The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1910-07-26
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Christ our Lord" Romans vi, 23.
What statement could be more sim
pie? The wicked will not be granted
life at all, either in pleasure or In pain.
They are under sentence of death-de-
structlon. Eternal life is gift. And
1t will be given only to those to whom
1t will be a blessing-to those who will
accept 1t through Jesus Christ our
Lord.
Let us turn to Genesis and note the
statements made to our first parents
respecting sin and its 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 disobedience 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 It bring forth unto
thee until thou return unto the ground
from which thou vast taken" Genesis
Ill, 2, 3, 1919, 2D.
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, "Thou turnest man to destruc-
tion" psalm xc, 3). And this penalty
Is sufficiently awful when we think of
what 1t means to die, to lose mental,
moral and physical perfection and
gradually go into the tomb-into the
Bible hell (she0l, throughout the Old
TESTAMENT And this shcOI, the 0IaCe
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 OF
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 Tes-
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
ed. And for this reason neither the
word Purgatory nor the Purgatory
thought is expressed In the Scriptures.
But Bibles were few, and the people
/ l. hA, nv
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 1t. 1t became the
teaching of Christians everywhere that
the mere handful OF saints, instead OF
dying when they seemed to die, went
to heaven aud that the great mass OF
humanity, Instead of dying when they
seemed to die, went In some mysteri-
ous manner to mysterious place
called Purgatory, OF which nobody
knew anything except what they were
taught The teaching is that practi-
cally all OF humanity go to Purgatory
there to be roasted and otherwise tor
tured for centuries ultimately to gain
release from the torture, when fitted
for heaven, Upon this doctrine In turn
sprung the doctrine of saying masses
for the dead" who were believed not
to be dead but intensely alive. The
fenRof Purgatory drew the people very
close to the priests as the supposed
counselors OF the Almighty and the
mass money drew the priests very
close to the people, They were al
honestly intcntioned, but all deceived
by the great deceiver-Sntan.
A Bad Matter Made Worse.
, by ana by n priest, Il Catholic theo
Logan and teacher in one of their col
leges by name Martin Luther acct
dentally ran across copy of the New
Testament In the Latin language. BE
ing an educated man he was able (,
read It; for there was not one copy II
the German language anywhere. Lu
ther tells us of his pcrplcXlty in no
finding Purgutory In the New Testa
ment. He tried to interest the Pop
IN Bible study, but failed. and instea,
was branded n hereto, He protested
= and others protested; hence came tn
name Protestants!
These Protestants were undoubtedl
as sincere before their protest as the
were afterward; hence their protes
was against the very doctrines whic
once they had proclaimed as tn
,, Truth. Their minds were full of tn
:, thought that dead person is not dea
- but more alive than before he dice
and that some OF these at death wen
n TO heaven while the great majorit
Is went to Purgatory. They did not sc
the teaching of the Bible, that 18th
wages OF sin Is death"-that all 20 int
death. good and bad, and that thi
- death state is the sheol and hades {
% the Bible. Instead of getting this tru
~ ~ light upon Gods Word, they wer
" from darkness into greater darknes
x.ta ,.tlgh To nh,