The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 01 (of 12): Dresden Edition—LecturesIngersoll, Robert Green
Religion
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 01 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Lectures
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
How long? I think at least until they had gone into all the world.
Certainly those signs should follow until all the world had been
visited. And yet if that declaration was in the mouth of Christ, he then
knew that one-half of the world was unknown, and that he would be dead
fourteen hundred and fifty-nine years before his disciples would know
that there was another continent. And yet he said, "Go into all the
world and preach the gospel," and he knew then that it would be fourteen
hundred and fifty-nine years before anybody could go. Well, if it was
worth while to have signs follow believers in the Old World, surely it
was worth while to have signs follow believers in the New. And the very
reason that signs should follow would be to convince the unbeliever,
and there are as many unbelievers now as ever, and the signs are as
necessary to-day as they ever were. I would like a few myself.
This frightful declaration, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned," has filled the world
with agony and crime. Every letter of this passage has been sword and
fagot; every word has been dungeon and chain. That passage made the
sword of persecution drip with innocent blood through centuries of agony
and crime. That passage made the horizon of a thousand years lurid with
the fagot's flames. That passage contradicts the Sermon on the Mount;
travesties the Lord's prayer; turns the splendid religion of deed
and duty into the superstition of creed and cruelty. I deny it. It is
infamous! Christ never said it!
IV. THE GOSPEL OF LUKE.
IT is sufficient to say that Luke agrees substantially with Matthew and
Mark.
"Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful." Good!
"Judge not and ye shall not be judged: condemn not and ye shall not be
condemned: forgive and ye shall be forgiven." Good!
"Give and it shall be given unto you: good measure, pressed down, and
shaken together, and running over." Good! I like it.
"For with the same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to
you again."
He agrees substantially with Mark; he agrees substantially with Matthew;
and I come at last to the nineteenth chapter.
"And Zaccheus stood and said unto the Lord, 'Behold, Lord, the half of
my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man
by false accusation, I restore him four fold.' And Jesus said unto him,
'this day is salvation come to this house.'"
That is good doctrine. He did not ask Zaccheus what he believed. He did
not ask him, "Do you believe in the Bible? Do you believe in the five
points? Have you ever been baptized--sprinkled? Or immersed?" "Half of
my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken anything from any man
by false accusation, I restore him four fold." "And Christ said, this
day is salvation come to this house." Good!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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