A Few Words About the Devil, and Other Biographical Sketches and EssaysBradlaugh, Charles
Religion
A Few Words About the Devil, and Other Biographical Sketches and Essays
Bradlaugh, Charles
Free thought
It is often urged that Jesus is the Savior of the world, that he brought
redemption without let or stint to the whole human race. But what did
Jesus teach? "Go not into any way of the Gentiles, and into any city of
the Samaritan enter ye not."* These were his injunctions to those whom
he first sent out to preach. "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of
the house of Israel," is his hard answer to the poor Syrophenician woman
who is entreating succor for her child. Christianity, as first taught by
Jesus, was for the Jews alone, and it is only upon his rejection by them
that the world at large has the opportunity of salvation afforded it.
"He came unto his own and his own received him not,"** Why should the
Jews be more God's own than the Gentiles? Is God the creator of all?
and did he create the descendant of Abraham with greater right and
privilege than all other men? Then, indeed, is great and grievous
injustice done. You and I had no choice whether we would be born Jews
or Gentiles; yet to the accident of such a birth is attached the first
offer of a salvation which if accepted, shuts out all beside. The
Kingdom of Heaven is a prominent feature in the teachings of Jesus, and
it may be well to ascertain, as precisely as we can, the picture drawn
by God incarnate of his own special domain. 'Tis likened to a wedding
feast, to which the invited guests coming not, servants are sent out
into the highways to gather all they can find--both good and bad. The
King comes in to see his motley array of guests, and findeth one without
a wedding garment.
* Matt. x, 5.
** John i, 11.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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