Chapter VI: Part 6

"But Eusebius, the father of church history, capped the climax by fabricating the celebrated passage about "Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him such." ("Anti-Christ," p. 28.)

"He (Eusebius) has frankly told us that his principle in writing history was to conceal the facts that were injurious to the reputation of the church." (Lecky's "European Morals," vol. 1, p. 492.)

"Eusebius, who would never lie or falsify except to promote the glory of God." (Taylor's Diegesis, p. 345.)

Eusebius pronounces a panegyric upon Constantine. The following is the list of Constantine's murders as given by Robert Taylor:

[**TODO: Verify table]
Maximinian, his wife's father A. D. 310
Bassianus, his sister Anastacia's husband A. D. 314
Licinianus, his nephew by Constantina A. D. 319
Fausta, his wife A. D. 320
Sopater, his former friend A. D. 321
Licinius, his sister Constantina's husband A. D. 325
Crispus, his own son A. D. 326

And the church still continues to regard these two persons as holy men of God, raised up for a wise purpose--the one an open, wholesale murderer, and the other a cowardly, cunning and corrupt priest. The vast injury they have done the human race can never be computed. They poisoned the fountains of civilization, and all Christendom has been drinking its poisoned waters ever since. If there are anywhere in history two men who have done their fellow men more positive harm and wrong, I do not know them. Their names should be held up to eternal scorn.

Baronius, a sincere advocate of the Christian faith, calls Eusebius: "the great falsifier of ecclesiastical history, a wily sychophant, a consummate hypocrite, a time serving persecutor, who had nothing in his known life or writings to support the belief that he himself believed in the Christian system."

Eusebius is the source from whom all have drawn their material. Of him Dean Milman in a note to Gibbon's Rome says: "It is deeply to be regretted that the history of this period rests so much on the loose, and, it must be admitted, by no means scrupulous authority of Eusebius." (Page 85.)

Spurious Writings of the Early Church.

"Not long after Christ's ascension into heaven, several histories of his life and doctrines, full of pious frauds and fabulous wonders, were composed by persons whose intentions, perhaps, were not bad, but whose writings discovered the greatest superstition and ignorance." (Mosheim's "Ecclesiastical History.")

"Christian churches had scarcely been gathered and organized when here and there men rose up who, not being contented with the simplicity and purity of that religion which the apostles taught, attempted innovations, and fashioned religion according to their own liking." (Mosheim's "Ecclesiastical History," vol. 1, c. 5.)

"To avoid being imposed upon, we ought to treat tradition as we do a notorious and known liar, to whom we give no credit, unless what he says is confirmed to us by some person of undoubted veracity." (Extract from Bower's "Lives of the Popes.")

"This opinion has always been in the world, that to settle a certain and assured estimation upon that which is good and true, it is necessary to remove out of the way whatever may be an hindrance to it. Neither ought we to wonder that even those of the honest, innocent, primitive times made use of these deceits, seeing for a good end they made no scruple to forge whole books." (Daille on the Use of the Fathers, b. 1, c. 3.)

The Bible Not an Inspired Revelation.

"What would be the characteristics of a revelation? 1st. A revelation would be free from inherent contradictions. Does the New Testament revelation stand this test? 2d. A revelation would not contradict natural laws, for nature is the only undisputed revelation to man. 3d. A revelation would be so authenticated that it would be more reasonable to admit than to deny its claims. The history of thousands of years proves that, so far, no revelation has been made that compels the mind's assent, as thousands of thinking men reject the so-called revelation of the New Testament. The New Testament does not claim infallibility for itself; and proving that a book is infallible does not prove that it was inspired, else we might claim inspiration for the problems of Euclid." (Anon.)

"When Moses told the children of Israel that he received the two tables of commandments from the hands of God, they were not obliged to believe him, because they had no other authority for it, than his telling them so; and I have no authority for it than some historian telling me so. The commandments carry no internal evidence of divinity with them; they contain some good moral precepts, such as any man qualified to be a lawgiver or a legislator, could produce himself without having recourse to supernatural intervention." (Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason.")

"Revelation is a communication of something which the person, to whom that thing is revealed, did not know before. For if I have done a thing, or seen it done, it needs no revelation to tell me I have done it, or seen it, nor to enable me to tell it, or to write it." (Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason.")

"If it was worth God's while to make a revelation to man at all, it was certainly worth his while to see to it that it was correctly made. He would not have allowed the ideas and mistakes of pretended prophets and designing priests to become so mingled with the original text that it is impossible to tell where he ceased and where the priests and prophets began. Neither will it do to say that God adapted his revelation to the prejudices of mankind. Of course it was necessary for an infinite being to adapt his revelation to the intellectual capacity of man; but why should God confirm a barbarian in his prejudices? Why should he fortify a heathen in his crimes? If a revelation is of any importance whatever, it is to eradicate prejudices from the human mind. It should be a lever with which to raise the human race. Theologians have exhausted their ingenuity in finding excuses for God. It seems to me that they would be better employed in finding excuses for men. They tell us that the Jews were so cruel and ignorant that God was compelled to justify, or nearly to justify, many of their crimes, in order to have any influence with them whatever. They tell us that if he had declared slavery and polygamy to be criminal, the Jews would have refused to receive the ten commandments. They insist that, under the circumstances, God did the best he could; that his real intention was to lead them along slowly, step by step, so that, in a few hundred years they would be induced to admit that it was hardly fair to steal a babe from its mother's breast. It has always seemed reasonable that an infinite God ought to have been able to make man grand enough to know, even without a special revelation, that it is not altogether right to steal the labor, or the wife, or the child of another. When the whole question is thoroughly examined, the world will find that Jehovah had the prejudices, the hatreds, and superstitions of his day.

"If there is anything of value, it is liberty. Liberty is the air of the soul, the sunshine of life. Without it the world is a prison and the universe an infinite dungeon.

"If Christ was in fact God, he knew all the future. Before him, like a panorama, moved the history yet to be. He knew exactly how his words would be interpreted. He knew what crimes, what horrors, what infamies, would be committed in his name. He knew that the fires of persecution would climb around the limbs of countless martyrs. He knew that brave men would languish in dungeons, in darkness, filled with pain; that the church would use the instruments of torture, and that his followers would appeal to whip and chain. He must have seen the horizon of the future red with the flames of the auto da fe. He knew all the creeds that would spring like poisoned fungi from every text. He saw the sects waging war against each other. He saw thousands of men, under the orders of priests, building dungeons for their fellow men. He saw them using instruments of pain. He heard the groans, saw the faces white with agony, the tears, the blood--heard the shrieks and sobs of all the moaning, martyred multitudes. He knew that commentaries would be written on his words with swords, to be read by the light of faggots. He knew that the Inquisition would be born of teachings attributed to him. He saw all the interpolations and falsehoods that hypocrisy would write and tell. He knew that above these fields of death, these dungeons, these burnings, for a thousand years would float the dripping banner of the cross. He knew that in his name his followers would trade in human flesh, that cradles would be robbed, and woman's breasts unbabed for gold, and yet he died with voiceless lips. Why did he fail to speak? Why did he not tell his disciples, and through them the world, that man should not persecute, for opinion's sake, his fellow man? Why did he not cry, You shall not persecute in my name; you shall not burn and torment those who differ from you in creed? Why did he not plainly say, I am the Son of God? Why did he not explain the doctrine of the trinity? Why did he not tell the manner of baptism that was pleasing to him? Why did he not say something positive, definite, and satisfactory about another world? Why did he not turn the tear-stained hope of heaven to the glad knowledge of another life? Why did he go dumbly to his death, leaving the world to misery and to doubt?

"You may ask, And what of all this? I reply, As with everything in nature, so with the Bible. It has a different story for each reader. Is, then, the Bible a different book to every human being who reads it? It is. Can God, through the Bible, make precisely the same revelation to two persons? He cannot. Why? Because the man who reads is not inspired. God should inspire readers as well as writers.

"You may reply: God knew that his book would be understood differently by each one, and intended that it should be understood as it is understood by each. If this is so, then my understanding of the Bible is the real revelation to me. If this is so, I have no right to take the understanding of another. I must take the revelation made to me through my understanding, and by that revelation I must stand. Suppose, then, that I read this Bible honestly, fairly, and when I get through am compelled to say, 'The book is not true.' If this is the honest result, then you are compelled to say, either that God has made no revelation to me, or that the revelation that it is not true is the revelation made to me, and by which I am bound. If the book and my brain are both the work of the same infinite God, whose fault is it that the book and the brain do not agree? Either God should have written a book to fit my brain, or should have made my brain to fit his book. The inspiration of the Bible depends upon the credulity of him who reads. There was a time when its geology, its astronomy, its natural history, were thought to be inspired: that time has passed. There was a time when its morality satisfied the men who ruled the world of thought: that time has passed.

"These are the passages that have liberated woman!

"According to the Old Testament, woman had to ask pardon, and had to be purified, for the crime of having borne sons and daughters. If in this world there is a figure of perfect purity, it is a mother holding in her thrilled and happy arms her child. The doctrine that the woman is the slave, or serf, of man--whether it comes from heaven or from hell, from God or a demon, from the golden streets of the New Jerusalem or from the very Sodom of perdition--is savagery, pure and simple.

"In no country in the world had women less liberty than in the Holy Land, and no monarch held in less esteem the rights of wives and mothers than Jehovah of the Jews. The position of woman was far better in Egypt than in Palestine. Before the pyramids were built, the sacred songs of Isis were sung by women, and women with pure hands had offered sacrifices to the gods. Before Moses was born, women had sat upon the Egyptian throne. Upon ancient tombs the husband and wife are represented as seated in the same chair. In Persia women were priests, and in some of the oldest civilizations 'they were reverenced on earth, and worshiped afterward as goddesses in heaven.' At the advent of Christianity, in all Pagan countries women officiated at the sacred altars. They guarded the eternal fire. They kept the sacred books. From their lips came the oracles of fate. Under the domination of the Christian church, woman became the merest slave for at least a thousand years. It was claimed that through woman the race had fallen, and that her loving kiss had poisoned all the springs of life. Christian priests asserted that but for her crime the world would have been an Eden still. The ancient fathers exhausted their eloquence in the denunciation of woman, and repeated again and again the slander of St. Paul. The condition of woman has improved just in proportion that man has lost confidence in the inspiration of the Bible.

"The old argument that if Christianity is a human fabrication its authors must have been either good men or bad men, takes it for granted that there are but two classes of persons--the good and the bad. There is, at least, one other class--the mistaken, and both of the other classes may belong to this. Thousands of most excellent people have been deceived, and the history of the world is filled with instances where men have honestly supposed that they had received communications from angels and gods." (Ingersoll's Reply to Black.)

"But an infinite being must know not only the real meaning of the words, but the exact meaning they will convey to every reader and hearer. He must know every meaning that they are capable of conveying to every mind. He must also know what explanations must be made to prevent misconception. If an infinite being cannot, in making a revelation to man, use such words that every person to whom a revelation is essential, will understand distinctly what that revelation is, then a revelation from God, through the instrumentality of language is impossible, or it is not essential that all should understand it correctly.

"After all, the real question is, not whether the Bible is inspired, but whether it is true. If it is true, it does not need to be inspired. If it is true, it makes no difference whether it was written by a man or a god. The multiplication table is just as useful, just as true as though God had arranged the figures himself. If the Bible is really true, the claim of inspiration need not be urged; and if it is not true, its inspiration can hardly be established. As a matter of fact, the truth does not need to be inspired. Nothing needs inspiration except a falsehood or a mistake." (Ingersoll's "Mistakes of Moses," p. 59.)

"It may be argued that millions have not the capacity to understand a revelation, although expressed in plainest words. To this it seems a sufficient reply, to ask, why a being of infinite power should create men so devoid of intelligence, that he cannot by any means make known to them his will?" (Ingersoll's "Mistakes of Moses," p. 90.)

"Millions have declared this book to be infinitely holy, to prove that they were right have imprisoned, robbed and burned their fellow men. The inspiration of this book has been established by famine, sword, and fire, by dungeon, chain, and whip, by dagger and by rack, by force and fear and fraud, and generations have been frightened by threats of hell, and bribed with promises of heaven.

"Had we been born in Turkey, most of us would have been Mohammedans and believed in the inspiration of the Koran. We should have believed that Mohammed actually visited heaven and became acquainted with an angel by the name of Gabriel who was so broad between the eyes that it required three hundred days for a very smart mule to travel the distance. If some man had denied this story we should have denounced him as a dangerous person, one who was endeavoring to undermine the foundations of society, and to destroy all distinctions between virtue and vice. We should have said to him 'What do you propose to give us in place of this angel? We cannot afford to give up an angel of that size for nothing.' We would have insisted that the wisest and best men believed the Koran." (Ingersoll's "Mistakes of Moses," p. 36.)

The Pentateuch.

"The Pentateuch is affirmed to have been written by Moses under the influence of divine inspiration. Considered thus a record vouchsafed and dictated by the Almighty, it commands not only scientific but universal consent.

"But here in the first place it may be demanded, who or what is it that has put forth this great claim in its behalf?

"Not the work itself. It nowhere claims the authorship of one man, or makes the impious declaration that it is the writing of Almighty God." (Draper's "Conflict Between Religion and Science.")

The Bible Not Inspired.

1. The Bible is full of errors:

"In 1847, the American Bible Society appointed a committee of its members to prepare a standard edition of King James's version, free from typographical errors. They prepared such an edition, correcting, as they stated, twenty-four thousand errors; but alarmed at the attacks made upon it, it was withdrawn; and the American Bible Society continues to this day to circulate for the word of God a book having in it twenty-four thousand acknowledged errors." ("Common Sense Thoughts on the Bible," Wm. Denton.)

2. The Bible sanctions cruelties. The wars of extermination waged by the Jews upon surrounding nations afford ample proof.

3. The Bible indorses immorality. It indorses war, slavery, polygamy, intemperance, and superstition.

4. The writers of the gospels do not claim to be inspired.

5. We do not know when, where, or by whom, either the gospels or the books supposed to be written by Moses, were composed.

6. Paul says: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God; but there is (1.) no definite meaning attached to the word inspiration. (2.) He does not refer to the gospels for they had no existence when he wrote.

7. Inspiration is not a success. There are a thousand different sects quarreling about the meaning of the "inspired scriptures."

8. Inspiration should be pure. The Bible abounds in obscenity.

9. The Bible undergoes revisions, improvements, etc. An infallible book cannot be improved.

10. The Bible has no plan or system, and hence has no definite object. Millions upon millions of Christians have differed regarding its teachings.

11. The Bible is a fetich. Millions of people have a slavish regard for the Holy Bible who have little or no respect for Humanity, Truth, or Justice.

God's Ways are Not Our Ways.

"Now this God either did or he did not believe in and command murder and rapine in the days when he used to sit around evenings and chat with Abraham and Moses and the rest of them. His especial plans and desires were 'revealed' or they were not. The ideas of justice and right were higher in those days than they are now, or else we are wiser and better than God, or else the Bible is not his revealed will. You can take your choice. My choice is to keep my respect for divine justice and honor, and let the Bible bear the burden of its own mistakes.

"If religion is a revelation, then it is not a growth, and it would have been most perfect in design and plan when it was nearest its birth. Now accepting the Bible theory of Jehovah, we find that when the communications of God were immediate and personal there could have been no mistake as to his will. To deal with it as a growth or evolution toward better things is to abandon the whole tenet of a revealed law of God. But to deal with it as a revelation is to make God a being too repulsive and brutal to contemplate for one moment with respect.

"He either did or did not tell those men those things. Which will you accept?" (Helen Gardener's "Men, Women, and Gods.")

"Revelation when applied to religion, means something communicated immediately from God to man. No one will deny or dispute the power of the Almighty to make such a communication, if he pleases. But admitting, for the sake of a case, that something has been revealed to a certain person, and not revealed to any other person, it is revelation to that person only. When he tells it to a second person, a second to a third, a third to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be a revelation to all those persons. It is a revelation to the first person only, and hearsay to every other, and, consequently, they are not obliged to believe it.

"It is a contradiction in terms and ideas, to call anything a revelation that comes to us at second-hand, either verbally or in writing. Revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication--after this, it is only an account of something which that person says was a revelation made to him; and though he may find himself obliged to believe it, it cannot be incumbent upon me to believe it in the same manner; for it was not a revelation made to me, and I have only his word for it that it was made to him.

"When I am told that the Koran was written in heaven, and brought to Mahomet by an angel, the account comes too near the same kind of hearsay evidence and second-hand authority as the former. [1] I did not see the angel myself, and, therefore, I have a right not to believe it.

"When also I am told that a woman called the Virgin Mary, said, or gave out, that she was with child without any cohabitation with a man, and that her betrothed husband, Joseph, said that an angel told him so, I have a right to believe them or not; such a circumstance required a much stronger evidence than their bare word for it; but we have not even this--for neither Joseph nor Mary wrote any such matter themselves; it is only reported by others that they said so--it is hearsay upon hearsay, and I do not choose to rest my belief upon such evidence.

"It is, however, not difficult to account for the credit that was given to the story of Jesus Christ being the Son of God. He was born when the heathen mythology had still some fashion and repute in the world, and that mythology had prepared the people for the belief of such a story. Almost all the extraordinary men that lived under the heathen mythology were reputed to be the sons of some of their gods. It was not a new thing at that time, to believe a man to have been celestially begotten; the intercourse of gods with women was then a matter of familiar opinion. Their Jupiter, according to their accounts, had cohabited with hundreds; the story therefore had nothing in it either new, wonderful, or obscene; it was conformable to the opinions that then prevailed among the people called Gentiles, or Mythologists, and it was those people only that believed it. The Jews who had kept strictly to the belief of one God, and no more, and who had always rejected the heathen mythology, never credited the story.

"It is curious to observe how the theory of what is called the Christian church, sprung out of the tail of heathen mythology. A direct incorporation took place in the first instance, by making the reputed founder to be celestially begotten. The trinity of gods that then followed was no other than a reduction of the former plurality, which was about twenty or thirty thousand; the statue of Mary succeeded the statue of Diana of Ephesus, the deification of heroes changed into the canonization of saints; the mythologists had gods for everything; the Christian mythologists had saints for everything; the church became as crowded with the one, as the pantheon had been with the other; and Rome was the place of both. The Christian theory is little else than the idolatry of the ancient mythologists, accommodated to the purposes of power and revenue; and it yet remains to reason and philosophy to abolish the amphibious fraud.

"Nothing that is here said can apply even with the most distant disrespect, to the real character of Jesus Christ. He was a virtuous and an amiable man. The morality that he preached and practiced was of the most benevolent kind; and though similar systems of morality had been preached by Confucius, and by some of the Greek philosophers, many years before; by the Quakers since; and by many good men in all ages, it has not been exceeded by any.

"Jesus Christ wrote no account of himself, of his birth, parentage, or anything else; not a line of what is called the New Testament is of his own writing. The history of him is altogether the work of other people; and as to the account given of his resurrection and ascension, it was the necessary counterpart to the story of his birth. His historians, having brought him into the world in a supernatural manner, were obliged to take him out again in the same manner, or the first part of the story must have fallen to the ground.

"The first part, that of the miraculous conception, was not a thing that admitted of publicity; and therefore the tellers of this part of the story had this advantage, that though they might not be credited, they could not be detected." (Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason.")

SELF-CONTRADICTIONS OF THE BIBLE.

THEOLOGICAL DOCTRINES.

God is Satisfied with his Works.

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good. (Gen. 1 : 31.)

God is Dissatisfied with his Works.

And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. (Gen. 6 : 6.)

God Dwells in Chosen Temples.

And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him: I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for a house of sacrifice.... For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there forever: and mine eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually. (2 Chr. 7 : 12, 16.)

God Dwells Not in Temples.

Howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands. (Acts 7 : 48.)

God Dwells in Light.

Dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto. (1 Tim. 6 : 16.)

God Dwells in Darkness.

The Lord said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. (1 Kings 8 : 12.)

He made darkness his secret place. (Ps. 18 : 11.)

Clouds and darkness are round about him. (Ps. 97 : 2.)

God is Seen and Heard.

And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts. (Ex. 33 : 23.)

And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. (Ex. 33 : 11.)

And the Lord called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid. (Gen. 3 : 9, 10.)

For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. (Gen. 32 : 30.)

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw, also, the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up. (Is. 6 : 1.)

Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel.... They saw God, and did eat and drink. (Ex. 24 : 9, 10, 11.)

God is Invisible and Cannot be Heard.

No man hath seen God at any time. (John 1 : 18.)

Ye have neither heard his voice, at any time, nor seen his shape. (John 5 : 37.)

And he said, thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me and live. (Ex. 33 : 20.)

God is Tired and Rests.

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. (Ex. 31 : 17.)

I am weary with repenting. (Jer. 15 : 6.)

Thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. (Is. 43 : 24.)

God is Never Tired and Never Rests.

Hast thou never heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, never is weary? (Is. 40 : 28.)

God is Omnipresent, Sees and Knows all Things.

The eyes of the Lord are in every place. (Prov. 15 : 3.)

Whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. (Ps. 139 : 7-10.)

There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings. (Job 34 : 22, 21.)

God is Not Omnipresent, Neither Sees nor Knows all Things.

And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower. (Gen. 11 : 5.)

And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and, if not, I will know. (Gen. 18 : 20, 21.)

And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God, amongst the trees of the garden. (Gen. 3 : 8.)

God Knows the Hearts of Men.

Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men. (Acts 1 : 24.)

Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising; thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. (Ps. 139 : 2, 3.)

For he knoweth the secrets of the heart. (Ps. 44 : 21.)

God Tries Men to Find Out what is in their Hearts.

The Lord, your God, proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God, with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deut. 13 : 3.)

The Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thy heart. (Deut. 8 : 2.)

For now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. (Gen. 22 : 12.)

God is All-Powerful.

Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is there anything too hard for me?... There is nothing too hard for thee. (Jer. 32 : 27, 17.)

With God all things are possible. (Mat. 19 : 26.)

God is Not All-Powerful.

And the Lord was with Judah, and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron. (Judges 1 : 19.)

God is Unchangeable.

With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. (James 1 : 17.)

For I am the Lord; I change not. (Mal. 3 : 6.)

I, the Lord, have spoken it; it shall come to pass, and I will do it. I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent. (Ezekiel 24 : 14.)

God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. (Num. 23 : 19.)

God is Changeable.

And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. (Gen. 6 : 6.)

And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not. (Jonah 3 : 10.)

Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed, that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me forever; but now the Lord saith, Be it far from me.... Behold, the days come that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house. (1 Sam. 2 : 30, 31.)

In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set thy house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.... And it came to pass afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Turn again and tell Hezekiah, the captain of my people, Thus saith the Lord, ... I have heard thy prayer, ... and I will add unto thy days, fifteen years. (2 Kings 20 : 1, 4, 5, 6.)

And the Lord said unto Moses, Depart and go up hence, thou and the people.... For I will not go up in the midst of thee.... And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing, also, that thou hast spoken.... My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. (Ex. 33 : 1, 3, 17, 14.)

God is Just and Impartial.

The Lord is upright, ... and there is no unrighteousness in him. (Ps. 92 : 15.)

Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? (Gen. 18 : 25.)

A God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he. (Deut. 32 : 4.)

There is no respect of persons with God. (Rom. 2 : 11.)

Ye say the way of the Lord is not equal. Hear now, O house of Israel; is not my way equal? (Ezek. 18 : 25.)

He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love ye, therefore, the stranger. (Deut. 10 : 18, 19.)

God is Unjust and Partial.

Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. (Gen. 9 : 25.)

For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. (Ex. 20 : 5.)

For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand, ... it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. (Rom. 9 : 11, 12, 13.)

For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. (Mat. 13 : 12.)

Ye shall not eat of anything that dieth of itself; thou shalt give it unto the stranger that is in thy gates, that he may eat it; or thou mayest sell it unto an alien. (Deut. 14 : 21.)

And David spake unto the Lord when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? (2 Sam. 24 : 17.)

God is Not the Author of Evil.

The law of the Lord is perfect.... The statutes of the Lord are right.... The commandment of the Lord is pure. (Ps. 19 : 7, 8.)

God is not the author of confusion. (1 Cor. 14 : 33.)

A God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. (Deut. 32 : 4.)

For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. (James 1 : 13.)

God is the Author of Evil.

Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good? (Lam. 3 : 38.)

Thus saith the Lord, Behold I frame evil against you and devise a device against you. (Jer. 18 : 11.)

I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. (Is. 45 : 7.)

Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? (Amos 3 : 6.)

Therefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live. (Ezek. 20 : 25.)

God Gives Freely to those who Ask.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. (James 1 : 5.)

For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. (Luke 11 : 10.)

God Withholds his Blessings and Prevents their Reception.

He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their heart that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. (John 12 : 40.)

For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favor. (Josh. 11 : 20.)

0 Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways and hardened our heart? (Is. 63 : 17.)

God is to be Found by Those who Seek him.

Every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth. (Mat. 7 : 8.)

Those that seek me early shall find me. (Prov. 8 : 17.)

God is Not to be Found by Those who Seek him.

Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but shall not find me. (Prov. 1 : 28.)

And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers I will not hear. (Is. 1 : 15.)

They cried, but there was none to save them; even unto the Lord, but he answered them not. (Ps. 18 : 41.)

God is Peaceful.

The God of peace. (Rom. 15 : 33.)

God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. (1 Cor. 14 : 33.)

God is Warlike.

The Lord is a man of war. (Ex. 15 : 3.)

The Lord of Hosts is his name. (Is. 51 : 15.)

Blessed be the Lord, my strength, which teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight. (Ps. 144 : 1.)

God is Kind, Merciful, and Good.

The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. (James 5 : 11.)

For he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. (Lam. 3 : 33.)

For his mercy endureth forever. (1 Chron. 16 : 34.)

I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God. (Ezek. 18 : 32.)

The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works. (Ps. 145 : 9.)

Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim. 2 : 4.)

God is love. (1 John 4 : 16.)

Good and upright is the Lord. (Ps. 25 : 8.)

God is Cruel, Unmerciful, Destructive, and Ferocious.

I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them. (Jer. 13 : 14.)

And thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them. (Deut. 7 : 16.)

Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling. (1 Sam. 15 : 2, 3.)

Because they had looked into the ark of the Lord, even he smote of the people fifty thousand, and three score and ten men. (1 Sam. 6 : 19.)

The Lord thy God is a consuming fire. (Deut. 4 : 24.)

The Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them, ... and they died. (Josh. 10 : 11.)

God's Anger is Slow, and Endures but for a Moment.

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. (Ps. 103 : 8.)

His anger endureth but a moment. (Ps. 30 : 5.)

God's Anger is Fierce, Frequent, and Endures Long.

And the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was consumed. (Num. 32 : 13.)

And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel. (Num. 25 : 4.)

For ye have kindled a fire in mine anger which shall burn forever. (Jer. 17 : 4.)

God is angry ["with the wicked," interpolated by the translators] everyday. (Ps. 7 : 11.)

And the Lord met him and sought to kill him. (Ex. 4 : 24.)

God Commands, Approves of, and Delights in Burnt Offerings, Sacrifices, and Holy Days.

Thou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement. (Ex. 29 : 36.)

On the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement; it shall be a holy convocation unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. (Lev. 23 : 27.)

And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar; ... it is a sweet savor; an offering made by fire unto the Lord. (Ex. 29 : 18.)

And the priest shall burn all on the altar to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord. (Lev. 1 : 9.)

God Disapproves of, and has no Pleasure in, Burnt Offerings, Sacrifices, and Holy Days.

For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. (Jer. 7 : 22.)

Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me. (Jer. 6 : 20.)

Will I eat of the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? Offer unto God thanksgiving, and pay thy vows unto the Most High. (Psalm 50 : 13, 14.)

Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.... To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord. I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand? (Is. 1 : 13, 11, 12.)

God Forbids Human Sacrifice.

Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them [the Gentile nations;] ... for every abomination to the Lord which he hateth have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters have they burnt in the fire to their gods. (Deut. 12 : 30, 31.)

God Commands and Accepts Human Sacrifices.

No devoted thing that a man shall devote unto the Lord of all that he hath, both of man and of beast, and of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy unto the Lord. None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed, but shall surely be put to death. (Lev. 27 : 28, 29.)

The king [David] took the two sons of Rizpah, ... and the five sons of Michael; ... and he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the Lord.... And after that God was entreated for the land. (2 Sam. 21 : 8, 9, 14.)

And he [God] said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering. (Gen. 22 : 2.)

And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the Lord delivered them into his hands.... And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house and behold, his daughter came out to meet him.... And he sent her away for two months; and she went with her companions and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. And it came to pass at the end of two months that she returned unto her father, who did according to his vow which he had vowed. (Judges 11 : 30, 31, 32, 34, 38, 39.)

God Tempts No Man.

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. (James 1 : 13.)

God Does Tempt Men.

And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham. (Gen. 22 : 1.)

And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go number Israel and Judah. (2 Sam. 24 : 1.)

And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? And still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause. (Job. 2 : 3.)

O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived, [marginal reading, enticed.] (Jer. 20 : 7.)

Lead us not into temptation. (Mat. 6 : 13.)

God Cannot Lie.

God is not a man, that he should lie. (Num. 23 : 19.)

It was impossible for God to lie. (Heb. 6 : 18.)

God Lies; He Sends Forth Lying Spirits to Deceive.

Ah, Lord God! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people. (Jer. 4 : 10.)

Wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar? (Jer. 14 : 18.)

For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. (2 Thes. 2 : 11.)

Now, therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee. (1 Kings 22 : 23.)

Then God sent an evil spirit. (Judges 9 : 23.)

And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet. (Ezek. 14 : 9.)

Because of Man's Wickedness God Destroys him.

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.... And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created. (Gen. 6 : 5, 7.)

Because of Man's Wickedness God will Not Destroy him.

And the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every living thing. (Gen. 8 : 21.)

God's Attributes are Revealed in his Works.

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. (Rom. 1 : 20.)

God's Attributes Cannot be Discovered.

Canst thou, by searching, find out God? (Job. 11 : 7.)

There is no searching of his understanding. (Is. 40 : 28.)

There is but One God.

The Lord our God is one Lord. (Deut. 6 : 4.)

There is none other God but one. (1 Cor. 8 : 4.)

There is a Plurality of Gods.

And God said, Let us make man in our image. (Gen. 1 : 26.)

And the Lord God said, Behold the man is become as one of us. (Gen. 3 : 22.)

And the Lord appeared unto him [Abraham] in the plains of Mamre.... And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him; and when he saw them he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, and said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. (Gen. 18 : 1, 2, 3.)

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. (1 John 5 : 7.)

MORAL PRECEPTS.

Robbery Commanded.

When ye go, ye shall not go empty; but every woman shall borrow of her neighbor, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver and jewels of gold, and raiment; and ye shall put them upon your sons and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians. (Ex. 3 : 21, 22.)

And they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment.... And they spoiled the Egyptians. (Ex. 12 : 35, 36.)

Robbery Forbidden.

Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him. (Lev. 19 : 13.)

Thou shalt not steal. (Ex. 20 : 15.)

Lying Commanded, Approved, and Sanctioned.

And the Lord said unto Samuel, ... I will send thee to Jesse, the Bethlemite; for I have provided me a king among his sons. And Samuel said, How can I go? If Saul hear it he will kill me. And the Lord said, Take a heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the Lord. (1 Sam. 16 : 1, 2.)

And the woman [Rahab] took the two men and hid them and said thus: There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were; and it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out; whither the men went I wot not; pursue after them quickly, for ye shall overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof of the house and hid them with the stalks of flax. (Josh. 2 : 4, 5, 6.)

Was not Rahab, the harlot, justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had them sent out another way? (James 2 : 25.)

And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men-children alive? And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. Therefore God dealt well with the midwives. (Ex. 1 : 18-20.)

And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him ... I will go forth and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him and prevail also; go forth and do so. (1 Kings 22 : 21, 22.)

Ye shall know my breach of promise. (Num. 14 : 34.)

For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner? (Rom. 3 : 7.)

Being crafty, I caught you with guile. (2 Cor. 12 : 16.)

Lying Forbidden.

Thou shalt not bear false witness. (Ex. 20 : 16.)

Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. (Prov. 12 : 22.)

All liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. (Rev. 21 : 8.)

Killing Commanded and Sanctioned.

Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. (Ex. 32 : 27.)