The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1913-08-22

:lared that the confusion which has
Of sects has come through neglect of
The Bible. The confusion is recognized
oy all Christian people everywhere, but
the cause is not generally discerned.
Church creeds are admitted to be de-
tective. Notwithstanding the truths
which they all contain Creed clash
ings are the direct result of the Sc
:ious errors in all creeds.
Realizing this, why should not all
Christians abandon and demolish their
creeds? They purport to be pen pic
lures of the Almighty God. and His
plans. No heather idol is so grotesque.
so terrible. so horrible, as that which
the most intelligent Christian people
have portrayed with the pen. We are
all ashamed of having misrepresented
our Creator as worse in His purposes
ty-as bad as we knew how to picture
Satan himself and his attitude Why
finger longer? If Jehovah be God. let
US worship Him. If the horrible Baal
Of the Dark Ages be no longer our
God. let us destroy his creed images
and endeavor to forget them.
Emperor constantine's Nicene Creed.
after the Christian Church had for
gotten that the Master declared that
His Twelve Apostles would constitute
ha, al OF dot or Of
Jerusalem. they began to recognize
their bishops as successors to The
Twelve-apostolic bishops They over
looked the fact that while God had
prophetically told that the place of Ju-
das would be filed by another. this
particularly itself intimated that there
would be no successors to The Twelve.
The real successor to Judas. Bible
Students recognize in St Paul. Through
him God has given us the major por-
ton Of the New Testament. and spe-
cial light upon the Church's path,
which is to 'shine more and more unto
the perfect Day" We now see that the
eleven Apostles. before they had been
confirmed in Apostleship by the Pente-
costal blessing. erred in choosing Mat
thiaS, whom God merely ignored
Under these circumstances the bish-
ops rose gradually to power and in
fiuence as inspired oracles of God.
And proportionately. The Twelve cho-
sen as the Lords mouthpieces to His
Church lost their influence 1t was
easier to take the word of the bishops
than to search the Scriptures at
time when copies Of the Bible were
very expensive. and only few were
able to read
Thus Bible study greatly declined
during the second and third centuries.
and disputes between Christians and
Greek philosophers led some of the
bishops to extremes Not only did they
maintain the Bible teaching that Jesus
was the Son of God, and that He left
His Heavenly condition and became a
man that He might redeem Adam and
his race: but, not content with this.
some went further. and In their zeal
claimed that He was the Heavenly
! Father Himself. who came down to
earth and took mans nature and died.
the Just for the unjust. In their anxi-
ETY. to overwhelm the Greek skepties.
these Christian teachers involved them
selves in absurdities. without realizing
1t. Those making the most absurd
claims appear to have had the great
est influence with the illiter,,t"
Gradually the trinitarian theory was
advanced: and the mystification of say
ing that the Heavenly Father was His
own Son. and that the Lord Jesus was
His own Father. and that the Holy
Spirit was another person and yet the
same person. appealed to people who
delight to reverence most those things
which they do not understand Thus
I today when questions are asked re-
speeding the trinity-hOw one could be
three. and how three could ba one-the
answer which is given and which salts
fies the ignorant. is. Mystery. Mystery!
But the Bible makes no mystery of
the matter Ii never mentions trinity
at ALL nor anything that would give
such suggestion. The one text Il
John 5:0 which seems to give color
of support to the thought is now adj
mitted by all scholars t0 be an inter-
polation dating from about the seventh
century: for it Is not found in manu-