Conclusion
The Duty of Embracing the Christian Religion
Man’s absolute dependence upon God obliges him to submit to every divine command, no matter whether it is expressed in human nature or in a positive divine ordinance. We have demonstrated in this volume that on two separate and distinct occasions such supernatural ordinances of the divine will were manifested to man on a large scale. The first was directed to a single nation, the second to the whole of mankind. As in the Old Testament the Jewish people were obliged to accept the revealed truths and to submit to the revealed precepts of God, so in the New Testament all men are obliged to accept the teaching of Christianity and to live up to that teaching in their daily life.
The proof of this thesis is based upon the nature of the Christian religion. A religion which presents itself as the only true religion, obliging all men for all time, must be accepted by all; for every man is in duty bound to accept that religion which he recognizes as prescribed by God. Now the New Testament revelation shows that the Christian religion is the true religion, binding upon all men for all time. Therefore, the Christian religion must be accepted, i.e., believed and lived up to, by all men to the end of time.
The truth of the Christian religion requires no further proof, since it is sufficiently guaranteed by its divine origin, which we have demonstrated in this volume.
The obligation of all men to embrace the Christian religion is foreshadowed in the Old Testament prophecies, which describe the kingdom of the coming Messias as universal both in time and extent. It is still more clearly expressed in the New Testament, for the Founder of the Christian religion commanded His Apostles to preach the Gospel to all nations and to receive all men into the company of His disciples.1 Every man is in duty bound to submit himself to the precepts of Christianity, for God wills that all men should believe in Christ;2 whoever refuses to believe that He is the Son of God, “is already judged”3 and shall be condemned.4 “There is no other name under heaven given to men,” whereby they can be saved, than that of Jesus Christ.5 Thus will it remain as long as the Kingdom of the Messias, the New Testament economy of grace, endures, that is, to the end of time.6
With the establishment of Christianity, therefore, every other religion that formerly had a claim upon the allegiance of men, lost that claim, and together with it whatever importance it may have possessed before Jesus Christ came into the world. Natural religion, which satisfied the needs of uncorrupted human nature, is no longer sufficient either as to doctrine, goal, or means of grace, and every other form of supernatural religion, whether given, like primitive revelation, for the whole of mankind, or, like the Mosaic law, for a particular nation, has been abrogated for all time by the more perfect religion of Christ.
After what we have said it is certain beyond doubt that the religion which Christ brought down from Heaven is the only valid norm according to which God wishes to be worshipped under the New Covenant. But it still remains to be seen how the doctrine of Jesus Christ, which forms the basis of the Christian religion, is made known to each individual human being. This question will form the subject-matter of the third volume of this Handbook, which will deal with The Church of Christ.
