Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-02-05
There are NO infants in He'll.

In the da5ate of Monday week by the
New York Presbytery on the proposed re-
vision of the Westminster confession of faith
Rev. Drs Crosby aud Van Dyke both spoke
against the doctrine of reprobation. Rev.
DR.. Van Dyke began one of the most strik-
ing speeches of the entire discussion with
DR.. Paxton's parable about the dog which
had let his tag" for his text He said:
s'The Westminster confession as it now
stands sfixes a tag to the human race to
this effect: Part is consigned to Heaven
and part tn hell, and no man can find out
to which part he belongs, nor would it
make any difference if he could Now, if
we're an-expressmaD, l would refuse to
forward tagless dog; SO | refnse to believe
this unintelligble, impossible dogma, and
vet my refusal makes no difference! We
have voted for revision. Now. what is the
revision to be? | am in favor of the COM
mittee's report because it eliminates repro
baton from the confession and suggests the
formation of a new creed more scriptural
than the confession as basis of union with
other reformed churches. The first, the
elimination of reprob alton, should be done
as soon as possible, if not sooner. We want
to get rid of reprob baton because it is super
fluous, and not essential even to CaIviDism
as it is not contained in any Calvinistic
creed except our own and the Irish articles,
formulated in 1915 only to fall into innocu-
GUS desuetude IN 1885. Ante-natal damna-
tion No man ever died for that dectrIne.
Why, then, should any one clasp it to his
bosom and weep tears at the thought of
losing l., as if it had been bathed in the
blood of martyrs? Such a position is
like that of the old woman who said:
"There's that blessed doctrine of un,ver-
sal depravity. What comfort it. is if We
only lived up to it! The Heavenly Father
spreads a feast for all; is it for US to say
that He refuses to let the poor sinner eat Of
tho crumbs which fall from His table? And
is but measuring the mind of the Almighty
With the wisdom of the seventeenth GEN.
tury. The doctrine is unscriptural As
for the text about the potter, who ever
beard of potter making vessel merely to
destroy it? The doctrine OF ante-natal per-
dition makes the B Bile mass of contra
dictions 1t is unevapgelical. 1t is in al
lance today with the anti Christian forces
of modern thought. We must be driven
into pantbeism and materialism unless we
stand fast and say, Our wills are ours
Rsprobation is 'horrible' doctrine. The
adjective is not mine, but Calvin's, who
pushed it to its logical conclusion and taught
the dsmnation of infants. l don't weep for
the tears shed over the destruction of part
of the confession, but for the tears of the
mothers who kave been taught to believe
that their harmless, new born babes were
torn from their breasts to be plunged into
everlasting perditiop; weep for the un-
happy creatures in madhouses whose light
of reason has been put out by the heresy of
ante.natal perdition." In conclusion DR..
Van Dyke said: 81 know not what others
may do, but as for me, intend to keep or
disbelieving, ignoring and denying the doc
trine of reprobation. l intend to teach
that there are no infants in hell, no limits
to Gods love; that there is salvation open
to all mankind, and thst no map is punish
ed but for his own sin. Is that CaiFinism?
Before God. don'r know or cagel 1t is
Cbrs:ianityi''
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