Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-08-18


rent the Church Of God into hundreds
Of sects has come through neglect Of
the Bible. The confusion Is recognized
by all Christian people everywhere, but
the cause is not generally dlscerned.
Church creeds are admitted to be de-
fectiye, Notwithstanding the truths
which they all contain. Creed clash
ings are the direct result OF the Sc
rlous errors in all creeds.
Realizing this, why should not all
Christians abandon and demolish their
creeds2 They purport to be pen pic
lures Of the Almighty God, and His
attitude toward men and His resultant
plans, No heathen 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
toward men than the yilest of humani-
ty--as bad as we knew how to picture
Satan himself and his attitude. Why
linger longer2 If Jehovah be God, let
sts-weEahll~E EIimtsA.If4tss .AOlnible Baal
Of the Dark Ages be no longer our
God, let Us destroy his creed images
and endeavor to forget them,
Emperor Constantino's Nieene Creed.
After the Christian Church had for.
gotten that the Master declared that
His Twelve Apostles would constitute
the chief foundation stones Of the New
Jerusalem, they began to recognize
their bishops as successors to The
Twelve-apostolc bishops They over.
looked the fact that while God had
prophetlcally told that the place OF Ju-
das would he 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 Aposteshlp by the Pente-
costal blessing, erred in choosing Mat
thias, whom God merely ignored
Under these circumstances the blsh.
ops rose gradually to power and In.
fluence as inspired orucles OF God
And proportlonately, 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 a
time when copies Of the Bible We're
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 lie 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 skeptics,
these Christian teachers involved them.
selves IN absurdltles, without realizing
g. Those making the most absurd
Of claims appear to have had the great.
He est Influence with the llliterate. ,
m.l Gradually the trinltarian theory was
.1RdyaBced; and the mystiAcation Of say.
N ing that the Heavenly Father was His
own Son. and that the Lord Jesus was
HIS own Father, aud that the Holy
Spirit was another person aud yet the
same person, appealed to people who
delight to reverence most those things
which they DO not understand Thus
today when questions are asked re-
spectlng the trlnily-how one could be
three, and how three could be one-the
answer which II glYen, aud which salts
Hes the lgnomnt, Is, Mystery, Mystery
But the Bible makes no mystery OF
the matter, II never mentions trinity
at all, nor anything that would give
such "a suggestion. The one text q
John 80 which seems TO give a color
Of support to the thought is now ad.
mitted bS@all scholars oibean inter
polatiou dating from about the seventh
centuryi for Il IS not found In manu-