RELIG^ 
 
 JMIES BISHOP THOMAS 
 
PRESiDENT White Library 
 Cornell University 
 
Cornell University Library 
 BR 121 .T45 
 
 Religion — its prophets and its false p 
 
 oiin 
 
 3 1924 029 237 208 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
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 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029237208 
 
RELIGION— ITS PROPHETS AND 
 FALSE PROPHETS 
 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
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 TORONTO 
 
RELIGION— ITS PROPHETS 
 AND FALSE PROPHETS 
 
 BY 
 JAMES BISHOP THOMAS, Ph.D. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, IN THE UNIVERSITY OF 
 THE SOUTH, SEWANEE, TENNESSEE 
 
 i?eto gorfe 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 1918 
 
 All rishts reserved 
 
 Lb. 
 
Copyright, 1918 
 
 By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 Set up and electrotyped, Publiahed May, 1918 
 
DEDICATED 
 
 TO 
 DOROTHEA AND LESLYE IDA 
 
 TO 
 THE MEMORY OF CLARE ROSAMOND 
 
 TO 
 VIRGINIA ST. JOHN AND MYRA AMELIA 
 
 OUR CHILDREN 
 
A PERSONAL WORD 
 
 The message in this book is one that has been 
 seeking expression since the author's Seminary 
 days at the Episcopal Theological School at Cam- 
 bridge, Massachusetts — more than twenty years 
 ago. 
 
 Owing to the self-sacrificing co-operation of his 
 mother — early left a widow — he was enabled to re- 
 ceive his preparation for the ministry. It came at 
 a time when the sense of the social implications of 
 Christianity was beginning to be quickened and 
 Prof. Nash was expressing to his pupils those views 
 later embodied in his "Genesis of the Social Con- 
 science." After three years of seemingly fruitless 
 preaching of the social gospel, the sympathetic 
 furtherance of his wife enabled the author to spend 
 three years in Europe in further study. 
 
 Germany was selected as offering the best oppor- 
 tunities. The problem he proposed was — "How is 
 the economic and social order to be reformed ac- 
 cording to the Christian principle of the law of 
 service?" So for two semesters at Berlin and for 
 two and a half more at Halle the author studied 
 economics under distinguished teachers. Ger- 
 many had promised much. The science of "Sozial- 
 politik'' was developing a program for the material 
 betterment of the masses from above; the Social 
 
viii A Personal Word- 
 
 Democratic party proposed a program for complete 
 political and economic democratization. Between 
 the two stood the mediating political party of Pas- 
 tor Friedrich Naumann which was proposing a social 
 reformation on the principles of the Gospel. 
 
 But while the author was in Germany a reaction- 
 ary change was in process. Naumann returned 
 from the Palestine trip on which he had been the 
 personal guest of the Kaiser — changed from a 
 Christian Socialist to a Pan-Germanist. The the- 
 ologians were reaching the conclusion that the 
 teachings of Jesus belonged as a whole to a passed 
 age. Johannes Weiss thought he had discovered 
 that Jesus represented the fanatical Apocalyptism 
 of His Own times and people. Harnack partly 
 shared this view and was becoming convinced that 
 in the pursuit of the tasks of Kultur the program of 
 Jesus must be modified in the interest of a modern 
 German morality. Papers read at the Evangelical 
 Social Congresses showed this trend away from the 
 acceptance of the authority of Jesus in social and 
 political matters. He was explained away as a 
 "Beautiful Spirit" rather than as a practical Leader 
 of men. 
 
 These tendencies were felt by the author and led 
 him to give especial attention to the critical study 
 of the " eschatological problem," with the result 
 that he reached conclusions diametrically opposed to 
 those that were then seeking acceptance. (See 
 Chapters V, VI and VH.) He was led to these 
 studies as a direct outcome of his interest in ascer- 
 
A Personal Word ix 
 
 taining how far the teachings of the historic Jesus 
 are in contact with modern social needs. 
 
 While rector of St. Andrew's Church in Roches- 
 ter, New York, the author became associated with 
 the Rev'd. Dr. Paul Moore Strayer (now President 
 of the Social Service Commission of the Presby- 
 terian Church), author of the Reconstruction of the 
 Church, and Prof. Walter Rauschenbusch — the well- 
 known teacher and author of works on the Social 
 Message of Christianity — in the movement known 
 as "The People's Sunday Evening." From the 
 stimulus of this association this work has profited 
 greatly. Prof. Rauschenbusch's trenchant criti- 
 cisms caused the book to be rewritten twice after 
 the author thought it ready for publication. 
 
 The call to teach in the Theological Department 
 of the University of the South brought opportu- 
 nities of association, and the academic vacations 
 afforded the leisure, needed to give this work its 
 present form. To his colleagues of the Theological 
 Faculty he is indebted for stimulating criticisms and 
 helpful suggestions. He owes his acquaintance with 
 the writings of Prof. Howison (see Chapter VI) to 
 Prof. T. P. Bailey, and at the instigation of Prof. H. L. 
 Jewett Williams (at present serving as Captain in 
 the United States forces) he restudied the Synoptic 
 problem. Prof. John M. McBryde, Jr., head of the 
 English Department of the University and Editor 
 of the Sewanee Review, corrected faulty expres- 
 sions and suggested improvements in style. 
 
 As the work progressed and up to the time of its 
 
X A Personal Word 
 
 completion great practical assistance was received 
 from the author's friend and former parishioner, 
 Miss D. Gurnee of Rochester, New York, who gen- 
 erously placed her skill as a stenographer and type- 
 writer at his disposal. 
 
 James Bishop Thomas. 
 
 Sewanee, Tenn., December 9, 1917. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction. The Professional vs. the Amateur. 
 §1. Temptations to Professionahsm in ReHgion. §11. 
 Opportunities for Exploitation of Religion. §111. Proph- 
 ets, the Foes of the Religious Exploiters. §IV. The 
 Conflict in Old Testament Passes into History of Chris- 
 tianity. §V. The Object of this Book. §VI. Jesus and 
 the Prophetic Religion. §VII. Rival Claimants to the 
 Sanction of Jesus' Authority. §VIII. Our Subject Is Vital 
 to the World's Greatest Issue Today. . . .Pages xvii-xxii 
 
 Chapter I. Rise of the Jewish Priesthood. Intro- 
 ductory. §1. Religion of the Nomad Semites. §11. A 
 Lay Religion. §111. Sources of the Prophetic and 
 Priestly Religions — Pia Fraus. §IV. Rise of Priestly 
 Caste Pages 1-12 
 
 Chapter II. The Rise of Prophetism. §I. Its 
 Hereditary Origin. §11. Its Conflict with Its Oppo- 
 site. §111. The Resulting Type of Prophetic Conscious- 
 ness Pages 13-28 
 
 Chapter III. Prophetic Theology and Ethic. 
 §1. The Value of the Human Individual Discovered 
 through Mystical Experience. §11. History, the Field 
 for the Working Out of God's Plan. §111. Religious and 
 Ethical Universalism. §IV. The Unity of God and Con- 
 sequent Solidarity of Mankind. §V. The Divinely Ap- 
 pointed Historic Destiny of Mankind — The Reign of 
 
 God on Earth — Messianic Era 29-44 
 
 xi 
 
xii Contents 
 
 Chapter IV. The Priesthood Establishes a 
 Monopoly and Developes a Legalistic Ethic and 
 Priestly Theology — Priestly Exactions. §1. Amorite 
 Shrines Basis of Israelite Priestly Colleges — Exploita- 
 tion of Judicial Functions and Court Influence. §11. 
 The Deuteronomic Conspiracy. §111. The False Proph- 
 ets and Jeremiah. §IV. The Fruits of the Exile. §V. 
 The Jewish Theocracy Supplants the Davidic Monarchy. 
 §VI. Post Exilic Theology and Ethic. §Vn. Priestly 
 Emoluments Pages 45-64 
 
 Chapter V. The Apocalypses Unmasked — Polit- 
 ical Oppression as Historic Background — Gospel of 
 Despair — Priestly Literary Devices. §1. Priestly The- 
 ology of the Apocalypses. §11. The Persian and Jewish 
 Apocalypses Compared. §IIL Importance of True 
 Interpretation of the Phrase "Son of Man" in Daniel. 
 §IV. The Apocalyptic "Will to Exploit". .Pages 65-75 
 
 Chapter VI. The Theology of Jesus — Introduc- 
 tory — The Critical Problems — Affinity with Prophetic 
 Theology. §1. Jesus' Estimate of the Value of the 
 Human Individual — The Soul of a Child — The 
 "Least Brother" — ^The Outcast and Lowly — The 
 Gentile — Contrast with Contemporary Jewish Opinion 
 — "Son of Man" — Man Lord of the Sabbath — Man 
 Greater than the Temple — Prof. Howison Quoted — 
 Rejection of the Quest for Personal Salvation. §11. 
 Jesus Holds to Prophetic Interpretation of History as 
 Field for Working Out God's Plan for Mankind. §111. 
 The Universalism of Jesus. §IV. Jesus' Theology Con- 
 trasts with Apocalyptic Theology. §V. Jesus and the 
 Future World Community — Views of Schweitzer and 
 K. Lake Examined — Jesus' Ethics and World Pro- 
 gram Pages 76-101 
 
Contents xiii 
 
 Chapter VII. "The Eschatological Problem" — 
 Critical Considerations. §1. Early Traces of Jesus' 
 Anti-Apocalyptic Polemic — Quest for External "Signs" 
 Condemned — "The Sign of Jonah" Signifies Repent- 
 ance — An Internal Moral Sign — The Developmental 
 Doctrine in "Q." §11. The Engrafting of Apocalyptic 
 Matter Begins with the Disciples — Peter's Christus 
 Futurus — The "Apocalypse of Jesus." §111. "The 
 Great Apocalyptic Discourse" (Mk. XIII) — H. B. 
 Streeter Quoted — Growth of the Apocalyptic Tradi- 
 tion in Matthew and Luke. §IV. Matthean "Eschatol- 
 ogizing" of Authentic Sayings of Jesus — Streeter — 
 The "Apocalyptic Residuum" Pages 102-119 
 
 Chapter VIII. The Historic Jesus — -The 
 Prophet Messiah. §I. The Beginnings of Christological 
 Development: i, Jesus Appears as Prophetic Herald of 
 the Kingdom of God; ii, Jesus Preached as the "Messiah 
 That Is to Come"; iii, Retrospectively Regarded as 
 Made the Messiah at His Baptism; iv, At His Birth; 
 V, The Pauline "Man from Heaven"; vi, The Eternal 
 Logos, Messiah, The Crucial Problem, The Messianic 
 Self-Consciousness of Jesus as Revealed by Modern 
 Research. §11. The Career of the Prophet Messiah — 
 Kinship with Insurgent Prophets — Denounces the 
 Exploiters — Derides Ceremonial Righteousness and 
 Legalism — • Proclaims the Righteous Community — His 
 Campaign Against the Temple Cult — His Messianic 
 Claim Revealed in the "Cleansing of the Temple." 
 §111. The Program of Jesus — His Own Office as Ini- 
 tiator of the Reign of God — The "Johannine Passage" 
 — The Militant Quality of His Mission — The Principle 
 of Self -Sacrifice — His Absolute Ethic — The Victory of 
 the Cross Pages 120-148 
 
xiv Contents 
 
 Chapter IX. The Followers of Jesus Substitute 
 A Messianic Cult for His Brotherhood of the 
 Kingdom — Introductory — The Initial Defeat of the 
 Program of Jesus through the Tragic Misunderstanding 
 of His Earhest Followers. §1. Reversion of the Jeru- 
 salem Church to the Apocalyptic Delusion and Loss of 
 Prophetic Religion and Ethic — McGiffert Quoted — 
 Peter and His Group Practically Abandon the Teacher's 
 Cause. §11. The "Hellenistic Deacons" Are the True 
 Interpreters of Jesus' Doctrine — Contrast to the Apos- 
 tles — Prophetic Elements in the Discourse of Stephen 
 
 — A Prophet Martyr — And in the Discourse of Philip 
 
 — Influence on Antioch and so on the Antiochene 
 Prophets — Barnabas and Saul. §111. Paul — His At- 
 tempted Synthesis of Opposing Religious Elements — 
 Influence on the Expansion of the Cult — Paul, a 
 "Hellenizing Syncretist" — Fails to Understand the 
 Historic Significance of Jesus — His Affinity with the 
 "Mystery Cults" — Percy Gardner Quoted — The Cult 
 Principle Opposed to the Universal Type of Religion — 
 Royce's Estimate Criticized — Ephesian Christianity, in 
 the Fourth Gospel — Metamorphoses the Universal 
 Religion of the Prophet-Messiah into a Christo-Centric 
 Mystery Cult Pages 149-168 
 
 Chapter X. The Cult Becomes an Exploiting 
 Ecclesiasticism — Introductory — External Organiza- 
 tion and Spread of the Jesus Cult. §1. The Ministry in 
 the Gentile Churches " Charisnatic " — The Didache 
 and Exploiting " Prophets." §11. The OHgarchical Type 
 of Organization — "Heresies" — Ignatius and the Mon- 
 archical Episcopate. §111. Growth of a "Clerical Con- 
 sciousness" — "Bishops, Presbyters and Deacons" — 
 Growing Opportunities for Exploitation. §IV. The Age 
 
Contents xv 
 
 of Cyprian — Roman Legalism Grafted upon Jewish 
 Legalism — Revival of Old Testament Ceremonialism 
 and Hierarchical Notions — Harnack Quoted — Cyprian 
 and the Priests' Code — He Becomes Chief Agent in 
 Leading the Catholic Church into Complete Apostasy 
 from the Religion of Jesus. §V. The Church now Ripe 
 for the Exploiter. §VL Through Its Deal with Con- 
 stantine the Church Enters upon a Profitable Career of 
 Exploitation Not Yet Ended — Appendix to Chapter X 
 
 — Quoted from Henry Osborn Taylor. . .Pages 169-190 
 
 Chapter XL Some Christian Insurgent Prophets 
 
 — Introductory — Protestants Against the View of that 
 Exploitation is a High Type of Piety. §1. Arnold of 
 Brescia. §11. Francis of Assisi. §111. Dante — Maz- 
 zini Quoted — Marsigho of Padua and John of Jandun. 
 §IV. Prophetic Movement in England — William Lang- 
 land — His Prophetic Allegory — John Wycliffe — The 
 Peasant Priests — Thorold Rogers Quoted. §V. The 
 Prophets of Bohemia — ^ Palacky Quoted. §VI. The 
 Prophetic Career of Savonarola — Vilari Quoted. §VII. 
 The Oxford Reformers of 1496 Pages 191-213 
 
 Chapter XII. The So-Called Reformation. In- 
 troductory — Predominant Influence of Paulinism Re- 
 stricts Reformation to the Cult — Excludes Reforma- 
 tion of the Social Order. §1. Martin Luther. §11. 
 Calvin. §111. The English Reformation Perpetuates 
 the Exclusive Cult Idea by Preservation and Exaltation 
 of the Episcopate — Perpetuation of System of Exploita- 
 tion — The Martin Mar-Prelate Charges — Bishops 
 Held in Contempt by Elizabeth — Froude Quoted. 
 §IV. "Anabaptists" Recover the True Type of Chris- 
 tianity and Attempt to Initiate the Social Reign of God 
 
 — Persecuted by Protestants and Catholics Alike — 
 
xvi Contents 
 
 Heath Quoted — The Moravian Community — The 
 Program and Spirit of Jesus Again Quenched in a Bap- 
 tism of Blood and Fire Pages 214-237 
 
 Chapter XIII. The Recovery of a Lost Chris- 
 tianity. §1. Present Crisis in Conflict Between the 
 Exploiters and Prophets of Religion. §11. The Stake — ■ 
 Is the Present Hell on Earth to Continue or the Reign 
 of God to Triumph. §111. Jesus Still the Spiritual Guide 
 and Leader of the Forces of the Reign of God. §IV. The 
 Lesser Cults Must be Dethroned and Universal Chris- 
 tianity Restored, This the Only Practical Hope of 
 World for Deliverance from Perpetual Wars — Hope 
 from those Outside Historic Christianity. §V. The 
 Present Futility of Existing Cults; They Could Help by 
 Losing Their Lives for Christ's Sake and the Gospel's — • 
 Royce Quoted — ^Possibilities of. §VI. Education. 
 §VII. Family and Parish Community. §VIII. The 
 Lord's Prayer. §IX. Personal Immortality and the Social 
 Order. §X. Conclusion — The Supreme Need — Uni- 
 versal Repentance and Reorganization of Individual 
 and Social Life Under the Guidance of the Spirit of 
 Jesus Pages 238-256 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The highest types of human activity, spiritual, 
 mental or physical, proceed from an inward con- 
 straint as their sufficient motive. Aspiration seeks 
 attainment; thought impels to expression; the 
 idea becomes the architect of its own enduring hab- 
 itation. Virtue is not only its own reward but is 
 its alone satisfying reward. It craves no other pay. 
 It resents the offer of material reward as an affront 
 — as imputing a hireling's motives to a true prophet. 
 
 But besides his incentives to creative or co-crea- 
 tive activity man has secondary and conditional 
 requirements. These are commonly called the "ne- 
 cessities of life." They are the necessities of 
 physical life. The higher forms of activity — re- 
 ligious, mental and artistic — often attract material 
 rewards — and as these material things are required 
 — and are often very gratifying — the man is under 
 the constant temptation to regard the higher forms 
 of activity as the legitimate means of procuring the 
 material satisfactions. He is moved to make mer- 
 chandise of the commodities of the spirit and if he 
 yields he becomes a false prophet. 
 
 A subtle simony becomes his pursuing demon. 
 He has made his compact with Mephistopheles and 
 has sold his own soul. The artist turns peddlar and 
 exchanges his spiritual integrity for the flesh pots; 
 
xviii Introduction 
 
 the philosopher turns sophist — wins popular favor 
 and loses his self-respect; courtly love turns courte- 
 san, and, most tragic of all, the prophet turns wiz- 
 ard and divines for hire. 
 
 The task of spiritualizing life consists primarily 
 in placing all human activity and forms of service 
 however humble in direct alignment with a central 
 compelling spiritual motive that shall leaven the 
 whole lump of individual and social activity. The 
 professional or hireling must give place to the ama- 
 teur or true lover. Ruskin has thus stated the 
 issue: "It is the whole distinction in a man; dis- 
 tinction between life and death in him, between 
 heaven and hell for him. You cannot serve two 
 masters; you must serve one or the other. If your 
 work is first with you, and your fee second, work is 
 your master and the Lord of work. Who is God. 
 But if your fee is first with you, and your work 
 second, fee is your master, and the lord of fee who 
 is the Devil; and not only the Devil, but the lowest 
 of Devils — 'the least erected fiend that fell.' So 
 there you have it in brief terms: work first — you 
 are God's servants; fee first — you are the Fiend's."* 
 
 In the following book I seek to state and trace 
 the issue between the disinterested prophets of re- 
 ligion and those who have sought or been led to 
 professionalize religion as a means to a career. I 
 try to show the type of religion developed by its 
 true and enlightened lovers in contrast to the type 
 of religion developed under the more or less uncon- 
 iRuskin, "The Crown of Wild Olive"— Lecture I. 
 
Introduction xix 
 
 sclous or conscious "will to exploit" to the ends of 
 personal, political, economic and caste aggrandize- 
 ment. 
 
 The resultant analysis reveals a pure and un- 
 mixed type of a universal religion which is the core 
 of Christianity. It separates the fundamental re- 
 ligion from its accessories and foreign adhesions and 
 shows it in action against the enemies of mankind. 
 This work should thus have an emancipating effect 
 upon the religious spirit of many who are bound by 
 the fetters of a hampering traditionalism. It should 
 also move to a reconsideration of the central claims 
 of religion those who have swept out the priceless 
 jewel with the dust. 
 
 I 
 
 The key to an understanding of historic and social 
 movements is to be found in the phenomena of 
 leadership. On the higher plane, even democratic 
 and co-operative enterprises, whose leaders are not 
 imposed from above but brought forth from within, 
 understand the importance of intelligent oversight 
 and direction, however much they may seek to place 
 restrictions upon the personal powers of their ap- 
 pointed heads. On a lower plane, the tribe, the 
 clan, the band of marauders (at certain stages these 
 words are synonyms) will follow the leadership of 
 the one best qualified to help them attain their 
 objects. 
 
 At times the leader by his superior strength, 
 wisdom or craft may be able to exact tremendous toll 
 
XX Introduction 
 
 in return for his services. The opportunities for 
 leadership are also opportunities for exploitation. 
 In spite of his abuses of his position of advantage the 
 leader may make himself felt as at least the lesser 
 evil. He stands in the eyes of his followers between 
 them and greater evils or dangers. His services and 
 powers may even enable him to inspire a supreme 
 loyalty — rising to hero-worship — and then his ad- 
 herents become prepared to sacrifice to his obedience 
 their dearest possessions — even life itself. In pro- 
 portion as he can make himself indispensable in 
 their eyes as a living condition of the attainment of 
 of their highest aims or strongest desires, his op- 
 portunities for exploitation are multiplied. 
 
 The influence of a strong leader may persist and 
 the power of his name may go on increasing after 
 his death. The tradition of many tribes that their 
 God was also their ancestor probably rests on an 
 historic basis of fact. Through a process of deifica- 
 tion the great leader of the past has come to be 
 thought of as a living divine being or spirit still 
 devoted to the cause of his people and exercising a 
 divine guidance through his successors or through his 
 representatives the priests and oracles of the tribal 
 cult.' The taxes or the gifts which they paid or 
 gave to their chief in his life are now offered in 
 sacrifice to his spirit or paid to the guardians of his 
 shrines. 
 
 1 His return to earth as a deliverer may come to be anticipated 
 in times of trouble. (Cf. King Arthur and Barbarossa legends 
 and others similar.) 
 
Introduction xxi 
 
 II 
 
 In no field of human interest do men feel a greater 
 need of leadership than in religion. Here their sense 
 of ignorance and dependence is most complete. 
 
 Religion offers the most important and indispen- 
 sable goods, — negatively, protection from threat- 
 ened dangers of loss, sickness, premature death or 
 from unknown dangers after death; positively, it 
 offers consolation, guidance, hope, success, present 
 power and perhaps an eternal heaven of bliss. 
 
 In religion the opportunities of leadership reach 
 their climax — for good or for evil. The appeal made 
 to the highest in man should lead to glorious at- 
 tainments. But the appeal to ignorance, fear, 
 superstition, credulity, cupidity, selfishness, — to 
 the lower as well as to the better traits, — may be 
 utilized by religious exploiters to their own advan- 
 tage and to the everlasting detriment of those who 
 are brought under their control. 
 
 Ill 
 
 With minor exceptions religion is organized on the 
 group principle — it belongs to a tribe, a nation, a 
 cult, or transcends national boundaries as a church. 
 Its leaders seek and sometimes win a monopoly of its 
 dispensation. Sometimes we see the struggle for 
 this monopoly in process — now almost unopposed, 
 again encountering fierce resistance. The opposi- 
 tion may come from either of two sources, from a 
 rival "secular" or political leadership which also 
 wishes a monopoly of exploitation, or from a dif- 
 
xxii Introduction 
 
 ferent type of religion truly devoted to the welfare of 
 men and seeking to destroy the leadership of the 
 exploiters and substitute a disinterested leadership, 
 based upon a higher conception of the deity as the 
 beneficent Guide of all mankind, a leadership aiming 
 at the emancipation of the downmost common man 
 and his highest social and spiritual elevation. This 
 type of religion not only opposes the exploiting of 
 religious leaders, but it opposes exploitation of every 
 kind — whether by kings, the aristocracy, the mili- 
 tary feudal caste, or the money power.^ 
 
 The religious leader of this type is known as the 
 Prophet and he early made his appearance in the 
 history of Israel. He is the spokesman of God and 
 of the common people to whose cause God is devoted. 
 He presents a theology incomparably higher than 
 the theology which the priests have manipulated 
 in the interests of their own power and control. He 
 denies all their claims of monopoly, of their position 
 as middlemen between the Producer of all benefits 
 and the dependent consumer. He declares that the 
 tickets of admission sold by the priests — their 
 oracles, ceremonials, implements of divination, the 
 sacrifices demanded by them, are fraudulent. He 
 declares that no tickets are required — that every 
 man has the right of free access to the God Who loves 
 him and his fellows and wishes them well. In thus 
 
 » Frequently priests and princes pool their interests in the 
 game of exploitation. At times prophetic reformers have sought 
 to co-operate with the " secular power " to limit religious ex- 
 ploitation. 
 
Introduction xxiii 
 
 denouncing the powerful exploiting classes the 
 prophet not only spurns the fees of religion but he 
 encounters the gravest personal dangers. His only 
 safety lies in the success of his appeal to the con- 
 sciences of the wrong-doers in high places or in win- 
 ning the backing of the people. Some prophets by 
 these means have worked and taught in a measure of 
 security, but as a rule the world-prophets have also 
 been the world-martyrs because the exploiting classes 
 have hardened their consciences and preferred to 
 follow their exploitations rather than obey the Voice 
 of God. Their favorite method has always been 
 to discredit the prophet in the eyes of the people to 
 whose cause he was devoted, by accusing him of 
 being a heretic and a blasphemer — and then putting 
 him out of the way by the death penalty — the people 
 having been cowed and detached from their leader 
 through superstitious fear of the hierarchy's claims, 
 or well-grounded fear of its political power. 
 
 IV 
 
 The conflict between the prophetic and exploiting 
 types of religion early passed over from Judaism into 
 the history of Christianity. It represents a per- 
 manent alignment and is the religious issue the 
 grasping of which is of supreme importance both 
 to the intellectual apprehension of what Christian- 
 ity is, and to its practical application as a program 
 of human salvation, individual and social, economic 
 and spiritual. 
 
 Naturally the question of supreme importance to 
 
xxiv Introduction 
 
 our study is the place of Jesus in relation to the pro- 
 phetic type of religion. To the Christian as well as 
 to the student of religion no questions can be more 
 vital than (i) how Jesus stood in relation to the 
 exploiters of religion in His Own day; (2) how He 
 embodied and perfected the prophetic spirit of 
 religion and expanded it to the widest reach of 
 Catholicism (in its original sense of Universalism) ; 
 (3) how He would by inference regard those who 
 overlaid His prophetic initiation of the Kingdom 
 of God by founding an exploiting ecclesiasticism 
 based upon His Person as the God of a cult; (4) 
 where and how the influence of Jesus is to be mani- 
 fested in the present struggle between the pro- 
 phetic and exploiting types of religion and in the 
 extension of that struggle to the wider field of con- 
 flict between the people and their leaders who seek 
 their emancipation from political, economic, social, 
 intellectual and spiritual restrictions, on the one 
 side, and those self-imposed leaders and masters 
 who strive to increase the power of those restric- 
 tions that they and their class may continue to en- 
 joy special privileges with their concomitant op- 
 portunities for exploitation, on the other. 
 
 V 
 
 The object of this book, as its title suggests. Is a 
 study of the historic conflict between the two types 
 of religion which we have designated as prophetic 
 and exploiting. It further seeks to ascertain the 
 theological aspects and implications of the contest — 
 
Introduction xxv 
 
 to do justice to the theological permanence, veracity 
 and breadth of vision of prophetism and to show how 
 the theologies of hierarchies and ecclesiasticisms 
 were influenced or manipulated in the interests of 
 the will to exploit. 
 
 VI 
 
 In Jesus we find the supreme development of the 
 prophetic type of religion. In order to vindicate 
 this claim it has been necessary to show in how far 
 some of even His earliest adherents misconceived or 
 misrepresented Him. We have also been compelled, 
 in this interest, to introduce what may seem to 
 some on first sight as a diversion — namely, a careful 
 analysis of that degenerate and bizarre metamor- 
 phosis of prophetism into apocalypticism— (the at- 
 tempt of priestly writers to masquerade as prophets) , 
 and the assertion of certain modern critics that the 
 Gospel of Jesus gave its adherence to this typical 
 gospel of hate and despair. 
 
 In this study both psychology and criticism must 
 be employed as effectively as the capacity of the 
 student of these problems will permit. 
 
 VII 
 
 It is a great, sometimes an unconscious, tribute 
 which men in every age and of the widest variety of 
 opinions have paid to the moral leadership of Christ, 
 by claiming Him as the embodiment or Advocate of 
 their highest ideals and fondest dreams. How 
 great is the range of these claimants ! The Cross of 
 the Prince of Peace, on which He prayed for the 
 
xxvi Introduction 
 
 forgiveness of His enemies, was taken as the emblem 
 of bloody conquest by the red-handed Constantine, 
 and the term "Crusade," derived from the Cross, 
 became the synonym for war, rape and rapine — the 
 criminal agents being fortified with plenary indul- 
 gences! Weapons of destruction have been blest 
 in the Name of the Crucified. At the opposite pole 
 the anchorite, monk and friar have worshipped an 
 ascetic Christ in their own image, renouncing present 
 joy to save their souls for pleasures eternal. Even 
 the Mohammedans have a Gospel of their own (a 
 pseudepigraphical "Gospel of Barnabas") which 
 gives the Mohammendan interpretation of Jesus. 
 In it Jesus is made to say in the presence of the High 
 Priest "I am Jesus of Nazareth, born of Mary, of 
 the stock of David, a mortal man, and fear God and 
 seek His honor and glory." He also disclaims the 
 title of Messiah and foretells the coming of Moham- 
 med. ' Philosophical anarchists like Tolstoy, social 
 reformers like Bouck White and Bernard Shaw, 
 have found their own dreams in Jesus the Carpenter. 
 More recently, the decadent George Moore ^ has 
 invented a frankly fictitious Christ and in His mouth 
 has placed expressions that reflect his own anti- 
 Christian, futile philosophy, while H. G. Wells has 
 read into Jesus' sympathy for "fallen women" a 
 support for his own doctrine of sex license. 
 
 1 (Ch. 96.) Quoted in article in Journal of Theological Studies — 
 April, 1902 — p. 446, "On the Mohammedan Gospel of Barnabas" 
 by W. A. E. Axon, LL.D. 
 
 2 In "The Brook Kerith." 
 
Introduction xxvii 
 
 VIII 
 
 In the modern age the cause of prophetism has re- 
 ceived great furtherance and emancipation from 
 dogmatic and ecclesiastical control through the 
 triumphant progress of scientific, historical and lit- 
 erary criticism of the sources of the Old and New- 
 Testament, and the scientific study of Church his- 
 tory. We are thereby enabled to observe not only 
 the decorated tombs of the prophets or to think of 
 them as the merely temporary and subordinate 
 foretellers of coming events, but as the real co-opera- 
 tors with God, who prepared the way for the coming 
 of His reign on earth. Their message is thereby res- 
 cued from the scrap heap and given permanent 
 value. 
 
 We are also enabled to see the inside of the less 
 edifying process whereby the hierarchy of exploiters 
 falsified history and perverted the teaching about 
 the Nature and Will of God in the interests of their 
 caste pre-eminence. 
 
 The extension of this process of study should by 
 its emancipation of the prophetic spirit culminate in 
 the present and future in the birth of a new race of 
 prophetic leaders and the realization of the triumph 
 of their cause, the cause of the People, the cause of 
 Jesus, named by Him the Cause of the Kingdom of 
 God. 
 
RELIGION— ITS PROPHETS AND 
 FALSE PROPHETS 
 
Religion: Its Prophets and False 
 Prophets 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 RISE OF THE JEWISH PRIESTHOOD 
 
 There is a well grounded opinion that if we 
 could know the stories of the rise of all the historic 
 priesthoods we should find in them a marked simi- 
 larity of movement. We are on fairly safe ground 
 in taking the case of the Jewish priesthood as typi- 
 cal. It certainly shows analogies to what we know 
 of the rise of the Christian priesthood. 
 
 Court "historians" in the Imperial East have 
 written their epics to show that Emperors are lin- 
 eal descendants of the gods (and in the West we 
 have the ^Eneid of Virgil) . 
 
 The official "Chroniclers" of priestly castes have 
 written with a similar intention — to show the direct 
 Divine origin of the priesthoods. In thus provid- 
 ing the parvenus with the desired lineage some his- 
 torical facts were used in making a mosaic chart of 
 the family tree. 
 
 In the Pentateuch (or Hexateuch) we have such 
 a mosaic, and the Biblical antiquarian desiring to 
 recover a true picture of the past has in his quest 
 incidentally uncovered the literary devices em- 
 ployed by the priests to advance their own power 
 and prestige. 
 
2 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 By the help of the historical and literary critics 
 we are enabled to get first a picture of the primitive 
 democratic and decentralized religion — and then 
 to see the movement of the priestly exploiters as 
 it arose and developed into a centralized aristocratic 
 theocracy. 
 
 I 
 
 When the ancestors of the Israelites were living in 
 the nomadic stage — that is, in the "Age of the Pa- 
 triarchs" — there was no established or centralized 
 priesthood. 
 
 "Among the nomadic Semites, to whom the He- 
 brews belonged before they settled in Canaan, there 
 has never been any settled priesthood. The acts 
 of religion partake of the general simplicity of desert 
 life. Apart from the private worship of household 
 gods and the oblations and salutations offered at 
 the graves of departed kinsmen, the ritual observ- 
 ances of the ancient Arabs were visits to the tribal 
 sanctuary to salute the god with a gift of milk, first- 
 fruits, or the like, the sacrifice of firstlings and vows, 
 and an occasional pilgrimage to discharge a vow at 
 the annual feast and fair of one of the more distant 
 
 holy places. These acts required no priestly aid. 
 
 "1 
 
 • • • 
 
 The stories of the Patriarchs in the earliest writ- 
 ings of the Hexateuch exhibit similar conditions. 
 There were no Hebrew priests. From the Code 
 
 1 Article by Prof. W. R. Smith and Prof. A. Bertholet in 
 Encyclopaedia Biblica, Vol. Ill, Col. 3839. 
 
Rise of the Jewish Priesthood 3 
 
 of the Covenant compiled in the 8th Century B.C. 
 (the eariiest written document of the Hebrew cus- 
 tomary law — Ex. 20: 20, 23: 23), we find that the 
 primitive nomadic ordinances continued in force for 
 a long time after the settlement in Palestine. There 
 is as yet no mention of a priestly caste. The head 
 of the family naturally acted as the officiant, but 
 any male member of the family might offer sacri- 
 fice when absent on a journey. The form of altar 
 prescribed was such that it might be erected any- 
 where in a short time. It was to be made of un- 
 hewn stones or of earth. The offerings consisted 
 of the first fruits of the fields, and first-born of 
 the herds. It is nowhere implied that this early 
 offering was regarded as an atonement for sins.' 
 "The sacrifices and offerings were acknowledg- 
 ments of the divine bounty and means used to in- 
 sure its continuance . . ."^ 
 "Each man slew his own victim and divided the 
 sacrifice in his own circle; the share of the god was 
 the blood which was smeared upon or poured out 
 beside a stone set up as an altar. ... It does 
 not appear that any portion of the sacrifice was 
 burned on the altar, or that any part of the vic- 
 tim was the due of the sanctuary."' 
 
 'The commandment to offer the firstborn son as a sacrifice 
 (Ex. 22:29) does not belong in this document. It was a later 
 provision borrowed from the Assyrian cultus, and denounced 
 by the prophets — (Micah 6:7). 
 
 "Article "Priest" in Encyl. Biblica, cited above. 
 
 ^Ibid. 
 
4 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 The description of the Arab sacrificial customs 
 seems to fit the conditions among the Israelites in 
 their nomadic or early agricultural condition. 
 
 The Hebrews identified the blood with the life. 
 This was, therefore, returned to the Life-giver as 
 His portion. It was a sacrilege to eat the blood. 
 This seems to indicate a reverence for the mystery 
 of life — in itself an instinctive religious motive. 
 It is probable that whenever an animal was killed 
 for food this ceremony was a form of "grace before 
 meat." 
 
 II 
 
 The primitive Semitic religion was a lay religion. ^ 
 
 The patriarchs were men of prayer. Such of 
 their prayers as are contained in Genesis breathe 
 a beautiful spirit of intimacy with Jehovah and a 
 consciousness of His everpresent accessibility and 
 guidance in regard to the practical affairs of life. 
 A beautiful illustration is found in the story of 
 Abraham's servant's quest for the right wife for 
 Isaac^ (a matter of vast importance in the eyes of 
 later generations whose ancestress was about to be 
 selected). 
 
 In this assumption of God's nearness and acces- 
 sibility we find the roots of the democratic strain 
 in the later Hebrew religion. Both the God-con- 
 
 'It is interesting to recall that in Mohammedanism, though 
 it became an exploiting religion, there is no provision for a sacer- 
 dotal caste. The original Arab democracy is safeguarded and 
 perpetuated. 
 
 2 Gen. 24. 
 
Rise of the Jewish Priesthood 5 
 
 sciousness of the prophets and the devotional ap- 
 peal of the Psalm-writers find their warrant here. 
 Men who pray to the same God find in their com- 
 mon worship the strongest tie of solidarity. The 
 group consciousness is strengthened and elevated 
 at the same time. 
 
 Common prayer and worship beget the highest 
 type of loyalty, become a source of strength and 
 comfort, and tend to uplift the human spirit, even 
 though the theological ideas of the worshippers 
 may be crude and imperfect. The discovery of 
 the law of self-suggestion by modern psychology 
 shows how religious beliefs and practices, even 
 when illfounded in objective facts, may automati- 
 cally produce highly beneficial results. Of course 
 the limitation of this primitive religion lay in the 
 tribal conception. It produced or strengthened 
 at best a sense of tribal solidarity and was divisive 
 in relation to the solidarity of the human race. 
 The latter doctrine had to wait till the belief in 
 the tribal God had been superseded by the pro- 
 phetical belief in the One God, the Creator and 
 Source of all mankind. 
 
 Ill 
 
 As the prophetic religion had its historic roots 
 in the patriarchical God-consciousness, so the ex- 
 ploiting religion grew up about the local sacred 
 places scattered through the desert oases and the 
 hill country. The early priestly families, repre- 
 sented by Melchisedec, Jethro, perhaps Balaam, 
 
6 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 and others, were guardians of the sacred places 
 connected with early theophanies in which God 
 had manifested Himself with particular vividness. 
 Where God had once been so clearly shown, His 
 Presence might again be sought with the best ex- 
 pectations. Moreover, the visitor at the shrine 
 did not have to depend upon a private revelation 
 which might be delayed or wholly withheld. 
 
 The guardians of the shrine had in their keeping 
 certain sacred instruments of divination by means 
 of which they professed to be able surely to ascertain 
 from God the information desired. They claimed 
 to be able to find the Divine Will and purpose regis- 
 tered in the flight of birds or the entrails of sacri- 
 ficial animals. If the right omens were not found 
 in the first sacrificial animal there was hope that 
 they might occur in later victims after the number 
 of the sacrifices had been able to effect a desired 
 change of attitude on the part of the god. (Wit- 
 ness the unavailing persistence of Balak in his deal- 
 ings with the priest Balaam. When a number of 
 animals were thus sacrificed it would naturally fol- 
 low that the priestly larder would be well stocked.) 
 Moreover, the ability to manipulate the sacred lot 
 opened an opportunity for influence on the part of 
 the diviner which readily lent itself to exploitation. 
 
 Not only the rewards of the priests but also their 
 influence was greatly enhanced as they came to be 
 consulted in matters of growing importance. It 
 seems a small matter that Rebekah should "in- 
 quire of God" (the technical expression for con- 
 
Rise of the Jewish Priesthood 7 
 
 suiting the oracle) about the meaning of the alarm- 
 ing symptoms of her pregnancy. But the smaller 
 occasion might lead to the greater. Saul who goes 
 to inquire about his father's strayed asses through 
 Samuel finds, through the medium of the oracle, 
 the kingship of the Israelites. He also finds the 
 asses. 
 
 The sanctuary had long had its chief significance 
 as the seat of judgment. The Hebrew law was a 
 judge-made law. In quarrels, disputes, and dis- 
 sensions, the parties laid their case before the priest 
 whose decisions were theoretically the decisions of 
 Jehovah Himself. Thus the law was regarded as 
 a Divine law.' This was given especial prominence 
 when Moses sat to judge the people. Later all 
 the decisions, precedents, and even new decisions 
 and innovations, came to be regarded as proceed- 
 ing from him. The Mosaic tradition was claimed 
 by the later highly developed priestly colleges and 
 nothing was deemed authoritative unless it could 
 claim the sanction of his name. After the mon- 
 archy the priests still retained their judicial powers 
 and functions and this gave them their political 
 influence. The claim to act as fountains of Divine 
 judgment gave the priests an opportunity to sway 
 affairs of state and that they sometimes used fraud 
 even our records admit. Saul and David and later 
 kings took no important steps without consulting 
 the oracle. The sense of dependence even on the 
 
 'The word "Torah" — later applied to the whole Jewish law — 
 is derived from a Hebrew word meaning to "cast a (sacred) lot. " 
 
8 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 part of kings is shown in the case of Saul — who, 
 when he could get no response through the dis- 
 affected priests "neither by dreams, nor by Urim, 
 nor by the soothsayers" (I Samuel 28 f), resorted 
 in desperation to the "Witch of Endor. " 
 
 As to the use of fraud we are frankly told that 
 Elisha, the man of God, sent a lying oracle to Ben- 
 hadad king of Syria (II Kings 8: 8) — a thing held 
 to be legitimate in dealing with an enemy. More- 
 over it is not only the soothsayer who is credited 
 with the use of justifiable fraud — but even Jehovah 
 Himself. This idea is not only found in that early 
 account of Jehovah's making use of a lying spirit in 
 order to mislead four hundred soothsayers that they 
 might entice Ahab to his death^ — but so high and 
 late an authority as Ezekiel tells us that Jehovah 
 Himself sometimes falsified the oracle.^ 
 
 If the priests (Ezekiel was of their number) could 
 believe deception legitimate on the part of God — 
 how should lying not also be justified as means to 
 desired ends, on the part of God's representatives 
 — i.e. themselves? Nothing could more conclu- 
 sively discredit the priestly veracity than their 
 conception of a God Who now and then resorted to 
 lies. This is but a plain instance of men creating 
 God in their own image. Moreover, it justified 
 them, in their own eyes, in their falsification of the- 
 ology and of history. 
 
 ^I Kings 22 — and II Chronicles 18. 
 
 ''"If the prophet be deceived, I, Jehovah, have deceived that 
 prophet." (Ezek. 14: 19.) 
 
Rise of the Jewish Priesthood 9 
 
 IV 
 
 Before turning to the rise of the literary prophets 
 in the Eighth Century B.C., let us rapidly sketch 
 the emergence of the priestly caste after the settle- 
 ment in Palestine and its growth as an exploiting 
 power in the days of Amos who denounces it in un- 
 mistakable terms as an exploiting and corrupt hier- 
 archy utterly faithless to God and to the Cause of 
 His people. 
 
 A primitive account of the rise of an early line 
 of priests is found in the story of Micah's "private 
 chaplain" in Judges 17 and 18: Micah is a man of 
 wealth and, as he can afford it, he is anxious to have 
 a priest of his own to consult the oracle for him and 
 so bring him knowledge whereby his prosperity 
 may be still further increased. He has an image 
 or images made of silver (with no consciousness 
 that this would displease Jehovah Whose favor he 
 is seeking) . He himself makes the ephod and tera- 
 phim — the instruments of divination. For the lack 
 of a better he, though a layman, sets his own son 
 apart as his priest. He thinks a visiting Levite from 
 Bethlehem would make a better priest and so he 
 deposes his son and consecrates the Levite in his 
 place. He is immensely pleased with the new min- 
 ister. But the latter for his part is serving his own 
 interests. He is discovered by some Danites who 
 are looking for a favorable place to found a settle- 
 ment. They consult the oracle through him and 
 get a favorable response. 
 
lo Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 Later they return with their fellow tribesmen, 
 rob Micah of his whole ecclesiastical outfit, priest, 
 images, ephod and teraphim. Thereby they se- 
 cure the favor of Jehovah for themselves. The 
 young priest is not outraged by the treatment of 
 his former patron (whom for some reason he had not 
 forewarned) but "his heart was glad''^ at this "call 
 to a larger field of usefulness." 
 
 A later gloss written after the captivity tells us 
 that this priest was the founder of the Danite priest- 
 hood, that he was "Jonathan, the son of Gershom, 
 the son of Moses," and that his descendants con- 
 tinued to be priests to the Danites till the captivity. ^ 
 
 The striking thing about this story is that the 
 fact of exploitation is at once so conspicuous and 
 so uncondemned. What a moral chasm between 
 Moses and his alleged grandson! And what a 
 founder to claim for a legitimate line of priests! 
 If the head be corrupt what of the members ! ^ 
 
 At a later date and on a larger scale we find the 
 same element of exploitation in the story of the 
 priests of Shiloh. But in this case there is an 
 implied condemnation on the part of the author who 
 exhibits the feeling of the people as outraged by the 
 conduct of the wicked sons Hophni and Phineas 
 of the "good" but weak priest Eli. At this stage 
 of development the laity still have the right to offer 
 their own sacrifices at the shrine of which the priests 
 
 'Judges l8: 30. 
 2 Judges 18:30. 
 ^The brief genealogy is probably fictitious. 
 
Rise of the Jewish Priesthood ii 
 
 are the guardians. We are plainly told that the 
 layman Elkanah, future father of Samuel, thus 
 sacrificed in his turn. The bad priests offended 
 by insolently helping themselves to whatever they 
 liked of the sacrificial victims as well as by seducing 
 whom they could of the female worshippers. 
 
 In reading this narrative we have to allow for 
 the fact that it is being retold by a later writer de- 
 voted to the claim of the Jerusalem priesthood to 
 have the only legitimate right to the succession. 
 The prophecy of the "man of God " that the priestly 
 house of Eli (nothing is said of Samuel) was to be 
 degraded and punished, and a "faithful priest" 
 to be raised up in its stead, is by critics held to have 
 been introduced as a warrant for the later suppres- 
 sion of that particular line by Solomon. It is sus- 
 pected that this later editor blackened the charac- 
 ter of these priests and made them appear worse 
 than others — in order to justify their later suppres- 
 sion. However, after Shiloh was destroyed by the 
 Philistines some of the descendants of Eli appear 
 as priests at the shrine of Nob (I Samuel 21:2). 
 They are represented as supporters of the claims 
 of David as against Saul who on that account sought 
 to have the whole priestly clan massacred and all 
 but succeeded, for Abiathar alone escaped — the 
 sole survivor. He remained faithful to David and 
 on the latter's accession to the throne became High 
 Priest. Other men were now elevated to the priest- 
 hood — among them Zadok the founder of the most 
 powerful and enduring line of priests. He sue- 
 
12 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 ceeded to the High Priesthood on the death of Da^id. 
 While the succession to the throne was still unsettled 
 Abiathar advocated the claims of David's son Ado- 
 nijah — whereas Zadok, with better fortune, stofxl by 
 Solomon. On the latter's accession Abiathar was 
 banished. Thus the line of Eli was superseded by 
 the "faithful priest" referred to in the interpolated 
 prophecy about the house of Shiloh. 
 
 Zadok (to whom the Sadducees traced their ori- 
 gin and from whom they took their name) seems 
 to have Ijcen complacent in regard to the royal be- 
 havior. He presided over a wonderful temple and 
 did not worry about the monarch's wives or the 
 houses built by the king for the worship of their 
 gods. His descendants carried exploitation to its 
 greatest efficiency and later writers of their group 
 provided their ancestor with a genealogy reaching 
 back to Aaron, brother of Moses. 
 
The Rise of Prophetism 13 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE RISE OF PROPHETISM 
 
 The progress of priestly exploitation did not go 
 on unresisted. Before we continue the story to its 
 climax we will take account of the opposition which 
 was soon in full swing. 
 
 The prophetic religion was a distinct type from 
 the priestly. It was not merely a movement of op- 
 position, or protest, though it developed positively 
 and constructively through its conflict with its 
 opposite. Beginning as the religion of one people it 
 continually expanded until it became a free, uni- 
 versal religion. It finds its epitome and final de- 
 velopment in the teaching of Jesus. The priestly 
 religion, on the other hand, tended to become more 
 and more exclusive, monopolistic and oppressive. 
 
 There are three aspects of prophetism which we 
 have to consider in this chapter: (i) its hereditary 
 origin as an independent religious type ; (2) its con- 
 flict with its opposite; and (3) the resulting type 
 of prophetic consciousness. The chapter following 
 this will be devoted to the permanent contribution 
 of prophetism to theology and ethics. 
 
 I 
 
 We have already noted that the germs of pro- 
 phetic religion are found in the patriarchial. The 
 patriarchs were men of prayer, consciously com- 
 
14 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 muning with Jehovah, receiving direct guidance in 
 answer to prayer. This guidance concerned the wel- 
 fare of the tribal family of which the patriarch was 
 the head. Guidance is a prophetic note. Jehovah 
 is the God of the people, and the internal social de- 
 velopment of the people is His concern. "The re- 
 ligion of the prophet is to be considered as an inner 
 evolution of the Israelite religion itself." ' 
 
 This concern of Jehovah for the internal well- 
 being of the tribe, is, in principle, social and demo- 
 cratic. Though the patriarch governs, his rule is 
 for the benefit of the governed. He is a father, not 
 an exploiter of his people. The patriarch is a lay- 
 man — but a God-conscious layman. The prophet 
 is also a God-conscious layman, but without the 
 patriarchial authority to govern. He endeavors, 
 however, to make the guidance and authority of 
 Jehovah the standard of the people's conduct. The 
 original type of the prophet was called the "seer." ^ 
 
 He had this in common with the primitive priest, 
 that both delivered oracles when the people came 
 to consult Jehovah through them. But whereas the 
 priest used the sacred lot, the seer, as the name 
 implies, was regarded as having direct insight or 
 clairvoyance into the mind of Jehovah. 
 
 If the earlier seers ever used the sacred lot (which 
 may be regarded as a sort of ancient equivalent of 
 
 'Carl Marti; The Religion of the Old Testament, Its Place 
 Among the Religions of the Nearer East, G. P. Putnam Sons, 
 1914, p. 124. 
 
 2 1 Sam. 9:9. 
 
The Rise oj Prophetism 15 
 
 the modern Ouija board) the later prophets dis- 
 carded all such instruments of divination and con- 
 sulted Jehovah in prayer. 
 
 The prophets Samuel, Elijah and Elisha are rep- 
 resented as exerting direct influence upon political 
 affairs. The latter two seemed to have been like 
 great magicians, knowing the future and knowing 
 how to influence the forces of nature.. The Deuter- 
 onomist seems to feel that it is the strict province of 
 the prophet simply to predict. If his predictions 
 come true he is a genuine prophet. If they fail he 
 is a false, presumptuous prophet, and is to be put 
 to death. 1 
 
 A prophet who confined his activities to the en- 
 deavor to foretell future events might serve the 
 purposes of the priestly caste. But prediction was 
 a matter of relatively small moment with the liter- 
 ary prophets. They concerned themselves with the 
 present, as religious and moral teachers ; they com- 
 bated evils and so were dangerous. It was easy to 
 charge them with being false prophets, if even -the 
 form of trial were given them, and to convict them 
 by a "packed" priestly jury and sentence them to 
 death by a priestly tribunal. 
 
 The term "prophet" is applied in the Old Testa- 
 ment to two distinct types of men, and these need 
 to be distinguished. There were those who repre- 
 sented the free, democratic clan brotherhood and 
 the nomadic tradition of Israel. They had their 
 homes in the hills where the simpler forms of social 
 iDeut. 18:20, 22. 
 
1 6 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 life persisted. The dwellers in the plains were being 
 corrupted by the Amorite civilization of the earlier 
 dwellers in Palestine. The form of government had 
 become monarchical ; the power of wealth had been 
 organized into an exploiting aristocracy and a 
 priestly caste was joining hands with the strong to 
 keep the people in subjection. 
 
 The true prophets opposed all these innovations 
 as contraventions of the law (mishpat) of Jehovah. 
 Louis Wallis, in his book "The Sociological Study 
 of the Bible" (University of Chicago Press) has dis- 
 tinguished these prophets as the "insurgents." 
 There is another class of prophets who are adher- 
 ents of the newer order. These Wallis calls the 
 "regular" prophets. They supported the mon- 
 archy, exploiting aristocracy, and worked hand in 
 hand with the exploiting priests. Whenever we use 
 the word prophet without a qualifying adjective we 
 mean the real or "insurgent" prophet, true to his 
 Israelite origin. The other class, upholding the 
 Amorite innovations and vested caste rights, will be 
 designated as "false" prophets. They are con- 
 demned by the true prophets in the same terms as 
 the priest. Such adjectives as "lying" (Isa. 9:5, 
 Jer. 6:3), and "covetous" (Jer. 8: 10), "drunken" 
 (Isa. 28: 7), and "profane" (Jer. 23: 11) are applied 
 to them. Micah declares that these prophets di- 
 vine for money (Micah 3: 11). (This implies that 
 the true prophets did not accept payment for their 
 messages.) Zephaniah speaks of "light and treach- 
 erous" prophets (Zeph. 3:4). Ezekiel likens cer- 
 
The Rise of Prophetism 1 7 
 
 tain prophets to foxes (Ezek. 13: 14). The most 
 serious charges against the false prophets are con- 
 tained in the words of Jeremiah: " I have seen also 
 in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing: they 
 commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen 
 also the hands of evil-doers that none doth return from 
 his wickedness ..." (Jer. 23:14). There was 
 a special reason for the bitterness of Jeremiah 
 against the false prophets as we shall see later. 
 
 The true prophets stood by the older customary 
 law ormishpat which protected the poor and weak 
 against the aggressions of the wealthy and powerful. 
 The intruding Amorite mishpat was made, or at 
 least manipulated, in the interests of the exploiting 
 classes. The ancient mishpat was to the prophet 
 the true law of Jehovah. It was founded upon 
 "justice and mercy." 
 
 II 
 
 We have now to describe the actual struggle be- 
 tween the prophets and their antagonists. In this 
 the prophets relied wholly upon the word of Jehovah 
 and the appeal of His word to the consciences of the 
 ruling classes. The priests, on the other hand, relied 
 upon their claim to external authority supported by 
 intrigue and physical force. When the prophets 
 got too obnoxious to the king, the nobles, and priests, 
 they were slain.* 
 
 The prophets did not rest content with general 
 charges against the priests that they were substi- 
 
 ijer. 2:30, Neh. 9:26. 
 
1 8 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 tuting a new mishpat for the old covenant of Jeho- 
 vah. There are very specific charges in the indict- 
 ment and there is Httle doubt that they were well 
 founded. 
 
 (i) The prophets are bitter in their denunciation 
 of the elaborate sacrificial ceremonial. Jeremiah 
 explicitly states that Jehovah gave no command- 
 ment to the fathers of Israel in regard to sac- 
 rifice. The elaborate priestly ceremonial is thus an 
 innovation. What Jehovah did command was sim- 
 ple obedience to the guidance of His living Voice. ^ 
 Hosea interprets Jehovah as saying: "I desire 
 mercy and not sacrifice." ^ 
 
 Micah declares that Jehovah desires nothing in 
 the way of sacrifice but instead justice, mercy and 
 humility. Amos and Isaiah give full descriptions 
 of the elaborated cultus, every detail of which is 
 described as nauseating to Jehovah.' 
 
 (2) The kings and the ruling classes are grouped 
 together in many prophetic denunciations. They 
 are recognized as members of the same conspiracy 
 of exploitation. The prophets were anti-monarchi- 
 cal and in favor of maintaining the democratic clan 
 brotherhood. Especially bitter were Amos and 
 Jeremiah in dealing with the sins of particular kings 
 whom the priests called "the Lord's annointed." 
 The priests are blamed for the support given by 
 them to evil kings and nobles. 
 
 1 Jer. 7:22, 23. 
 
 2 Hosea 6 : 6. 
 
 'Amos 5:21 ff, Isa. i: 11, ff. 
 
The Rise of Prophetism 19 
 
 (3) Hosea emphasizes the charge of ignorance of 
 Jehovah on the part of the priests. Not knowing 
 Jehovah they are practically godless. If they had 
 known Him they could not have been guilty of the 
 crimes they commit — perjury, murder, theft, adul- 
 tery, housebreaking, and violence.' 
 
 (4) The prophets also accused the priests of cap- 
 italizing the sins of the people so as to make revenue 
 for themselves through "indulgences." As Hosea 
 puts it: "They get a living from the sins of my 
 people and their desire is toward the people's 
 guilt." 2 
 
 (5) The same prophet is most explicit in charging 
 that the priests have introduced licentious rites, 
 borrowed from heathen peoples. The daughters of 
 the Israelites were thus led to "commit whoredom, 
 and their wives to commit adultery."' 
 
 (6) One of the most serious and far-reaching 
 charges made by the prophets against the priests 
 is that they perverted justice at its fountain head 
 in accepting bribes in rendering corrupt judicial 
 decisions. That is the meaning underlying the 
 scornful allusion to "gifts" in Isaiah i: 23, and to 
 "rewards" in Micah 3: 11, 7: 3, Isa. 5: 23, and 
 elsewhere. In modern phrase the priests accepted 
 "petty graft." 
 
 Not only was nearly every thinkable crime 
 charged against the priests but the prophets hold 
 
 1 Hosea 4: i, 2. 
 
 2 Hosea 4: 8. 
 
 3 Hosea 4: 12, 13. 
 
20 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 them responsible for the ignorance and low moral 
 state of the people who looked to them for leader- 
 ship. So great do they regard the evil of the 
 priestly influence that they are sure that Jehovah 
 is determined upon the complete removal of the 
 priesthood. "But with you, O ye priests, will I go 
 to judgment. . . . My people is destroyed be- 
 cause it has no knowledge; therefore, will I spurn 
 you that ye may be my priests no more. And since 
 ye have cast the mishpat of your God out of your 
 minds I will also cast your children out of my mind. "^ 
 This is a prophecy of the complete doom of the 
 priestly line. 
 
 What the priests are accused of neglecting, the 
 prophets undertook themselves to do; to denounce 
 heathen customs, to bring the people out of their 
 ignorance of Jehovah, to show His wrath against 
 immoral practices, to rebuke evil kings and exploit- 
 ing aristocrats, to teach the true mishpat, justice, 
 mercy and truth; to show Jehovah's disgust at the 
 ceremonial, to enkindle the consciences of sinners 
 by warning of the impending discipline of Jehovah 
 in which He will employ the agency of conquering 
 nations. They went on to show that the cultus 
 was no protection, as the priests claimed it was, 
 against the threatened invasion of world powers 
 that would lead the sinful people into captivity. 
 Jehovah would use these very enemies against whom 
 the priests were promising protection, to punish the 
 misguided people for their neglect of the true mish- 
 ^ Hosea 4: 4-7. 
 
The Rise of Prophetism 21 
 
 pat. The king, aristocrats, and their priestly sup- 
 porters, the prophets declared, would be the first to 
 suffer. Only the righteous, or at least the penitent, 
 would escape the threatened disaster, and from these 
 survivors, who would have learned through disci- 
 pline truly to know Jehovah, He would build up a 
 truly righteous nation to fulfil His Will. 
 
 Before calamities fell the prophets warned of 
 them and sought to avert them by moving the 
 people to repentance. After they had befallen the 
 prophets sought to drive home the lessons and then 
 gave themselves to the mission of consolation and 
 to proposing a program for the reestablishment of 
 the nation on a lasting foundation of righteousness. 
 In this epoch they became the interpreters of the 
 lessons of world history in which they read the un- 
 folding Will of Jehovah, and their appreciation of 
 the interpretation of history enabled them to make 
 one of their most important permanent contribu- 
 tions to theological truth. 
 
 On the practical side the prophetic principle that 
 corruption destroys any vestige of claim to moral 
 and religious leadership is of fundamental impor- 
 tance to all reforming movements. It is the safe- 
 guard of religious liberty. It sets aside the priestly 
 contention that God's gift of authority to teach 
 and rule is inalienable — a non-forf citable vested 
 right. The subsequent claim of the Catholic Church 
 that the unworthiness of the priest does not affect 
 the "validity" of the sacrament is based upon this 
 contention that corruption does not even break the 
 
22 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 .monopolistic control of the channels of access to 
 Divine favor. The object is to force the righteous 
 layman to come even to the evil priest in order to 
 have any transaction with the Deity. 
 
 The prophet claims that no one, no matter what 
 his priestly claims, can represent God to another, 
 apart from a penitent life striving to know, to do, 
 and to reveal God's Will. The priestly hall-mark 
 is in itself an infringement, a usurpation. The con- 
 ditions of attaining religious leadership are open to 
 all. 
 
 The priestly and prophetic claims appear mutu- 
 ally irreconcilable. The prophets demand the elim- 
 ination of the whole ecclesiastical machine. The 
 priests retort with charges of blasphemy or heresy 
 and demand that the prophets be stoned. Jeremiah 
 2: 30 and Nehemiah 9: 26 bear witness to the fre- 
 quency of the prophetic martyrdoms and Jesus 
 points out that it is in Jerusalem (where the priests 
 have the control) that the prophets must expect 
 nothing but death. 
 
 The prophet's honor is paid him, not in his life- 
 time, but by building monuments over his ashes 
 and putting flowers upon his grave. 
 
 Ill 
 
 We now turn from the external conflicts of the 
 prophets to seek the inspirational sources within the 
 prophetic souls and then to contrast the prophetic 
 with the priestly psychology. 
 
 The starting point of the prophet's career is 
 
The Rise of Prophetism 23 
 
 mystic experience. God seeks the prophet and the 
 prophet is thereby led to seek God. The God- 
 seeker becomes the God-knower. As prophetic ex- 
 perience accumulates and widens and the God- 
 knowledge deepens, the fact that God is One is 
 clearly revealed. The prophet further learns that 
 God, with whom he communes in prayer, is also 
 teaching mankind through the movements of world 
 history. God speaking within the soul and God 
 working in human relations thus offers two distinct 
 channels of enlightenment. The internal-individual 
 and external-social experiences are mutually inter- 
 pretive. From his consciousness that God is One 
 the prophet advances to the knowledge that all 
 mankind is but one family. God has no ultimate 
 favorities. If He bestows favors upon one nation 
 it is in order that the favored ones may communi- 
 cate their privileges to all the rest. 
 
 Thus God has a plan for the whole world, and He 
 calls upon men to the work of getting that plan 
 accomplished. The prophet discovers that it is his 
 own function to interpret this plan to his fellows and 
 win their co-operation in its furtherance. In this 
 he does not seek to make God useful to himself, as 
 is the custom of priestly religion, but seeks to be- 
 come useful to God. In place of the primitive sense 
 of sin — which is associated with ceremonial unclean- 
 ness rather than with moral lapses — the prophetic 
 consciousness of sin becomes rather a sense of failure 
 in living up to the responsibility of co-operating with 
 God in righting the wrongs of the world. In the 
 
24 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 prophetic consciousness we find that the conception 
 of sin is no longer merely personal, but through the 
 new-born sense of responsibility, it has also become 
 social. Isaiah combines these two aspects of sin 
 when he says: "Woe is me, for I am undone, for I 
 am a man of sinful life and dwell in the midst of a 
 people of unclean lips.''^ The consciousness of the 
 personal guilt of sins of omission comes out in the 
 narrative of the prophetic call. It is the prophet's 
 share of the burden of social guilt. He blames 
 himself for the sins of the people. He takes upon 
 himself voluntarily the burden of their removal. 
 This is not to be accomplished by the easy method 
 of shedding of blood of sacrificial victims, or burnt 
 offerings. God does not ask to be compensated for 
 the injury which men have done Him. Instead He 
 desires to forget the past freely and make a new 
 beginning. He desires the free services of men 
 united in the effort to prevent sin and evil. He 
 needs messengers and initiators of His program of 
 repentance and a new life. 
 
 The Word of God, the Spirit of God, the Vision of 
 God comes to men as men. The prophets are lay- 
 men who are instructed directly of God and they 
 make their appeal to men as beings who are respon- 
 sible to God. They look forward to the day when 
 all men will receive the appeal of God directly from 
 the divine Spirit.^ 
 
 The attitude of the prophet toward his fellows 
 
 1 Isa. 6: 5. 
 
 2 Cf. Jer. 31 : 33, Joel 2 : 28 f. See also. Numbers 1 1 : 29. 
 
The Rise of Prophetism 25 
 
 becomes thus identically God's attitude toward 
 them. His personal interests become identified 
 with God's interests. The solidarity between his 
 own interests and those of God, between God's in- 
 terests and those of every member of the human 
 race makes the thought of exploitation in the name 
 of religion a moral impossibility. For the prophet 
 to use his knowledge of God for private ends be- 
 comes logically impossible. His knowledge of God 
 itself teaches him that God utterly condemns all 
 forms of exploitation. Exploitation can rest only 
 upon a false conception of God or complete igno- 
 rance of Him. On the contrary, the prophet's knowl- 
 edge of God entails a life of fearless sacrifice in His 
 cause. Thus the prophets become the world's mar- 
 tyrs. The readiness to die for their cause is a con- 
 spicuous element in the prophetic psychology. 
 
 Priesthood develops externally in elaborated cere- 
 monial, sacred vestments, a self-perpetuating hier- 
 archy. Prophetism develops internally in a deeper 
 knowledge of God and a growing sense of individual 
 responsibility to Him. Priesthood seeks to control 
 the avenues of approach to God through rites and 
 practices which none but priests have the knowledge 
 or skill or right to perform. It thus seeks to make 
 itself essential to intercourse with God. Prophet- 
 ism seeks to know God through the internal, per- 
 sonal or mystical approach and to impart the secret 
 of that approach to all men. Priesthood seeks to 
 make itself indispensable and permanent. Prophet- 
 ism seeks to be inclusive and to make of every last 
 
26 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 man a mystical God-knower. The priest seeks to 
 interpose himself as a permanent, autocratic media- 
 tor between God and the soul. The prophet seeks 
 to mediate temporarily by way of interpretation in 
 order that his mediation may be rendered perma- 
 nently superfluous. 
 
 The prophet is a striking combination of con- 
 scious weakness and a sense of power. Having 
 identified himself with God's cause he is destined to 
 share in God's triumphs no matter what individual 
 or personal fate may overtake him in this life. He 
 may fail in time but he has succeeded eternally. 
 He belongs in the eternal order even in the midst of 
 time. It is this consciousness which enables him 
 to understand how history must ultimately unfold. 
 His insight into the future is not concerned with 
 individual happenings which he may predict, but 
 with the larger questions of human destiny. "The 
 prophet is but the mystic in control of the forces 
 of history, declaring their necessary outcome; the 
 mystic in action is the prophet. "'■ " Prophetic power 
 is the final evidence to each individual that he is 
 right and real. It is his assurance of salvation; it 
 is his share of divinity; it is his anticipation of all 
 attainment."^ 
 
 The prophet finds out what he is for. God 
 formed Jeremiah in the womb to become His 
 prophet. The prophet is conscious at first of his 
 
 1 Hocking, "The Meaning of God in Human Experience," p. 
 511- 
 ^Ibid. p. 512. 
 
The Rise of Prophetism 27 
 
 own spiritual infancy, the insufficiency of his per- 
 sonal power to respond to the momentous call. 
 But the call itself elicits from a latent divine gift — 
 the growing strength necessary to respond to it. 
 As this develops it culminates in the consciousness 
 of "power from on High." Jehovah says: "Be- 
 hold, I have put my words in thy mouth: see, I 
 have this day set thee over the nations and over 
 the kingdoms to pluck up and break down and to 
 destroy and to overthrow and to build and to plant. "^ 
 
 The prophet believes, as did the ancient patri- 
 arch, that the immediate guidance of God is a per- 
 manent factor in individual and social life. Here 
 he again breaks with the priest, who teaches that 
 the law, as a permanent external whole, was once 
 delivered to the ancestors of the race. This law 
 may not be changed, however much it may be 
 elaborated and its application extended. 
 
 The prophet believes that instead of a law — im- 
 personal and unchanging — communicated as a com- 
 plete whole by God in the past, God progressively, 
 through the inspired insight of religious leaders, 
 teaches right principles of conduct and courses of 
 action. 
 
 The priestly conception of the "Torah" develops 
 into legalism a form of law-worship or idolatry. 
 The law is regarded as existing as an end in itself. 
 Man is regarded as existing for the law, whereas the 
 prophet regards the law as existing for the benefit 
 of man. 
 
 ijer. i; lO. 
 
28 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 Against legalism the prophet urges a living spirit- 
 ual and moral guidance. Those who are suffi- 
 ciently in earnest may discover the law of God 
 written in their own inward parts. ' To the spiritu- 
 ally awakened ear the command comes "Hearken 
 to my voice." 2 This living voice proclaims moral 
 responsibility reaching far beyond the precepts of 
 the written law. It teaches principles instead of 
 enacting legislation — such living principles as love 
 to God and love to fellow man. It is not forcing 
 the meaning of Jeremiah to say that the Voice of 
 God to which he urges allegiance is none other than 
 the voice of the divinely enlightened conscience. 
 
 Having seen the connection of prophetism with 
 the ancient Israelitish religion, having seen it in 
 action against its opposite — developed out of the 
 Amorite soil, and having studied the main elements 
 of its psychology, we now turn to its permanent 
 theological and ethical contributions. 
 
 'Jer. 31: 33- 
 2jer. 11: 4. 
 
Prophetic Theology and Ethic 29 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 PROPHETIC THEOLOGY AND ETHIC 
 
 The source of the prophetic insight is no less than 
 God Himself. As we have already seen the chan- 
 nels through which that insight comes are two — the 
 direct, through mystical personal experience, and 
 the indirect — through history or the collective ex- 
 perience of the race. 
 
 God is the Source from Which all men and all 
 things have arisen. God is the destiny to which all 
 men and all things are to return on a higher plane. 
 Meanwhile men have to fight their way along the 
 arduous and perilous spiral of existence and need 
 guidance and help in so doing. There are five great 
 ideas, together embodying a complete synthesis of 
 religious and ethical factors, which the prophetic 
 movement as a whole has contributed to the under- 
 standing of the problem of existence. 
 
 (i) The prophets discovered the value of the in- 
 dividual through mystical experience. This dis- 
 covery is at once theological and ethical, (ii) The 
 prophets discerned God at the center of the historic 
 movement. Thereby history finds a theological and 
 ethical meaning, and the mystery of suffering is 
 explained, (iii) The prophets grasp the truth of 
 religious universalism — the ultimate principle of the 
 final world religion, and find the principle of the 
 universal ethic in the doctrine of service, (iv) 
 
30 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 This universalism unites the theological doctrine of 
 monotheism with the ethical doctrine of the solidar- 
 ity of mankind. The unity of God does not make 
 Him the philosophical Absolute but reveals Him as 
 the Supreme Person. He does not absorb His uni- 
 verse nor does the race absorb the individual. 
 Room is thus left for "pluralism, " which recognizes 
 the eternal value of separate individualities and so 
 gives the basis for the doctrine of immortality, (v) 
 The religio-ethical is found in the prophet's vision 
 of the social destiny of mankind (named in modern 
 times the "Messianic idea") which signifies the 
 triumph of God's Leadership in history. The pro- 
 phetic interpretation of this "Messianic" ideal 
 differs from both the monarchical and priestly. 
 
 The prophetic quest for truth, for reality, for 
 God, does not employ the mechanism of formal logic. 
 It seeks to attain its object by means of "vision," 
 or the direct inner beholding of reality. In the 
 modern phrase its method is that of intuition or 
 immediate insight. Instead of using the syllogism 
 which creeps in the direction of truth by a zig-zag 
 process its method is to employ the direct approach 
 to truth. The resultant experience enables the 
 prophet to declare "The word of the Lord came 
 unto me, saying." This sounds very ancient and 
 naive, but it is given a modern standing among 
 sophisticated philosophies by the work of Bergson 
 and James. It is more than an accident that the 
 modern philosopher of intuition should be a de- 
 scendant of the ancient Hebrews. He has given a 
 
Prophetic Theology and Ethic 31 
 
 complete philosophical warrant to the method em- 
 ployed by the ancient prophets in their grasping of 
 ultimate reality by exalting the method of "in- 
 tuition, " the philosophical complement of the theo- 
 logical "inspiration," in showing its superiority to 
 the Greek logic as the proper instrument of specula- 
 tion. James has done an equal service in attaching 
 a claim for the validity of religious experience as a 
 source of the knowledge of reality. Nowhere can 
 we get a clearer appreciation of the value of spiritual 
 intuition than in the study of the permanent com- 
 bined results of the prophets of Israel and the 
 teachings of Jesus. 
 
 I 
 
 By the aid of the mystical approach to reality 
 the prophets discovered the value of the individual. 
 Let us consider how this came about. 
 
 Primitive or tribal religion subordinated the value 
 of the individual completely to the interests of the 
 tribe. The individual existed for the tribe. Prim- 
 itive Israelitish religion was distinguished from other 
 primitive tribal religions by the conviction that the 
 tribe also existed for the benefit of the individual. 
 But the value of the individual is not ultimately 
 appraised till revealed by the prophetic experience. 
 
 The prophet not only finds God but in so doing 
 first truly finds himself. As he learns to know God 
 he also learns that God already knows him as a 
 separate personality, not merely as a fragment of the 
 nation. His "prophetic call" is the discovery that 
 
32 Religion: Its Prophets and, False Prophets 
 
 God needs him as the messenger of His Will to His 
 people. The consequent dependence of God upon 
 an individual as an agent of His working plan 
 gives to the individual a supreme value. On making 
 the discovery the prophet is at once humbled and 
 transported. He knows his past limitations, but, 
 in spite of them, he expands with the consciousness 
 of potential greatness. God's need of him makes 
 the prophet great. ^ 
 
 But the prophet's work cannot be carried out in 
 isolation. His primary task is to reproduce his own 
 type among the people who must be brought equally 
 to the realization that prophetic responsibilities 
 await them all — that is, that all are called to as- 
 sume a share in establishing the divine community. 
 God needs all men and so all men acquire an equal 
 value with the original prophet. They are called 
 upon to repent — not merely to regret the past, but 
 radically to remodel their lives on the plan of God's 
 Will for the realization of the righteous state. 
 When the state is thus realized in righteousness it 
 exists for God, but at the same time it also exists for 
 the benefit of its lowliest and weakest member. The 
 importance of the community is not relatively les- 
 sened because of the supreme value given to the 
 individual. On the contrary the value of the com- 
 munity is raised to the highest point because in it 
 alone can the individual find his task and thus come 
 to complete self-realization. Salvation for the 
 
 1 Witness the calls of Isaiah and Jeremiah, Isa. 6 and Jere- 
 miah I. 
 
Prophetic Theology and Ethic 33 
 
 individual consists in forgetting to seek his private 
 salvation but instead in seeking the salvation of the 
 whole community. 
 
 II 
 
 This now becomes the prophet's task. He must 
 bring others to unite with him in seeking to organize 
 the social life of mankind according to the Will of 
 God. A righteous society or state cannot exist in 
 isolation in the midst of a godless world any more 
 than the righteous individual can be in safety in the 
 midst of a wicked social order. The earlier tribal 
 religion held that Jehovah's chosen people could 
 exist in safety, though surrounded by strong nations 
 who cared nothing for Jehovah's Will. The prophets 
 came to see clearly that the nations who ' ' knew not 
 Jehovah" were both a corrupting influence and an 
 external menace. God's plan for the Israelites 
 could not work out except as it included the heathen 
 peoples in its scope. In the eyes of the popular 
 religion the destiny of the heathen was to be held in 
 a state of complete subjugation by the "chosen 
 people." But the prophets had a more religious 
 and ethical solution. The great nations must also 
 be won to allegiance to Jehovah and His Will for 
 their own sakes as well as for the sake of Israel. 
 Israel and all the other nations exist for that future 
 community organized according to the Will of God 
 and including all mankind. 
 
 In fact the prophets see Jehovah as already over- 
 ruling the wills of the great nations. "According 
 
34 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 to Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Micah, Jehovah not 
 only has power over Israel and its armies, but the 
 Assyrians and the Egyptians are at His disposal to 
 carry out His plans." ^ 
 
 The priests fostered the idea that by means of the 
 national cult with its offerings and sacrifices Jehovah 
 would be led miraculously to protect His favorites 
 from the invasion and conquest overtaking other 
 smaller peoples. The prophets denounced this as 
 vain and superstitious folly. In opposition to the 
 priests they declared that the nation was not ful- 
 filling the pleasure of Jehovah. It could not do so 
 because it was not aware of His plan. It could only 
 be awakened by some terrible lesson, and Jehovah 
 was able to teach that lesson by the punitive power 
 of the great conquering nations under His control. 
 When at length Israel should have truly learned its 
 lesson then it would become the world teacher. 
 Universal peace and a league of all nations knowing 
 Jehovah and fulfilling His Will would come as the 
 culminating achievement. In this universal com- 
 munity of God the individual would find his com- 
 plete well-being and enduring safety.^ 
 
 But till the day should come when Israel would 
 realize its God-given mission there must be such 
 disciplinary suffering as would awaken the people 
 to the consciousness of their high calling. 
 
 In no respect does the prophetic religion throw a 
 clearer light upon the dark mystery of existence than 
 
 iCarl Marti, op. cit. p. 131. 
 "Cf. Isa. 2, Micah 4. 
 
Prophetic Theology and Ethic 35 
 
 in the profound insight into the divine mission of 
 suffering. 
 
 Hosea learns from the anguish of his soul in deal- 
 ing with an adulterous wife what God's attitude is 
 toward His faithless people. He also learns from 
 his insight into God's dealing with Israel how he 
 should conduct himself towards his wife whom he 
 loyally persists in loving despite her treachery to 
 himself. Instead of inflicting upon her the penalty 
 of the law, instead of hardening his heart to the 
 point of hating her, he forgives, woos and wins her 
 back to the ways of decency and honor, and be- 
 comes the redeemer of his wife, as Jehovah is the 
 Redeemer of Israel. The adulterous wife and the 
 adulterous nation must suffer, but their suffering 
 is essential to their restoration and comes from a 
 lover (human in one case. Divine in the other) who 
 does not punish because of the bitter resentment of 
 his soul, but because of his redeeming love over- 
 coming the feeling of resentment. 
 
 But even more striking is the fact that the 
 prophet's own attitude towards his people comes to 
 be exactly the same as Jehovah's attitude. The 
 prophet is a penitent. He has been a sinner, but he 
 has sought God and received forgiveness and puri- 
 fication. He is not in an attitude of rebellion but of 
 obedience. It does not occur to him to seek to save 
 his own soul by separating himself from his people 
 and so escape the calamities that have fallen upon 
 them. He shares their fate while trying to save 
 them from it. He suffers with them though he 
 
36 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 deserves no punishment. Nay, in working for their 
 good he incurs their ill will and hatred. Speaking 
 the truth to them in love he is hewn in sunder by the 
 sword which they turn against him in their anger. 
 He dies for love of them — seeking not his own re- 
 ward. The prophet's life, not merely his work, 
 becomes a theodicy. 
 
 Amos believed that a righteous remnant would es- 
 cape the calamities inflicted upon the nation. The 
 experiences of the captivity taught men that in 
 great calamities the righteous and wicked alike 
 suffer the same external evils. During the captivity 
 those born on foreign soil came to utter the thought 
 that they were the innocent victims of their parents' 
 sins. "The parents have eaten sour grapes and the 
 children's teeth are set on edge." Against this 
 complaint Ezekiel dogmatizes with the utterance of 
 the principle that each soul is to be treated according 
 to its personal merits — the father is not to suffer for 
 the son or the son for the father. But this dogma 
 overlooked the plain facts of observation and ex- 
 perience. 
 
 The true situation was that discovered by 
 Ezekiel's successor, the anonymous prophet some- 
 times called "The Great Unknown, " sometimes the 
 Second Isaiah. He saw that the same external 
 ordeal awaits the evil and the good — but that the 
 reward of the righteous is internal and spiritual. 
 The righteous accepts the suffering and profits by 
 it. It becomes a bond of union between himself 
 and Jehovah. He accepts it without complaint or 
 
Prophetic Theology and Ethic 37 
 
 outcry — "as a sheep before his shearers is dumb." 
 Hereby he enters into the inheritance of the blessed 
 by becoming Jehovah's agent — acting as His ' 'suf- 
 fering servant." "He sees the travail of his soul 
 and is satisfied." Nay more than satisfied — he 
 knows the joy and triumph of God's victorious Son. 
 
 HI 
 
 Modern apologists see in pain a danger signal of 
 warning. Pain is often the concomitant of the effort 
 of nature to grow, expand, and to heal. Thus the 
 object of pain is ultimately beneficent. 
 
 The discovery of the true means to eradicate 
 social pains may lead to the discovery of the divine 
 intention in respect to the adjustment of human rela- 
 tions. The rule of service is the program advocated 
 by the prophet for the eradication of the social causes 
 of suffering. The suffering prophet finds escape 
 from his private woes by giving himself in service to 
 the sinful and weak. 
 
 Humanity has a common destiny. The righteous 
 can only survive (in the biological sense) by ' ' mak- 
 ing many righteous." The righteous individual 
 must impart his qualities to his own people. The 
 righteous people must then spread that divine qual- 
 ity till it reaches all mankind. The escape from 
 suffering must be a social, solidaristic, universal 
 escape, or what we might call social salvation. 
 Hence the prophetic theology sets the foreign mis- 
 sionary his task of a campaign for world-wide salva- 
 tion. The nations must be brought into the fold. 
 
38 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 The suffering servant has been characterized by 
 George Adam Smith in his work "The Book of 
 Isaiah, " as : "A human figure of lofty character and 
 unfailing perseverance who makes God's work of 
 redemption his own, puts his heart into it, and is 
 upheld by God's hand. God, let us understand, has 
 committed His Cause upon earth to human agents. " ' 
 God, for His part, is supremely interested in human 
 concerns. "He is One Who arises and comes 
 down. Who makes virtue His Cause and righteous- 
 ness His passion."^ 
 
 The nation is also conceived as the suffering serv- 
 ant. Not ruling other nations with a rod of iron 
 as a mark of the favoritism of an All-powerful God, 
 we may find a humiliated, conquered nation, in the 
 hour of its seeming failure aspiring to be used as an 
 ally of God. 
 
 God Himself also suffers through His sympathies 
 and in His arduous toil. His work is not lightly ac- 
 complished by the mere utterance of a fiat. It is 
 still in the process of accomplishment and in it He 
 also travails. "In the affliction of His people He is 
 afflicted. " How this contrasts with the priestly 
 teaching that God is able to do all things independ- 
 ently of the co-operation of man, but that He waits 
 to be persuaded by the use of correct ritual to give 
 good gifts to His dependent children. This con- 
 ception lacks the ethical quality and robs God of the 
 
 'Op. cit. vol. II, p. 133. 
 ^Ihid. p. 140. 
 
Prophetic Theology and Ethic 39 
 
 character of loyalty to the best interests of His crea- 
 tures and robs man of the opportunity to enter 
 into co-operative companionship with the Most 
 High. The prophetic theology, in contrast, is 
 moral, developmental and normal. God does not 
 inflict punishment out of wanton cruelty or capri- 
 cious anger but uses pain to develop men of the high- 
 est character, through whom His Own designs are 
 accomplished. This is the interpretation to the 
 understanding of the 53rd Chapter of Isaiah, es- 
 pecially in the concluding verses : 
 
 My righteous servant shall make many righteous. 
 And himself will bear the burdens of their iniquities. 
 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, 
 And with the strong shall he divide his spoil, 
 Because he poured out his life-blood. 
 And was numbered with the transgressors. 
 And himself bore the sins of many, 
 And interposed for transgressors.' 
 
 The prophet's attitude towards sin is the same as 
 that towards suffering. He does not reproach others 
 for causing him these heavy burdens but by being 
 a sharer in the community's sins he labors to remove 
 the sources of the sins from the community. His 
 consolation is that his sin-bearing and pain-bearing 
 have a value in the sight of God for the benefit of 
 mankind, that they set a lofty standard to his 
 fellows and have a purging and sanctifying influence 
 upon his own soul. His sin-bearing effects a change 
 for the better in the character of the sinners who 
 'Isa. 53:11, 12. (Kent's Version.) 
 
40 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 come under the spell of his influence as well as in 
 his own character. 
 
 IV 
 
 Underlying and inseparable from the development 
 of ethical universalism with its doctrine of service is 
 the growing consciousness of the unity of God — 
 theological monotheism. As Marti says, "One 
 might transcribe every page of the prophets of the 
 eighth century. They contain a unanimous testi- 
 mony to the sole, unlimited and irresistible power of 
 Jehovah, and they are at the same time a proof that 
 in its essence monotheism existed from the very first 
 and the earliest prophets." ^ 
 
 It is important to remember the logical connection 
 between monotheism and ethical universalism. 
 The prophets could not separate their doctrine of 
 the One God from the doctrine of the solidarity of 
 mankind. The priestly writers were inconsistent 
 when they took over the prophetic doctrine of 
 monotheism while rejecting the prophetic ethical 
 universalism. They held to the ridiculous and 
 presumptuous views that the One Omnipotent God 
 remained interested alone in the Jewish race. This 
 narrow conception is satirized by a Jewish writer of 
 the Hellenistic period in the Book of Jonah. The 
 narrowness of that fictitious false prophet receives 
 the scorn of this liberalized author of a parabolic 
 writing. Jonah is made ridiculous by his attempts 
 to escape from the territory of Jehovah, by his 
 
 ^Op. cit. p. 132. 
 
Prophetic Theology and Ethic 41 
 
 chagrin at God's mercy to the Ninevites after their 
 repentance, and by his caring more about the fate 
 of a gourd vine than for the fate of a great city. 
 The work seems almost to strike a note of levity at 
 the expense of the tribal idea of God, but the Book 
 receives a great weight of seriousness from the 
 approving use made of it by our Lord. We must 
 remember that humor was one of the prophetic 
 weapons which Jesus Himself did not hesitate to 
 employ even in dealing with the most serious mat- 
 ters. ^ 
 
 V 
 
 Because of his knowledge of God's power and love 
 the prophet knows how the future will ultimately 
 unfold. He can foresee but one ending to the drama 
 of life — a happy one. The tragic estrangement 
 between God and humanity will yet be done away 
 and there will be an eternal reconciliation. How- 
 ever long the tragic episode may be drawn out by 
 human perversity the end will be in the phrase of 
 Dante, a Divina Commedia. 
 
 There is to be a universal human brotherhood, 
 founded upon mutual love and service and upon the 
 immediate knowledge of God and guidance by Him. 
 Through what agency is this golden age, this reign 
 of God on earth to be accomplished? 
 
 In the times of Israel's oppression a deliverer was 
 anxiously looked for. Who and what should the 
 leader be? All answers agreed "an anointed one" 
 
 'See St. Luke 10:41, Moffat's Version. 
 
42 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 — in the Hebrew "a Messiah, " that is, one especially 
 consecrated to the office or task. There were three 
 kinds of Messiahs or "anointed ones" — kings, 
 priests and prophets. It is a strange fact that 
 Christian theology has almost exclusively identified 
 the word "Messiah" with kingship. The popular 
 imperialistic idea of the Jews was doubtless at one 
 time that the Messiah should be a conquering king 
 who would deliver Israel from its enemies, extend 
 the kingdom into an empire, and establish the inner 
 well-being of the people. Isaiah and Jeremiah 
 looked forward at times to a righteous king who 
 would carry out their program of social justice. 
 But apart from a few passages in the writings of 
 these two prophets and in allusions by Haggai and 
 Zechariah to contemporary Davidic princes, the 
 monarchical idea of Messiahship is not common in 
 the Old Testament. It finds a most interesting 
 illustration in those passages of the prophecy of the 
 Great Unknown wherein he hails Cyrus the Persian 
 as Jehovah's Messiah. This is because in his uni- 
 versalism the prophet believed that the emperor 
 was an agent of Jehovah in rehabilitating the Jewish 
 people. 
 
 Comparatively little attention has been paid by 
 Christian theologians to the expectation that the 
 future happy state of the Jews is to rest in the hands 
 of the Jewish priesthood. This idea underlay the 
 theocratic dream of the restored Israel in Ezekiel. 
 It was part and parcel of the aspiration of the post- 
 exilic priesthood and has left traces in the book of 
 
Prophetic Theology and Ethic 43 
 
 Daniel. In Daniel the government is to be in the 
 hands of the "saints," as he designates the priest- 
 hood, but the Deliverer is no less than Jehovah Him- 
 self, Who is expected to intervene by a catastrophic 
 miracle in which the heathen are to be utterly 
 crushed into submission. 
 
 We read of the anointing of the prophet Elisha by 
 Elijah. But as a rule "anointing," as applied to 
 the prophets, was used figuratively of the divine 
 spiritual unction as in Isa. 61 : i. 
 
 In our study of the Deutero-Isaiah we have found 
 the conception that the coming deliverer is not a 
 king but a suffering prophet. The prophet is to 
 accomplish the stupendous task through moral 
 leadership and religious instruction. 
 
 This type of Messianic idea is the most ethical, 
 the most rational and exalted. In place of the 
 leadership of a political king or priestly theocracy 
 it puts that of the God-knower, as that which is to 
 bring in the consummation of the world drama. 
 
 This is the prophetic interpretation of the Mes- 
 sianic idea and it was in this sense, as we shall see, 
 that Jesus must have conceived of His Own Messiah- 
 ship. It is the highest religious and moral concep- 
 tion possible. The goal of humanity is not to be 
 reached through conquest (as in the kingly Messianic 
 idea) , nor by a stupendous miracle (as in the priestly 
 Messianic idea) , but through divinely guided moral 
 leadership, following a program of suffering service, 
 establishing the universal community — the reign 
 of God (prophetic, Messianic, Universalism) . In 
 
44 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 this community exploitation whether by kings or 
 priests is necessarily self-excluded. 
 
 We have now seen how the prophets discovered : 
 (i) the value of the individual ; (2) the meaning of 
 history as related to a divine plan ; (3) the univer- 
 sal scope of that plan to include all mankind; (4) 
 the fact that the human race is one as God is one; 
 and (5) the means of moral leadership whereby the 
 prophets believe that the triumph of God's reign 
 on earth is to be secured. 
 
 We have next the painful task of turning from this 
 glorious vision to the actual historical development 
 as it was largely moulded by the enemies of the 
 prophets, the priestly aristocrats and exploiters of 
 religion. 
 
Priesthood Establishes a Monopoly 45 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE PRIESTHOOD ESTABLISHES A MONOPOLY AND 
 
 DEVELOPS A LEGALISTIC ETHIC PRIESTLY 
 
 THEOLOGY 
 
 One of the greatest contributions of the "Higher 
 Criticism" to the cause of the prophetic reUgion 
 has been the uncovering of the story of priestly 
 aggrandisement through intrigue and of the Hterary 
 devices by which the priests covered their tracks 
 so skilfully as to deceive subsequent generations for 
 two millenniums and a half. We will now briefly 
 recapitulate the results of these critical and histor- 
 ical investigations. 
 
 I 
 
 After the settlement of the Israelites in Pales- 
 tine priestly colleges began to grow up on the site 
 of various Amorite shrines which were converted 
 into Israelite holy places by being associated with 
 incidents in the lives of the patriarchs. 
 
 The judicial functions of the priests, as we have 
 already seen, had put into their hands a powerful 
 weapon of exploitation which enabled them to con- 
 spire with the kings and nobles to "grind the face 
 of the poor." 
 
 Owing to their proximity to the kingly court cer- 
 tain of the shrines soon won greater prestige, influ- 
 ence and wealth — Bethel in the Northern kingdom 
 
46 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 and Jerusalem in the Southern. In place of the 
 harmony that had previously existed rivalry, com- 
 petition and jealousy began to develop between 
 the different holy places. 
 
 II 
 
 A new stage began after the fall of the northern 
 kingdom which had greatly weakened the prestige 
 of the local cults, though Bethel continued suffi- 
 ciently important to hold the envious regard of 
 Jerusalem. Not content with its position of superi- 
 ority over the other local shrines the ambitious 
 Jerusalem priesthood desired a complete monopoly 
 of the priestly prerogatives. Their opportunity 
 came and their plans were matured in the reign of 
 Josiah — a weak and superstitious king — who was 
 readily made the mere tool of the priestly faction. 
 They now planned to use the secular arm of 
 the monarch to kill off or to subordinate their 
 priestly rivals as in the past they had dealt with the 
 prophets. 
 
 The first step in the conspiracy is to forge a new 
 version of the customary law and rewrite the his- 
 tory of Israel to make it appear that Jehovah Him- 
 self expressly desired that His cultus should be 
 concentrated at Jerusalem and there hold a com- 
 plete monopoly. Provision was made in this law 
 for the destruction of the non-Jerusalemic temples 
 and for the bringing of their priests to the capital 
 in a menial position.^ 
 
 iDeut. 7: 5. 
 
Priesthood Establishes a Monopoly 47 
 
 In this code recognition is given to the monarchy 
 and also to the office of the prophet, but the mon- 
 arch is instructed to follow obediently the law (made 
 by the priests in their own interest) and the prophet 
 is restricted to exercising the mere function of pre- 
 diction. He is forbidden to teach anything con- 
 trary to what the priests have written in this law 
 and by implication is not to concern himself with 
 present-day issues. His position is rendered very 
 precarious by the provision that in the event of 
 the failure of any of his predictions he is to be put 
 to death as a false and presumptuous prophet.' 
 Traces of the prophetic influence are supposed to 
 be found in the presence of the provisions for the 
 protection of the poor which are retained from the 
 earlier mishpat and are even extended. But the 
 value of the humane provisions was subsequently 
 nullified by the simple fact that they were not en- 
 forced. On the side of religion the rights of the 
 laity were restricted by withdrawing from them 
 the privilege of sacrificing, which had been recog- 
 nized in the Code of the Covenant. 
 
 The success of the forgery was immediate. Its 
 influence was more enduring than even that of the 
 later clerical forgery known as the pseudo-Isidorian 
 Decretals. The account of the reforms of Josiah 
 in the Second Book of Kings, chapter 22, f, reveals 
 the extent to which foreign elements had been ad- 
 mitted to the temple of Jehovah. These recog- 
 nized abuses might serve as a seeming justification 
 1 Deut. 13: 1 ; 18:20-22. 
 
48 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 for the severe measures employed. But the real 
 object aimed at by the priests in Jerusalem comes 
 out in the treatment accorded the temples and 
 shrines outside Jerusalem, which had hitherto shared 
 the priestly vested rights that the Jerusalem priest- 
 hood now desired completely to monopolize. It 
 was against the temple of Jehovah at Bethel, which 
 had early received the bitter denunciations of the 
 prophet Amos, and the other hillside altars in Sa- 
 maria that the most drastic measures were taken. 
 Not only were the altars destroyed but their offi- 
 ciating priests were massacred. Also all wizards 
 and clairvoyants, all, in fact, who were in any sense 
 rivals to the oracle of the temple in Jerusalem were 
 suppressed. 
 
 The priests who had officiated at the hillside 
 altars in the kingdom of Judah were not massacred 
 but their treatment was severe. After their shrines 
 had been desecrated they were brought to the tem- 
 ple at Jerusalem and degraded to the position of 
 temple servants, whose office was to perform the 
 more menial tasks connected with the worship. 
 This movement received the approval of the prophet 
 Ezekiel who regarded it as a just punishment for 
 their practices. ^ 
 
 What was the net result? Certain of the more 
 flagrant heathen rites were abolished. The country 
 priests were taken away from the people. This 
 may have been a blessing to the peasants though 
 it left them without any religious leadership in 
 ' Ezek. 44: 10. 
 
Priesthood Establishes a Monopoly 49 
 
 place of an evil one. As we have seen, the provi- 
 sions for the amelioration of the lot of the poor re- 
 mained unenforced. 
 
 On the whole, it was a sweeping victory of the 
 priests over the prophets. The latter are subor- 
 dinated to the control of the priestly document. The 
 principle of priestly authority, which the prophets 
 had always held to be a usurpation contrary to 
 the mishpat of Jehovah, received recognition. The 
 underlying principle of the Amorite cultus that 
 religion was essentially a matter of sacrifice, and 
 that the favor of Jehovah was to be retained by a 
 particular form of worship, now triumphs over 
 the prophetic principle that the protection of Je- 
 hovah can only be expected by a state where justice 
 and love of mercy prevail. Most important of all 
 the principle of legalism in place of the principle of 
 direct spiritual guidance through enlightened leader- 
 ship was firmly established. "The interposition of 
 a law as an absolute authority between God and the 
 human soul is opposed to the very core and center 
 of prophetic teaching. " ^ 
 
 III 
 
 The prophets of Jerusalem seem to have been 
 parties to this priestly coup d'etat. But it is not 
 always borne in mind that the prophets in question 
 belong to the supporters of the established order. 
 They were the "prophesiers of smooth things" 
 or "false prophets." After the reform they went 
 1 Marti, op. cit. p. 289. 
 
50 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 about declaring that now that the temple worship 
 had been purified and the hillside altars destroyed 
 according to the Will of Jehovah, His people could 
 rest assured in the confidence that His Omnipo- 
 tent protection would deliver them from the con- 
 quering powers of Egypt and Babylon. This false 
 confidence was denounced by Jeremiah (so far as 
 we know, the only surviving adherent of the ancient 
 insurgent school of prophecy) as a superstition 
 founded upon "lying words."' When the people 
 were flocking to the temple seeking for protection, 
 after Josiah had been slain by Pharaoh Necho, the 
 prophet declared that the temple in which they were 
 mistakenly putting their trust was no better than 
 a den of thieves in the eyes of Jehovah. It could 
 expect only the destruction that had previously 
 been meted out to the temple in Shiloh. 
 
 In Jeremiah, chapter 28, we learn how bitterly 
 he opposed the. false prophets. In his encounter 
 with Hananiah, one of their leaders, he declares 
 that the people will go into exile and that the 
 prophet himself will be overtaken by death within 
 two years, which prediction was fulfilled. 
 
 IV 
 During the exile not only, on the one side, did 
 the prophetic theology reach its acme of develop- 
 ment in the humanitarian mysticism and univer- 
 salism of the Great Unknown, but, on the other, 
 the legalistic type of religion was being elaborated 
 'Jer. 7:4. 
 
Priesthood Establishes a Monopoly 51 
 
 by its adherents. They spent their time of waiting 
 in elaborating a code of laws which would greatly 
 enhance the priestly control. The result is found 
 in what is known as the Priestly Code. This code 
 was later to be published under the sanction of the 
 name of Moses who was claimed as its author. 
 
 During the exile the prophet Ezekiel undertook 
 to synthesize the priestly and prophetic elements 
 of religion. "Born in Jerusalem of priestly family, 
 he grew up under the shadow of the temple and 
 under the teaching of Jeremiah. Both of these 
 powerful influences may be traced throughout all 
 his work."' He also tries his hand at code making 
 but the authority which he claims for it is that of 
 his own prophetic vision. It won no popular sup- 
 port in comparison with the code which claimed 
 the authority of Moses. He embodies the cere- 
 monial conception of holiness and looks forward to 
 the restoration of the temple and of the priesthood 
 to a power greater than that of the prince. The 
 priestly monopoly, prestige, and opportunities for 
 exploitation are increased. 
 
 Ezekiel embodies a seeming appreciation for the 
 prophetic social ideas of religion, but the promi- 
 nence which he gives to the ceremonial ideas nulli- 
 fies the former. He was utterly unconscious of 
 the radical opposition between the two religious 
 viewpoints. Therefore, his influence, like that 
 of the book of Deuteronomy, contributed to the 
 
 iKent, "Student's Old Testament," vol. VI, p. 24. 
 
 6 
 
52 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 ultimate triumph of the legaHstic and ceremonial 
 religion over that of the prophets. 
 
 V 
 As a result of the Babylonian captivity the Da- 
 vidic monarchy was deposed. In the place of it 
 the Jewish theocracy had the control of the local 
 administration of government. Those who re- 
 turned from the captivity, at least some of them, 
 for a time cherished the hope of again establishing 
 an independent national existence under Zerub- 
 babel, a prince of the house of David, as king. This 
 hope was voiced by the "regular" prophets Haggai 
 and Zechariah who hailed him as ' ' Messiah. ' ' 
 These local references were later embodied in the 
 traditional "Messianic prophecy" and were later 
 supposed by some to be predictions relating to our 
 Lord. These prophets, the mouthpieces of the 
 priesthood, had been proclaiming that the protec- 
 tion of Jehovah could not be counted upon till the 
 work of the restoration of the temple had been seri- 
 ously undertaken. The following passage taken 
 from an insurgent prophet is supposed to protest 
 against this view: 
 
 Thus saith Jehovah, Heaven is my home. 
 
 And the earth is my footstool ; 
 
 What manner of house is this that ye would build for 
 
 me? 
 And what manner of place is my habitation? 
 All these my hand hath made. 
 And all these are mine, is Jehovah's oracle. 
 
Priesthood Establishes a Monopoly 53 
 
 But for these do I have regard, for the afflicted, 
 And him who is broken in spirit, and who trembles at my 
 word. 
 
 He then adds a bitter description of the practices 
 of the cult in which he ranks the ritualistic acts of 
 purification as no better than acts of ceremonial 
 defilement. 
 
 He who slaughters an ox is also a man-slayer. 
 
 He who sacrifices a sheep also strangles a dog; 
 
 He who brings up an offering also sheds swine's blood. 
 
 He who offers incense as a memorial also blesses an idol. 
 
 As these have chosen their ways. 
 
 And taken pleasure in their abominations; 
 
 So will I choose wanton outrages for them. 
 
 And will bring on them what they dread ; 
 
 Because when I called none answered. 
 
 When I spoke they did not heed. 
 
 But they did what was evil in my sight. 
 
 And chose that in which I had no delight.' 
 
 The prophet Zechariah for his part retorts with 
 a denunciation of such insurgent prophets. Their 
 complete extermination is foretold. If any one 
 should presume to prophesy, even his parents would 
 brand him as one who lies in the Name of Jehovah, 
 and with a sword in their hand would thrust him 
 through. The prophets who survived will repent 
 and renounce their prophetic claims, admitting 
 that they are in reality but farmers and herdmen 
 (mere laymen).^ 
 
 ' Isa. 66, Kent's version. 
 
 2 Zech. 13: 3-5, Kent's version. 
 
54 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 VI 
 
 The return of the first company of the survivors 
 of the exile in the reign of the Persian Artaxerxes, 
 under the layman Nehemiah, inaugurated the era 
 which was to witness the final stage in priestly ex- 
 ploitation. This was founded upon the work of 
 Ezra and the other scribes who came with them in 
 the second company of returned exiles bringing 
 the third codification of the Jewish law which had 
 been produced by them during the exile. This code, 
 like Deuteronomy, was also predated back to Moses, 
 and the history of Israel was re-written as an 
 historic romance in which the priesthood are the 
 heroes. 
 
 When we turn from reading the prophets to con- 
 sider the Priestly Code we are conscious of a com- 
 plete change of atmosphere. In place of the pure 
 air of the mountain height we breathe the dead air 
 of a confined dwelling. In place of the prophetic 
 concern with world history, with righteousness, 
 justice, brotherhood, we see priests whose idea of 
 serving God is by means of inspecting the entrails 
 of slain victims, and by the ritualistically correct 
 handling of kidneys and other internal organs of 
 bulls and goats. 
 
 Holiness is no longer associated with the heroic 
 God-conscious type of life, with suffering service, 
 but with acts of ritualistic purification. In place 
 of the great missionary Messianic ideal, the national 
 aspiration seeks merely the continuation of pros- 
 perity, protection from enemies and wild beasts, 
 
Priesthood Establishes a Monopoly 55 
 
 a growth in numbers, and the perpetuity of the 
 worship of the temple. In place of the vision of 
 the nations flocking to Jehovah to learn His Will, 
 there is the conception of the Israelite nation in- 
 creasing through the addition of proselytes. 
 
 In place of the prophetic interpretation of history 
 with its developmental idea, we find its opposite. 
 Even while introducing radical innovations into 
 the law they are represented as having had a 
 full fledged existence even in the days of Moses. 
 Whereas Ezekiel had proposed introducing changes 
 in his idea of the restored temple at Jerusalem, the 
 priestly method is to represent that its own idea 
 had already been historically embodied in the so- 
 called "Tabernacle." Ezekiel, as we have seen, 
 recognized the fact that the introduction of the 
 priests who had officiated at the hillside shrine into 
 the temple at Jerusalem in a menial capacity was 
 an innovation. The priestly writers, on the con- 
 trary, represent the institution of the Levites as 
 having existed from the time of Moses. 
 
 It was easy enough to impose upon the ignorance 
 of the common people. The priests had only the 
 knowledge and insight of the prophets to fear. 
 While they feared and hated the living prophet 
 they could afford to do honor to those who had de- 
 livered their message and died. Considering the 
 methods of suppression employed by the priests 
 it at first seems a problem how any of the pro- 
 phetic writings have been allowed to survive. The 
 explanation is not difficult. The prophets had 
 
56 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 foretold the exile. The priests had said that the 
 temple was a talisman against that catastrophe. 
 History had proved that the prophets had told the 
 truth. This created a wholesome respect for the 
 prophetic message. It explains why the social laws 
 for the protection of the poor which the prophets 
 had advocated were embodied and even extended 
 in the Priestly Code. It was to provide a means of 
 avoiding a repetition of the calamity. The changed 
 attitude toward the prophets is expressed by the 
 Chronicler who writes at this period. He con- 
 demns those who had not listened to the prophetic 
 warning. "But they mocked the messengers of God 
 and despised his words and misused his prophets 
 until the wrath of Jehovah arose against His people, 
 till there was no remedy. So He brought the king 
 of the Chaldees upon them. . . . " ^ 
 
 This posthumous honor is of the letter not of the 
 spirit. There is a note of self-congratulation im- 
 plying that "If we had lived in the days of the 
 fathers we had not been partakers with them in 
 the blood of the prophets." But from the ethical 
 and theological points of view they remained the 
 sons of those who had slain the prophets. The 
 priesthood goes on increasing its own influence by 
 the theology which it now produces, creating a 
 God in its own image. He is a capricious God, 
 easily provoked to take awful vengeance and has 
 constantly to be placated by sacrifice. He must 
 be cajoled by priestly intervention just as He had 
 UI Chronicles, 36: 14 f. 
 
Priesthood Establishes a Monopoly 57 
 
 been by Moses in days gone by.^ He is an Oriental 
 despot Who can only deal with the common people 
 through official go-betweens. If any one else 
 should presume to approach Him or burn incense 
 to Him, He would consume them in His wrath. 
 Righteous conduct seems to concern Him less than 
 the correct ceremonial deference paid to His Person. 
 The marks of holiness are external rather than 
 spiritual. "Whoever belongs to the community 
 and wishes to take part in the religious festivals, 
 either slave or stranger, must be circumcised ; who- 
 ever fails to comply with this requirement commits 
 a mortal sin. Just as the priest's code throws back 
 the Sabbath to creation, so it refers the institution 
 of circumcision to the age of Abraham."^ 
 
 "The importance which was attached to these 
 external marks of membership in the congregation 
 of Jehovah, and of distinction from other peoples, 
 was a consequence of the position assigned by the 
 legal religion to the Israelites among other nations 
 in their relation to Jehovah. . . . Jehovah and 
 Israel remained indissolubly united. Even though 
 Jehovah was no longer what the peasant religion 
 wanted Him to be, even though He has ceased to 
 be exclusively the Lord of Israel, and has become 
 the Lord of the whole world, yet He has chosen 
 Israel as His peculiar people and restricted salva- 
 tion to the Jews. . . . Whoever wishes to share 
 in the offer of salvation must become a proselyte, 
 a member of the Jewish congregation. In reality 
 ' Deut. 9: 14. ^ Marti, op. cit. p. 211. 
 
58 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 the Gentiles only existed for two objects: first, that 
 the Lord of the whole earth may show His power 
 upon them as He did upon the Egyptians, and on 
 the other hand, that they may fill the temple with 
 their riches and perform menial services for the 
 Jews in their cattle raising and tillage."' 
 
 "A further consequence of the legal religion was 
 that God was removed much further from His 
 people, this in spite of the tenacity with which it 
 clung to the belief that Israel was God's favorite 
 people, and that Israel and Jehovah belonged to 
 each other forever. For the law, as we have seen, 
 is interposed between them and Jehovah, the God 
 of the whole world, becomes an altogether trans- 
 cendent Deity. The close personal relation be- 
 tween God and the prophet, not to speak of the 
 intimate and familiar conversation with God on 
 the old 'high places' are things of the past. Such 
 an awe attaches to the divine Name Jehovah that 
 it is unutterable. God's revelation in the law is 
 final, and in the cultus a carefully graded hierarchy 
 intervenes between the layman and God."^ 
 
 The most important and radical antagonism be- 
 tween the prophets and the priestly legalistic relig- 
 ion remains the ethico-theological. Though the 
 priests have accepted prophetic monotheism they 
 have discarded its essential corollary of universal- 
 ism, in place of which we have the narrowest priestly 
 particularism fostering the pride and arrogance of 
 
 1 Marti, op. cit. p. 211 f. Cf. Haggai2: 7, Isa. 60: 5f, 61: 5-7. 
 
 2 Marti, op. cit. p. 219-220. 
 
Priesthood Establishes a Monopoly 59 
 
 caste and race. Opposed to the idea of the direct 
 personal guidance of the individual and the com- 
 munity we have an insistence upon the intermed- 
 dling of an ofiticial class. In place of an immanent, 
 personal divine Friend and Father the priests pre- 
 sent an unapproachable, transcendent God. In 
 place of the idea of progressive revelation and guid- 
 ance, revelation becomes a matter of a closed book. 
 The moral degradation to which this system led 
 reached its lowest level when the high priestly office 
 came to be sold to the highest bidder as we read 
 in the Second Book of Maccabees, chapter 4. 
 
 What is believed to be a prophetic fragment of un- 
 known authorship belonging to this period of corrup- 
 tion which came under the rule of the Antiochian 
 dynasty, is preserved in the following passage: 
 But the teraphim speak vanity 
 And the diviners see lies 
 And idle dreams they relate 
 And in vain they offer comfort; 
 Therefore the people wander like sheep 
 They suffer because there is no shepherd. 
 My wrath is hot upon the shepherds 
 And upon the he-goats will I bring punishments.' 
 Thus saith Jehovah to me, 
 Shepherd the flock of the slaughter whose possessors 
 
 slaughter them and hold themselves not guilty: 
 And they who sell them say, Blessed be Jehovah, for I 
 
 am rich! 
 And their shepherds have no compassion upon them.^ 
 
 1 Zech. 10: 2, 3, Kent's version. 
 
 2 Zech. 1 1 : 4-6, Kent's version. 
 
6o Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 Thus did the prophets continue to bear witness 
 against the priestly exploiters but were powerless 
 to prevent their evil practices. 
 
 We shall now examine the grounds in fact which 
 justified such prophetic denunciations as the fore- 
 going. 
 
 VII 
 
 Having secured the necessary theological and 
 legal background in the Priestly Code — the priests 
 were soon able to exploit their powers to their own 
 economic advantage. "While the priests had to 
 acknowledge the derivation of their privileges from 
 the Law, what they derived was something very 
 substantial. They drew unto themselves a steady 
 proportion of the riches of the people. It was not 
 only a privileged position which the law gave them ; 
 it was material wealth."' Miraculous powers had 
 been ascribed in the priestly narrative to Aaron's 
 rod — and the belief in the magical powers of the 
 priests was heightened by the stories of the plagues 
 of Egypt — the passage of the Red Sea, etc. It was 
 not on the power of legal enforcement but upon 
 the cultivation of superstitious fear that the priests 
 relied to secure their exactions — and with apparent 
 success. 
 
 The Temple from the time of the Exile to that 
 of Christ became not only the great religious monop- 
 oly of the Jews but also their great financial Trust. ^ 
 
 1 Edwyn Bevan — "Jerusalem Under the High Priests" — 
 London, 1912, p. 9. 
 
 2 On this subject see "Jerusalem," vol. I, Ch. VII, pp. 351- 
 
Priesthood Establishes a Monopoly 6i 
 
 The priests were the largest non-productive class 
 — and together with the Levites and other Temple 
 servants numbered many thousands. The Tem- 
 ple and the individual priests must have held large 
 landed estates.^ Because of their large revenues 
 the priests had all the advantages — and they held 
 a monopoly of various forms of trade. 
 
 It requires twenty pages of Prof. Schiirer's "His- 
 tory of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ" 
 (English Translation, div. II, vol. I, pp. 234-254) 
 to enumerate and briefly describe the priestly emol- 
 uments in the time of Jesus. Of this we give the 
 briefest summary : 
 
 Of the sacrificial victims the priests received the 
 whole of the (i) sin offerings, and (2) the trespass 
 offerings. They got the largest share of the (3) 
 meat offerings. All of these sacrifices were of fre- 
 quent occurrence. The (4) " shewbread " also fell 
 to their lot. All of these could be consumed only 
 by the priests. 
 
 Of the (5) thank offerings the priests received 
 the breast and right shoulder, of the (6) burnt of- 
 ferings they received the hides, from the sale of 
 which Philo estimates they received a large income. 
 The hides or fleeces of all offerings fell to the priests. 
 
 Though the sum derived from these sources was 
 large it was far less than that from the dues levied 
 upon the fruits of the soil and the offspring of 
 
 366, George Adam Smith and Schiirer's "History of the Jews in 
 the Time of Jesus Christ" — div. II, vol. I, pp. 234-254. 
 ^ Smith, op. cit. p. 360. 
 
62 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 cattle which included, (i) the first fruits of wheat, 
 barley, grapes, fig trees, pomegranates, olives and 
 honey — thus the priests received the earliest crops 
 of the year. Those near Jerusalem brought fresh 
 fruits — those further away brought them dried. 
 
 (2) Next came the terumah — distinct from the 
 first fruits — which meant the best and choicest of 
 the fruits and vegetables. This amounted to from 
 one-sixtieth to one-fortieth of the entire crops. 
 
 (3) Of the rest of the crops a "tithe," i.e. one- 
 tenth, was paid to the Levites, who gave one-tenth 
 of their share to the priests. (4) Of the kneaded 
 dough each family must give one-twenty-fourth 
 to the priests (public bakers gave one-forty-eighth) 
 — whether the flours used were wheat, rye, barley, 
 spelt or oatg. In addition (a) the firstborn of all 
 the cattle, when male, belonged to the priests. If 
 clean (i.e., suitable for sacrifice or food) they were 
 given in kind. When (b) unclean (i.e., ass, horse, 
 and camel) they were to be redeemed by payment 
 of value plus one-fifth, (c) A tax of five shekels 
 had to be paid by rich and poor alike for every first- 
 born son. 
 
 In addition to the sacrifices the priests received 
 the shoulder, two cheeks and stomach of all animals 
 slain for food. They also had a share of the pro- 
 ceeds of sheep shearing. Besides these, the votive 
 offerings — the bans, indemnities, and voluntary 
 gifts and offerings enriched the unproductive priest- 
 hood. The Temple also levied a tax of one-half 
 shekel on all males over twenty-one years. 
 
Priesthood Establishes a Monopoly 63 
 
 The priests owned slaves. Whether they were 
 purchased directly or no is not told — but probably 
 the majority in any case came into slavery as the 
 result of debts which they could not pay their 
 priestly creditors. 
 
 In summing the matter up George Adam Smith 
 says: "From all this we see not only how large in 
 these later times the revenues of the priesthood 
 and temple had become, but what a busy center 
 the latter was both of trade and finance. Among 
 the chief priests there were many with large for- 
 tunes. The High Priest and his counsellors were 
 trustees and accountants on a large scale — the more 
 so that there was, except for a part of the period, 
 no separate civil authority. But they were also 
 great traders. To assist them in the reception, 
 investment and distribution of funds, they had a 
 great staff of officials, duly organized and entitled. 
 But, indeed, in those days nearly every priest must 
 have been a trader. " ^ 
 
 Thus the priest was not only a spiritual middle- 
 man — but he was the economic middleman of 
 trade — who handled what others had produced 
 and exploited the needs of both producer and con- 
 sumer. 
 
 If Jeremiah had been justified in calling the Tem- 
 ple in his day "a den of robbers" — how vastly more 
 fitting was the same characterization of it by Jesus 
 in His day — when He aimed at its complete over- 
 
 1 George Adam Smith, op. cit. p. 366. 
 
64 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 throw. The Temple at Jerusalem was as truly a 
 Temple of Mammon as the Bank of England or 
 the New York Stock Exchange. But unlike the 
 latter it pretended to be the Temple of God. 
 
The Apocalypses Unmasked 65 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE APOCALYPSES UNMASKED 
 
 When Antiochus Epiphanes came to the throne 
 of Syria of which Judea was then a part, the Jew- 
 ish religion had seemingly but little hold left on 
 the popular mind. Especially among the educated 
 classes there had been a turning away from things 
 Jewish to things Grecian. This tendency was en- 
 couraged in every way by the king, who was an ar- 
 dent champion of the Greek Kultur. At length 
 he thought the time had come when the last rem- 
 nant of expiring Judaism could be extirpated by 
 the use of force. He issued a royal decree abolish- 
 ing sacrifices to Jehovah and attaching the death 
 penalty to the observance of the Jewish ceremonial 
 law. He caused the temple of Jehovah to be dedi- 
 cated to Zeus, the chief god of the Greek Pantheon. 
 The Hebrew sacred books were confiscated. 
 
 This period of oppression led to a violent reac- 
 tion. The indifferent were called back to a re- 
 newed loyalty to the faith of their fathers. Many 
 Jews met the martyr's death for refusing to sacrifice 
 to the pagan god, or to commit ceremonial acts 
 forbidden by the Torah. The reaction led, further, 
 to the successful Maccabean uprising on the polit- 
 ical side. A new type of religious writing called the 
 Apocalyptic was called into existence by this crisis, 
 of which the book of Daniel was the first product. 
 
66 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 Without disparaging the true patriotism of the 
 Maccabean priests we may say that both the polit- 
 ical and literary movement had the same object, 
 the retrieving of their fortunes by the priests through 
 rallying the people to the support of the national 
 religion and institutions. 
 
 The Apocalyptic movement was a desperate de- 
 vice born of a desperate emergency. The hand 
 of the priestly intriguer is to be discerned. As the 
 Deuteronomic and Priestly Codes had been pre- 
 dated and vested with the authority of Moses, so 
 by the same familiar priestly device the Apocalyp- 
 ses were predated and furnished with the authority 
 of a recognized prophet whose name was forged 
 to the document. As the priestly writers had in- 
 vented fictitious characters and presented them as 
 actors in historic events so the author of the Apoc- 
 alypse of Daniel invented Shadrach, Meshack 
 and Abednego in the fiery furnace and Daniel's 
 den of lions, to illustrate their contention that all 
 who remained loyal to Judaism under persecution 
 might hope for miraculous deliverance. But if 
 this should fail they added still another promise 
 that all who should die for the faith would find a 
 happy resurrection from the dead in the approach- 
 ing epoch of the Jewish world empire. 
 
 In this writing history appears in the form of 
 prophecy. The prophecy is alleged to have come 
 in the form of visions, the ultimate object of 
 which is to show that upon the ruins of the world 
 empires of Babylon, Medea, Persia and Macedon 
 
The Apocalypses Unmasked 67 
 
 the new world empire is to be miraculously erected 
 by God. 
 
 I 
 
 The theology of the Apocalypses is distinctly 
 of the priestly variety and opposed to the prophetic. 
 The Apocalyptic idea of God is transcendent. He 
 no longer communes with men directly but uses 
 angels as His mediators. Accordingly He is not 
 conceived as working through world history, as 
 the prophets held. Instead He lets it take its evil 
 course till He is ready to smash it and erect a new 
 world order on the ruins of the old. Thus the 
 prophetic developmental idea is lost. 
 
 The prophetic universalism is also lost. Not the 
 conversion but the destruction of the heathen is 
 anticipated. Instead of the prophetic anticipation 
 of a world federation there is to be a world hegem- 
 ony of the Jews in which they will exact tribute 
 of the heathen and rule them with a rod of iron. ' 
 
 The prophetic ethic gives place to the ceremonial. 
 The heroes of Daniel are not champions of the poor, 
 not suffering servants, but those who pray toward 
 Jerusalem, refuse to eat things ceremonially unclean, 
 and to bow down to idols. 
 
 In consequence of their loyalty Daniel and his 
 associates do not have to wait till after death for 
 their rewards, but rise to positions of wealth and 
 splendor in the court of Babylon. Wonderful 
 opportunities to exploit his power of interpreting 
 dreams are made good use of by Daniel. 
 
68 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 The Apocalypses employed the obscure allegori- 
 cal form in order that their real meaning might be 
 hidden from the authorities while the faithful would 
 be able to discern the signs which were promised 
 as immediately preceding the expected deliverance. 
 Such a sign is found in Daniel 2 : 43 : " And whereas 
 you saw the iron mixed with miry clay, they shall 
 mingle themselves by marriage alliances, but they 
 shall not cling to one another, even as iron does 
 not mingle with clay. ' ' This was a covert allusion 
 to two unfortunate intermarriages between the 
 reigning houses of Syria and Egypt. The words 
 that follow are intended to convey to the enlight- 
 ened reader that the promised deliverance is not 
 far off: "And in the days of these kings shall the 
 God of Heaven set up a kingdom which shall never 
 be destroyed nor shall the sovereignty be left to 
 another people; but it shall break in pieces and 
 destroy all these kingdoms and it shall stand for- 
 ever. " The miraculous nature of the intervention 
 is insisted upon as follows: "Inasmuch as you see 
 that a stone was cut out of the mountain but not 
 ■with hands, and that it break in pieces the iron, 
 the brass, the clay, the silver and the gold. "1 
 
 II 
 
 It would be extremely difficult to decide how far 
 
 the Apocalypses represented a deliberate fraud on 
 
 the part of the priests, and how far the authors of 
 
 them were themselves deceived by their false hopes, 
 
 ' Daniel 2 : 44, 45. 
 
The Apocalypses Unmasked 69 
 
 Many passages incorporated into some of them, 
 especially the book of Enoch, seem to have the ring 
 of genuine sincerity. This book is quoted as gen- 
 uine Scripture in our canonical book of Jude, and 
 there are many passages in the Gospels that seem 
 to be paraphrases of passages in Enoch. 
 
 For the most part the Apocalypses seem to have 
 been the work of Pharisees. This sect seems to 
 have been the successor of the sect of the Assideans 
 of whom we hear as co-operating for a time with 
 the Maccabean revolution. They seem to have 
 been advocates of non-resistance, not as a moral 
 principle, but on the ground that human effort 
 would be valueless to accomplish an end which they 
 held could be accomplished only by the strength 
 of Omnipotence. To hasten this event they not 
 only observed all the requirements of the Torah 
 but insisted in addition on the observance of a 
 great mass of oral tradition of later date. They 
 laid emphasis upon the doctrines of the immor- 
 tality of the soul, of the existence of good and evil 
 spirits, and of predestination. 
 
 These doctrines, so strongly resembling the famil- 
 iar teachings of the Persian religion, are held by 
 Prof. Lawrence Mills to indicate that the name 
 Pharisee was applied to them because their depend- 
 ence upon Persian sources was recognized. But 
 the important matter is not the source of their 
 views but the views themselves. However, a cer- 
 tain parallelism between the Persian Apocalyptic 
 
70 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 writings and the Pharisee Apocalypses is worth 
 noting. 
 
 The survivals of the Persian Apocalypses in their 
 present form are dated by critics between the third 
 and sixth centuries of the Christian era, but are 
 held by Prof. Mills to embody fragments of early 
 Apocalypses antedating the appearance of the book 
 of Daniel among the Jews. While it may be diffi- 
 cult to establish the fact of any literary dependence 
 on one side or the other, it is to be noted that in 
 each case the Apocalyptic literature arose among 
 a people threatened with extinction, and, in their 
 despair, looking for a supernatural deliverer. It is 
 also interesting to note that the personal figure of 
 the promised deliverer has far greater prominence 
 in the Persian than in the Jewish Apocalypses. 
 Prof. Lehmann (in Chantepie de la Saussaye's 
 Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte, vol. I, p. 199) 
 has constructed a composite Apocalypse out of the 
 Persian material, of which the following is a sum- 
 mary:' 
 
 In the period of the last three millenniums of the 
 world history the power of evil is to become pre- 
 dominant. The oppression of the righteous by 
 the powers of evil will call into existence prophets 
 and heroes who will save the faithful and finally 
 establish the supremacy of Ahura Mazda (the 
 righteous God) forever. The coming of the final 
 struggle will be heralded by signs in the sun and the 
 
 1 Cf. Prof. West's Edition of the Pahlavi Texts in the Sacred 
 Books of the East, 
 
The Apocalypses Unmasked 71 
 
 moon, by earthquakes and tempests. Fear and 
 terror will prevail among the sons of light. Hordes 
 of the enemies of the Persians will fall upon their 
 land and turn fertile plains into deserts. Many who 
 seek to save their lives shall narrowly escape, while 
 their wives, children and property will be destroyed. 
 A horde of demons will appear from the East. 
 
 The hero Hashedar, the first son of Zoroaster, the 
 hero of the first of the future thousand year epochs, 
 is to be born. He will assemble the remnants of the 
 faithful, and thrice shall he defeat the enemy, so 
 that the prince of the demons with all his followers 
 will be summoned against him. Then the right- 
 eous God will send His messenger, Sraosha, and the 
 heavenly hosts to the rescue. They will awaken 
 the son of Vistaspa and consecrate the sacred fire 
 and water together. They will then reestablish 
 the kingdom of the faithful by destroying the rem- 
 nants of the wicked and demolishing the heathen 
 temples. The period of the wolf shall end; the 
 period of the lamb shall begin, 
 
 Hushedar Mah, the second son of Zoroaster, is 
 to be the hero of the following thousand years. 
 He is to fight against serpents and demons, and 
 bring about a period of peace and progress. The 
 science of medicine is to make such progress that 
 men are to discover the means of becoming invul- 
 nerable, and hunger will gradually diminish so 
 that men may live without eating. But there is 
 to be a lapse from faithfulness, and as a result 
 Angra Mainyu (the Devil or Satan) so revives that 
 
72 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 he is able to unloose the dragon Azi Dahaka, who 
 has been bound for a thousand years, and this mon- 
 ster is directed by him to attack the true believers. 
 A third of all living men are to be destroyed. The 
 creation prays to Ahura Mazda for another hero. 
 Thereupon God calls Keresaspa who slays the 
 dragon. Discord and destruction begin to disap- 
 pear, but the final triumph of good awaits the third 
 and last millennium. 
 
 This millennium is to be heralded by the birth 
 of a virgin born hero. The holy maid (Eretate 
 Fehdra), while bathing in the sacred waters of the 
 lake Kasava is to conceive from the seed of the 
 prophet Zoroaster, — which shall have been pre- 
 served to that end by thousands of the spirits of 
 the faithful. She is to bring forth a son called 
 Saoshyant, which means Saviour. On the coming 
 of this virgin-born hero the dead are to rise and body 
 and spirit are to be reunited. All mountains and 
 hills will melt and overflow the earth in a molten 
 mass. This will utterly destroy the wicked but 
 to the righteous it will be as warm milk. Then the 
 final conflict between the powers of good and evil 
 will result in the everlasting triumph of the former. 
 Satan is to be bound by Ahura Mazda, and with 
 all his angels the devil is to be cast down and de- 
 stroyed in the molten mass. The angels of light 
 and righteous men are then to enter into a state 
 of everlasting perfection and joy. 
 
 The Persian Apocalypse differs from the Jewish 
 in that it makes use of distinctly Persian thoughts 
 
The Apocalypses Unmasked 73 
 
 and ideas as its material. In spite of the differences 
 there is much in the foregoing that bears a resem- 
 blance to passages in the Apocalypse of John. The 
 references to earthquakes, famines, pestilences, 
 signs in the sun and moon, wars, and calamities bear 
 a resemblance to Apocalyptic passages in the Gos- 
 pels. This seems to have been common material 
 of Persian, Jewish and Christian Apocalypses. 
 This additional factor they also have in common, 
 that the deliverance of mankind instead of coming 
 through moral effort, is to come wholly from above 
 by the intervention of God Himself or Heaven-born 
 heroes or Saviours assisted by angels and archangels. 
 In all of this it differs radically both from the religion 
 of the Hebrew prophets and that of the prophet 
 Zoroaster. 
 
 Ill 
 In the book of Daniel there is one problem which 
 deserves special consideration because it bears di- 
 rectly upon our subsequent discussion of the Mes- 
 siahship of Jesus. The crucial passage is as follows: 
 " I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came 
 with the clouds of heaven one like to a Man (liter- 
 ally, Son of Man), and He came to the Aged One 
 and was brought before Him, and there was given 
 Him dominion and glory and sovereignty, that all the 
 peoples, nations, and languages, should serve Him. 
 His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall 
 not pass away, and his sovereignty one that shall not 
 be destroyed." ^ 
 
 1 Daniel 7: 13, 14. 
 
74 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 It is to be carefully noted that this "one like 
 unto a Man" personifies the Jewish people to whom 
 the world empire is about to be given. This figure 
 stands as the symbol for this empire.just as the lion, 
 the bear, etc., symbolize the ancient world empires 
 that are to be done away. Just as in modern times 
 the lion is taken as the symbol of Great Britain, 
 the bear of Russia, and the eagle of the United 
 States. This figure is not in any sense that of a 
 Messiah any more than the statue of Liberty is the 
 sovereign of the United States. The point of view 
 of the author of Daniel is not monarchical but theo- 
 cratic. It is the priesthood at the head of the whole 
 people which is to exercise world dominion, as the 
 following verse shows: "And the sovereignty and 
 the dominion and the greatness of the kingdom 
 under the whole heaven shall surely be given to the 
 people of the sons of the Most High. His sover- 
 eignty (that is, God's, or what to the author was 
 the equivalent, Israel's) is an everlasting sovereignty 
 and all dominion shall serve and obey him. " 
 
 In this passage we have an expression of the na- 
 tional "will to exploit." It is not so much the 
 will of the hierarchy to exploit the Jewish people 
 but the will of the Jewish people to exploit the rest 
 of the world. This priestly practice has been ex- 
 alted into a principle and has become the watch- 
 word of the national program. There can be no 
 doubt that some of the later Apocalyptic writers 
 firmly believed that this career of exploitation was 
 the^^mission' which Jehovah intended His people to 
 
The Apocalypses Unmasked 75 
 
 fulfil. The author of 4 Ezra (or 2 Esdras) expresses 
 this expectation and at the same time utters a note 
 of peevish impatience at the delay in the final con- 
 summation. He writes : 
 
 But we (the Jewish people) thy first born, thy beloved 
 
 [most dear] 
 If the world has indeed been created for our sakes why 
 
 do we not enter into posession of our world?' 
 
 We are now in a position to judge of the theo- 
 logical and ethical implications of the Apocalyptic 
 ethic and theology. It was the negative of the 
 prophetic — the logical continuation and develop- 
 ment of the priestly. These facts must be clearly 
 kept in mind in any endeavor to find a solution for 
 the " eschatological problem" of the Synoptic 
 Gospels. That is to say, the question as to how far 
 Jesus incorporated in His teachings the Apocalyptic 
 interpretation of life considered in the past, present 
 and future. This matter will now engage our at- 
 tention. 
 
 ^4 Ezra, 6: 58. 
 
76 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE THEOLOGY OF JESUS 
 
 The modern endeavor to ascertain the real mes- 
 sage of Jesus has proceeded in the main along the 
 lines of literary criticism of the Gospels, together 
 with a study of contemporary Judaism, and with 
 the help of occasional "psychologizing" used in a 
 rather amateurish way. A great deal of this work 
 has proved of permanent value as an introduction, 
 but much confusion remains to be cleared up. The 
 best method of arriving at a clear solution must 
 come through the study of the theological substruc- 
 ture of Jesus' thought which hitherto has been 
 surprisingly neglected. 
 
 As the criticism of the Hexateuch produced a 
 "documentary hypothesis," so has the study of the 
 Synoptic problem. It is generally accepted that 
 our Gospel of Mark is a primary source of the 
 events in the life of Jesus which was employed as 
 such by the Evangelists Matthew and Luke. The 
 two latter also use a document containing the 
 "Sayings" or fragments of discourses embodying 
 teachings of Jesus. This document is sometimes 
 called the "Logia" or, more briefly, "Q" (an abbre- 
 viation originally employed by the German critic 
 signifying Quelle or source ) . The Apocalyptic 
 discourse of Mark 13 and its parallels in the other 
 Synoptics is by some held to be another original 
 
The Theology of Jesus 77 
 
 source. Some again hold this discourse to be the 
 embodiment of genuine teachings of Jesus, while 
 others consider it to have been an Apocalyptic 
 oracle, pseudepigraphical (as were all such little 
 Apocalypses of which many were in circulation) to 
 which the Name of Jesus had been forged, but 
 which was employed by all three Synoptic writers 
 under the impression that it was a genuine oracle 
 of their Master. The first and third Evangelists 
 are credited with having combined historical set- 
 tings taken from Mark with such an arrangement 
 or combination of the "Sayings," as best suited 
 their purpose. Moreover, each of these writers had 
 his own particular viewpoint, or "tendency," which 
 influenced him in the adaptation which he made of 
 his material. Prof. Burton of Chicago has a much 
 more elaborate documentary hypothesis. He holds 
 that there were at least four principal and several 
 minor documents employed by the two later 
 Evangelists. 1 
 
 In the following discussion I accept the hypoth- 
 esis that the three main sources were Mark, the 
 Logia (Q), and the Apocalyptic "oracle of Jesus" 
 which I hold to be pseudepigraphical. 
 
 It has been almost universally held that Jesus 
 was not a theologian. He did not employ the jargon 
 of the schools whether rabbinical, or metaphysical 
 (Hellenistic). From this fact it has been falsely 
 
 1 "Some Principles of Literary Criticism and Their Applica- 
 tion to the Synoptic Problem," University of Chicago Press, 
 1904. 
 
78 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 inferred that His religion was non-theological. For 
 example, Hegel failed to do justice to Jesus' 
 thought because he could not regard Him as a 
 profound philosopher. (This was presumably be- 
 cause he could not find in His teachings any antici- 
 pation of the Hegelian logic.) 
 
 But since Bergson has rehabilitated the method 
 of direct insight or spiritual intuition, perhaps a 
 tardy recognition will be accorded, in philosophical 
 circles, to the profundity of Jesus' metaphysical 
 formulations. A like recognition is awaiting the 
 philosophical value of the ethic of Jesus and its 
 logical coherence. The theological teachings of our 
 Lord naturally group themselves according to the 
 scheme of the prophetic theology in the following 
 order: (i) His teaching as to the value of the indi- 
 vidual; (ii) His interpretation of history, or the 
 developmental idea ; (iii) His universalism ; (iv) His 
 teaching about God; (v) His teaching about the 
 community or the Messianic idea. This last will be 
 considered under the threefold aspects of (a) its 
 prophetic quality; (b) the conception of the King- 
 dom; and (c) the means of its inauguration. This, 
 in turn, will lead to a critical discussion of the 
 eschatological problem to which a separate chapter 
 will be devoted. This, in turn, will be followed by 
 a chapter on Jesus as the Prophet- Messiah, with a 
 special reference to the Messianic ethic. 
 
 The affinity of Jesus with the prophetic theology 
 and His antagonism to the theology and ethic of 
 the priestly cult will be frequently noted. 
 
The Theology of Jesus 79 
 
 I 
 
 The teaching of Jesus about the value of the 
 individual is a striking extension of the prophetic 
 idea and a contrast to that of His contemporaries, 
 the scribes. The former discovered that God needs 
 men, that He depends upon them, and that the 
 reign of God on earth has the highest welfare of 
 mankind as a leading object. The individual stands 
 out from the tribal community. The scribes held 
 that only certain men (and very few) had a value in 
 the sight of God. The Gentiles had none. The 
 Samaritans perhaps had less. Not even all Jews 
 had value — only the few who belonged to the 
 priestly caste, or who, like the Pharisees, strictly 
 observed the law. The Galileans, as well as the 
 publicans, the harlots and the uncircumcised were 
 considered ceremonially, if not also morally, impure 
 and loathsome in the sight of God. 
 
 The only type of men against whom Jesus turned 
 the shafts of His indignant scorn were those who 
 were scornful of others, namely, the scribes, the 
 Pharisees, and the priests of the temple. Against 
 these He contended for the supreme value of the 
 individual man as man, and this thought was to 
 find its embodiment in the ideal community. 
 
 The value of the individual begins in earliest 
 childhood. "Of such is the kingdom of heaven." 
 The old must return to the simple, childlike atti- 
 tude before they can enter the kingdom. ' 
 
 1 Mk. 10: 14, 15, Mt. 18: 3; 19: 13, Lk. 18: 16. 
 
8o Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 To receive a child is to receive the Great Teacher 
 Himself.^ As for the individual who may injure a 
 child it would have been better for him never to 
 have been born.^ To give a drink of water to a 
 thirsty child is to merit an everlasting reward.' The 
 children possess an original righteousness. Those 
 who repent, in so doing, return to the childlike 
 relationship with God. 
 
 Even those whom the spiritual aristocrats despise 
 have an infinite value. The Samaritan may be a 
 neighbor more truly than priest or Levite, if he 
 loves his neighbor as himself. God feels that love 
 directed toward one's neighbor is equivalent to love 
 directed toward God Himself. The despised beggar 
 filled with sores, regarded as a cause of ceremonial 
 defilement, goes at his death to enjoy loving inti- 
 macy with Abraham, while the rich man who 
 despised and treated him as an inferior is, perhaps 
 on that very account, an outcast from the society 
 of the blessed. 
 
 Jesus recognizes in the Gentile centurion such 
 faith as He had not found in Israel. The widow of 
 Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian received a 
 greater mark of God's favor than the widows and 
 lepers of Israel. The publicans and harlots go into 
 the Kingdom of God before the scribes and Phari- 
 sees. There is rejoicing in Heaven over one sinner 
 that repenteth. God protects the sparrows, clothes 
 
 iMk. 9:37, 41; Lk. 9:48. 
 ^Mt. 18:6, 10; Mk. 9:42. 
 'Mt. 10:42. 
 
The Theology of Jesus 8i 
 
 the lilies, feeds the birds. But they are nothing in 
 comparison with His loving care for men. So great 
 is God's interest in His children that He numbers 
 even the hairs of their heads. To succor the needy, 
 the sick, the imprisoned, is to minister to the Judge 
 of all the earth Himself. 
 
 The world's standard of value is reversed. Many 
 that are last shall be first, and the first last, in the 
 Kingdom of God. 
 
 The contemporaries of Jesus regarded Israel alone 
 as "God's elect," "His Son," "His Beloved," "His 
 Only-Begotten." They did not apply any of these 
 titles to persons but only to the personified " Chosen 
 People." Jesus, on the other hand, regarded indi- 
 viduals as the children of God. 
 
 The problem of the significance of Jesus' use of 
 the phrase "Son of Man" finds its key in the dis- 
 covery of the lofty regard with which He considered 
 the individual man as man. In the theology of 
 Jesus such high claims are made for man as the 
 child and spokesman of God that many of the say- 
 ings which He applies to man in general are by his 
 later adherents held to apply only to Himself as 
 Messiah. This contrasts with the point of view 
 both in the Old Testament and in the mouths of 
 Jesus' contemporaries. The Greek ixlbs tov av dponrov 
 is the translation of the Aramaic "Bar-nasha" 
 which is the exact equivalent of the Hebrew "Ben- 
 Adam. " In the Old Testament the phrase is applied 
 to mankind in general, as opposed to God, or to 
 the Gentiles as opposed to the elect people, the 
 
82 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 Jews. For example, we read in Numbers 23: 19 
 "God is not a man that He should lie, neither the 
 Son of Man that He should repent," and in Deuter- 
 onomy 32 : 18 (R. V.) the children of men are con- 
 trasted with the children of Israel.^ 
 
 In the Psalms the phrase is commonly used to 
 emphasize the contrast of mortal, impotent, tran- 
 sient man, as against an Omnipotent, Eternal God.^ 
 In two passages the phrase "Children of Men" is 
 used as a synonym for mankind. In fact, its most 
 usual sense is that of "mankind," "the human 
 race," and is a title of humility or inferiority. In 
 the mouth of Jesus the word is always a title of 
 dignity. 
 
 But there is another sense, perhaps colloquial, in 
 which the phrase occurs as a substitute for the per- 
 sonal pronoun, both for the first and second persons 
 singular. In the latter sense the phrase "Son of 
 Man" occurs eighty-nine times in the writings of 
 Ezekiel always as the form of address applied to the 
 prophet by Jehovah. "The term 'Ben-Adam,'" 
 says Prof. Hirsch, "is merely a cumbersome and 
 formal substitute for the personal pronoun; such 
 substitution being due, perhaps, to the influence of 
 Assyro-Babylonian usage." The usage in Aramaic 
 is similar and is also found in Syriac, Mardiac, 
 Talmudic, and other dialects. 
 
 ' See Article "Son of Man" by E. H. Hirsch, University of 
 Chicago, Professor of Rabbinical Literature, — Jewish Encyclo- 
 pedia, vol. II, p. 461. 
 
 ^Ps. 8:4(A.V. 5)— 11:4— 33 •• 13- 
 
The Theology of Jesus 83 
 
 The use of the phrase as applied to man and also 
 as a substitute for the first personal pronoun con- 
 stantly recurs in the sayings of Jesus. It is possible 
 that He used it in a third sense also as symbolic 
 of God's Kingdom. (Mt. 10: 23.) 
 
 The Jew in the time of Christ did not share Jesus' 
 exalted view of humanity. He took the Old Testa- 
 ment point of view expressed in the book of Job — 
 "The son of man which is a worm," * and heeded 
 the warning of the Psalmist, " Put not your trust in 
 the son of man." ^ So novel and startling was 
 Jesus' exalted view of the divine significance of 
 simple man that His utterances about him fell upon 
 the ears of the Pharisees as blasphemy. Yet many 
 of these utterances are little more than a develop- 
 ment of the thought found in the prophets. Com- 
 pare the declaration of Jesus " Man is greater than 
 the temple,"' with the prophetic utterance "I 
 desire mercy and not sacrifice"* paraphrased by 
 Jesus in the words "Mercy is greater than sacri- 
 fice." ^ The sentiment in each case is the same, 
 that it is greater in God's sight to minister to man- 
 kind than to concern oneself with the acts of the 
 temple cultus. The same idea is developed still 
 further in the statement "Man is lord even of the 
 Sabbath." ^ This claim was on a par with the state- 
 
 1 Job 25: 6. ^Ps. 143. 
 
 ' Mt. 12:6 (R. V.) margin. 
 
 * Hosea 6 : 6. 
 
 6Mt. 12: 17. 
 
 "Mt. i2:8;Mk. 2:28. 
 
84 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 ment that under certain circumstances a man could 
 forgive the sins of another.' Of course, all men 
 have not only the right but also the duty to forgive 
 others who have sinned against them. It is only by 
 so doing that they can consistently ask for God's 
 forgiveness, but beyond that any man who has 
 consciously entered into the Kingdom, that is, come 
 into co-operating relationship with the Father, may 
 speak words of absolution to a penitent, who, like 
 the paralytic, is bound and held in the chain of his 
 sins. But these various statements made by our 
 Lord to apply to the spiritually enlightened man in 
 general were by His later interpreters restricted in 
 their application to Jesus Himself as the Messiah. 
 This tendency begins in the Gospels,^ and reaches 
 its climax in the opinion that the use of the phrase 
 "Son of Man" by Jesus applied only to Himself in 
 the Messianic sense. 
 
 Among modern interpreters of the thought of 
 Jesus as to the value of the least and lowliest of the 
 sons of men none has more clearly grasped or co- 
 gently stated the true doctrine of the worth of the 
 individual than Prof. Howison in his essay on "The 
 Right Relation of Reason to Religion." = 
 
 Howison appreciates this teaching both on its 
 negative and constructive side, as destroying the 
 method of authority (that of the scribal and Phari- 
 
 »Mk. 2:5 f. 
 
 2Cf. Mt. 12:8, Lk. 6:5. 
 
 ' "Limits of Evolution and Other Essays," p. 217 f, especially 
 pp. 241-260. 
 
The Theology of Jesus 85 
 
 saic ecclesiasticism, which "shut up the Kingdom 
 of Heaven against men") and, presenting the revo- 
 lutionary proclamation of the relation between God 
 and man as an eternal solidarity of God and man 
 in the community life of the kingdom. 
 
 The earlier interpreters of Jesus grasped the fact 
 that He claimed for Himself personally such a 
 solidarity with God, but they restricted the appli- 
 cation of the same claim which Jesus made for all 
 mankind to Himself as the unique Son of God. 
 Jesus' doctrine was that of the potential, nay, the 
 essential solidarity of God and the human race. 
 His interpreters limited the doctrine so that it 
 should teach the exclusive solidarity of Jesus with 
 God. Jesus' doctrine is thus set forth by Howison: 
 
 This novel, unprecedented and astounding doctrine of 
 a universal, moral equality as the aim of ail spiritual 
 being, an equality which is to embrace all minds in a 
 complete union with the Mind of God, and from which 
 all external authority is to be excluded, Jesus, by the 
 plainest implication sets forth as the object and goal of 
 all spiritual effort.^ 
 
 In this conception of the religious relations of souls to 
 God and to each other, Christ has parted company with 
 all the piety that had gone before Him, and to such a 
 degree as had never in the older world been paralleled.^ 
 
 1 Op. cit. p. 250. 
 
 ' Howison fails to do justice to the prophetic doctrine of the 
 value of the individual. As we have seen Jesus' doctrine was 
 but an enlargement of the prophetic. Howison is right in calling 
 that doctrine revolutionary, but it was not new except in rela- 
 tion to the priestly view of His contemporaries. 
 
86 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 His theistic step was not simply new, it was absolutely 
 revolutionary. His point of view of the literal divine 
 sonship of every lowliest and most sinful and sinning 
 spirit, committed Him logically to the assertion of the 
 implicit equality of all spirits with each other, so far as 
 concerns their moral powers and destinations, no matter 
 what their actual and contingent state; and also of their 
 potential equality with God.^ 
 
 Howison realizes that the monarchical view of God 
 as a "sovereign" is replaced by the doctrine of the 
 Divine Fatherhood. 
 
 To break away from this magisterial and monarchical 
 conception of God which left men nothing but the sub- 
 missive subjects of a Lord, Whose sovereign Will ordained 
 all things, even the supreme distinction between what is 
 right and what is wrong, was indeed a great and unprec- 
 edented step. But Jesus took it. Instead of Majesty 
 and a Lord, He presents God as the Friend and moral 
 Father of men. Who calls every human being, every 
 spirit, to the equality of sharing in that fulness of spiritual 
 powers which constitutes the Divine glory. 
 
 The aim of such a religion is not merely to "glorify 
 God"; rather it is to glorify all souls, as all in the image 
 of God ; to glorify them by fulfilling for every one of them 
 its vocation to repeat in a new way the life of universal 
 love that is the life of God, and thug to attain through 
 the universal greatening, such a real glorification of God 
 as other forms of religion seek after in vain. The God 
 of Christ is indeed (Himself) One Who comes "not to be 
 ministered unto but to minister," and Who illuminates 
 in His Own Person the great and characteristic truth 
 
 ' Op. cit. p. 251. 
 
The Theology of Jesus 87 
 
 spoken by Jesus, "He that findeth his life shall lose it, 
 and he that loseth his life shall find it." ^ 
 
 According to the teachings of the prophets and 
 of Jesus the Cause of God Himself is thwarted so 
 long as the least and lowliest are kept from the 
 opportunities of growth and expansion. The indi- 
 vidual does not come unto his own till he discovers 
 God's need of him as co-founder of the Messianic 
 Kingdom. 
 
 This leads us to the consideration of the vital 
 question as to how Jesus regarded the quest for 
 personal salvation. This was the object which was 
 diligently sought by the Pharisee through the 
 method of legalism and ceremonialism. Not only 
 does Jesus declare this method unavailing but pro- 
 claims that the quest for personal salvation in 
 itself is unavailing and self-defeating. This quest 
 is based on the assumption that God is unwilling 
 and reluctant to impart the gift of salvation to 
 individual men and that they must therefore find 
 some means of persuading Him to grant it. Ac- 
 cording to Jesus' teaching God does not require 
 any such persuasion. He is already seeking the 
 lost. The lost should not be seeking themselves 
 and their own salvation but should be seeking God 
 and His righteousness, that is, the triumph of His 
 righteous Cause, His reign in the universal com- 
 munity. Thus by forgetting the desire for personal 
 salvation and seeking the universal salvation the 
 
 *0p. cit. p. 252, f. 
 
88 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 individual finds himself in the blessed company of 
 the saved. He who treats men as though they were 
 mere instruments to minister to his own superior 
 comfort and well-being is seeking his own welfare 
 at the expense of other men or the community. He 
 is sinning against the value of the individual and 
 so of mankind. Because of the value of the indi- 
 vidual in God's sight this exploiting of men is the 
 supreme sin which cuts them off automatically from 
 the Kingdom of God. Hence the difficulty of the 
 rich, — for wealth is regarded as the outcome of ex- 
 ploitation, — in entering into the Kingdom of God. 
 They can only do it by renouncing the fruits of 
 their exploitation. They must lose the safety which 
 their wealth guarantees them in order to find their 
 salvation in the community where all are saved. 
 
 n 
 
 The close affinity already recognized between the 
 thought of Jesus and that of the prophets creates a 
 presumption in favor of the view that He shared 
 the prophetic valuation of history. In such of 
 His sayings as have been preserved to us there are 
 few direct allusions to this conception. The pas- 
 sage, perhaps, which comes nearest to revealing the 
 prophetic conception of history is that wherein He 
 refers to John the Baptist and the prophets of the 
 past as having been already members of the King- 
 dom of God.' 
 
 ' See below, p. 128. 
 
The Theology of Jesus 89 
 
 The essence of the prophetic philosophy of his- 
 tory lay in the developmental idea and this thought 
 is clearly set forth in undoubted Q passages in the 
 parables of the seed growing secretly, the mustard 
 seed, and the leaven. 
 
 In spite of this the modern eschatologists teach 
 that Jesus held the Apocalyptic catastrophic view 
 of world history and the coming of the Kingdom 
 of God. Be it noted, however, that the least 
 convincing portions of the work of Johannes Weiss 
 and Schweitzer are those in which they seek to 
 eliminate the developmental idea from these para- 
 bles. 
 
 Moreover, the doctrine of the immanence of God 
 clearly implies His Presence in the world. The 
 teaching that God feeds the birds, and numbers the 
 hairs of the heads of His children, the teaching that 
 the children are already members of the Kingdom, 
 are based upon the idea of God as present in the 
 world. 
 
 If His Presence be shown in these small mat- 
 ters, how much more must His guidance be man- 
 ifested in the weightier matters of great historic 
 movements. This view will be further confirmed 
 and established if it be shown that the ethics of 
 Jesus contemplated the bringing in of the future 
 historic changes Implied in the coming of the King- 
 dom by moral processes and not by a gigantic 
 miracle. This matter will receive more extensive 
 treatment in the next chapter. 
 
90 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 III 
 
 The prophetic universalism was an organic part 
 of the prophetic interpretation of history. It linked 
 up the development of the non-Jewish races with 
 God's plan for the salvation of the Jews and that 
 of the Jews with the ultimate salvation of mankind. 
 It is not difficult to show that as opposed to the 
 particularism of the priestly-apocalyptic theology 
 Jesus made the prophetic universalism His Own. 
 This still further strengthens the argument in favor 
 of Jesus holding to the prophetic interpretation of 
 history. Certain critics are found to deny that 
 universalism was inherent in the teachings of Jesus. 
 The eschatologists must naturally deny it as incon- 
 sistent with the Apocalyptic particularistic world 
 view. The Apocalypses were, in Harnack's phrase, 
 "more intent on the downfall than on the conver- 
 sion of the heathen." Among the passages which 
 these critics urge in support of their view are the 
 words of Jesus to the Syro- Phoenician woman espe- 
 cially as reported in Matthew's version which con- 
 tains the words "I am not sent save unto the lost 
 sheep of the house of Israel." Another passage is 
 that in the commission to the Twelve telling them 
 not to go into any city of the Samaritans or Gen- 
 tiles (again, according to Matthew's version). But 
 the chief ground of their contention is the inference 
 from the exclusive character of the Church in Jeru- 
 salem where the immediate followers of the Lord 
 were in control, that this exclusiveness must have 
 been based upon some teaching of His. 
 
The Theology of Jesus 91 
 
 We find, however, that the passages which seem 
 to restrict the Lord's mission to the Jews occur in 
 St. Matthew's Gospel alone. And it is recognized 
 that this is a distinctively Jewish Gospel whose 
 author has the tendency to "rabbinize" the teach- 
 ings of Jesus wherever the opportunity offers. This 
 tendency seems to be lacking in the Q version. In 
 this document we have the account of the healing 
 of the centurion's servant. On entering into Caper- 
 naum a centurion in the Roman army asks the 
 Teacher to heal his servant who is sick of the palsy. 
 Jesus says forthwith "I will come and heal him." 
 This eagerness to help is in striking contrast to 
 the hesitation He is reported to have shown in 
 regard to the Syro-Phoenician woman, which is 
 placed on the ground that the children must be fed 
 before the dogs and that He is sent only to the Jews. 
 Moreover, the centurion's faith is selected for com- 
 mendation as greater than any faith which the 
 Master has found in Israel. This He would have 
 been reluctant to admit if He had held to the nar- 
 row particularism ascribed to Him by the eschatol- 
 ogists. 
 
 The difference of treatment accorded the Syro- 
 Phoenician woman must not therefore be referred 
 to a question of principle but to the general circum- 
 stances. It is important to note that Mark states 
 that Jesus wished no man to know of His Presence 
 in the town. Doubtless His tired nerves demanded 
 rest. Perhaps it was in quest of such a period of 
 rest that He went into the borders of Tyre and 
 
92 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 Sidon. Matthew tells us that the woman made a 
 scene, so much so that she rasped the nerves of 
 even the disciples. Does not this combination of 
 circumstances, — Jesus' weariness and desire to be 
 unmolested and the hysterical importunity of the 
 woman — explain Jesus' reluctance to make Him- 
 self known through a miracle of healing, rather than 
 the statement attributed to Him by Matthew, 
 which Mark's earlier Gospel omits, "I was not 
 sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel " ? 
 If Jesus had refused to help the woman as a matter 
 of principle He would not have been moved merely 
 by her importunity. But He not only acceded to 
 her request — but, according to Mark, He com- 
 mended her humility. We may note in this con- 
 nection that in the report of the commission to the 
 Twelve the injunction not to go into any city of 
 the Samaritans or of the Gentiles does not occur in 
 St. Mark or in Q. 
 
 Such testimony as is advanced against the uni- 
 versalism of Jesus is overwhelmed by the positive 
 testimony in its favor. It is in harmony with the 
 affinity between His teaching and that of the proph- 
 ets. It is in harmony with the teaching of John 
 the Baptist which Jesus commended. John rebuked 
 the particularism of the Jews and their pride in 
 descent from Abraham by declaring that God could 
 make new children of Abraham out of the stones. 
 * ' And think not to say within yourselves : ' we have 
 Abraham for our father'; for I say unto you that 
 God is able of these stones to raise up children unto 
 
The Theology of Jesus 93 
 
 Abraham." This is a Q passage, as is also the state- 
 ment of Jesus embodying the same universaHsm: 
 "I say unto you: they shall come from the east 
 and the west, and shall sit at meat with Abraham 
 and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God: but 
 the sons of the kingdom (that is, the Jews) shall be 
 cast out." 
 
 In later sources we have the parables of the Last 
 Judgment, wherein no distinction is made between 
 Jew and Gentile, in the dividing of the sheep and the 
 goats. This is all the stronger testimony to the 
 universaHsm of Jesus because it is embodied in 
 Matthew's Gospel whose final editor was a "par- 
 ticularist." 
 
 Whereas the first Evangelist was, as we have 
 said, a particularist, the third was a Hellenist. The 
 Hellenistic Jews had been liberalized by their con- 
 tact with the Greek world and that predisposed 
 them in favor of universaHsm. It was therefore 
 natural that Luke should give prominence to 
 any traces of universaHsm in his sources about the 
 teaching of Jesus, and as natural that the first 
 Evangelist should omit them. In Luke's version 
 of the visit to Nazareth His hearers are at first 
 shown as admiring the gracious words which He 
 spoke. They ask "Is not this Joseph's son?" But 
 their antagonism does not develop till He has given 
 utterance to the universalistic thought in pointing 
 out God's favor to the Gentiles, the widow of Zare- 
 phath, and Naaman the Syrian. It is immediately 
 following these words that they take offense and 
 
94 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 threaten Him with violence. In Matthew's ver- 
 sion we are told simply that His hearers were 
 astonished at His doctrine and wisdom, but they 
 took offense because He was the carpenter's son and 
 the other members of His family were familiar 
 acquaintances. According to this version they 
 seemed to resent the prophetic claim of one of such 
 humble origin. The universalistic element is there- 
 by suppressed. The universalistic parable of the 
 good Samaritan is given at length by Luke with its 
 implication of the superiority of the Samaritan to 
 the priest and Levite and quite naturally is omitted 
 entirely by the first Evangelist. In spite of the 
 particularism of the Jerusalem Church the univer- 
 salism of Jesus may be clearly established from 
 our records, and those critics err who hold that the 
 universalism which ultimately triumphed in early 
 Christianity was the result not of the teaching of 
 the Founder but of the Apostle Paul. 
 
 IV 
 
 Nothing is clearer than the fact that Jesus 
 rejected the priestly Apocalyptic theological idea 
 of a God Who is remote from the world, or Who 
 required to be kept in a favorable mood by sacri- 
 fices, or Who cared more about ceremonial right- 
 eousness than about mercy, justice and truth. 
 Jesus' constant allusion to God as the loving Father 
 desiring the welfare of "the least, the lowliest and 
 the lost" is universally recognized and it should 
 further be recognized that herein He simply extends 
 
The Theology of Jesus 95 
 
 the prophetic idea of God as the Lover of the 
 common people, and contradicts the priestly idea 
 of a God haughty, remote, capricious, and danger- 
 ous. In His teaching about prayer Jesus portrays 
 the loving communion of a person with a person 
 which had its prototype in the ancient prayer-life 
 of the patriarchs in the desert. The profundity of 
 the teaching of Jesus should not be underestimated 
 because its marvelous crystal clearness enables one 
 to see to its very depths. 
 
 V 
 
 Jesus' teaching as to the future of the world 
 community has the closest connection with the 
 prophetic doctrine on that subject. We will post- 
 pone a consideration of how He regarded His Own 
 particular relation to the coming of the Kingdom 
 till Chapter VHI. For the present we will antici- 
 pate the results there set forth with the statement 
 that Jesus identified Himself with the prophetic 
 Inaugurator of the Kingdom, the suffering Messiah 
 of the Great Unknown. 
 
 We will now consider the social aspects of the 
 Kingdom of God taken as the community of 
 mankind organized for the benefit of all according 
 to the Divine program. 
 
 There is one point on which the modern escha- 
 tologists and their opponents may cheerfully agree: 
 Jesus expected the existing social order to pass 
 away and be superseded by another. The differ- 
 ence between the two modern schools of thought 
 
96 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 lies in their interpretation of the manner in which 
 He considered that this revolutionary change was 
 to be brought about. As we know, the eschatolo- 
 gists hold that He expected it to come about by 
 the external descent of the miraculously organized 
 Kingdom of Heaven from above ; that He held that 
 it was to be imposed from without by armies of 
 angels who would first demolish the existing world 
 order. This event would occur so soon as the 
 transcendent God should select the time to give 
 the matter His attention. The primary object of 
 the Apocalyptic ethic was to secure to the devout 
 Jew a place on the winning side of the hosts of 
 Heaven and at the same time to force the hand of 
 God Who had made a covenant with His people, 
 wherein He agreed to send them the Kingdom when 
 they should succeed in sufficiently fulfilling the 
 difficult task of discharging their side of the con- 
 tract, as stipulated in the elaborate requirements 
 of the Torah. This ethic was based upon the quest 
 for a separate personal salvation and the means 
 employed were those of a Pharisaic scrupulosity of 
 ceremonial observance especially in regard to the 
 Sabbath. The Torah thus became a very compli- 
 cated magic formula consisting not only of words 
 but of ritualistic acts which had to be observed 
 every waking hour. This kind of ethic had no 
 organic or logical connection with the end to be 
 obtained, and hence may be rightly called an in- 
 terim-ethic, — one that is to be done away when it 
 has fulfilled its object — and the modern eschatolo- 
 
The Theology of Jesus 97 
 
 gists hold that the ethic of Jesus was of this variety. 
 The adherents of the non-eschatological view hold 
 that the ethic of Jesus was not intended to force or 
 to persuade God to act but was intended to lead to 
 a type of conduct which would spontaneously 
 inaugurate the rule of God in the affairs of men 
 through a moral, logical and developmental proc- 
 ess, through adherence of mankind to the Divine 
 law revealed by the prophets. 
 
 In support of their view the eschatologists point 
 out the fact that the ethical teachings of Jesus are 
 not practicable in the present world order. Prof. 
 K. Lake, while recognizing the difficulty of apply- 
 ing the ethic of Jesus to modern conditions of 
 life, nevertheless holds, in contrast to Weiss and 
 Schweitzer, that the ethic of early Christianity was 
 absolute and not conditional. In contrast to the 
 statement of Schweitzer "The ethic of Jesus . . . 
 is conditional in the sense that it stands in indissol- 
 uble connection with the expectation of perfection 
 which is to be supernaturally brought about," ' 
 and the further statement — "If ethics has to do 
 only with the expectation of the supernatural con- 
 summation, its actual worth is diminished, since it 
 is merely individual ethics and is concerned only 
 with the relation of each single person to the King- 
 dom of God;" ^ Lake writes: "The Sermon on the 
 Mount, which may be taken as a typical example 
 of Christian ethics, is not a code which can be 
 
 1 "The Mystery of the Kingdom of God," p. 100. 
 ^ Op. cit. p. 103. 
 
98 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 applied directly and simply to our ordinary daily 
 life. It is impossible not to resist evil, it is unde- 
 sirable to lend, distrusting no man, and it is ruinous 
 to give to every one who asks. We cannot base a 
 code of conduct on the literal observance of the 
 Sermon on the Mount, if society is to continue and 
 human nature remain as it is. That is exactly the 
 point; early Christianity assumed that society was 
 not going to continue, and that human nature was 
 to be changed. With that assumption Christians 
 were in a position to see and to appreciate the 
 absolute principles of life at its highest. The 
 effect of their eschatological belief was that they 
 were enabled to see ethical problems in isolation — 
 in an unnatural isolation if you like — and to reach 
 nearer to reality than they could ever otherwise 
 have done."i 
 
 The fallacy in Prof. Lake's argument lies hidden 
 in the following statement: "Early Christianity 
 assumed that society was not going to continue, 
 and that human nature was to be changed." The 
 teaching of Jesus was distinguished from that of 
 His early followers in the belief not "that society 
 was not going to continue," but that society was 
 not to continue as it is now organized. Human 
 nature was to be indeed changed but by a moral 
 process starting with repentance and not by a 
 miracle. Human nature was not to be super- 
 naturally transformed into some other kind of 
 nature, but human nature was to become what it 
 'Kirsopp Lake, "Early Epistles of St. Paul," p. 443. 
 
The Theology of Jesus 99 
 
 was divinely intended to be — was to become true to 
 its deeper self by recognizing its kinship with the 
 divine. Human nature when it had found itself 
 through repentance was to reorganize the social 
 order on a different basis. In place of the natural 
 pagan principle of selfishness and exploitation, 
 society was to be reorganized on the principle of 
 universal, loving service. In place of might, right 
 was to be enthroned. 
 
 Jesus did not expect that His ethic would render 
 its adherents "successful men" in the existing 
 order. He did not expect them to grow rich by 
 lending to every one that asked. 
 
 He expected them, if He did not require them, 
 to be poor. But even so the poor are blessed, for 
 the whole realm of God is theirs.^ He did not expect 
 that the policy of non-resistance would protect His 
 adherents absolutely from aggression, but He be- 
 lieved that (perhaps, on the principle that it ' ' takes 
 two to make a quarrel"), in the face of persistent 
 non-resistance, or, better, passive resistance, the 
 aggressor would grow ashamed and desist. But 
 however much the adherents of the Kingdom should 
 suffer persecution, loss of property, or even of life 
 they were to remember what happened to the 
 prophets, the true exponents of the Kingdom of God, 
 and were accordingly to rejoice to be found worthy, 
 in fulfilling the prophet's task, to share also in the 
 prophet's fate. At length the era will come when 
 the mourners shall laugh ; the meek will yet inherit 
 iLk. 6:20. 
 
loo Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 the earth ; for the old order changeth and the present 
 rich will lose their temporary relative advantage. 
 But not in this will their misfortune consist, but 
 rather in the absence on their part of a true appre- 
 ciation of the Kingdom. They have become rich 
 through violating the principles of the Kingdom. 
 Therefore, in the revolution that is to come they 
 who are now first will be the last because of the 
 inferior quality of their social morality. 
 
 The ethic of Jesus can be fully understood only 
 in relation to the renovated moral and social order 
 which it is the immediate object of that ethic to 
 inaugurate. 
 
 The social, revolutionary character of Jesus' ethic 
 compared with that of His contemporaries is brought 
 out in the following passage taken from the writings 
 of O. Holtzmann: "In contrast to fastings. Sab- 
 bath observance, purification, sacrifice, and public 
 prayers, Jesus constantly emphasizes that wherein 
 He finds value for the social life of mankind. He 
 always puts the social virtues above the most 
 scrupulous observance of the ritualistic prescrip- 
 tions. Accordingly, He derives the individual 
 duties, not as the preaching of the scribes was 
 accustomed, from that which was written in the 
 law, but from the underlying thought of a social 
 organization of mankind, in which mercy, justice, 
 fidelity, and conciliation are supreme." ^ 
 
 Herein we have the fullest development of the 
 
 'O. Holtzmann in his "Jesus Christus und das Gemein- 
 schaftsleben der Menschen," p. 22. 
 
The Theology of Jesus loi 
 
 prophetic conception of the Messianic era and the 
 direct contrast to the Apocalyptic conception. This 
 brings us to the more detailed consideration of the 
 eschatological problem which is to form the sub- 
 ject matter of the following Chapter. 
 
I02 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 "the eschatological problem" 
 
 In studying the ethical and theological teach- 
 ings of Jesus we have been at the same time dealing 
 with the eschatological problem from the philo- 
 sophical and psychological point of view. We have 
 seen that His Theology and ethic is as essentially 
 opposed to the Apocalyptic as the theology and 
 ethic of the prophet was opposed to that of the 
 priest. Moreover, the thought of Jesus about 
 the Kingdom is a complete organic whole without 
 the introduction of the catastrophic consumma- 
 tion. In fact, that idea is not only superfluous but 
 it weakens, if it does not contradict. His theological 
 and ethical position. If God be immanent and the 
 Kingdom be in process of growth and develop- 
 ment, a cataclysmic interruption would annul the 
 value of the whole moral process. By the inclusion 
 of the Apocalyptic expectation Jesus would have un- 
 dermined the absolute authority of His Own ethic. 
 It would of necessity become, as the eschatologists 
 consistently hold that it is, merely a purely theoret- 
 ical or interim ethic. 
 
 If an apologist should hold that, as history pro- 
 ceeds not only by a slow process of development, 
 but also by means of sudden catastrophes, Jesus, in 
 recognizing that fact, would but logically hold the 
 Apocalyptic view, it would only be necessary to say 
 
" The Eschatological Problem" 103 
 
 in reply that the cataclysms that the historian rec- 
 ognizes are of a different kind from those conceived of 
 by the Apocalyptic. The former are revolutions 
 or crises growing directly out of the developmental 
 process itself, and their place is recognized in the 
 prophetic interpretation of history, whereas the 
 Apocalyptic intervention of God was conceived of as 
 a miraculous and magical break in the historic 
 process on a stupendous scale. To hold as some 
 do, among them Harnack, that Jesus made a syn- 
 thesis of these two divergent views, is to accuse 
 Him of being a shallow eclectic. 
 
 Hard as it is to conceive how Jesus could have 
 made a synthesis of these two antagonistic cosmic 
 views, it is extremely easy to understand how His 
 immediate followers might have been led to do so. 
 We now turn to the study of the literary problem 
 for further light upon this very question. If the 
 teachings of Jesus were essentially anti-Apocalyp- 
 tic, we should expect to find some traces of it in our 
 text, as indeed we do find them. 
 
 If the Apocalytic scheme of things were wholly 
 foisted on to the teachings of Jesus we must explain 
 the processes — logical or psychological — whereby 
 this was accomplished. We should also inquire 
 what element in the teaching of Jesus would most 
 readily yield itself as an opening for the intrusion 
 of the Apocalyptic idea. Furthermore, if the 
 Apocalyptic view was thus grafted into the teach- 
 ing of Jesus, we should expect to find marks of this 
 process in our Gospels. This would be apt to show 
 
104 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 itself in two ways — by the extensive interpolations 
 into the sayings of Jesus of unauthentic matter, 
 and, by the placing upon authentic sayings an 
 Apocalyptic interpretation wholly absent from the 
 thought of Jesus. 
 
 I 
 
 It is needless to enumerate again the points of 
 antagonism between the theology and ethic of 
 Jesus and that of the Pharisees and other adherents 
 of the Apocalypses. We are concerned now with 
 the literary evidences of specific anti-Apocalyptic 
 statements. 
 
 The most striking illustration of the specific 
 opposition of Jesus to the whole Apocalyptic mech- 
 anism is found in His condemnation of their quest 
 for "signs" which were to be interpreted as fore- 
 boding the nearness of the coming Kingdom. In 
 Daniel and in the Apocalypses generally, certain 
 arbitrary signs are given. In the Book of Daniel 
 such signs are found in the covert allusions to 
 Antiochus Epiphanes, the interpretation of Jere- 
 miah's seventy years of the captivity as seventy- 
 year weeks, the "time, times and half a time," the 
 "abomination that maketh desolate," are illustra- 
 tions of the kind of signs sought for. There was 
 no moral value or significance underlying or con- 
 nected with these signs. They were of no greater 
 value than the signs of most popular superstitions. 
 
 In the Synoptics we have very direct condemna- 
 tion of this quest for external signs on the part of 
 
" The Eschatological Problem" 105 
 
 Jesus. In Mark 8:11-12, we read "Now the 
 Pharisees came out and started to argue with Him 
 asking Him a sign from heaven by way of tempting 
 Him. But He sighed in spirit and said, 
 
 Why does this generation seek a sign? 
 
 I tell you truly, no sign shall be given this generation. 
 
 The form of expression "a sign from heaven" 
 suggests that the Pharisees were asking for a special 
 miracle but this idea falls away in the Q text which 
 gives evidence of being the original form. Accord- 
 ing to this the Pharisees simply said, "We would 
 seek from thee a sign. " ' According to Mark's 
 version Jesus simply denied that the kind of sign 
 sought would be given that generation. In the Q 
 version, while refusing to give an arbitrary or exter- 
 nal sign, Jesus offers them a sign with a deep moral 
 significance, namely, that of repentance, in the 
 "sign of Jonah." "But He said, an evil and 
 adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and a 
 sign shall not be given it except the sign of Jonah. 
 . . . The men of Nineveh shall stand up in judg- 
 ment of this generation, because they repented at 
 the preaching of Jonah, and behold here is more 
 than Jonah." 2 
 
 In Matthew 16: 4, we have the rendering, 
 
 It is an evil and disloyal generation that craves a sign, 
 And no sign shall be given it except the sign of Jonah.' 
 
 • Harnack, "Sayings of Jesus," p. 266, Sec. 30. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
 ' Moffat's version, with footnote, p. 23. 
 
io6 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 In Matthew's rendering we have a combination of 
 the Markan version with the allusion to the 
 (moral) "sign of Jonah" in Q. According to Har- 
 nack, Q inserts "For as Jonah became a sign to 
 the Ninevites so shall the Son of Man be to this 
 generation. " The moral significance of the sign 
 is here retained because Jesus compares Himself 
 with Jonah as being an even greater preacher of 
 repentance. But in Luke's version and also in that 
 of Matthew, there is a tendency to make Jesus Him- 
 self a sign in the non-moral sense — just such a sign 
 as Jesus said would not be given to that generation. 
 Instead of comparing Himself with Jonah as a 
 preacher of repentance, Jonah's sojourn for three 
 days and three nights in the belly of the whale (an 
 external non-moral sign) is compared to Jesus' 
 three days and three nights spent in "the heart of 
 the earth."! g^^ ^^g original meaning of Jesus is 
 perfectly clear. The evil and adulterous (or dis- 
 loyal) generation is guilty of inconsistency and 
 folly. While neglecting to conform its life to God's 
 Will through repentance it is yet looking for exter- 
 nal signs of the miraculous coming of God. In- 
 stead of looking without it should look within and 
 reform its character and conduct. Instead of look- 
 ing for the Kingdom of God coming in the clouds 
 it should follow the example of Nineveh, the Gen- 
 tile city, and repent. The Gentile city of old shall 
 stand up in the judgment to condemn the holy city 
 
 1 Matt. 12:40. 
 
" The Eschatological Problem'' 107 
 
 of the Jews, for Jerusalem refuses to repent at the 
 preaching of a greater prophet than Jonah. 
 
 In Q we have the developmental idea of the 
 Kingdom as a moral leavening and as a growth in 
 the parables of the leaven and the mustard seed. 
 In Q and Mark we have this anti-Apocalyptic 
 polemic directed against the external sign of the 
 coming of a ready-made kingdom. This fact re- 
 moves any difficulty in the way of accepting the 
 anti-Apocalyptic and developmental statement 
 found in Luke 17:20. "On being asked by the 
 Pharisees when the reign of God was coming, he 
 answered them, The reign of God is not coming as 
 you hope to catch sight of it. No one will say 
 'Here it is' or 'There it is,' for the reign of God is 
 now in your midst." ^ 
 
 The survival of these distinct anti-Apocalyptic 
 statements in Gospels which had been edited by 
 those who had adopted the Apocalyptic views, is 
 the strongest argument in favor of the conscious 
 opposition of Jesus to the eschatology of the Apoca- 
 lypses. 
 
 II 
 
 If, as we are now prepared to assert, the Apoca- 
 lyptic scheme of things were wholly foisted on to 
 the teachings of Jesus, we must now inquire by 
 what processes — logical or psychological — this re- 
 versal of His thought could have been accomplished. 
 For not only did His earliest followers, who had 
 
 1 Moffat's version. 
 
io8 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 known Him personally in life, in the years immedi- 
 ately following His death accept and teach the 
 Apocalyptic expectation, but connected Jesus Him- 
 self with the coming Kingdom as its central, super- 
 natural. Messianic Figure, Who was to come on the 
 clouds, accompanied by angelic armies. They not 
 only held this but they held that this had been 
 explicitly taught by Jesus as He went in and out 
 among them. We shall first consider their psy- 
 chological processes, and then ascertain how they 
 fit in with or are borne out by the literary evi- 
 dences. 
 
 Our sources make it clear that the crucifixion of 
 Jesus threw His Apostles into profound despair. 
 The Apocalypses have been termed "the Gospel of 
 despair" because the despairing mood is the psy- 
 chological breeding-place of the Apocalyptic hope. 
 There is first the belief that the historic process has 
 failed. There is no hope except as that failure may 
 be retrieved by a miracle. Analogously, the Apos- 
 tles believed that the crucifixion of Jesus marked 
 the failure of His Messianic career. Out of their 
 despair there was born the hope that this failure of 
 His Cause was to be retrieved by a miracle. In a 
 few days after His death His Personal adherents 
 came together testifying that one and all had re- 
 ceived unmistakable personal evidence of His sur- 
 vival. This signified that God Himself had placed 
 upon Jesus' claims to the Messiahship the final seal 
 of approval. Nay more. He was now the Messiah 
 in a far more glorious sense than they had ever 
 
" The Eschatological Problem" 109 
 
 before dreamed. Without doubt He would come 
 in a few weeks, or possibly months, and restore 
 the kingdom to Israel, placing His loyal followers 
 upon thrones of judgment. This view harmonized 
 with the widely accepted Apocalyptic expectation 
 of the Jews. The Apostles are quick to discover 
 not only that their risen Master fits perfectly into 
 the general expectation but that He gives to it a 
 touch of immediacy and concrete reality. In fact, 
 once the Apocalyptic view has been accepted. His 
 place in it as witnessed by the Apostles becomes so 
 reasonable that thousands of Jews soon accept 
 their teaching, among them even members of the 
 sect of the Pharisees against whom Jesus had di- 
 rected His most unrelenting polemic. It became 
 well-nigh self-evident to the disciples that their 
 Master must clearly have foreseen this and hinted 
 at it all along. Hence, they would diligently 
 search His words to discover this latent meaning. 
 Later, as time moved on, and the expectation failed 
 to be realized the Apocalyptic mood prompted more 
 desperate measures. There must be somewhere an 
 Apocalypse of Jesus. The demand produced the 
 supply. Apocalyptic oracles were already in circu- 
 lation. One of these must undoubtedly have come 
 from Him. It only remains to decide which one 
 and then embody it in the Gospels. This probably 
 explains the origin of the great Apocalyptic dis- 
 course in Mark 13, and its subsequent enlarge- 
 ment and editing by Matthew and Luke follow 
 naturally. 
 
no Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 III 
 
 In its final form this Apocalypse, which exhibits 
 so little the impress of the Personality and familiar 
 style of Jesus, employs all the Apocalyptic device 
 of predating and turning history into the form of 
 prophecy and forging the authoritative name. 
 
 The probable connection between the supposed 
 predictions and the events in history of the early 
 Church thrown into the form of prophecy is clearly 
 made by H. B. Streeter in the Oxford Studies in the 
 Synoptic Gospels — page i8o and following: 
 
 We notice first that the Apocalypse (i.e. St. Mark 13) 
 purports to have been delivered privately to certain dis- 
 ciples. This is to explain how it is that it has hitherto 
 been unknown to Christians in general — a mark of late 
 date of publication. We are reminded of the secret 
 traditions from particular Apostles produced by the later 
 Gnostics. It is emphasized that the long delay of the 
 Parousia, which was such a difficulty for the early Church, 
 had been foreseen by the Master and privately explained 
 to an inner circle. " But it is not the end yet ' ' ' — He had 
 foreseen the series of persecutions and catastrophes, in 
 each of which as it arrived the faithful had seen the har- 
 binger of that end which never came. "Now take care, 
 I am telling you of it all beforehand" (St. Mark 13: 28).^ 
 He had given also the reason of His delay. It was that 
 there might be time for the Gospel to be first preached to 
 all the Gentiles (13: 10) — a reason suggested by the 
 thought in Romans 11 (cf. especially verses 11, 12, 25), 
 
 'St. Mark 13: 7. 
 
 2 Genuine material is here used, as Jesus had expected perse- 
 cutions alike for Himself and His followers. 
 
' ' The Eschatological Problem'' ill 
 
 that the conversion of Israel was predestinated, but post- 
 poned till the Gentiles had been gathered in. Famines, 
 cf. that in Acts 11:28, earthquakes at Laodicea in 61 
 A.D., or Pompeii in 62 A.D. He had foretold, but these 
 were but the beginnings of birth pangs (13: 9), that is, of 
 the calamities which it was generally expected would 
 usher in the Messianic age. He had seen, too, great 
 world-wide wars, verse 8, as in the year of the four Em- 
 perors culminating in the sack of Jerusalem, verses 14 to 
 20 — a time in which "had not the Lord shortened it no 
 flesh would have been saved" — all this the Master had 
 foreseen. He had foreseen St. Paul, 13: 9, accused be- 
 fore the Sanhedrin, five times scourged in the synagogue, 
 standing before Felix and Festus (governors), before 
 Agrippa and Nero (kings) for His Name's sake. He 
 had foretold the horrors of the Neronian persecutions 
 when the Christians first arrested informed, as Tacitus 
 relates, on their brethren ("brother will betray brother 
 to death" verse 12), and Christians were hated by all 
 men, verse 13, accused, says Tacitus, of "odium humani 
 generis." Lastly, He had foreseen one final peril, the 
 false Christs and false prophets displaying signs and 
 wonders, who might "deceive even the elect" at the last 
 moment on the very eve of His return. . . . 
 
 The second object is to encourage those whose hopes 
 are faiHng. Now at last He is near the door, 13: 29, His 
 coming will follow this last tribulation as closely as sum- 
 mer follows the fig-tree's leaves.^ 
 
 We have seen that the object of the Apocalypses 
 was to encourage with the hope of a speedy deliv- 
 erance those who were suffering persecutions and 
 
 1 "Oxford Studies," p. 180 f. 
 
112 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 loss. Historic events are recited in the form of 
 prophecy down to the time of the writer, after 
 which the real prediction begins, usually, as in this 
 case, of the speedy coming of the deliverer. Here, 
 as in all the other Apocalypses, the actual crucial 
 prediction has remained unfulfilled. 
 
 Before looking further for traces of the "eschatol- 
 ogizing" of the Gospels, we will ask what factor 
 or factors in the teaching of Jesus would adapt 
 themselves as affording an opening for the grafting 
 in of the Apocalyptic idea. But two such elements 
 need to be mentioned, — First, the primary message 
 of Jesus, "the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." 
 Second, the undoubted fact that Jesus had proph- 
 esied the destruction of the temple. In the next 
 chapter we shall see that Jesus' prophecy of the de- 
 struction of the temple was based upon prophetic 
 hostility to the cult and the conviction that it stood 
 in the way of the triumph of the prophetic religion. 
 By the time this Apocalypse was written the author 
 considered the destruction of the temple in the light 
 of a calamity. In the earliest or Markan version 
 we are told that immediately after this prophecy 
 Peter, James and John asked Jesus privately, on 
 the Mount of Olives, "When shall these things be 
 and what signs shall be when these things shall be 
 fulfilled?"' In spite of the fact that Jesus had 
 condemned the Pharisees for asking for a sign and 
 had told them that they should have no sign except 
 that of the prophet Jonah, He is now represented 
 
 'Mk. 13:3.4- 
 
" The Eschatological Problem" 113 
 
 as acceding to a request made in private which He 
 had refused to comply with in public. 
 
 In the next later account, incorporated in Mat- 
 thew's Gospel, the audience has increased from the 
 three to include the twelve. The sign asked for is 
 not only that of the destruction of the temple but 
 also "What shall be the sign of thy coming and of 
 the end of the world? "' In order to realize the 
 lateness of this passage we have only to recall that 
 after the death of Jesus it was very plain that the 
 Apostles had not been prepared for His resurrection. 
 These words imply a thorough familiarity on their 
 part with the thought not only of His resurrection 
 but of His second coming. 
 
 The latest account of all, in Luke, chapter 21, 
 represents the Apocalyptic discourse as no longer 
 having been given to a small circle but as having 
 been spoken in the temple itself, to a large gathering 
 of people. Here again He is represented as naming 
 a variety of the very "signs" that He had previ- 
 ously declared would not be given to that genera- 
 tion, and the "signs" are the usual external ones, 
 such as, "signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in 
 the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, 
 with perplexity; the sea and waves roaring" . . . 
 (v. 25). In connection with the sign of the "abom- 
 ination of desolation "2 we have a significant aside 
 to the understanding reader. "Let him that read- 
 eth understand." This plainly betrays the fact 
 
 1 Matt. 24: 3. 
 
 2Mk. 13: 14; Mt. 24: 15. 
 
114 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 that the EvangeHst is not reporting a spoken dis- 
 course but is copying a document which bears all 
 the earmarks of being a small pseudepigraphical 
 Apocalypse. According to this small Apocalypse 
 the "coming of the Son of Man" is to follow close 
 upon the destruction of the temple. After this 
 event, as time passed by without the promised ful- 
 fillment, new matter is introduced to explain that 
 the delay had really been foreseen. Hence the 
 Apocalypse bristles with contradictions. In one 
 place we read that the Parousia is to follow imme- 
 diately upon the destruction of Jerusalem (or the 
 temple), "immediately after the tribulation of 
 those days." ^ This gives us the date of the Apoca- 
 lypse as immediately following that event. After 
 the lapse of some time an explanatory statement is 
 inserted (earlier in the discourse): "The Gospel 
 must first be published among all nations." ^ When 
 Luke's Gospel received its present form a greater 
 period of time had elapsed since the destruction of 
 the temple and the further words in explanation 
 thereof are introduced. "And Jerusalem shall be 
 trodden down of the Gentiles, until the time of the 
 Gentiles be fulfilled." 3 
 
 IV 
 
 In his appendix to the "Oxford Studies" Streeter 
 brings out the tendency of the Evangelists to elab- 
 
 iMt. 24: 29; Mk. 13: 24. 
 «Mt. 24: 13; Mk. 13: 10. 
 'Lk. 21: 24. 
 
' ' The Eschatological Problem " 115 
 
 orate the eschatological idea which only occurs in 
 simple form in Q (in three passages which speak of 
 the Kingdom as coming unexpectedly that is, with- 
 out premonitory signs). His syllabus ' contains the 
 following summary: 
 
 In Q the emphasis is rather on the conception of the 
 Kingdom as already present and to be extended by a 
 process of gradual growth. Sayings implying that its 
 appearance is future and catastrophic also occur, but 
 they are not elaborated in any detail. 
 
 In St. Mark — especially in Chapter 13 — the emphasis 
 is on the future catastrophic conception, which is worked 
 out with much detail of the conventional Apocalyptic 
 type. 
 
 In Matthew the detail is still further elaborated, and 
 both by what he adds and what he omits the catastrophic 
 conception is enhanced. 
 
 The same tendency was no doubt in operation even 
 before Q was written down, but some residuum of Apoca- 
 lyptic eschatology in the authentic teachings of Christ is 
 required to explain the beliefs of the early Church. 
 
 This "residuum" I believe, to have been (as in- 
 dicated above) a combination of the proclamation 
 "the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" (and the fact 
 that Jesus considered Himself as the Prophet- 
 Messiah), taken with His prophecy of the destruc- 
 tion of the temple which was misinterpreted by His 
 followers as a catastrophic sign, instead of an event 
 in the moral progress of the history of the King- 
 dom. We shall now consider a few instances 
 
 1 Op. cit. p. 424. 
 
116" Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 wherein the Apocalyptic idea was read into au- 
 thentic expressions of Jesiis. 
 
 The most striking of these is the tendency to read 
 an eschatological significance into the phrase "Son 
 of Man. " The Evangelists believed that this 
 phrase embodied a cryptic Messianic sign. We 
 have already seen that the phrase in the original 
 Aramaic signified "a man" or "mankind," and 
 that it was also used as a circumlocution for the 
 personal pronoun. After it had been literally 
 translated into Greek the Aramaic idiom was lost. 
 Nevertheless the phrase frequently occurs in our 
 Gospels as a self-designation by Jesus of which 
 we cite the following: "The Son of Man hath 
 not where to lay His head. "^ "The Son of Man 
 is not come to destroy men's lives but to save 
 them. "2 "The Son of Man {ie., T) came eating 
 and drinking."^ 
 
 The first Evangelist shows the strongest ten- 
 dency to read the Apocalyptic idea into the text. 
 For example, Luke 9: 27 — " But I tell you of a truth 
 there be some standing here which shall not taste of 
 death till they see the Kingdom of God" — becomes 
 in Matthew 16:28, "Verily, I say unto you there 
 be some standing here which shall not taste of death 
 till they see the Son of Man coming with His angels." 
 The Lukan rendering is supported by Mark 9:1. 
 
 iMt. 8:20; Lk. 9: 58. 
 2 Lk. 9: 56. 
 
 * Mt. 11:19. For further illustrations see Mt. 12:32, 40; 
 13: 37; 16: 13. 
 
' ' The Eschatolagical Problem " * 1 1 7 
 
 The earlier rendering permits of a developmental 
 interpretation on the understanding that the devel- 
 opment is expected to move quickly. The Mat- 
 thean version has become catastrophic and Apoca- 
 lyptic. In place of the developmental parable of 
 the seed growing secretly/ he substitutes the catas- 
 trophic parable of the tares, introducing the phrase 
 "Son of Man" in the meaning of exalted Messiah. 
 As this tendency is so plainly discernible it makes it 
 extremely doubtful whether Jesus could ever have 
 applied the expression to Himself in this Messianic 
 sense. The only Q passage in which we find this 
 expectation of Jesus of His Personal return is as 
 follows: "Every one, therefore, that shall confess 
 me before men, him will I (or the Son of Man) con- 
 fess before the angels of God; but whosoever shall 
 deny me before men, him will I also deny before the 
 angels of God."^ Here Jesus is represented as lay- 
 ing the utmost stress upon His Own Person as an 
 indispensable factor in individual salvation. It 
 expresses the idea of "the Petrine Gospel" in the 
 early Chapters of Acts, rather than Jesus' own 
 Gospel of the Kingdom. It contradicts the sense 
 of the Q passage immediately following, "And 
 whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of 
 Man (or Me), it shall be forgiven him," and the 
 well -authenticated passage in Matthew 7: 21, "Not 
 every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall 
 
 ' Mk. 4: 26 f. 
 
 2 See Harnack's "Sayings of Jesus, ' p. 262. 
 
Ii8 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that 
 doeth the Will of my Father which is in Heaven." ' 
 
 In one passage, the first Evangelist falls into a 
 self-contradiction by his introduction of the phrase 
 "Son of Man" as equivalent to Messiah. Accord- 
 ing to the version of Mark, Jesus asks His disciples 
 on the way to Caesarea Philippi "Whom do men 
 say that I am?"^ This becomes, in Matthew's 
 version, "Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, 
 am?" If Jesus were accustomed to apply the 
 phrase to Himself in the sense of Messiah, He would 
 thereby have given the answer to His question in 
 stating it. Hence, there would have been no oc- 
 casion for surprise at the answer of Peter. 
 
 In conclusion we will note further illustrations of 
 the tendency of Matthew to eschatologize the Gos- 
 pel Message. 
 
 He introduces the Apocalyptic phrase "consum- 
 mation of the ages" not elsewhere found in the 
 Gospels. He employs the Apocalyptic "weeping 
 and gnashing of teeth" six times, which does not 
 occur in Mark and occurs but once in Luke. He 
 omits two sayings which imply the presence of the 
 Kingdom, "I saw Satan fall from Heaven" and 
 "The Kingdom of God cometh not with observa- 
 tion, for behold it is in your midst, " which St. Luke 
 records and which it may fairly be assumed existed 
 inQ. 
 
 We have now seen that the presumption created 
 
 'See below, p. 135. 
 
 2Mk. 8:27. Cf. Mt. 16: 13. 
 
' ' The Eschatological Problem " 119 
 
 by the antagonism between the theology and ethic 
 of Jesus and that of the Apocalypses, that he re- 
 jected the eschatological Messianic expectation, is 
 corroborated by the study of the Synoptic Gospels 
 which show evidence of that idea as having been 
 interpolated on a large scale and its meaning forced 
 into authentic sayings of Jesus. We are logically 
 forced to the conclusion that there was no real 
 "Apocalyptic residuum" in the Gospel of Jesus. 
 We now will resume the task of reconstructing that 
 Gospel in its positive aspects. 
 
120 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE HISTORIC JESUS — THE PROPHET MESSIAH 
 
 The theology of the CathoHc Church centered in 
 a series of questions concerning the Person of Jesus 
 and grouped under the general designation of 
 "Christology." All the emphasis came to be con- 
 centrated on the Person of Jesus as the center of 
 theology and His own theological teachings were 
 not only ignored but unconsciously contradicted or 
 set aside. We have now to inquire into the question 
 of Jesus' own view of His mission and office, as re- 
 vealed in His self-consciousness, so far as that finds 
 expression in His authentic teachings. To do so 
 we must set aside the traditional Christological as- 
 sumptions and examine the development of Chris- 
 tology with a view to warrant how much of it can 
 be substantiated by the authority of Jesus Himself. 
 
 We have now to search for the starting point of 
 the Christological development. The word "Chris- 
 tology" is derived from "Christos" the Greek 
 translation of Messiah. "Christology," therefore, 
 begins with the identification of Jesus with the 
 Messiah. This identification has already taken 
 place in our earliest document. "The compiler of 
 Q could not imagine otherwise than that Jesus was 
 the Messiah, consecrated as the Son of God at the 
 Baptism. "1 This might seem to be the earliest 
 • Harnack " Sayings of Jesus," p. 243. 
 
The Historic Jesus — The Prophet Messiah 121 
 
 statement of New Testament Christology. As a 
 matter of fact it is the third stage in Christological 
 development. It dates the Messiahship from the 
 descent of the Holy Spirit at the time of the Bap- 
 tism of Jesus accompanied by the Voice from 
 Heaven, 
 
 Thou art my son, the Beloved, 
 today have I become thy father. 
 
 » 
 
 This was the form of Christology which later be- 
 came known as "Adoptionism." An earlier form is 
 that which is found in the " Petrine Christology" in 
 the discourses attributed to Peter in the early Chap- 
 ters of Acts. In this form the Messiahship of 
 Jesus begins at the resurrection and is to be vin- 
 dicated at the Parousia. Though exalted to the 
 right hand of God, Jesus, so far as His Messiahship 
 is concerned, is a Chris tus futurus — is to become 
 Messiah at the Parousia. But back of this as the 
 earliest form of Messiahship we have Jesus' own 
 conception of His Mission. This question is to re- 
 ceive further consideration which will point to the 
 conclusion that Jesus regarded Himself as the 
 Messiah in the sense that He was the Prophetical 
 Inaugurator of the Kingdom of God. 
 
 We now have reached three steps in the New 
 Testament development of Christology: (i) Jesus 
 appears as the Prophet-Messiah; (2) Jesus is 
 preached as "the Messiah Who is to come"; (3) 
 Jesus is regarded as having been made Messiah at 
 His Baptism. Later on the beginning of the Mes- 
 
122 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 siahship is dated back to the birth of Jesus in the 
 "Gospel of the Nativity" which introduces both 
 the poHtical and supernatural elements by provid- 
 ing genealogies through Joseph back to David, and 
 at the same time denying Him human paternity 
 through His conception by the Holy Ghost. In 
 Matthew's version Mary's Son is given the name of 
 Jesus because "He will save His people from their 
 sins." 1 In Luke's Gospel the angel Gabriel is made 
 to promise that the Son of Mary would sit upon the 
 throne of David and "reign over the house of Jacob 
 forever and to His reign there will be no end."^ 
 Here we have a synthesis of the political-monarchical 
 with the Apocalyptic, for this view evidently ex- 
 presses the expectation of the early Church which 
 awaited fulfillment. This represents a fourth step 
 in Christological development. The fifth step is 
 found in St. Paul's conception of the Christ as the 
 "Heavenly Man."' This Messiah was divine by 
 nature. Yet it would have been "a prize" for Him 
 to have been "on an equality with God" — "He did 
 not snatch at equality with God" . . . "There- 
 fore God raised Him high and conferred on Him a 
 Name above all Names."* The final stage is taken 
 in the prologue to the Fourth Gospel which makes 
 Him Christ from before the beginning of creation, 
 co-eternal with God, and co-equal. We note in 
 
 iMt. 1:21. 
 2 Lk. 1 : 32, 33. 
 'I Cor. 15: 47. 
 * Phil. 2: 5-1 1. 
 
The Historic Jesus — The Prophet Messiah 123 
 
 passing that St. Paul's view was perilously near 
 the "Homoiousion" which was condemned by the 
 Council at Nicea as the Arian heresy. 
 
 The omission of the Gospel of the Infancy in Q 
 and St. Mark may be due to the view which they 
 seem to have held that the Messiahship of Jesus 
 began at the Baptism. Its omission from the 
 Fourth Gospel may be due to the fact that the 
 author held that the Messiahship was not to be 
 dated from the conception of Jesus but as existing 
 from eternity. St. Paul's omission may, similarly, 
 be due to his opinion that Jesus existed as a Divine 
 Being before His birth. In St. Matthew and St. 
 Luke the idea is implied that the Messiahship of 
 Jesus was associated with the circumstances of His 
 Nativity, but at the same time they seem to incor- 
 porate the earlier view that it was conferred at the 
 Baptism. Having summarized the development of 
 Christological doctrine in the New Testament we 
 now return to investigate more fully the "Chris- 
 tology" of Jesus Himself. 
 
 Harnack has pointed out that all of the Christo- 
 logical elements in Q are contained in the introduc- 
 tory stories of the Baptism and Temptation. Else- 
 where it is only implicit with the exception of the 
 doubtful passages about the second coming. To 
 quote once more from Harnack, "The Christology 
 of the source as the compiler understood it, presents 
 a perfectly simple and consistent picture. The 
 compiler Q could not imagine otherwise than that 
 Jesus was the Messiah, consecrated as Son of God 
 
124 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 at the Baptism; all the sayings of his compilation, 
 therefore, stand out against this background. If, 
 however, we think away the introduction the re- 
 sultant picture is essentially different. We have 
 now before us a compilation of sayings in which the 
 speaker is a teacher, a prophet, one who was more 
 than a prophet — the final decisive Messenger of 
 God; but so surely as he demands unconditional 
 obedience to his commands, in which the Will of 
 God is expressed, and calls upon men to follow him, 
 so little does he do this with the expressed self -wit- 
 ness; ' I am the Messiah.' " ^ 
 
 In regard to Mark's Gospel as the result of criti- 
 cal investigation he reaches a similar conclusion, 
 "that our Lord during the first and longest period 
 of His ministry did not speak of Himself as Messiah 
 (because He at first neither regarded Himself as the 
 Messiah, nor indeed could so regard Himself), and 
 even rejected the title of Messiahship when it was 
 applied to Himself, but that, on the other hand. He 
 was possessed with the strongest conviction that, as a 
 Messenger of God, He was entrusted with a Mission 
 of decisive import, and that He knew God as none 
 other knew Him — a conviction to which He again 
 and again gave expression." ^ 
 
 The weight of critical opinion is on the side of 
 the view that the Messiahship of Jesus remained a 
 secret till the incident on the road to Caesarea 
 Philippi when He accepted Peter's designation of 
 
 ' Op. cit. p. 244. 
 
 ^ Harnack, Op. cit. p. 244. 
 
The Historic Jesus — The Prophet Messiah 125 
 
 Himself as the Christ. Harnack holds that in ac- 
 cepting the title He applied it to Himself in the 
 futuristic sense. This is the view of the eschatolo- 
 gists who believe that Jesus had become convinced 
 of the necessary failure of His prophetic mission and 
 that He looked for the retrieval of that failure by 
 His own return, after His death, as the supernatural 
 "Son of Man." This explanation is as superficial as 
 it is easy. We shall examine our records of this inci- 
 dent with a view to ascertaining if the true interpreta- 
 tion of Jesus' thought of the Messiahship is not the 
 prophetic conception of the "Suffering Servant." 
 
 This incident is omitted in Q and finds its simplest 
 recital in Mark 8: 27, f : — "Then Jesus and His dis- 
 ciples set off from the villages of Ceesarea Philippi ; 
 and on the road He inquired of His disciples 'Who 
 do people say that I am?' 'John the Baptist,' they 
 told Him, 'though some say Elijah and others say 
 you are one of the prophets.' So he inquired of 
 them 'And who do you say I am?' Peter replied, 
 'You are the Christ.' Then He forbade them to tell 
 anyone about Him. And He proceeded to teach 
 them that the Son of Man had to endure great suf- 
 fering, to be rejected by the elders and scribes, to 
 be killed and after three days to rise again; He 
 spoke of this quite freely. Peter took Him and be- 
 gan to reprove Him for it. But He turned on him 
 and noticing His disciples reproved Peter, telling 
 him 'Get behind Me, you Satan! Your outlook is 
 not God's but man's.' " ' 
 
 ' Moffat's version. 
 
126 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 The passages in Matthew about Peter the Rock 
 on whom the Church is to be built are generally re- 
 garded as a late interpolation, as well as the words 
 of praise commending Peter's insight. After ac- 
 cepting the title of Messiah Jesus enjoins secrecy, 
 we are bound to think, because the popular mean- 
 ing of that word was quite different from His own. 
 He proceeds to explain to the Twelve that His 
 Messiahship entails suffering and death at the hands 
 of the elders, high priests and scribes. Words are 
 here introduced by the Evangelist foretelling the 
 resurrection, but in view of the absence of that 
 expectation in the minds of the incredulous disciples 
 when it was announced to them, this must have 
 been introduced as an afterthought by the Evangel- 
 ist. The words — "Peter took Him and began to 
 reprove Him for it," are incongrous with the words 
 revealing the stupendous miracle of the resurrection 
 which they immediately follow. The real interpre- 
 tation, then, seems to be that having accepted the 
 title of Messiah Jesus proceeds to explain the nature 
 of the Messiahship, which is not that of a conquering 
 king, or the supernatural Being coming in the future 
 on the clouds of Heaven, but is that of the Prophetic 
 Servant of God Who gives His life in inaugurating 
 the Kingdom. Peter's rebuke arose from the fact 
 that he did not accept any such mournful interpre- 
 tation of the Messiahship, but looked upon it from 
 the monarchical point of view with all its attendant 
 splendor. This explains the retort of Jesus "Get 
 behind me, you Satan, your outlook is not God's 
 
The Historic Jesus — The Prophet Messiah 127 
 
 but man's." This reminds us of the story of the 
 Temptation in which Jesus rejected the temptation 
 to become a world-conquering Messiah, in which 
 He is represented as saying to the Tempter — "Get 
 thee hence, Satan." Peter now appears in the r61e 
 of Tempter and hence the severity of the epithet 
 "Satan." In this instance, as in the eariier, Jesus 
 refused to be an exploiting Prince. Jesus is then 
 represented as warning His followers that, if they 
 are to continue to follow Him, they must deny 
 themselves and take up their crosses and follow 
 Him and be prepared to lose their lives for His sake 
 and for the Gospel's. 
 
 I 
 
 Having ascertained that the Christology of Jesus 
 consisted in His self-consciousness as the Prophet- 
 Messiah, we have now to take account of His pro- 
 phetic career. 
 
 We have seen that the doctrine of Jesus clearly 
 belonged to the prophetic school. It is very clear 
 that He was recognized as a prophet by His con- 
 temporaries. At His "triumphal entry" into Jeru- 
 salem He is hailed by "the multitude" as Jesus, 
 "the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee." 1 After His 
 resurrection certain of His disciples are reported by 
 St. Luke to have characterized Him as "a prophet 
 mighty in deed and word before God and all the 
 people."^ In the Petrine discourses early in Acts 
 
 iMt. 21: II. 
 2 Lk. 24: 19. 
 
128 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 He is identified with the "prophet like unto Moses," 
 promised in Deuteronomy. It is also equally clear 
 that He referred to Himself under the title of 
 ' ' prophet." 1 His method of teaching resembled that 
 of the prophets and contrasted with that of His 
 contemporaries, "For He taught them like an au- 
 thority, not like their own scribes."^ His Gospel 
 like that of the prophets contains two parts — the 
 ministry of rebuke and the ministry of consolation. 
 This latter was central in that the proclamation of 
 the nearness of the Kingdom was fraught with a 
 promise of deliverance from all personal and social 
 ills. 
 
 Jesus constantly expressed the highest admira- 
 tion for the ancient prophets. This admiration was 
 extended to John the Baptist because Jesus rec- 
 ognized him to be a true prophet. He declared 
 that all the prophets were living in the Kingdom of 
 God.' He pronounced those to be blessed who are 
 found worthy to share in the persecutions that had 
 been meted out to the prophets. He exhorted His 
 followers to be like the prophets. As we shall see, 
 it was part of His program for the ushering in of 
 the Kingdom of God to organize a movement of 
 prophets. Jesus' prophetic message of rebuke was 
 directed against the rich and the Pharisees and the 
 hierarchy — all of whom belonged to the exploiting 
 classes. He denounced the exploiters of His day, 
 
 1 Mt. 13: 57; Mk, 6: 4; Lk. 4: 17, 24; 13: 33. 
 ^Mt. 7:29. 
 »Lk. 13:28, 
 
The Historic Jesus — The Prophet Messiah 129 
 
 as the prophets had denounced the exploiters of their 
 day, as the enemies of the Kingdom of God. His 
 indignation was directed against those who are 
 harsh toward their fellows, the vengeful who look 
 to God for forgiveness while exacting the uttermost 
 farthing from their debtors; against the blind lead- 
 ers of the blind, who stand in the way of the people's 
 attaining the knowledge that is essential to their 
 welfare; against the mammon worshippers who 
 hypocritically pretend to be worshippers of God, 
 those who oppress the weak, the children, the 
 widows ; against those who shut up the Kingdom of 
 Heaven against men, who declare themselves the 
 favorites of God while holding the harlots, the 
 publicans, and the Gentiles to be eternally damned. 
 In God's day, Jesus declared, those who have made 
 themselves first shall be last, for the publicans, 
 harlots and Gentiles will enter the Kingdom of 
 Heaven by the way of penitence while the alleged 
 righteous ones will exclude themselves by their own 
 exclusiveness. 
 
 The literature of invective reaches a climax of 
 fury in the discourse against the scribes and Phari- 
 sees. ^ The pretensions to righteousness, to religious 
 authority, to high moral character, are relentlessly 
 unmasked. "Woe to you, you irreligious scribes 
 and Pharisses! You are like tombs, whitewashed; 
 they look comely on the outside, but inside they 
 are full of dead men's bones and all manner of im- 
 i.Mt. 23; and Lk. 11, 
 
130 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 purity. So to men you seem just, but inside you 
 are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." ' 
 
 Jesus in this discourse saw His struggle with the 
 Pharisees as a continuation of the warfare of the 
 prophets against the adherents of external and 
 ceremonial religion. He challenged them, the de- 
 scendants of those who slew the prophets, to "fill 
 up the measure of their fathers" by slaying Him, 
 the Successor of the prophets. Their ceremonial 
 scrupulosity aroused nothing but His scorn and 
 contempt. Having been reproved by the Pharisees 
 for neglecting the customary ceremonial ablutions 
 before eating, Jesus replied: "Not that which en- 
 tereth into a man but that which proceedeth out of 
 the heart defileth a man."^ He uttered the basic 
 principle which divided the ceremonial from the 
 prophetic type of religion. In so doing, as Holtz- 
 mann declares, "Jesus pronounces, with one sweep, 
 all the laws which are contained in Deuteronomy, 
 chapters 11 to 15, and which abundantly engaged 
 the attention of the Pharisees, to be without bind- 
 ing force."' Holtzmann might have gone further 
 by stating that Jesus regarded these ordinances as 
 useless and absurd. 
 
 Against the priestly exploiters of His day Jesus 
 proceeded not only with words, as against the Phari- 
 sees, but with deeds. 
 
 Jesus broke radically with legalism and Judaism. 
 
 » Matt. 23 : 27, 28, Moflfat's version. 
 
 'Mt. 15:17; Mk. 7:18. 
 
 ' O. Holtzmann, Op. cit. p. 22. 
 
The Historic Jesus — The Prophet Messiah 131 
 
 (Later on His disciples undertook to repair the 
 breach.) His prophetic campaign was carried on 
 against the temple cultus. Like His predecessors, 
 the insurgent prophets, He held the temple and the 
 Jewish hierarchy to be the archenemy of true re- 
 ligion. It was so false that it could not hope for 
 reformation. It must be destroyed. 
 
 The ancient prophets, Amos and Jeremiah, had 
 prophesied the destruction of the temple in Bethel 
 and of the temple of Jerusalem in their own day on 
 the ground that they were false to the true religion 
 of Jehovah. The Great Unknown had declared 
 that it was absurd to suppose that any temple built 
 with hands could serve as the abiding place of God. 
 In the spirit of the two former Jesus prophesied the 
 overthrow of the temple and its complete destruc- 
 tion. In characteristic homely phrase, Jesus had 
 expressed His view of the hopelessness of reforming 
 institutionalized Judaism as follows : 
 
 No one sews a piece of undressed cloth on an old coat. 
 For the patch breaks away from it, and the tear is made 
 
 worse ; 
 Nor do men pour fresh wine into old wine-skins. 
 Otherwise the wine-skins burst, and the wine is spilt — 
 
 the wine-skins are ruined. 
 They put fresh wine into fresh wine-skins and so both are 
 
 preserved.' 
 
 We know that Jesus prophesied the destruction of 
 the temple and we are on safe ground in holding 
 
 » Mt. 9: 16, 17, Moffat's version. 
 
132 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 that this prophecy carried with it a hostile intent. 
 We have evidence that when the disciples lapsed 
 into the Apocalyptic belief they regarded this proph- 
 ecy as the prediction of a catastrophe. Accord- 
 ing to Mark Jesus was charged at His trial with 
 having made the statement ' ' I will destroy this 
 temple that is made with hands and within three 
 days I will build another not made with hands." ' 
 In Matthew's version the statement is softened to 
 read : "I am able to destroy this temple of God 
 and build it again in three days."^ Both these 
 Evangelists declare that this was a false charge, or 
 at least that it was made by false witnesses. Yet 
 from other sources we can get a pretty clear con- 
 firmation of the view that this was precisely what 
 Jesus did say. He may have said it only to the 
 Twelve, and perhaps this was the "secret" which 
 Judas betrayed. The Johannine account, though 
 later, and bearing marks of editorial interpretation, 
 nevertheless is confirmatory of the testimony of the 
 witnesses. Instead of the words "I will destroy 
 this temple made with hands," the Fourth Evangel- 
 ist gives, as an authentic utterance of Jesus, ac- 
 companying the cleansing of the temple, the words 
 — "Destroy this sanctuary and I will raise it up in 
 three days."^ His actual words on this occasion 
 are interpreted as showing "zeal for the temple" 
 instead of hostility toward it. The words are alle- 
 
 1 Mk. 14: 58. 
 = Mt. 26:61. 
 » John 2 : 19. 
 
The Historic Jesus— The Prophet Messiah 133 
 
 gorized by the Evangelist, by being made to refer to 
 the temple of His Body, its destruction at the cruci- 
 fixion, and its subsequent resurrection, but he is 
 constrained to admit that the Apostles did not 
 realize that this was the meaning of Jesus' state- 
 ment till after the resurrection. According to the 
 Fourth Evangelist Jesus gave this answer to those 
 who asked Him to state by what right and authority 
 He cleansed the temple. In Mark's Gospel when 
 this question was put to Him we are told He re- 
 fused to give any answer till His questioners had 
 answered Him the question by what authority John 
 the Baptist was acting.^ His questioners refused 
 to answer, whereupon Jesus refused to answer 
 them, thereby implying that both He and John 
 were acting under the same prophetic Heaven-born 
 authority. 
 
 Holtzmann,^ was the first critic in modern times 
 to recognize the fact that Jesus' claim to prophetic 
 authority to destroy the temple, and to erect an- 
 other religious movement on its ruins, was equiva- 
 lent to a claim to the Messiahship. 
 
 Jesus in attacking the money-changers and the 
 dealers in sacrificial animals was striking at a 
 priestly monopoly which was an instrument of 
 graft and oppression. The words with which He 
 accompanied the act are illuminating. He quoted 
 from the universalistic Great Unknown the ideal 
 ' ' My house shall be the house of prayer for all na- 
 
 1 Mk. 11:27. 
 
 2 Leben Jesu, p. 327. 
 
134 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 tions"; from Jeremiah He quotes the actual — "but 
 ye have made it a den of thieves." i Mark gives the 
 earlier quotation in full; the later Synoptists omit 
 the words "for all the peoples." From the evidence 
 we may infer that Jesus considered it a part of His 
 religious campaign to overthrow the temple worship 
 and its supporters. He said in effect: "I will de- 
 stroy this temple made with hands, the perverter 
 of true religion, the exploiter of men, the source of 
 false conceptions of God, and, in a brief space, I 
 will establish a new temple in its place, not a physi- 
 cal temple built with hands, but a spiritual society 
 of penitent souls united to God, seeking first His 
 Kingdom and bringing it in through hearing my 
 words and doing them." It is perfectly plain that 
 the representatives of the hierarchy understood 
 perfectly what they were doing when they sought 
 and accomplished the death of Jesus, their great 
 prophetic antagonist. 
 
 H 
 
 Having a clear idea of what Jesus aimed at, we 
 have now to consider the program which He pro- 
 posed as the method for attaining the end. 
 
 Let us first of all ask what position Jesus assigned 
 to Himself in the movement which He was inaugu- 
 rating. He had no doubt that He was its Divinely 
 appointed Leader. Jesus was a prophet but at the 
 same time He was more than a prophet. What the 
 
 ' Isa. 56:7; Jer. 7: 11. See also Mark 11:7; Mt. 21: 13; Lk. 
 19:46. 
 
The Historic Jesus — The Prophet Messiah 135 
 
 earlier prophets had foreseen and striven for was to 
 be accomplished through His agency and Leader- 
 ship. He said to His followers, "Blessed are your 
 eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear; for 
 verily I say unto you that many prophets (and 
 kings) desired to see the things which ye see and 
 have not seen them, and to hear the things which 
 ye hear, and have not heard them." ^ Like the 
 prophets He did not lay the crucial emphasis on 
 His Person but on His Message which was God's 
 truth. He did not make Himself the center of a 
 cult to be an object of worship, but He did put 
 Himself in a position of Leadership and appealed 
 for obedience on the part of all sincere seekers after 
 the Kingdom. To enter the Kingdom it was not 
 enough to call Him "Lord," or to preach in His 
 Name. Only he who heard His words and obeyed 
 them was like the man who founded his house on a 
 rock while he who built on any other doctrine (such 
 as that of the scribes and Pharisees) built on shift- 
 ing sands. Jesus is conscious of such a solidarity 
 existing between Himself and the realm of His 
 Father that He holds (according to Q) that every 
 one that confesses Him before men He will confess 
 before God and the angels. In Mark's version we 
 have probably an earlier and more accurate render- 
 ing of the same saying: "For whosoever shall be 
 ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous 
 and sinful generation, I shall be ashamed of him," 
 'This is a Q passage, Section 26. Cf. Mt. 13: 16, 17; Lk. 10: 
 23. 24- 
 
136 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 or, "the Son of Man shall be ashamed of him in the 
 coming Kingdom." 
 
 Jesus disclaims any title to exceptional goodness 
 when He says on being addressed as "Good Master" 
 — "Why callest thou Me good?"i In this revela- 
 tion of His self-consciousness we see that in con- 
 trast to the self-consciousness of goodness that 
 marked the Pharisees, Jesus felt that He (no matter 
 how complete His devotion of Himself to the 
 Father) was no better than the normal man should 
 be. God is good in a sense in which no other, in- 
 cluding Jesus Himself, is good. Jesus gives Him- 
 self a central position through the authority which 
 He claimed to offer consolation to the needy and 
 afflicted, as where He makes His own the words of 
 the Deutero- Isaiah: 
 
 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me ; 
 
 for he has consecrated me to preach the 
 
 Gospel to the poor. 
 He has sent me to proclaim release for the 
 
 captives 
 and recovery of sight for the blind, 
 to set free the oppressed, 
 to proclaim the Lord's year of favor .^ 
 
 Another passage in which Jesus presents Himself 
 in the r61e of Revealer of God and consoler of men 
 through His Leadership is found in the so-called 
 Johannine passage in the Synoptics.^ 
 
 iMt. 19: 17. 
 
 'Lk. 4: 18, Mofifat's version. 
 
 «Mt. 11:25-30; Lk. 10:21-22. 
 
The Historic Jesus — The Prophet Messiah 137 
 
 Prof. Bacon in an article in the Harvard Theo- 
 logical Review, October, 19 16, adopts the opinion 
 of E. Norden (in his "Agnostos Theos") that this 
 passage is a quotation of a fragment of Lyric Wis- 
 dom. In Luke 1 1 : 49, Jesus quotes a passage which 
 He attributes to the "Wisdom of God." The same 
 passage is given by Matthew as an original saying 
 of Jesus. The former passage is arranged by Bacon 
 to bring out its lyric form as follows: 
 
 I 
 
 I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. 
 Because thou didst hide these things from the wise and 
 
 understanding 
 And didst reveal them unto babes. 
 Yea, Father, for such was the good pleasure in thy sight. 
 
 II 
 
 All things were revealed to me by my Father; 
 But none hath known the Son save the Father; 
 Neither hath any known the Father save the Son 
 And he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal Him. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden ; 
 
 Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. 
 
 And ye shall find rest for your souls, 
 
 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. 
 
 This passage has been held to teach, in the middle 
 strophe, that Jesus claimed an exclusive knowledge 
 of the Father, in spite of the fact that in the first 
 strophe Jesus represents these things as having 
 been revealed "unto babes." But the 'essential 
 
138 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 thing for us is that, whether this be an original 
 lyric of Jesus, or one which He by quoting has made 
 His own, He nevertheless has, as mystic God-knower 
 and prophet, the office of God-revealer and consoler 
 through His Example and Leadership. 
 
 Jesus' mission was militant. In a Q passage He 
 asks "Think ye that I am come to send peace on 
 the earth?" and answers, "I am not come to send 
 peace but a sword." His militancy, however, was 
 purely moral and in no sense contemplated the use 
 of force. What He expected of His loyal followers 
 comes out in His Commission to the Twelve, in 
 Matthew 10:5 and following. They are to pro- 
 claim the near approach of the Kingdom. They 
 are to exercise the ministry of healing, but they are 
 not to engage in exploitation of any kind. They 
 are not to carry money, extra clothing, or provi- 
 sions, nor to accept any of these things beyond their 
 immediate needs. They are not to accept money 
 at all. They are to subsist upon such hospitality 
 as may be offered them freely. They are going 
 forth to encounter danger as a direct result of their 
 doctrine. They are to go out as sheep among 
 wolves. They are warned that prophetic persecu- 
 tions and sufferings await them. The claims of the 
 Kingdom are to be put before the claims of the 
 family and of life itself. He who goes forth as a 
 follower of Jesus takes his life in his hands. He 
 who carries the cross — the burden of the message of 
 the Kingdom — carries also the implement on which 
 he may meet his death. No promise of reward is 
 
The Historic Jesus — The Prophet Messiah 139 
 
 contained in connection with this hazardous enter- 
 prise. The fate which is to overtake the Teacher is 
 still more likely to overtake the disciples. The re- 
 ward is spiritual as we learn from the last Beatitude 
 in the Sermon on the Mount in the exhortation, 
 "Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your 
 reward in Heaven, for so persecuted they the 
 prophets which were before you." 
 
 The prophet's reward consists in his opportunity 
 to co-operate with God; and Jesus refuses to hold 
 out to His followers any promise of special prefer- 
 ment in the coming Kingdom. This comes out 
 very clearly in His refusal of the request of Zebe- 
 dee's children to be permitted to sit at His right 
 hand and His left in the coming Kingdom.' In- 
 stead He promises them nothing but the privilege of 
 being baptized with Him in the baptism of blood 
 and of drinking with Him the cup of death. This 
 incident casts doubt upon the authenticity and 
 genuineness of the passage wherein Jesus, in answer 
 to a request of Peter to know what the Apostles 
 were to get out of their devotion to Him, is alleged 
 to have said that they should sit on thrones judging 
 the twelve tribes of Israel. According to Q — Jesus 
 once said — "They who follow me shall sit on 
 thrones." Perhaps the Evangelist finding this iso- 
 lated statement invented the setting as a frame- 
 work for the saying. As for the saying itself it 
 may easily have been derived from the book of 
 Enoch — traces of the influence of which we have 
 » Mt. 20: 20. 
 
140 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 already noted as frequent in the Gospels. In Enoch, 
 chapter 108, verse 12, we read, 
 
 And I will bring forth in shining light those who have 
 loved my holy name and I will seat each on the 
 throne of his honor. 
 
 Another similar Enoch passage is found in chapter 
 51, verse 3: 
 
 And the elect ones shall in those days sit on my throne. 
 
 But the program of Jesus comprehended a moral 
 Leadership of conduct, as well as of words. This 
 program of conduct namely, the prophetic law of 
 service, was not merely valid as a "war measure" 
 but it was intended both to inaugurate the King- 
 dom and to remain its underlying principle of com- 
 munity life after it should be established. This 
 new principle of action was to supersede "the lord- 
 ship of the Gentiles" as well as every other form of 
 exploitation which the prophets and Jesus had de- 
 nounced. This brings us back to the consideration 
 of the ethic of Jesus which we shall show not to 
 have been an interim-ethic but an absolute, which 
 was not regarded as a thing of mere speculative in- 
 terest, but as an actual program to govern the daily 
 conduct of ordinary men and women. To be sure 
 its demands sound highly impracticable in the pres- 
 ent order but that simply serves to accentuate the 
 fact that the ethic of Jesus postulates the new social 
 order founded upon the divine principle of loving 
 co-operation and service. 
 
The Historic Jesus — The Prophet Messiah 141 
 
 Many have supposed that Jesus expected all 
 people to live without toil, directly clothed and fed 
 by the Father's bounty when the Kingdom of God 
 should come. This has been inferred from the un- 
 derlying assumption that He conceived that future 
 coming of the Heavenly community in accordance 
 with the Apocalyptic ideas. Because He pointed 
 out that the lilies of the field are clothed without 
 spinning and the wild birds are fed without sowing, 
 reaping or gathering into storehouses, and because 
 He urged men not to anxiously accumulate a pro- 
 vision against the days to come, it is inferred that 
 He believed men could live without work. His 
 own life and the lives of the Apostles during the 
 period of His ministry are taken to indicate that He 
 Himself lived without toil. 
 
 It is true that Jesus nowhere categorically advo- 
 cates the necessity of daily labor. But does He 
 not everywhere clearly assume its necessity? From 
 boyhood He worked at the trade of His father and 
 was known to His fellow townsmen as "Jesus, the 
 Carpenter." At times we have glimpses of Him 
 assisting His fishermen disciples at their work, for 
 this doubtless is the historic basis underlying the 
 stories of the miraculous catch of fishes. His ap- 
 proval of toil comes out constantly in His parables. 
 The laborers in the vineyard, the sowers and the 
 reapers, the shepherd in the hills, the fishermen at 
 their nets, the woman mixing leaven with her meal, 
 the man building his house on a rock, the merchant 
 on his journey, the steward administering an estate, 
 
142 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 the servants increasing the talents entrusted them 
 by trading — all of these and others Jesus uses not 
 only with implied approval but as actual illustra- 
 tions of essential aspects of the Kingdom of God. 
 Moreover, the law of service itself is unthinkable 
 except as it is connected with work for others. All 
 of this shows plainly that Jesus' thought of the 
 community was not that of the Apocalypse with its 
 visions of miraculous abundance, but was that of a 
 society of men performing their daily tasks, deliv- 
 ered from all anxiety and worry about the future. 
 The more I read the scattered precepts which 
 belong to the body of the ethical teaching of Jesus — 
 the more am I convinced that the absolute quality 
 of that ethic is summed up in the single phrase 
 "Be like God." Not only does His ethic consist in 
 the synthesis of the "first and second command- 
 ments of the law," love to God and love to man 
 (the latter put on complete parity with the former 
 and made to include love for enemies) , but, because 
 men are really sons of God, this attitude is held to 
 be perfectly normal. The gist of the whole matter 
 is found in the Sermon on the Mount in Mat- 
 thew's Gospel, the 5th chapter, 43-48: "You have 
 heard the saying, 'You must love your neighbor 
 and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your 
 enemies and pray for those that persecute you, that 
 you may be sons of your Father in Heaven : 
 
 He makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, 
 and sends rain on the just and the unjust. 
 
The Historic Jesus — The Prophet Messiah 143 
 
 For if you love only those who love you, what 
 reward do you get for that? 
 do not the very taxgatherers do as much? 
 and if you only salute your friends, what is 
 special about that? 
 do not the very pagans do as much? 
 You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is per- 
 fect.' 
 
 The ethic of Jesus is conceived as the spontane- 
 ous product of a life lived in love to God and in 
 service to the universal community of mankind. 
 It is an ethic of true inwardness bearing the out- 
 ward fruits of a life conscious of its solidarity with 
 God and the company of God's human children. 
 There is no externally imposed law. The law of 
 God "written in the heart," as the prophet named 
 it, will not only secure the fulfillment of the com- 
 mandments of the law, but a man's conduct will be 
 the spontaneous expression of his character and not 
 a mere outward conformity to an external law from 
 fear of punishment or hope of reward. If a man is 
 inwardly in personal relation with God, his con- 
 duct will surpass what is required in the law. In 
 Q we have a saying which seems to support a Rab- 
 binical and legalistic regard for the letter of the 
 law. "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass 
 away than for an iota of the law to lapse." ^ Taken 
 in contrast to Jesus' customary disregard of the 
 ceremonial law this seems a paradox. The paradox 
 
 ' Moffat's version. 
 "Lk. 16:17. 
 
144 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 disappears, however, if we keep in mind the dis- 
 tinction which Jesus made between "the least" 
 and the "great" commandments of the law. Ac- 
 cording to Jesus "the least commandment" is of 
 greater importance because it has to do not only 
 with external conduct but with the sources of that 
 conduct in the inner life. The least commandment 
 is what the prophet meant by the law written in the 
 heart. "Thou shalt not kill" is a great command- 
 ment of the ancient law. "Thou shalt not hate or 
 be angry" is the corresponding least commandment, 
 — of little consequence in the eyes of the unthink- 
 ing man, but of greater consequence in the eyes of 
 God, — determining the inner temper. "Thou shalt 
 not commit adultery" is another great command- 
 ment. The least commandment is "Thou shalt be 
 pure in heart." "Thou shalt not steal" is included 
 and surpassed in the commandment "Thou shalt 
 not worship mammon." The "great command- 
 ment" determines what a man does — the "least 
 commandment" concerns both what a man is as 
 well as what he does, and it is easier for heaven and 
 earth to pass away than for one of these "least 
 commandments" to drop out of the moral law. 
 
 What the eschatologists have held to be an "in- 
 terim-ethic" is in reality an absolute and eternal 
 ethic whose binding force is present and immediate; 
 whereas our own ethic which holds the ethic of 
 Jesus to be impracticable is really the interim ethic. 
 We say of that ethic, as Kirsopp Lake seems to say, 
 "We cannot live up to this under existing social 
 
The Historic Jesus — The Prophet Messiah 145 
 
 conditions and the present quality of human nature." 
 Jesus says, in effect, "The present social order and 
 present human nature are not true to God, they 
 must therefore be changed." We say, "As the 
 Kingdom of God has not yet come we must defend 
 ourselves, accumulate property, and defend it." 
 But in so doing we put our own temporal interests 
 and temporary comfort before the Cause of the 
 Kingdom. Like the Apocalyptic writers we are 
 waiting for the miracle of the Kingdom to happen. 
 Jesus bade us seek the Kingdom, — not to wait for 
 it but to initiate it by living as its true citizens are 
 to live. He realized all that this demanded in the 
 way of personal loss and injury. For the interim 
 they would be as sheep among wolves — they would 
 suffer the fate of martyrs and prophets, but in the 
 end which He believed to be not far distant the 
 meek would inherit the earth. 
 
 Our "modern" point of view is that of Nietzsche 
 who thought the Sermon on the Mount "a doctrine 
 for weaklings." In reality it is the doctrine of the 
 world's moral heroes, — the prophets, and those who 
 follow their lead. These are the true "supermen" 
 who are willing to find their lives by losing them for 
 the sake of the Kingdom. Their greatness is meas- 
 ured by the capacity for sacrifice. The strong man 
 is the man who is strong to suffer. The superhu- 
 man strength and divine greatness of Jesus is mani- 
 fested upon the cross whereon He prayed for His 
 enemies, and it is by the power of this Cross that 
 He is to redeem and renovate the world. 
 
146 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 III 
 
 In spite of the absolute emphasis which the older 
 theology has put upon the death of Jesus as the 
 crowning element in His Hfe of redeeming love, it 
 has not yet done justice to its profound significance. 
 This has been because it has largely regarded His 
 death as a drama staged by God for the benefit of 
 mankind. It has regarded that death as arising 
 from a predetermined necessity. It has "mecha- 
 nized " it. It has found in it an analogy to the death 
 of sacrificial victims required by the priestly theol- 
 ogy. Finally, it has regarded it as " substitutionary " 
 in the sense that the martyrdom of the Son of God 
 has been held as forever excusing the martyrdom of 
 the sons of God. 
 
 By connecting the death of Jesus with His pro- 
 phetic teaching and prophetic career and by rec- 
 ognizing that it represents a universal prophetic 
 principle and not the priestly substitution of an 
 innocent victim for a guilty sinner; and by recog- 
 nizing the still profounder fact that that death was 
 not a mere legalistic compounding of sin but an 
 aggressive incident in the warfare for the eradication 
 of all sinning — we shall be able to understand the 
 significance which the death of Jesus had in His 
 own Mind as the crowing act in His career as In- 
 augurator of the Reign of God. 
 
 Jesus did not die simply because He claimed to 
 be the Messiah. It was not an offense against the 
 Jewish law to make such a claim. He died be- 
 
The Historic Jesus — The Prophet Messiah 147 
 
 cause He was the Messiah of the prophetic type. 
 In the long conflict between the Hebrew prophets 
 and the exploiting priesthood (which was a prop 
 and mainstay of the existing evil world-order of 
 exploitation) the priesthood, by every possible de- 
 vice, had sought to silence the prophets by threats 
 of punishment and, if these did not avail, by death. 
 The situation in the days of Jesus is thus set forth 
 by Prof. Charles: 
 
 "The rabbinic scholars taught that the prophets 
 and Haggiographa would cease to be — for there is 
 nothing in them that is not in the law. The law is 
 to endure forever, and 'any prophet who attempted 
 to annul one of its laws would be punished by death' 
 (Toseph 14: 12)." "From the time of Nehemiah 
 onward prophecy could get no hearing." ^ 
 
 Because of His forcible entrance into the temple 
 precincts and His denunciation of the corrupt traffic 
 in sacrificial animals and His prophetic determina- 
 tion to overthrow the whole priestly corrupt and 
 exploiting institution. He came under the direct 
 condemnation of the rabbinic law and incurred the 
 death penalty. To be sure, as we have seen, this 
 act was a practical assertion of His Messianic claim 
 in a prophetic sense. But this was no offense in 
 the eyes of the Roman law. To secure His con- 
 demnation at the hands of the Roman procurator 
 and the infliction of the death penalty. He was ac- 
 cused of claiming to be the Messiah, in the political 
 
 'Charles, in the Introduction to the Second Volume of the 
 "Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha," p. vii. / 
 
148 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 sense as "pretender" to the throne of David. This 
 claim was not an offense against the rabbinic law, 
 but it was an act of rebellion against the Roman 
 Empire. Pilate doubtless understood the fraudu- 
 lent nature of the charges made by the priestly 
 conspirators and sought to have Jesus released. 
 But he yielded, — as an easy way of quelling the 
 spirit of mob violence instigated by the priesthood. 
 And so on the Cross the Prophet-Messiah became 
 the Prophet-Martyr, the world's "Saving Victim," 
 and the Cross was made the symbol of the warfare 
 of the Kingdom of God. 
 
Followers of Jesus Create a Cult 149 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE FOLLOWERS OF JESUS SUBSTITUTE A MESSIANIC 
 CULT FOR HIS BROTHERHOOD OF THE KINGDOM 
 
 The great tragedy in the history of the prophetic 
 religion has not been that the prophets were slain 
 but that their messages fell upon deaf or unin- 
 telligent ears. The injury to Jesus by the death 
 penalty at the hands of His enemies was less than 
 the injury done to the Cause for which He lived 
 and died by those who called themselves His fol- 
 lowers but who failed to understand His theology 
 or obey His ethics. The crucifixion through mis- 
 understanding is more tragic than the crucifixion on 
 the cross. The prophetic religion of Jesus, the aim 
 of which embraced the elimination of all exploita- 
 tion of mankind, in a few generation fell into the 
 control of the sons and successors of the exploiters 
 against whom He had made war, and, in a few cen- 
 turies, an exploiting ecclesiasticism flourished in 
 His Name and under the cloak of His authorita- 
 tive sanction. It is in more modem times that the 
 inconsistency between the lives of Christians and 
 the Founder's teachings have been felt as a reproach. 
 The substitutionary cult idea of a vicarious atone- 
 ment and saving union with a redeeming God, had 
 come to be regarded as exempting His followers 
 from living up to the standards which He set. " In- 
 consistency" thereby became the normal and ac- 
 
150 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 cepted characteristic of the Churchman, just as it 
 had been that of the adherent of the Jewish sacri- 
 ficial cult. The ideal of holiness became ceremonial, 
 sacramental, or a matter of a purifying "faith" 
 apart from works. To this result the influence of 
 the writings of Paul largely contributed. The an- 
 cient sacrificial principle of the priestly code, which 
 had been the principle attacked by all the prophets 
 and Jesus Himself, was given the sanction of eccle- 
 siastical authority when the sacraments were made 
 the central feature of what had come to be a "sote- 
 riological" cult. 
 
 We have now to consider how this process was 
 virtually accomplished within the life of the genera- 
 tion that produced the New Testament writings in 
 their present form. Four movements will receive 
 our attention: (i) The reversion of the Jerusalem 
 Church to Apocalyptism and the loss of the pro- 
 phetic ethic. (2) The Hellenistic "deacons," as 
 the perpetuators of Jesus' prophetic doctrine. (3) 
 Paulinism and its incomplete synthesis of oppos- 
 ing religious elements. (4) Ephesian Christianity 
 which transformed the prophetic religion into a 
 "Mystery Cult." 
 
 I 
 
 The process of the surrender of the distinctive 
 prophetic character of the religion of Jesus began 
 when His earliest interpreters substituted their 
 own teachings about Jesus, for Jesus' teachings 
 about God and the Reign of God. In place of His 
 
Followers of Jesus Create a Cult 151 
 
 program they put one which He had condemned, 
 namely, the Apocalyptic process of passive expect- 
 ancy for a miracle to happen — (in His own expected 
 appearance bringing the Kingdom of God to earth 
 from the heavens). The process of bringing the 
 free prophetic religion of Jesus under subjection 
 to the Apocalyptic eschatology was chiefly the work 
 of Simon Peter, the leader of the Twelve. The re- 
 ligion which Peter founded after the death of Jesus 
 was a special Apocalyptic-Messianic cult which 
 sought to live at peace within the Jewish national 
 cult, against which Jesus had begun a campaign 
 of eradication. 
 
 In the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, Simon 
 Peter appears as the leader of the followers of Jesus 
 in connection with the appointment of Matthias. 
 "That a man who but a few weeks before had re- 
 peatedly and flagrantly denied his Master, should 
 so soon recover the confidence of his associates, 
 and even appear as their leader and spokesman, is, 
 to say the least, surprising, and might well be 
 doubted, were it not confirmed by the undisputed 
 preeminence accorded to him on many other occa- 
 sions throughout these early days." ' The explana- 
 tion of Peter's recovery probably lies in the fact 
 that Peter (according to Paul, and the best critical 
 opinion of to-day follows him) was the first to re- 
 ceive the message of the risen Lord. This fact 
 (confirmed by the subsequent experience of others) 
 seems to have given him his position of leadership 
 1 McGiffert, "Apostolic Age," p. 47. 
 
152 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 so that he became, in truth, the founder of the 
 Church. 1 But the Church which was thus founded 
 was not built upon the prophetic Messiahship of 
 Jesus and His prophetic, aggressive program, but 
 it was based upon the Messiahship of Jesus as a 
 supernatural Figure of one Who had died and risen 
 again and had been thereby "made Lord and Mes- 
 siah" and given a seat on the throne of God which 
 He was to occupy till He should return bringing 
 the Kingdom with Him. In order to secure a fav- 
 orable place in the coming of the Kingdom the 
 Jews had only to repent (particularly of the sin 
 of having crucified the Messiah) and be baptized 
 in the Name of Jesus. With the reversion to the 
 Apocalyptic eschatology the Apostles abandoned 
 the prophetic ethic of Jesus and reverted to the 
 ethic of the Jewish legalism and ceremonialism. 
 This fact may be readily discerned from the fol- 
 lowing description of McGiffert: 
 
 Christianity, as they (the Apostles) understood it, 
 was Judaism and nothing more. It was not a substi- 
 stute for Judaism, nor even an addition or supplement 
 to Judaism; it was not, indeed, in any way distinct from 
 the national faith. It was simply the belief on the part 
 of good and faithful Jews that Jesus was the Messiah, 
 and it involved no disloyalty to Judaism, and no aban- 
 donment of existing principles. For a Jew to believe 
 in the Messiah whom they preached, was not necessarily 
 to revise his conception of the nature of the Messianic 
 
 ' Cf. Bacon's Monograph "Peter, the Founder of the Church," 
 where this idea is fully developed. 
 
Followers of Jesus Create a Cult 153 
 
 Kingdom and of the blessings to be enjoyed within it, 
 
 nor, indeed, of the conditions of sharing those blessings. 
 
 Peter says only, "Repent and be baptized in the Name 
 
 of Jesus Christ" (Acts II: 38). Both here and in III: 19 
 
 where he again exhorts his hearers to repent, the sin 
 
 that is apparently in his mind is their crucifixion of Jesus. 
 1 
 
 He did not put repentance in the place of righteous- 
 ness, nor did he suggest any revision of the prevailing 
 theory of righteousness, making it consist in something 
 else than the observance of the Jewish law.^ 
 
 Baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ was, of course, 
 a new thing to the Jews whom he addressed ; but baptism 
 as such was entirely in line with the common Jewish rites 
 of purification, and as a symbolical representation of 
 cleansing from sins of which they repented, it must seem 
 the most natural thing in the world to them. . . .' 
 
 A fuller reading of McGiflfert only shows how 
 complete was the reversion of the Apostles to Juda- 
 ism and their abandonment of their Master's war- 
 fare against the Jewish cult. Peter (who had denied 
 allegiance to the Person of the Jesus Who was under 
 condemnation for His blasphemy against Judaism 
 and Pharisaism) — later renounced the Master's 
 Gospel, while proclaiming in His name a new Gospel 
 of the Person of Jesus as the one who was to come 
 as the futuristic Inaugurator of the kingdom of the 
 Jews. The prophetic Universalism and moral war- 
 ifare for God was completely abandoned, so that 
 
 1 Op. cit. p. 58. 
 
 2 Op. cit. p. 59. 
 'Ibid. 
 
154 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 both in precept and practice the Apostles went over 
 to the adversaries of their Master — virtually cru- 
 cifying His doctrine as the leaders of the Jewish 
 cult had secured His physical crucifixion. They are 
 left in security by the Sanhedrin and Pharisees 
 join themselves to the followers of their late Ad- 
 versary and Victim/ and have a voice in the affairs 
 of His Church. 
 
 Thus the new Church unconsciously abandoned 
 the Cause for which Jesus gave His life, and the 
 Apostles lost the prophetic succession. In place of 
 it arose by degrees the doctrine of the Apostolic 
 Succession whereby the errors of Judaism were 
 fastened upon the Church of Him Who sought to 
 be their destroyer. 
 
 It is not difficult to understand how this surpris- 
 ing change came about without the slightest con- 
 sciousness of disloyalty. In the lifetime of their 
 Leader the Twelve were constantly showing that 
 their pre-conceived ideas about the Kingdom were 
 at variance with His. The Teacher was at great 
 pains to show them wherein these inherited notions 
 were wrong. They were so strongly under His 
 personal influence that they dared violate provi- 
 sions of the ceremonial law with His approval. 
 But even to the time of His crucifixion they seemed 
 to hold to the politico-eudemonistic conception of 
 the Kingdom. This is borne out by their demoral- 
 ization at the time of the crucifixion when the blow 
 »Acts 15:5. 
 
Followers oj Jesus Create a Cult 155 
 
 fell upon them. After that they were under the 
 necessity of a reconstruction of their outlook. It 
 was only natural that this reconstruction should 
 embody a reversion to the main tenets of Judaism. 
 Judaism was a racial cult — or a cult within a cult. 
 The plan of salvation for the scribes and their dis- 
 ciples was adherence to the law — to secure personal 
 survival and happiness — and also to hasten the day 
 of the Kingdom. In Judaism the Personal Mes- 
 siah had receded into the background. The Twelve 
 now gave to the Personal Messiah the central posi- 
 tion. It is He — the Risen crucified Servant of God 
 — Who was to bring in the Kingdom when men 
 should be prepared to receive Him. It was per- 
 sonal adherence to Him — plus the righteousness 
 of the law, — that was to secure to those who ad- 
 hered to Him — through baptism in His Name — a 
 position of security and advantage in His Kingdom, 
 so soon as it should come. 
 
 How completely the immediate followers of Jesus 
 in the early days of the Jerusalem Church had 
 failed to grasp the prophetic universalism of Jesus 
 is unconsciously revealed by Luke in the book of 
 Acts. This is illustrated in the story of the Roman 
 centurion Cornelius who was a "proselyte of the 
 gate."' According to this account it required two 
 visions and several seemingly miraculous coinci- 
 dences to convince Peter of the call of the Gentiles, 
 so that he could say "I see quite plainly that God 
 has no favorites, but that He who reverences Him 
 1 Acts 10, 
 
156 Religion: lis Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 and lives a good life in any nation is welcomed by 
 him" (verse 35). It required no less than the evi- 
 dent descent of the Holy Spirit upon Cornelius and 
 his Gentile associates to convince him that they 
 should be baptized in the Name of Jesus (verse 48). 
 News of this baptism of Gentiles reached Jerusalem 
 before Peter's return so that when he came he was 
 met by a rebuke. The author then goes on to tell 
 that when Peter recited all the circumstances the 
 Judaizers (or party of the circumcision) were con- 
 vinced and even rejoiced, though their comment 
 has a sound of amazed incredulity. "So God has 
 actually allowed the Gentiles to repent and live."' 
 
 II 
 
 But we may trace another channel through which 
 the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles, reaching 
 back to Jesus Himself. According to this, there 
 were in the early Church at Jerusalem men of a more 
 liberal and progressive type of religion than the 
 Twelve, who seemed to have held the prophetic 
 interpretation of religion. I refer to the Hellenists. 
 These Greek-speaking Jewish Christians are men- 
 tioned in the 6th Chapter of Acts as among the 
 increasing number of disciples. They appear to 
 protest against the neglect of the widows in the 
 distribution of food from the common store. It is 
 an interesting conjecture that they may have been 
 among those who listened to the preaching of Jesus 
 Himself. This may be the explanation of the al- 
 ' Chapter 11: 18, Moffat's version. 
 
Followers oj Jesus Create a Cult 1 57 
 
 lusion to some "Greeks" who had come to worship 
 at the Festival at Jerusalem and who sought through 
 Philip to obtain an interview with Jesus. ^ The 
 author refers to them as "Hellenes," but as they 
 had come to worship at the temple it is far more 
 likely that they were "Hellenists," that is, Gre- 
 cian-born Jews rather than Greek proselytes. The 
 author of the Fourth Gospel does not tell us whether 
 these men ever succeeded in obtaining their request. 
 But he may have been using a documentary source 
 which he mutilated in transcribing. 
 
 The striking thing about these Hellenists is that 
 they were concerned with the immediate needs of 
 the unfortunate. In this they seem to have been 
 in contrast with the Twelve who seemed to feel 
 that the distribution of rations was beneath their 
 dignity. The seven Hellenists who are appointed 
 to that task accept it cheerfully. Thereby they 
 seem to show a clearer appreciation of the mean- 
 ing of the law of service; but in addition to this 
 they also found opportunity to preach the Gospel, 
 and their type of Gospel seems not to have been 
 the Apocalyptic but the prophetic. In the speech 
 attributed to Stephen in the Acts, the long intro- 
 duction is probably a free composition by the author 
 of the book. It is the usual patriotic rehearsal of 
 Jewish history, but at the end there is a change of 
 manner. The prophetic note is introduced. Per- 
 haps the author is dealing with a special document, 
 or his matter may have come from Philip — one of 
 'John 12:20. 
 
158 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 the seven whom Luke met at Caesarea. A pro- 
 phetic fragment occurs in Chapter 7, verse 42 : "Did 
 you offer me victims and sacrifices during the forty 
 years in the desert, O house of Israel?" Another 
 prophetic citation reechoes the prophetic hostiHty 
 against the temple. "And yet the Most High does 
 not dwell in houses made by hands. As the prophet 
 says, 
 
 Heaven in my throne, 
 
 the earth is a footstool for my feet! 
 What house would you build me? 
 
 saith the Lord. 
 On what spot could I settle? 
 Did not my hand make all this?"' 
 
 He next addresses his hearers in terms nearly 
 akin to those employed by Jesus in His denuncia- 
 tion of the Pharisees. They and their fathers have 
 always resisted the Spirit, persecuting the Spirit's 
 messengers, the prophets. As the fathers have 
 slain the prophets so the children of their slayers 
 have murdered the Just One. 
 
 In the story of Philip, another of the "Seven," 
 it may not be without significance that he is repre- 
 sented in his discourse with the Ethiopian eunuch 
 as having interpreted the "Suffering Servant" of 
 Isaiah as applied to the Messiahship of Jesus. This, 
 as we have seen, was the sense in which Jesus under- 
 stood His own Messiahship, and contrasts with the 
 Apocalyptic Messiah of the Petrine discourses in 
 
 ' Acts 7: 49; Moffat's version. 
 
Followers of Jesus Create a Cult 159 
 
 Acts. That there was a radical difference between 
 the Gospel of the Twelve and the Gospel of the Hel- 
 lenists, and that the former was reactionary and 
 the latter true to the prophetic message of Jesus, 
 is borne out by the fact recorded by Luke that a 
 severe persecution broke out in Jerusalem against 
 the adherents of Stephen (who was himself the first 
 martyr), and resulted in their being scattered abroad 
 whereas the Apostles were left unmolested by the 
 authorities. 
 
 It was this Hellenistic or liberal Christianity 
 which Philip preached among the Samaritans. 
 Others carried their Gospel as far as Phcsnicia and 
 Cyprus and Antioch, as we are told in the nth 
 Chapter of Acts. At Antioch some of them desig- 
 nated as "Cypriotes" and "Cyrenians" began to 
 preach the Gospel to the Greeks also.* It was at 
 Antioch that the adherents of this movement were 
 called "Christians." Hitherto they had been re- 
 garded as "Nazarenes" or a sect of Jews. It was 
 to the Christian Church in Antioch that Paul (Saul) 
 was brought by Barnabas and remained as a guest 
 for a year. Here he was in the midst of liberalized 
 Hellenistic Christians, and perhaps their influence 
 upon his Gospel, in the trend toward universalism, 
 was far greater than he himself, or the students of 
 Paulinism, have realized. In the local Church at 
 Antioch the religious leaders or ministers were 
 known as "prophets and teachers." This may be 
 also significant of their appreciation of the pro- 
 1 See Moffat's version, footnote, p. 161. 
 
l6o Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 phetic type of religion. It was from them that Paul 
 and Barnabas received their commission to go forth, 
 preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom to Jew and 
 Gentile alike. They thus became Apostles, liter- 
 ally, "men who are sent forth." Their commission 
 was accompanied by prayer and the laying on of 
 hands. This latter practice seems to have accom- 
 panied special acts of intercession as in the other 
 practice of the laying on of hands upon the sick.i 
 It appears to have been so incidental an occurrence 
 in the mind of Paul that he nowhere refers to it in 
 his extant writings. It was an old Jewish custom 
 for the purpose of localizing prayer upon those for 
 whom it was offered. 
 
 It has sometimes been said by admirers of Paul 
 that had it not been for his universalism the move- 
 ment inaugurated by Jesus would have remained 
 a sect of Judaism with possibly a very brief history. 
 An appreciation of the movement of Hellenistic 
 Christianity as exhibited at Antioch will show that 
 this claim on behalf of Paul is exaggerated. 
 
 Ill 
 
 In contrast with the "Judaizing Christians" — 
 which included James the brother of the Lord and 
 the Twelve, Paul's Gospel is progressive and ex- 
 pansive. It contained elements antagonistic to the 
 Jewish narrow particularism. Its influence has 
 been enduring and has been on the side of the great 
 reformatory movements in the Christian Church, 
 
 iMk. i6:i8. 
 
Followers of Jesus Create a Cult i6i 
 
 but all such movements, including the so-called Re- 
 formation itself, have stopped short of the prophetic 
 Christian reform. At the present time the prophetic 
 movement among Christian thinkers feels the need 
 of going behind Paulinism to the doctrine of Jesus 
 Himself. Compared with the Gospel of Jesus, as 
 recovered by modern historical and critical methods, 
 the Gospel of Paul is inadequate. It is impossible 
 to regard him as the leader of the present forward 
 movement of social Christianity. 
 
 The religious movement of the Judaizing Chris- 
 tians was that of a narrow cult, restricted to men of 
 Jewish birth or proselytes, who in addition to the 
 practice of Judaism accepted Jesus as the Messiah 
 Who was to come. In contrast to this Paul's ad- 
 mission of the Gentiles to membership in the cult, 
 his break with and rejection of legalism, and his 
 claim to a call to service directly from God and 
 independently of human mediators (the Apostles), 
 makes him, by comparison, a man of "prophetic 
 tendencies." But in contrast to the theology and 
 ethical universalism of Jesus, he remains a conserv- 
 ative and a reactionary. It is as such that his 
 influence is reckoned to-day among the true leaders 
 of modern Christianity, those whose watchword 
 is "Back to Christ." The chief indictment against 
 him is that, in spite of his acceptance of the Gentiles, 
 his religion remains that of a cult. His early rab- 
 binism with its doctrine of predestination has a 
 stronger determining influence upon his thought 
 than has the prophetic literature of his race and the 
 
162 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 prophetic career of his Master. He frankly lacks 
 an appreciation of the historic Jesus as a Prophet 
 and Teacher, and though emphasizing it less than 
 the Twelve, he still gives his adherence to the Apoc- 
 alyptic scheme of salvation. He abandons the 
 prophetic Messianic conception of a universal, 
 redeemed community co-extensive with mankind 
 and living a normal life here upon the earth. In 
 place of this his eschatology is burdened with " other- 
 worldliness." 
 
 In place of the historic Jesus he gives his alle- 
 giance to the Man from Heaven Whom he seems to 
 identify in his thought with the "Spirit." Sal- 
 vation remains an object of quest for the individual 
 in contrast to the injunction of Jesus to desist from 
 seeking a separate individual salvation and in place 
 of it to devote one's life to establishing the universal 
 community of the saved. Within the cult he pre- 
 sents a beautiful ideal of loving social relationship. 
 The members of the cult are members of each other 
 because they are all members of the Body of Christ. 
 His doctrine of the Church was broad in relation 
 to Judaism and narrow in comparison with the 
 prophetic universalism. In fact we may charac- 
 terize Paul as the New Testament Ezekiel. His 
 immediate success was due to the fact of his syn- 
 thesizing elements derived from different contem- 
 porary movements, but this fact will also militate 
 against the permanence of his movement, especially 
 in the future. 
 
 Certain modern writers, among them especially 
 
Followers of Jesus Create a Cult 1 63 
 
 Percy Gardner (in his "Religious Experience of 
 St. Paul") have pointed out the fact that St. Paul's 
 religion was modeled on the pattern of the contem- 
 porary "Mystery Cults." 
 
 In the Graeco-Roman world including the Near 
 East at the beginning of our era there was a depressed 
 and pessimistic outlook upon the destiny of man- 
 kind taken as whole. Humanity was seen as strug- 
 gling against a threatening and adverse fate. This 
 was the pessimistic ground-thought of the Apoca- 
 lypses. Paul's view that all men rested under the 
 curse inherited from the first ancestor of the race 
 found its echo in the prevalent philosophy. Jesus' 
 doctrine of the value of the individual man and of 
 the Fatherhood of God and His belief in the nearness 
 of the Kingdom was in marked contrast to the mood 
 of mankind in His day. The Church accepted the 
 current assumption that mankind was inevitably 
 lost without some kind of miraculous intervention. 
 The Church itself professed to hold the secret of 
 deliverance. In this it found itself in harmony with 
 the program of the Mystery Cults, many of which 
 were its contemporaries.^ The Mysteries have 
 three notable characteristics: 
 
 First, all have some rites of purification, whether cere- 
 monial or moral, through which the Mystae have to pass. 
 Second, They are all mysteries of communion with some 
 deity, who through them comes into relation with his 
 
 1 Among these Mysteries we may enumerate those of Tammuz, 
 Attis, Isis, Mithras, Sandan, Sabazius, Cybele, Orpheus, and 
 Demeter and Persephone. 
 13 
 
164 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 votaries. Third, all extend their views beyond the pres- 
 ent life to that which is to come, and secure for the ini- 
 tiated a happy reception in the world which lies beyond 
 the grave.' 
 
 In the mysteries of Cybele the initiate enacts a 
 ritualistic drama in which he symbolically shares 
 the fate of Persephone in going to the under world 
 after which he enjoys a symbolic return to life in a 
 figurative resurrection to the life of the upper world. 
 This is somewhat analogous to St. Paul's concep- 
 tion of baptism whereby the immersion in the water 
 symbolizes burial with Christ and the emergence 
 from the water the resurrection into a new life. 
 The same idea is enacted on a larger scale in the sor- 
 rowing and fasting observance of Good Friday and 
 the joyous Feast of Easter. The thought is ex- 
 pressed in the Collect for Easter Even. 
 
 Because the earlier Christians could point to the 
 death and resurrection of Jesus as a recent well- 
 attested historic fact, the thought of union with 
 Him whether by faith or by the sacrament was most 
 adaptable to the soteriological plan of the Mystery 
 Cults, which promised to their adherents the priv- 
 ilege of reenacting in their own lives the experience 
 of the Mystery god. Because it satisfied most ade- 
 quately the felt longings of the men of the Roman 
 Empire the Christian Church as a mystic society 
 soon triumphed over all its rivals. But in thus 
 constituting itself a mystery religion Christianity 
 
 1 Percy Gardner, "The Religious Experience of St. Paul," 
 p. 69. 
 
Followers of Jesus Create a Cult 165 
 
 was departing from the program of its Founder. 
 In contrast to His preaching which laid but little 
 emphasis upon His own Person and laid the most 
 emphatic stress upon His teaching about the King- 
 dom, the Church laid but little emphasis upon His 
 teaching and laid an almost exclusive stress upon 
 His Person and Office as a redeeming God. 
 
 It is clear that Jesus in condemning the cult of 
 the Pharisees and the temple cult condemned the 
 underlying cult principle, and it is certain that He 
 never intended to found a new cult with Himself as 
 the center. In fact. He seems to warn against that 
 as a danger.'^ In spite of this warning all His earlier 
 followers, with the possible exception of a few Hel- 
 lenists, ran into the very danger, and so the pre- 
 diction of Jesus has already been fulfilled, "Many 
 will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not 
 prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out de- 
 mons in your name? Did we not perform many 
 miracles in your name?' " To whom His Spirit 
 declares, " I never knew you; depart from my pres- 
 ence, you workers of iniquity." This testimony 
 is confirmed by the testimony of three careful schol- 
 ars, Professors Harnack, Lake and Hatch.^ 
 
 In spite of his great services the influence of Paul, 
 like that of Ezekiel, remains on the side of those 
 who restrict religion to a community less than the 
 total brotherhood of man. This restriction of the 
 community to a cult is fatal, no matter how beauti- 
 
 1 Mt. 7: 21-23. 
 
 ' "With regard to the way in which He worked and gathered 
 
1 66 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 ful the community life of the cult may be. Paul's 
 conception of the Church leaves nothing to be de- 
 sired in respect of the relation of its members to 
 God and to each other. Josiah Royce in his " Prob- 
 lem of Christianity" has taken the Pauline concep- 
 tion and made it fundamental in his development 
 of the idea of the "Beloved Community." Royce 
 feels that in regard to this teaching Paul made a 
 more important contribution to Christian thought 
 than any that is found in the teachings of Jesus. 
 Royce plainly never had a clear conception of the 
 thought of the Founder of Christianity or he would 
 have seen that in Jesus' preaching of the Reign of 
 God every element that he admires in the Pauline 
 idea of the Church is present and that besides, 
 whereas Paul's "Church" remains restricted to 
 the elect who are to be rescued out of the present 
 world, Jesus regards the Community as universal, 
 as all-inclusive, embracing the life in time as well 
 as in eternity. 
 
 disciples, the distinctiveness of His Person and preaching comes 
 out very clearly. He sought to found no sect or school. He 
 laid down no outward rules for adhesion to Himself. His aim 
 was to bring men to God and to prepare them for God's King- 
 dom." (Harnack, "Mission and Expansion of Christianity," 
 vol. I, p. 37.) 
 
 "Jesus did not say that only those who followed Him would 
 be admitted (to the Kingdom of God) and He did not deny the 
 existence of righteous in Israel who needed no physician. The 
 claim to have exclusive right of entry into the Kingdom of Heaven 
 — the essence of ecclesiasticism in the bad sense of the word — 
 was perhaps made by the scribes, or at least by some of them, 
 but not by Jesus, though Christians have in this respect not 
 
Followers of Jesus Create a Cult 167 
 
 IV 
 
 It is of the nature of the cult that it should be 
 chiefly occupied with the person of the redeeming 
 God and with the question of how saving relations 
 with Him may be won and maintained. The de- 
 velopment of the cult assures an absorption in 
 Christological speculation. The loyal devotees of 
 the cult-God will devote themselves to the exten- 
 sion of His claims to power and exaltation. The 
 next step in the strengthening of the cult idea is 
 found in the Fourth Gospel. 
 
 The Church at Ephesus produced this Gospel 
 which is the Gospel of the cult po^i' excellence. It 
 is at once a mystic Gospel and a mystery religion. 
 The portrait of Jesus, while employing historic 
 materials, is composed on the superhistorical as- 
 sumption that Jesus, the cult-God, existed from 
 eternity, was the Agent of God in creation, the 
 Source of all light and enlightenment, and that 
 
 always followed His example. " (Lake, " Stewardship of Faith," 
 
 P- 33-) 
 
 "He never asked His disciples to trust in Himself rather than 
 in God; nor did He demand of them faith in His Own Person, 
 though He felt He had been divinely appointed to proclaim the 
 coming of the Kingdom of God and to prepare men for it. He 
 fully believed that He was the Messiah but He did not make 
 forgiveness or salvation dependent upon belief in His Messiah- 
 ship. It was enough for Him if He could persuade men to re- 
 pent of their sins, to bring forth the fruits of righteousness, and 
 to live in trust toward their Heavenly Father, looking forward 
 expectantly to the coming of the Kingdom. " (W. H. P. Hatch, 
 "The Pauline Idea of Faith," pp. 24-25, cf. also, p. 22.) 
 
i68 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 He came into the world in order that those who had 
 the insight to accept Him might receive from Him 
 the right of being children of God. This concep- 
 tion is based on the theology which falls short of 
 the universalism of Jesus, and it places an inter- 
 pretation upon His Mission and Person which He 
 Himself would not have recognized. 
 
 In thus turning the stream of Christianity into the 
 channels of a mystery cult, Paul and the author or 
 authors of the Ephesian Gospel were quite uncon- 
 sciously taking the first step in the development 
 which soon transformed the free emancipating 
 universalistic Gospel of God and humanity into an 
 exploiting ecclesiasticism, the most stupendous in 
 the history of the world, the corrupting influence 
 of which survives to the present time. 
 
Cult Becomes an Exploiting Ecclesiasticism 169 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE CULT BECOMES AN EXPLOITING 
 ECCLESIASTICISM 
 
 Hitherto we have been discussing the theological 
 ideas which led the followers of Jesus to regard 
 themselves as a cult. We are now to consider the 
 manner in which the cult became organized exter- 
 nally. The Church in Jerusalem under the leader- 
 ship of the Apostles adopted a form of communism. 
 It was not a communism of productive co-operation 
 but a communism of "consumption." The ad- 
 herents converted their land and capital into ready 
 cash which was used to buyjjrovisions for all the 
 members of the community. The Parousia was 
 believed to be so near that the Lord's appearance 
 was counted on before the common store should 
 have been entirely used. As we have already seen 
 the distribution was at first badly organized so that 
 weaker members of the community suffered. It 
 was to remedy this abuse that the "Seven" were 
 appointed a committee to have the matter in charge. 
 
 The Seven were soon scattered by persecution. 
 As might be expected, the community was soon re- 
 duced to poverty owing to its miscalculations. 
 When Paul visited the Church in Jerusalem in order 
 to win its approval of his mission to the Gentiles, 
 the Apostles, in giving him the right hand of fellow- 
 ship, asked him to confine his ministrations to the 
 
170 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 Gentiles, and added a request that he should "re- 
 member the poor," that is to say, that he should 
 send contributions to the impoverished Church in 
 Jerusalem. This request he diligently observed. 
 At this time the Apostles did not compel Titus, a 
 Greek who accompanied Paul, to submit to cir- 
 cumcision. But the Judaizers did not abide by 
 what Paul considered their agreement to a division 
 of the field. Hence his indignation when he dis- 
 covered that the Jerusalem Church was sending out 
 emissaries who were attempting to make Jewish 
 proselytes of his Gentile converts. The Judaizers 
 evidently did not consider the Pauline Christians as 
 possessing a "regular" standing. How did Paul 
 regard the Judaizers? He rejected their claims to 
 authority to impose their standards upon his ad- 
 herents. But he still regarded them as members of 
 the Christian community, of the "Body of Christ," 
 and therefore he sought to discharge toward them 
 the duties of brotherly assistance and to win their 
 recognition and hold it. These two motives united 
 in imparting diligence to his campaign for raising 
 what must have been a large offering which he took 
 to them in person. His Epistles contain several 
 allusions to this contribution. 
 
 In sending out the Twelve Jesus had restricted 
 them to the acceptance of hospitality, had warned 
 them against accepting money. But now, instead 
 of seeking to be self-supporting, the Apostles be- 
 came dependent upon the contributions of the 
 Church at large, especially upon the generosity of 
 
Cult Becomes an Exploiting Ecclesiasticism 171 
 
 the Gentile Churches. In writing to the Corin- 
 thians Paul suggests that they adopt the arrange- 
 ment which he has already made for the Churches 
 at Galatia. They are to take a weekly offering 
 from every one of the members of the community. 
 When the sum has become sufficiently large a com- 
 mittee with proper credentials is to take the sum to 
 Jerusalem, and he suggests that if it is large enough 
 he himself will accompany them.^ In his letter to 
 the Romans he tells them that he is about to leave 
 for Jerusalem on an errand to the "saints," which 
 is to carry the contribution from the Churches in 
 Macedonia and Achaia. He represents these of- 
 ferings as a debt which the Gentiles owe to the 
 Jewish Church because of the spiritual benefit 
 which that Church has mediated to them. It 
 would now seem as though the Jerusalem Church 
 were perilously near exploiting the Gospel, although 
 the contributions were not levied but were wholly 
 voluntary. At any rate, we have the beginnings of 
 a clerical caste subsisting on the offerings of the 
 laity who work for their living. 
 
 I 
 
 In the Gentile Churches the ministers of the con- 
 gregation were at first self-supporting. Paul ac- 
 cepted the hospitality of the Churches, among whom 
 he made a short stay, but in Ephesus where he 
 stayed for two years, he supported himself by work- 
 ing at his trade of tent-making and earned enough 
 1 1 Cor. 16: 1-4. 
 
172 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 to assist his fellow ministers.' In the organization 
 of the Gentile Churches the ministry was not paid, 
 — all of the offerings were taken for the poor of the 
 local congregation and the share which was sent to 
 Jerusalem. The organization of the ministry was 
 "charismatic," that is to say, those who ministered 
 to the local churches or to the Church at large re- 
 ceived their appointment by reason of recognized 
 qualifications derived by charismatic gifts com- 
 municated by the Spirit. Paul enumerates these 
 charismatic officers as first "Apostles," that is, 
 those who were sent out as missionaries; secondly, 
 "Prophets," these seem to have been local minis- 
 ters in Antioch but they also belonged to the ' ' itin- 
 erant ministry"; thirdly, "Teachers," of whom the 
 same may be said. In addition to these, there 
 were the following local ministers: "Healers," 
 "Helpers," "Administrators," and "Speakers in 
 tongues."^ 
 
 The "administrators" were those who in the 
 pastoral Epistles are designated as "Bishops," that 
 is, "overseers," and the "helpers," those who are 
 called "deacons," that is "servants," who assisted 
 the Bishops in the distribution of the offerings to the 
 poor. In the pastoral Epistles, which were proba- 
 bly written near the end of the first century, special 
 stress is laid upon the importance of the character 
 of these men who had the handling of the funds of 
 the community. They must not be polygamists, 
 
 ^Acts 20: 34. 
 2 1 Cor. 12:28. 
 
Cult Becomes an Exploiting Ecclesiasticism 1 73 
 
 or excessive drinkers, or avaricious, or " pilferers." ^ 
 In the Didach6 or "Teaching of the Twelve Apos- 
 tles," which is perhaps not more than a decade 
 later in date than the pastoral Epistles, we have a 
 picture of the existing simple order of the Church. 
 The itinerant ministry is given the first position of 
 honor, but many restrictions are placed upon those 
 who might enter the community claiming to be 
 Apostles and Prophets. The bishop is appointed 
 by the congregation and in addition to administer- 
 ing the poor fund he also presides at the Eucharist 
 in the absence of one of the itinerant ministers. 
 He is, however, restricted to the use of simple litur- 
 gical prayers, whereas the prophet is allowed to 
 "pray as much as he will." 
 
 It is apparent that many impostors and exploiters 
 must have foisted themselves upon unsuspecting 
 local churches, because of the minute instructions 
 given whereby the true may be distinguished from 
 the false. The visiting Apostle, till proved guilty, 
 is to be received "as the Lord," but if he stays and 
 attempts to live on the community longer than 
 two days his claims are fraudulent, he is a "false 
 prophet." He is an exploiter if he asks for money or 
 "orders a meal." In any case, when he leaves he 
 is not to take anything with him beyond sufficient 
 bread to last until he reaches the next local church. 
 This provision sees to it that the itinerant minister 
 carries out the instructions which Jesus gave the 
 Twelve in sending them out on their preaching 
 'I Tim. 3; Titus, i. 
 
174 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 mission. In Chapter 13, however, seemingly later 
 provisions are introduced. They seem to have 
 been incorporated in the interests of the prophetic 
 ministry. In them it is provided that the prophets 
 and teachers may settle permanently in the com- 
 munity. Their support is also liberally provided 
 for and so the way is paved for the rise of a caste of 
 professional ministers depending upon the offerings 
 of the congregation hitherto intended for the use of 
 the poor. "Every first fruit, then, of the products 
 of the wine press and threshing floor, of oxen and 
 sheep, thou shalt take and give to the prophet, for 
 they are your High Priests.'' "If thou makest a 
 baking of bread, take the first of it and give accord- 
 ing to the commandment. In like manner when 
 thou openest a jar of wine or oil, take the first of it 
 and give to the prophet; and of money and cloth- 
 ing and every possession, take the first, as seems 
 right to thee, and give according to the command- 
 ment." The "prophets" evidently expect to live 
 well. Their claims are put before those of the poor, 
 as is implied by the statement "But if ye have no 
 prophets, give it to the poor." It was perhaps 
 owing to a deterioration in the character of the 
 itinerant ministry and the restrictions which were 
 placed upon its members in consequence, that the 
 disappearance of the itinerant ministry claiming 
 charismatic or prophetic gifts became inevitable, 
 and the ascendency of a local administrative organ- 
 ization, consisting of teachers, shepherds, bishops 
 and deacons, became officially established. 
 
Cult Becomes an Exploiting Ecclesiasticism 175 
 
 The "elders" do not appear as a clerical caste 
 till the next period of development. This title, as 
 Sohm and Lowrie have pointed out, was a title of 
 age rather than of office. In the Jewish Church, 
 however, the older men of exemplary character 
 were recognized as holding positions of judicial, or 
 at least of advisory weight. Their importance is 
 recognized in frequent Old Testament references. "^ 
 It is doubtless true that the bishops were selected 
 from their number. 
 
 II 
 
 In the next period of development the "oligar- 
 chical" or many-headed voluntary group of elders 
 or bishops, which was self-supporting and which 
 gave its services freely, became a local hierarchy of 
 three steps with a single local bishop at the head. 
 An element which contributed to the strength and 
 rigidity of the official organization grew out of the 
 felt need to deal with the divisive and schismatic 
 tendencies which arose from the freedom of the 
 charismatic organization permitting as it did the 
 rise within the group of "heresies" — the literal 
 meaning of which is "differences of opinion." 
 
 The seriousness of these differences of opinion 
 was that they led to divisions and hostilities within 
 the community, and the method taken to combat 
 them was not that of friendly discussion and recip- 
 rocal education, but the less Christlike method of 
 mutual recrimination and finally of judicial con- 
 
 . g. in Lev. 4: 15; Deut. 29: 10; 31:28; 32:7; I Sam. 30:26. 
 
 1 
 
 e. 
 
176 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 demnation of views not acceptable to the ascendant 
 parties who were able to impose penalties, the chief 
 of which was excommunication. We know of St. 
 Paul's conflict with the Judaizers. Many of these 
 rejected his claim to the Apostleship. Paul sought 
 to safeguard against their disturbing influence by 
 warning his churches, as in his address to the pres- 
 byters at Ephesus,! that "grievous wolves would 
 get in among them and not spare the flock." The 
 Jewish Christians perpetuated their controversy 
 against Paulinism in the so-called "Clementine 
 Homilies" which plainly reject Paul's claims to 
 Apostleship and take him to task for his criticisms 
 of Peter in his Epistle to the Galatians. The Jew- 
 ish Church was ultimately excommunicated by the 
 Gentile Catholic Church. It continued its exist- 
 ence under the Patriarch of Jerusalem till the fourth 
 century. It perpetuated the Apocalyptic concep- 
 tion of Jesus as the Christus futurus. They rejected 
 all the later Christologies, so that in time its con- 
 servatism placed it in the class of heretics from 
 the point of view of the later established orthodoxy. 
 In his advocacy of a rigid organization of the 
 local church under a monarchical episcopate, Igna- 
 tius, who was the religious enthusiast of this change, 
 had in mind efficiency of management, especially in 
 dealing with the schismatics. The final test of the 
 permanence of this organization was made in the 
 conflict with Montanism. Montanism was a Gen- 
 tile revival of the early Apocalyptic expectation of 
 1 Acts 20: 17 ff. 
 
Cult Becomes an Exploiting Ecclesiasticism 177 
 
 the imminent coming of Christ upon the clouds. 
 The Church had by its organization begun to pro- 
 vide for its future continuance on earth as a per- 
 manent institution. Its adherents had regard for 
 its material interests and for extending its influence. 
 To the Montanists all this seemed futile in view of 
 the destruction of the existing world order which 
 they so soon expected. They condemned the 
 " worldliness " of the growing cult and rejected its 
 official ministry, claiming to possess a charismatic 
 ministry and prophetic succession of their own. 
 With their downfall the organization of the Catholic 
 Church was assured on a permanent basis. The 
 significance of this fact, it was the service of Ritschl 
 to have pointed out. 
 
 Ill 
 
 From the time of Ignatius on we find marks of 
 a growing "clerical consciousness." Ignatius him- 
 self the bishop of Antioch is not restrained by any 
 false modesty in exalting the position of the bishop 
 of the local church to one of equivalence to the 
 office of Christ, as a vicar of God. The presbyters 
 he regards as the successors of the Apostles. To 
 the church at Smyrna he writes: "See that ye 
 follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the 
 Father, and the presbytery as ye would the Apos- 
 tles, and reverence the deacons as being the insti- 
 tution of God. "1 Here we have a clear-cut class 
 
 1 Ad. Smyr. C. VIII and XII— Quoted by Dr. Allen, "Christian 
 Institutions," p. 62. 
 
1 78 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 consciousness, not merely of the distinction be- 
 tween the clerical and the lay, but also of the class 
 division within the clerical order into higher and 
 inferior clergy. All this seems to indicate the influ- 
 ence of the Roman bureaucracy and complicated 
 class division. 
 
 The idea was emphasized by the Church archi- 
 tecture and in the forms of worship. There was 
 the bishop's throne ; the officiating presbyter stood 
 on the top step of the Altar, and the deacons on 
 the step below. Each order had its especial vest- 
 ments, their splendor corresponding to the rank of 
 the privileged wearer. 
 
 By this time the clergy received an income, partly 
 in kind (a portion of that which had formerly been 
 given to the poor) , and also presents in money. The 
 church life had become so elaborated that all the time 
 of the clergy was required and no opportunity left 
 them to support themselves as had been the custom of 
 the earlier time. In fact, it was now considered 
 beneath the dignity of the ministry to earn their 
 own livings by productive labor. That which St. 
 Paul had commended in himself, namely, his self- 
 support, by his own hands, is now considered 
 reprehensible. "Worldly callings" were condemned 
 as incompatible with the highest devotion to the 
 service of God in the church. The growing influ- 
 ence of the clergy offered multiplied opportunities 
 for exploitation which logically enough developed a 
 tendency toward corruption. 
 
Cult Becomes an Exploiting Ecclesiasticism 179 
 
 IV 
 
 As the cult grew in influence and importance and 
 as the clerical body increased its influence, it offered 
 such opportunities for a brilliant career that men of 
 ability and ambition were tempted to enter the 
 field. These men by their gifts of organization were 
 able to still further strengthen the power and pres- 
 tige of the Church and its ruling orders. In select- 
 ing their bishops it became a principle to choose "a 
 man of weight in the community," so that men of 
 wealth and members of the nobility came to have a 
 prior claim upon the episcopal office. The local 
 bishop became elevated to preside over the diocese. 
 
 Episcopal prestige owes a permanent debt to 
 Cyprian. Before becoming a bishop himself Cyp- 
 rian had been a successful Roman lawyer. He was 
 a member of the upper class and a man of wealth 
 either by inheritance or as the result of a successful 
 legal practice. It may be said without exaggera- 
 tion that Cyprian accomplished more toward the 
 separation of the church from the mind and pro- 
 gram of Jesus than any of his predecessors, for he 
 was a most efficient agent in binding the Body of 
 Christ by the fetters of a rigid ecclesiasticism and 
 handing it over to that very hierarchical system 
 which the prophets and Jesus had given their lives 
 to combat. Yet he was not conscious of any in- 
 consistency or disloyalty, for he was only conscious 
 of loyal adherence to the Christian cult. That 
 cult had already grown so far away from the basic 
 
 14 
 
l8o Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 principles of Christ that it was possible to be a good 
 Catholic and a false Christian (i.e. not a "Chris- 
 tian" used in the sense of a true adherent of the 
 doctrine of Jesus), without being conscious of the 
 inconsistency. 
 
 It was perhaps natural that Cyprian should fail 
 to recognize that Jesus had utterly condemned the 
 Jewish hierarchy, but he not only failed to do that, 
 he affirmed the opposite. He assumed such an 
 original harmony between Christ and the Jewish 
 priesthood that he held Him to be its Founder. He 
 calls the Jewish priests "our predecessors." In 
 fact, he takes over the whole conception of the Jew- 
 ish hierarchy as developed in the Old Testament, 
 even in its extreme late form, which was at the 
 opposite pole from prophetism, as the prototype of 
 the organization of the Christian Church. He 
 thus places the Christian Church squarely in the 
 range of the missiles of wrath which the prophets 
 and especially Jesus had hurled at the exclusive 
 monopolistic and exploiting temple cult. Cyprian's 
 method was that which had become commonly em- 
 ployed by church leaders after the third century. 
 "As the churches became stocked with every kind 
 of sacred ceremony, and as they carefully devel- 
 oped priestly, sacrificial and sacramental ideas, 
 people began to grow reckless in applying the letter 
 of the Old Testament ceremonial laws to the ar- 
 rangements of the Christian organization and wor- 
 ship. In setting itself up as a legalistic body, the 
 Church had recourse to the Old Testament in a way 
 
Cult Becomes an Exploiting Ecclesiasticism i8i 
 
 that Paul had severely censured ; it fell back on the 
 law though all the while it blamed the Jews and 
 declared that their observance of the law was 
 quite illicit. In the practice of the church, . . . 
 people employed the Old Testament, in order to 
 get a basis for usages which they considered indis- 
 pensable. For a purpose of this kind' the New 
 Testament was of little use." * 
 
 Cyprian was indeed the most serious offender. 
 By temperament and training a legalist he identi- 
 fied Christianity with the legalism of the "priestly 
 code" — a sacerdotal forgery made by an exploiting 
 hierarchy to further its own interests by means of 
 the falsification of history. Cyprian finds the 
 priestly myth of Korah, Dathan and Abiram as 
 useful in illustrating God's indignation against those 
 who rejected the bishops. From this the character 
 of his theology as that of the priestly type and as 
 foreign to the theology of Jesus, may be clearly in- 
 ferred. He says distinctly that the Christian 
 bishop is the inheritor of the Jewish High Priest- 
 hood ! Each diocese is "the congregation of Israel." 
 "The election of a bishop in the presence of the 
 representatives of the diocese is made in accord- 
 ance with the law of Moses." The bishop inherits 
 the old hierarchical judicial authority. Nay more, 
 the bishop is judge in Christ's stead. Contempt of 
 the bishop's government is condemned in the law 
 and in the books of Samuel. Even though the 
 
 ' Harnack, "Mission and Expansion of Christianity," vol. I, 
 p. 287. 
 
i82 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 same faith and worship are maintained as that of 
 the bishop, yet one who invades his office is guilty 
 of the veritable sin of Korah. The laws about the 
 High Priest were ultimately intended to apply to 
 the bishops and since the failure of the Jewish hier- 
 archy apply to them alone. Cyprian goes so far as 
 to claim the authority both of St. Paul and of our 
 Lord Himself for this view.^ 
 
 Cyprian finds in the presbytery a continuation of 
 the Levitic tribe (the inferior clergy), "living on 
 the offerings of the people, as their predecessors on 
 the tithes, devoted day and night to sacrifice and 
 prayer."^ 
 
 In Cyprian, quite unconsciously to him and to 
 his contemporaries, the Apostasy of the Catholic 
 Church from the theology of Jesus and from the 
 social doctrine of the Kingdom with its democratic 
 implications derived from the doctrine of the in- 
 finite worth of the common man, reaches its official 
 completion. The Church of Christ is now organ- 
 ized and ready to be handed over to the enemies of 
 Christ, the exploiters of their brethren. 
 
 The influence of the bishops was naturally the 
 greatest at the great centers. The preeminence of 
 the Bishop of Rome was made possible by the op- 
 portunities offered by the imperial city. It was an 
 office to be coveted by the ambitious. The bishops 
 and deacons of Rome handled large sums of money 
 without any control of the finances by the govern- 
 
 1 See Archbishop Benson, "Cyprian," p. 34. 
 ^ Cf. Benson, Loc. cit. 
 
Cult Becomes an Exploiting Ecclesiasticism 183 
 
 ment or by the church itself. As might have been 
 expected there were many defalcations in conse- 
 quence. 
 
 V 
 
 If the main thesis of this book has been estab- 
 lished, that the religion of Jesus was the full reali- 
 zation of the religion of the insurgent prophecy, if 
 His religion was the militant foe of exploiting 
 priestly rule as well as the partisan of all the ex- 
 ploited and oppressed, then we are forced to the 
 startling conclusion that even before the days of 
 Constantine the Christian Church had strangled 
 and suppressed the Gospel of its Founder. Had the 
 Spirit of Jesus as revealed in His teachings been in- 
 deed the guiding influence of the Church, it could 
 never have exploited in its own interests or made 
 an alliance with an Empire founded upon the prac- 
 tice of exploitation as the very life-blood of its ex- 
 istence. But the Church as legalized according to 
 the type of the Jewish theocracy, under the per- 
 sonal rule of monarchic bishops, archbishops, and 
 ultimately of popes, was admirably adapted to 
 exploit on its own account and enter into an alli- 
 ance of exploitation with the imperial power. 
 "These were the Christians whom Constantine de- 
 clared to be the support of his throne — people who 
 clung to the bishops with submissive faith and who 
 would not resist their divinely appointed authority! 
 The Christianity that triumphed was the Chris- 
 tianity of a blind faith, which Celsus had depicted. 
 
184 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 When would a state ever have shown any practical 
 interest in any other kind of religion?"' 
 
 The triumph of Christianity in the guise of the 
 established church of the empire was at the same 
 time the defeat of all that Jesus Christ stood for in 
 religion. Under Constantine the Church reached 
 the climax of Christological elevation in exalting 
 its Founder to the rank of equality with the Eternal 
 God, but in so doing it banished Him and the Cause 
 of the Kingdom from the earth making Him tran- 
 scendent and remote from the world which He had 
 come to save. At one stroke the Church deified 
 its Lord and disobeyed Him. In one voice it de- 
 clared Him by conciliar authority to be "Very God 
 of Very God" and while offering its adoration be- 
 trayed Him into the hands of High Priests and 
 rulers who crucified His doctrine upon a jeweled 
 cross surmounted by the imperial crown. 
 
 VI 
 From the time of the alliance between the church 
 and the Prince of the Gentiles shameless exploita- 
 tion strode forward with splendid mien. The 
 bishops used the loyalty of their submissive people 
 to direct a similar loyalty to the parvenu Emperor. 
 In return for their (im) moral support the bishops and 
 the other clergy and the congregations committed 
 to their charge received most generous financial, 
 legal and social recognition. The clergy and the 
 Church property were exempted from taxation — a 
 ' Harnack, op. cit. vol. I, p. 223. 
 
Cult Becomes an Exploiting Ecclesiasticism 185 
 
 great privilege (and a great mistake for us moderns 
 to have repeated). The rich endowments of the 
 pagan shrines were confiscated and given to the 
 Church. The temples of the pagan gods were given 
 over to the Church as places of worship, though the 
 nature of that worship continued fundamentally 
 more pagan than Christian. The Church received 
 generous donations from the Emperor himself and 
 from private individuals. It became a large holder 
 of real estate and was given the right to receive be- 
 quests. Its land and its capital continued to accu- 
 mulate. The clergy also enjoyed judicial powers. 
 The more important bishoprics were the equals 
 or superiors of the governorships of Roman 
 Provinces in worldly power. 
 
 The incomes of the clergy were placed upon a per- 
 manently profitable basis. The Church had become 
 the mouthpiece of the Empire to bid men to implicit 
 obedience and the State responded by filling the 
 mouth with all kinds of delectable nourishment. 
 
 Not only were special privileges granted to 
 Churchmen but natural rights were withdrawn 
 from those who did not give their allegiance to the 
 Christian religion. Moreover, those who did not 
 loyally give their adherence to the doctrines estab- 
 lished in the councils were treated in this regard the 
 same as the pagans. One who accepted the con- 
 ciliary resolutions received from the Emperor immu- 
 nity and privileges. One who did not was liable 
 to confiscation, banishment and death. The 
 Church had become wholly paganized. Its real 
 
1 86 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 object of worship was not Jesus, the Prophet of 
 Nazareth or the Father Whom He revealed, but 
 Mammon, the god of this world. "It held to the 
 one and despised the other." Instead of the leaven 
 of the Kingdom leavening the world, the leaven of 
 mammon was to leaven the whole ecclesiastical 
 lump. Successful mammon worship came to be 
 recognized as a form of piety, as the following quo- 
 tation from Dr. Allen's "Christian Institutions" 
 brings forth with gentle humor : 
 
 The bishops became rich in lands and estates through 
 the gifts that were heaped upon them by grateful sov- 
 ereigns or by the piety of individuals, of whose wealth 
 they seemed the most appropriate heirs. Just as the 
 piety of the time took shape in the donations of every 
 kind of property, so the piety of the bishop was shown 
 in the faithful administration of property by which it 
 continued to increase. Secular lords might prove ex- 
 travagant and reckless with no sense of the value of their 
 estates; but the model bishop held his property as a 
 divine possession, not to be alienated but multiplied as 
 talents entrusted to him which it was his duty to increase 
 many fold.^ 
 
 It is to be feared that much of this same kind of 
 piety survives in our modern parish institutions. 
 It has been the prevailing heresy of the Christian 
 ages that God wishes to be worshipped by means of 
 things instead of by the establishing of the Beloved 
 Community which shall extend the principles of 
 divine life and love to all the children of God. 
 ' Op cit. p. 205. 
 
Cult Becomes an Exploiting Ecclesiasticism 187 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER X 
 
 The process by which the Church became legal- 
 ized, i. e., Romanized, will be indicated by the fol- 
 lowing extracts from the chapter on Roman and 
 Canon Law in Henry Osborn Taylor's "Mediaeval 
 Mind," vol. H, p. 265: 
 
 The Church, from the time of its first recognition by 
 the Roman Empire, lived under the Roman law; and the 
 constitutions safeguarding its authority were large and 
 ample before the Empire fell. Constantine, to be sure, 
 never dreamed of the famous " Donation of Constantine " 
 forged by a later time, yet his enactments fairly launched 
 the great mediaeval Catholic Church upon the career 
 which was to bring it more domination than was granted 
 in this pseudo-charter of its power. A number of Con- 
 stantine's enactments were preserved by the Theodosian 
 Code, in which the powers and privileges of Church and 
 clergy were portentously set forth. 
 
 The Theodosian Code freed the property of the 
 Church from most fiscal burdens, and the clergy from 
 taxes, from public and military service, and from many 
 other obligations which sometimes the Code groups under 
 the head of sordida munera. The Church might receive 
 all manner of bequests, and it inherited the property of 
 such of its clergy as did not leave near relatives surviving 
 them. Its property generally was inalienable; and the 
 clergy were accorded many special safeguards. Slaves 
 might be manumitted in a church. The church edifices 
 were declared asylums of refuge from pursuers, a priv- 
 
i88 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 ilege which had passed to the churches from the heathen 
 fanes and the statues of the emperors. Constitution 
 after constitution was hurled against the Church's ene- 
 mies. The Theodosian Code has one chapter contain- 
 ing sixty-six constitutions directed against heretics, the 
 combined result of which was to deprive them, if not of 
 life and property, at least of protected legal existence. 
 
 Of enormous import was the sweeping recognition on 
 the Empire's part of the validity of episcopal jurisdic- 
 tion. No bishop might be summoned before a secular 
 court as a defendant, or compelled to give testimony. 
 Falsely to accuse one of the clergy rendered the accuser 
 infamous. All matters pertaining to religion and church 
 discipline might be brought only before the bishop's 
 court, which likewise had plenary jurisdiction over con- 
 troversies among the clergy. It was also open to the 
 laity for the settlement of civil disputes. The command 
 not to go to law before the heathen came down from 
 Paul (I Cor. vi), and together with the severed and per- 
 secuted condition of the early Christian communities, 
 may be regarded as the far source of the episcopal juris- 
 diction, which thus divinely sanctioned tended to extend 
 its arbitrament to all manner of legal controversies. To be 
 sure, under the Christian Roman Empire, the authority 
 of the Church as well as its privileges rested upon impe- 
 rial law. Yet the emperors recognized, rather than 
 actually created, the ecclesiastical authority. And when 
 the Empire was shattered, there stood the Church erect 
 amid the downfall of the imperial government, and capa- 
 ble of supporting itself in the new Teutonic kingdoms. 
 
 The Church arose within the Roman Empire, and who 
 shall say that its wonderfully efficient and complete or- 
 
CuU Becomes an Exploiting Ecclesiasticism 189 
 
 ganization at the close of the patristic period was not the 
 final creation of the legal and constructive genius of 
 Rome, newly inspired by the spirit of Christianity? 
 
 The canon law is a vast sea. Its growth, its age-long 
 agglomerate accretion, the systematization of its huge 
 contents, have long been subjects for controversialists 
 and scholars. Its sources were as multifarious as those 
 of the Roman law. First the Scriptures and the early 
 quasi-apostolic and pseudo-apostolic writings; then the 
 traditions of primitive Christianity and also the writings 
 of the Fathers; likewise ecclesiastical customs, long ac- 
 cepted and legitimate, and finally the two great written 
 sources, the decretals or decisions of the popes and the 
 decrees of councils. From patristic times collections 
 were made of the last. These collections from a chrono- 
 logical gradually acquired a topical and more systemic 
 arrangement, which the compilers followed more com- 
 pletely after the opening of the tenth century. The de- 
 cisions of the popes also had been collected, and then 
 were joined to conciliar compilations and arranged after 
 the same topical plan. 
 
 In all of them there was unauthentic matter, accepted 
 as if its pseudo-authorship or pseudo-source were gen- 
 uine. But in the stormy times of the ninth century 
 following the death of Charlemagne, the method of argu- 
 ment through forged authority was exceptionally crea- 
 tive. It produced two masterpieces which won universal 
 acceptance. The first was a collection of false Capitu- 
 laries ascribed to Charlemagne and Louis the Pious, and 
 ostensibly the work of a certain Benedictus Levita, dea- 
 con of the Church of Mainz, who worked in the middle 
 of the century. Far more famous and important was 
 
190 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 the book of False Decretals, put together and largely 
 written, that is forged, about the same time, probably 
 in the diocese of Rheims, and appearing as the work of 
 Saint Isidore of Seville. This contained many forged 
 letters of the early popes and other forged matter, includ- 
 ing the Epistle or "Donation" of Constantine; also gen- 
 uine papal letters and concilar decrees. These false col- 
 lections were accepted by councils and popes, and formed 
 part of subsequent compilations. 
 
Some Christian Insurgent Prophets 191 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 SOME CHRISTIAN INSURGENT PROPHETS 
 
 Having traced the history of the Catholic Church 
 to the point where exploitation had come to be rec- 
 ognized as a form of piety it would be necessary 
 practically to rehearse the history of the entire 
 mediseval church in order to show how the prin- 
 ciple was worked out and extended. In the East 
 the patriarchates grew to the dimensions of king- 
 doms. In the West the papacy became virtually 
 a theocratic empire. Its dominion was not only 
 extended over the national churches, all of which 
 were made to pay tribute greatly in excess of the 
 revenues of their respective kingdoms, but it exer- 
 cised an over-lordship over kingly courts, and so 
 long as its anathemas and fears were held in super- 
 stitious regard it could bend recalcitrant kings and 
 emperors to its sovereign will. 
 
 But powerful as the church was both ecclesias- 
 tically and politically it could not absolutely stifle 
 the voices of a new race of insurgent prophets 
 which from time to time arose to denounce its ex- 
 ploitations and to preach a return to the simplicity 
 of the social Gospel of Christ. We can do little 
 more than call the roll of a few more honored names. 
 
 I 
 In Arnold of Brescia, born in iioo, we find a real 
 prophet with a program for Christianizing the polit- 
 
192 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 ical and social order. Resisting all temptations 
 to indulge in exploitation he lived in Evangelical 
 poverty. Walter Mapes, the English traveler, 
 records his impression of him in the following words : 
 "In religion, a leader of leaders, allowing himself 
 neither food nor clothing beyond what the strictest 
 necessity compelled, he went about preaching, seek- 
 ing nothing for himself but all for God, and became 
 loved and admired by all."' Mapes, however, 
 should have excepted from the number of those 
 who loved and admired him the exploiting eccle- 
 siastics and secular rulers. His denunciations of 
 the wealth and self-indulgence of the clergy richly 
 earned their dislike, but it was his political teachings 
 that were taken as the ground for his persecution. 
 On scriptural grounds he maintained that the pope 
 should not exercise political rule. Rome should 
 properly come under the government of an Emperor 
 who should receive his office not by right of succes- 
 sion but through a popular election. Arnold was the 
 foe at once of ecclesiastical and political autocracy. 
 The citizens of Rome for a time accepted his 
 doctrine and made him the head of a de facto repub- 
 lic which for ten years succeeded in compelling the 
 Pope to relinquish his temporal power. At the end 
 of this ten year period the Pope and the Emperor 
 made common cause against him. The soldiers of 
 Barbarossa succeeded in capturing the prophet and 
 handed him over to the "Vicar of God " who caused 
 him to be hanged and burned, after which his ashes 
 1 De Nugis Curial. Dist. I, 24. 
 
Some Christian Insurgent Prophets 193 
 
 were desecrated by being cast into the Tiber. Thus 
 the prophetic messenger was found worthy to meet 
 the prophet's fate. 
 
 II 
 
 Francis of Assisi was a Churchman of a far gen- 
 tler type, who, though he was sparing of denuncia- 
 tion, was nevertheless keenly aware of evils and 
 abuses and in his own way gave his life to remedy- 
 ing them. He, therefore, deserves a place among 
 the prophets. What others had attempted to do 
 by agitation or political revolt, Francis undertook 
 to accomplish by means of an organized social move- 
 ment within the Church. It was an attempt to 
 found a religious order the rule of which should be 
 true to the Sermon on the Mount. It was an at- 
 tempt to unite a body of earnest men, committed 
 to Evangelical poverty, who should adopt as the 
 central principle of their conduct Jesus' law of serv- 
 ice. He wrote to the Superiors of the Order, " 'I 
 did not come to be ministered unto but to minister,' 
 says the Lord. Let those who are set above others 
 glory in their superiority only as much as if they 
 had been deputed to wash the feet of the brothers." ' 
 
 The vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, 
 were supposedly taken by all the mediaeval relig- 
 ious orders, but this did not prevent them from 
 attaining great corporate wealth. They became 
 one of the great organs of ecclesiastical exploitation. 
 
 1 "Writings of St. Francis of Assisi," edited by Father Pascal 
 Robinson, Philadelphia, 1906, p. 9. 
 
194 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 The popular antagonism to them in a later period 
 was based upon their great wealth and their means 
 of getting it. 
 
 Francis gave great thought and attention to pre- 
 vent any possible kind of exploitation by the mem- 
 bers of his community whether as individuals or 
 collectively. They were not to beg alms except 
 when the opportunity to earn the necessities of life 
 was denied them, and then they were forbidden to 
 accept money. They sought to go back to the time 
 when the preachers of religion earned their own 
 living while preaching the Gospel — to the time when 
 Jesus was a carpenter, the Apostles were fishermen, 
 when St. Paul was a tent-maker. They were not 
 even to accept money as wages in return for actual 
 labor, but only food and shelter. They were not 
 permitted to engage in all kinds of labor but only 
 such as were productive. "Let the brothers, in 
 whatever places they may be among others to serve 
 or to work, not be chamberlains, nor cellarers, nor 
 over-seers, in the houses of those whom they serve, 
 and let them not accept any employment which 
 might cause scandal, or be injurious to their soul, 
 but let them be inferior and subject to all who are 
 in the same house. And let the brothers, . . . 
 labor and exercise themselves in that art they may 
 understand. . . . For the prophet says: 'For 
 thou shalt eat the labors of thine hands, blessed 
 art thou, and it shall be well with thee;' and the 
 Apostle: ' If any man will not work neither let him 
 eat;' and let every man abide in the art or employ- 
 
Some Christian Insurgent Prophets 195 
 
 ment wherein he was called. And for their labor 
 they may receive all necessary things, except money. 
 . . . And they may have the tools and implements 
 necessary for their work. . . ."1 These rules 
 were intended for the members of the first order, 
 the friars proper, but the program of Francis em- 
 braced a third order intended to include men and 
 women of the laity in their daily lives. This plan 
 entitles him to be ranked as a great social reformer. 
 
 The four rules of the "tertiaries" were, (i) that 
 members should not carry offensive weapons; (2) 
 nor take solemn oaths; (3) they were required to 
 contribute monthly dues to a common fund; and 
 (4) to make their wills within three months after 
 their admission to the order.^ 
 
 These seemingly simple rules contemplated noth- 
 ing less than the complete overthrow of the exploit- 
 ing feudal system. The second provision practi- 
 cally absolved the members of the order from oaths 
 of allegiance to the feudal lords by which the latter 
 held the right to enforce their vassals into their 
 personal quarrels. The third rule contemplated 
 the accumulation of a fund which would enable 
 the serfs to aid each other in adversity and ulti- 
 mately to purchase their liberty. The object of 
 the fourth rule was to prevent the feudal abuse 
 under which the liege lord claimed the property of 
 all the serfs who died intestate. Honorius III and 
 
 * Rule I, sections 8 and 9, Ed. cited pp. 41-44. 
 2 Cf. Leo L. Dubois, "St. Francis of Assisi, Social Reformer," 
 P-52. 
 15 
 
196 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 Gregory IX supported the tertiaries in their rights 
 to adhere to this rule when it was contested by the 
 feudal lords. It therefore accomplished what was 
 intended by Francis. In recognition of his services 
 to the common people, Sabatier has called him 
 "The Father of Italian Democracy" and Cristofani 
 has called him "The Patriarch of the Religion of 
 Democracy." 
 
 It thus appears that Francis possessed a marked 
 capacity which has not been generally credited to 
 him, that of a gifted politician. This he used not 
 after the manner of most men with this endowment 
 for purposes of self-aggrandizement through exploi- 
 tation but he used his talent with the object in view 
 of combating exploitation. But in this his gift 
 was no match for that of the past-master exploiting 
 politicians of Rome. After his death they suc- 
 ceeded in subordinating his ideals and methods 
 so that even his own order finally became an arm 
 of the exploiting papal political machine. 
 
 Ill 
 Another Italian of still different mould has claims 
 to be ranked in the list of Christian insurgent 
 prophets, Dante. The Divine Comedy of this poet 
 is full of prophetic wrath against the abuses of his 
 time and he literally places exploiting Popes, simo- 
 niacs, and ecclesiastical grafters in hell. His program 
 for reform contemplated the reduction of those 
 powers of the Church which it used for purposes 
 of exploitation by the power of an ideal emperor. 
 
Some Christian Insurgent Prophets 197 
 
 The de Monarchia of Dante contains the picture 
 of a universal community with a kind of Messianic 
 monarch at its head. His ruler is a "monarch 
 who loves men greatly . . . He desires all men 
 to do good." (Chapter 12.) It has been said 
 that the de Monarchia of Dante was an epitaph 
 rather than a prophecy. He had, however, an 
 ideal which had striking Messianic affinities as is 
 brought out by the following quotation from Joseph 
 Mazzini, "The ideas of which I have here given 
 a sketch (the Titanic dream of an Italy, the 
 leader of humanity and angel of light among the 
 nations) are fermenting, more or less boldly devel- 
 oped, among the youth of Italy. Understanding 
 Dante better than those who write about him, they 
 revere him as the prophet of the nation, and as the 
 one who gave to Italy not only the scepter of mod- 
 ern poetry but the initiative thought of a new phi- 
 losophy." ' Dinsmore says of him "like the stern 
 Hebrew prophet whom he so much resembles this 
 Tuscan seer was an ardent patriot. He never di- 
 vorced his religion from his politics, but brought 
 both under the same august moral order." ^ 
 
 Another fellow countryman of Dante, Marsig- 
 lio of Padua, the joint author with John of Jandun 
 of the Defensor Pads, deserves a place on the pro- 
 phetic roll of honor. It is of special interest for us 
 to-day that he advocated political democracy and 
 
 1 E^say on Dante. 
 
 2 Charles Allen Dinsmore, "The Teachings of Dante," 1901, 
 P-57- 
 
198 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 the greatest possible freedom of opinion in theo- 
 logical and ecclesiastical matters. He advocated 
 the principle that "heretics" are to be left to the 
 judgment of Christ; errors in opinion are not sub- 
 ject to human judgment. ' 
 
 IV 
 
 Turning now to England we find in the writings 
 of William Langland, a peasant priest, a complete 
 draft of the prophetical interpretation of Chris- 
 tianity and of the doctrines of the Kingdom of God, 
 in his "The Vision of William, Concerning Piers 
 the Ploughman." The corruption and exploita- 
 tion on the part of ecclesiastics, the secular nobility 
 and the monarchy are dealt with in a most trench- 
 ant manner. Christianity is made to consist in the 
 law of love. Deliverance from evils is sought in a 
 return to the moral leadership of the lowly peasant 
 of Nazareth who is typified by the figure of Piers 
 the Ploughman. The quest for truth must be 
 made through a life of love to God and fellowman, 
 abstention from all injury and an observance of all 
 the commandments. They who thus live by divine 
 grace will discover truth within their own hearts 
 united to love. As a reform method of doing away 
 with abuses Piers would set all the idlers and wasters 
 at productive toil. This would prove a means of 
 the removal of all social evils and protect the poor 
 from exploitation by the idle rich. 
 
 'See Reginald Lane Poole's "Some Illustrations of Mediaeval 
 Thought." 
 
Some Christian Insurgent Prophets 199 
 
 Against the Church's claim to have the keys of 
 heaven and hell, which doctrine lay at the basis 
 of the practice of the sale of indulgences and other 
 corrupt abuses, Piers declares that any and all who 
 do the Will of God by establishing His justice here 
 in human society will hear the words "Well done, 
 thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the 
 joy of thy Lord." What seems to have been the 
 original poem concludes with the prayer, "That 
 God may give us grace to work such works while 
 we are here, that after our death at the day of judg- 
 ment, 'Do- Weir shall rehearse that we did as He 
 commanded."' 
 
 The ideas of the poem are further carried out in 
 the "Vita de Do-wel, Do-bet and Do-best." In 
 this continuation of the poem the character of Piers 
 the Ploughman continues to play the chief r61e. 
 The poet carries out the idea that if all men were 
 engaged in useful and productive labor, and none 
 took more out of the common products than he 
 actually required, all would be "in common rich."^ 
 The allegorical figure of Piers the Ploughman stands 
 for the type of man which is to save society from 
 its wrongs and inequalities. Thus, like his Master, 
 Piers becomes a saviour of society, Christ becomes 
 identified with the humblest of His brethren, and 
 Piers, in turn, is merged into Christ. The soli- 
 darity of mankind includes Christ and all His fol- 
 
 ' Passus 7, lines 196-200. 
 2 Passus 18, line 43, C — text. 
 
200 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 lowers, and the Cross of Christ becomes the bond 
 of this unified humanity, as the poet says ; 
 
 We are all Christ's creatures, and of his coffers rich, 
 And brethren of one blood, as well beggars as earls. 
 For on Calvary of Christ's blood Christendom sprang, 
 And there we became brethren by blood. * 
 
 It is to the humble peasant class of the fourteenth 
 century to which the author looks to incarnate the 
 love of Christ and thereby reform the abuses of 
 society and the Church. The good Samaritan was 
 the embodiment of loving service and when the 
 poet has a vision of him he is struck by his resem- 
 blance to Piers the Ploughman. This love is the 
 one essential. The faith and the hope as held in 
 the Church are seen in the guise of priest and Levite 
 who pass by on the other side. In Piers the Incar- 
 nation is extended. Christ is seen as a Knight who 
 wore for his armor the flesh of Piers the Ploughman. 
 Thus the poet symbolizes the ancient warfare of 
 Him Who came to save the world in the Person of 
 the Carpenter of Nazareth. The Word which 
 became flesh in the days of Christ is to become flesh 
 again in the persons of the poet's lowly contem- 
 poraries in whom the Spirit of Christ is to continue 
 His warfare of the Kingdom. This striking con- 
 ception is the climax of the whole allegory. 
 
 But the powers of evil are still at large in the 
 world and a purified militant Church must set for- 
 ward the warfare of its ascended Lord against them. 
 ' Passus II, I. 191 f. B — text. 
 
Some Christian Insurgent Prophets 201 
 
 The Church is represented by the poet as having 
 been built to receive the harvest of the Gospel. 
 It thus resembles a great barn or storehouse. Piers 
 the Ploughman is represented as going forth into 
 the world to cultivate the harvest of truth. He is 
 not, like the clergy, one of the guardians of the 
 storehouse, who remain within, for he is doing God's 
 work in the world. 
 
 Humanity is now attacked by all the evils and 
 abuses which have been exposed earlier in the poem 
 — injustice, inequality, wrongs, political and social, 
 personified as the hosts of anti-Christ. When thus 
 attacked, the common people as of right look to the 
 Church for refuge. But the Church, alas, because 
 of treachery and abuses within, can offer no ade- 
 quate protection. The rightful leader of the Church 
 is Conscience, but Conscience has been weakened 
 by the false dealings of Envy, Hypocrisy and Flat- 
 tery, who hold positions of influence within the 
 Church. These have, as co-conspirators, a friar, 
 who attempts to salve Conscience, by administering 
 soothing but deadly drugs of absolution, dispen- 
 sations, and indulgences. Aware of his danger 
 Conscience calls out for his ally, "Contrition," to 
 come to his rescue, but Contrition does not re- 
 spond, having also been drugged with a plaster 
 called ' ' Privy-payment. ' ' Realizing that within the 
 Church he is in the hands of dangerous enemies 
 Conscience by a supreme effort succeeds in escaping 
 and goes forth in quest of Piers the Ploughman. 
 Thus the author's hope, as was the case in proph- 
 
202 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 etism and in primitive Christianity, is placed in 
 the religious layman who alone can be relied upon 
 to correct the abuses of a corrupt and exploiting ■ 
 ecclesiasticism. 
 
 The relationship between Langland and his learned 
 contemporary, John Wycliffe, is not clear. But 
 there is ground for the interesting conjecture that 
 he may have been one of Wycliffe's "poor priests." 
 However that may be, the peasant preacher by rea- 
 son of his employment of "direct insight" has given 
 a somewhat profounder interpretation of the Mind 
 of Christ than the learned Oxford professor who 
 was encumbered by his learning, by his use of the 
 scholastic logic, and by his predestinarian theology. 
 In spite of these drawbacks he made positive con- 
 tributions to the prophetic campaign against ec- 
 clesiastical exploitation. 
 
 His chief interest centered in the proposal ad- 
 vocated by the secular goverment of England to 
 place restrictions upon the extortions of the Roman 
 Church by means of a program of disendowment. 
 In the reign of Edward III, "the Commons com- 
 plained that the taxes paid to the Pope amounted 
 yearly to five times the sum paid to the crown." ^ 
 The problem was to find a legal means of correcting 
 this recognized abuse. The attempt to justify 
 such a procedure on moral grounds was made in 
 Wycliffe's tract " DeDominio Civili.'"' In thisWy- 
 
 1 Cunningham, "The Growth of English Industry and Com- 
 merce," p. 273. 
 ^ Wycliffe Society Publications. 
 
Some Christian Insurgent Prophets 203 
 
 cliffe undertakes to show that the Church had no 
 moral right to Its endowments. He held that it 
 was unscriptural for the followers of Christ to hold 
 endowments. He contended that the evil man had 
 no moral right to hold property. It involved the 
 heinous sin of mammon worship, the worst form 
 of idolatry. He sought to anticipate the danger 
 that disendowment might lead to the cry of martyr- 
 dom by declaring that any one who died — not for 
 the cause of another but for the sake of avaricious- 
 ness — was no more than a "stinking martyr." 
 
 In place of the existing feudal lordship Wy cliffe 
 proposed the ideal of "Evangelical lordship" based 
 upon the law of service as formulated in Luke 22 : 24- 
 27. He held that the law of love as formulated by 
 Paul in I Corinthians 13 should be made to apply 
 to the social order, and that the law of the Gospel 
 ought properly to be taken as the basis of daily 
 life superseding the civil law. He recognized that 
 this wotllci logically lead to communism which he 
 recognized as the ideal form of social organization. 
 The administration should be in the hands of an 
 aristocracy, or government by the best, who would 
 conduct it in the interests of all. He declared that 
 the Jewish theocracy which followed the downfall 
 of the monarchy was the worst conceivable form of 
 government which reached its logical outcome in 
 the crucifixion of Jesus. 
 
 While holding to the theoretical superiority of 
 communism Wycliffe felt that it was rendered im- 
 practicable by the preponderance of sinful men in 
 
204 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 the community. As he wished to attain immediate 
 reform he upheld the monarchy and sought to use 
 it as an instrument in reforming the Church. In 
 this respect he was followed by Martin Luther. 
 
 But Wy cliff e's greatest service to the cause of 
 Christian democracy lay in his translation of the 
 Scriptures and in the organization of the poor priests 
 to give the Gospel Message to the common people. 
 The prophetic nature of this movement is well 
 brought out in the following description which we 
 quote from Thorold Rogers : 
 
 By Wycliffe's labors, the Biblemen had been intro- 
 duced to the new world of the Old Testament, to the 
 history of the human race, to the primeval Garden and 
 the young world, where the first parents of all mankind lived 
 by simple toil, and were the ancestors of the proud noble 
 and knight, as well as of the down-trodden serf and des- 
 pised burgher. They read of the brave times when there 
 was no king in Israel, when every man did that was right 
 in his own eyes, and sat under his own vine and fig-tree, 
 none daring to make him afraid. They read how God, 
 through His prophet, had warned Israel of the evils 
 which would come to them when a king should rule over 
 them, and how speedily this was verified in the conduct 
 of the young Rehoboam . . . The God of Israel had 
 bidden His people to be husbandmen, and not mounted 
 knights and men at arms. But, most of all, the preacher 
 would dwell on his own prototype, on the man of God, 
 the wise prophet who denounced kings and princes and 
 high priests, and by God's commission, made them like 
 a potter's vessel, in the day of His wrath; or on those bold 
 judges, who were zealous even to slaying. 
 
Some Christian Insurgent Prophets 205 
 
 For with this Book, so old, and yet so new, the peasant 
 preacher . . . could stir up the souls of these clowns 
 with the true narrative of another people, and would be 
 sure that his way to their hearts and their confidence, 
 would be, as it always has been with the leaders of relig- 
 ious revival, by entirely sympathizing with their wrongs, 
 their sufferings, and their hopes. ^ 
 
 Fortunately for Wycliffe, "his martyrdom" did 
 not occur till fifty years after his death. It was 
 then purely symbolical, consisting in the desecra- 
 tion of his grave and the violation of his ashes. 
 
 V 
 
 While the prophetic spirit was enkindled in Eng- 
 land in the manner described, a similar stirring 
 was manifested in contemporary Bohemia. The 
 religious issue which was there confronted has been 
 formulated by Palacky, the historian — as follows: 
 "Whether Christianity, as it existed at that time 
 in the Western Church, was true to the Mind 
 of its Divine Founder and Proclaimer, whether it 
 had not drifted in certain respects from Him, and 
 whether it ought not to be brought back into its 
 original track; this question applies, alike, to the 
 theory and practice of Christianity; that is, to the 
 doctrine as well as the constitution and discipline 
 of the Church." 2 In modern phrase the watch- 
 word of the movement was " Back to Christ." 
 
 1 J. E. Thorold Rogers, "Six Centuries of Work and Wages," 
 p. 254 f. 
 ' Palacky, Geschichte von Bohmen, vol. Ill, p. 155. 
 
2o6 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 High on the prophetic roll of honor should be 
 inscribed the name of Konrad Waldhauser. The 
 striking thing about this prophet was the fact of 
 his having been Court chaplain to the reigning 
 house of Bohemia. He is the only prophet ever 
 known to have held such a position and it speaks 
 volumes for the moral seriousness of the Court 
 that his preaching proved acceptable. The power 
 of his preaching may be inferred from its practical 
 fruit as described by Palacky. ' ' The proud women 
 by degrees laid aside their accustomed jewels and 
 costly veils, their clothing set with gold and pearls, 
 and clothed themselves simply. Usury ceased, and 
 many flagrant usurers volunteered to compen- 
 sate their victims! Notorious prostitutes. . . . 
 whose activities in leading away the daughters of 
 honest burghers, had even penetrated within the 
 Churches, repented and set an example of piety 
 and soberness."' Konrad was himself so amazed 
 at these results that he exclaimed, "How is it that 
 the population shows me so much love and attach- 
 ment while I do not cease to scourge it? The men- 
 dicant monks, on the other hand, do the opposite 
 in their preaching ; they flatter the people, and be- 
 hold their Churches are empty!" ^ 
 
 Not only did the mendicant monks and secular 
 clergy abstain from preaching repentance, but they 
 declined to follow the example of the repentant 
 laity when Konrad attacked their simony and ex- 
 
 iQp. cit. vol. Ill, p. i66. 
 2 Ibid. 
 
Some Christian Insurgent Prophets 207 
 
 ploitation. The Dominicans, following the example 
 of the Jerusalem priesthood, attempted to have the 
 prophet convicted of heresy, the favorite method 
 among the clergy who were more zealous for "sound- 
 ness in the faith" than for purity of morals. Kon- 
 rad had accused the orders of such degeneracy ' ' that, 
 if their founders should reappear among them and 
 attempt to hold them to their rule, they would not 
 only refuse to recognize but would stone them."i 
 To the credit of the Bohemian king (who was also 
 the Emperor, Karl IV, of the Holy Roman Empire) , 
 be it said that largely owing to his intervention the 
 charges of heresy failed. 
 
 But though the clergy in general, unlike the men 
 of Nineveh, did not heed the call to repentance, 
 there was one notable exception, Milic von Krem- 
 sier, the dean ("Domherr") of the Prague Cathe- 
 dral, who brought forth fruits meet for repentance. 
 Through the favor of the Emperor he had been 
 holding a plurality of benefices. On his conversion 
 he decided to give up all ecclesiastical revenues 
 and honors in order truly to follow in the footsteps 
 of Christ. For a year he acted as curate to a country 
 parish priest in order to study "the cure of souls." 
 He seems to have been greatly impressed by the doc- 
 trines of the anti-Christ whose domination seemed 
 apparent among all classes of people, especially 
 among the higher clergy, the monks, and the rulers 
 of the state. The quality of his courage may be 
 inferred from the fact that in an assembly attended 
 ' Palacky, Loc. cit. 
 
2o8 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 by Karl IV he declared in his sermon that the Em- 
 peror was no less than the great anti-Christ him- 
 self. The magnanimity of this Emperor was again 
 exhibited by twice interposing on behalf of the 
 prophet when he had to meet charges preferred 
 against him by the clergy to the Pope. The second 
 charge of heresy comprised twelve counts which 
 are worth repeating as throwing light upon the 
 prevalent ideas of heresy among the clergy. They 
 comprised his doctrine of anti-Christ, his denuncia- 
 tion of usury, his recommendation of frequent 
 reception of the communion by the laity ; his treat- 
 ment of the converted prostitutes, which was de- 
 scribed as, at the same time, too rigid and too len- 
 ient ; his denunciations of the clergy ; his attitude on 
 excommunication, which they declared he regarded 
 lightly; his alleged condemnation of the study of 
 the liberal arts; his forbidding of ornaments to the 
 wearing apparel of women ; his alleged haughtiness 
 and shielding of himself behind the worldly power, 
 which he was accused of arousing against the spirit- 
 ual; and, finally, upon his doctrine of "Evangelical 
 poverty, " which, they declared, would allow no pri- 
 vate possessions to the clergy. 
 
 The Bohemian prophetic movement culminated 
 in the persons of John Huss and Jerome of Prague, 
 avowed disciples of John Wycliffe, who were to suffer 
 the martyr's death for their adherence to the Eng- 
 lish reformer's doctrine. The immediate cause of 
 their trial was Huss's unsparing denunciation of a 
 bull of Pope John XXIII, in which he had granted 
 
Some Christian Insurgent Prophets 209 
 
 plenary indulgences to all who would take part 
 in a "Crusade" against Ladislaw, king of Naples. 
 This bull Huss condemned as utterly anti-Christian, 
 in that it was a summons to Christian men to shed 
 the blood of their fellow Christians, for no other 
 fault than obedience to their king. 
 
 The results of his boldness are familiar history — 
 the trial, excommunication, and execution of Huss 
 at the Council of Constance. The absolute wicked- 
 ness of the ecclesiastical injustice was well illustrated 
 in the violation of Huss's safe conduct, issued for 
 the purpose of luring him to his fate, on the ground 
 that there is no obligation on the part of the Church 
 to keep faith with a heretic. Among the monstrous 
 charges of which he was convicted was that he 
 claimed to be a fourth person of the Godhead — 
 co-equal with the Three Persons of the Trinity. 
 
 The martyrdom of Huss, and the means employed 
 to effect it, inflamed the national sentiment of the 
 Bohemians against the Papal tyranny. A revolu- 
 tionary movement was started under the leader- 
 ship of Zizka. The diabolical persecution which 
 ensued revived the Apocalyptic spirit of despair so 
 that many looked for the Apocalyptic miraculous 
 intervention of God to put an end to the reign of 
 anti-Christ. 
 
 The principles for which the revolutionists con- 
 tended were set forth in a statement known as the 
 "Four Articles" of which we quote the first and 
 third: " (i) That the Word of God shall be preached 
 and proclaimed by Christian priests in the kingdom 
 
2IO Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 of Bohemia, freely and without hindrance; (iii), 
 Since many priests and monks possess in a worldly 
 manner many earthly goods against the command 
 of Christ, to the destruction of their spiritual office 
 and to the disadvantage of the worldly orders, 
 therefore, that from such priests this lordship (con- 
 trary to the rules of their Order) should be taken 
 away and ended, and that they should be led in 
 the way of Christ to live as models according to 
 the Holy Scriptures." ^ It required no less than 
 five "Crusades," the participants in which received 
 full Papal indulgences, to suppress this reforma- 
 tory movement and to force the tyranny of the 
 Roman Catholic ascendency upon an unwilling 
 people, many of whose descendants to-day keep 
 alive a spirit of bitter resentment. 
 
 VI 
 
 Among the most conspicuous prophetic figures 
 of late mediaeval history is that of Savonarola, the 
 prophet monk of the Florentines. This friar of 
 St. Mark's was a diligent student of the ancient 
 Hebrew prophets and from their writings he drew 
 his favorite texts. He modeled his preaching upon 
 theirs, denouncing the hollowness of the gorgeous 
 ceremonial practices and the evil lives and hypoc- 
 risy alike of the nobility and of the exploiting priest- 
 hood. He accepted and applied to himselfthe title 
 of "prophet" with a full appreciation of the mean- 
 ing of the phrase, and though he shrank from the 
 ' Palacky, vol. Ill, part II, p. 135 f. 
 
Some Christian Insurgent Prophets 211 
 
 prophet's martyrdom he finally met it uncomplain- 
 ingly. After the example of Isaiah he undertook 
 a complete social and political reform of Florence. 
 Full justice has been done him in the classical work 
 of his biographer, Vilari. Because of the success 
 which attended his Florentine social reform, Vilari 
 declared of him that he "deserves to be ranked 
 among the greatest founders of republican states." ' 
 Perhaps his whole teaching can be summarized by 
 a brief extract from his fourteenth sermon on "Lib- 
 erty": "The only true liberty consists in the desire 
 for righteousness . . . What liberty is there in 
 being dominated by our own passions? . . . Citi- 
 zens, would ye be free? First of all, love God, love 
 your neighbor, love one another, love the general 
 welfare: and if ye have this love and union among 
 you, true liberty will be yours." ^ 
 
 Had Savanorola but included the precept "love 
 your enemies" and given it a universal application, 
 he would have here made a complete summary of the 
 prophetic Christian doctrine. 
 
 VII 
 It is with some hesitation that we connect the 
 "Humanism" of the "Oxford reformers" of 1496 
 with the insurgent prophetic movement. The trio 
 consisting of Erasmus, More and Colet whose fel- 
 low work has been so charmingly set forth in See- 
 
 '"Life and Times of Girolamo Savonarola," English trans- 
 lation, vol. I, p. 301. 
 
 » Quoted by Vilari, op. cit. vol. I, p. 338. 
 
 16 
 
212 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 bohm's "Oxford Reformers," may be character- 
 ized as having possessed the prophetic theology 
 without the prophetic spirit of self-sacrifice in mili- 
 tant devotion to the prophetic cause. They re- 
 main mere idealistic theorists, knowing the better 
 way but failing to do it. The paradox is illustrated 
 in the title of Erasmus' "Enchiridion" or "The 
 Handy-Book of the Christian Soldier." Erasmus 
 described his object in writing this book as follows: 
 "I wrote to display neither genius nor eloquence, 
 but simply for this, to counteract the vulgar errors 
 of those who think that religion consists in cere- 
 monies, in more than Jewish observances, while 
 they neglect what really pertains to piety. I have 
 tried to teach, as it were, the art of piety in the same 
 way as others have laid down the rules of (military) 
 discipline." But the defect of this manual is that 
 which we should expect of a writer on military tac- 
 tics who had never participated in a military cam- 
 paign, or himself submitted to the discipline of 
 military training. 
 
 Thomas More in his "Utopia" produced a com- 
 plete satire on the evils, political and ecclesiastical, 
 of his time. He also propounded a scheme of the 
 true organization of the social order that should be 
 founded upon the teachings of Jesus. But its very 
 title "Utopia" showed that he regarded it as an 
 impracticable dream. He showed men what was 
 the true social program of Jesus, which Jesus died 
 in order to bring to pass, and having drawn the 
 picture he practically abandoned it as useless. He 
 
Some Christian Insurgent Prophets 212, 
 
 remained one who said "and did not." He died 
 a martyr's death, not for the cause of the kingdom 
 of God but as a reactionary upholding the cause of 
 the Roman Church against a cause certainly worthy 
 of reprobation — that of the sensual exploiting king 
 Henry VHI. 
 
 Colet gave promise of great prophetic boldness, 
 when he denounced in St. Paul's Cathedral the 
 proposed invasion by Henry VHI of the soil of 
 France for selfish dynastic reasons, but he allowed 
 the king to trick him by the shallow pretense that 
 the proposed scheme of conquest was in reality but 
 a far-seeing measure of defense against future in- 
 vasions by France. This favorite device of autoc- 
 racies of justifying campaigns of conquest on the 
 pretext that they are defensive measures has shown 
 remarkable vitality in its survival to the present 
 day, and modern Colets seem not to be more suc- 
 cessful in dealing with the situation. 
 
 We now turn from this group of theorists who 
 seemed to have had a clear insight into the Chris- 
 tianity of Christ but failed to apply it, to the men 
 who identified Christianity with the Pauline inter- 
 pretation but took the risks of putting this Chris- 
 tianity of a secondary type to the actual task of 
 reforming the Church. 
 
214 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE SO-CALLED REFORMATION 
 
 The Reformation of Luther and Calvin reformed 
 the Church on the basis of those teachers' inter- 
 pretation of PauHnism which they identified with 
 Christianity. Therein consisted its weakness. With 
 Paul the scope of religion was confined to the cult, 
 a limited, though beloved community. Therefore 
 the so-called Reformation restricted itself to the 
 Reformation of the Church as its proper field. The 
 Christianity of Christ contemplated, not the erec- 
 tion of a cult but the renovation of human society 
 in its furthest reaches by incarnating the principles 
 of the prophetic theology and ethic in the body of 
 a community co-extensive with all the interests of 
 mankind. The Reformation of Luther and Calvin 
 met with a wide degree of success. But there was 
 also a contemporary attempt at a reformation of 
 the whole social order according to the program of 
 Jesus in the movement known as " Anabaptism." 
 This attempt failed and its failure was brought 
 about by the joint efforts of the older ecclesiasticism 
 and the newer Pauline ecclesiasticism of the Protes- 
 tant Reformers. 
 
 I 
 
 Though, as already said, the Reformation did not 
 succeed in reviving real Christianity, yet it accom- 
 plished much good in a negative way by making 
 
The So- Called Reformation 215 
 
 inroads upon the monopoly of ecclesiastical author- 
 ity and the doctrine which made "Divine" the 
 vested rights of Popes, bishops and the lower clergy. 
 But it accomplished harm in that while combating 
 one type of authority it established another of mixed 
 value. The doctrine of the equal Divine inspira- 
 tion of all parts of the Bible placed the sanction of 
 God equally upon the exploiting system of the 
 priestly code and the prophetic message which cut 
 at the root of the priestly scheme of external con- 
 trol of religion. This led to a synthesis of irrecon- 
 cilable opposites which has been responsible for the 
 failure of Protestantism to attain a true under- 
 standing of the real nature of Christianity, and has 
 been responsible for the multiplication of Protestant 
 sects. In place of the tyranny of the infallible 
 Church, it placed the tyranny of priestly theology 
 and ethics which was given an equal place with the 
 spiritual utterances of the representatives of the 
 prophetic revelation of the real Nature of God. 
 While it was doing this it erected in the place of 
 "the Divine right of the hierarchy" the "Divine 
 right of Princes" — a costly error which has become 
 one of the chief psychological sources of the present 
 world war initiated to extend the "Divine right" 
 of its fanatical upholder in the modern Kaiser to 
 cover a greater successor to the "Holy Roman 
 Empire." 
 
 The Reformation of Luther did much to put an 
 end to exploitation by the Church in Germany, but 
 Protestantism became subservient to the secular 
 
2i6 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 exploiting classes and became partaker with them 
 in the blood of the prophets of real religion. 
 
 The exploitations by the Roman Church which 
 had for centuries been extending its machinery of 
 exactions, realizing a revenue from baptisms, burials, 
 marriages, dispensations, requiem masses, as well as 
 from other sources, at length exploited the sale of 
 indulgences to a shameless and scandalous extent. 
 It was this, rather than any theological issue, which 
 at length awakened the reformatory zeal of Luther 
 to the publication of his famous "Ninety-Five 
 Theses" against the practice. Here are a few of the 
 popular doctrines preached by the peddlers of indul- 
 gences which Luther denounced and for which he 
 was condemned by the Papal Court. "They preach 
 man, who say that the soul flies out of purgatory as 
 soon as the money thrown into the chest rattles." ' 
 "Why does not the Pope empty purgatory for the 
 sake of most holy charity and of the supreme 
 necessity of souls — this being the most just of all 
 reasons — if he redeem an infinite number of souls 
 for the sake of that most fatal thing, money, to be 
 spent on building of basilica — this being a very 
 slight reason?" ^ The irony of the following was 
 well calculated to stir up the wrath of those who 
 were profiting by this traffic: "Again, what is this 
 new kindness of God and the Pope, in that, for 
 money's sake, they permit an impious man and an 
 enemy to God, to redeem a pious soul which loves 
 
 ' Thesis 27. 
 
 2 Thesis 82. 
 
The So- Called Reformation 217 
 
 God, and yet do not redeem that same pious and 
 beloved soul, out of free charity, on account of its 
 own need?" ^ "Christians should be taught that 
 he who gives to a poor man, or lends to a needy man, 
 does better than if he bought pardons. Because, 
 by works of charity, charity increases, and the man 
 becomes better; while, by means of pardons, he 
 does not become better, but only freer from pun- 
 ishment." 2 
 
 The chief power of the Roman Church to exploit 
 then rested, as it still rests to-day, upon the super- 
 stitious fears of men, carefully nourished by the 
 Church's teachers, from the days of childhood, that 
 rescue from eternal hell depends upon docile obedi- 
 ence to the dictations of the Church through its 
 clergy. 
 
 In the Pauline doctrine of justification by faith 
 alone, Luther sought to set men free from the fear 
 of the ecclesiastical control of their destinies by 
 placing the conditions of their own salvation en- 
 tirely within the reach of their own acts of faith. 
 The acceptance of this doctrine at once liberated 
 men both from the spiritual and the temporal 
 exploiting tyranny of the Church of Rome. 
 
 "All who believe in Christ," says Luther, "are 
 kings and priests in Christ." * As kings the Chris- 
 tians are "the freest of all men," as priests they 
 
 ' Thesis 84. 
 2 Theses 43 and 44. 
 
 'Tract on Christian Liberty, in "First Principles of the Ref- 
 ormation," Ed. Horace Wall, p. 114. 
 
2i8 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 have a dignity far higher, "because that by that 
 priesthood Christians are worthy to appear before 
 God, to pray for others, and to teach one another 
 mutually the things which are of God." * 
 
 As all believers are kings and priests, those 
 appointed to ofifice and administration in the 
 Church, are not called to rule, but in a special 
 sense are called to serve. The error of the Roman 
 Church consists in having reversed this Divine 
 order, for, in the words of Luther, it designates as 
 "Pope, bishop and lords," those whom the Scrip- 
 ture plainly calls "ministers, servants, and stew- 
 ards." "This bad system has now issued in such 
 a pompous display of power, and such a terrible 
 tyranny, that no earthly government can be com- 
 pared with it, as if the laity were something else 
 than Christians. Through this perversion of things, 
 it has happened that the knowledge of Christian 
 grace, of faith, of liberty, and altogether of Christ, 
 has utterly perished, and has been succeeded by an 
 intolerable bondage to human works and laws; and, 
 according to the Lamentations of Jeremiah, we 
 have become the slaves of the vilest men on earth, 
 who abuse our misery, to all the disgraceful and 
 ignominious purposes of their own free will." ^ 
 
 The reformatory consequences of this doctrine 
 may be seen to follow easily. Since all believers 
 are the Church, those who have arrogated to them- 
 selves the office of rulers, when they were intended 
 
 ^Op. cit. p. 115. 
 '' Op. cit. p. 117. 
 
The So-Called Reformation 219 
 
 to be but the servants of all, must be made to see 
 and feel their error. As the leaders of the Church 
 refuse to repent and reform themselves, then the 
 responsibility falls upon the laity of compelling 
 them to do so, no matter what the threats or pre- 
 tensions of the resisting officials. This line of 
 thought is developed to its logical conclusion in 
 his "Address to the German Nobility." He sum- 
 marized the situation in the following words: 
 
 The Romanists have, with great adroitness, drawn 
 three walls around themselves, with which they have 
 hitherto protected themselves, so that no one could 
 reform them, whereby all Christendom has fallen terribly. 
 
 Firstly, if pressed by the temporal power, they have 
 affirmed and maintained that the temporal power has no 
 jurisdiction over them. But on the contrary that the 
 spiritual power is above the temporal. Secondly, if it 
 were proposed to admonish them with the Scriptures, 
 they objected that no one may interpret the Scriptures 
 but the Pope. Thirdly, if they were threatened with 
 a Council, they pretended that no one may call a Council 
 but the Pope.^ 
 
 Luther follows Wycliffe in the belief that the 
 reformation of the Church could be accomplished 
 only through the instrumentality of the secular 
 power. Accordingly, it becomes necessary for him 
 to find moral grounds for this program. He finds 
 his basis in the doctrine of the universal priesthood 
 of all believers and of the Divine nature of the 
 
 1" Luther's Primary Works," edited by Henry Wace, D.D., 
 and C. A. Buchheim, Ph.D., Phil., 1885, p. 105. 
 
220 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 state. " Forasmuch as the temporal power has been 
 ordained by God for the punishment of the bad 
 and the protection of the good, therefore we must 
 let it do its duty throughout the whole Christian 
 body without respect of persons ; whether it strikes 
 Popes, bishops, priests, monks or nuns." ' 
 
 Luther succeeded in enlisting a large portion of 
 the German nobility in his reformatory movement. 
 But it is doubtful if the sense of duty as set forth 
 by Luther was a stronger element than the desire 
 of the secular rulers and of their subjects to be rid 
 of the ecclesiastical vampire that was sucking the 
 blood from the social and economic life of the 
 German states. It is interesting to note that 
 Luther shared the Apocalyptic expectation that 
 the world was soon to pass away and be super- 
 seded by the coming of the Kingdom of Christ 
 from above. This view has always paralyzed the 
 efforts on the part of men to usher in the Kingdom 
 of God as futile. 
 
 Luther regarded salvation from the purely per- 
 sonal point of view, and overlooked entirely the 
 social meaning of the doctrine of the Kingdom of 
 God. This is most clearly brought out in Luther's 
 catechism in the following questions and answers: 
 
 Q. Thy kingdom come, what is that? 
 
 A. God's kingdom assuredly comes without our 
 prayers, but we pray in this prayer that it may come 
 to us. 
 
 Q. How does this happen? 
 
 1 Op. cit. p. 23. 
 
The So-Called Reformation 221 
 
 A. When the heavenly Father gives us His Holy 
 Ghost so that through His grace we behave His Holy 
 Word, and live a godly life here in time and hereafter 
 in eternity. 
 
 Thus Luther transforms the Lord's Prayer for 
 the coining of the Messianic Kingdom to the world 
 into a prayer for the salvation of the individual 
 soul, against which quest Jesus warned those 
 who would be His followers. He thus throws away 
 the pivotal thought of Jesus' doctrine of the King- 
 dom. For the same reason and in like manner He 
 abandons the one vital thing in the Absolute ethic 
 of Jesus, the enacting clause. In place of this he 
 sanctions the principle of inconsistency or com- 
 promise between Christian faith and practice in 
 the most explicit terms. "A Christian contains 
 two persons, namely, a believing and spiritual, and 
 a civil or worldly. The believing endures all things, 
 does not eat or drink, does not beget children, nor 
 concern himself with worldly matters. But the 
 civil person is subject to worldly laws, and ordi- 
 nances, owes obedience and must defend and pro- 
 tect its own as the laws command." ^ 
 
 This fatal principle is not far removed from the 
 immoral principle underlying the cultus that there 
 was no connection between the worship of God and 
 the type of life of the worshipper. It sets up the 
 fatal double standard. It is a flat denial of the 
 
 'Quoted by F. G. Ward, "Darstellung und Wiirdigung der 
 Ansichten Luthers von Staat und seinen Wirtschaftlichen 
 Aufgaben," p. 16. 
 
222 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 warning of Jesus "Ye cannot serve God and Mam- 
 mon" which it paraphrases and contradicts at the 
 same time by the sentiment, "A man must serve 
 both God and Mammon. The spiritual person 
 within him is only concerned with God. The civil 
 person within him must serve mammon." Thus 
 Lutheranism sanctions a principle fatal to the under- 
 standing of the primary demand of Jesus that the 
 whole man — body, spirit, mind and will — should be 
 given to the loving service of God and brother man. 
 This fact explains why Lutheranism accomplished 
 its work when it reformed the abuses of the Church 
 and shows further why the whole weight of the 
 influence of Luther is cast in the way of the pro- 
 posal to reform the abuses of the secular order, and, 
 further, why it must be rejected by all who would 
 advance to the complete reformation of the world's 
 life under the leadership of Jesus Christ. 
 
 II 
 
 It is not necessary to our theme to point out 
 the differences between Lutheranism and Calvin- 
 ism in detail. It is enough to say that Calvin 
 considered that the daily life of the Christian man 
 should be made to conform to the law of God. His 
 system was far more favorable to democracy and 
 where Calvinism has prevailed there has been a 
 greater emphasis laid upon civil liberty than where 
 Lutheranism has had sway. But the stumbling 
 block of Calvinism is found in its restriction of 
 salvation to a comparatively small body of the 
 
The So-Called Reformation 223 
 
 elect, in its doctrine of predestination and in its 
 priestly theology which conceived of God as a 
 capricious and arbitrary Omnipotent despot. His 
 theology, therefore, contradicts the universalism of 
 the prophets and of Jesus and so limits the univer- 
 sal application of the law of love. For it is no 
 longer possible to ask frail man to love his enemies 
 when God hates His Own enemies with the bitter- 
 ness of hell. Like Lutheranism Calvinism also 
 failed to revive the Christianity of Christ. 
 
 HI 
 
 We now turn to see whether the English Ref- 
 ormation was more successful in transcending the 
 limitations of the cult idea and in recovering the 
 universalism of the true Christian theology and 
 ethic. 
 
 In its controversy with Protestantism, Anglican- 
 ism, through its accredited mouthpieces the bishops, 
 claims that because of its retention of the episcopal 
 office the Church of England and its allied com- 
 munions have remained in unity with the Apostolic 
 Church. It rejects many of the Roman Catholic 
 doctrines and practices but protests chiefly against 
 the papacy as an invasion of the final Apostolic 
 rights and equality of the College of Bishops. The 
 Anglican Church and its branches recognize the 
 "validity" of the Roman Catholic ministry and 
 the sacraments, but deny that quality to the 
 ministry and the sacraments of non-episcopal 
 bodies. Theoretically, it is only through the Holy 
 
224 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 Spirit transmitted through the hands of the bishop 
 that the sanction and presence of the Holy Spirit 
 may be secured. Therefore, those who forsake the 
 society of the bishops, separate themselves from 
 the fellowship of the Apostles and so place them- 
 selves outside the bounds of the One, Holy, Catholic 
 and Apostolic Church. Comparing this with our 
 foregoing study it is at once apparent that we have 
 the cult idea in a very exclusive form. It pays no 
 regard to the prophetic idea that the true relation- 
 ship of the soul to God is a personal and moral 
 relationship not dependent upon the mediation of 
 ecclesiastical go-betweens. In denying the doctrine 
 of the Apostolical Succession through the bishops 
 Protestantism comes nearer to the prophetic prin- 
 ciple of the freedom of the individual to unmediated 
 personal access to God. In the light of our investi- 
 gations if our contention has been maintained suc- 
 cessfully, that the Twelve Apostles immediately 
 after the death of Jesus committed themselves to a 
 doctrine of the Kingdom radically opposed to that 
 of their Master, the Apostolical Succession, though 
 an established fact, would yet remain unrelated to 
 the program of Jesus and without value, because 
 of the break in continuity between the religion of 
 Jesus and that of His earliest followers. 
 
 But the rejection of the Historic Episcopate by 
 many English-speaking Christians at the time of 
 the Reformation was not so much due to the 
 theoretical consideration as to the Protestant prin- 
 ciple formulated in the words of the late Father 
 
The So-Called Reformation 225 
 
 Tyrrell: "There can be no Apostolical Succession 
 apart from Christlikeness of character." 
 
 A study of some of the Puritan attacks upon the 
 Anglican Episcopate shows that they did not base 
 their rejection of the bishops upon the theoretical 
 view that the episcopate was not founded on 
 Scripture, but on the ground that the fruits of the 
 lives of the then bishops were incompatible with 
 their claim that the authority which they repre- 
 sented had its source in a commission of Jesus. ^ 
 
 The English Reformation as it was finally accom- 
 plished in Anglicanism was "A Reformation from 
 Above" — originating with the monarch. Parallel 
 with this there was undoubtedly a strong demo- 
 cratic reformatory movement following the lines 
 of Continental Protestantism. Its adherents for 
 the most part ultimately separated from the estab- 
 lished Church. 
 
 ' For the material that follows I am indebted to the graduating 
 thesis as yet in MS. form, of the Rev. T. M. Grififith, a graduate 
 of the Rochester Theological Seminary, entitled "The Eliza- 
 bethan Episcopate, an Historical Survey, and a Study of Martin 
 Marprelate's Charges against the Bishops." Among others he 
 quotes from the following sources, John Petheram, "An Epistle 
 to the Terrible Priests of a Convocation House'' (1843), (a 
 reprint) , and " An Epitome of the first book of Dr. John Bridge's ' ' 
 "Defense of the Church of England in Ecclesiastical Matters" 
 (1843), (a reprint), "Hay Any Work for Cooper" (1845), (a 
 reprint), "An Almond for a Parrot" (1846), (a reprint), "A 
 Pap with a Hatchet" (1844), (a reprint). Edward Arber, 
 "Early English Reprints," reprints I and H, English Scholars' 
 Library, 1878. William Pierce, "The Martin Marprelate Tracts" 
 (1911). 
 
226 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 Whatever may be thought of the claim that the 
 Apostolical Succession passed from the Roman 
 Catholic consecrators to their Anglican successors, 
 the Episcopal Succession of exploitation seems not 
 at this time to have been broken. 
 
 The Anglican bishops assumed a position of hos- 
 tility toward those of the Roman obedience. Each 
 denied the other's claim to jurisdiction. But both 
 kinds looked alike to the Protestant. The Anglican 
 bishops, in the words of the "Martinist" were 
 "petty anti-Christs, petty popes, proud prelates, 
 intolerable with standards of the Reformation, 
 enemies of the Gospel and most covetous wretched 
 priests." ' 
 
 Shakespeare with the insight of genius, makes 
 Cardinal Woolsey, on his downfall, lament that 
 he had not served his God with half the zeal that 
 he had served his king. He had been setting a 
 precedent which seems to have been followed by 
 the Elizabethan bishops who appear to have been 
 not only the appointees but also the tools of the 
 crown. To this Froude bears witness that Eliza- 
 beth in her choice of bishops "preferred persons 
 whom she could sound from their lowest note to 
 the top of their compass, and she accepted moral 
 defects in consideration of spiritual complacency." ^ 
 If they had grave faults her power over them was 
 the greater for she could threaten to depose them. 
 Among them were many "Calvinists or Lutherans 
 
 1 "Epistle to the Terrible Priests," p. 6. 
 
 ' Froude's "History of England," vol. I2, p. 22. 
 
The So-Called Reformation 227 
 
 with no special reverence for the office they had 
 undertaken; and she treated them in turn with 
 studied contempt. She called them 'Doctors' as 
 the highest title to which she considered them to 
 have any real right; and if they showed themselves 
 officious in punishing Catholics she brought them 
 up with a sharp reprimand ; and if their Protestant- 
 ism was conspicuously earnest they were deposed 
 and imprisoned." ^ Archbishop Parker, the Pri- 
 mate of the whole Church, seems to have been a 
 model of exploitation. Of him Froude says, "He 
 had been corrupt in the distribution of his own 
 patronage, and he sold his interest to others. No 
 Catholic prelate in the old easy times had more 
 flagrantly abused the dispensation system. Every 
 year he made profits by admitting children to the 
 cure of souls for money. He used a graduating 
 scale in which the price of inducting an infant into 
 a benefice varied with age, children under fourteen 
 not being inadmissible if the adequate fees were 
 forthcoming." ^ 
 
 Practically all the charges made against the 
 bishops and their clergy by William Langland in 
 the fourteenth century were now made by the 
 Puritans in the sixteenth. The Protestants were 
 Oppressed and suffered imprisonment, as true sons 
 of the prophets. The ecclesiastics, abusing their 
 civil powers, were the successors of those who had 
 persecuted the prophets. 
 
 1 Froude, op. cit. vol. 12, p. 568. 
 " Froude, op. cit. vol. 11, p. 100. 
 
 17 
 
228 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 In short, the English Reformation appears not so 
 much as a religious Reformation as an internal con' 
 flict for the control of the ecclesiastical political 
 machine. The English episcopate was a veritable 
 exploiting ecclesiastical autocracy and later Charles 
 I recognized that his own Autocracy and that of 
 the bishops stood or fell together. 
 
 To-day high Anglicans declare that Protestant- 
 ism, because of the lack of the episcopal order, is 
 "of men," whereas they assert Catholicism to be 
 "of God" because of the unbroken succession of 
 bishops which it maintains. Judging them "by 
 their fruits" the Puritans believed that the bishops 
 held their office not from God but from men. 
 Whatever the final verdict of history we may 
 plainly see that the bishops exercised such secular 
 lordship as the Gentiles used and even yet in Eng- 
 land their palaces and endowments and their title 
 of "my Lord" are felt by the common people out- 
 side the Anglican Church to represent more truly 
 their actual status than the claim which is put 
 forward in their behalf to be servants of God and 
 of the common people. 
 
 IV 
 
 Though Lutheranism and Calvinism put Paulin- 
 ism in place of the Christianity of Jesus, and though 
 Anglicanism maintained the idea of the exclusive 
 cult and gloried in it, yet the true Spirit of Jesus 
 was leading some of the more radical reformers, and 
 His movement might have come to its own among 
 
The So-Called Reformation 229 
 
 certain of the so-called Anabaptists, had His Cause 
 not been crucified afresh in the violent suppression 
 of these true Christians. 
 
 The Anabaptists started from the fundamental 
 precept of the prophetic theology, that the Spirit 
 of God comes to every man to guide him into the 
 truth and to sustain him in righteous conduct. In 
 place of the authority of the Church, and in place 
 of the authority of the letter of the Scripture, they 
 rejected all external authority except the direct 
 teachings of Jesus Himself as found in the Gospels 
 and as interpreted and applied in the individual 
 case by the Holy Spirit.' 
 
 The aptly named Zwickau prophets, speaking out 
 of their own religious experience, told of an inner 
 life, of a knowledge of God and friendship with 
 Him. For them the starting point was the Gospel 
 which Jesus proclaimed from the outset of His 
 ministry — faith and repentance toward God. Their 
 original leaders seemed to have been Max Stiibner, 
 Nicolaus Storch and Thomas Miinzer. The two 
 latter were Bohemians and so of the country which 
 had produced its share of prophets in the fourteenth 
 century. Miinzer was in priest's orders, "They 
 agreed with the rest of the reformers that the 
 standard of truth was the Bible, and that all things 
 
 1 An admirable history of this movement is found in Richard 
 Heath's "Anabaptism, from its rise in Zwickau to its fall in 
 Miinster," 1521 to 1536, London, Alexander & Shepheard, 
 Furnival Street, Holborn, 1895, to which I acknowledge indebt- 
 edness. 
 
230 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 must be reformed by the Word of God ; but no one, 
 they contended, could rightly understand the Scrip- 
 tures unless he was taught by the Holy Spirit. To 
 every one a measure of that Spirit was given, but 
 only to those who faithfully listened to its Voice 
 in their hearts would light arise as to the true 
 meaning of the Scriptures. And only those would 
 effect a reformation who were obedient to the com- 
 mands of Christ." 1 
 
 Here at last reformers begin to appear who go 
 back of Paulinism, which concerns itself only with 
 the internal life of the cult, to the teachings of Jesus 
 Himself which concern the organization of the life 
 of mankind. 
 
 Miinzer began by taking the Sermon on the 
 Mount as a program. He taught that on this as a 
 basis the real religion of Christ demanded a com- 
 plete reorganization of society and of state as well 
 as of the Church, into a democracy wholly ani- 
 mated by love and the law of service. The true 
 significance of the real message of Anabaptism has 
 been obscured by the emphasis laid upon the doc- 
 trine of adult baptism. But a little reflection will 
 enable us to understand why they regarded infant 
 baptism as a corruption. They must have refused 
 to believe the Romish doctrine that unbaptized 
 infants go to hell. They could find no warrant for 
 it in Scripture. Moreover, as baptism was the out- 
 ward symbol of repentance they could not see how 
 infants could repent before they had knowledge 
 ' Heath, op. cit. p. 2. 
 
The So-Called Reformation 231 
 
 and experience of sin. Apparently the Church was 
 full of men and women baptized in infancy who 
 were living lives contrary to the teachings of Jesus 
 without any reproach of conscience or serious effort 
 after real amendment. The truth was apparent 
 that baptism had ceased to be what it had been 
 in the New Testament, a symbol of death unto a 
 life of sin and a rising again into a life of righteous- 
 ness, and admission into a movement of men ready 
 to give their lives in the warfare of Christ's King- 
 dom. Instead, baptism had become a sacramental 
 initiatory rite into a cult, membership in which 
 was supposed to guarantee a happy immortality in 
 the world beyond, leaving its members free in this 
 present life to exploit their fellows and live the life 
 like that of the non-Christian world. The Ana- 
 baptists sought to give renewed significance to 
 baptism by making it the sign of self-consecration 
 to the Cause of the Kingdom of God on earth. 
 
 Luther combated their teachings and it is most 
 interesting to note that in doing so he was forced to 
 fall back upon something he had formerly rejected, 
 the authority of the Church and the consensus of 
 all Christians. Before he had met the prophets he 
 wrote to Melanchthon in June 17, 1552, in substance 
 as follows: 
 
 So far he had heard nothing of these preachers but 
 what Satan might say and do. Let them prove their 
 mission either by authority from the Church, or by 
 miracles. How do they know that children do not 
 believe? Faith is not always active, as for example, 
 
232 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 when we are asleep. Besides, may not the faith of others 
 be efficacious on their behalf? The universal agreement 
 of the whole Church about infant baptism is a miracle; 
 even the heretics acknowledge it." etc., etc.* 
 
 As the Zwickau prophets could get no hearing 
 from the reformers and as the ruling classes were 
 deaf to their arguments taken from Scripture (for 
 even the Lutheran nobles did not accept the author- 
 ity of Scripture teaching where it conflicted with 
 their own class interests), it was perhaps inevitable 
 that as the movement gained impetus it should 
 become actively revolutionary. The peasant ad- 
 herents of these leaders relied for a time upon the 
 good faith of the Protestant reformers. The 
 "Twelve Articles" which they drew up setting 
 forth their social rights as drawn from the Scripture 
 ended with this final Article: 
 
 If any of these Articles are contrary to the Scriptures 
 we will renounce them, or, if any in accordance with the 
 Scriptures have been omitted we hold ourselves bound to 
 accept and maintain them. The peace of Jesus Christ 
 be with every one. Amen. 
 
 But Luther ignored the challenge of their appeal 
 to Scriptural authority, knowing in advance, per- 
 haps, that they had the best of the argument. He 
 kept silent till at length the peasants, animated by 
 a spirit of zealotism sought by force of arms to win 
 their liberty. Then a very little demon of the 
 pagan Furor Teutonicus took possession of him and 
 
 1 Heath, op. cit. p. 5. 
 
The So-Called Reformation 233 
 
 he wrote with savage "ruthlessness," "In the case 
 of an insurgent every man is both judge and execu- 
 tioner. Therefore, whoever can should knock down, 
 strangle, and stab all such, privately or publicly, 
 and think nothing so venomous, pernicious and 
 devilish as an insurgent. ... It may happen 
 that he who is on the side of the authorities may be 
 killed. But if he fought with the conscientiousness 
 spoken of, he is a true martyr before God. . . . 
 On the other hand, that which perishes on the 
 peasant side is an everlasting hell brand. Such 
 wonderful times are these, that a Prince can merit 
 Heaven better with bloodshed than another with 
 prayer." ' 
 
 Here the fanatical Luther exhibiting the Apoca- 
 lyptic frenzy of hatred against those whom he 
 regarded as enemies speaks with the authority of a 
 Pope organizing so-called "Crusades" against re- 
 bellious Catholics and heretics, and promises the 
 equivalent of plenary indulgences to those whose 
 piety is shown in slaying. Alas, that the Lutheran 
 spirit of ruthlessness did not die with him! Prot- 
 estant and Catholic armies united to stamp out 
 this "evil" in which between one hundred and one 
 hundred and fifty thousand peasants lost their lives 
 fighting for liberty which by the standards of 
 Luther's infallible Scriptures they were entitled to 
 enjoy. 
 
 We have classified the Zwickau prophets and 
 their followers with the Anabaptists, but perhaps 
 ' Quoted by Heath, op. cit. p. 20, 
 
234 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 this title should properly be reserved for those 
 pacifists whose movement arose in Zurich under 
 the leadership of Wilhelm Reabali, Konrad Grebel 
 and Simon Stump, who separated themselves from 
 the reformer Zwingli. They refused to baptize 
 infants and formed a new religious community 
 founded upon the effort to practice the ethics of 
 Jesus. They baptized each other (not by immer- 
 sion, however), and thus began a short-lived sepa- 
 rate Church. They had in the main the same 
 beliefs as those of the Zwickau prophets about the 
 inner life, adding as an essential part of their pro- 
 gram the practice of non-resistance based upon the 
 Commission of Jesus to the Twelve. They held 
 (quite truly it would appear) that true Christians 
 are in the world like sheep among wolves. They 
 pledged themselves on no account to defend them- 
 selves from enemies or avenge wrongs done to them- 
 selves. The exploiting classes must have felt grave 
 alarm at this sudden manifestation of real Chris- 
 tianity. If it continued to spread it would revolu- 
 tionize the whole civilized order. Therefore, they 
 were persecuted alike by Protestants and Catho- 
 lics, by the ecclesiastical and secular rulers who 
 eagerly accepted the role of the wolves. 
 
 In 1526 by edict the Zurich Rath (Protestant) 
 threatened with death by drowning all who were 
 baptized anew. Three years later the Catholic km- 
 peror Charles V ordered all Anabaptists wherever 
 found to be put to death by fire or sword without even 
 the form of a trial. Many were cast into prison 
 
The So-Called Reformation 235 
 
 and met death at the stake or by drowning. Sebas- 
 tian Frank asserts that the number of these truly 
 Christian martyrs had reached two thousand by 
 the year 1530. 
 
 In all these persecutions they showed the spirit 
 of Jesus' exhortation: "Rejoice and be exceeding 
 glad, for so persecuted they the prophets which 
 were before you." As the Polish Cardinal, the 
 Bishop of Warmice, wrote of them : 
 
 "They are far readier than the followers of Luther and 
 Zwingli to meet death, and bear the hardest tortures for 
 their faith. For they run to suffer punishments, no 
 matter how horrible, as if to banquet." . . .' 
 
 Having seen the fate of these true adherents of 
 the prophetic program of Jesus at the hands of His 
 nominal adherents, it remains to examine the in- 
 ternal organizations as they were given the short- 
 lived opportunity to work them out. Their best 
 opportunity was found in Moravia which early 
 became a refuge for the Anabaptists and remained 
 so till the year 1526 when the Province fell to the 
 rule of the House of Austria, when their protection 
 was withdrawn. Here in a brief space they worked 
 out their community ideas. 
 
 There were here, at one time, eighty-six "house- 
 holds," 
 
 Under the system which Hutter is mainly credited with 
 developing, there was over each household one who took 
 
 1 Quoted in Encyl. Brit. Article "Anabaptists." 
 
236 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 the general superintendence, who was called the "house- 
 holder." With him were a number of persons called 
 "ministers of the necessities." Each household had a 
 common kitchen, common bakehouse, common brew- 
 house, a common room for child-birth, a common school- 
 house, another room for mothers with young infants, 
 and a common nursery in which the community sisters 
 looked after the children. Other sisters attended on the 
 sick. The old people were cared for with even more pains 
 and attention than the young, who were strictly kept 
 from the world, no mixed marriages being allowed. No 
 idler was permitted in the community. The meals were 
 common but each family had its own rooms. In the 
 morning, after silent prayer, they all went to work, some 
 in the fields, others in the workshops. They put their 
 wages into a common box, which was under the care of a 
 treasurer. Frugal living and assiduous working brought 
 wealth. The communities came to have lands, machinery 
 and shops. But their property was not used simply for 
 the benefit of the particular community that had earned 
 it, but for the whole body of baptized believers. Vice 
 was practically unknown; if any evils did arise the only 
 punishments resorted to were public reproof, suspension 
 of the communion of the Lord's Supper, and finally, 
 exclusion from the community. 
 
 It is said that the Moravian communities at this time 
 numbered seventy thousand persons. They refused no 
 one on account of poverty, if he gave evidence of being 
 born again. Their emissaries went in all directions.' 
 
 By a royal edict in 1535 King Ferdinand ordered 
 the Anabaptists expelled and the Moravian Diet 
 agreed. Hutter, their great organizer, was tortured 
 ' Heath, op. cit. pp. 69, 70. 
 
The So- Called Reformation 237 
 
 and burned in public in Innsbruck on the 24th of 
 February, 1536. 
 
 Thus once again the Spirit of Jesus seeking to 
 incarnate Itself in the whole life of a community 
 was quenched in a baptism of blood and fire by 
 those who held their victims to be "heretics" and 
 themselves to be true adherents of the Church of 
 Christ. 
 
238 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE RECOVERY OF A LOST CHRISTIANITY 
 
 Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the 
 
 throne, 
 Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind Ihe 
 
 dim unknown, 
 Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above 
 
 His Own. 
 
 We turn from the tragic picture of truth upon 
 the scaffold to the future vision of that truth upon 
 the throne. Truth crucified, defeated, rises ever 
 again from the tomb and ascends to the Right 
 Hand of God to return again to establish the ever- 
 lasting reign of the Republic of God . Though men 
 and nations may again and again put God out of 
 their hearts and lives yet mankind is continually 
 drawn by its supreme highest need to return to God. 
 Mankind has always felt and always will feel the 
 need of God. If a man rejects the Living God he 
 enthrones some idol of his own in the void. Even 
 the lowest materialist does this, and the lowest 
 type of materialist is the mammon-worshipper, 
 the man who translates the highest ideals of life, 
 religion, patriotism and art — into terms of com- 
 mercialism or exploitation. All exploiters are in 
 essence idolaters, whose God is the foe of the Liv- 
 ing God. 
 
Recovery of a Lost Christianity 239 
 
 I 
 
 A system of thought or a " Lebensanschauung" 
 may become an idol placed on the altar of an indi- 
 vidual's or a nation's life driving out the Shekinah 
 of God. Such a system of thought is found in 
 materialistic neo-Darwinism. This creed is the 
 chief modern intellectual antagonist of the true 
 Christian doctrine. Let us for a moment contrast 
 them. Christianity teaches that men are in reality 
 spiritual beings. Each individual, however fettered 
 to an evolving animal organism, has a transcendent, 
 eternal value. Each man, however submerged, is 
 ' ' an eternal differentiation of the Absolute. ' ' Chris- 
 tianity teaches " the potential equality of all spirits." 
 The great heresy is the denial of this doctrine whether 
 by precept or by practice. Therefore, the wilful 
 subordination of the weaker by the stronger (exploi- 
 tation) is the chief deadly sin. The neo-Darwinian 
 theory holds the opposite. Weak individuals and 
 weak peoples exist to be used, dominated and ex- 
 ploited by the strong. This is a modern analogue 
 of the tribal idea that God has a few favorites and 
 those not His favorites exist only for Sthe benefit of 
 the "chosen people." 
 
 While rejecting all traditional religions, modern 
 leaders of thought, particularly in Germany, have 
 revived the equivalent of the ancient tribal cults. 
 This point of view is clearly brought out in the fol- 
 lowing quotation : 
 
 The creed of the AUmacht of a natural selection, based 
 
240 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 on violent struggle, is the Gospel of the German intel- 
 lectuals; all else is illusion and anathema. . . . 
 
 This struggle must not only go on, but it should go on, 
 so that this natural law may work out in its cruel, inevi- 
 table way, the salvation of the human species. By its 
 salvation is meant its desirable natural evolution. The 
 human group which is in the most advanced evolutionary 
 stage as regards internal organization and form of social 
 relationship is best, and should, for the sake of the spe- 
 cies, be preserved at the expense of the less advanced, 
 the less effective. It should win in the struggle for ex- 
 istence, and this struggle should occur precisely that the 
 various types may be tested, and the best not only pre- 
 served, but put in a position to impose its kind of social 
 organization, its Kultur, on the others, or, alternatively, 
 to destroy and replace them.' 
 
 II 
 
 The destiny of mankind will be ultimately de- 
 termined by which of these two interpretations of 
 life wins the victory over the thought and practice 
 of the human race. There are no other alternatives. 
 If the Christian doctrine of Heaven on earth does 
 not triumph, the evolutionary doctrine will see to 
 it that the past and present Hell on earth shall be 
 perpetuated. There can be no middle ground be- 
 tween the triumph of Heaven and the triumph of 
 Hell, and no soul can remain neutral. The neutral 
 is already an agent of Hell — a subject of the Em- 
 pire of Evil. "He that is not for us is against 
 
 1 Vernon Kellogg, "Headquarters Nights," Article in Atlantic 
 Monthly, August, 1917. 
 
Recovery of a Lost Christianity 241 
 
 us." The neutral is the enemy of Christ. All the 
 prophets press for a decision. "Choose ye this day 
 whom ye will serve. If Jehovah (the God of the 
 prophets) be God, serve Him ; if Baal (the God of 
 the cult of the exploiters) be God, serve Him." He 
 who hesitates is lost. ' ' No man can serve two mas- 
 ters." 
 
 Ill 
 
 The object of this book has been to discover and 
 state just what Christianity is. In order to do so 
 it has been necessary to distinguish between "His- 
 toric Christianity" and the Christianity of the 
 Founder. If our quest has been successful the 
 following facts have been established: The world's 
 greatest need as in the past so to-day is to under- 
 stand and follow the Christianity of Christ. One 
 of the younger leaders of American philosophical 
 thought recently expressed to me the conviction 
 that "the discovery and statement of what Chris- 
 tianity really is, is the most important service 
 which a man can render the world to-day." 
 
 Christianity is not the religion of a cult but tran- 
 scends all cults in that it is the ultimate universal 
 world-religion adapted to the needs of every individ- 
 ual and of every race and of the world taken as a 
 whole. Of this religion various cults, large and 
 small, are but "broken lights." This universal 
 religion was not the discovery of Jesus. He recog- 
 nized it as having been in the world before Him and 
 as having already been preached by the prophets. 
 
242 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 We have confined our study to the prophets of 
 Israel because they are in the line of the prophetic 
 succession of Christianity. The study of compara- 
 tive religion is teaching us that prophetism is not 
 confined to any race of men. We have now to ad- 
 mit that all true prophets are spokesmen of the 
 Holy Spirit. These true prophets may be dis- 
 cerned by their adherence to the following pro- 
 phetic truths : — The infinite worth of the individual ; 
 the universal Fatherhood of God ; and the universal 
 Divine Community embracing the potential equal- 
 ity of all spirits ; and the ultimate solidarity of God 
 and mankind in the Divine Community of the King- 
 dom of God. Wherever these truths are felt and 
 accepted there is the Eternal Logos of God, "the 
 Light which enlightens every man ; " ^ there is Chris- 
 tianity, there is the transcendent and immanent 
 Christ Himself. This truth is embraced in the 
 universalism of Jesus and His statement "He that 
 is not against us is for us." 
 
 Some day the writings of the prophets of the Far 
 East will be gathered together in one volume with 
 the prophets of the Near East and of the West into 
 a universal "Holy Scripture" of the Kingdom of 
 God, and the spiritual forces of the ends of the earth 
 shall unite and find universal recognition as the 
 Inspired Word of a world community gathered into 
 the fold of the Great Shepherd — God. 
 
 1 John 1 : 9 (Moffat's version). 
 
Recovery of a Lost Christianity 243 
 
 IV 
 
 As we have said "Historic Christianity" has 
 fallen far short of the universalism of the Founder. 
 Catholicism by its very name asserting a claim to 
 universalism has been false to true Catholicity in 
 that it has remained the theocratic religion of a 
 dominating cult. Protestantism passed over the 
 universal ethic and theology of Jesus to accept the 
 Pauline view of the elect. This fact was not grasped 
 by the late Prof. Royce in his otherwise truly Chris- 
 tian contribution, "The Problem of Christianity."' 
 
 He takes the limited community idea of St. Paul 
 and makes its application universal. Thus he sup- 
 plements the Pauline idea of the community with 
 that of Jesus. In spite of this fact Royce remained 
 a Protestant in spirit though a Christian in theory. 
 This came out in his unhappy bitterness toward 
 the German people after the beginning of the world 
 war. His Protestantism prevented him from mak- 
 ing an application of the difficult principle of Jesus' 
 "Love your enemies," to those whom he considered 
 the enemies of the universal community. But in 
 regard to this it is to be said that Royce's abiding 
 influence will proceed from that which he said 
 while on the heights rather than from the sad ut- 
 terances of one in the depths of disappointed sorrow. 
 
 The supernatural character of Christianity comes 
 out in contrast to the best of human philosophy in its 
 possession of undying hope, and men of Christian 
 
 ' See above, p. 166. 
 18 
 
244 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 vision are seeing even in the presence of this dark- 
 ness strong reasons for hope that Christianity, that 
 is, real Christianity, is about to come into its own. 
 There are two reasons which we will now mention 
 both of which appear paradoxical. The first is the 
 recognition quite commonly made that the Chris- 
 tianity of the cult is not the Christianity of the 
 Founder. The colossal inconsistency of nations 
 praying to the same God for strength to injure 
 other nations is clearly seen. Also, the claim of 
 one nation that God regards it as His chosen people 
 provokes the derisive mirth of those who have ceased 
 to fear the ancient tribal God. The second reason 
 for hopefulness lies in that which the adherents of 
 the cult have held to be discouraging, namely, the 
 loss of the hold of the organized Christian bodies 
 as such on the minds alike of intellectual leaders 
 and of the estranged "masses." This would in- 
 deed be discouraging if it meant that men were re- 
 jecting the cult ethic and the cult theology and its 
 organized representatives because they felt no need 
 of the true God and of the coming of His Kingdom. 
 On the contrary, an appreciation of the ethic and 
 and theology of Jesus is nowhere more enlightened 
 than it is among many who have rejected "Historic 
 Christianity." This is the theme of a book which 
 has recently appeared which in spite of a failure of 
 insight on important problems on the part of its 
 author nevertheless expresses the central truth of 
 importance. The fact which we have just stated 
 is brought out in the following quotation from H. 
 
Recovery of a Lost Christianity 245 
 
 G. Wells's "God the Invisible King," quoted with 
 approval on the cover of a recent number of The 
 Churchman. 
 
 All mankind is seeking God. There is not a nation 
 nor a city in the globe where men are not being urged at 
 this moment by the Spirit of God in them towards the 
 discovery of God. This is not an age of despair, but an 
 age of hope in Asia as in all the world besides. The King- 
 dom of God on earth is not a metaphor, not a mere spirit- 
 ual state, not a dream, not an uncertain project; it is 
 the thing before us, it is the close and inevitable destiny 
 of mankind. In but a few centuries God will have led 
 us out of the dark forest of these present wars and con- 
 fusions into the open brotherhood of His rule. God 
 takes all. He takes you, blood and bones and house and 
 acres, He takes skill and influence and expectation. For 
 all the rest of your life you are nothing but God's agent. 
 
 Mr. Wells's chief defect is his failure to discover 
 that the best part of his religion is but a restate- 
 ment of the Gospel of Jesus and in his failure to real- 
 ize that we are not merely the "agents," but also 
 the eternal sons of the everlasting, ultimately victo- 
 rious and triumphant Eternal God, Who is achiev- 
 ing the infinitude which Wells seems to deny Him. 
 
 V 
 
 The most serious problem is what to do with the 
 existing cults. They are at present the most diffi- 
 cult obstacles in the way of the realization of the 
 Kingdom of God. This in spite of the fact, per- 
 haps because of it, that they hold themselves to be 
 the true and final channels of the Kingdom. They 
 
246 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 are competitors of the Kingdom because their ad- 
 herents beHeve that the most important thing they 
 can do is to build up the cult if need be at the ex- 
 pense of all other cults. They teach their adher- 
 ents, and require their ministers to teach, that the 
 traditional theology which their founders formulated 
 is the highest expression of theological truth and 
 when real Christianity arises to show the falsity and 
 limitations of their interpretations they are ready 
 to cast it out, together with its adherents, as hereti- 
 cal. The minister of a Church instead of being 
 primarily a prophet of the Kingdom is a leader of 
 a localized branch of his cult and his first task is to 
 extend its membership, its influence, and its income. 
 His own success is measured by the extent to which 
 he can make his parish or congregation prosperous. 
 
 As the existing Churches are organized on the 
 basis of an exploiting economic system and as he 
 must win the allegiance of the successful men of the 
 community, usually members of exploiting classes, 
 in order to succeed, the minister must become the 
 beneficiary of exploitation. Either he must break 
 with the established order or renounce success, as 
 usually understood. He must become a prophesier 
 of smooth things, a false prophet, or else risk such 
 dangers as have confronted the true prophets in all 
 ages, and bear the odium of denominational disloy- 
 alty and heresy. 
 
 Yet the situation is not altogether hopeless. Each 
 denomination is founded, in its own view, on the 
 pure teaching of Christ and His Leadership. The 
 
Recovery of a Lost Christianity 247 
 
 man who is loyal to these is loyal to the higher al- 
 legiance of the cult itself, even though he rejects 
 the traditional interpretation of the cult's theology. 
 It is the duty, therefore, of every Christian minister 
 to teach the theology of Jesus as clearly as he may 
 be able to comprehend it, no matter where it con- 
 flicts with the inherited opinion of his sect. He 
 may do this with a better hope because of the large 
 number within all the cults who have already swung 
 away from and abandoned the inadequate theology 
 of the cults' founders. The following practical sug- 
 gestion of Royce is here very much in place: 
 
 What is practically necessary, therefore, is this: Let 
 your Christology be the practical acknowledgment of the 
 Spirit of the universal and beloved community. This 
 is the sufhcient and practical faith. Love this faith, 
 teach this faith, preach this faith, in whatever words, 
 through whatever symbol, by means of whatever forms 
 of creeds, in accordance with whatever practices you 
 find best to enable you with sincere intent and a whole 
 heart to symbolize and to realize the Spirit in the com- 
 munity.^ 
 
 Judge every social device, every proposed reform and 
 every local enterprise by the one test: Does this help 
 towards the coming of the universal community? If 
 you have a church, judge your own church by this stand- 
 ard; and if your own church does not yet fully meet this 
 standard, aid in reforming your church accordingly. 
 If . . . you hold the true church to be invisible, require 
 all whom you can influence to help render it visible.^ 
 
 1 "The Problem of Christianity," vol. II, p. 428. 
 
 2 Op. cit. vol. II, p. 431. 
 
248 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 The principle of Jesus "Whoso seeketh to save 
 his Hfe shall lose it, and whoso loseth his life for My 
 sake and the Gospel's, shall find it," should be taken 
 by the cults as their immediate guide. The cult 
 exists only for the Kingdom and it should seek to 
 die, if necessary, in order that its sacrificial death 
 may usher in the Kingdom and that it may live 
 again as a part of the Universal Community. 
 
 The failure of "Historic Christianity" to realize 
 this goal has been due to "the combined wayward- 
 ness of the religious caprices of all Christian man- 
 kind" (Royce). One who has had experience in 
 modern Church life must feel that whereas way- 
 wardness and caprice are still strong in the cults, 
 in view of the seriousness of the eternal issues in- 
 volved, it is high time for the cults to waive all 
 petty questions and seek to lose their lives in the 
 true Church of Christ. 
 
 For the true Church ... is still a sort of ideal chal- 
 lenge to the faithful, rather than an already fulfilled 
 institution — a call upon men for a heavenly quest, rather 
 than a present possession of humanity. "Create me" — 
 this is the word that the Church, viewed as an idea, ad- 
 dresses to mankind.' 
 
 VI 
 
 Educational institutions should have a large 
 share in contributing to the campaign of education 
 for the spread of an understanding of what Chris- 
 tianity really is. The department of literature 
 should teach the results of scientific literary criti- 
 - Royce, op. cit. vol. I, p. 54. 
 
Recovery of a Lost Christianity 249 
 
 cism of Biblical literature. The department of 
 philosophy should include courses on the apprecia- 
 tion of the intellectual value of a theology of the 
 prophets and of Jesus. The course in ethics should 
 lay chief stress upon the universal absolute ethics 
 of Jesus. The department of economics has a won- 
 derful opportunity to show how the law of service 
 could be made the basis of economic life in produc- 
 tion and distribution, and how the present system 
 of exploitation could be made to give way to a social 
 organization animated by the teachings of Jesus. 
 The department of history should present a scien- 
 tific impartial account of Church History and insti- 
 tutions, showing wherein they succeeded or failed 
 in expressing the underlying thought and Mind 
 of the Master. Every well-equipped University 
 should have courses in Comparative Religion which 
 should aim to discover and recognize the principles 
 of the universal religion wherever found. 
 
 VII 
 
 The greatest opportunities from the educational 
 point of view remain with the institutions of the 
 Christian family and of the converted Christian 
 parish or congregation. At present parents with 
 liberal views hesitate to teach their convictions 
 about religion to their children out of a false rever- 
 ence for the traditional orthodox views which they 
 themselves have rejected. The opportunity of 
 the father and mother is vast when we recall that 
 they deal with those who are by nature members 
 
250 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 of the Kingdom of Heaven. In teaching religion 
 to their children parents should also remember the 
 advice of Jesus to learn about the Kingdom from the 
 children themselves. This will teach them the 
 proper reverence for childhood which must lie at 
 the basis of every happy family life. 
 
 The educational opportunities of the converted 
 parish church or congregation are almost as great. 
 We already have churches which gladly welcome 
 the preaching of the "Social Gospel." At present 
 this is generally rather tolerated than taken as a 
 practical program of the parish life. The "Social 
 Service" of the parish in the main is usually con- 
 fined to the employment of a staff of paid social 
 workers, "Parish Visitors," "Visiting Nurses," 
 and the like. What is needed is an application of 
 this principle to the total parish life. The social 
 Gospel of the prophets and Jesus should be dis- 
 criminatingly taught in the Sunday Schools, and 
 the laity should recognize the demands which that 
 Gospel makes upon them in the effort toward the 
 purifying and reorganizing of the life of the com- 
 munity. The prophetic Gospel was a "lay Gospel." 
 It consists not merely in words or ceremonial acts 
 but in a life of service. It demands not merely 
 "sayers" but "doers." The laity are those who 
 must finally abolish the evils of exploitation and. 
 reorganize our economic system on the basis of serv- 
 ice. The Churches can only continue to survive if 
 they contribute to a new and final reformation not 
 restricted to the idea of the Church itself as a sepa- 
 
Recovery of a Lost Christianity 251 
 
 rate institution, not even restricted to the idea of 
 organized Christianity saving itself by pooling its 
 interests in one great unified religious cult, but a 
 reformation contemplating the whole program of 
 Jesus Christ for world redemption. 
 
 VIII 
 
 One portion of the Church's opportunity for 
 serving the interests of the community, it has ap- 
 preciated perhaps better than the rest, namely, 
 the moulding of the individual life through teaching 
 men to pray — both privately and in common wor- 
 ship. Prayer concerns the very well-springs of 
 life and character. It is the primary means of at- 
 taining the God-consciousness apart from which 
 there would be no basis for the hope of the Kingdom 
 of God, but even in this department the Church 
 can render far greater service than ever in the past, 
 by making its services conform to the larger vision 
 of the real teaching of Christ and bringing it into 
 conscious relationship with the coming of the King- 
 dom. To do this it requires nothing more than to 
 interpret and extend its universal model the "Lord's 
 Prayer." Men put the highest and best of them- 
 selves into prayer. They must extend this into 
 the life of the community. The ideal is expressed 
 as the movement to incarnate the Spirit of Jesus 
 in humanity beginning with the smaller units of 
 the community and extending that Spirit by the 
 leavening process till the whole of mankind is trans- 
 formed into the Body of Christ. 
 
252 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 IX 
 
 So far but little has been said on the question of 
 individual immortality. This doctrine is found 
 only by implication in the teachings of the prophets 
 and is but little stressed in the teachings of Jesus. 
 This contrasts with the attitude of the Mystery 
 Cults whether Greek or Christian which make the 
 achievement of a happy immortality the first object 
 of their quest. 
 
 Jesus warned men against this quest as liable 
 to defeat its own end. Yet His thought becomes 
 utterly unintelligible unless the doctrine of individ- 
 ual immortality is recognized as everywhere under- 
 lying His teaching. It is inseparable from the doc- 
 trine of the infinite value of the individual man. 
 Once this idea is acted upon, a belief in immortality 
 becomes natural and inevitable instead of being an 
 effort to trust "the larger hope." One reason why 
 the quest for immortality is not stressed by Jesus 
 is because He believed it the present possession of 
 all men. 
 
 The doctrine of immortality is obscured and 
 weakened by our common social practices in treat- 
 ing men as objects to be exploited. As it was a 
 principle of the Kantian ethic always to treat hu- 
 manity as a person and never as a thing, much more 
 was it the underlying precept of the ethics of Jesus. 
 Men who live up to this cannot doubt immortality. 
 It will become a perfectly natural and spontaneous 
 belief on the part of all men in a community which 
 
Recovery oj a Lost Christianity 253 
 
 treats individuals as immortal and not as mere 
 wheels or parts in an economic machine. 
 
 One aspect of the aspiration after immortality 
 is the ambition of men to achieve greatness. 
 
 The quest for greatness and the leaving behind 
 of an immortal name has too commonly followed 
 the line of ambitious exploitation. It has sought 
 the greatness of the individual through the subor- 
 dination of other individuals. The folly and empti- 
 ness of this kind of fame and greatness has been 
 set forth by all great thinkers and by the poets of 
 real insight into life who could not yet set aside 
 their own desire for greatness. For after all, great- 
 ness is inherent in the idea of the full development 
 of every man. Greatness truly conceived must be 
 democratized and universalized. It must be pos- 
 sible for every man who strives for the mastery 
 to win the prize. 
 
 Jesus points the way through which alone any 
 may become great and at the same time the way 
 in which the attainment of greatness is open to all 
 men and may become their common possession. 
 He points the goal of the highest ambition in the law 
 of service. This ambition He proclaims as the chief 
 end of His Own Mission. He Himself came not to 
 exploit but to serve — "Not to be ministered unto 
 but to minister." He defines true greatness and 
 universalizes it in one sentence "He that would 
 be greatest among you, let him be the servant of all." 
 Thus ambition is not destroyed but directed to the 
 only true goal. 
 
254 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 In solving the problem of human existence Jesus 
 also interprets the meaning of the physical universe. 
 It is the Father's house of many mansions. The 
 stars, the suns, and their encircling universes of 
 planets are the eternal dwelling places of the Spirits 
 and serve the ends of spiritual beings. By this 
 thought the whole bulk of physical matter is sacra- 
 mentalized — becomes sacred. The material uni- 
 verses already obey the rule of God in the only way 
 which impersonal objects can, through obedience 
 to the reign of law. Eternal spiritual beings like 
 men cannot thus be ruled by external compulsion 
 but through moral influence. When men have 
 come voluntarily to find their places in the Home 
 and Family of God and shall have established the 
 universal Reign of God in their own lives and in 
 the lives of the Universal Community they will then 
 find themselves at home in the splendid material 
 universe the only worthy House of God which even 
 so cannot contain Him. But what material uni- 
 verses cannot do, any individual man may be able 
 to do — contain the whole life of God within himself. 
 This is the ultimate goal of human individuals and 
 till it has been reached and the Kingdom established 
 on earth, we may not cease to pray — 
 
 Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done On Earth As 
 It Is In Heaven. Amen, So Be It, Lord. 
 
 X 
 
 In the present crisis humanity again stands at the 
 parting of the ways. Once again the Eternal Al- 
 
Recovery of a Lost Christianity 255 
 
 ternative presents itself afresh, False Messiahs 
 have come claiming to be the Lord's Chosen and 
 Anointed Ones and have indeed deceived the very 
 elect, who have fallen down and worshipped the 
 Devil who promised them all the kingdoms of the 
 earth as a reward for submission. The diabolical 
 instruments of fomented hatreds, fair and lying 
 words, broken faith, collective assassinations have 
 been invoked in behalf of a world Kultur based 
 upon force. The bribe which the true Messiah 
 spurned on the Mount of Temptation has been 
 eagerly embraced by those who claimed the Divine 
 right through God's grace to shatter the nations 
 and shepherd them with the iron flail of a tribal 
 demi-god. The Judas bribe has increased from 
 thirty silver pieces to no less than the world itself. 
 
 For centuries self-styled Christians have been 
 carrying on a side enterprise in exploitation. Now 
 the issue has been brought to its logical culmination 
 and attained cosmic proportions. The world is 
 reaping the fruits of the leadership of false Messiahs. 
 Satan is paying back the harvest of tares. The 
 hour of the Kingdom has again struck. Will man- 
 kind repudiate its false Messiahs, its demi-gods, its 
 mammons? Will it heed the Message of the true 
 Messiah, the Son of Man? 
 
 Jesus preached but one sermon — He had but one 
 theme — the Kingdom of God, — the way and the 
 means of its coming. His followers to-day should 
 take up and echo that strain till it reverberate in 
 the thundertones of a great multitude of prophetic 
 
256 Religion: Its Prophets and False Prophets 
 
 messengers — "Repent ye, for the reign of God is 
 at hand . " " Repent ' ' — that is — ' ' Get a new mind ; " 
 "Get a new insight into the real meaning of life and 
 reorganize your own life in union with it" — "See 
 world history in the light of the Will and Plan of 
 God and set your own will in co-operation with 
 His." 
 
 Let Omar and his cult turn from the mournful 
 plaint — 
 
 Ah Love, could you and I with Him conspire, 
 To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire — 
 Would not we shatter it to bits — and then 
 Remould it nearer to the Heart's Desire? 
 
 and let the men of this generation arise — and now 
 if the shattering process has gone far enough, — 
 let collective humanity under God remould "the 
 scheme of things entire" nearer to the desire of the 
 battered, bleeding, broken hearts of the sons and 
 daughters of men — nearer to the heart of the suf- 
 fering Son of Man — nearer to the Heart and Mind 
 of the Universal God and Father of all souls. 
 
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