The old scholastic ideas of “total hereditary depravity, and miraculous
conversion,” with their correllates, have driven more minds into doubt and
skepticism than most of men are apprised of. The reasons are evident.
First. Common sense shrinks from them as ideas which are destructive of
every principle of human responsibility. Second. They are opposed to the
testimony of consciousness which asserts the soul’s freedom. Third. They
are opposed to correct ideas of justice as it is administered in all
governments, both human and divine.
“And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us to know
good and evil.” Our fathers, of Calvinistic type of faith, used to tell us
that this language only asserted Adam’s experience of conscious guilt;
that he knew good before he transgressed, and had experimental knowledge
of evil after he transgressed. This was the best they could do and save
their Calvinism, and even this would not have saved it in the days of
investigation like ours. The Lord did not say, “The man is become as one
of us knowing good and evil,” but “the man is become as one of us _to
know_ good and evil.” The old view of the subject virtually says, The Lord
had experimental knowledge of both good and evil, and that the way in
which Adam became Godlike was the way of the transgressor. Then the
greatest Godlikeness is the result of the greatest sinning. _What
nonsense!_ The Bible says: “And the eyes of them both were opened, and
they knew they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made
themselves aprons.” The account also asserts that the “tree of knowledge
of good and evil” was “a tree to be desired to make one wise.” Total
depravity and its correllates could never have been found in this context.
This history is not responsible for it, nor for the mischiefs it has
produced.
The Heavenly Father knew, when he created man, that he would fail upon
trial. To have prevented this would have been nothing short of an
interference with man’s freedom, and consequently his responsibility,
without which he could not have been man. The Lord saw man in his alien
state and in his return to holiness. He “made of one blood all nations of
men to dwell upon all the face of the earth, and determined the times
before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation, that they _should
seek the Lord_.”—See Acts 17: 26. It was necessary that man should become
as God _to know good and evil_ in order that he might be continued upon
trial in a world of good and evil. To this end the Divine Ruler placed in
the test fruit, the fruit of the tree that was forbidden, a mental lever
to endow man with wisdom as God to know good and evil, without which the
man’s responsibility in relation to good and evil could never have been.
The fruit of the tree of life was for man’s physical nature; was to
control the law of organic being, regulating waste and supply so as to
prevent the present effects of old age, and keep man in perpetual
conditions of youth. After man had sinned, with the knowledge of good and
evil, he was master of his position, and now, lest he “put forth his hand
and take of the tree of life, and eat and live forever,” subjected to
shame, to torment, to anguish and tribulation, mental suffering, a lost
being in the state of abandoned fallen angels, with a possibility of
corrupting his conscience until it should be past feeling, seared as with
a hot iron, and so glory in his shame; or, otherwise, be beyond the motive
power of life and the restraining power of death, the Infinite One placed
him beyond the reach of the tree of life. All of these ways or doings of
the Heavenly Father were right, were merciful, were best for man. THE WAYS
OF GOD ARE RIGHT. THE WAYS OF GOD ARE BEST. Farewell to “total hereditary
depravity, and farewell to all its necessary correllations, such as
miraculous conversion,” etc.
Man is mentally endowed with wisdom by the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil; is kept from ruining himself forever by being placed beyond the
reach of the tree of life; is continued upon trial in a world of good and
evil; is responsible through his knowledge of good and evil, and the
motive power of life, and the restraining power of death is preserved to
control him for his own eternal good; and, blessed be the name of our
Heavenly Father, his eyes are open; so if man goes to perdition he must go
_with his eyes open_. In all this we have perfect harmony with all Bible
duty and truth, and also with science and universal consciousness of
freedom and ability to choose and act. Not by a hair’s breadth has God
ever infringed upon the freedom of the soul to shape and mould its own
moral character, and shape its own moral destiny; but he has done many
wonderful things to better the condition of the free soul—not forsaking it
in the hour of greatest need.
The soul’s free, voluntary service is that which constitutes the
requirement of religion in all the ages.