A Legacy to the Friends of Free Discussion: Principal Historical Facts and Personages of the Books Known as The Old and New Testament; With Remarks on the Morality of NatureOffen, Benjamin
Religion
A Legacy to the Friends of Free Discussion: Principal Historical Facts and Personages of the Books Known as The Old and New Testament; With Remarks on the Morality of Nature
Offen, Benjamin
Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Let us examine this subject calmly. It is but justice that this should
be done; since from one hundred thousand pulpits in the different
nations of the earth, the priests never fail to praise and thank the
Lord for his goodness to the descendants of Adam. I, on the other hand,
will honestly, though feebly, advocate the cause of poor, _libelled,
condemned, priest-ridden Man_. If, before our first parents had been
called into life, they had been informed on what conditions _they_ and
their _posterity_ were to receive it, together with the final destiny of
ninety out of every hundred of their unfortunate race, they would no
doubt have exclaimed, “For humanity’s sake, let us forever sleep in the
womb of chaos!” It is the common practice from the pulpit, as also from
the writings of the orthodox Christians, to libel the human race, by
saying, that man has rebelled against God, and turned from him; when the
truth is, that in all ages and nations, man, has been seeking after the
best God he could find, and God; has always remained the great
_Unknown_, while man, in whatever state we find him, “savage, saint, or
sage,” has been endeavoring to find out God.
This has always been his misfortune. By trying to find out the absent
and unknown God, he has, in his imagination, invented and followed a
thousand foolish whims, till, losing all correct ideas of moral
rectitude, he has died of old age without arriving at the knowledge of
_whom or what_ to worship. Whereas, if he had not troubled himself at
all about his maker, and, by the aid of his reasoning powers, had come
to the just conclusion, that as he knew not how, nor where to find God,
it would follow that it was the business of his maker, and not _his_ to
instruct in the right way to worship the true God. This mode of
reasoning will be reprobated by Christians as horrid and wicked; but in
reply, it may be asked, to what amount of knowledge have they arrived by
all their seeking after him?
We now return to the Bible account of Adam and Eve’s creation. The
position that justice, strict justice, is due on the part of God towards
his new creation, must never be lost sight of in our investigations. If
any thing like trickery or injustice on his part is recorded, we,
without hesitation, denounce it as a libel on his character, and totally
unworthy of the least credit. In reviewing the Old and New Testament, as
being considered a Divine Revelation, this criterion will be always
referred to; for, if any writings purporting to be of Divine authority,
represent their author to be any thing otherwise than a God impartial
and just, such writings will, by the author of this work, be considered
entirely unworthy of the broad seal of Heaven, and as fully deserving of
being held up to human beings as false, and a flagrant imposition on the
credulity of mankind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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