St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1911-04-29

verses not to
W9SToaBaSSEEA be found in any of
the oldest Greek
MSS. and were evidently added to the
| Word Of God in the Seventh Century
or later. Moreover, we gave proofs
Of the untruthfulness Of this addition.
Is it true that whoever believes the
Gospel of Christ may handle serpents
with impunity and may drink deadly
poison without harm? Surely not. 1t
is nothing short Of a sin for those who
know better to acknowledge these
verses and to use them to bolster up
theories Of Divine Healing. It is as
much a crime to add to the Word of
God as to take away from it.
Today l invite attention to some 9TH
er dead f1ies," some other additions to
Gods Word, which have had much to
do with twisting the theology once de-
livered to the saints. Take, for In
stance, the closing words Of the Lords
Prayer
thine IL the Kingdom and Power and
Glory"
These words, If uttered by our Lord,
should be found in the old Greek MSS.
But they are not found therein.
They are, therefore, to be rejected
as additions made by people centuries
after Matthew's Gospel wal written
These words were introduced when the
faith Of the Church respecting the
Kyp0donn nP NEoas{ob woS obonuad or
changing from what 1t was originally.
All through the New Testament the
second coming OF Christ in power and
glory to establish His Kingdom and to
glortfy the Church, His Bride, Is set
for the end of this Gospel Age. But
as the time grew long a change Of sem
timent came into the Church. It be-
came popular and rich. Its bishops
were respected. Finally the theory
prevailed that God did not intend to
delay the establishment Of the King
dom until the second coming Of Christ,
but did intend to establish 1t In the
hands Of the Church during this Age
and to use the Church for the con-
quering Of the world and the fulfilling
of all the promises Of the past.
In line with this the most prominent
bishop Of the time was, recognized as
Divinely appointed to represent Christ
in the world and to reign over the ma
tons In his stead and to bring about
the Messianic reign, etc. This was the
Bishop Of Rome, who subsequently
was styled the Pope and who claimed
and was accorded the honorable title,
''~Vice-gerent of the Son OF God" 1t is
said that the equivalent Of this title
Is worn to this day by the Pope on his
tiara, or three-crowned hat-VtcGrias
Del Fiij.
"Thy Kingdom Come on Earth"
The Lords prayer was already in the
Scriptures, and was known to many.
1t could not be eliminated. But some
jealous person, fully believing that
Gods Kingdom had come, felt justified
in amending the prayer to correspond
to what he supposed were the facts.
Hence the prayer which begins, THY
Kingdom come" is made to end by
saying, 'Thy Kingdom has come in its
glory and power"
How glad we are to see the Truth on
this subject; that the Kingdom of
Gods dear Son has not yet been set up
in any of the word-that it is still
future. It cannot be set up until this
Gospel Age ends and the "elect" saint
ly few of every nation, Jew and Cen
tile, shall be changed from earthly to
heavenly nature by the First Resurrec-
ton, which viii qualify them to be
kings and priests unto God and unto
Christ and to reign with Him a thou
sand years Revelation Xxx, 81.
It is well that all Bible students
should mark this 'Hy' and extract it
from the Precious Ointment and notice
how much sweeter and fresher the
Lords prayer is to them forever.
"Oh, What a Whoppsr!"
Who cannot sympathize with the
great.inidel, Thomas Paine, who when
reading the last verse of st. Johns
Gospel, exclaimed, "Oh. what a whop-
peri" 1t reads. And there are also
many other things which Jesus did. the
if they should be written every
one, / suppose that even the werld it
self could not contain the books that
should be written John xxi, 25l.
Surely anyone Of reasoning mind
should see the absurdity Of such a
statement. Surely all Christian minis
tiers should have informed the Lords
sheep under their are respecting what
is and what is not the Word Of God,
the Bible, as it was recognized by the
Apostolic Church and written down
In the original Greek MSS. Why any
Christian minister should assail nae
because I endeavor to do for the peo-
Pile what he has neglected to do
cannot understand. / must leave 1t to
the Lord to judge between Us.
/ resent Higher Criticism and accept
the Word Of God in full. reject moth
Ing because of my own or other mems
surmises, but merely go by the facts.
re the oldest Greek MSS. do not con
tain certain passages Of Scripture. how
could they get into later MSS. except
rs spurious additions?