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.