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A COMPENDIUM OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY:

ANALYTICAL OUTLINES OF A COURSE OF THEOLOGICAL STUDY,
BIBLICAL, DOGMATIC, HISTORICAL.

BY

WILLIAM BURT POPE, D.D.,

THEOLOGICAL TUTOR
DIDSBURY COLLEGE
MANCHESTER.

VOL. I. SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED.

LONDON: WESLEYAN-METHODIST BOOK-ROOM,
2, CASTLE STEEET, CITY ROAD, E.C.;
AND 26, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
1880.

HAYMAN, CHRISTY AND LILLY, LTD.,
PRINTERS, HATTON WORKS, 113—115, FARRINGDON ROAD, E.C

CONTENTS OF VOLUME ONE.

PRELIMINARIES.

DEFINITION OF THEOLOGY

THEOLOGY PROPER
God and Divine Things
IN RELATION TO MAN
Extent and Limitation
IN JESUS CHRIST
Relation to Natural Theology, and Earlier Dispensations
IN THE CHURCH:
Development and Various Types
THEOLOGY A SCIENCE
Its Aim, Methods, and Study

THE DIVINE RULE OF FAITH.

REVELATION OR THE FAITH

REVELATION AS GIVEN BY GOD
General;
Its Definitions
Special:
Its Purpose and Sphere
THE CHRISTIAN FAITH AS RECEIVED BY MAN
FAITH AND REASON
CREDENTIALS OF THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION
ITS RESPONSE TO EXPECTATION OF MANKIND:
Preparations in Human Nature;
Correction of Natural Religion;
Perfecting of Former Revelations
DIVINE ATTRIBUTES IN REVELATION:
The Supernatural Order
MIRACLES
Nature of Evidence;
Tests
PROPHECY
Laws;
Tests;
Value as Credential
INSPIRATION
The Divine Hand in Scripture
CHARACTER OF CHRIST THE REVEALER
HIS SUPREME CLAIM AND ITS JUSTIFICATION
HYPOTHESES CONCERNING CHRIST
INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY
ITS AVOWED AIM AND PRETENSIONS
ITS FULFILMENT OF ITS MISSION
ITS PERSISTENCE AND PERMANENCE:
Early Spread;
Conflict with Judaism;
Heathenism;
Natural Religions;
Scientific Thought;
Gradual Victory;
THE HOLY GHOST AS THE ABIDING INTERNAL CREDENTIAL
SUMMARY
INSPIRATION:
The Divine Faith
REVELATION AND INSPIRATION
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE
Old Testament;
Our Lord;
the Apostles;
DOGMATIC RESULTS
THE HOLY GHOST THE INSPIRES
THE ORGANS OF INSPIRATION
THE SCRIPTURES OF INSPIRATION
DEVELOPMENT OF DOCTRINE:
Heathenism;
Judaism;
Patristic;
Mediaeval;
Reformation;
Arminian;
Modern Theories;
Assaults and Defense;

THE CANON: The Divine Rule of Faith

THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE
SCRIPTURAL
Old Testament Ratified in New
NEW TESTAMENT
HISTORICAL
Earlier and Later History of Canon
ASSAULTS AND EVIDENCES
THE RULE OF FAITH
OBJECTIVE STANDARD OF DOCTRINE AND MORALS AND PRIVILEGES
RATIONALISM AND TRADITIONALISM
SUBJECTIVE CANON
BIBLICAL CRITICISM
FABRIC OF THE BIBLE:
Introduction, History
PHILOLOGY
HERMENEUTICS
EXEGESIS AND THEOLOGY

GOD.

THE EXISTENCE AND NOTION OF GOD

THE BEING OF GOD:
In what sense Innate and Demonstrable
IN THE CONSTITUTION OF HUMAN NATURE
COSMOLOGICAL AND TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENTS;
Consensus Gentium
LIMIT OF ALL ARGUMENT
The Secret of Antitheism
THE NOTION OF GOD
Partial;
Real; and
Sufficient

THE DIVINE ESSENCE AND PERFECTIONS

THE DIVINE NATURE AND NAMES
ESSENTIAL NAMES
Elohim and Jehovah,
with their Correlation in the Old Testament and the New

THE TRIUNE NAME

THE DIVINE UNITY
Polytheism;
Pantheism
THE TRINITY AND TRIUNITY
Development in Scripture
ECCLESIASTICAL DEVELOPMENT:
Ante-Nicene;
Sabellianism;
Subordinationism and Principatus of the Father;
Arianism;
The Creeds;
The Councils:
Mediaeval;
Reformation;
Modern Errors;
Practical Conclusions

THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD

RELATION TO DIVINE ESSENCE
CLASSIFICATIONS
ATTRIBUTES OF ABSOLUTE ESSENCE
Spirituality;
Infinity;
Immensity;
Eternity;
Self - Sufficiency;
Immutability;
Perfection;
Observations
ATTRIBUTES RELATED TO THE CREATURE:
Freedom;
Omnipotence;
Omnipresence;
Omniscience;
Wisdom;
Goodness;
Observations
ATTRIBUTES RELATED TO MORAL GOVERNMENT
Moral Attributes Generally;
Holiness and Love;
Holiness;
Righteousness;
Justice;
Truth;
Faithfulness;
Love;
Mercy and Grace;
General Observations on the Study of the Attributes

GOD AND THE CREATURE.

CREATION

THE CREATION: GOD
The Holy Trinity;
Divine Attributes in Creation
PRIMARY OR PROPER CREATION
OPPOSED SYSTEMS
Pantheism;
Polytheism;
Dualism;
Materialistic Atheism;
Antitheism;
Agnosticism;
Scientific Materialism;
Positivism
SECONDARY CREATION, OR COSMOGONY
THE MOSAIC COSMOGONY
EXTRA-BIBLICAL COSMOGONIES
EVOLUTION
Cosmical and Organic Development
MOTIVE AND END OF CREATION
THE CREATED UNIVERSE
ANGELS AND SPIRITS
THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE:
Matter and the Cosmos
MAN
Divine Image;
Natural and Federal Unity;
Hypothesis as to his Origin;
Unity, and Antiquity on Earth;
Elements of Human Nature

PROVIDENCE

THE GOD OF PROVIDENCE
The Several Persons of the Trinity,
and the Divine Attributes in Relation to this Doctrine
THE OBJECTS OF PROVIDENCE
PROVIDENTIAL CONSERVATION AND THEORIES
PROVIDENTIAL CARE
PROVIDENTIAL GOVERNMENT
SUMMARY

PRELIMINARIES.

REVELATION TO MAN
BY JESUS CHRIST
IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
THEOLOGICAL SCIENCE

CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.

CHRISTIAN Theology is the science of God and Divine thing’s, based upon the revelation
made to mankind in Jesus Christ, and variously systematized within the Christian Church.
(General Definition)

All that belongs to the preliminaries of our study may be distributed under the several
heads suggested by this definition, which is so framed as to include, first, Theology
proper; secondly, its limitation to the relations between God and mankind; thirdly, its
essential connection with Christ; fourthly, its characteristics as developed under various
influences within the Christian Church; and lastly, its title to the name of a science. The
introductory remarks which will be made on these several topics have for their object
simply to prepare the mind of the student for what lies before him; and to give a few hints
which will al1 afterwards be expanded in due course.

THEOLOGY.
God is the source and the subject and the end of theology. The stricter and earlier use of
the word limited it to the doctrine of the Triune God and His attributes. But in modern
usage it includes the whole compass of the science of Religion, or the relations of all
things to God. This gives it its unity and dignity and sanctity. It is A DEO, DE DEO, IN
DEUM: from God in its origin, concerning God in its substance, and it leads to God in all
its issues; His NAME is in it.

1. The only adequate definition of this subject embraces DIVINE THINGS: Logos peri tou
Theou kai peri ton Theion. The Supreme, whose being is the first postulate of theology or
divinity, declares Himself to be as to His nature incomprehensible and unsearchable. I AM
THAT I AM 1 is the nearest approach to a definition; it asserts without proving His
existence, and that He exists in an essence known only to Himself. The Old Testament
asks: Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto
perfection?2 The New Testament, which brings Him nearer in His Son, represents Him as
dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto to search.3 In the profoundest
sense He is ever THE UNKNOWN GOD.4 It is His glory that He must conceal Himself. But
St. Paul, as a preacher to the Gentiles, nevertheless declares that Unknown God, and in
his writings uses two expressive phrases which at once affirm the prerogative and assign
the limits of our theology proper. He speaks of the things of God, ta ton Thon, 5 in
reference to those mysteries which the Spirit can and will reveal to those who receive
Him. And he indicates that even apart from the supernatural revelations of the Spirit what
is [or may be] known of God, to gnwsyon ton Theon,6 is unfolded to man. All that is
known is all that may be known: the possible knowledge is the actual knowledge in its
successive communications from the light of nature to the light of grace and thence to the
light of glory. The thick darkness round about the unsearchable Presence is not absolutely
unbroken: the rays that flow from it penetrate every department of true knowledge,
especially of this.
1 Ex. 3:14, 2 Job 11:7, 3 1 Tim. 6:16, 4 Acts 17: 23, 5 1 Cor. 2:11,
6 Rom 1:19.

2. There is a sense in which universal theology is concerned simply with the relation of
all things to God: if we carefully guard our meaning we may make this proposition
include the converse, the relation of God to all things. Relation of course must be mutual;
but it is hard in this matter to detach from the notion of relation that of dependence. The
Eternal One is the Unconditioned Being. When we study His nature and perfections and
works we must always remember that He is His Perfect Self independent of every created
object, and independent of every thought concerning Him. But there is not a doctrine, nor
is there a branch or development of any doctrine, which is not purely the expression of
some relation of His creatures to the Supreme First Cause.

3. Hence every branch of this science is sacred. It is a temple which is filled with the
presence of God. From its hidden sanctuary, into which no high priest taken from among
men can enter, issues a light which leaves no part dark save where it is dark with excess
of glory. Therefore all fit students are worshippers as well as students. In the heathen
world there was a true instinct of this. The highest tribute the ancients could pay to their
poets and philosophers, from Homer and Hesiod downwards, was to call them Theologoi.
Their philosophy was their theology. So in the early Church, when theology put on its
perfection, its relation to God was the seal of that perfection: St. John was called the
Divine, Ho Theologos, because his writings contained most of the manifestation of the
Holy Trinity in its internal and external relations. What has been said of God Himself
may be said concerning the theological study of God: He is the centre everywhere of a
science which has its circumference nowhere. The remembrance of this must exert its
influence upon our spirit and temper in all our studies. Who shall ascend into the hill of
the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure
heart.1
1Ps. 24:3,4.

DIVINE THINGS MADE KNOWN TO MAN.

Theology is mainly concerned with the things of God as they are related to man and his
destination. This proposition implies the capacity in our nature to receive Divine truth;
indicates both the extent and the limits of its range as revealed especially for man; and
explains the essentially human character which is impressed on its form and invests it
with a profound human interest.

1. Man is in a certain sense the centre of this science. He is specifically the centre of
one branch of it, technically called ANTHROPOLOGY, which has to do with his
characteristics as a creature formed in the image of God; but, more generally, he is the
object around which all revolves. The light of revelation is poured upon the human race;
and in its fullness upon it alone. Accordingly the relation of mankind to the Supreme may
be said to be one of the definitions of theology. But man is only one insignificant, and yet
not insignificant, creature of God. His place in the vast creation, and the development of
his wonderful career in harmony with all other Divine designs, marks out his relation to
theology universal. But this general truth must be viewed in two lights: man is the object
of all revelation, as it concerns him and his destination; man is the subject of all
revelation, as he is its recipient.

(1) Theology is concerned with the destiny of man in the universe. Its first lessons, the
opening of the volume of the book, presents him as the head of the creation of God: the
history of the origin of all things, and of the slow formation of this world, is only the
preface to his introduction as the representative of his Maker upon the earth. His fall and
his redemption are blended in one; the whole sequel of revelation is the record of the
Divine method of retrieving in the Second Adam what in the first was marred, THE DIVINE
IMAGE. The redemption of the human race, and the salvation of individual man, are
interwoven into one great economy, stretching from the shutting of the earthly to the
opening of the heavenly Paradise. There is not a revelation of God in His three Persons,
as the Father, the Son Incarnate, and the Holy Ghost, which is not directly or indirectly
connected with the salvation of mankind. Thus theology is simply the system of Divine
truth which lies at the foundation of human religion or the spiritual fellowship between
man and his Creator.
(2) But the same general principle may be referred to man as the recipient of revelation.
Created in the image of God, he is an intelligent, free and responsible creature, capable of
separation from the Divine will and also capable of restoration to the Divine communion.
The two first postulates of all theology are the Personality of the Infinite Being and the
personality of man His creature. Neither of these is matter of demonstration in the holy
oracles: both are assumed or taken for granted everywhere. To renounce either is to
annihilate theological knowledge properly so called. Although in the prosecution of this
study methods of proving both may be adopted, under the pressure of a necessity
imposed on us by the waywardness of human skepticism, yet must we finally and always
beg the question here God is a Person who condescends to man; and man is a person who
is capable of God.

(3) The objective and subjective relations of man as the centre of theological science
meet in the word RELIGION, one of the largest and deepest terms with which we have to
do. Its derivation has been much disputed; but the two leading explanations of it may be
united for our present purpose. According to Lactantius, vinculo pietatis obstricti deo et
RELIGATI sumus, unde ipsa religio nomen accepit, non, ut Cicero interpretatus est, a
relegendo. That is to say, the eternal bond which binds man to God is signified by
religion, which is therefore the relation of the human creature to the Supreme Creator, as
acknowledged and borne witness to in all forms of theological teaching and worship.
Men have never been without a religion, for God has never left Himself without witness1
in any age or land: there have been gods many and religions many, though to us only one
God and. one religion. The rejected interpretation of Cicero, however, demands to be
heard: qui omnia, quae ad cultum deorum pertinerent, diligenter retractarent et tanquam
RELEGERENT, sunt dicti religiosi, ex relegendo. That is to say, the exercise of the human
mind in pondering and considering Divine things is signified by religion, which is, as it
were, an instinctive and inwrought aspiration of human nature corrected and purified and
directed to its highest issues in the true faith. We combine the two when we say that man
is the centre of all theology as it is the foundation of all true religion.
1Acts 14:17.

2. Hence the limitation that everywhere meets us. The relations of the vast universe,
and of other creatures in it, with God, are included only so far as they concern mankind.
Revelation brings us tidings from without, from the outside universe; and its
communications concerning the earlier probation of spiritual intelligences, their division
into orders, their interest and agency in the development of the Divine purposes, amount
when systematized to a considerable department of revealed truth, to which the name
ANGELOLOGY is sometimes given. But it is always their connection with man that
regulates the method and the amount of these disclosures. There is strict parsimony as
to everything not essential to human destiny: the principle of Least Action is maintained
in revelation as in nature. Hence it is obvious that the responsibility of theology, so to
speak, is limited to one subject. Those who study it must submit to this restriction.
What is that to thee?1 has its meaning here for all who indulge too much in speculation
both as to the past and as to the future. Concerning all other things thou shalt know
hereafter: there are many hints and earnests of a more abundant compensatory out-
pouring of knowledge in due time. Meanwhile this is the answer by anticipation to
many objections of the skeptical spirit. We have but one leaf out of an enormous book;
its page begins and ends, so to speak, in the middle of a sentence. Hereafter we shall
see much more of this book. Now we know in part.2 We know ourselves apart from
other creatures and other worlds. Then we shall know as also we are known: we shall
know other beings and other worlds as they know us.
1John 21:22, 2 1 Cor. 13:12.

3. There is an impress upon theology, whether in its Divine records or in its human
science, which results from its adaptation to human faculties. We must here take it for
granted that man is a creature capable of religion, that is, of communion with God, as a
person related to a Person. The Scripture which does not prove that God is does not prove
that man is capable of knowing God: both are the fundamental presuppositions of
theology. But, reserving the fuller demonstration of this, we must mark that as he is a
creature in probation, his knowledge of Divine things is given in probationary forms,
testing his character at every point. All is expressly adapted to his limited faculties, and
imparted to him in a way suitable to his present stage of existence. God has come down to
us in the likeness of men,1 and speaks to them in their own language. As the Rabbins said
of the Law, Lex Dei loquitur linguam filiorum hominum, the law of God speaks the
language of the children of men. The entire Bible is pervaded by what is called
ANTHROPOMORPHISM and ANTHROPOPATHY: the former gives a name to the
condescension of God in seeming to take a human form and human attributes; the latter
includes also the peculiar affections of man, not excepting some that belong to his
infirmity, such as hope and suspense. Not that the reality does not correspond. The
Supreme gives us a true revelation of Himself; but it is a revelation that can be
understood only in our world, and by us men. Even the angels desire to look into these
things; 2 they are learning the secrets of the manifold wisdom of God as known by the
Church; 3 but they cannot study them in our language.
1Acts 14:11, 2 1 Peter 1:12, 3 Eph. 3:10.

4. As human students of our own truth, we may be assured Sufficient that we shall have
full and sufficient guidance. Nothing that it concerns us to know has been or will be
hidden from us: what is reserved is reserved for our discipline, as what is revealed is
revealed for our instruction. He hath showed thee, 0 man, what is good: 1 this must
have its widest application. So also must that other saying, which contains the
counterpart: The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are
revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever.2 With what a profound human
interest does this invest the whole domain of this sacred knowledge! Our life, our hope,
our destiny, our all, is bound up with it: it is the record of our degradation and of our
deliverance, of our ruin and of our recovery, of our woes and of our redemption. How
great is the dignity of man that he is the centre, in any sense, of such a science! If it is
the name of God that gives it its surpassing majesty, that grandeur is reflected upon us.
What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? 3 Our study cannot be conducted aright
without a combination of the loftiest triumph and the deepest humility; we must always
remember the dignity while we never forget the lowliness of the place we ourselves
occupy in it. Approaching the revelation of Him who is our Wisdom, we hear: that no
flesh should glory in His presence; 4 receiving that revelation we again hear, he that