AN APOLOGY FOR THE CHtJRCH S PERSECUTION OF SCIENCE 1 73 



where, in light unapproachable, sits Holy Trinity. A perceptible 

 though not a very great change in the conception of the ascension 

 was involved. Christ was conceived of as passing through nine, not 

 seven (or six), heavens. 



Then came Copernicus. The new astronomy which he and his 

 followers evolved destroyed the last vestiges of the primitive idea of 

 the ascension. The Ptolemaic astronomy had left the primitive idea 

 of the ascension practically intact. The earth being regarded as 

 immovable, it was still possible to conceive of God as enthroned at 

 the zenith above Jerusalem. It was believed that the antipodes were 

 not inhabited. It was still conceivable, therefore, that every eye 

 should behold the Lord when, at his second advent, he should descend 

 in the clouds. Thus in all essentials the primitive idea of Christ's fate 

 still persisted. Now, however, it was learned that the earth revolves 

 on its axis. There is therefore no fixed zenith, no one place for God 

 "above the bright blue sky." Columbus and Magellan proved that 

 the antipodes were inhabited. It became impossible therefore to 

 beUeve that every physical eye should behold a physical descent of 

 Christ from the heavens. It is fair to ask whether the teaching of the 

 apostles still persists; whether the gospel of the primitive church has 

 not passed away. 



If we are to answer that question, it is important in the first place 

 that we bear in mind one distinction, the distinction between the cur- 

 rent ideas which the primitive church assumed and the new faith 

 which it proclaimed. The first-mentioned determined the form but 

 they were no part of the content of the gospel message. "What 

 counted in the Christian reUgion, then or now, is not the old vocabu- 

 lary but the new message."' That the earth is flat, that it is over- 

 arched by seven hemispheres, and that God is seated at the zenith, 

 the primitive Christians took for granted. These were the accepted 

 scientific ideas of their day and nation and the apostles assumed them, 

 just as a modern preacher assumes the scientific ideas of his day. The 

 apostles were not teaching this cosmogony. They did not need to. 

 Their hearers already accepted it. They were concerned only to 



' Mackintosh, H. R., Expositor^ Februaiy, 1914, p. 134. 



