The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1905-10-27
Delivered the First of a Series
of Sermons on Sunday.
Strikes at Belief That There Is
an Orthodox He'll"
His Theme, Twill There Be a
Visible Return of Christi"

Rev. \. L. Orr delivered the following
sermon at the Christian church last Sun
day. His theme was "Can We Expect
Visible Return of Christ" This is the
cred by Rev. Orr:
The modern and educated minister
stands between two fires. He knows that
the people are just as much interested
in the doctrine of last things as ever
thew were. But the historical and liter
arv study of the Bible has entirely
changed his views of these doctrines. He
feels that if he breaches his real con-
victions on these themes he will incur
the wrath of the too numerous tradi-
tionalists. But he knows that if he
breaches the traditional doctrine of the
future he will loose the respect of the
educated part of his congregation. So
he cries out against doctrinal preaching
and breaches practical sermons.
The aim of these sermons is to dis
cover the teaching of the Scriptures, es-
pecially the teaching of the New Tesla
ment, on what is confessedly one of the
most complex and obscure parts of
theology. Our aim is to discover the
meaning of the solemn events that i'm
mediately precede and follow "the con-
6
The common, and what is regarded, as
the orthodox, teaching on such themes
as the Second Advent, the General Res
direction, the Judgment Day, the Retri-
button in He'll and the Blessednass in
Heaven is to my thinking, not only UNI
scriptural, but it is anti-scriptural and
irrational. And, as such, it has lost its
hold on the mind of thinking people.
People are not now, as once they were,
allured by the glories of the orthodox
heaven;" neither are they frightened by
the terrors of the 'orthodox hell.'
The fact is, we have discovered that
this so called "orthodox' teaching is not
derived from the scriptures by legiti-
mate method of Interpretation, but that
it is derived from heather mythology
and philosophy through ancient and me-
divael theology. And it is made popular
by such writer's as Dante, Milton and
Bunyan. 1t does not come from the
New Testament, but being first popu-
larized into theology, the doctrine is
read into the scriptures. Our knowl-
edge on these themes is not so defined
and positive and, by no means, so album
dant, as was that of the Fathers. Their
attitude was that of dogmatism. Our
attitude is that of inquiry. We are more
modest. Much of the teaching both of
the Old Testament and New Testament
upon the last things is now known to
be apocalyptical and not therefore to be
taken literally. No intelligent reader of
the Bible now believes that the proph-
cts and apostles give us map of the
ages-a chronological map-having well
defined metes and bounds, and the sew
eral dispensations set off one from the
other by definitely determined crisises in
history. The fact that there is no
agreement among these plans of the
ages ought long ago to have opened our
theories. Times and seasons, the loca-
ton of heaven and hell, the state of the
dead in the intermediate state, the en-
ployment of the saints and the terrors
of the damned are not now so easily
pictured as once they were. These
views come from reading the Bible as
inspired theology rather than as lit
erature.
But with all our acknowledged ig-
norance, and the modesty that modern
criticism compels, we do know some
things better even than our Fathers
did. Man is now known to be child OF
God, personal, spiritual being. He
is not only spiritual in the religious
sense of that term, but he is like God