Judaism and heathenism. These meet and unite—at last in Christ as the common Saviour, the
fulfiller of the types and prophecies, desires and hopes of the ancient world; while at the same time
the ungodly elements of both league in deadly hostility against him, and thus draw forth the full
revelation of his all—conquering power of truth and love.
As Christianity is the reconciliation and union of God and man in and through Jesus Christ,
the God-Man, it must have been preceded by a twofold process of preparation, an approach of God
to man, and an approach of man to God. In Judaism the preparation is direct and positive, proceeding
from above downwards, and ending with the birth of the Messiah. In heathenism it is indirect and
mainly, though not entirely, negative, proceeding from below upwards, and ending with a helpless
cry of mankind for redemption. There we have a special revelation or self-communication of the
only true God by word and deed, ever growing clearer and plainer, till at last the divine Logos
appears in human nature, to raise it to communion with himself; here men, guided indeed by the
general providence of God, and lighted by the glimmer of the Logos shining in the darkness,^48 yet
unaided by direct revelation, and left to "walk in their own ways,"^49 "that they should seek God, if
haply they might feel after him, and find him."^50 In Judaism the true religion is prepared for man;
in heathenism man is prepared for the true religion. There the divine substance is begotten; here
the human forms are moulded to receive it. The former is like the elder son in the parable, who
abode in his father’s house; the latter like the prodigal, who squandered his portion, yet at last
shuddered before the gaping abyss of perdition, and penitently returned to the bosom of his father’s
compassionate love.^51 Heathenism is the starry night, full of darkness and fear, but of mysterious
presage also, and of anxious waiting for the light of day; Judaism, the dawn, full of the fresh hope
and promise of the rising sun; both lose themselves in the sunlight of Christianity, and attest its
claim to be the only true and the perfect religion for mankind.
The heathen preparation again was partly intellectual and literary, partly political and social.
The former is represented by the Greeks, the latter by the Romans.
Jerusalem, the holy city, Athens, the city of culture, and Rome, the city of power, may stand
for the three factors in that preparatory history which ended in the birth of Christianity.
This process of preparation for redemption in the, history of the world, the groping of
heathenism after the "unknown God"^52 and inward peace, and the legal struggle and comforting
hope of Judaism, repeat themselves in every individual believer; for man is made for Christ, and
"his heart is restless, till it rests in Christ."^53§ 9. Judaism.
Literature.
I. Sources.- The Canonical Books of the O. and N. Testaments.
(^48) John 1:5; Rom 1:19, 20; 2:14, 15.
(^49) Acts 14:16.
(^50) Acts 17:26, 27.
(^51) Luke 15:11-32.
(^52) Acts 17:23.
(^53) St. Augustine, Conf. II. 1: "Fecisti nos ad Te, et inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in Te."
A.D. 1-100.