL
whistle was insisted on by the theoo-
gians OF the Princeton school, Drs. Patton
and Warfield, who are also members of the
revision committee.
In this condition of things it will be
asked: What scope is left for revision?
what is there for the committee to doo
we nave been at some pains to find out.
am, so far as the limitations of our theo.
logical science have enabled us to see, we
think the work of the committee will con-
sist mostly. if not altogether, in verbal cor
rections to remove the doubt, now thought
to be permissible, whether the confession,
In its statement of election and reproba-
ton, is to be interpreted in a supralapsar-
ian or an infralapsarian sense. Does il
mean that in the mind of God, or in the
order of His purposes, His choice of the
elect and his passing by of the non-elect.
went before or came after the thought of
the guilt of the fall?
It's settlement either way will rot en-
danger the stability or impair the integrity
OF the Calvinistic system, iuasmuch as
what Calvin thought of it does not appear
to be known.