MY DEAR E.--Religious faith being simply the confidence we have in the Divine testimony, as our acquaintance with that testimony increases, and we discover new truths or new facts, so our faith will be progressively enlarged or extended, being always in exact proportion to our knowledge of the testimony or revelation of God. The question now is, Must an individual wait until he is fully acquainted with all the particulars revealed in the Bible, before he can properly be regarded as having the amount of faith necessary to salvation and church membership? Or are there particular points only, in regard to which he must be instructed? And if this be true, what are these important matters, which he must know and believe, in order to salvation?

      A thorough knowledge of the Bible is not regarded, by any of the sects, as an essential prerequisite to the profession of faith which they require. And it is fortunate for them that it is so, else the party would expire with the last of its present members. All agree that there are certain fundamental points which must be believed, and which, taken together, constitute what is termed orthodoxy.¹ To extract these from the Bible, has been the great business of councils and assemblies, which, smelting, as it were, in their party furnaces, the ore of Holy Writ, have obtained, as they imagined, from it, the pure and precious metal. This they have then mixed with the requisite portion of alloy to give it hardness; and having stamped it with [333] their own theological image and superscription, have issued it as the only standard coin in the realm. Each party, however, disagreeing as to the characters which should distinguish this precious metal, have, unfortunately, obtained a different product, and we have; consequently, in circulation, as many standards as there are parties, and it would puzzle the most skillful assayer in the theological mint to determine their relative values.

      Nevertheless, after all, we certainly concur with the rest of the religious world, in making a distinction between what is properly and especially "the faith," or the Christian faith, and a general belief and reception of the Divine testimony contained in the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments. But we differ from all the parties here in one important particular, to which I wish to call your special attention. It is this: that while they suppose this Christian faith to be doctrinal, we regard it as personal. In other words, they suppose doctrines, or religious tenets, to be the subject-matter of this faith; we, on the contrary, conceive it to terminate on a person--the Lord Jesus Christ himself. While they, accordingly, require an elaborate confession from each convert--a confession of a purely doctrinal and intellectual character, studiously elaborated into an extended formula--we demand only a simple confession of Christ--an heartfelt acknowledgment that he is the Messiah, the Son of God.

      The Christian faith, then, in our view, consists not in any theory or system of doctrine, but in a sincere belief in the person and mission of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is personal in its subject, as well as in its object; in regard to him who believes, as well as in regard to that which is believed. It consists of simple facts, directly connected with the personal history and character of Jesus Christ as the Messiah and the promised Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. It is personal in its object, leading to personal regard and love for Christ, and a personal interest in his salvation. It consists not in definitions; neither does it embrace the litigated questions of sectarism. It contains not one, much less five cardinal points of speculative theology; nor does it inflict upon the believer, for his sins, forty articles save one. The gospel of salvation, indeed, were ill-fitted to be preached to every creature, illiterate or learned, if it consisted, as some imagine, of those ponderous bodies of divinity, and intricate systems of theology, which have oppressed the energies and entangled the movements of the Protestant world.

      It might not, indeed, be difficult, had we space to devote to the subject, to account for that seemingly strange infatuation of the Protestant community, which, like that of the alchemists in search of the philosopher's stone, which should convert base metals into gold, led [334] them, for ages, in a long and weary search of that visionary something called orthodoxy, which, by the slightest contact with the soul, could transmute ignorance, bigotry and spiritual pride, into the most shining Christian virtues. We will only remark, that the great doctrine of the Lutheran reformation, "Justification by faith," having been established upon the ruins of Romish works of superstition, minds, imbued with a love of theory and metaphysical investigation, engaged in remote speculations touching the nature, the quality, and the extent of this justifying faith; and formed elaborate systems of doctrine; which they supposed to be comprised within its limits, and to which they thought it necessary that every other mind should conform. They seemed to attribute to a particular set of tenets an independent and exclusive saving efficacy, as though they were possessed of some talismanic influence, or as though the belief of them was so meritorious as to secure a title to salvation. Their talents, learning, and important services, in other respects, in the cause of the Reformation, gave them an influence by which the whole mind of the Reformation was turned into this channel. Purity of doctrine became the rage; and, as each party leader differed from others in his tenets, but agreed with them all in pride of opinion and zeal for orthodoxy, doctrinal disquisitions and controversies were every where predominant, and the whole religious community became entangled and bewildered in theological distinctions and metaphysical speculations, and seemed to lose sight entirely of the real simplicity of the Christian doctrine, and of the true nature of Christianity itself.

      The truth is, that this whole controversy about purity of faith and doctrine, seems to have originated in a misapplication of the Lutheran doctrine of justification by faith. It is perfectly well known, that Luther did not depend for his salvation upon any particular set of tenets which he held, but upon the merits of Christ alone. "Look to the wounds of Christ," said to him his spiritual counsellor, the Vicar General of his order, "and you will there see shining clearly the purposes of God towards man; we cannot understand God out of Christ." "Some, perhaps, will say," cried Luther himself long afterwards, when, on his way to the Diet at Worms, he preached at Erfurth, "you talk to us much about faith; teach us, then, how to obtain it. Well, agreed; I will show you how our Lord Jesus Christ said, Peace be unto you, behold my hands. That is to say, Look, O man, it is I, I alone, who have taken away thy sins and redeemed thee, and now thou hast peace, saith the Lord." And it was this humble reliance upon the work of Christ that characterized both the life and death of this great reformer. [335]

      It has been, indeed, the great error of Protestants, and the great cause of all their schisms, that they have sought to supersede this direct personal reliance upon Christ, by a mere intellectual assent to a set or system of tenets. True, they do by no means proscribe this personal trust or faith in Christ, but the natural working of the whole machinery of a party, so far as it is peculiar and denominational, tends to lead the mind away from this simple faith to a false confidence in mere human opinions and intellectual abstractions, and in outward forms. Thanks, however, to the power of the gospel itself, this tendency of the systems of the day has been checked in individual cases, and, though many are lulled into a false security, trusting to the orthodoxy of their belief, and mistaking zeal for human opinions as a meritorious earnestness for saving truth; and substituting an extravagant admiration of the leading men and favorite preachers of their denomination for the love of Christ, there are some who have gazed, in silence and in secret, upon that face "marred;" that form insulted; those bleeding wounds of that Just and Holy One who "offered himself a sacrifice without spot to God," and have yielded to him alone their confidence and love. Such individuals are found in all parties, and they recognize each other as being fellow-heirs of the grace of life, and as having a common interest in the great Redeemer. It is, indeed, this simple faith in Christ, accompanied by its appropriate fruits, which constitutes that "common Christianity" which is admitted to exist in all parties, independent of party peculiarities; an admission, by the way, which at once assigns to these peculiarities their true character, as mere excrescences upon Christianity: as having no power to save, and as the very means of perpetuating division. Happy would it be for the world, if all could be induced to rest content with that "common Christianity," which it is the very object of the present Reformation to present to the religious community as the only means of securing unity and peace.

      I am aware, that it will be difficult for those who have been accustomed to regard the Christian faith as an assent to a particular set of tenets, to recognize this simple belief in Christ as sufficient to admit an individual to the blessings of Christianity. If, however, they will fully consider the Scriptural import of this faith in Christ, they will perceive, that, under an extreme simplicity which adapts it to all minds, it necessarily involves and includes all the conditions of salvation. It is to be noted, that to believe in Christ is not simply to believe what Christ says; that is, to receive as true whatever may be regarded as the teaching or doctrine of Christ. This is the very inadequate and erroneous view which we have been combatting, which mistakes an intellectual assent to the deductions of reason from [336] Scripture premises or even to the express dictates of inspiration, for a personal and direct reliance upon Christ himself. Again: to believe in Christ, is not merely to believe that there lived a person bearing that name. Yet there are multitudes who seem to have no higher idea of the Christian faith than this, and no better knowledge of the term Christ than to suppose it a mere personal appellation. But the word Christ is not a name. It is an official designation. The name JESUS, given by express command of God, is itself significant, and the addition of the word CHRIST, with the definite article which is often expressed, and may be always supplied, furnishes the titular and qualifying expression which denotes the peculiar character of the person. He is not Jesus Christ, as an individual thus named and surnamed, but he is JESUS THE CHRIST. These are propositions totally different. The former might be to us of no peculiar moment; but the latter expands itself over the past, the present, and the future, and involves in it the eternal destinies of the human race. Yet, though to believe the person to whom this title is applied to be what the title really imports, is to believe something concerning or about this person, of a most important and far-reaching nature, even this would fall short of constituting the Christian faith, if this conviction be supposed unconnected with that trust and direct reliance upon this person which would be justly due to him in the office and character thus assigned to him.

      Whether or not it be possible for any one fully to understand the import and bearings of the sublime proposition that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, and truly to believe it, and yet, at the same time, to entertain the proposition as a mere intellectual conviction, without giving up the heart to him in humility, penitence and love; to trust and confide in him as the only Saviour, and the anointed King of kings, is a question which I deem it unnecessary to consider. For certain it is, that if it be possible for any one thus to separate, in point of fact, words from thoughts, thoughts from things, or things from the emotions they are fitted to excite, and to believe this proposition as a mere doctrine, tenet, or mental abstraction, such a one does not possess the Christian faith. To believe in Christ, is to receive him in all the glory of his character, personal and official; to trust in him in all the relations which he sustains to us, as our Prophet, our Priest, and our King; to behold in him our only hope and refuge; and renouncing ourselves, our own self confidence, our righteousness, and every vain device, to lean on him only as our stay, and to look to him only as the "Lord our righteousness," as our salvation and our life. It is not merely to believe what is said of him as the Son of God; as the Son of Man; as living, dying, rising, reigning, returning; but, [337] believing this, to trust in him as our Saviour, to walk with him as our teacher, our friend; to realize his gracious presence with us, and to discern his footsteps in the path we tread. It is to be brought into direct relation and fellowship with him; to think of him as of a person Whom we know, and to whom we are known; to speak to him as to one who hears, and to listen to him as to one who speaks. Such, in our view, is the Christian faith; not a trust in definitions; in doctrines; in church order; in apostolic succession or official grace; in opinions or dogmas, true or false; but a sincere belief of the testimony concerning the facts in the personal history of the Lord Messiah, accompanied by a cordial reception of him in his true character as thus revealed to us, and an entire personal reliance upon him for our salvation.

      That this simple trust in Jesus, and nothing else, is really and truly "the faith," will be clearly seen by any one who will examine the Scriptures upon the subject. He will there find--

      1st. That the history of Jesus of Nazareth is related to us--his birth, his miracles, his teachings, his sufferings, his glorification; and that our attention is called to the fulfilment of the ancient prophecies, in the incidents recorded of him, for the express purpose of producing this faith. I need only here refer to the close of the testimony of John, where he expressly declares this to have been the object: "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God."

      2d. That Jesus himself declares, that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." And he announces, also, on the other hand, that it is the rejection of this faith which occasions condemnation. "He that believeth not is condemned already, because he has not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God." And many other passages might be quoted of the same purport.

      3d. That he commissioned the Apostles "to go out into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," declaring that he that believed and was baptized should be "saved," and that he that believed not should be "condemned." Now, "the gospel" is simply the glad tidings concerning Christ; that "he died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried and rose again, according to the Scriptures" (I. Cor. xvi. 4). It consists of the simple story of the cross; of those wonderful facts of Christ's history which reveal him as the promised Lamb of God, who should take away the sins of the world. To believe these facts is to receive Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, and the Saviour of men. [338]

      4th. That the Apostles, in fulfilling this commission to preach the gospel, gave to those whom they addressed a concise statement of these facts in Christ's history, and presented the evidence on which they rested; thus endeavoring to produce in the minds of their hearers this belief in Jesus as the Messiah, and requiring no larger faith than this, and no more extended knowledge than this involves, for introduction into the kingdom of Christ. Take, for example, Peter's discourse, Acts ii.: "Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders, and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain; whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it . . . Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear. . . . Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ."

      5th. The effect of this discourse was, as we are told, that three thousand persons were pierced to the heart and converted to Christ. Or take, in the following chapter, Peter's address to a different audience: "The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you: and killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses." The result of this was, we are told, that about five thousand men "believed." "Howbeit, many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand." Or take the first discourse to the Gentiles: "The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ, (He is Lord of all.) That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost, and with power; who went abroad doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Him God raised up the third day and showed him openly; not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and [339] to testify that it is he which was ordained to be the judge of quick and dead. To him give all the prophets witness, that, through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins." Or, again, take Paul's preaching at Antioch, Acts xiii. 17-41.

      6th. That this faith in Christ is that which expressly enjoined in order to salvation. See the address of Paul and Silas to the Philippian jailor. Acts xvi. 31--"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Or Philip's declaration to the eunuch, Acts viii. 37--"If thou believest with all thy heart, thou mayest;" and the satisfactory reply, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." Again: John says, "And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment."

      7th. That it is this faith which not only introduces the believer into the Christian institution, but enables him to maintain his profession and sustain himself against the temptations of life. "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God." Again: "Whosoever is born of God, overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"

      But I need not multiply quotations, to show that a sincere belief in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, is emphatically and truly the Christian faith, and the only faith which can lawfully be demanded in order to admission to Christian privileges and church fellowship. This is the CHRISTIAN'S CREED, and the only creed to which any one may be justly called upon to subscribe. And this being so, all other creeds and confessions are at once nullified and repudiated, as without Divine authority, as mere inventions of men, leading the mind away from Christ, and a direct and personal reliance upon him, to mere intellectual conceptions, abstract propositions, and human opinions; or, if not wholly to these, at least to subordinate truths, collateral questions, remote conclusions, which belong not immediately to what is properly the Christian faith, but to the subsequent chapter of Christian knowledge. Hence, even upon the hypothesis that the religious formularies of doctrine, now in vogue, contain nothing but truth, we deny the right of any one to complicate the simplicity of the Christian faith in this manner, and to demand, in advance, a degree of knowledge and experience in the child, which, in the very nature of things, can be expected only in one who has attained to the stature of a man in Christ Jesus.

      It will appear, then, from the above, that while we regard the Bible as the great and only repository of knowledge in religion, and [340] as the volume which is to occupy the mind and heart of the Christian student, we consider that particular portion of it which is immediately concerned with Christ's personal history and ministry, as that which is to be presented to the unconverted world as embracing the subject-matter of the Christian faith--the simple gospel of Christ. This may be either read in the book itself, or presented by the living preacher. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." It is a plain and simple narrative, the truth of which was confirmed by signs and miracles; "those demonstrations of the Spirit" which attended its introduction, and which were then faithfully recorded, in order to accomplish the same purpose in all future ages. It is this gospel which is the "power of God for salvation, to every one who believes it." It is not a power of God--one of the methods which God employs to save; but it is emphatically the power of God for salvation; the only revealed way in which God can, in consistency with his own attributes, justify and save the sinner. It is the cordial belief of this love of God, thus manifested in the life, death, resurrection and glorification of Christ, which reconciles man to God, which overwhelms the soul in penitence and contrition for its offences, and, through the influences of the Holy Spirit, produces an entire renovation of heart and reformation of character. In brief, it is Christ himself who is thus made to us "wisdom" and "righteousness," "sanctification and redemption."

	Yours truly,
R. R.

Source:

Robert Richardson. "Principles and Purposes of the Reformation: A Brief Account of the Principles and Purposes of the Religious Reformation Urged by A. Campbell, and Others.--II. The Christian Faith." The Millennial Harbinger 23 (November 1852): 601-609.

NOTE: Included in Robert Richardson's The Principles and Objects of the Religious Reformation, Urged by A. Campbell and Others, Briefly Stated and Explained. 2d ed., rev. and enl. Bethany, VA: A. Campbell, 1853, pp. 25-39.

[MHA2 333-341]