Christianity; or, Why I became a Non-Sectarian

Contents

Page Introduction v

CHAPTER L The Authority of the Bible 7

CHAPTER n.

Introduction

I wish to show in a few chapters the inconsistencies in sectarianism. All I ask is : Give this your earnest, impartial consideration, and form your own conclusions. Note well that I am trying to lead you to the word of God, and nowhere else, and if I state anything contrary to the Scriptures, or sound sense, reject it as fast as you can; but as I am addressing Catholics in particular, I will quote exclusively from the Catholic Bible, and as the Catholics are the most ill read in the Scriptures, it will be necessary to quote Scripture at length, but will curtail it as much as possible, quoting verses and parts of verses as needed for said argument. I was born and raised a Catholic, and have belonged to that creed imtil past middle life; have two sisters in the convent; two first cousins who are priests, and my wife has several cousins who are priests and nuns. I have raised a family of eleven children. I have had some experience in life and also in sectarianism.

You will ask me what claim I have as to being an inspired writer. I will refer you to i Cor. i : 2y, 28: "But the foolish things of the world hath God chosen that he may confound the wise: and the weak things of the world hath God chosen that he may confound the strong; and the mean things of the world and the things that are contemptible hath God chosen, and the things that are not, that he might destroy the things that are." The reason given is that no flesh may glory but in the glory of the Lord. So I feel competent, God helping me, to vi INTRODUCTION

define a few things at controversy. But, kind reader, know one thing: There is but one truth which proceeds from God, and we must accept it wherever we find it. There is no CathoHc or Protestant truth whatever. So with the he ; it is the product of Satan wherever we find it. Bear this in mind now and ahvays, if you wish to advance. **A corrupt man loveth not one that reproves him, nor will he go to the wise'' (Prov. 15: 12). "He that turneth away his ears from hearing the law, his prayers shall be an abomination*' (Prov. 28:9). In the last verse Peter wrote he exhorts the faithful to increase in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Scores of such passages could be cited, but this goes to prove that we are commanded to instruct ourselves. It is a sacred duty. We read in Matt. 13:52: "He said unto them. Therefore every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like to a master of a house, who bringeth forth out of his treasure new things and old." Now, this I will try to do, and also show some old things that were misrepresented. I wish also to show the harmony of the Scriptures and the doctrine of Jesus Christ. I am aware of the crying need of a work like this, as there are so many skeptics concerning the Holy Scriptures, especially among Catholics. I find them among my own kindred, among my wife's kindred, and on every hand. The Scriptures do harmonize, if understood. Certain passages do not contradict each other, as some claim. Some things are a little hard to understand, but I have had no occasion to doubt or reject the Scripture, and if you will follow me I will try as best I can to show in the following chapters why I became a non-sectarian.

Christianity; or^ Why I Became a Non-Sectarian

Chapter I

The Authority of the Bible — No Tampering or Meddling Allowed with the Scriptures.

In the following references to the Holy Scriptures, on which Christianity as well as Judaism is based, I will show that the Scriptures are the supreme authority in faith, morals and equity attested by Moses, the prophets, our Lx)rd Jesus and the apostles. In Deut. 4:2 we read: "You shall not add to the words that I speak to you, neither shall you take away from it. Keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you/' "And the Lx^rd gave me two tables of stone written with the finger of God and containing all the words that he spoke to you from the mountain'' (Deut. 9: 10). "He read all the law, every word of it, to all the people" (Josh. 8:34, 35). "By what does a young man correct his ways? By observing thy words" (Ps. 118:9). In verse 98 of the same Psalm the royal prophet says: "Through thy commandments thou hast made me wiser than my enemies." In verse 105 : "Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." In Ps. 145 : 2, 3 : "Put not your trust in princes, in the children of men in whom there is no salvation." When warning the people of false diviners, Isaiah (8:20) says: "To the law rather and to the testimony, and if they speak not according to this word they shall not have the morning light" In Jeremiah (1:12) the Lord assures us that he will watch over his word to perform it. "And the Lord said, Because they have forsaken my law which I gave them, and have not heard my voice, and have not walked in it, but have gone after the perverseness of their own heart and after Baalim'^ (Jer. 9:13, 14). Here we see that we are not allowed to depart from the law of God, no matter who teaches it. *'This is the book of the commandments of God and the law that is forever; all they that keep it shall come to Hfe, but they who have forsaken it, to death. Return, O Jacob, and take hold of it. Walk in the way by its brightness in the presence of the light thereof" (Baruch 4: i and 4). "But unto you that fear my name the sun of justice arises, and health. . . . Remember the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded him" (Mai. 4:2, 4).

Now I will show you that the same rule holds good in the New Testament. In Matt. 4:3-11 we read of the temptation of our Lord. Will you please note how he answered on each of the three assaults? First: "It is written. Not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Second assault: "It is written again. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Third assault: "Begone, Satan, for it is written. The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve." What strikes me most forcibly in the temptation of our Lord is the means he uses to defend himself: "It is written" (contained in the Scriptures). When civil governments train young men for soldiers and generals, they invariably teach them how the great heroes of their own country and of the world were armed, and how they gained victories. Paul tells us what the armor of God is in 2 Eph. 6: 14-17, where he calls the word of God the sword of the Spirit, and in the temptation of our Lord we see how he used it. Jesus was not ignorant of the Scriptures, and, being Captain of our salvation and the first conqueror of the enemy Death, and Satan, we should not hesitate to follow his example. Listen to our Lord again: "And in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines and commandments of men" (Matt. 15:9). And in Matt 26:54 our Lord says : '*How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that so it must be done?" There is nothing uncertain about the Scriptures. In Mark 7:6-13 we find Jesus again denouncing the doctrines of men. And in Mark 7 : 6-8, he says : '*Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites ; as it is written. This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me ; and in vain do they worship me, teaching doctrines and precepts of men. For leaving the commandments of God, you hold the traditions of men." Could Christ have used stronger language ? What food for thought for all creeds who have tampered with God's law ! In Luke 6 : 3 we hear Christ answer his critics again, saying: "Have you not read so much as what David did?" "And why call ye me. Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46). In John 8:25, when asked who he was, Christ said: "The beginning which also spoke to you." When Dives, the rich man (Luke 16: 29), asked Abraham to send Lazarus to his father's house to save them from that place of torment where he had landed, Abraham answered : "They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them." If the Scripture was not the standard of salvation, why did not Abraham refer the brethren of Dives to some other source? Abraham had died over four hundred years before the advent of Moses, and the prophets were still later; yet Abraham knew of Moses and the prophets.

Another striking fact is, that Moses and the prophets had all been dead for several hundred years, save John the Baptist. When Christ then referred his hearers to Moses and the prophets, where could they find them, save in the Scriptures? Christ criticised his disciples with these words: "O fooHsh and slow of heart to believe in the things which the prophets have spoken; and beginning from Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things that were concerning him'' (Luke 24:25, 2y), "Search the scriptures, for you think in them to have life everlasting, and the same are they who give testimony of me'' (John 5- 39)- *'For if you did believe Moses, you would perhaps believe me also, for he wrote of me ; but if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words ?" (John 5 : 46, 47). We see by these words that Christ did not even expect those to believe or hear him who failed to accept the writings of Moses and the prophets. Can we expect any one to be saved now who rejects Moses and the prophets, and the writings of the apostles as well? Why did the apostles write? Listen to John 20: 30, 31 : "Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of his disciples which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name,'* "When prophecies shall fail, the prophets shall be scattered abroad; but he that keepeth the law is blessed" (Prov. 30:5, 6).

Every word of Cod is fire-tried. He is a buckler to them that hope in him. "Add not anything to his words lest thou be reproved and found a liar." To prove that the pious Jews reverenced the law and the prophets, we note Acts 15:21: ^Tor Moses from ancient times hath in every city them that preach him in the synagogues, where he is read every sabbath/' (Cf. also Acts 18:15.) In Rom. 10: 2, 3, 8 Paul says to the orthodox Jews : "For I bear them witness that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, not knowing the justice of God and seeking to establish their own, have not submitted themselves to the justice of God. . . . But what says the scripture? The word is nearer thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart : this is the word of faith which we preach." The evangelist Luke says of the Beroeans (Acts 17: 11) that they were more noble, searching the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul taught was true, of according to the Scriptures. In Acts 19: 11, 12 we are told: ''And God wrought by the hand of Paul more than common miracles, so that there were brought from his body to the sick, handkerchiefs and aprons, and the diseases departed from them and the unclean spirits went out of them." Luke credited the Beroeans as being noble> because they compared Paul's doctrine with the Scriptures, in spite of his great miracles. Where, then, is there any credit to those who will accept anything a preacher, priest or pope says, when we have the additional warning of Paul (Gal. 1:8): "Though we or an angel from heaven preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema"?

Again: "For we write no other thing to you than what you have read and know" (2 Cor. i: 13). Hear Paul once more : "Or did the word of God come out from you, or came it only unto you? If any man seem to be a prophet or spiritual, let him know the things that I write to you that they are the commandments of the Lord" (i Cor. 14:36, 37). In Rom. 15:4 Paul tells us why the Scripture was written, saying : "What things soever were written, were written for our instruction, that through patience and comfort of the scriptures we might have hope." Also in i Thess. 5 : 27 : "I charge you by the Lord, that this epistle be read to all the holy brethren/* Again: "For we are not as many, adulterating the word of God" (2 Cor. 2: 17). According to the above statements, in the epistles of the apostles, is to be found the pure doctrine of Christ; and the very fact that he authorized the apostles to write, is evidence that he expects us to read these writings. And Paul says again (Eph. 3:3, 4): "As I have written above in brief, as you, reading, may understand." "Therefore, brethren, stand firm and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by \w3rd or by our epistle" (2 Thess. 2: 14). Here is one place where tradition is favorably mentioned, but the American Standard Version reads (verse 15) : "Whether by word or epistle of ours." In Col. 2 : 4-8 the apostle warns the faithful again: "Now this I say, that no man may deceive you by loftiness of words. Beware lest any man impose upon you by philosophy and vain fallacy, according to the traditions of men'' Listen, also, to what Paul says about the Scripture to Timothy, his colaborer in the gospel: "And because from thy infancy thou hast known the holy scriptures, which can instruct thee unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture divinely inspired is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice, that the man of God may be perfectly furnished unto every good work" (2 Tim. 3: 15-17). "If then you fulfil the royal law, according to the scriptures. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, you do well: but if you have respect to persons, you commit sin" (Jas. 2:8, 9). In I Pet, 1 : 6 reference is made to the Scripture again, and in I Pet. 1 : 5-20: "And you, giving all diligence, join with your faith virtue; . . . knowledge; . . . abstinence; . . . patience; . . . piety; . . . brotherly love; . . . charity.

For if these things be with you and abound, they will make you to be neither empty nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, For he that hath not these things with him is blind and groping. . . . And I will endeavor that you frequently have after my decease whereby you may keep a memory of these things. . i . And we have the surer word of prophecy, to which you do well to attend, as to a light shining in a dark place until the day dawn and the morning star rise in your hearts.'' Now, Peter might have referred us to his successor, or to the general council, but the very fact that he did not should be sufficient for us. There is a warning in i John 2 : 26 : 'These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you." He is making it so plain that it will be impossible for any other doctors to seduce any, if they will only carefully and prayerfully study them. This is the very reason that those who seduce us do not want us to study the Scriptures. In the Apocalypse (1:3) it says: ^'Blessed is he that readeth and heareth the words of this prophecy, and keepeth the things written in it." Again, in Apoc. 22 : 8, 9, when John fell down before the angel to worship, the angel suffered him not, and said: "See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them who keep the word of the prophecy of this book. Adore God." According to the angel's testimony, we become their fellow-servants and brethren, as also of the holy apostles and prophets, by keeping the words of the Scripture. In verses 18, 19: 'Tf any man shall add to these things, God shall add upon him the plagues written in this book; and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the Holy City, and from the things written in this book."

Concerning the Ethiopian eunuch, a foreigner, spoken of in the eighth chapter of Acts, verse 28 says: "And he was returning sitting in his chariot, and reading Isaias the prophet. And the Spirit said to Philip [the apostle], Go near and join thyself to the chariot. Then Philip said, Thinkest thou that thou understandest what thou readest ? He said, How can I unless some one show me ? And Philip, opening his mouth and beginning at that scripture, preached to him Jesus, and shortly baptized him." Now, kind reader, ask yourself, your priest or prelate, why the eunuch read the Scripture, if he did not understand it; ask also if you believe that the evangeUst Philip would have been sent to him by the angel to explain the Scripture, had he been reading a novel or a Catholic story; and how was it that this foreigner had a copy of the Scriptures, as we are told that copies were scarce in those days. The eunuch was reading a passage which he confessed he did not understand: the wonder is that he did not wrest it to his perdition. It seems to me that this should clear the mind of any person who i^ skeptical of the Scriptures. It appears here again that the children of God relish the things of God, while the children of the world do not relish them.

CHAPTER 11.

Commands,

"Keep therefore and do the things which the Lord God has commanded you: you shall not go aside to the right hand, neither to the left. But you shall walk in the way that the Lord your God hath commanded" (Deut 5:32, 33). "Take heed and beware lest at any time thou forget the Lord thy God and neglect his commandments" (Deut. 8:11). "Lay up these my words in your hearts and minds, and hang them for a sign on your hands, and place them between your eyes; teach your children that they meditate on them, when thou sittest in the house, and when thou walkest on the way, and when thou liest down and risest up ; thou shalt write them upon the posts and doors of thy houses" (Deut. 1 1 : 18-20) . And concerning false teachers or prophets who depart from the law of God we read: "Thou shalt not hear the words of that prophet or dreamer, for the Lord your God trieth you that it may appear whether you love him with all your heart, and with all your soul, or not. Follow the Lord your God, and fear him and keep his commandments, and hear his voice; him shall you serve and to him shall you cleave" (Deut. 13: 3, 4). And again in Deut. 29: 14, 15: "Neither with you only do I make this covenant and confirm this oath, but with all that are present and that are absent." Now, when Eliseus the prophet, by the word of God, healed Naaman of leprosy, he commanded him to wash seven times in the Jordan, as we see by turning to 4 Kings 5 : 10. Any one who believes the Scripture will not believe that Naaman would have been healed had he tried a substitute, or a more convenient stream, or anything else. This, I think, should warn us not to leave the Scriptural stream at any price.

When our Lord was asked what was the first commandment, he said: "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment, and the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these'' (Mark 12: 30, 31). Are these the greatest commandments in your sectarian creeds? Recently I read in a Catholic paper called the Christian Family where a Catholic complained in the query column of being excommunicated for refusing to call the priest 'Tather" and the Pope "Holy Father,'' because the Scripture says, "Call no man father on earth;" and the priest, answering the inquiry, sustained the former ruling on the ground of obstinacy and , disobedience to the church. Shame on such rot ! Are man-made laws and titles higher than those of God? But does that very creed excommunicate any one for being a drunkard, fornicator, liar, or for being deceitful and so on? They will say, "Yes, in some cases;" but they are extreme cases only. In Luke 12:4, 5 Christ warns all his followers not to fear "them that kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom ye shall fear: Fear ye him who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell ; yea, I say to you, Fear him." In John 7 : 24 Christ commands us to "judge not according to the appearance, but to judge a just judgment." "Owe no man anything but to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law" (Rom. 13:8).

In Gal. 5:6-14 Paul tells us that "neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth anything, but faith that worketh by charity ; and that all the law was fulfilled in one word, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself/' In i Thess. 5:21 we are commanded to "prove [test — examine] all things; hold that which is good/' i Pet. 3 : 8, 9 says : ''And finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, loving the brotherhood, merciful, modest, humble. Not rendering evil for evil, nor railing for railing, but, on the contrary, blessing; for unto this are ye called, that ye may inherit a blessing." Now, all this is impossible in sectarianism, where they anathematize each other. But some say: ''Paul anathematized heretics.'' Yes, for instance, in Gal. i : 8, 9, but it was not for difference of opinion, but for teaching a doctrine contrary to the apostles and to the Scriptures. In Romans 14 Paul tells us : *'Now him that is weak in faith, take unto you, not in disputes about thoughts. For one believeth that he may eat all things, but he that is weak, let him eat herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and he that eateth not, let him not judge him that eateth. . . , But why dost thou judge thy brother, or why dost thou despise thy brother, for we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of God? . . . Let us not therefore judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that you put not a stumbling-block or a scandal in your brother's way. ... It is good not to eat flesh or to drink wine, nor anything whereby thy brother is offended or scandalized or made weak." "Now I beseech you, brethren, to mark them who cause dissensions and offense contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them. For they that are such serve not Christ, our Lord, but their own belly; and by pleasing speeches and good words seduce the hearts of the innocent" (Rom. 16:17, 18). We see by this that Paul warns us against those who judge and condemn their brethren, and speak against the weak, or those who differ in opinion. We find also in I Cor. 1:11-13, also in chap. 2:3-5: 'Tor whereas there is among you envying and contention, are you not carnal and walk according to man ? For while one saith, I, indeed, am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are you not men ? What then is Apollos, and what is Paul ? The minister of whom you have believed.'' In 2 Cor. 10 : 7 is* food for thought for all sectarians, for Paul says: "If any man trust to himself, that he is Christ's, let him think this again within himself; that as he is Christ's, so are we also."

In Matt. 7 : 7 our Lord tells us to ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you." Jas. i : 5 tells us where to ask ; in verses 6 and 7 he tells us how to ask; also in John 14: 13, 14. In I John 5:14: "Whatsoever we ask according to his will he hears us ;" and i John 3 : 22 : "And what we ask we shall receive of him, because we keep his commandments." In Matt. 7:9, 10: "Or what man is there among you of whom if his son shall ask bread, will he reach him a stone, or if he shall ask a fish, will he reach him a serpent?" And Jas. 4:3 tells us why we are not heard : "You ask and receive not because you ask amiss, that you may consume it on your concupiscence." Matt. 7: 16 and Luke 6:44 tell us where to seek. "Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?" Matt. 6:33 t^lls us what to seek: "Seek first the kingdom of heaven and its justice." Acts 12:16 tells us how to knock. Now, the moral is that we must expect to get what we ask. If we ask and seek perishable goods and pleasures, how can we expect to receive the imperishable and eternal? We must seek consistently; that is, where we can expect to find. Or seek we Christ, the Holy

Spirit or the gospel in the devil's Bible — ^novels and stories! Or should we not rather follow the spiritual footprints and trail left us by the holy prophets and apostles, if we expect to reach the same goal, or do you expect some one to open a church paradise or heaven, if you knock at a saloon, dance-hall, playhouse or gamblingden?

CHAPTER III. False Impressions and Misrepresentations

There have been so many misrepresentations and wrong ideas concerning the gospel of Jesus Christ, that I will try to point out a few of them. In Matt. 23 : 2, 3 we have: ''The scribes and Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses: all therefore whatsoever they shall say to you observe and do, but according to their works do ye not, for they say, and do not.'' Now, this is somewhat misleading to a careless student, as this certainly refers only to them when they taught Moses and the prophets, as they were supposed to do; for in the same chapter Christ pronounces woe after woe against those very scribes and Pharisees, as in verse 13 : ''But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men: for you do not go in yourselves, and those that are going you suffer not to enter." And verse 16: "Woe to you, blind guides;'' and in verse 33 he calls them "serpents, generations of vipers." Again, concerning the teachings of these Pharisees, He said (Matt. 16:12): "Then they understood that he said not that they should beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees." And if, as our Catholic priests and prelates tell us, we must obey them in all things that they command us, whether they are good or bad, as they try to prove by Matt. 23 : 2, 3, why, then, do Catholics as well as Protestants condemn Judas Iscariot for obeying the high priest, scribes, Pharisees and council, rather than Christ and the Scriptures, as did all the other disciples of Christ; and not rather condemn the eleven apostles and other disciples who repudiated the councils and priests, whom we are told we must obey, by Catholic prelates, as per Deut. 17:8-12?

And why did not the apostles obey them ? Simply because they misinterpreted the Scriptures, as also Satan did when he tempted the Lord (Matt. 4:6), when he said: ''If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down; for it is written that he has given his angels charge of thee, and in their hands shall they bear thee up lest perhaps thou dash thy foot against a stone." Christ gave us an example we should follow, as did all the early Christians ; namely, to show the correct interpretation of the Scripture. In Acts 23 we have an instance, as I have just referred to Paul showing the correct interpretation of the Scripture; also, in Acts 6: 12, 13, we see how the orthodox Jews stirred up the people, the ancients and the scribes, and, running together, they brought Stephen to the council, and they charged him with speaking against the Holy Place and the Law. In Acts 7 we hear Stephen defying the council and priest,^ and interpreting the Scripture correctly. We see that he was not ignorant of the Scriptures, and that he quoted pages of prophecy orally. In Acts 5:28 we have the high priest commanding the apostles : "We commanded you that you should not teach in this name. But Peter answering, and the apostles, said. We ought to obey Giod rather than men." This is not in harmony with those who teach that we should blindly obey priests and prelates, regardless of what their conduct is, or what they teach. When they refer to Matt. 23 : 2, 3, they find a very small support, unless they reject all other Scriptures bearing on this point, and also the conduct of the apostles of Christ, and the first Christians. Now as to the multitude which clamored for Christ's death, they only obeyed the priests and council, and Judas Iscariot was their willing tool, who later repented and brought back his unjust money and confessed his guilt to the priests; but the sad fact and its consequences remain; and I fear very much that there are many Christians who, having abandoned Christ and his word, for substitutes and the teaching of man, will fare no better.