Questions and Answers

Dr. G. C. Morgan left his typed responses which include his answers to questions raised during Bible studies. The questions span from 1905 to 1916 and deal with diverse subjects including theology, bible, church, relationship, life, etc. The answers contain the succinct summary of his understanding of those subjects so that people can learn Dr. Morgan's theology in a short period. They also reflect Dr. Morgan's methodology of pastoral care because he responded to the actual questions that participants raised.

Questions and Answers

 

Date                Number of Pages       Number of Questions            Location

5/12/1905                   10                                11                               

6/9/1905                      9                                 8                                 Westminster

3/2/1906                      8                                 13

4/1/1906                      6                                 8                                 Westminster

5/4/1906                      8                                 13

5/27/1906                    6                                 5                                 Westminster

1/8/1910                      7                                 7                                 London

5/14/1910                    6                                 6                                 Westminster

5/27/1910                    5                                 20

5/28/1910                    9                                 17

11/19/1910                  2                                 2

12/3/1910                    6                                 7

12/17/1910                  6                                 7

1/14/1911                    8                                 5

2/25/1911                    10                                9                                 Westminster

12/2/1911                    4                                 8

1/20/1912                    3                                 2

11/30/1913                  5                                 13

11/4/1916                    9                                 4

11/18/1916                  6                                 2

11/25/1916                  4                                 2

 

Uncertain dates

1911?                          2                                 4

9/1914                         35                               84

?                                  2                                 10                                London

 

Incomplete

11/5/1910                    3                                 3

?                                  3                                 3

 

 

 

 

Sample Questions and Answers


3/2/1906 – With reference to what you said about God trying Abraham, does God tempt?

 

GCM – Yes. He tempted Abraham. He tempted Adam. Only be careful; what do you mean by “tempt”? Tempt means test. God is not tempted of evil, “God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempteth no man”. He never tempts a man with evil, but He does put down in front of a man’s person the thing that tests. But God’s tests do not necessitate a man’s sin. It does necessitate either his acceptance or refusal of sin; and all the tests of God are necessary to the perfecting of human personality and character.

 

5/27/1910 – Is the punctuation of the English Bible reliable?

 

GCM - It is not inspired. The Revised is generally correct. I recognize the stately dignity of the Authorized, but at the same time for the student, you must have the Revised; unless you are reading in the Original, which is another subject, The whole question of punctuation comes up in the verse in Timothy, “Every Scripture is profitable..” I should say it is not infallible or inspired, but reliable, yes.

 

5/28/1910 – I have a great friend, one who has attained a high position in the Army and is well read, who is apt to say that we Protestants are much too boastful of our religion, as if it was “the religion” in the world. He often asks what I should have done, had I been brought up by good earnest Jewish parents or even Mohammedan? How am I to answer him?

 

GCM - Well, I do not quite know what he means. The probability is that if you had been brought up by devout Jews, you would have remained a Jew. What then? You would have been judged by God according to the obedience to the light you had. Mohammedans will not be judged by the Christian light.

 

12/3/1910 – Someone writes me. Did Jesus die as my substitute, I heard last Saturday was a question asked. Is it not true if I do not believe this, it proves spiritually that I am still dead?

 

GCM – No. Follow me carefully. No man is spiritually dead because he does not intellectually believe anything. Intellectual belief never brings a man into spiritual life. Intellectual belief must be accompanied by volitional surrender, and that is the only faith that saves. Did Jesus die as my substitute? I am not going to quarrel for a single moment for any word men make use of which is not a Scriptural word; and that is not a Scriptural word. I will tell you what I do believe. He “was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for out iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” If that is what you mean by substitution, Yes. Only when you talk of substitution, I have heard so many illustrations not warranted by the New Testament, that I am very careful how I use the word. Always remember that the death of the Lord has more meaning, is too profound to be expressed in commercial or theological terms. Theology has never yet been able to say the final thing about God; neither can it about the death of Christ. But thank God we rest therein, and know it is the only way of salvation, and that by His life laid down, He did bear our sins in His own body on the tree.

 

11/30/1913 – Evil. Why did He permit it? Supposing He had not?

 

GCM – You would have had no angels, no men, and no problem. You are going back on the ground and by the powers of the wonderful being God has given us, to criticize Him for making us at all. Our philosophy is limited. But from the standpoint of Christian philosophy, I affirm that God created a volitional being, having that possibility within the being. If He foreknew the possibility and the result, there was in His own Nature that which, put by the sin of the possibility of sin, redemptive forces for remaking; and that to me is the theodicy, the defence of God. The defence of God lies in the fact of the redemptive operation of God. I feel personally that if you put evil on the one hand and all the good on the other, all the glories of humanity, all the wonders that have come from a universe of volitional beings; and balance them, God is vindicated, and it is worth while, so far as I am able to put my judgment against His.

 

            We are in the processes. When everything is over, humanity will see even in the permission of evil there was some great good involved, which will vindicate God in His universe. If you ask me how, I do not know; but that is my creed and belief, and where I rest. There is the problem. There are things that we cannot possibly fathom and explain.