The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1912-02-09
is the Bible Inspired.
OBSERVER

Eitor Chieftain: Again | see Cap
tain Whites statement that careful
reading of the Old and New Testament
has convinced hi mthat it is the in
spired word of God. Farley P. Pratt,
of Mormon fame, who wrote a book
called "a Voice of Warning" says the
average Christian believes the Bible
to be inspired as long as it is shut
but open it ana read it to him and then
he didn't mean it that way.
Now Captain, in Genesis read that
God put Adam and Eve in the Garden
Iof Eden with instructions that of all
the fruit of the garden they should
freely eat but of the tree of knowledge
the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die. The serpent said the day
thou eatest thereof thou shalt not die,
thou shall become as one of us. Did
they die the day they eat of the for
bidden fruit. No lest they eat of the
tree of life and live for ever God had
w bu1it bhNLA OQl VI Ji1C SoIIuCn CtuQ
guard it. Now Capt. you may believe
that God lied, and that the serpent
told the truth, but | don't believe that
any serpent, nor the Creator of the
universe ever held verbal communica-
ton with man. l can't see why it is
necessary to believe in inspiration for
the most or these Old Testament
stories the man or men that wrote
Genises were the forefathers of the
scientists that come after them, but
our geologists and astronomers are
far more intelligent than the author
of Genises. 1t takes no inspiration to
| tell about the flood if it ever happened
to rain enough to cover the earth four
or five miles deep. But it would take
an inspired man to tell where the
water went to afterwards, also how
the herbivorous animals lived until
grass and seeds come again, after be-
ing under water for one year, and how
the carnivorous animals abstained
from devouring the littleN stock that
Noah had before they had time to
multiply. 1t don't need inspiration to
tell us how Noah acted with his fam
lily afterwards. Was he worth saving,
if he was the best specimen of man
kind it was time to drown them And
that story OF Sodom and Gomorah -
Say Capt if some ancient Mark Twain
wrote that story about some old can't
ing hypocrite in Gomorah / can see
the joke, but if not, it takes more salt
than Lots wife made to kill the
stencil of that rotten tale and say
when l think of it, let me say when
boy | learned that salt was com
pound element the same whether taken
the sea water or from the salt rock,
you can't change it, and it is chemi-
ealIy impossible to think of a woman
being turned into pillar of salt 1t
takes more than salt and pepper to
make that story wholesome. 1t don't
need inspiration to tell us how David
eonspired to murder to cover up adj
ultry, or to tell how Abraham com
mitted the same crime and then sent
his victim adrift in the wilderness, or
to tell us how deceitful Isaac and
Jacob were. But it would take some
inspired man to discover how Solo,
mon come to be called the wisest man.
Say, Capt, three hundred wives and
seven hundred concubines-that set
ties the question of wisdom. I don't
wonder at the old man saving that it
is all vanity and vexation of spirit. |
s7y it was the quintescence of misery
'er bin and also all Of those women
81 takes no inspiration FOR Ruth to tell
mt cohabiting with er b other-in-
neither - see wit is inter
e to any of us now, or why it
es the word of God to tell US about
l.