As I continued my investigation into the causes of disease, and especially
as I read the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, I began to see more and more
clearly that diseases, to a large extent at least, have a spiritual origin,
and that the great obstacles to the removal of their causes lie in the
false doctrines of Christian churches. When selfish men who were leaders in
the churches desired to exercise their love of rule in spiritual and
natural things and to exercise despotic power, when they desired to reduce
other men to slavery and to hold them as slaves, or when they desired to
gratify other perverted passions and sensual appetites, they all went to
the Bible and strove to justify their conduct from its pages, with the
expectation of reaching heaven at last; for this purpose it required the
invention of special doctrines, and these they taught to their children,
and thus the Word of God was made of no effect by the traditions and
doctrines of men.
Unfortunately for the Protestant Church, early in its history, instead of
"If ye would enter into life, keep the commandments," there was substituted
the doctrine of justification by faith alone; which led men, especially the
young, to hope that by getting religion and having faith, they could at any
time escape the legitimate penalties which are attached by the Lord to evil
doing. No young man, religiously brought up, expects to go to hell; but he
intends to repent and be converted before he dies; he often thinks he will
"sow his wild oats" first, instead of earnestly and faithfully striving to
keep the Divine commandments from his youth up. Evil thinking and doing
develop an infernal life within him, which often gradually gains strength
until he is ruled by his perverted appetites and passions; and day by day
his ability to regain his freedom grows less.
When the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church began to teach men that
the punishment which rightly inheres to the doing of evil can be escaped by
confessing to the priest, doing penance, and receiving absolution, and that
every Catholic priest has from the Lord the power to forgive sins and to
grant indulgences, then the hope of escaping the penalties of sin by
something short of keeping the Divine Law in everyday life was held out to
the young of the Catholic laity, similar to that which the doctrine of
faith alone offered to the young of the Protestant world; and the results
have been similar. We know, however, that among religious teachers there
are many to-day in all of the various sects of Christians who have put
away, or are gradually putting away, or materially modifying, the perverted
doctrines of the past. As an illustration of the changes which are taking
place, I clip the following from an English paper, recently received:--
"The Rev. T. Vincent Tymms, the new Principal of Rawdon College, preaching
to his late congregation at Clapham, said:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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