Systematic Theology (Volume 1 of 3)Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Religion
Systematic Theology (Volume 1 of 3)
Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Baptists -- Doctrines; Theology, Doctrinal
Plato said, for substance, that there can be no ὅτι οἶδεν without
something of the ἁ οἶδεν. Harris, Philosophical Basis of Theism,
208—“By rational intuition man knows that absolute Being _exists_;
his knowledge of _what_ it is, is progressive with his progressive
knowledge of man and of nature.” Hutton, Essays: “A haunting
presence besets man behind and before. He cannot evade it. It
gives new meanings to his thoughts, new terror to his sins. It
becomes intolerable. He is moved to set up some idol, carved out
of his own nature, that will take its place—a non-moral God who
will not disturb his dream of rest. It is a righteous Life and
Will, and not the mere _idea_ of righteousness that stirs men so.”
Porter, Hum. Int., 661—“The Absolute is a thinking Agent.” The
intuition does not grow in certainty; what grows is the mind’s
quickness in applying it and power of expressing it. The intuition
is not complex; what is complex is the Being intuitively cognized.
See Calderwood, Moral Philosophy, 232; Lowndes, Philos. of Primary
Beliefs, 108-112; Luthardt, Fund. Truths, 157—Latent faculty of
speech is called forth by speech of others; the choked-up well
flows again when debris is cleared away. Bowen, in Bib. Sac.,
33:740-754; Bowne, Theism, 79.
Knowledge of a person is turned into personal knowledge by actual
communication or revelation. First, comes the intuitive knowledge
of God possessed by all men—the assumption that there exists a
Reason, Power, Perfection, Personality, that makes correct
thinking and acting possible. Secondly, comes the knowledge of
God’s being and attributes which nature and Scripture furnish.
Thirdly, comes the personal and presentative knowledge derived
from actual reconciliation and intercourse with God, through
Christ and the Holy Spirit. Stearns, Evidence of Christian
Experience, 208—“Christian experience verifies the claims of
doctrine by experiment,—so transforming probable knowledge into
real knowledge.” Biedermann, quoted by Pfleiderer, Grundriss,
18—“God reveals himself to the human spirit, 1. as its infinite
_Ground_, in the reason; 2. as its infinite _Norm_, in the
conscience; 3. as its infinite _Strength_, in elevation to
religious truth, blessedness, and freedom.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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