Systematic Theology (Volume 1 of 3)Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Religion
Systematic Theology (Volume 1 of 3)
Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Baptists -- Doctrines; Theology, Doctrinal
See Hopkins, on Prayer-gauge, 10, and in Princeton Review, Sept.
1882:188. A. J. Balfour, Foundations of Belief, 311—“Not Divinity
alone intervenes in the world of things. Each living soul, in its
measure and degree, does the same.” Each soul that acts in any way
on its surroundings does so on the principle of the miracle.
Phillips Brooks, Life, 2:350—“The making of all events miraculous
is no more an abolition of miracle than the flooding of the world
with sunshine is an extinction of the sun.” George Adam Smith, on
_Is. 33:14—_“devouring fire ... everlasting burnings”: “If we look
at a conflagration through smoked glass, we see buildings
collapsing, but we see no fire. So science sees results, but not
the power which produces them; sees cause and effect, but does not
see God.” P. S. Henson: “The current in an electric wire is
invisible so long as it circulates uniformly. But cut the wire and
insert a piece of carbon between the two broken ends, and at once
you have an arc-light that drives away the darkness. So miracle is
only the momentary interruption in the operation of uniform laws,
which thus gives light to the ages,”—or, let us say rather, the
momentary change in the method of their operation whereby the will
of God takes a new form of manifestation. Pfleiderer, Grundriss,
100—“Spinoza leugnete ihre metaphysische Möglichkeit, Hume ihre
geschichtliche Erkennbarkeit, Kant ihre practische Brauchbarkeit,
Schleiermacher ihre religiöse Bedeutsamkeit, Hegel ihre geistige
Beweiskraft, Fichte ihre wahre Christlichkeit, und die kritische
Theologie ihre wahre Geschichtlichkeit.”
(_d_) What the human will, considered as a supernatural force, and what
the chemical and vital forces of nature itself, are demonstrably able to
accomplish, cannot be regarded as beyond the power of God, so long as God
dwells in and controls the universe. If man’s will can act directly upon
matter in his own physical organism, God’s will can work immediately upon
the system which he has created and which he sustains. In other words, if
there be a God, and if he be a personal being, miracles are possible. The
impossibility of miracles can be maintained only upon principles of
atheism or pantheism.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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