Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1900-11-24
"MoRMoNIsNr' AND THEOLOGY,

Dean Farrar has notable article IN
The Independent, In which he calls at
tention to the fact that great changes
have taken place in the religious world,
during the past century on a number
OF important doctrines. one Of these
is the doctrine OF the atonement Of
Christ. As to this, the writer very
forcibly says OF the believers Of today;
"They repudlate, and rightly repudl-
| ate the blasphemy OF representing God
| the Father as all-wrathful and inexor-
| able justice. and God the Son as all
| loving mercy. They accept no violent
disintegratlon OF the persons Of the
| blessed Trinity In the work Of mans
| salvation. They toss aside the age
long absurdity which represented God
| as paying 10 the devil CD the ransom OF
| Cbrlsts death. They no less reject
the forensic theory OF which st. Anselm
replaced the Old error-a theory which
| dwelt on the exact equivalent OF vi
| carlous substitutlons and which folst-
| ed into Scripture mass OF colossal or
| self-contradictory differences, elaborat-
| ed into a PHILOSOPHY OF the plan OF
salvation, which relied exclusively on
passing Illustrations and resembled a
pyramid built upon It's apex
Another radical change Dean Farrar
notices in the conception OF eternal
damnation." He points out that
formerly It was held that God, though
full Of compassion, could be happy
while the creatures OF His hands were
writing hopelessly and forever In I'M
utterable torrents. as represented by
Dante's Inferno and numerous hymns
and religious manuals. All this IS now
changed Says the noted scholar:
There has been decided and a
blessed change of view as 20 these cruel
imaglnings When my Eternal Hope
was published / lived for weeks and
months amid q hall-storm OF ana
themas. Now the majority Of think
Ing and educated Christians hold the
view which / there maintalned-that
sin indeed Is always punishment but
that there Is no proof that repentance
and pardon viii not be always posi-
BILE and that we may trust In the mer-
cy Of God for ever and ever'-or, as II
is literally, In the original. for ever
and beyond We have learned-or, at
any rate, all thinking and educated
men have learned-that everlasting
aldios). which occurs but twice in the
New Testament Is not a synonym Of
eternal iaioniosl but the direct anti
thesis Of a. the former being the I'M
realizabe conception Of endless time,
and the latter referring 10 a state from
which our imperfect human conception
OF time Is absolutely excluded
No less notable is the change OF view
that has taken place regarding the old
teachings OF the verbal inspiration Of
the Bible. We quote again:
1--WE know that the divine enllghten-
I ment. which we call inspiration, did
| not exclude the human element In the
| imperfect medium by which II was COM
muniCated and that I'm unimpOrtant
and minor matters II left the posslbili-
~ 0f error we know, above all, that
Scripture is the true sense OF scrip
ture. as ST. Augustine says; that Scrip
| ture IL, and only Is. what scripture
means; that II must be interpreted as
| a whole: and that the totality OF its
teaching must not be perverted by in
sistence on the Interpretation which we,
| for party and for other purposes, may
| choose 70 dlstort out OF its Isolated and
incidental phrases"
The progress Of theology. as here in
dlcated, IS worthy the serious consider
alton Of every Bible student One OF
the most remarkable facts connected
with Il Is that the Latter-day Saints
have been the pioneers In this great
religious advancement. The men who
were called by the Almighty 20 build
His Church in this dlspensation, though
they had no learning. no theological
training as the world understands IT,
proclaimed the very doctrines the most
advanced thinkers Of the present
Christian" world are trying TO grasp.
They preached salvation through"
Christ, by" obedience 70 the
laws and ordinances OF the
Gospel, thus doing away with
the absurdity that represented
God as paying the devil a ransom for
the sinner They taught that eternal"
punishment does not mean endless
torment, but punishment suffered
hereafter, as distinct from temporal
punIshments In this life. They taught
that the mercy OF God "endureth for
ever" and that there is salvation even
beyond the grave for all, except the
sons OF perditlon," whose final des-
tiny Is as yet unknown to man. And
they placed the true estimate on the
written word. by accepting the Bible
as the word Of God, as far as II has
been correctly transmitted TO US,
through the innumerabIe copies and
TRANSACTIONS II is the triumph Of what
the world calls "Mormonlsm, that
Dean Farrar has noticed as the change
In theology In this century.
The theological world has Just ar
rived at a point Of conflict on which
"Mormonlsm" also has spoken long
ago. and that is the question OF au-
thorlty. The christian" world have
commenced 10 discard old creeds, and
TO dlstrust their clergymen. They find
the written word too complicated and
the inner consciousness too uncertain.
Where then Is there any final au-
thorlty? The Latter-day Saints alone
are clear on this vital point They
have declared 70 the world that God
stlll lives IN His Church, and speaks
and leads and manlfests Himself as
in former ages. The Christian"
world WIN at last have TO come 10 this,
70 escape the inevitable raging con-
ncts and to arrive at unity Of faith
The Gospel Of Jesus is leavening the
world, and preparing Il gradually foT
| the rule Of the Son OF God.