The Grounds of Christianity Examined by Comparing The New Testament with the OldEnglish, George Bethune
Religion
The Grounds of Christianity Examined by Comparing The New Testament with the Old
English, George Bethune
Rationalism
stand against the wiles of the Devil. For we struggle not against
flesh and blood only; but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked
spirits in high places."--Ephesians vi. 12. Christians are also said
to be delivered by God from the power of darkness, and to be
translated into the kingdom of his dear son. That is, as Christians
were considered as being the subjects of Jesus, and the rest of the
world as being of the kingdom of Satan, when a man became a
Christian he was translated from the kingdom of one, to the
kingdom of the other. Jesus accused the Devil as being the author
of all evil, as a liar, and the father of lies, and a murderer of men,
and of women, too, as appears in the Gospel, from the account of
that one, whose back the Devil had bowed down for eighteen
years--Luke xiii. 10--(on what account it does not appear.) In
short, the New Testament represents to him as being the source of
all evil and mischief, and the promoter of it; and the whole world
as being his subjects, and combined with him against all good.
But how does all this prove that these notions were derived from
the religion of the ancient Persians? I answer by requesting you,
my reader, to peruse, attentively, the following account of the
fundamental principles of the religion of Zoroaster, the prophet of
the Persians.
The doctrine of Zoroaster was, that there was one Supreme Being,
independent, and self-existing from all eternity; that inferior to
him, there were two Angels, one the Angel of Light, who is the
Author and Director of all Good; and the other, the Angel of
Darkness, who is the Author and Director of all Evil; that these
two are in a perpetual struggle with each other; and that where the
Angel of Light prevails, there the most is good; awl where the
Angel of Darkness prevails, there the most is evil. That this
struggle shall continue to the end of the world; that then there shall
be a general resurrection, and a day of judgment, wherein just
retribution shall be rendered to all according to their works; after
which, the Angel of Darkness, and his followers, shall go into a
world of their own, where they shall suffer in darkness, the
punishment of their evil deeds. And the Angel of Light, and his
followers, shall also go into a world of their own, where they shall
receive, in everlasting light, the reward due to their good deeds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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