CON'T
"...575
Was he not an egotist and given to vulgar boasting?
Speaking of himself he said: "Behold a greater than Solomon is here" (Matthew xii, 41, 42).
576
Did he not practice dissimulation?
John: "And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I know that thou hearest me always, but because of the people which stand by I said it" (xi, 41, 42).
Luke: After his resurrection when he intended to stop at Emmaus with his companions, "He made as though he would have gone further" (xxiv, 28).
577
After performing one of his miraculous cures, what charge did he make to those who witnessed it?
Mark: "He charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it" (vii, 36).
Did he desire them to disregard his commands? If he did, he was a hypocrite; if he did not, he was an impotent -- in either case a fallible man instead of an omnipotent God.
578
On the approach of the Passover what did he say to his brethren?
"Go ye up unto this feast; I go not up yet unto this feast" (John vii, 8).
The correct reading of the last clause is, "I go not up unto the feast." The American revisers, to their credit, urged the adoption of this reading, but the Oxford revisers retained the error. In uttering these words, Jesus, if omniscient, uttered an untruth; for John says: "But when his brethren were gone up, then went he also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret" (10).
579
Why did he teach in parables?
"That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them" (Mark iv, 12).
He deceived the people that he might have the pleasure of seeing them damned.
580
What immoral lesson is inculcated in the Parable of the Steward?
He commends as wise and prudent the action of the steward, who, to provide for his future welfare, causes his master's creditors to defraud him. "There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward. Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill and sit down quickly, and write fifty. Then said he unto another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill and write fourscore. And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely; for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations" (Luke xvi, l-9).
581
In the parable of the Laborers what unjust doctrine is taught?
The assignment of equal rewards for unequal burdens. He justifies the dishonest bargaining of the householder who received twelve hours of labor for a penny, when he paid the same amount for one (Matthew xx, 1-16).
Regarding the parables of Jesus, W. P. Ball, an English writer, says:
"With one single exception, the parables attributed to Jesus are thoroughly religious and decidedly inferior in their moral tone, besides possessing minor faults. The God who is to be the object of our adoration and imitation is depicted to us as a judge who will grant vengeance in answer to incessant prayer, as a father who loves and honors the favorite prodigal and neglects the faithful and obedient worker, as an employer who pays no more for a life-time than for the nominal service of a death-bed repentance, as an unreasonable master who reaps where he has not sown and punishes men because he made them defective and gave them no instructions, as a harsh despot who delivers disobedient servants to tormentors and massacres those who object to his rule, as a judge who is merciful to harlots and relentless towards unbelievers, as a petulant king who drives beggars and outcasts into the heaven which is ignored by the wise and worthy, as a ruler of the universe who freely permits his enemy the devil to sow evil and then punishes his victims, as a God who plunges men in the flames of hell and calmly philosophizes over the reward of the blest who from Abraham's bosom behold the sight and are not permitted to bestow even so much as a drop of cold water to cool the parched tongues of their fellow-creatures amidst hopeless and unending agonies, in comparison with which all earthly sufferings are but momentary dreams."
582
What did he teach regarding submission to theft and robbery?
"Of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again" (Luke vi, 30).
583
Why was the woman taken in adultery released without punishment?
John: Because those having her in custody were not without sin themselves (viii, 3-11).
The adoption of this principle would require the liberation of every criminal, because all men are fallible. If man cannot punish crime because not free from sin himself, is it just in God, the author of all sin, to punish man for his sins?
584
Whom did he pronounce blessed?
"Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matthew v, 3).
"Is poverty of spirit a blessing? Surely not. Manliness of spirit, honesty of spirit, fulness of rightful purpose, these are virtues; but poverty of spirit is a crime." -- Bradlaugh.
585
Did he teach resistance to wrong?
"Unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other" (Luke vi, 29).
"He who courts oppression shares the crime." Lord Amberley, referring to this teaching of Jesus, says: "A doctrine more convenient for the purposes of tyrants and malefactors of every description it would be difficult to invent" (Analysis of Religious Belief; p. 355).
586
He taught his hearers to return good for evil. Did he do this himself?
"I pray for them [his followers], I pray not for the world" (John xvii, 9).
"Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father" (Matthew x, 33).
587
The Golden Rule has been ascribed to Christ. Was he its author?
Five hundred years before the time of Christ Confucius taught "What you do not like when done to yourself do not to others." Centuries before the Christian era Pittacus, Thales, Sextus, Isocrates and Aristotle taught the same.
588
What maxim does Paul attribute to Jesus?
"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts xx, 35).
These are not "the words of the Lord Jesus," but of the Pagan Epicurus, a man whose character Christians have for centuries defamed.
Concerning the teachings of Jesus, Col. Thomas W. Higginson says: "When they tell me that Jesus taught a gospel of love, I say I believe it. Plato taught a gospel of love before him, and you deny it. If they say, Jesus taught that it is better to bear an injury than to retaliate, I say, yes, but so did Aristotle before Jesus was born. I will accept it as the statement of Jesus if you will admit that Aristotle said it too. I am willing that any man should come before us and say, Jesus taught that you must love your enemies, it is written in the Bible; but, if he will open the old manuscript of Diogenes Laertus, he may there read in texts that have never been disputed, that the Greek philosophers, half a dozen of them, said the same before Jesus was born."
Buckle says: "That the system of morals propounded in the New Testament contained no maxim which had not been previously enunciated, and that some of the most beautiful passages in the apostolic writings are quotations from Pagan authors, is well known to every scholar.... To assert that Christianity communicated to man moral truths previously unknown, argues on the part of the asserted either gross ignorance or wilful fraud" (History of Civilization, Vol. I, p. 129).
John Stuart Mill says: "It can do truth no service to blind the fact, known to all who have the most ordinary acquaintance with literary history, that a large portion of the noblest and most valuable moral teaching has been the work not only of men who did not know, but of men who knew and rejected the Christian faith" (Liberty).
589
We are told that Christ manifested "a strong and enduring courage which never shrank or quailed before any danger however formidable." Is this true?
It is not. When he heard that John was imprisoned, he retreated to the Sea of Galilee (Matthew iv, 12, 13); when John was beheaded, he took a ship and retired to a desert (xiv, 13); in going from Galilee to Judea, he went beyond the Jordan to avoid the Samaritans; when his brethren went up to Jerusalem he refused to accompany them for fear of the Jews (John vii, 8, 9); when the Jews took up stones to stone him he "hid himself" (viii, 59); when the Pharisees took council against him he fled (Matthew xii, 14, 16); at Gethsemane, in the agonies of fear, he prayed that the cup might pass from him; at Calvary, he frantically exclaimed, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!"
Commenting on this dying exclamation of Christ, Dr. Conway says: "That cry could never be wrung from the lips of a man who saw in his own death a prearranged plan for the world's salvation, and his own return to divine glory temporarily renounced for transient misery on earth. The fictitious theology of a thousand years shrivels beneath the awful anguish of that cry."
590
What was the character of Christ's male ancestors?
Assuming Matthew's genealogy to be correct, nearly all of those whose histories are recorded in the Old Testament were guilty of infamous crimes or gross immoralities. Abraham married his sister and seduced her handmaid; Jacob, after committing bigamy, seduced two of his housemaids; Judah committed incest with his daughter-in-law; David was a polygamist, an adulterer, a robber and a murderer, Solomon had a thousand wives and concubines; Rehoboam Abijam, Joram, Ahaziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Manasseh, Amon and Jehoiachin, are all represented as monsters of iniquity, while others are declared to have been too vile to even name in his genealogy.
591
What female ancestors are named in his genealogy?
Matthew: Thamar, Rachab, Ruth and Bathsheba.
Regarding these women the Rev. Dr. Alexander Walker says: "It is remarkable that in the genealogy of Christ, only four women have been named: Thamar who seduced the father of her late husband; Rachab, a common prostitute; Ruth, who, instead of marrying one of her cousins, went to bed with another of them; and Bathsheba, an adulteress, who espoused David, the murderer of her first husband" (Woman, p. 330).
Matthew Henry, a noted Christian commentator, says: "There are four women, and but four, named in this genealogy,...Rachab, a Canaanitess, and a harlot besides, and Ruth, the Moabitess.... The other two were adulteresses, Tamar and Bathsheba" (Commentary, Vol. V).
592
Who was his favorite female attendant?
Luke: "Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils" (viii, 2).
Referring to this woman, Dr. Farrar says: "This exorcism is not elsewhere alluded to, and it would be perfectly in accordance with the genius of Hebrew phraseology if the expression had been applied to her in consequence of a passionate nature and an abandoned life. The Talmudists have much to say respecting her -- her wealth, her extreme beauty, her braided locks, her shameless profligacy, her husband Pappus, and her paramour, Pandera" (Life of Christ, p. 162).
In a chapter on "Sanctified Prostitution," Dr. Soury writes: "The Jewess is full of naive immodesty, her lip red with desire, her eye moist and singularly luminous in the shade. Yearning with voluptuousness, superb in her triumphs, or merely feline and caressing, she is ever the 'insatiable,' the woman 'with seven devils' of whom the scripture speaks, a kind of burning furnace in which the blond Teuton melts like wax. So far as in her lay, the Syrian woman, with her supple and nervous arms, drew into the tomb the last exhausted sons of Greece and Rome. But who can describe the grace and the soft languor of these daughters of Syria, their large black eyes, the warm bistre tints of their skin? All the poets of the decadence, Catullus, Tibullus, Propercius, have sung this wondrous being With soft and humble voice, languid and as though crushed by some hidden ill, dragging her limbs over the tiles of a gynaecium, she might have been regarded as a stupid slave. Often, her gaze lost in long reveries, she seemed dead, save that her bosom began to swell, her eye lighted up, her breath quickened, her cheeks became covered with crimson. The reverie becoming a reality by a matchless power of innovation and desire, such is the sacred disease which, thanks to Mary Magdalene, gave birth to Christianity" (Religion of Israel, pp. 70, 71)
593
Who were his apostles?
"A dozen knaves, as ignorant as owls and as poor as church mice." -- Voltaire.
"Palestine was one of the most backward of countries; the Galileans were the most ignorant of the inhabitants of Palestine; and the disciples might be counted among the most simple people of Galilee." -- Renan.
"His followers were 'unlearned and ignorant men,' chosen from the humblest of the people." -- Farrar.
594
What power is Christ said to have bestowed on Peter?
"And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew xvi, 19).
On this remarkable bestowal of power, which has exerted such a mighty influence in the government of the church, but of which Mark, Luke and John know nothing, Greg comments as follows: "Not only do we know Peter's utter unfitness to be the depositary of such a fearful power, from his impetuosity and instability of character, and Christ's thorough perception of this unfitness, but we find immediately after it is said to have been conferred upon him, his Lord addresses him indignantly by the epithet of Satan, and rebukes him for his presumption and unspirituality, and shortly afterwards this very man thrice denied his master. Can any one maintain it to be conceivable that Jesus should have conferred the awful power of deciding the salvation or damnation of his fellow-men upon one so frail, so faulty, and so fallible? Does any one believe that he did?" (Creed of Christendom, p. 189).
595
When Peter discovered that Jesus was the Christ what did he do?
Mark: "And Peter took him [Christ] and began to rebuke him" (viii, 32).
What did Jesus do in turn?
Mark: "He rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me Satan" (33).
What a spectacle! The incarnate God of the universe and his vicegerent on earth indulging in a petty quarrel!
596
Give an account of Peter's denial of his Master.
Matthew: "Now when Peter sat without in the palace: and a damsel came unto him saying, Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee. But he denied before them all saying, I know not what thou sayest. And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him, and said unto them that were there, This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth. And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man. And after a while came up to him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech betrayeth thee. Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man" (xxvi, 69-74).
597
What did Peter say to Jesus in regard to compensation for his services?
"Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?" (Matthew xix, 27).
What request was made by James and John?
Mark: "They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory" (x, 37).
This shows that self-aggrandizement inspired the actions of his followers then as it does today.
598
What is said of John in the Gospel of John?
"There was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples whom he loved" (xiii, 23).
"The disciple standing by whom he [Jesus] loved" (xix, 26).
"The other disciple whom Jesus loved" (xx, 2).
"Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following, which also leaned on his breast at supper.... This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things" (xxi, 20, 24).
If the Apostle John wrote this Gospel, as claimed by Christians and as declared in the Gospel, he was a vulgar egotist.
599
What is said regarding the conduct of his Apostles on the evening preceding the crucifixion?
Luke: "And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest" (xxii, 24).
This was immediately after he had announced his speedy betrayal and death and when his disciples, if sincere, must have manifested the deepest sadness and humility. If the Evangelist is not a base calumniator the Apostles were a set of heartless knaves.
600
When the Jews came to arrest Jesus what did the disciples do?
Matthew: "Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled" (xxvi, 56).
Mark: "And they all forsook him, and fled" (xiv, 50).
Justin says: "All his friends [the Apostles] stood aloof from him, having denied him" (Apology, i, 50).
One scarcely knows which to detest the more, the treachery of Judas in betraying his Master, or the imbecility and cowardice of the other apostles who took no measures to prevent it and who forsook him in the hour of danger.
601
What became of the Twelve Apostles?
The New Testament, a portion of which is admitted to have been written as late as the latter part of the first century and nearly all of which was really written in the second century, is silent regarding them. Christian martyrology records their fates as follows:
St. Peter was crucified, at his own request head downward, and buried in the Vatican at Rome.
St. Andrew, after having been scourged seven times upon his naked body, was crucified by the proconsul of Achaia.
St. James was beheaded by Herod Antipas in Palestine.
St. John was "thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil" by Domitian, but God "delivered him."
St. Philip was scourged and crucified or hanged by the magistrates of Hierapolis.
St. Bartholomew was put to death by a Roman governor in Armenia.
St. Matthew suffered martyrdom at Naddabar in Ethiopia.
St. Thomas was shot to death with arrows by the Brahmans in India.
St. James the Less was thrown from the pinnacle of the temple at Jerusalem and dispatched with a club where he fell.
St. Simon was "crucified and buried" in Britain.
St. Jude was "cruelly put to death" by the Magi of Persia.
St. Matthias, the successor of Judas Iscariot, if Christian tradition is to be credited, was put to death three times, crucified, stoned, and beheaded.
Nothing can be more incredible than these so called traditions regarding the martyrdom of the Twelve Apostles, the most of them occurring in an empire where all religious sects enjoyed as perfect religious freedom as the different sects do in America today. Whatever opinion may be entertained respecting the existence of Jesus, the Twelve Apostles belong to the realm of mythology, and their alleged martyrdoms are pure inventions. Had these men really existed Christian history at least would contain some reliable notice of them, yet all the stories relating to them, like the story of Peter at Rome, and John at Ephesus, are self-evident fictions. In the significant words of the eminent Dutch theologians, Dr. Kuenen, Dr. Oort and Dr. Hooykaas, "All the Apostles disappear without a trace."
602
What are Paul's teachings regarding woman and marriage?
"It is good for a man not to touch a woman" (1 Corinthians vii, 1).
"I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn" (8, 9).
"Art thou loose from a wife? seek not a wife" (27).
"He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord; but he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy in body and spirit; but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband" (32-34).
"So then he that giveth her in marriage doeth well; but he that giveth not in marriage doeth better" (38).
"This coarse and insulting way of regarding woman, as though they existed merely to be the safety-valves of men's passions, and that the best men were above the temptation of loving them, has been the source of unnumbered evils." -- Annie Besant.
"Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands" (Colossians iii, 18).
"As the church is subject unto Christ so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything" (Ephesians v, 24).
"Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home; for it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church" (I Corinthians xiv, 34, 35).
"Let women learn in silence with all subjection" (1 Timothy ii, 11).
"That she [woman] does not crouch today where St. Paul tried to bind her, she owes to the men who are grand and brave enough to ignore St. Paul, and rise superior to his God." -- Helen Gardener.
603
Did Paul encourage learning?
"The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God" (1 Corinthians iii, 19).
"Knowledge puffeth up" (viii, 1).
"If any man be ignorant let him be ignorant" (xiv, 38).
"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy" (Colossians ii, 8).
"The clergy, with a few honorable exceptions, have in all modern countries been the avowed enemies of the diffusion of knowledge, the danger of which to their own profession they, by a certain instinct, seem always to have perceived." -- Buckle.
"We know the clerical party; it is an old party. This it is which has found for the truth those two marvelous supporters, ignorance and error. This it is which forbids to science and genius the going beyond the Missal and which wishes to cloister thought in dogmas. Every step which the intelligence of Europe has taken has been in spite of it. Its history is written in the history of human progress, but it is written on the back of the leaf. It is opposed to it all. This it is which caused Prinelli to be scourged for having said that the stars would not fall. This it is which put Campanella seven times to torture for saying that the number of worlds was infinite and for having caught a glimpse of the secret of creation. This it is which persecuted Harvey for having proved the circulation of the blood. In the name of Jesus it shut up Galileo. In the name of St. Paul it imprisoned Christopher Columbus. To discover a law of the heavens was an impiety, to find a world was a heresy. This it is which anathematized Pascal in the name of religion, Montaigne in the name of morality, Moliere in the name of both morality and religion. There is not a poet, not an author, not a thinker, not a philosopher, that you accept. All that has been written, found, dreamed, deduced, inspired, imagined, invented by genius, the treasures of civilization, the venerable inheritance of generations, you reject." -- Victor Hugo.
"There is in every village a lighted torch, the schoolmaster, and a mouth to blow it out, the parson." -- ibid.
604
What admissions are made by Paul regarding his want of candor and honesty?
"Being crafty, I caught you with guile" (2 Corinthians xii, 16).
"Unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews" (1 Corinthians ix, 20).
"I am made all things to all men" (22).
"For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner?" (Romans iii, 7.)
"I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do your service" (2 Corinthians xi, 8).
605
What is said of the persecutions of Paul?
"And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem" (Acts ix, 1, 2).
This was Paul the Jew.
"But there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.... If any man preach any other gospel than that ye have received, let him be accursed" (Galatians i, 7, 9)
"I would they were even cut off which trouble you" (v, 12).
This was Paul the Christian. The leopard changed his name but did not change his spots.
The alleged cause of Paul's sudden conversion and the transference of his hatred from Christianity to Judaism may well be questioned. The story of the apparition will not account for it. A genuine change of belief is not usually effected suddenly. Men sometimes change their religion for gain or revenge. It has been charged that Paul twice changed his, the first time for the hope of gain, the second from a desire for revenge. The Ebionites, one of the earliest of the Christian sects, claimed that Paul was originally a Gentile, that becoming infatuated with the daughter of the high priest he became a convert to Judaism for the purpose of winning her for a wife, but being rejected, he renounced the Jewish faith and became a vehement opponent of the law, the Sabbath, and circumcision (Epiphanius Against Heresies, chapter xxx, sec. 16).
606
What was Christ's final command to his disciples?
"Love one another" (John xiii, 34).
Christian writers prate about brotherly love, and yet from the very beginning the church of Christ has been filled with dissensions. Christ himself quarreled with his apostles. Paul opposed the teachings of James (Galatians ii, 16-21); James condemned the teachings of Paul (ii, 20). Paul proclaimed himself the divinely appointed apostle to the Gentiles. "The gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me" (Galatians ii, 7). Peter contended that the mission had been assigned to him "And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel" (Acts xv, 7).
Paul declared Peter to be a dissembler. "But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him face to face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with Gentiles; but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him" (Galatians ii, 11-13).
John denounced Paul as a liar. "Thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars" (Revelation ii, 2).
From these seeds of dissension death has reaped a bloody harvest. Dr. Talmage says: "A red line runs through church history for nearly nineteen hundred years -- a line of blood; not by hundreds, but millions we count the slain."
Lord Byron says, "I am no Platonist; I am nothing at all. But I would sooner be a Paulician, Manichean, Spinozist, Gentile, Pyrrhonian, Zoroastrian, than one of the seventy-two villainous sects who are tearing each other to pieces for the love of the Lord and hatred of each other."
607
Quote Paul's characterization of Christians.
"Not many wise ... not many noble are called" (1 Corinthians i, 26).
"Base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen" (28).
"We are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things" (iv, 13).
"We are fools for Christ's sake" (10).
608
What did Christ say respecting the intellectual character of his converts?
"I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes" (Matthew xi, 25; Luke x, 21).
Commenting on this expression of thanks, Celsus, who lived at the time the Four Gospels made their appearance, says: "This is one of their [the Christians'] rules. Let no man that is learned, wise, or prudent come among us: but if they be unlearned, or a child, or an idiot, let him freely come. So they openly declare that none but the ignorant, and those devoid of understanding, slaves, women, and children, are fit disciples for the God they worship."
Concerning the Christian teachers of that age Celsus writes as follows: "You may see weavers, tailors, fullers, and the most illiterate of rustic fellows, who dare not speak a word before wise men, when they can get a company of children and silly women together, set up to teach strange paradoxes among them."
609
Whom did Christ declare to be among the first to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?
Harlots and thieves.
"The harlots go into the Kingdom of God before you" (Matthew xxi, 43).
"Today shalt thou [the thief] be with me in paradise" (Luke xxiii, 43).
610
What promise did he make to his followers?
"In my Father's house are many mansions.... I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself" (John xiv, 2, 3).
"Christians believe themselves to be the aristocracy of heaven upon earth, they are admitted to the spiritual court, while millions of men in foreign lands have never been presented. They bow their knees and say they are 'miserable sinners,' and their hearts rankle with abominable pride. Poor infatuated fools! Their servility is real and their insolence is real but their king is a phantom and their palace is a dream." -- Winwood Reade.
The Christ is a myth. The Holy Ghost Priestcraft overshadowed the harlot Superstition; this Christ was born; and the Joseph of humanity, beguiled by the Gabriel of credulity, was induced to support the family. But the soldiers of Reason have crucified the illegitimate impostor, he is dead; and the ignorant disciples and hysterical women who still linger about the cross should take his body down and bury it." |
