Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1890-03-27
Communicated.
SPECULATIVE THEOLOGY.
Edicts, Creeds and Confessions.

SPECULATIVE THEOLOGY.
Edicts, Creetls and Confessions.
The movement In the Northern
PRESBYTERIAN Church for the revis-
ion of the Westminster confession
of faith has inaugurated bitter con.
tentlon in the organs of that body.
The writer, however, has not the
least intention of following either
side of that controversy. 1t will
be sufficient for his purpose to
point out the existing and pressing
necessity for a radical reformation
of speculative theology.
Immediately following the as
cension of our Lord, a gifted apos-
tie, especially chosen for that pur-
pose, was commissioned as the in
spired leader of the church he left
behind. Among the fret works he
undertook was the separation of
that church from the traditions and
ceremonies of the law. Led by
the Holy Spirit, Paul was not long
in discovering that if Christ
ianlty was not divorced from
Judaism it would return to its
starting point and thus be smother
ed by what it was designed to ex-
terminate. In the providence of
| God the destruction of Jerusalem
finished what was thus commenced
and forever put an end to the cere-
monies of temple worship. Hap
py, indeed, would it have been for
the church and the world if SINH
lar apostolic and inspired leader
had appeared al the reformation
and delivered the church of Christ,
in all its branches, from the fic-
tions of the speculative theology of
the dark ages. Had such guide
been given, the theological conten-
tions of the early centuries had
not been perpetuated. What is
wanted at present is spirit inspir-
ed of God to trace with golden pen
and the electric light of modern I'M
derstanding of revelation, the lapse
of churches from the glorifcation of
the Holy Trinity and Incarnation
OF Christ through majority edicts.
creeds and confessions and through
prosecutions, imprisonments, scaf-
folds and fsggots to the worship of
a woman, and the ascription of in
fallibiIity to a man on the one
hand, and to unitarianism and ra-
tionalism on the other-doctrines
and conceptions unfortunately more
generally received and more heart
lily embraced in both the world and
the church, and especially in the
heart Of Catholicism, than the
gloriication of the Pope and the
unscriptural alteration of Mary,
though she be the most highly
honored and blessed of God of all
his creatures.
Although the theories of Pelagius
were formally condemned and the
antagonistlc doctrines of Augustine,
as formally accepted by a church
claiming to be infallible, the issues
involved in them have not been
satisfactorily settled. In the Cath
olic church, in a modified form,
they have divided Jansenist and
Jesuit, and in the Protestant they
find partial representation in Ar
minianism and Calvinism. AS
time goes on, as light breaks in, as
the battle between Christianity on
the one hand and inidelity and
heathenlsm on the other is waged,
the outlook is that the period has
arrived for the elimination of spec
ulative theology from edicts, creeds
and confessions and the substitu-
tion in their place of the verities
and actualities of revelation and
spiritual experience.
| The writer is well aware that re-
cent effort has been made by
body of Christians to cut loose from
all manner of creeds and rely
wholly on the Bible for guidance.
Unquestionably that Book is the
source of all true light, neverthe-
less the experiment of preaching
the gospel and governing a large
church without articles of religion
extracted from it, is likely to prove
a failure. The Bible is so cumber-
some and revelation abounds with
such infinite detail that not every
one among those blessed with
ability to present the gospel ac-
ceptably is capable of embracing
all the teachings of the Old and
New Testaments and arranging
them in a comprehensive system.
! On the contrary, some that think.
they have no creed are unconscious
ly, perhaps, following one of great
antiquity, in part, If not entirely,
and when the ministers of a de-
nomination are at liberty to make
selections for themselves, diversity
of theological sentiment and want
of unity in doctrinal preaching
must result.
| Arninianisrn ia hased ,,po,, Al