"Ridicule or sympathy should be meted out to those who still accept the Bible as divine truth, when they have at their disposal the accumulated knowledge of the ages -- knowledge which not only proves the Bible to be false in every department in which it claims authority, but distinctly pernicious in its influence as well. If a man chooses to "kiss devoutly" the Bible, I pray that he will not force this humiliation upon his children.
We can only conclude that those who still accept the Bible as the infallible Word of God are so sadly deluded by superstition and fear that they haven't the courage and mental strength to throw off this paralyzing poison. But no matter for what cause, the time has come when such people should no longer be able to dictate to others in the intellectual and moral spheres of man.
If there were a real Bible for the human race, that book would contain all that this so-called Bible does not contain. The real Bible would begin with the alphabet and the multiplication table and contain every law and principle of nature. We would constantly consult its pages to determine our proper course through life. It would be our Guide and Enlightener. It would be the Text-book of our Existence; the Dictionary of our acts.
One thing is certain and beyond the peradventure of a doubt, and that is this: The real Bible would not contain the immoral stories that make up the major part of this fraudulent one. Why, Satan, if he existed, would loudly protest the charge that he was the author of such a shameful and degrading book as now bears the title of "Holy Scriptures." And mark this: In no other volume would this vulgar insult to the human race be tolerated.
Abraham Lincoln used the expression of "sinners calling the righteous to repentance"; and do we need a better illustration of the truth of it than in the statement of the Reverend George Elliott, editor of the "Methodist Review," a minister of the church and an advocate of the Bible's teachings, when he says in a protest against the books of to-day that "never in the history of American literature has it been so soiled by the stink of sex."[14]
Is it possible that the Reverend George Elliott has never read the Bible? Or is he like the little boy who was asked if he knew what was in the Bible and who replied, "Oh! yes; I know everything that's in it. Sister's young man's photo is in it, and ma's recipe for face cream, an' a lock of my hair cut off when I was a baby, an' the ticket for Pa's watch."
Where can you find another volume, Reverend George Elliott, that contains as many "sex stories" as does the Bible? If the story of "Lot and His Daughters" -- where a father is made drunk so his two virgin daughters may effect an incestuous union with him; and the story of "Tamar and her father-in-law Judah" -- where a daughter-in-law is with "child by whoredom" by her father-in-law; and the story of the "Rape of Tamar By Her Brother Amnon" -- a story where a loving and dutiful sister is outrageously ravished by her brother; if the adulterous episodes of David; the seduction of Mary, and the unfaithfulness of her cousin Elisabeth, do not "stink of sex," then pray what name would you give to their foul odor?
The time has come when the Bible must be stripped of all its false halos and be measured for what it actually is; and I make this prediction: when the Bible is considered in its true light, it will be relegated to a position of utter disrespect -- without foundation, not alone in fact, but in decency as well. For a clergyman to call the stories of other books obscene when he recommends the Bible, is like "the pot calling the kettle black." Instead of boasting of their connection with and support of the Bible, they should rightly hang their heads in shame."
Joseph Lewis |
