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There
are three elements that operate in the spiritual world.
They are the divine, the human, and the Satanic. The
Bible recognizes these three elements, or
instrumentalities working to produce the spiritual
results that we see. Nothing is more clearly taught in
the Bible than the personality of God and of the angels
who do his will. Likewise, Satan is, all through the
bible, a personality, and the demons that do his will
are also spoken of in a way that makes it plain to us
that they too are personal beings. These good and evil
personalities exist as really as man exists and are just
as personal. Man is capable of having definite
relationship with any of these personalities, whether
the good or the bad. He is capable of working with them
to a certain end, or of working against them to a
certain other end. He may work with the divine to carry
out the will of God, or he may work with the evil
personalities to carry out evil things. Any one of these
three elements may work independently, so that a thing
may be of god independent of man and the devil, or it
may be of the devil independent of God or man, or it may
be of man independent of God or the devil.
True
religion is of God, but it also involves man. Therefore
the human element will always enter more or less into
our religion. The vital elements of religion are from
God, but when these vital elements, or powers, work in
man, they do not coerce his will. They do not overcome
his personality. They do not take possession of him so
as to rule him. He does not come under rule; he still
acts voluntarily. This human element in religion shows
itself in peculiar manifestations, customs, ideas, and
forms. When the Spirit of God comes into a man, he
manifests himself in different ways, but especially in a
holy Christian character and a holy Christian life. His
presence affects all the faculties of man, but the
outward expression of these effects are not particularly
of the Holy Ghost. They are rather of man. All who are
saved have in them the same divine element operating to
produce the same results. The external manifestations of
this working depends largely upon the temperament of the
human. One manifests his joy by shouting, another
laughs, another weeps, another sits quietly with shining
eyes and glowing countenance. But these manifestations
are merely the human expression of the inward joy.
During the centuries, man?s spiritual emotions have been
manifested in a great variety of ways. Special religious
movements have been noted for special manifestations
among them. Some movements have been noted for
shoutings; others, for wild demonstrations of many
different kinds. People often suppose these outward
demonstrations to be the work of God. If they were of
God, he would manifest himself in a more uniform manner.
There would be none of those extreme and unbecoming
demonstrations that are sometimes seen among religious
people. Man may make these demonstrations as a result of
his own choice and enthusiasm, or under the influence of
the Spirit of God, though we must never blame God for
the manner or the extent of such manifestations. If a
Christian lets his emotions or his enthusiasm run away
with his judgment and acts unseemly, we must lay the
blame upon the human element. It is the man, not his
God, nor his religion necessarily, that is at fault.
Satan also operates on people to produce wild, emotional
excitement, and in some movements he is the principal
cause of the emotionalism. Especially is this true when
the life of the person is immoral. The jerking,
contortions, "falling under the power," etc., that
characterize certain brands of religion are usually of
Satan and man, though sometimes it may be only of man,
he abandoning himself to his emotions to such an extent
that nervous reaction sets in. It is safe to reject
these things from our consideration of the work of God.
We must place them in some other category.
The
variation of religious customs and forms in the world
are the outcropping of the human element. God did not
give us a definite program of religious worship nor did
he introduce any of the prevailing religious customs,
except those specifically named in the New Testament.
Those since introduced are of man, and should always be
distinguished from the real and vital elements of
religion. I do not mean to condemn all that is of man as
being evil. A thing must be judged by its intrinsic
value, not by its origin. Man?s works may be either good
or evil, either wise or unwise.
The many
religious ideas and doctrines in the world are of
various origin. Some are directly of God, some are
"doctrines of devils," and some are of men. The varying
and often contradictory doctrines taught in the world
that are supposed by their adherents to be the
revelation of divine truth come largely from man?s
imperfect conception of truth. Sometimes God is blamed
for this doctrinal confusion and discord, but we must
remember that God has given the same revelation of
himself and his truth to us all, and that it is only
man?s misinterpretation of this revelation that makes
the discord. It is true that some teach special
doctrines through perversity, others through
unwillingness to teach the truth because they are not
willing to obey it. But for this we must blame man, not
God. God?s truth is one; he is not the author of the
babel of religious teachings in the world. It is highly
important, then, that we learn what is the real truth
among the clashing doctrines of men.
It is the
human element that differentiates between religious
movements. The leader usually impresses his own
thoughts, views, customs, and temperamental
peculiarities upon the movement that he heads. We have
only to look into the past a little to see this. All men
who have the religion of Christ have the same vital
power of godliness working in them. They all have the
same salvation, but they have different ways of
manifesting it. The old Puritans were austere and high
in their morality. They were formal and rigid. Their
religion had in it much of the nature of iron. Then came
Fox with his quietism. His morality was just as high,
but it took a very different course. Instead of being
formal, like Puritanism, it went to the opposite extreme
of having almost no form. It was meditative, quiet, and
non-resistant. Methodism was radically different from
both of these, it being emotional and noisy and
demonstrative. Its devotees sometimes went to extremes
that were unseemly. The Scotch Covenanters were worthy
people, but they differed widely from many others. It
was one Spirit that operated in all these movements, and
he operated in them alike so far as people would permit.
These great differences in manners, customs, views, and
manifestations must be attributed to the human element
that entered so largely into them.
The same
thing may be observed among modern Christians. There are
still "shouting Methodists" and quiet Quakers, and
formal, orderly Presbyterians. No matter how much of God
one of these may have in him, the effect of the
influence or sentiment at work in the particular
movement has a strong influence upon his actions. His
tendency is always to act according to the forms of the
movement with which he is familiar.
This human
element is a variable quantity. It may or may not
obstruct the working of the divine, but in many
instances the divine is greatly limited or even entirely
crowded out by it, so that the religion becomes only a
human thing, while the soul is empty of God. There is
such a thing as a religion that is of man and has none
of the divine element in it. Those professing it have
never been born again. God has never entered into their
lives. They simply joined church, and that was all there
was to it. Their religion is wholly of and from
themselves, and will die with them.
When we meet
people and recognize them as being Christians, yet see
that they are different from us, that difference may be
attributed to the human element. It cannot be a
spiritual difference if both have the Spirit of Christ.
God draws all Christians together. He gives them all one
Spirit. He gives them the tie of love that binds them to
one another. The things that divide them are those human
forms and views and customs which they have accepted.
Where there is animosity and contention and bitterness,
the satanic element enters and God is shut out. God
wants his people to be all one. He is not so concerned
that they should be all alike in these human elements,
for that is hardly possible and not to be expected; but
he does want the divine element to have so large a place
in our lives and so to dominate the human element that
his people will be of one heart and soul in him, and
that there will be no division among them. We may teach
unity all we will, but if there is in us elements that
are of a nature to separate us from other Christians,
even if these should be only human elements, they will
be a barrier to the realization of a practical unity.
Unity must have for its basis only spiritual elements.
To make the human element in any wise the standard is to
make real unity impossible, except among those who are
alike in the human element. We should recognize the fact
that a general uniting of Christians must be built on
the foundation of the divine element, and that this must
be clearly separated in mind and heart from the human
element and held as a separate thing. So long as any
particular form or custom or any special manifestation
is a part of the standard around which Christians are
called to rally, there will be those who will find
themselves unable to accept that part of it, no matter
how much they may desire unity.
There is
also a human fellowship. Those who are in the same human
element or influence have the fellowship of the movement
with each other and do not have it with any one outside
the movement, even though they have spiritual fellowship
with him. People changing from one movement to another
carry this human influence with them, and are marked by
it so that they are sometimes suspected and held aloof.
Satan is
always ready to take advantage of this human element to
make it work out his purpose. He works to make us think
that humanly devised forms or customs are things of
vital importance. In fact, some of these are much harder
to break away from than we suppose them to be. They take
a deeper hold upon us many times than divine truth.
People feel as though they would be giving up their
religion if they should surrender these forms. A
particular mode of dress becomes sacred; a particular
form of service becomes exalted above all other forms.
It is only when we recognize these as being merely human
things and as having no vital connection with Biblical
truth that we are in a position to look at things from a
broad enough standpoint to stretch out our hands equally
to other Christians. If we become wedded to our forms
and customs, Satan is likely to use the fascination that
they possess for us to keep us from having the
confidence that we ought to have in other Christians.
Let us look away from these things back to the
fundamentals of Christian doctrine and life. These, and
these alone, can be the basis for the acceptance of
Christian profession. These alone can be the common
grounds upon which all Christians can meet. Let us look
away from ourselves and from these toys which we have
whittled out for ourselves. If we have labeled these
things Christianity, let us tear off these labels, and
see that henceforth we call nothing Christian but that
which is fundamentally divine working out through the
human, or has its origin in God himself. Do the best we
will, there will be more or less of the human element in
our religion. But let us deal with it as the human
element and not as the divine. Let us give it its due
weight, but no greater weight than it is worthy of
receiving. |
