CON'T
"...539
What portion of their goods did he require the rich to give the poor to obtain salvation?
Rich Ruler, No. 1: "Good Master what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" (Luke xviii, 18.)
Jesus: "Sell all that thou hast and distribute unto the poor" (22).
Rich Ruler, No. 2: "Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor" (Luke xix, 8).
Jesus: "This day is salvation come to this house" (9).
540
What did he teach respecting the publicity of good works?
"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works" (Matthew v, 16).
"Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men to be seen of then," (vi, 1, New Ver.).
541
What original rules of table observance did he teach his disciples?
Matthew: To abstain from washing their hands before eating. "They wash not their hands when they eat bread" (xv, 2).
John: To wash their feet after eating. "He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel and girded himself. After that he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded" (xiii, 4, 5).
The proneness of Christ's followers to neglect his ordinances and precepts which require some sacrifice or effort to obey, and the readiness with which they observe those which do not, find a fitting illustration in the reception accorded these teachings. While the early Christians, many of them, accepted the first as a religious obligation not to be violated, the second was ignored. Writing of Christian monks and nuns, Lecky says: "The cleanliness of the body was regarded as a pollution of the soul and the saints who were most admired had become one hideous mass of clotted filth St. Athanasius relates with enthusiasm how St. Antony, the patriarch of monachism, had never, to extreme old age, been guilty of washing his feet.... St. Abraham the hermit, however, who lived for fifty years after his conversion, rigidly refused from that date to wash either his face or feet.... St. Euphraxia joined a convent of one hundred and thirty nuns, who never washed their feet, and who shuddered at the mention of a bath" (European Morals, Vol. II, pp. 109, 110).
542
What religious formula is to be found in the New Testament?
"In the name of Jesus."
"In the name of Jesus" the disciples cast out devils and performed other miracles; "In the name of Jesus" they baptised their converts; "In the name of Jesus" salvation was secured. This formula, with various modifications, is in general use in the church today. It betrays the heathen origin of Christianity. Referring to its use Prof. Meinhold of Bonn University says: "Name and person were at one time closely combined, and elementary religious ideas were connected with the words. He who knew the name of a divinity and could pronounce it was in this way able to secure a blessing. It was the use of the name of Jesus in the sacraments that made them effective, in the spirit of sorcery."
This idea came from the lowest type of religious thought, reflected in religious mysteries in the days of Jesus, and was embodied in the earliest Christianity."
543
What is taught respecting the use of oaths?
God: "Swear by my name" (Jeremiah xii, 16).
Christ: "Swear not at all" (Matthew v, 34).
544
What opposing rules of proselytism did Christ promulgate?
"He that is not with me is against me" (Luke xi, 23).
"He that is not against us is for us" (Luke ix, 50).
545
What is to befall him that hath nothing?
"Whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath" (Matthew xiii, 12).
Ex nihilo nihil fit.
546
What did he say would be the fate of those who took up the sword?
"They that take the sword shall perish with the sword" (Matthew xxvi, 52).
He evidently considered this commendable, for he immediately issued the following command to his disciples:
"He that hath no sword let him sell his garments and buy one" (Luke xxii, 36).
547
What did he say regarding the fear of death?
"Be not afraid of them that kill the body" (Luke xii, 4).
"After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him" (John vii, 1).
548
What is to be the earthly reward of those that follow Christ?
"There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, but he shall receive a hundred fold now in this time" (Mark x, 29, 30).
"Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?" (1 Peter iii, 13.)
"For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew xi, 30).
"In the world ye shall have tribulation" (John xvi, 33).
"Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake" (Luke xxi, 17).
"Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Tim. iii, 12).
"For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth" (Hebrews xii, 6).
549
What promise did Christ make to Paul at the commencement of his ministry?
"I am with thee and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee" (Acts xviii, 10).
"Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned" (2 Corinthians xi, 24, 25).
550
How are Christ's true followers to be distinguished from those of the devil?
"Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin" (1 John iii, 9).
"He that committeth sin is of the devil" (8). Judged by this standard what is the comparative strength of these sovereigns' subjects?
"There is no man that sinneth not" (1 Kings viii, 46).
"There is not a just man upon earth" (Ecclesiastes vii, 20).
"There is none righteous, no, not one" (Romans iii, 10).
551
Great stress is placed upon the moral teachings of Jesus. What did he teach? Did he advocate industry and frugality?
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth" (Matthew vi, 19).
"Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on" (25).
"Take therefore no thought for the morrow" (34).
552
What were the early Christians?
Acts: They were Communists. "They had all things common.... For as many as were possessors of land or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet; and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need" (iv, 32-35).
Most Christians condemn Communism; but was the Communism of nineteen hundred years ago better than the Communism of today? To condemn Communism is to condemn primitive Christianity. Yet, Christians profess to abhor the Communistic ideas of modern teachers, while they worship as a God the founder of this Communistic sect of Palestine.
553
What did he teach respecting poverty and wealth?
"Blessed be ye poor" (Luke vi, 20).
"Woe unto you that are rich" (24).
Poverty is a curse; wealth, honestly acquired and wisely used is a blessing. "The rich man's wealth is his strong city the destruction of the poor is their poverty" (Proverbs x, l5).
554
In the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, what befell the representatives of vagrancy and respectability?
"The beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom" (Luke xvi, 22).
"The rich man also died,...and in hell he lifted up his eyes" (22, 23).
See the red flames around him twine
Who did in gold and purple shine!
While round the saint so poor below,
Full rivers of salvation flow.
Jesus, my Lord, let me appear
The meanest of thy creatures here.
555
Why was Dives' request that his brothers be informed of their impending fate refused?
"They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them" (Luke xvi, 29).
Moses and the prophets do not teach the doctrine of endless punishment, nor even that of a future existence, much less that the mere possession of wealth, acquired perhaps by honest industry, is a crime which can be expiated only by the sufferings of an endless hell.
Christ's Kingdom was a kingdom of vagrants and paupers. "A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew xix, 23). "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (24).
556
While at the temple with his disciples what act did he commend?
Mark and Luke: That of the poor widow who threw two mites into the treasury (Mark xii, 43; Luke xxi, 3).
This widow's offering illustrates the characteristic generosity of the poor and the heartless greed of the church. This text has enabled a horde of indolent priests to prey upon widows and orphans; to filch the scanty earnings of the poor, and live like parasites upon the weak and sickly calves of humanity.
557
Did he practice the virtue of temperance?
"The Son of Man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, behold a gluttonous man and a winebibber" (Luke vii, 34).
558
What was his first miracle?
John: "There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee.... And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.... And there were set there six water pots of stone,...containing two or three firkins apiece. Jesus saith unto them, Fill the water pots with water. And they filled them up to the brim" (ii, 1-7). This water he turned into wine.
Here is Christ supplying a party already "well drunk" with more than one hundred gallons of wine. As they were intoxicated when he performed the miracle, would it not have been better for them and better for the millions who have accepted him as a moral guide, if at the beginning of the feast he had turned the wine into water?
The morality taught by Jesus suffers in comparison with that taught by Mohammed. Mohammed prohibited the use of intoxicating drink, and the Mohammedans are a temperate people; Jesus sanctioned the use of intoxicating drink, and the Christian world abounds with drunkenness.
Referring to the miracle at Cana, Strauss says: "Not only, however, has the miracle been impeached in relation to possibility, but also in relation to utility and fitness. It has been urged both in ancient and modern times, that it was unworthy of Jesus that he should not only remain in the society of drunkards, but even further their intemperance by an exercise of his miraculous power" (Leben Jesu, p. 584).
559
Did he oppose slavery?
All: He did not.
"Slavery was incorporated into the civil institutions of Moses; it was recognized accordingly by Christ and his apostles." -- Rev. Dr. Nathan Lord, President of Dartmouth College.
"At the time of the advent of Jesus Christ, slavery in its worst forms prevailed over the world. The Savior found it around him in Judea; the apostles met with it in Asia, Greece and Italy. How did they treat it? Not by denunciation of slave-holding as necessarily sinful." -- Prof. Hodge of Princeton.
"I have no doubt if Jesus Christ were now on earth that he would, under certain circumstances, become a slaveholder." -- Rev. Dr. Taylor of Yale.
Rousseau says: "Christ preaches only servitude and dependence.... True Christians are made to be slaves." |
