The Daily Missoulian., 1913-05-11

lyn Academy of Music recently was
The Necessity Of Jesus Death" Hi
text was: I'm due time Christ diet
for the ungodly. Romans Sc
The speaker stated that while tht
Bible everywhere declares the import
/ ance of the death of Jesus Christian
people in recent times seem to be per-
picked upon the subject. Some dis
pute the Bible statement of the neces-
sity for Jesus death, and claim that
His life was no different from that OF
other men, and His death was no d'f-
I ferent from that of others. Some
claim that Jesus came into the world
and passed through various trying ex-
| periences, not in order to redeem man
| kind from anything. but in order to
show His followers how they should
live and die for a good cause. Others
in hewlderment declare that they see
no relationship between Jesus death
and what they have been taught is
the penalty for sin: namely. eternal
| torment.
In general, said the pastor, there is
confusion upon the subjejct and only
those who get the proper Scriptural
focus on the question of why Christ
| died can be mentally at rest, and able
to enter sympathetically into the vari-
Gus features of the great Plan of God
of which the death of Jesus for human
redemption is a part.
/ The pastor protested against the toe
common practice of accepting por-
! ton of the Bible, and rejecting the
remainder. He declared that any man
wise enough to crticise the inspired
| Word should be accepted as an IN
spired authority capable Of writing a
better statement of the Divine Plan
For his part, he believed that the Holy
Scriptures as st. Paul declares, were
written aforetime by holy men for the
admonition of the Church He be-
lieved that this was done because God
wished His people to understand His
divine purposes and arrangements, and
sympathetically to enjoy them and CO.
operate i n their fulfilment We
should hold fast s'the faith once deliv-
cred to the saints" and should not
| allow our own wisdom or the wisdom
| of other men to take the word of God
of none effect. He reminded his
hearers of how Jesus had reproved the
Pharisees for their neglect of Gods
word and for taking instead Of it the
traditions of men.-Marl1 7:6, Z.
| However, the pastor declared that
our English Bible does not profess tc
be the word of God, but merely a
translation of it. If, therefore, we find
some passages of Scripture which
have been mistranslated, and thus mis-
represent the original Scriptures we
should make haste to correct these
and to admit that the translations
were not inspired. Additionally. he
reminded us that all old manuscripts
show that during the long period OF
eighteen centuries errors had crept ir
additions to the words of Jesus and
the apostles He stated that at the
time of the presentation of our COM
mon version English Bible the number
of Greek manuscripts was only seven
whereas now there are several hum
4 dreds. Three of them in particular
are very old--the Sinaitic the Vatican
1909 and the Alexandrian manuscript
| The people of God are to SO hunger
and thirst for their Heavenly Father:
words that they will spare no pains tt
know exactly what He said to them
and what He did not say, and to base
| their faith upon the living word
which surely will abide forever. Sc
doing, the pastor declared, the Bible
becomes more beautiful and more rev.
erenced by Bible students every day.
Jesus Died to Meet Mans Penalty.
| There is no dispute among the va
rious orthodox creeds that there wa.
n a penalty against mankind which need
ed to be met before the divine bless
| ing could come to any OF our race
| These creeds all agreed. he said, tina
Adam, the father of the race, was ere
ated perfect, in the image, In I'M
moral likeness, of his Maker, but ina
he had sinned, and come under pen
! atty, or curse, on account of SIN
Hence all of his race Inherited lif'
from him, sharing his weaknesses ant
his condemnation to death.
! God. having sentenced man to deat1
as unworthy of life, could not con
/ sistently have any dealings with him
! while still condemned. Hence God'
provision that Jesus as the Son OF Got
should recover Adam and his rac'
from the sentence of death-in ordel
that all might have an opportunity u
return to harmony with God and thu'
to everlasting life.
i This, said the pastor. Is clearly Sc
forth in both the old Testament ant
creeds and rid our minds of the fals'
theories which they inculcate, thes'
scriptures would now guide us with
out difficulty Christendom is handi
capped by the creeds of the dar'
ages, which confuse us. On this SUD
ject. for instance, of Christ's redeem
ing work, we are met with the propo
sition of the creeds that the curse
God against our race is eternal tortur'
in some far-off place, we know no
where-possibly within the earth.
The misconceptions Of our forefa
theirs on the subject of punishment TO
sin were built upon mistranslations O
figurative statements meant to be un
derstood symbolically. For instance
we read Of our Lord. He opened Al
mouth in parallels and dark sayings.
When our Lord illustrated the utte
destruction of the finally incorrlsiDi
by the destruction of the offal or Je
rucnIam cast into the C1ehenna lit