1885 Watch Tower - A2Z.org

for existence though every proof-text advanced be taken from underit.Yes, if answering our contemporary's questions will do good andhelp discover to it the baselessness of any theory that does notrecognize in the death of Jesus, the ransom--the corresponding pricefor the sins of the Adamic race--we will be very truly glad toanswer all that it may propound. We have no theory which we fearto have overthrown by Scripture. The Bible theory can nevercontradict or deny itself, nor can any overthrow it.While we have only love and good will toward all men, we cannot,dare not, from loyalty to our King, fellowship or bid God speed to,or in any way encourage or approve, any person or journal whichdenies that we were "reconciled to God by the death of His Son,""who gave himself a corresponding price [ransom] for all." See 2John 10,11.====================R736 : page 5THE CAUSE AND RESULT.We long since pointed out that when men would begin to thinkcritically upon the dogmas of so-called Orthodoxy, they would notonly throw away the errors, but the truths as well. As an illustrationtake the following extract from the sermon of the Rev. R. H.Newton of New York, preached Sunday, Jan. 25th, 1885:"What an utterly baffling arithmetical puzzle is the conventionaldogma of the trinity; what a moral monstrosity is the God ofCalvinism; how fiendishly wicked the decrees which predestinate amass of men to unescapable damnation; how thoroughlycommercial is the traditional doctrine of the atonement; howfrightfully beyond the dream of insanity is the vision of theorthodox hell; how thoroughly unethical is the ordinary statementof justification by faith. These are the dogmas against which thesharp arrows of a merciless wit are leveled fair and straight. Theydeserve every blow they receive. As formulas of faith their bestservice now to mankind, is to gently die, and so leave room for anoble growth of thought around the heart of those old and sacredfaiths."Here, as usual, doctrines unsupported by Scripture, are spread sideby side with those which are so supported, and the bad odor andinconsistency of the false, attaches itself to the true, so that thewhole becomes nauseous and is rejected together. For instance, thedoctrine of the TRINITY is supported by only one text (part of 1John 5:7,8) which, as is known by all intelligent teachers, is aninterpolation found in no manuscript written before the tenthcentury, and evidently thrust in there, because that doctrine had noScriptural basis.