The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1910-07-25

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Tsn.-"shee! BY man came death. BY man
also comes the resurrection Of the dead !: for I
y al n Adam dc, tesen % al IN Gins,
shall Be mad. alive B.i every man IN his |
own ofdefi ch6t he tGu.fpiI; Afterwards
they that ase Chrai dgasg bis presence" n
cqan,hiaa, ", n. %. R!V.). ~
Christ, orr Lord (Romans ri. 81.
What statement could be more sim.
ple?. The wicked WIN not be granted
llfe. ut nil. either in pleasure or in pain.
They are under sentence Of death-de.
struction. Eternal llfetis n gift. And
twill be given only to .thoseto whom
twill be blessing to those who will
accept IT. through Jesus Christ our
Lord! 3t5 i'tStta liS5lss r IS !, n
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 twistlnss OF
thcologyswe should have no difficulty
In understanding the Divine sentence.
as our first parents evidently had no
difficulty. The sentence upon Father
Adam for dlsobedlcnce WINS. '"Dylng
thou shalt die; DUST thou art. and,
unto dust shalt thou return; Cursed
Is the ground for thy shke": "Thorns
and thistfcs shhn It bring forth unto
thee until thou return unto the ground
from which thou wnst taken" Genesis
III, 2.3, 1910, -24). St3c'i.a 4. iea
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 turncst man to dcstruc.
tion" psalm xc. 81. And this penalty
is sufficiently awful when We think OF
what It means TO die, to lose mental.
moral and physical perfection and
gradually go into the tomb-into tho
Bible hell tsheol, throughout the Old
'Testament). And this sheol, the grdrc.
the tomb. to which the Bible says all
so, 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 hades. 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
could not have read them even IL they
had possessed them: hence, for. long
centuries the teachings of the clergy
were accepted without Bible proofs.
and the doctrine offPurgatory spread
all over Chrlstendotn.9 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 and that. the great mass of
humanity, instead OF dying when they
seemed to die, went In some mysteri-
GUS manner tovai 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 enturies-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
fear of Purgatory drew the people very
close to. tue priests rs the supposed
counsellors Of the Almighty and the
mass money drew the priests very
close to the people. They were all
honestly intcntloued. but all deceived
by the great deceiver-Satan.
A Bad Matter Made Worse.
By and by priest. Catholic theo-
Logan and teacher in one of their col
leges, by name Martin Luther, acct
dentallyi ran across q copy OF the New
Testament In the Latin language. Be-
Ing IN educated man he was able to
read 1t; for there was not one copy in
the German language anywhere. Lu.
Their tells US Of his perplcxity in not
finding Purgatory in the New Testa.
ment BE tried to interest the Pope
in Bible study, but failed, and instead
was branded hereto. He protested,
and others protested; hence came the
name Professionals!
"a.