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Show j ! f ,! BIBLE MUTILATED j I BY MARTIN LUTHER ; : ii j It's Meaning Changed Wrongly Interpreted j j j-ji Urscs, ChaptTs and Whale Books j ! Suppressed. t. T "A a man sows, so shall he reap'' will ever re- i j );i;!i ;i "'' :k1 true saying. Tracing the Christ- ji.ii r-iij-doji to its .source, we find two undeniable FiiM. Christ instituted a body of teachers, v. h w ! " )c inculcate religious principles that were ; , i ut their own choice or making:, but His, just as '! ilis own words., was not His own, but "4 i:;i M' ihe Father who sent Jlim. Second. This I v;:'J:k was commit ted to writing- by the Apostles "if : .! disciples under the inspiration of the j ;.'; iiiost. To impugn the office of the teachers, 2 I w f.-il-iiy tlic record is a deadly sin. The teachers i ::;"-yci the pbntitude of power. "As the Father j L.?: sent me. so do 1 send you." "lie who heareth 1 : y, u. lii-an th me, and he who despieth you despieth !! ." To add to or knowingly change its true sense I'-nii.-inuishilion is an offense against God. who is 1:1 il:- fountain of truth and who conuuauds all "to be U l int.- ad. rer in spirit and in truth." Contempt For hi siiiiii'Tity in civil affairs as anarchy. The angels who 'J : 3 ; 1 1 -. i were the firt anarchists. The devil is the II . fatlrT f anarchy. To change, suppress, or in any ! va'. -mutilate the civil law is an offense. Should the '4 N .-rciar.v of State change the laws made by the l i -i-i-'ti'.rc, and entrusted in his custody, it is high .1 ; 3' '"i!.''. To offer in evidence as genuine and true a r vriit'-it document which is forgel or fraudulently j ! sd' I' d i- a felony and the culprit is sent to the pen- i i'iiiiar.v. "What. then could be said of those who jj !'!' a! trMii the Supreme Court divinely commissi commis-si M-ac d to ireserve and interpret the divine law, and i , v-'io deliberately suppress and falsify ihe revealed 5 i V nrd of Cod '. Even the devil, with all his inherent r 3.t:iliee and hatred, did not attempt to change the I .va'-:'d Seriplures when he tempted our Lord in the j i'-"-rt. lie quoted texts of Scripture, but did so I cnvclly. with the jmrpose. however, of insinuating I wrung meaning. But he did not dare to falsify I ihi Scri)tures. What the civil law strictly forbids, ; t :.r. 1 what Satan dared not do against our Lord, 1 :: ri-y waiiiouly does against Iliri by assailing i in the pcr.-on if His sj'oum-, the Church. To " 'in-, with a sliow v success, the divine word j - v.,nv.-u;i!cs i;uigeJ, ur suipresed, or so inter-i inter-i y.vicl tn give ir'an entirely different meaning i 3.'M :'ii't intemleil by (Jod. Early in the fourth . u'un Jjibius, -ontenling against Theodotus l f.i.l An.-inon who, in the third century, maintained l iit ' tri.-t was merely man, quotes this strong j : ;iii?Bg' from one of the Doctors of the Church: j ? "filly unMusliingly falsify the Holy Scriptures. I can s'areely believe that they are .una-. .una-. ;' i f tin- folly and raslmess of ibis desperate at-? at-? ini'i "f tbeir's.' For they either do not hold that h- a.-rcl jind divine Scriptures we're dictated by Ib.'y (dat. or they must make out that they i w'-t than the Holy Ghost. AVhat else is this '"a:i the ::,;(dur'ss of those who are. as it were, bod-I bod-I :!r ,, by the Devil." 'aii tin- pagan orator Cicero said of philos- i c.Iiy ;.i)jilies to religion and the Bible. "There is opmi.,11.' he wrote, "so absurd, thtit may not J'i'-ad in it favor the authority of some philoso- Vii-r. So too. there is no religious error so absurd .'aid ouilandih that cau not be sustained by texts I " Script n n 1 hat are Iwisted and adroitly ex-i ex-i ''.!iii-d to uit the particular heresy. Planes, in j ; 'bird century, was the founder of Maniehaian-i Maniehaian-i -;m. known ;is the system of Dualism, or two eter-! eter-! 1 ' "t-i;iciple, light and darkness. He claimed to be '; ( i;n-T i;ni and quoted Scripture for his absurd I i 'me. T1k Gnostics, who as their name indi- . e!;iiin,.,l superior knowledge. They strove to s , :' i-d i i'itian ideas with fanastic theories derived an Pagan philosophy, especially Oriental theoso- 3 :V- I b-y, too, quote Scriptures. Viewing the reli- .-a a- a-jx et of the world since ihe sixteenth ccn- ":,.v- tltere have Iwen innumerable different sects. Ail i j i " i the Bible freely to support their widely ; ' !"nl religious theories. Seti.-ilile men see the I i i'Miidiiy and inconsistency of all this, and either 1 "" ie-,- abandon all religion, or turn toward the Can,,.. f,,r an authorative religion that will ease I id (jiiell their qualms of conscience. J V. Iid-t tome heretics used the pen to distort the I ;.nit:g of words, ihou used the knife to cut away I :i1 Sacred Books verses, chapters, and entire ' 1 Luther admitted the Gospels, but his criti- ' I iniud found fault with Matthew, Mark and Luke, ' ' ' ' ,! 'iJ "ouldn't, he said, be compared with St. " i;;.l!,'s Gospel or the Epistle of St. Paul. In the ; ) "icnd(erg edition published in 1522, Luther wrote '' !l; refa-e. "From all this, then (dear reader!). eanst, decide ind distinguish which are the b'-t of those books. For John's Gospel and St. I'ards Ejtistles, especially the one to the Romans. ' ' ; d St. Peter's first Epistle, are the right kernel ; aid marrow amongst all books." This bold and ar-'; ar-'; ;"Lr;;n; attempt of comparing the inspired histor-i histor-i 3; i's- and showing his reference were suppressed in MiU -qneni. editions of the Bible, but it is inserted a die preface of the Erlangen edition, published in ' tac hi-t century. Luther was not satisfied with j I1'- aiouncbig judgment on the merits of the inspired t v ";!rrs. but some he rejected altogether. The 1 i-tle of St. James and the Apoclypse he rejected ' ; --i ik i red books. Strange how these, who are now i l'-!'ing the higher critics, took Luther's dictum, Mid decision, regarding books that were not in-i in-i m ive,, as that of a sujircme and infallable court. Si. James Epi-tle, he wrote: "I hold this for i'o Apostle's work, and here is my .reason. Indirect f "atradi-tion to St. Paul and all other Scripture 11 allows justification to works. In the second j 1'Iaee it will teach Christians and yet never once ; i i. tiuon the passions, the resurrection,' and spirit ? "j Clirist. He (St. James) names Christ occasion-f occasion-f ''-s '' leaches nothing of him. talking only of i "'"dinary belief in God. And ibis is the true touch-; touch-; s ' " 1 1 ' ' whereby to reprove all books, namely, by i';"eii vhetlier they preach Christ .and St. Paul z V;'l knew nothing outside of Christ whatever does f ' 'each Christ is not apostolic, even though St. ( L Purr , St. Paul should teach it. On the other r Jaad. wbiitever preaches Christ would be apostolic, ; cvcii if it caiue f,.011j JuJa Annas, Pilate or Her- f :' j ' ' od. But this James does nothing more than urge the law and its works." These words will be found in vol. LXX1I of the Erlangen edition of Luther's works. They throw the higher critics in the shade. Their attitude regarding inspiration pale into insignificance in-significance before the arrogant pretensions of the father of the reformation. On the Apocabypse his decision was equally strong and condemnatory. In the preface, already quoted he says: "1 say what I feel. For more than one reason I hold it to be neither apostolic nor prophetic. First, and above all, the Apostles do not deal in visions, but prophecy with plain dry words. Again, there is no prophet in the Old Testament, to say nothing of the New, who deals so thoroughly in visions and images, so that 1 hold it like the Fourth Book of Esdras and can find no trace that it comes from the Holy Ghost. This book does not suit my spirit, and I have reason enough not to think highly of it, for in it Christ is neither taught nor recognized. To do this, however, is the first duty of an Apostle, as he says, 'You shall be my witnesses.' This decision, which rested for its authority on the reformer's Ich sage was Ich fulde." (I say what I feel) was amendable to his own sane moments of thoughts, and he. suppressed it. so we are informed by the Erlangen edition of his works, already referred to in these words: ''Preface to the Kevelation of St. John, of the year 1552, suppressed by Luther in later editions of the New Testament." He did not confine his jurodical decision to these two Books of the New Testament. Of St. Jude he wrote: "No one can deny that his Epistle is an extract or copy of St. Peter's Second Epistle. He alleges sayings and facts that are nowhere found in Scripture." The authenticity of St. Paul's Epistle Epis-tle to the Hebrews as well as its inspiration he denied, de-nied, and said that it was not written by any of the Apostles. Why? Because it contained Catholic doctrine which Luther as a monk believed, but as reformer denied. A person doing to the civil law what Luther did to the divine law would be guilty of misdemeanor and even felony. "Every person guilty of preparing any false record, instrument in writing, with the intent to produce or allow it to be produced for any fraudulent or deceitful purpose, pur-pose, as genuine or true, upon any trial, proceeedint or injury whatever, authorized by law, is guilty of a misdemeanor." That is what Luther did with the divine law, or the Bible. Again, "A person guilty of fraudulent alteration of a bill or resolution, resolu-tion, in language different from that intended, is guilty of felony." He was guilty not only of fraudulent fraud-ulent alteration, but of what is more criminal, namely, suppressing the divine law. Then he was guilty of doing to the law of God what civil authorities authori-ties will not tolerate regarding the civil law. We apply the test once more. "Any person guilty of fraudulent alteration of engrossed copy or enrollment enroll-ment of any bill or resolution in language different from that in which was passed or adopted by the Legislature is guilty of a felony." All this the first reformer did. The higher critics have done this, and more. If their master was justified why condemn con-demn the pupils The American Bible League, in its controversy with the higher critics, will find itself disarmed at every step it may take. Like the Rationalists of the present day the higher critics, be they church of laymen, can appeal to the testimony testi-mony and action of their master, and what he did with impunity, they may also do. Did God give his law to man. command our obedience, and yet leave the world in darkness and doubt as to what is or is not the divine law, or its significance' Was lie ' ' """"""" ' "?1,L ; less wise than civil society which, when it enacted laws, appointed a Court to interpret them and a supreme court to give a final decision and settle all appeals. God in his infinite wisdom foresaw the necessity of such a provision. He constituted the Church, and authorized his Apostles to "go and teach all nations," and the Spirit of Truth would abide with them forever." F. I). . i , , ., ' |