Monroe City Democrat. (Monroe City, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1913-08-21

kC.IsS-@-- * SuS ~ ii s I. II
llRASl0R RUSSELDl Corinthians SO.
The Pastor de
clared that the confusion which has
rent the Christian Church into hun.
dreds of sects has come through neg.
lect of the Bible-a cause not generally
recognized. Creed clashings are the di
rect result of the serious errors con.
tanned in all creeds.
No heather idol is so horrible as that
which the most intelligent Christian
people have portrayed with the pen
purporting to represent the Almighty
and His attitude toward men. We
have misrepresented our Creator as
worse in His purposes than the vilest
of humanity. If Jehovah be God, LET
us worship Him. Why delay? If the
horrible Baal of the Dark Ages be NO
longer our God, let us destroy his creed
images and forget them.
Emperor Constantine's Nicean Creed.
After the Church had forgotten the
Masters declaration that His Twelve
Apostles would constitute the founda.
ton stones of the New Jerusalem, they
began to recognize their bishops as
'ostolic. They overlooked the fact
that Gods statement that Judas place
would be filled by another intimated
particularly that there would be No
successors to The Twelve. Judas real
successor was st. Paul. Bible Stu,
dents now see that the eleven Apostles,
before being confirmed in Apostleship
at Pentecost, erred in choosing Mat
thias, whom God merely ignored.
Gradually the bishops rose to power
as Gods inspired oracles. Proportion
ately, The Twelve lost their influence
1t was easier to take the word of the
bishops than to search the Scriptures.
In their anxiety to overwhelm the
Greek skeptics, these Christian teach
ers unwittingly involved themselves in
absurdites. Gradually the trinitarian
mystery was advanced; and the mysti-
hcation of saying that God was His
own Son, the Lord Jesus His own Fa-
Their, and the Holy Spirit another per-
son and yet the same person, appeal
ed to people who delight to reverence
most what they do not understand
Thus today, when questions are asked
respecting the trinity-how one could
be three, and three one, the answer
given which satisfies the ignorant is.
Mystery!
But the Bible makes no mystery of
the matter. 1t never mentions the
trinity. The one text q John SD
seeming family to support the thought
is now admitted by all scholars to be
an Interpolation, dating from about
the seventh century. The Revised Yer
sion shows quite distinctly the reading
of earlier manuscripts.
ITO Us There Is One God"
The Pastor then explained fully ev-
cry text in both Old and New Tesla
ments used as proof-text supporting
the trinltarian mystery, and convinced
his hearers that these texts are mis-
applied. He quoted the explicit state
ment from the Old Testament Hear,
o Israel, the Lord thy God is one
God" and that from the New Tesla
ment, used as text for this discourse.
Pastor Russell then showed that. ac-
cording to our Lords own teaching, the
oneness, or harmony, between the Fa-
Their and Himself resulted from our
Lords ignoring His own will, to do
the Fathers will. Our Lord exhorted
His disciples to have the same will,
spirit-the Holy Spirit-the dlsposi-
ton to do the Fathers will.
Our Redeemer, formerly known as
the Logos, was the Beginning and the
End Of the Divine direct creation.
Revelation 1:S; 3:14) Through Him
Jehovah operated in all the stupen-
dous work of creation. SO the Greek
reads, "In the beginning was the
Logos, and the Logos was with the
God, and the Logos was God. The
same was in the beginning with the
God BY Him We're all things made
that We're made, and without Him was
not one thing made, John 1878,