wholesale manner the doctrines o f the incarnation, the atonement and indeed all special revelation. He was one o f the early ration alists holding that if there is a God, He is entirely apart from His creation, but indeed doubting that such- a God even exists. The doctrines which Celsus advanced are very widespread even to this day. These doctrines may be summed up in what is known to us as modernism or liberalism and, indeed in a modified form, it may be found in part at least in the various neos which have sprung into existence in later years. The objections which Celsus, the great opponent o f Chris tianity, raised were answered away back there in 200 A.D. Satan has no other heresies than those; he knows no other principles o f assault. He may use different methods, different emphases and different approaches through different spokesmen from time to time, but for the past 1800 year;s no new criticism o f Christianity has been raised. All is merely a “ re-hash” that is restated by each new generation o f skeptics and unbelievers. So it seems that each generation has to fight its own theologi cal battles. Human beings never seem to learn from the experi ences o f the past. The ranks o f present-day neo-orthodoxy and the new evangelicalism are composed o f those individuals who are not quite willing to accept the historic Scripture truths, but who feel that, somehow, they must contribute something slightly original and somewhat distinctive in order to be considered "thinkers.” It is most unfortunate indeed that this wicked pride creeps into the thinking o f otherwise devout men o f God who become ambitious to be known as intellectuals. On the other hand, they do not wish to be classified as outright heretics. So they try to cast a new slant on old truths, giving them a little different shade, a little different color and, alas, more than a little different meaning. We are hearing more and more today o f the old universal reconciliation doctrine which over the centuries has been repudi ated consistently by the church o f Jesus Christ but which is once again rearing its ugly head. Possibly one o f its most able exponents is the Secretary o f Evangelism o f the American Bap tist Convention, Dr. Jitsuo Morikawa. Speaking to a convention o f Southern Presbyterians, he stated recently, “ the redemption o f the world is not dependent upon the souls we win for Jesus Christ. . . . There cannot be individual salvation. . . . Salvation has more to do with the whole society than with the individual soul. . . . We must not be satisfied to win people one by one.” He states elsewhere, “ God has already won a mighty redemption for the entire world . . . the task o f the church is to tell all men that they already belong to Christ.” There are at least two variations o f this false doctrine o f Universalism: one that God is so good He would not condemn anyone to an eternal hell because men are essentially so good that, somehow, their good works will outweigh their evil deeds even in the worst cases, and thus all will be saved by their good works. The other variation o f this heretical (Continued on page 23)
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