The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-07-11
A Great Battle for the Faith.

A Great Battle for the Faith.
A resolute combination OF the "Catholic y
and Evangelical forces Of the Protestant
| Episcopal Church, for an assault all along
| the line on the Broad Church influences,
IL forecast by a Southern Episcopal news
paper, and such an alliance in the near
future may be regarded as more than prob
able, or hardly less than inevitable. The
movement, too, must extend far beyond
that Church particularly, for all those in
every religious denomination who are
concerned for the preservation Of the au-
thority on which alone tho Christian faith
rests, must necessarily be joined in IT,
The Christian faith lie thus expressed in
the Apostles Greed:
81 believe in Con the Father Almighty maker Of
heaven and earth; And in JESUS CHRIST. His only
Son. our Lord: Who conceived by the Holy
Ghost. Born OF tho Virgin MARY Suffered under
PoSrIus PLATE, was crucihed. dead and buried: Ho
descended into hell the third day he again
from the dead, He ascended into heaven. and sit
teth on the right hand of aop the Father Almighty
From thence He shall come to Judge the quick and
the dead"
Now, for none OF these articles of faith Ia
natural evidence possible, for they violate
the law OF nature or relate to a super
natural realm into which 1t is impossible
for mere human intelligence to enter. The
very foundation OF tho faith the Incarna-
tion, contradicts natural law fatty, and. Of
course the bare assertion OF its occurrence
two thousand years ago by the writer's
or compilers OF the Gospels, in the face
of such palpable contradiction, can Of
itself have no standing az evidence. The
authenticity and credibilty OF the wit
ncsscs must be attested by authority
entitled to absolute belief. The Incarna-
ton not being naturally demonstrated
or d"monstrabe fact it must perforce
get its claim to belief from dogma or fall
before natural evidence. 1t depends as an
article OF faith on the dogma Of the Divine
inspiration and infallbility Of the Biblical
record. If the Bibleis simply" n literature"
as Bishop POTTER says, the Apostles Creed
has no other support than Incredible human
testimony. DR.. BRIGGS and Bishop POTTER
reject other occurrences described in tho
Scriptures because they conflict with natu-
raj possibility, but none Of these is more
impossible, according to that measure, than
is the fundamental article Of the Christian
faith-the Incarnation.
The movement which the Southern Church
man speaks Of as "massing" is therefore
simply n movement for the preservation Of
the Christian faith against those who are
usingevcn the Church itself as an engine for
Redistribution. The assaults of intidelity in
past times have come from without, but this
attack proceeds from within the Church,
and it is not, as wrro the old assaults,
against real or assumed abuses and corrup-
tions Of ecclosiasticism, but is against the
very supcrnaturalism upon which alone
the Church rests its claim to authority.
The doctrine of Bishop POTTER is that the
Bible is "a literature, which must accept
the conditions Of it's existence" but what
are those conditions? They are that its
assumed declarations OF facts are in square
conflict with natural possibility and are al
together Incredible by such test. 1t Is a
doctrine which makes the basis OF Christian
theology legendary and mythical and there
fore casSities It with the mythologics
preceding it. Except for the dogma OF
inspiration and the supernatural authority
of the Bible, the Christian faith has no justl-
ticaton.
The "ccclesiastical fight" for which the
Southern Churchmdn tells us the forces are
now "massing" will be contest for tho
preservation OF the Christian faith that
will far exceed in its momontous signin-
canoe any other which has occurred In re-
ligious history-not only in the history OF
Christianity, but in that Of all supernatural
religion. The many attempts hitherto
made to bring about Christian unity have
all been hopeless, but now the alliance be-
tween the once radically opposing forces of
Evangclicalism and Sacerdotalism in the
Episcopal Church forcshadows tho coming
unity of all believers in inspiration no mat
ter how widely separated otherwise, for
the common defence Of the Christian faith
against those who would finally destroy its
authority