The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-02-10
AGAINST ALL CREEDS
PROF. HALL, OF BUTLER, JUsTIFIEs
HIS RECENT LECTURE.
He Contends that 1t IL Heathenish to
Think Christ Died to Satisfy
His Fathers Law.

DR.. A. N. Hall, professor OF Hebrew at
Butler University, has been severely crit
fcised for his lecture recently given at
Terre Haute in the Normal School lecture
course. not only for his wholesale attack
on church creeds, but for some views adj
vanced. Upon being asked to explain his
view that IF Christ died to satisfy, law it
was heathenish," Mr.. Hall said that In his
address he had sketched a model orthodox
sermon as follows:
God created man and put him under a
law; man broke the law and this brought
sin into the world; the result Of sin was
death. Now man had to die unless the law
was satisfied; but it was impossible for man
to do this, so 1t became necessary for God
to send his son to die to satisfy the law and
now he offers salvation to all that will come
to Him"
This" said DR.. Hall, 81 charged with be-
ing heather in its fundamental proposition
and contradictory in it's conclusions. For
If God made a law, which, when broken
by man, He could not remove and give man
His spirit to build him up into perfect man.
hood, 1t made the law superior to its maker,
and to hold that it was necessary for Christ
to suffer to satisfy the law; that Christ had
to die as the victim does, to pay a legal
Penalty, I denominated heathenish. It makes
suffering necessary to satisfy Gods austere
justice as when the heather offers his VIC
tim to appease his God"
In reply to the question, did you resort
to caricature, as claimed by Terre Haute
papers?' Mr.. Hall said:
81 said the main thought of modern the
ology is How can q man be just before
God and that it's development was destruc-
tive. as each creed is in Intention the
negation of all former creeds. Then, desir-
Ing to make the discussion popular, rather
than critical, I fancied a man taking a
fire worshiper from his shrine to teach him
the true religion He took him to the diff
aeren. churches, where ne heard the various
them all and was thoroughly converted by
predestination and by free grace, by water
and by spirit, but he was much confused
the next Sunday morning over which church
he should attend. He then learned that
each church regarded the other as unor-
concluded that the real cause of the various
organizations was g. division Of labor, but
he found the churches were neglecting
much practical work or throwing it upon
the State. He concluded that to maintain
so many churches and preachers must be
a useless expense, and found upon investi-
cation that a village cble to support about
one good church will have at least half a
dozen. Why do they exist? Because one
not care for all? No. The real secret Of the
division is one is grinding out predestina-
ton, another free grace, another water, etc.
And when done they teach a justification
that exists in a former act rather than in
a reformation of Ife-a saving in sin rather
names. but dealt entirely with doctrines. A
recent speaker on the Y. M. c. A. course
caricatured more with no objection offered"
WAS it not too destructive"
"It was destructive in a sense. I do not
accept nor teach all the theories of the de-
o1TSct to de sfIf1Ss; tb sn ido In 5ns r leSegee tried fo1
word Of God. 1t was not my purpose to de-
stroy the creeds but to show that it is inn
practicable to make any peculiar doctrine a
his creed. but he should hold it inclusively
and not exclusively. The greatest reform in
fhanInQv will ho fn 60Gfr0v arnnd craft PIJf
I always tried to emphasize a living faith
in Jesus as the Divine Savior, and a saliva
ton that does not consist in a judicial act
or observance of a church ritual, but in sal
walton from sim"
DO you think the lecture would have a
as your critics hold?"
IF you mean to shake their faith in
p posma IF fn you Gr mesn fo a 1hse maf the @y f PlI,
in God, or Christ, or the Bible. or right
Mr.. Hall said further that in his lecture
he did not express a thought that cannot
be found in the writing of enlightened or
that one of my critics makes when, grant
ing that the thought was true in the main,
he said it should not be taught to the
from their old mornings. The logic is to
bind them to the church by tradition and
bend the truth. I say the tyranny of creed
and tradition is doing more harm to-day
than the liberaiity of the young"
lecture at Terre Haute he sent as his sub
Ject 1.-THE Theology Of Today a lecture
which he has delivered at a number OF
places in the State, including Indianapolis,
and had heard no criticisms. He says that
to him it does not seem discourteous to ex-
press honest convictions, and that the criti-
cisms started from a man who did not hear
the address. DIR. Hall has received warm
commentator from men in Terre Haute
quite as able and prominent as his critics.
If the teaching is as feeble and worthless
as they seem to think it would have been
wiser to have permitted it to die of it's own
weakness, he says. and not have given it
life by trying to kill it.