The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1912-06-21
I" Saved So As By Fire :
Not By Purgatorial Fire, But by Fiery
Trials and Experiences


ernacle, New York, fro m the text, Saved
so as by fire." Il Cor. 3:15):
Some Of my Catholic friends say I am
more Catholic than Protestant, but have
never acknowledged this. 1 do say, how
ever, that if compelled to choose between
the Protestant thought tina, all except the
elect, sanity few will experience eternal
torment, and the Catholic proposition that
many besides the saints will be saved by
passing through purgatorial experiences,
/ would sooner believe the latter. And
while I cannot accept the Catholic Pur-
gatory as Biblical Il do find certain threads
of Bible truth in the purgatorial theory.
l can even fancy how those Bible truths
gradually became distorted during the
many centuries styled the Ozark Ages"
During that time not only were the COM
mon people illiterate, but printing mad
not been invented and Bibles were costly.
That was the period during which coun
ellis OF bishops from time to time met and
declared for the people what should and
what should not be believed. In other
words they formulated the creedS. We
do not question their sincerity, but chal-
lenge their conclusions and, comparing
them with the Bible now in the hands of
the masses, we know, accepting the Bible
as true, we must condemn many of their
conclusions as false.
Many tell us that we should receive the
message of the councils-the creeds which
they formulated-as Of equal inspiration
with the Bible, because, say they, these
councils were composed of bishops of the
church and, under the law of apostolic
succession. these bishops had equal au-
thority with and divine inspiration equal
to the twelve Apostles.
From this dissent, and am glad to note
that am in better accord with the views
of the present Pope, PiusX, whose recent
proclamation urges upon all Catholics
loyalty to the Bible and it's study. If all
Christians, Catholics as we'll as Protest
ants, would accept this suggestion. I be-
lieve that the resultant, unbranded study
would soon bring to Christendom in gen.
eral the one unity and harmony which
all desire and are striving fot.
Whatever the pope may have once be-
lieved respecting the doctriGe of Apos-
tolic Succession, and the equal inspiration
OF the bishops of to-day with the twelve
Apostles appointed by our Lord, he sees
that the living bishops are inspired to the
degree of infallibility, as were the twelve
Apostles. And I would say that to my
understanding this is the right thought.
The Scriptures everywhere recognize the
twelve Apostles of the Lamb-no more,
no less. They recognize the fall of one of
these, and that another took his place
st, Paul. But there were to be no more
additions. The choice of Matthias by the
Apostles before they themselves received
the Holy Spirit, was invalid and without
authority. Jesus, in his last message to
the church, pictured her as woman"
having ga crown Of twelve stars" And
again he symbolically represents her flu
ture glory as the New Jerusalem with
but twelve foundation stones, and in
those the names of the twelve Apostles of
the Lamb-nO more
The more thoroughly this Scriptural
fact is discerned the more surely will
Gods people turn reverentially to the in
spired words and interpretations Of the
Divinely appointed Twelve respecting
We shall bind on earth (as necessary, obi
gatary) will be the same that are bound
in heaven" No other teachers in the
worlds history were so thoroughly set
apart to be the oracles of God; and their
testimony is one-harmonious.
We remarked a moment ago that there
is thread of truth in the doctrine of pur
gatory. That thread connects up with
our text of to-day. Indeed, our Catholic
friends acknowledge that there is no pos
tive statements in the Bible respecting
purgatory; they merely infer it from GER
tain texts, which do not use the word,
ana our text, which says, ''Saved SO as
by fire." This is one of their strong texts
supporting the theory of purgatory. It
certainly does imply that fiery exporien-
ces of some kind will come to some of
Gods people, and that these will be de-
signed to have purging effect.
Nothing in the text, however, gives a
single suggestion to the effect that such
purgatorial trials are now in operation.
On the contrary the Apostle points down
to the future saying, "The fire of that day
shall try every mans work of what sort
10 ,h0 ~,
| wood, hay and stubble, even though upon
the good foundation of Christ's redemp
tive work. will snffer loss. Only those
who shall build with the precious Divine
promises, the gold, silver and precious
stones of the Divine Word, will pass
through the fiery experiences of that day.
Nevertheless. says, the Apostle. those
who will suffer the loss Of their entire