Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-10-24
Pastor Russells Sermon

Kingdom. I have sufficient faith to
ask you to grant poor thief bless
Ing when you reach that Kingdom.
MispIaoemsnt Of Comma by Transla-
tors.
Jesus reply should be carefully stud
led. In substance 1t was, Poor thief,
appreciate your words; and when My
Kingdom shall be established l will
remember your kindness and will re-
ward 1t. Notwithstanding this dark
day with It's unfavorable setting, am
really King, and these experiences
are necessary for Me, that may enter
into My Kingdom. Thus Jesus said,
Be 1t as you have asked-I will re-
member you when | come into posses
sion Of Ny Kingdom. "yerily say
unto you this day, thou shalt be with
Me in Paradise"
The difficulty has been with the
wrong thought of the translators, and
the displacement Of the comma.
Punctuation is a modern convenience
In all languages. There is none in the
original Scriptures. The translators
put the comma where they thought 1t
should be, but evidently they made a
great mistake. 1t would be thoroughly
Inconsistent to say that Jesus went to
Paradise, when He had not yet ascend
ed to the Father, and when the prom
lsed Paradise is to be established In
the earth after the Second Coming of
Christ, as a result of His Mlllennial
Reign 21:4-5.
Placing the comma where we have
done leaves the passage thoroughly In
accord with all the Bible. That pas
sage, properly understood, leaves not
a shadow Of Scriptural support to the
thought that n prayer a moment before
death would change the everlasting
destiny Of anybody,
Both Thieves In Bible He'll.
Let us get back to the Bible. Let us
get rid Of the foolshness Of the creeds.
Let us remember that a dead man is
dead, as the Bible declares. "Hls sons
come to honor, and he knOweth It not;
they come to dishonor, but he per-
celvcth 1t not of them" "There Is nei-
ther device nor knowledge nor wisdom
in Sheol Hades, the tombl whittier
thou goest" whittier all go.
But nothing In the Bible suggests
that man dies in the same sense as the
brute. There Is no hope for future
life for the brute, but Gods Word
stands pledged for n future life for hui
manlty There shall be resurrection
Of the dead, both of the just and Of
the unjust" "All that are in their
graves shall hear the voice OF the Son
Of Man and come forth"
The Bible tells that unless Christ
had redeemed the life OF mankind by
the sacrifice Of His own life, there
would have been no resurrection OF
the dead. But from the foundation of
the world God purposed resurrection;
and that Jesus should eventually be
the Lamb Of God, to take away the sin
Of the world. "As by man [Adaml
came death, by man [Jcsusl comes
the resurrection Of the dead; for as all
In Adam die, even so all I'm Christ shall
be made nllye"-"every man In his own
order."--1 Corinthians 15:2l-23.
Jesus Himself we read, was the first
to rise from the dead-to be fully re-
leased from the power Of death Laz-
arus, Jalrus' daughter, etc, were not
resurrected In full, but merely awak-
ened temporarily. They fell asleep IN
death agnIn, and will have In their
own due time the Diviney appointed
opportunity for Il resurrection.
According to the Bible, the Church
will be the next In order, and will
have resurrection to spirit nature,
similar to that Of Jesus; hence the
Apostles desire to share IN Chrlst's
resurrection by having II share In His
sacrlnclal death. "For II we be dead
with Him, we shall also live with
Him. Timothy 2:l.
Next after the Church will come the
resurrection Of the Ancient Worthless,
of whom John the Baptist was the
last Their resurrection was referred
to by st. Paul In Hebrews II, where
he declares that God has reserved
some better thing for us 1.-THE church,,
that they without us should not be
made perfect"
Each In His own Order.
st. Paul declares that In the resur
rectlon every man will come forth In
his own order, or band, or company
When the due time shall come for the
awakening Of the generation which
Jesus quito probably both the
thieves win come forth from death at !
or about the same time. Roth thieves
will receive the blessing purchased for
them by the Redccmcr's dcnth-to be |
brought to n knowledge Of the Truth, |
to be helped up out Of ignorance, su-
pcrstltlon, blindness by rewards,
stripes, punlshments lf they viii, TO |
human perfection, lost IN Adam, re.
decmcd by Jesus
But there win hc difference he
tween the conditions Of the two
thieves. Both win bo In Paradise; for
the whole onrth is to be II Paradise,
Tho hardened thief may have had Il
less favorable birth or n less favor
able environment In life Only the
Lord the great Judge IL able to know
how much excuse should be made for |
him nud how murh upnnltv should nt /