The Norfolk weekly news-journal. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1900-19??, 1910-08-05

o OC~-.-.-s-s-~-s-~-s-s-s->
1t will be blessing-to those who will
accept II through Jesus Christ our
Lord
Let us turn to Genesis and note the
statements made to our first parents
respecting sin and It's penalty. Let us
note that. without the twistings of
theology. we should have no difficulty
in understanding the Divine sentence,
as our first parents evidently had no
difficulty. The sentence upon Father
Adam for dlsobedience was. Dying
thou shalt die: Dust thou art. and
unto dust shalt thou return: Cursed
Is the ground for thy sake: "Thorns
and thistles shall II bring forth unto
thee until thou return unto the ground
from which thou vast taken" Genesis
iii, ., 3, 1919, 2H.
Thus we see that the penalty for sin
upon Adam and his race was that they
should return TO the dust. AS we read
again "rhou turnest man to destruc-
ton" psalm Xc, 81. And this penalty
is sufficiently awful when we think of
/
moral and physical perfection and
gradually go into the tomb-into the
Bible hell (SheOl, throughout the Old
| TESTAMENT And this ShcOl the grdre,
the tomb. to which the Bible says all
! go. good and bad. rich and poor. holy
and unholy. was the only hell known
amongst any of the people of God for
! the more than four thousand years.
represented by the teachings OF the
| Old Testament. Then came the New
| Testament times and the teachings or
Jesus and the Apostles to the same
effect In the New Testament the
Greek word hddeS, representing the
tomb, the death state, takes the place
of the Old Testament SheOl in every
passage translated from the Old les
lament into the New Testament.
1t was nearly three hundred years
after Jesus and the Apostles, after the
writing of the New Testament, before
the doctrine Of Purgatory was invent
ell. And for this reason neither the
word PurEatory nor the Purgatory
thought is expressed in the Scriptures.
But Bibles were few, and the people
could not have read them even II they
had possessed them; hence for long
centuries the teachings Of the clergy
were accepted without Bible proofs,
and the doctrine of Purgatory spread
all over Christendom. All Of our fore
fathers believed in it. 1t became the
teaching Of Christians everywhere that
the mere handful Of saints, instead OF
dying when they seemed to die. went
to heaven and that the great mass OF
humanity, instead of dying when they
seemed to die, went in some mysterl
Gus manner to mysterious place
called Purgatory. Of which nobody
knew anything except what they were
taught The teaching is that pract
cally all of humanity so to PurgatorJ
there to be roasted and otherwise tor
tured for centuries-ultimately to gair
release from the torture, when fitted
for heaven. Upon this doctrine in turf
sprung the doctrine of saying masses
for the dead" who were believed no
to be dead but intensely alive. Th'
fear of Purgatory drew the people yer!
close to the priests as the supposed
) counsellors of the Almighty and TIT
, mass money drew the priests yer.
close to the people. They were al
honestly intentioned, but all deceived
by the great deceiver-Satan.
A Bad Matter Made Worse.
By and by priest, Catholic thee
Logan and teacher in one of their col
. leGes, by name Martin Luther, acci
, dentally ran across copy of the New
. Testament in the Latin language. BE
, ing an educated man he was able I
read it; for there was not one copy i
: the German language anywhere. LII
, Their tells us Of his perpleXity in nc
finding Purgatory in the New Testa
{ ment. He tried to interest the Pop
: in Bible study. but failed. and instea
was branded q hereto. He protested
: and others protested; hence came tn
: name Protestants,
? These Protestants were undoubtedl
as sincere before their protest as the
D were afterwards; hence their protes
r was against the very doctrines whic
: once they had proclaimed as tn
: Truth. Their minds were full Of III
thought that dead person is not dea
= but more alive than before he die,
o and that some of these at death weI
! to heaven while the great majorit
/ went TO Purgatory. They did not sc
: the teaching of the Bible, that 18th
Il wages OF sin is death"-that all go int
y death. good and bad. and that tn
e death state is the SheOl and hddeS {
i the Bible. Instead Of getting this trr
light upon Gods Word, they WEI
. from darkness into greater darkne'
on this point. Here we wish to emph
size the thought that all these mob
q men. Catholics and Professionals,
IS their day, like all true people toda
IT held measure of Truth in combin
n ton with errors. II is the measure I
p Truth possessed and enjoyed that hi
+ given any power and force tc our v
o rious Christian systems, and that,