The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1913-12-09

er the Second Century the Christian
Church has been gradually led into a
total misconception of the Divine char
tude toward humanity. Little by little
heathenish doctrines respecting an
eternity of torture for all except the
sanity, favored few, were preached
Gradually men with fervent spirit en-
larged upon the errors until today the
most horrible descriptions of the Al
mighty God are printed in Christian
publications, creeds, commentaries, etc.
No heather people have ever pictured
their god in so devilish light. Ugly,
fierce, devilish. though their idols be,
they cannot compare with the Satanic
descriptions which Christians in the
creeds of the Dark Ages have given of
the God of all Grace and Father of
Mercies.-1 Corinthians 1:3.
The noblest and best people in Chris
tendon have abandoned the horrible
teachings of their fathers, and are
more and more worshiping the God of
Love, the Fountain of blessings But
the world still judges our God by our
printed Misrepresentation of Him. In
heather lands, the missionaries are
more blinded, perhaps, than ministers
in the home land. The rein of ortho-
doxy is more tightly drawn on them.
No wonder they can make little i'm
preston on the heather, who openly
declare that they could not worship so
unjust and vicious a God as the mis-
sionaries present-a God who has al
ready sentenced their forefathers to
everlasting torture, because of their ig-
is salvationi
1t appears to me, therefore, that to
whatever extent any intelligent Chris
tan today gives open or secret sup
port to these slanderous, blasphemous
statements, of the creeds he is RESPONSE
BILE. Nor does it seem to be sufficient
that either a Christian or a congrega-
ton here and there should privately
disown these doctrines. Denomination
al names stand as representative of
ton of these denominations. Would
not the only honorable way of rectify-
ing matters now be either as denom-
nations, publicly, openly and in round
terms, to repudiate the ISLANDERS Of the
Deity; or. since this would be tedious
work, should not each individual set
himself straight by as public a with
drawal from such creeds as was his
endorsement in joining? The latter
surely is the surest and quickest meth
cd of rectifying the difficulty. More
over, it is the right method; for the
Bible never authorized any one to or
ganize various sects and parties.
The Bible recognizes only the one
Church of Christ-"The Church of the
First-borns, written in Heaven" Ev-
his Savior and eonsecrated his life to
be a footstep follower of Jesus-all
such, begotten of the Holy Spirit, are
members of the one true Church.
Their names are written in the Lambs
Book of Life. and they have the prom
Use that they will be granted abundant
entrance into His Kingdom in the
First Resurrection-if they abide faith
full. BE thou faithful unto death, and
/ will give thee a crown of life
Seducing Spirits-Doctrines of Devils.
Let me not be misunderstood | am
not charging that these blasphemous
doctrines were Intentionally brought
In to misrepresent God or to deceive
the Church or the world l prefer to
take the Apostle Paul's explanation.
He wrote prophetically. 81 fear, lest
by any means. as the serpent beguiled
Eve through his subtlety. so your
minds should be corrupted from the
simplicity that is in Christ" q Corin-
thians 11:3.) This is exactly what has
happened The Church of Christ has
been beguiled by earthly favors, not
only into a wrong attitude toward the
kingdoms of this world, but, as st.
Paul declares. from the simplicity of
the Truth into mass of confusing
and blasphemous error
First came the beguiling of the bish-
ops into thinking that they were sue
cessors to The Twelve Apostles and
equally inspired authorities and mouth
pieces of Christ Thus the doctrine of
Apostolic Succession was gradually es-
tablished. Jesus prophesied of these,
describing them as false apostles.
(which say they are apostles and are
not" but do lie. Revelation 2:2) As
the bishops received credit as being
living Apostles, the inspired words of
Jesus and The Twelve Apostles whom
He appointed took second place, and
with the masses Bible study ceased as
wholly unnecessary.
Upon this foundation, the great Adj
versary built, item by item, the ter
rible doctrines of purgatory and of
eternal torture. When finally, In the
Sixteenth Century, the Bible again
began to be consulted, Satan so work
ed matters that some of our forefa-
theirs retained the He'll of indescribabi
torture for all except the elect few
repudiating because not Scriptural the
only ameliorating feature-the purga-
torial theory.
Their eyes blinded with the errors of
fourteen centuries of no Bible study
the errors of human theories and doc
trines of demons-can we wonder that
the enlightenment of the past three
centuries has come very slowly? Even
when we were getting free from the
errors. Satan, our willy foe entrapped
our forefathers into the making of
creeds. and thus hindered further prog
ress out of the darkness into the light,
for which We all cry out,
LEAD, Kindly Light, Amid the En-
circline GIooml"
The seducing spirits mentioned by
st. Paul are surely none others than
the fallen angels, of whom Satan Is
the chief, or prince of devils" As st.
Paul suggests. there is a similarity
between the deception Of the Church
and the original deception of Mother
Eve. Eve was beguiled into believing
that Gods threat, Dying, thou shalt
de-" could not be true. The serpent
declared, "Ye shall not surely die"
Thus deceived by the serpent's lie,
Mother Eve was ensnared and led her
husband and our race into death.
And now note the parallel. The Sc
ducing spirits, the fallen angels, have