Your testimonies, which You
have commanded,
are righteous and very
faithful.
Psalm 119:138
Over the centuries Christian faith as understood by the early Church met with those men, theologians who accepted philosophical reasoning to prove and document Scriptural Doctrines. That same acceptance has in time crept into the modern day Church. Christian exercises and form have made quantum leaps from the original Church Fathers, the Apostles, and have espoused Christian faith in terms of philosophy; this is insanity of presumption to leave off what the Bible so plainly teaches. Therefore, we must examine this long-standing trend among some men, some theologians in order to know what the long-standing Biblical evidence reveals.
Should Christians admit to supernatural revelatory obligation to receive on the authority of God those doctrines that Biblical revelation makes known? Should those Biblical Doctrines by philosophically vindicated to command acceptance to those who would deny such revelation? Should not by human reason concerning Scriptural Doctrines and of God, the creation, the trinity, the incarnation, redemption, sin, and the future state of man be philosophically sustained? It was the Alexandrian School who in the early stages of Christianity undertook the effort to elevate faith of the people to knowledge of the philosophers. Many of those early Church fathers were Platonist, and Christianity found itself transformed by the transmuting of Platonism into the Church. It was the School-men of the Middle ages, the medieval ages who also acquiesced to this Platonist form. It was they that received as their obligation to believe on the authority of God and of the Church this errant form of Christianity. Even though those theologians held to the Church and it Doctrines they put forward that those Doctrines could be philosophically proved. Some tried to demonstrated all the Doctrines of Christianity on the Leibnitzian philosophy, a phuilosophy and mathmetician and a Deist stated:
"the idea that human events can be explained by providentialism he could not accept. Deist as he was, his God was an absentee one." Systems of Theology were developed along the thinking of such men as, Hegel, Schelling and of Schleiermacher, have almost superseded the old Biblical Doctrine. If one were to read the volumes of work by these men that which has been noted as Speculative Theology he would not be able to discern whether he was reading Christianity or Buddhism. There might be a few satisfactory sentences from the Bible but the truth would be so diluted by human speculation that any test would fail to detect any divine element.
All such attempts are futile as any empirical proof will testify. This is not to say that this errant form of thinking has not influenced may Churches, therefore many Christians, it has and must be confronted for error breeds error. Here is a preposterous assumption: man with his feeble mind and reasoning can explain from his own resources to vindicate and prove the deep things of God. Does not the Bible itself teach that it is impossible to comprehend the incomprehensible? Are not God's was past finding out? How can we explain His nature or His acts? How can we explain the Trinity (God in Three Persons)? Yet those self-deifying philosophers presume to know the incomprehensible apart from what the Bible teaches. This Hegelian philosophical and Platonic thinking hold that man is God in his highest form of his existence and that philosophy is the highest style of man. What an assertion, it is insanity of presumption that faith is revealed in philosophy. Here is a sad fact: liberal theology has in one form or another accepted and adopted this philosophical reasoning and has placed man above God. They don't say so in those exact words, no, they give to man what man does not have, free will to choose salvation, unless they first choose God then they receive faith, even if they admit to having faith first, how does a man who is totally depraved by sin choose anything good? Paul writes: "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for it will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me" (Romans 7:18-20). Paul adds: "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, no indeed can it be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Romans 8:7-9). It can be plainly seen that man is not higher than God, and his reason is not enough to save him, yet, when God calls, enables that one to have faith, that man chooses Him. It to that thing, or One that we place our faith upon the authority of that One that give saving faith, eternal salvation.
Hear, my children, the
instruction of a father,
and give attention to know
understanding;
For I give you good doctrine:
Do not forsake my law.
Proverbs 5:1-2
May God Give You Peace
Richard L. Crumb
"the idea that human events can be explained by providentialism he could not accept. Deist as he was, his God was an absentee one." Systems of Theology were developed along the thinking of such men as, Hegel, Schelling and of Schleiermacher, have almost superseded the old Biblical Doctrine. If one were to read the volumes of work by these men that which has been noted as Speculative Theology he would not be able to discern whether he was reading Christianity or Buddhism. There might be a few satisfactory sentences from the Bible but the truth would be so diluted by human speculation that any test would fail to detect any divine element.
All such attempts are futile as any empirical proof will testify. This is not to say that this errant form of thinking has not influenced may Churches, therefore many Christians, it has and must be confronted for error breeds error. Here is a preposterous assumption: man with his feeble mind and reasoning can explain from his own resources to vindicate and prove the deep things of God. Does not the Bible itself teach that it is impossible to comprehend the incomprehensible? Are not God's was past finding out? How can we explain His nature or His acts? How can we explain the Trinity (God in Three Persons)? Yet those self-deifying philosophers presume to know the incomprehensible apart from what the Bible teaches. This Hegelian philosophical and Platonic thinking hold that man is God in his highest form of his existence and that philosophy is the highest style of man. What an assertion, it is insanity of presumption that faith is revealed in philosophy. Here is a sad fact: liberal theology has in one form or another accepted and adopted this philosophical reasoning and has placed man above God. They don't say so in those exact words, no, they give to man what man does not have, free will to choose salvation, unless they first choose God then they receive faith, even if they admit to having faith first, how does a man who is totally depraved by sin choose anything good? Paul writes: "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for it will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me" (Romans 7:18-20). Paul adds: "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, no indeed can it be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Romans 8:7-9). It can be plainly seen that man is not higher than God, and his reason is not enough to save him, yet, when God calls, enables that one to have faith, that man chooses Him. It to that thing, or One that we place our faith upon the authority of that One that give saving faith, eternal salvation.
Hear, my children, the
instruction of a father,
and give attention to know
understanding;
For I give you good doctrine:
Do not forsake my law.
Proverbs 5:1-2
May God Give You Peace
Richard L. Crumb
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