Image provided by: Silverton Country Historical Society; Silverton, OR
About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 8, 1898)
f. T H E TORCH O F REASON, S IL V E R T O N . OREGON, T H U R SD A Y , S E PT E M B E R S. ls<jx. N o t A ll In s p ire d . BY JOEL M. BERRY. In 11“' “ Week I y W itn e ss’ I no ticed .in editorial headed, “ Not All Inspired” . Some one signing him self M. B. writes to the editor: “ I have been taught from my earliest childhood that the bible is the word of God, hut our m inister, who claim s to he a great bible s tu dent, told us in one of his sermons that the bible is not all it spiled. He told us how m any authors it took to write ail the hooks of the bible. He said they were not all men, as part of it was w ritten by women, and finally he said th a t the devil was th e a n th o ro f part of it. W hat will he the effect of such preaching in a com m unity th at is already strongly tinctured with skepti cism ?” The editor of the “ W itness” takes th is for his startin g point end says if this preacher is merely trying to exploit himself by proclaim ing his superior knowledge, the effect upon his congregation will he very had, and th at upon his own character will be ruinous. But, he says, if the preacher is honestly trying to lead his hearers out into clearer light and larger conceptions of the bible, he is doing a good wmrk, even though he may not he alto gether wise in expressing himself. Now what we can’t com prehend is this: If this m inister is doing a very bad, ruinous work in one in stance by telling the people that the bible is not all inspired, how is it th at he is doing a very good work by telling them the sam e tiling in the other case? Oh, no, Mr. Editor, th a t will nev er do. You must go it whole hog or none. The bible is either all in spired or not at all. But 'th e editor goes on to say that it is true enough the bible is not all inspired in the sense u su al ly attached to th a t word. He says there are words in it which were spoken by foolish men, by had men, and by even the devil himself, and th a t one of its most rem arkable chapters is a proclam ation by a heathen king ( N ebuchadnezzar). It cannot be even said that the holy men who are seV before us as teach ers and exam ples always spoke words of infallible tru th . He then cites several instances, and asks if the prophet Jonah was inspired when God asked him if he did well to be angry and he replied th at he did; if the prophet Jere m i ah was inspired when he said, “ Ah, Lord God, surely thou hast greatly deceived this people” ; if the p a triarch A braham was inspired when he denied his wife, saying she was his sister; if the apostle Peter was inspired when with oaths and curs es he denied his Lord? come out and deny the inspiration theory in toto? Oh, no, th a t would ruin his pocketbook and his repu tation as an editor, so you see he would not dare to do it. No doubt it would h u rt him in the estim ation of a few creed-bound, ignorant, superstitious bible-believ ers, hut in th e estim ation of all To sell property honest, tru th fu l, Intelligent people To buy a hom e he would he doing ju st what is To go into business right. W hat kind of a bible would that To exchange real or personal property he with part inspired and part, as To work, or to hire workers he says, w ritten by had and foolish A N Y TH IN G men, and even by the devil? Who would he the judge, in that ease, of what part is inspired? W R IT E T O U S . WE C A N H E L P YOU The tru th , as it appears to me, is this: The inspiration theory, like the fire and brim stone endless Address, INFORM ATION BUREAU punishm ent doctrine, is fast falling W a t k k H t k k k t . Silverton, ( ) regon. into disrepute. There are hundreds O pposite L iberal Hall. of passages in the bible too obnox- : ions ami obscene to even lay to the j devil, let a lone ca 11 i ng them in sp ir 0 s V ed hv God. Good bible believers & are asham ed of ¿hem, and they •Ï and settlin g dow n in th e new building which we have prepared m ust work some plan to smooth especially for o u r them over. The best they can do * is to claim th a t part of the bible is inspired and part of it is not. A has lieen a big job. It has kept & nice mixed up mess for any one to ;©î ns •y-- O pin his faith to! .Just think of the m any changes that have been made in the bible for a long tim e ........ by way of new versions and revis ions. In the early church, gospels and epistles were not only m an u & factured, but were dropped or ÎÎ3 changed to suit the dem ands of the V i with the liest and largest selec tion of F u rn itu re , t ’arjiets, Wall ■ * ' occasion. But the tru ly faithful Paper, e tc ., in th e W illam ette are compelled to believe it all in $ Valley. Please rem em ber th a t we do spired, even though they do not $ not allow any concern on the know what the word inspiration $ coast to sell at lower prices th an ourselves. means. In explaining the bible the p rin cipal hiiriness of the preacher or priest is to show to his deluded Vi flock th a t the word» do not mean V what they say. They have two Si N e w S t o r e , 2 4 -8 C o m m e r c ia l S t r e e t , m eanings, the literal and the h id den, which is the real m eaning. A OREGON SALEM nice inspired word of God th a t & would be, with a hidden m eaning that none hut the preacher or priest could understand! W ho D o ts Y our C u t T h is O u t But as has been ju stly rem arked, there are plenty of people in the Fill it up. and forw ard with world who pass for having good $1.00 to th e sense, th at, when it comes to mat ters of religious belief, don’t know, L ib e r a l U n iv e rs ity C o ., Silverton, Oregon. never did know’ and never will know the difference between elusion If von require any and delusion. I n f o r m a t io n BUREAU DO YOU ■ WANT G etting out of the old room § im m ense stock of fu rn itu re g on the run We are now ready « B U R E N & H A M IL T O N P Club Rales. rinting 9 C a rd s or C irc u la rs , B ill H e a d s , The W eekly Oregonian is the N o te or L e t t e r H e a d s , best newspaper published in the S ta te m e n ts , Pacific Northwest. The subscrip T ic k e ts , P ro g ra m s , tion price is S I.50 per year. We In v ita tio n s , will give it, together with the Torch B o o ks or P a m p h le ts , of Reason, for the exceedingly low E n v e lo p e s , price of $ 1.75. You will get two papers for a little more than the O r any o th e r P rin tin g , you will serve price of one. To the P ublishers ( if the Torch o f Reason: Please send th e T orch or R eason to my address for one year, for which I e n close $1.00. .N 'aiti .e Postoffice. your own in te rest ami help su p p o rt Now the question is, when this th e Lilteral U n iv ersity by se n d editor knows these things to l>e Are you acquainted with the ing y o "r orders to us. We true, why don’t he, like a m an, m erits t»f the I* orstner auger bit? , will execute them promptly, tastefully. State.