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Page 491
491 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA 8ocinvu
~Ad61'..~...!+a ~uw~.v~arJ-rwwrncs~..r~,~,~...~,~. r ,'ko~.f~-_
His two criteria for the cnl~suation of
the ungenuine and for judging what is of divine
content are,_(9.r
with
_,mason, and (2)
moral
fieanoe and
unlit : The tendency was
ever toward a mo_fc..~ic faith.
The doctrine of God is divided into the ideas of
the
a gjQd,,y_*.
The being of
God undistinguished from his existence is not considered in the abstract metaphysical sense, but in
the concrete relation to the world of finite being,
more positively in relation to man.
s. God.
Bejwg, and. 89Ye
ise~ticnl
in
God.-----U.w&xaWute (ex se
ipso) determination of will in the sense of the Sco
tist Scholasticism (q.v.). His existence, nature, and
attributes are subjects of positive revelation; there
fore involved with the proofs of the authority of
Scripture. With respect to the divine attributes
the canon holds that they are inseparable in un
derstanding. Socinianism was occupied mainly
with that of omniscience. God's, foreknowledge,is
limitel.totwary,
and does not apply to the
possible; otherwise there would be no human free
dom. Special attention is given to the attribute of
divine unity, which coincides with the divine aseity,
even the conception of God itself. The knowledge
of the unity of God is necessary for salvation, be
cause otherwise man would be uncertain as to who
had revealed to him salvation. It is also profitable
for salvation to know that God_is only on~_pemon.
~as.the.,.ts.
~le~toa~,o 7i~*~?
q'r
t~_dW,. The doctrine of the Trinity
is
represented
sP
.on.,mR_, That the #Io)y,.Spinteis
anywhere in Scripture called God
ia.denied.
The
passages in which Father, Son, and Spirit are repre
sented, according to orthodoxy, to be coordinate,
are invalidated. This is followed by the, proof of
1ewR-t4.,
the__ hy, : ooii"ju
.p0jutiag
out _the jpcog~jgg_
an
d
i evanit the dog
mtio .formula
and emphasizing the omission from
Scripture of such terms as " substance," " person,"
" etg_rPa_,gugration of thg-Son," and " p
mpxislr
ence." Thus, thep~mus.vK,~a sought to be
esfa_blished: " Plurality of persons in
on~.vlne,~s-.
pg Js ;np,ilzle." The creig,,gt.pE,ptkung is
chi
by the Socinians and there is posited a pre
existing matter from which God formed the world.
Ex nihilo
according to II Maccabees vii. 28 is iden
tical with the ex
anformi materia
(formless matter)
of Eccles. xi. 17, or the to
U
WahhnhM
4Gen. i. 2)
which i~g_-__t ._t, to.have
3. Creation; bb .raProd,. Here appears the dual
Man. ism that governs the whole system.
The divine image in man consists es
sentially in his dominion over nature, including
mind and reason; from these the likeness to God is
derived. Man, created mortal, has by nature noth
ing of immortality, and therefore did not lose this
virtue by the fall. Man was not created perfect or
originally endowed with a high measure of wisdom.
He had a negative or possible free will, not a posi
tive actual freedom. The fall was due to a weak
understanding and an inexperienced will, so that
sensuality blinded the reason and incited to trans
gression. Inner nature merely asserted itself: yet
Socinianism aimed to conceive sin as an act of freedom, in which it was not altogether consistent.
Through sin Adam and his descendants have not
lost free choice. In so far as original sin is the denial of this freedom, Socinianism disputes it most
emphatically. Original sin as depravity of the
choice of the good and as a penalty impending over
man contradicts Scripture, which in its admonitions
to repentance everywhere presupposes the freedom
of man, and the doctrine not less emphatically contradicts reason. Lust and inclination to sin, in
which original sin is said to consist, are possible in
all but not shown to be in all. Granted that there
is such a doom over all, that it is the result of
Adam's sin would not follow. If this were so, original sin would cease to be sin; for there is no sin
where there is no guilt. Hence there is no original
sin as such. Inconsistently, however, the general
mortality of the human race is traced to the sin of
Adam; after the fall man, mortal by nature, was
abandoned to his natural mortality because of the
sin of Adam. With this assumption there is connected that of a certain sinful disposition produced
by the continuous sinning of all generations. Accordingly, the freedom of man is weakened; but
with the aid of God man may appropriate salvation. This divine reenforcement is needed to avoid
gross and violent sins, contrary to reason; and those
over which reason affords no mastery require specially potent and lofty promises of grace, and these
are the promises in Jesus Christ.
The doctrine of salvation contemplates only a
see~Ct part been cfiaracterized as ethico
aristocratic. The Gospel effects a total . change
in
- the spiritual nature of man. Christ
4. Chris- came, not to restore man to the
o
g
tology. inal state before Adam, but to lift him
to a more exalted one. The Christian
is more than the
truly
human. Is then Christ also
`more than humanfi Socinianism answers that he
w on. the one side, truly mortal man; on the
other, mgrs
than mer__e man, a
man
with unusual
en owments, imbued
with
immeasurable wisdom,
and exalted by God to unlimited power and immor
tality. Christ was bound to be of like nature with
man, because the goal of religion was immortality
mediated by his resurrection, and if, on the other
hand, his advantage above all men was in his divin
ity, he could not die. The Catechism expressly
teaches that the Scripture denies to~nst
e
dvine nature,~in
6o_far
as t testifies to humanity.
eI re lies the seNAd ereat_-po%,center,pfrS
'' i9m. Other human beings are called sons of
God (Hos. i. 10; Rom. ix. 26). " Only begotten
son of God " means " favorite and most beloved "
(cf. Heb. xi. 17; Prov. iv. 3). " Equal with God "
(John v. 18; Phil. ii. 6) refers to unity of power and
work; and the statement " I and my Father are
one " (John x. 30) is to be understood in the sense
that the disciples are to be in accord as he and the
Father are one (John xvii.,11, 22). Against the doctrine of preexistence it is maintained that the
" beginning " (John i. 1) is the beginning of the
Gospel (ef. xv. 27, xvi. 4). The' creation of the
world by the Word meant either the reformation
of the human race, or the future eon of immor-