The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1890-05-22
Theological Questions.

| pride myself on Deln6 suUsCllue
to three of the noble weekly papers pub
lished in the sunny south-The Galvesto
Nc,us; the atlanta Contitution and til
C6uvier-.Journal-the three papers con
slider peerless containing as they alway
do so much interesting news, one neve
tires reading them. / see that you haV
quite number of enthusiastic contrlbu
tors to your most worthy paper, and sine
it is read by nearly every intelll gen
family in the South, will you be kin'
enough to allow me bit of your pre-
cious space to ask too questions, o.wit
1. What is meant by SHINING agains
the Holy Ghost?
3. Whom did Cain marry, and where
did be get his wife?
These are grave questions too deep ao
me. l hope that some of your eminen
contributors will give US reply. D.
you think that Drs. Talmagc and Hay.
good will favor US with an opinion? ant
as many others as desire to do 80. The
questions came up in, our Sunday school
and I was called on to answer chem, bu
! as felt myself unable to give an an
swer, concluded to ask the question
through the columns of the Constitution
provided that you would accord me tina
much space. am 10 report to the
Sunday. school as soon as am favored
with reply. With many wishes for the
continued success Of the dear old Consti
tution, am, truly yours,
J. r. ANDERSON,
Teacher OF Bible Glass No.. !.
1. The sin against the Holy Ghost ii
thought by some to be blasphemy, az
when man curses his Maker. By
others it is thought to be the sin of un-
belief.
marriage is an old one, which has giver
great deal of trouble to Bible students
The marriage of Cain, and the statement
that he built city after the birth of MI
son Enos, presuppose O considerable
population upon the earth. This ha'
puzzled many who have read in tht
fourth chapter of Genesis the record o
only three births, and those all of men
to.wit: Cain, Abel and Seth. No wo
man beside Eve is mentioned up to the
time Gains wife is spoken ofin q mat
ter. of-fact way.
This need not give serious trouble
however, when we remember that only
three of Adams family are mentioned BY
name, though the third verse of the
fifth chapter tells us that Adam liyed
100 vears before Saith was born, and the
next two verses say: "And the days O.
Adam. after he had begotten Seth were
800 years; and he begat sons and daugh
tiers. And all the days that Adam livec
we're 19O years and he died."
The statement that he "begat sons anc
daughters" comes after the mention O
Seth's birth; but it should be observed
that the record is not rigidly chronology
CAL Thus in the first and second chap
ters of Genesis the order of creation O.
animals appears to be different. In the
first chapter the creation of plants ane
animals is recorded in about the same
order that the geologists have assigned
to them. In the nineteenth verse OF tht
second chapter it appears at frst-glanct
that Adam was created Grst and the
animals were made and brought to hin
10 he named. When read with the con-
text, however. it appears simply to refer
to animals already created.
In passing it is " orth while to note thai
the six day record of the creation found
in the Hebrew scriptures is consistent
both with the geological record of the
earth's crust and the traditions of Other
ancient nations, if we allow that the
word day may, in successive handing
down through so many ages, have been
given as translation for some othel
word which meant age or period. The
objection to this is the expression, "And
the evening and the morning were the
frat day,' etc.; but when we study the
record of the rocks, re find that the
geological periods had their zeniths, as
# were. The characteristic animals o1
tbs period developed to their greatest
proportions and then began to fall away
as the period waned. Thus there was
time, if we may believe the evidence o.
the fossil remains, when amphibians
were developed to enormous size They
subsequently fell away, and are either
extinct, or their descendants in this day
are pigmies in comparison.
The reasonableness ofthe interpretation
of the scriptural day as an age or perioo
is strengthened when we examine tat
traditional history of early peoples. The
Etrurian tradition was that creation
took place in six periods ola thousant
years each, and that men appeared in tn
last, after the sun, moon and stars, ane
all living things had been brought init
existence by God. According to thu
Persian mythology, Ormuzd, the god o
light, created, by his word, the visible
world in six periods of thousand year
each. and man was formed last. Th
Bamians in India said that God made tn
world and the creatures belonging to it
and created man, who came forth iron
tho earth at the divine command, hi
head protruding first and his body, an
life was conveyed into the man. Go
gave him for companion woman ant
the two lived together as man and wife
Unto them were born four sons OF differ
ent temperaments, for whom God mad
four women, and the four quarters OF tn
earth were peopled by their progency.
Josephus says Adam had many sou
and daughters and it would be tedious t
name them. There was an old Hebre'
tradition that Adam had thirty tbre
sons and twenty-three daughters.
The population existing at the time
Gains marriage and the building of tn
city Enos has been accounted for b
another theory. The Scripture speak
of the sons of God and the sons of mer
and some suppose that the sons of 60
were descendants of Adam, whom Go
created in his own image, and that tn
SONS of men were All inferior race of n'er
who already peopled the earth. :.
There is no foundation for this unlike
" supposition. The explanation of tn
terms, "sons of God" and "sons OF men,
is easily found in the fact that Cain
descendants became very wicked, an
the descendants of Seth were disposed t
serve God. With the birth of Seth's so
the sacred writer says, "Then bega
men to call upon the name Of the Lord.
When the sons of God began to MARI
the daughters of men, it is recorded thf
men became very wicked, and then
was that God repented that he had ere;
ted them, and brought the flood to destro
them.
Jolnny's Progress in Physiology.
The following heretofore unheard
information in regard to breath an