Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1910-07-30


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-
struction. Eternal life Is a gift. And
It will be given only 70 those to whom
it will be a blesslng-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 disobedlence 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 1t bring forth unto
thee until thou return unto the ground
from which thou vast taken" Genesis
iii. 2, 8. 1919. "a.
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 tuTnest man to destruc-
ton" psalm xc, ~. 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 (sheoI, throughout the Old
Testament). And this SheOl, the grave.
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 hGdes. 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 If they
had possessed them; hence for long
the teachings of the clergy
were accepted without Bible proofs,
and the doctrine Of Purgatory spread
all over Chrlstendom. 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
instead of dying when they
seemed to die went I'm some mysteri-
)us manner to mysterious place
,alled PurgatOry. Of which nobody
Knew anything except what they were
aught. The teaching Is that prncti- !
ally all Of humanity go to Purgatory |
here TO be roasted and otherwise tor |
ured for centuries ultimately 10 gain |
elease from the torture, when dued /
or heaven Upon This doctrine in turn
prung the doctrine of saying "masse9
or the dead who were believed not
o be dead but intensely alive The
ear of purgarory drew the people very
lose TO the priests as the supposed
ounsellors of the Almighty and the
lass money drew the priests very
lose TO the people They were all
ouestly iuton,iouod but all deceived
y the great deceiver- Satan.
A Dad Matter Made Worse.
BY and by a priest, a Catholic theo.
'glan and teacher I'm one of their cCl- 7
ges, by name Martin Luther. acct
entally ran across a copy OF the New
estament In the Latin language. Be
X an educated man he was able TO
'ad f.; for there was not one copy in (
le German language anywhere. Lu- /
Ter tells us Of his perplexity In not
nding Purgatory In the New Testa- {
Ient. He tried TO interest the Pope
Bible study, but failed aud instead
as branded "A hereto. He protested.
ld others protested; hence came the
anne Protesmnts.
These Protestants were undoubtedly {
! sincere before their protest as they {
ere afterward; hence their protest
as against the very doctrines which [
acc they had proclaimed as the :
ruth. Their minds were full OF the
fought that a dead person Is not dead !
NJ more alive than before he died.
nd that some OF these at death went
heaven while the great majority
ent TO Purgutory. They did not see
Ie teaching OF the Bible. that "the
ages OF sin Is deuth"-that all 20 into
'ath, good and bad, and that this
'ath state h the sheol and hddeS OF
e Bible Instead OF getting this true ;
yht upon Gods Word, they went :,
ON darkness into gneater darkness 1
J this point Here we wish TO emphA- :
ze the thought that all these noble :
en-, Catholics und Protestants, In :
ieir day, Hike all true people today,
I'D a measure OF Truth In comblnu :
ON with errors. II is the measure of .
ruth possessed and enjoyed that has
Won any povver and fnrca IA our va. ].