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arEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE, MEDFORD, OREGON, SUNDAY, APRIL 2, 1911.
PXGE THREE
f .
rW -
if
1
MORE DEAD FLIES
if THE PRECIOUS OINTMENT
Pastor Russell Points Out More Decep
tive Additions to the Word of God
Contained In Our Common Version
Bibles, But Shown to Bo False Bo
cause Not Found in the Oldest Greek
MSS. One of These "Flies" Has
Moulded Accepted Theology Dead
Flies Causo the Apothecary's Oint
ment to Stink (Ecclesiastes x, 1).
Not long ago I
pointed out t li u t
thi' lust twelve
verses of St. Murk's
fSospol lit our Com
mon Version arc
spurious so recog
nized by all schol
ars, beeauso these
verses are not to
be found In any of
t h e oldest Greek
MSS. and were evidently added to the
Word of God In the seventh century or
later. Moreover, wo gave proofs of the
untruthfulness of this addition. Is it
true that whoever believes theGospel of
Christ may handle serpents with Im
punity and may drink deadly poison
without harm? Surely not. It Is noth
ing short of a sin for those who know
better to acknowledge these verses und
to use them to bolster up theories of
Divine Healing. It Is ns much a crime
to udd to the Word of God as to take
away from It.
Today I Invito attention to some oth
er dead tiles, some other additions to
God's Word, which have had much to
do with twisting the theology once
delivered to the saints. Take, for In
stance, the closing words of the Lord's
Prayer:
"Thine Is the Kingdom and Power and
Glory."
These words, If uttered by our Lord,
should be found In the old Greek MSS.
But they are not found therein. Thoy
are, therefore, to be rejected as addi
tions made by people centuries after
Matthew's Gospel was -written. These
words were Introduced when the faith
of the Church rcspectlnR the Kingdom
of Messiah was changed or changing
from what It was originally. All
through the New Testament the Sec
ond Coming of Christ In power and
glory to establish Ills Kingdom and
to glorify the Church, His Hrlde, Is set
for the end of this Gospel Age. But
as tho tlmo grew long a change of
sentiment came Into tho Church. It
became popular and rich. Its bishops
were respected. Finally the theory
prevailed that God did not intend to
delay the establishment of the Klug
dom until the Second Coming of
Christ, but did Intend to establish It
lu the hands of the Church during this
Age and to uso the Church for the con
quering of the world and the fulfilling
of all the promises of the past.
In line with this the most promlneut
bishop of the time was recognized as
Divinely appointed to represent Christ
in the world and to reign over the na
tions lu Ills stead and to bring about
the Mllleunlum, etc. This was the
Bishop of Home, who subsequently
was styled the l'opo and who claimed
and was accorded the honorable title,
"Vkc-ticrcnt of the Son of God." It Is
said that the equivalent of this title to
this day Is worn by the I'ope on his
tiara or three-crowned hat Vlcarius
Del Mil.
Thus the change came In the general
sentiment of the "Christian world."
Messiah's Klugdom was no longer to
bo looked for as coming, but was to he
recognized as here. The Tope, as Mes
siah's reigning representative, was to
bo acknowledged. All Kingdoms that
were to honor and obey Messiah were
commanded to honor and obey the
I'ope. The various prophecies which
tell of Messiah's Kingdom glory were
applied to the Tope, and are still so
applied.
As Messiah was to ride forth con
quering the world and "wouud the
heads over many peoples," so the I'epe:
in succession sought to do, to fultill
these, prophecies. As the inaugura
tion of Messiah's Kingdom Is prom
ised to be in the midst of n time of
front trouble, it was not thought Im
proper that Papacy should cause great
trouble In the world in its endeavor
to establish Itself as the Kingdom of
Messiah. As whosoever would not ro
iislve Messiah was to be "destroyed
from amongst the people," It was not
considered wrong to destroy thoso who
rejected and opposed the Papal Kingdom
tiuil to give them to the burning flame
"Thy Kingdom Come on Earth."
The Lord's prayer was already In
the Scriptures, and was known to
many. It could not bo eliminated
But some zealous person, fully beljov
lug that God's Kingdom had come, felt
Justified lu amending the prayer to
correspond to what ho supposed were
the facts. Hence the prayer which
begins. "Thy Kingdom come," is made
to end by saying, "Thy Kingdom has
come In Its glory and power."
If Papacy W tho Kingdom of Mes
siah, It Is certainly not what the Jews
expected. It Is certainly not what we
expected. It is certainly not what the
masses of mankind had auy reason to
expect, although It is so accepted by
the majority of Christendom.
Although our protesting forefathers
broko away from the Pope and do
nouneed him as Anti-Christ and de
clared that he falsely sat in the place
of Christ without authority, thoy, nev
ertheless, were imbued with tho same
error. Thoy did not think to go back
to tho message of the Soripturos and
to look for tho Son of God to set up
His Kingdom at nis Second Advent
and then to bless Israel and the world
through His glorified Churdi. Instead
they held to the Papal theory that
God's Kingdom was set up and was
conquering the world, and that thus
the Messlanie reign mentioned in the
prophecy is being fulfilled. They hold
that Christ himself Is tho invisible
King Lut tint tho Pf'I'P N r,t author
ised to rci'ji -ut him. IK-n- e thN spun
ous addition to the orn o God Is an ac
ceptable to Protestants as to Catholics;
indeed more so, If we may judge by
the fact that the Catholic Bible omits
the spurious, words, while the Protes
tant Bible quotes them.
I Wo here remark that according to
J Protestant theory Messiah's Kingdom
Is represented in the civilized nations
of the world, especially of Europe.
These nil claim to reign "by the grace
of God," In which case, of course, wars
and battles between them are conflicts
between the various parts of Messiah's
Kingdom. And present military prep
arations on land and sea portend a
most sanguinary conflict between these
"kingdoms of this world," which think
themselves and are called by Christen
dom "kingdoms of God."
How glad we are to see the Truth on
this subject; that the Kingdom of
God's dear Son has not yet been set
up, in any sense of the word that it Is
still future. It ennnot be set up until
this Gospel Age cuds and the "elect"
saintly few of every nation Jew and
Gentile shall be changed from earthly
to heavenly nature by the Klrst Resur
rection, which will qualify them to be
"kings and priests unto God and unto
Christ nnd to reign with Him a thou
sand years" (Hevelatlon xx, 0).
It is well thnt all Bible students
should mark this "fly" nnd extract it
from the Precious Ointment, and no
tlco how much sweeter nnd fresher
theLord's prayer is to them forever.
"Oh, What a Whopperl"
Thomas Paine was an enemy to tho
Bible and to the Christian religion, but
largely so, we believe, on account of
his poor understanding of It. And
his misunderstanding of the Bible was
largely due to the false doctrines
handed down from the "Dark Ages"
purporting to be biblical. Who can
not sympathize with the great lnfldel,
Thomns Paine, who, when reading the
last verse of St. John's -Gospel, ex
claimed, "0, what a whopperl" It
reads, "And there are also many oth
er things which Jesus did, the which,
If they should be written every one, 1
suppose that even the world Itself
could not contain the books that
should bo written" (John xxi, 2o).
Surely any one of reasoning mind
should see the absurdity of such n
statement. Surely all Christian min
isters should have Informed the Lord's
sheep under their euro respecting whnt
Is nnd what is not the Word of God,
the Bible, as It was recognized by the
Apostolic Church and written down In
the original Greek manuscripts. Why
any Christian minister should nssall
mo because I endeavor to do for the
people what he has neglected to do 1
cannot understand. I must leave It to
the Lord to Judge between us. I am
Informed that hundreds of ministers
went to the Editors of the papers
which publish my sermons weekly and
endeavored to have them discontinue
their publication.
But the Editors perceive that their
readers are no longer under the bond
age of tho "Dark Ages," but have be
gun to think for themselves, nnd that
many of them are hungering nnd
thirsting for tho Truth respecting tho
Bible tho Christian's spiritual food
and drink. To the claim that many
read my sermons lnstend of going to
Church the answer Is, that Pastor Bus
sell is preaching to tho non-church-going
ten millions who are in tho ma
jority and that It behooves tho minis
ters to provide for their people the
spiritual food for which they are fam
ishing, if they would not lose them all.
Another Big Fly.
To the credit of such men as Luther,
Calvin, Knox, Zwingll, Wesley and
others living prior to our day wo must
explain that they had no opportunity
for knowing of the spurious passages
of the Scriptures. They, therefore,
huve no responsibility such ns de
volves upon ministers of our day who
do, or should, know all about these
matters. We cannot on this occasion
mako further Investigation, take out
more of these dead flies; but, the Lord
willing, at some future time I John v,
7, 8 will have our attention. It is
worthy of it. It has caused the Olnt
ment to stluk and has confused the
minds of many of God's dear saints by
the way in which the error In this case
has been Interwoven with the Truth.
My hearers should bear distinctly In
mind thut what I am here presenting
Is not at all in line with the presenta
tions of the Higher Critics. Their
method is to read through the Scrip
tures and judge of them by their own
keen Intellectual powers, and thus to
discriminate between which were
written by tho Prophets credited, and
which were additions, Their Higher
Criticism claims n keener scent or
mental discernment than ordinary
mortals enjoy, by which they know
these things whether others can see it
so or not.
I resent Higher Criticism nnd accept
the Word of God in full. I reject noth
ing because of ray own or other men's
surmises, but merely go by the facte
If tho oldest Greek MSS. do not con
tain certain passages of Scripture, how
could they get Into later MSS. except
as spurious additions?
Nor should I bo considered ns fault
finding with our Common Version of
the Bible. While It Is not without its
faults, it has so many excellent quali
ties and beautiful translations that 1
prefer it to any other and generally
uso it. But I must not, I cannot, ap
prove those portions of it which all
orthodox scholars admit to bo spuri
ous. We must not handle tho Word of
God deceitfully. If wo do we must ex
pect darkness Instead of light, con
fusion lnstend of harmony.
Our Bible's Ter-Centenary.
ist three centuries ngo our English
mon Version Bible was published
This year Its Ter-Centenary Is cele
brated. It Is a grand book. It hai
done a grand work. Tho fact that It
Is not porfect must not condemn a I
work possessed of so many glorious I
qualities. It was tho result of seven '
years' labor tn the part of forty-seven
pontons learned In tho languagesaud up
x In'ed by King Jumes of England for j
'4 nreuaratlou. They labored to some j
disndvnnlngo by reason of tho com':
mnnd given them to follow an earlier
translation styled, The Bishop's Bible,
and to alter it as little as the original
would allow. They were also Instruct
ed that if the Tyndale, Coverdale, Mat
thew, Cranmer or Whitchurch transla
tions and the Geneva Editors agreed
better with the text, theirs should be
accepted as Instead of the Bishop's.
The translation was, perhaps, the best
that could be made at the time.
Published by kingly authority, It Is
now venerated by English and Amer
ican Protestants as though It had como
direct from the finger of God. This Is
a mistake. We arc to worship God
and to reverence Ills Word and to
search as carefully as possible to have
the precious Ointment provided by tho
spirit of the Truth free from all dead
tiles free from all human additions
and mistranslations nnd superstitious
of the "Dark Ages."
The basis for our Common 'Version
was the Latin Vulgate, which was dili
gently revised and compared with the
Greek MSS. of tho time. But there
were few Greek MSS. known nt that
time, whereas at the present time there
are over 700. Threo of these uro quite
undent.
(1) Tho Slnnltlc MS., found in a Con
vent on Mt. Sinai so recently as 1800.
This Is acknowledged to bo tho oldest
Greek MS. known In the world. Its
dnto is estimated to be about the year
331 A. D. This MS. Is now in the pos
session of the Kusslau government at
St. Petersburg.
(2) Tho Vatican MS., 1209, is credited
with being next in age. It was found
amongst old MSS. lu the Vatican Li
brary and Is still there and catalogued.
The date of Its writing Is estimated to
be about the year 350 A. D.
(3) The third of these oldest known
Greek MSS. of the Xew Testament Is
styled tho Alexandrine, because it was
found in Alexandria in Egypt. It Is
now in the British Museum, where
any visitor can behold it In a glass
case. It Is supposed to have been writ
ten ubout A. D. 450. The readings of
nil three of these Greek MSS. can be
secured and the variations betweeu
their readings and our Common Ver
sion are so simply arranged ns to leave
no excuse for ignorance on tho port of
Bible students. Our Common Ver
sion with uotatlons of these MSS. can
be obtained through any bookseller.
A Responsible and Sacred Trust.
Prof. Tischcndorf, writing respecting
theso nnclcnt Greek MSS., suys:
"To treat such ancient authorities
with neglect would bo either unwar
rantable arrogance or culpable negli
gence. Indeed, it would be a misun
derstanding of Providence If, after all
theso documents had been preserved
through all tho dangers of fourteen or
fifteen centuries and delivered safe
into our hands, wo were not ready to
receive them with thankfulness us
most vnluablo Instruments for tho
elucidation of Truth."
The Truth In the Love of It.
The Lord speaks of some who re
celvo not the Truth lu the love of it,
and tells thut they ultimately will bo
ensnnred by the Adversary. Evident
ly heart-honesty Is ono of tho most
precious elements In the Divine sight.
It is not sulllcleut that wo should bu
Christians In name merely and with
form nnd ceremony. It would not be
sulllcleut in the Lord's sight thut we
should worship sect or party or even
the Bible. It Is the Divine Truth thut
we must reverence next to the Divine
person.
It is not HUlllclent to huve Bibles
on our center tnbles merely, nor suf
ficient to curry them under our arms.
Wo must "eat" tho Word of God-Uiat
Is to say, we must, as spiritual chil
dren of God, feed upon His message.
And this truly implies careful dis
crimination to discern between God's
inspired Bevelation and all human ad
ditions und admixtures. There is,
therefore, a difference between rever
encing and loving the Word of God
nnd reverencing and loving a particu
lar translation, errors and all.
"Thy Word Is Truth."
Our Master's prayer for all of nis
truo disciples, or footstep followers,
was and still is, "Sanctify them
through Thy Truth; Thy Word Is
Truth." Whoever would huvo the
sanctifying influence of the Divine
Word should so fur as possible rid
himself of every unsunctifylug udmlx
ture of human tradition und Interpola
tion. Tho truo suuctlllcntlon or set
ting apart of the heart to know and
to do tho Lord's will could not be con
tent to accept with the sanctifying
Truth defiling errors, chaff and nonsense.
If thousands are turning away from
the Bible there Is a reason. It
Is not the pure Truth that drives thou
away, but tho foreign admixture and
he slanderous misinterpretation!
handed down to us by our well-meau
lug but deluded ancestors of several
enttirles ago. It Is high time foi
all to manifest to God their love o'
the Truth by spending Home of theli
time in studying It-In learning Itt
precious lessons and lu telling fortl
Its "good tidings of great Joy to al'
peonle."
" "TIs one tlilnt: now to read the nibt
through.
Another thlnir to rt-ail. to loiirn ami do
"Tin ono tlilrifx now to read It with delight
And qulto nr.other thliur to read It rlht
Soirio rend to prove a pre-nduptcd creed
Thus undeistand but little what thry
rend ;
And every pausneo In the Hook they bend
To make It nult that nil-Important end.
Some people read, as I have otter.
thought.
To tench tho Book, Instead of to tx
tauKht."
Police Battle With Thugs.
KEARNEY, N. J., April 1. In u
pitched battle at Hackonsack Mead
ows oarly today between pollco and
a gang of wire thieves, threo patrol
men woro wounded, ono probably
fatally, Tho hattlo today was the
climax of a serins of raids which had
netted the thieves thousands of
poundH of copper and telephono und
'flrgraph wires.
As tho pollco approached tho scent
of tho recent robberies, thoy met n
wngon containing four men. When
called upon to stop, the four 'robbers
drew revolvers and opened fire. Ser
geant McQee nnd Patrolmen Smith
nnd Doland were wounded. It was
belloved the wire thieves escaped un
Charges "Too Much Preacher."
HKNO. Nov., April I. -"Too much
preacher," in his home wtts the
ground 0n which Albert Wells of San
Jose, Calif., asked Judge Mornu for
ti divorce from his wife, Surah M.
whom he married in 188H. When
Wells explained that his wife be-
t'iitne so fond of u Smj Joso minister
I hut slio spent most of her lime in
his company, Judge Morun signed tho
decree.
No womnn is educated in values
unless she is n persistent render of
the nds. She wouldn't know the
news of tho day unless she read (ho
paper every day and tho aunio ne
cessity applies to knowing buying op
portunities. She must read the nds
regularly.
Miss Oertrudo Triechlcr visited
friends in Grants Pnsn InBt week.
We
Sell
for
Less
FURNITURE
Rugs
Ranges
Draperies
Buy at
Home
and Help
Med ford
Everything for the Home
Jm r w m B m JrT f fe m Jm. S" 'i
M
The house that made it possible to buy
Furniture in Medford at reasonable prices
Visit Medford Heights
To-day, see this close-in addition on the east side
Climb "Nob Hiir and note the beautiful view
You can have a home on tin's pretty hill side away
from the dust and noise. The lots art; all large and con
venient the prices are low and the payments easy.
See the $750 and $800 lots on the western slope of
"Nob Hill" just below the terace drive
There are eight sixty feet front lots left facing on
east main street, high and sightly at $050 each. The terms
are one-third cash.
FOR SALE BY
Earl Tumy
A. F. Barnett
Whiteside, Meyers & Holmes
D. H. Jackson & Co.
Or The Van Dyke Realty Co.