One other text merits attention: 1 Corinthians, chapter ii., 14. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
In this passage the “natural man” must signify “man as he is found in our ordinary experience.” The idea evidently intended, is that mankind, as a race, do not understand or obey the truth as it is taught by Christ and the Spirit of God. The fact is [pg 234] affirmed that without Christ and the divine Spirit to aid, man as a race does not come to such knowledge of and obedience to the laws of God as secures eternal life.
In reference to most other texts quoted to prove a depraved nature, it will be found that they simply affirm depraved action. Men, in the Bible, are described as wrong-doers by their own wrong willing or choice and not by a depraved nature. Sometimes they are said to choose wrong and sometimes right, and their wrong willing no more proves a depraved nature than the right willing proves a holy nature.
Chapter XXXIV. A Reliable Revelation From The Creator Impossible If It Contains The Augustinian Theory.
The object aimed at in this chapter demands attention to the following preliminaries.
Before we can gain a reliable revelation from our Creator, we are obliged to establish the truth that there is such a Creator. Our only mode of doing this is by the method already set forth in chapter 10, and for which we are dependent on our reason or common sense.
Having, by the aid of reason, arrived at a knowledge of the existence and character of the Creator, we next inquire as to the mode by which we can receive direct revelations from him.
Here we find that we are again wholly dependent on reason or common sense. The principle on which we alone rely for revelations from God is this:
A change in the established order of nature surpassing human power, is evidence of a supernatural agency that is sanctioned by the Author of the Laws of Nature.