MODIFICATIONS IN THE IDEA OP GOD^ ETC. G7 



'Outside and beyond the nebulous force itself. So I think you will 

 find that in Christianity there has been an external force -which has 

 been at work from the beginning. In Scripture whei^e did the 

 •whole idea of the creation of the Avorld originate ? If you read 

 that first chapter of Genesis what cause was behind, according to 

 •scientific thought, the millions of years before the creation of man ? 

 Man could not have discovered those facts. 



Then the lecturer tells us that evolution is going on now. I 

 have failed to ascertain that there is any proof of that fact. It 

 seems to me that there is not any evolution going on now. There 

 ■does not seem to be a springing into being of any new species. It 

 would seem therefore as though the Almighty Spirit originally 

 impregnated matter, so to speak, with vitality and that that has 

 ■ceased and that there is no evolution going on now, as previously. 

 Again, applying that to Christ, from whence came the knowledge 

 ■or idea, of the Trinity — the Almighty God becoming incarnate and 

 living a life of humility, dying on the cross, rising again from 

 death, ascending into glory, interceding for man and sending forth 

 -His Spirit for the regeneration and salvation of man ? Where did 

 that idea come from ? Did that come from a process of evolution 

 out of the human understanding ? If we regard Christ as 

 incarnate it is impossible to apj)ly evolution. He came from the 

 Father. He came into the cosmos and He says, " I leave the 

 cosmos and go unto the Father." It seems to me, therefore, that 

 we cannot apply the evolution theory to our Christianity and try 

 •to work it out on those lines. 



I am obliged to take a little exception to the idea of Divine 

 immanence which the writer of the paper laid so much stress on. 

 No doubt the universe is the dress, so to speak, of the Almighty : 

 but you cannot apply that idea to our humanity entirely. Will 

 any dare to say that if God tells you there are certain persons who 

 are living in the world without God, that the likeness of His 

 Divine image is to be applied to those persons so living without 

 ■God ? Is God working in those that are living without Him ? 

 If so we must make the Almighty the avithor of much that is 

 repulsive to His Divine nature. 



While there is so much that is excellent in the paper, we must 

 be on our guard against letting our ideas proceed on lines that are 

 not in accordance with Scripture, and it is necessary in that view to 

 ■carefully filter them. 



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