A HERESY HUNT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 222, 18 March 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

A HERESY HUNT.

lEV. J. 0. CHAPMAN'S HETERODOXY. 1 I ' ■ k SAMPLES OF PERNICIOUS ERRORS. I The Methodist Conference recently ex- * merated Rev. J. G. Chapman on charges f if having been guilty of pernicious errors a n Bible teaching. These are the preachnents against which exception was taken jy Mr. Burd:— THE HOLY SCRIPTURE. "The Bible contains the Word of God, but it is not correct to say that it is ' the Word of God. There is much in it < that revolts your moral sense, and ' which, therefore, cannot be the Word of ' God. Much of the Book is simply ancient 1 opinion, as when it is said that a plague 1 was caused by taking the census, or as 1 when the shebears who tore the forty and 1 two children in the days of Elisha were said to be sent by God to do it. Much of it is repealed and superseded by later parts, as Christ shows by protesting against some ancient sayings. Much of it, again, is parable and allegory, and has for ages been treated as history. The writer of Genesis never dreamt that there would ever be people so foolish as to treat the story of history. Its magic trees, the talking snake, God walking in the garden, and the flaming) sword are all obvious drapery and ma-1 chinery. The essence of the story is the birth of conscience in man. We must j judge the Bible as we do any other book. What is unintelligent must be rejected by our reason, and what is morally shocking must be rejected by our conscience. We have a standard within us that must not suffer itself to be browbeaten by any ancient book." THE FALL OF MAN. , "The Bible did not tell us that man 'fell'. The word 'fall' is a theological interpellation; so is the idea that Satan \yas disguised in the serpent of Eden. The writer suggests nothing of the sort. Milton has popularised that theological , invention. Before his 'fall' man was in-' I nocent—that is, ignorant, not knowing the difference between good and evil. It i was the innocence of the heart. There [is something much nobler than that—namely, holiness and doing right from ! choice. After his so-called fall, man was ! capable of such choice, so, as Sir Oliver Lodge says, if man fell, he fell upwards, and acquired a moral nature." I ETERNAL TORTURES. | "Some Christians would be miserable if they did not believe that millions of • their fellow creatures were in everlasting flames. This awful doctrine of eter- ' nal torments is the grossest libel on the charaeter of God ever imagined. A man who would do to any one person what this doctrine teaches that God does to the majority of the human race would; be an inhuman monster. Is God! worse than man? Would any mother consign I her child to endless suffering? Is God | worse than woman ? Can you believe I that He who exhorts us to love our >■ ertemies burns his own? Anyone who | believes so should never marry or bring I fresh victims into the World. A mother,• I broken-hearted for the loss of her son by j an accident, told me that the worst trouble of all was the fear that God had' »ent him to hell. 'He was a very good ! son to me, but he professed no faith. Do' | you think God would put him in hell?' , I said, 'Would you put him there?' She I was horrified at my suggestion that she would do what she believed God would do. I opened the gospels and read, 'lf ye then '.being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father in heaven.' I ,must clear the character of God. You t;Carry your hell about with you and your heaven. They are both age-long, not' eternal." MISCELLANEOUS HER.ESmi, . "Sin did not bring forth death into the .world. That is a poetic fiction. Death was wages before there was any creature on earth capable of sinning." "Christ was not punished for our sins,, except as a father suffers for the sins of his sons " < 1 I. "I am not concerned about orthodoxy.' | The wish to square teaching and truth i j with old standards has been the bane of j • the church from the beginning. This must be an age of emancipation." I "I have great admiration for Blatchford and Bradlaugh. They have a far fetter chance of heaven than multitudes of orthodox people." ( When I was a child L hated Lazarus and Abraham in the parable and pitied poor Dives in his flame. I wished that I could have given him a whole bucketful of water." The complainant said that this kind of teaching was driving his family away from the church, and that it did not conform to the legal standards contained in ''Wesley's Sermons" and his "Notes J on the New Testament." J