Few Christians, however, would be content to keep this reference merely historical.


In a historical point of view, nothing in Jesus' life is more certain than that He regarded Himself as the Christ, the culmination and fulfillment of the Divine revelation given to Israel. This is its own explanation of its being." speaks of Christianity as the "Absolute or Revealed Religion" in the sense that in it the idea is discovered of the essential unity of God and man (thus also T. H. Green, E. Caird, etc. the possession of Scriptures), sometimes in ideas, analogies to features in these religions. It is the same fallacy which under-lies the contrast frequently sought to be drawn between the religious standpoints of Christ and Paul. But according to the New Testament this estimate is itself Divinely- inwrought and Divinely attested ( The true church of Christ consists of all who have experienced the power of Christ, delivering them from the guilt, the stain, and the dominion of sin and bringing the peace of God into their souls. The task it set before itself was stupendous. Assuredly the Bible talks no trash about the rights of man; but it insists upon the equality of duties, on the liberty to bring about that righteousness which is somewhat different from struggling for `rights'; on the fraternity of taking thought for one's neighbor as for one's self." It appears, like these other religions, in a historical context; has, like some of them, a personal founder; claims, as they also do, or did, the allegiance of multitudes of the population of the world; presents in externals (e.g. The Christian essentials are those elements, historical and dogmatic, without which Christianity would lose in whole or in part its living power to reconcile sinful man to the all-righteous, loving God. It is the world's largest religion, with about 2.4 billion followers.
The notion of Messiah is merely a piece of Jewish folklore. Mohammed boasted that he would plant his religion wherever the palm tree grew (Palgrave), and this still marks very nearly the range of its conquests. Deadly persecution could not stop this march of the church to victory. It’s worth adding that our definition of Christianity also takes serious account of the pronouncements of the historic councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon. In its doctrines of the one God and Father, and of the brotherhood of all mankind; its teaching on universal need through sin, and universal provision for salvation in Christ; its gospel of reconciliation addressed to all; its pure spirituality in worship and morality; its elevating and emancipating tendency in all the relations of human life, it approves itself as a religion for all sections and races of mankind, for all grades of civilization and stages of culture, appealing to that which is deepest in man, capable of being understood and received by all, and renewing and blessing each one who accepts and obeys it.

It is proving itself the grand civilizing agency in other regions of the world. Pfleiderer) in the meaning that it expresses the absolute "principle" of religion--a Divine sonship. The 16th century Reformation, on its outward side, was a revolt against the errors and corruptions of the papacy, but in its positive aspect it may be described as the reassertion of the sole mediatorship of Christ (as against priestly intervention), the sole authority of Scripture (as against tradition), and justification by faith alone (as against salvation by works of merit).

First, as was inevitable, its conflict was waged with that narrowest section of the Jewish-Christian community--the Ebionites of early church history--who, cleaving to circumcision, disowned Paul, and insisted that the Gentiles should observe the law ( A more formidable conflict was that with Gnosticism--the distinctive heresy of the 2nd century, though its beginnings are already within the apostolic age (compare Lightfoot, Colossians). It is the same fallacy which under-lies the contrast frequently sought to be drawn between the religious standpoints of Christ and Paul. But the comparison brings out only the more conspicuously the unique and original character of the Christian system. Christianity also claims for itself, though in a more positive way, to be the absolute religion. the possession of Scriptures), sometimes in ideas, analogies to features in these religions. "Throughout the history of the western world," he says, "the Scriptures, Jewish, and Christian, have been the great instigators of revolt against the worst forms of clerical and political despotism. in which the natural is subordinated to the moral), the peculiarity of which, in distinction from other religions of this type, essentially is, that in it everything is referred to the redemption accomplished through Jesus of Nazareth" (section 11). Our materials for estimating the progress of Christianity in the post-apostolic age are scanty, but they suffice to show us the church pursuing its way, and casting its spell alike on East and West, in centers of civilization and dim regions of barbarism.

Faith in the resurrection was not only prevalent but immensely powerful before any of our New Testament books were written. (1) The Non-Believing Estimate--not Truly Historical The schism meant a separation of the great Protestant communities and nations from the church of Rome, which, by its claim o f papal supremacy, had already separated from itself the great Greek communion. The latter or non-believing estimate has no more right now to call itself "historical" or "scientific," than it had, nearly nineteen hundred years ago, to crucify the Lord of glory. They have been taken up and contended for by men outside the church--by unbelievers even--when the church itself had become unfaithful to them.

This is inevitable, and need occasion no perplexity to Christian faith. And redemption here includes, not merely deliverance from existing evils, but restoration of the Divine likeness which has been lost by man, and ultimate blessedness of the life everlasting. Sacred books are pitted against sacred books; moral codes against moral codes; Jesus against founders of other religions; gospel stories against legends of the Buddha; ideas like those of the virgin birth, the incarnation, the resurrection, against seeming parallels on other soils. "Christianity," he says, "so to speak, resembles not a circle described from a single center, but an ellipse which is determined by two foci" (Jb., 11). In contrast with these Christianity approves itself as a strictly universal religion--the only religion of its kind in the world.


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