The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1910-05-06


formulators of these creedS, must be
| In accord with these. and hence, must
be responsible for the unreasonable
teachings. and must be rejected when
these are rejected.
Some Of us ran away with the doc
trine Of election" thinking it the
| whole Gospel of Christ; whereas, our
fragment was incomplete. unsatisfac-
tory. and miSrepresented the Gospel.
when taken alone. Others grasped the
doctrine of free grace" and ran away
! with that. claiming that IT was the en-
tire Gospel = ignoring the Scriptures
which referred to election" etc.
These made a similar mistake. and
similarly miSrepresented the Gospel of
Christ i'm its Wilderness. its solidarity.
Others graSped those Scriptures which
, assure us of a universal opportunity
for salvation. and interpreted them to
mean that all mankind will attain
eternal salvation. regardless of their
wills and cooperation. Others found
difficulty in harmoniZing the relation
ship between the heavenly Father. the
heavenly Son. and the holy Spirit, and
this contention led to Unitarianism on
the one hand. and to Trinitarianism on
the other Others of us caught the
doctrine of baptism" and made of it
the entire Gospel. and thus did violence
to the lengths. and breadths. and
heights. and depths Of the true mes
ho of xrrht
Paul in our text declares that he was
not ashamed
Noting the logical mind Of ST. Paul.
who can doubt that he would be
ashamed. as we ourselves are. of the
fragmentary presentations Of the vari-
Gus creeds; which more, or less oppose
and contradict each other? We may
be sure that what the Apostle would
endorse. as the Gospel of Christ" We
need not be ashamed of. Hence our
determination should be to search the
Scriptures. and to find that one reason
able message OF the Divine Plan which
centerS in Jesus our Redeemer.
Things at Which We Gagged
Men and women do not find it diff
cult to believe in a wise. just, loving
and powerful Creator: just such a God
our hearts and heads tell us we should
expect: just such a God rational peO-
Pile find no difficulty in worshiping
Indeed. while some OF us in the past
may have believed in the n"total de-
pravity" OF the race. MAY we not real
lie that Notwithstanding the, fall. there
is still in the human mind and heart
something which has }Tlongings inf
1.-The living God. and which commands
our reverence and worship. in proper
ton as he is recognized?
Spiritually we gagged at the sugges-
ton that a God of all wisdom. love.
justice and power ever created our
race with the foreknowledge and fore
ordination that practically all of these
thousands of millions must suffer Ell
Their purgatorial torture for several
centuries, as our Catholic friends pre-
sent the matter, or at the still more
irrational theory Of us Professionals that
eternal torture is to be the fate Of all
except the elect few. the saints. who
now follow in the footsteps Of jesus
a course contrary to the world and all
the tendencies of life around us. Well
may we gag and the sooner we reject
and eject this entire mass Of un-Scrip-
tural dogmas. the better AS whole
it comes to us from our honest. but I'M
enlightened fOrefathers. who verify
thought they did God service in tortur-
ing one another, even to the extent of
burning one another at the stake. be-
cause of little differences along the
lines of these doctrines Of devils q
Timothy iv. -.
The rich spiritual food and the strong
faith, which we, dear friends. as BIZ
BILE students. should desire and seek
for. are to be found only in the Bible it.
self. We should not spurn suggestions
from one another, but we should re-
ceive such suggestions tentatively, and
the Word Of God should be searched,
so that our faith should not stand in
the teachings of men. but i'm the power
Of God, as set forth in the Word of
God. From this quarter only can we
expect information respecting
The Gospel of Christ"
of which ST. Paul was not ashamed
That Gospel has two distinct features.
Primarily it relates TO the world OF
mankind. and instead of telling us
hof nit hnr ~ ,f tel
fering. or an eternity of torture awaits
the world, its message is that in Gods
due time. Il great blessing awaits the
world through the gIorified Christ. and
as result of the sacrifice which he
finished at Calvary.
This great blessing will not be uni
versa salvation. but it will be a uni
versa opportunity for salvation. 1t
will not be salvation in ignorance
and heather superstition. but Il saliva
ton from such conditions. with full op-
portunity to return to the image and
likeness of God. lost in Adam. and re-
deemed by our Savior. This is the
same Gospel that was heralded by the
angels on the night of our Lords birth
in the words, Behold we bring you
good tidings of great joy. which shall
be unto all people. for unto you is
born this day in the City Of David
a Savior [Life-Giverl. which is Christ
the Lord" duke ii, l0). This version
of the Gospel. good message, and
for all mankind, corresponds exactly
with the first statement Of the Gospel
made by God To Eathar A hra ha m 81 &.