The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1910-07-29

! accept IL turouSI
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
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 thstles shall it bring forth unto
thee until thou return unto the ground
from which thou vast taken" Genesis
/ iii. 9. 5, 1919. pa.
/ 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-
| ton" psalm &c. 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 the
Bible hell (sheol, throughout the Old
/ Testament And this SheOl, the Craze,
! 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
4 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 TIES.
/ 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 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 mysteri-
Gus manner to a 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
fear of 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 all
honestly intentioned. but all deceived
by the great deceiver-Satan.
A Bad Matter Made Worse.
By and by a priest, 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 to
read it; for there was not one copy in
the German language anywhere. Luz
Their tells us of his perplexity in not
finding Purgatory In the New Tesla
ment. He tried to interest the Pope
In Bible study. but failed. and instead
was branded hereto. He protested.
4 and others protested; hence came the
name Protestants.
These Protestants were undoubtedly
as sincere before their protest as they
were afterward; hence their protest
was against the very doctrines which
once they had proclaimed as the
/ Truth Their minds were full of the
thought that a dead person is not dead
but more alive than before he died.
and that some of theae at death went
to heaven while the great majority
went to Purgatory. They did not see
the teaching of the Bible. that "the
wages of sin is death"-that all go into
death. good and bad, and that this
death state is the sheof and hddes of
the Bible. Instead of getting this true
light upon Gods Word. they went
from darkness into greater darkness
on this point. Here we wish to empha-
size the thought that all these noble
men. Catholics and Professionals. in
their day. like all true people today.
held a measure of Truth in combina-
ton with errors. 1t is the measure of
Truth possessed and enjoyed that has
given any power and force to our va
Nous Christian systems. and that. to
some extent, mas neuIrailZeQ the eHecr
Of our errors.
Starting from their misunderstood
ing of Bible teachings respecting the
| wages Of sin, Brother Luther and his
noble companions battled bravely for
many truths, but made one great blum
der. When they concluded that Pur-
gatory was contrary to the Scriptures
and threw it away, not seeing the