The Creation of God by Jacob Hartmann (most difficult books to read .txt) 📕

was not ended until after the Babylonish captivity, 588 B.C., and when Ezra returned to Jerusalem, 557 B.C., who collected the various manuscripts and put them into some sort of shape and started to rebuild the Temple. This event took place during the reign of Xerxes son of Darius. Ezra and his companions had been educated meanwhile. They had enjoyed the privilege of a Babylonian education. They had the advantage of their learning, their philosophy. Now they returned better equipped mentally than ever they were before their captivity. And for the first time they began to call themselves “holy seed” (chapter ix). They had intermarried with the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, Amorites, etc., (verse 2) “so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands.” Verse 6, this priest goes into hysterics: “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee,” etc. Chapter x: He prays, confesses, and weeps and casts himself down before the house of God, etc. Verse 11: “And separate yourself from the people of the land, and from the strange wives.” Of course their wives were sent adrift. That was the first time in their history that marriages were restricted to their own nation. This also is the first wholesale divorce on record. Intermarriages they had been guilty of for many centuries, and they were never accounted a sin until the time of Ezra. After this reformation the same sins continue, intermarriages perhaps excepted. The animal predominated, as it naturally would. Selfishness was more prominent than ever. They knew the value of gold, and onyx stone, and bdellium. God had told them all about it in Gen. ii, 11, 12. The commercial enterprise started with creation, and has continued. Jehova had not half the romance and the poesy of Zeus or Jupiter. The latter had all the Grecian refinement, while the former had all the barbarity of Chaldea.

Thus, the identical sins continued through the remaining centuries until Christ made his entry on this world’s stage. He came opportunely. It was at a time of great agitation. Judea was a Roman province. Pontius Pilate was governor. Corruption, fraud, and crimes of all descriptions were practiced and flourished. The Temple served as a place for barter and business. Sedition, parricide, greed, and seduction were the ruling crimes and passions. Fanatics, heretics, and blasphemers were abundant. There were any number of religious factions, quarreling and fighting among themselves, hating one another heartily, and doing one another as much mischief as in their power lay. The frequent contact with foreign invading nations brought new notions, new customs and usages. New ideas consequently developed—sins and salvation of souls. And humility and meekness were put forth against arrogance of wealth, domineering, and priestly oppression. Communistic and socialistic ideas are always a prolific field for the hungry, poor, and starving. “Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts,” etc. (Matt. vi, 11, 12). Christ’s camel and needle story confirms it. The result was he had a following, preached reformation, and accusation and persecution put an end to his life. It had taken root, and a new sect was formed.

Was his life sacrificed for the sins of humanity? Nonsense! This young man’s death has not relieved any one, much more all future generations, of their sins. What? Sacrifice a man to God in place of sheep and cattle? So long as men have senses and passions, so long as we have extremes of poverty and wealth, sin remains.

The prevention of sin has never been the function of the church. The trespasses of the natural laws were not properly understood, and the masses are not educated up to that standard even now. Each man and woman pays the penalty if he or she trespass against her or himself; and if they trespass or sin against another, our civil laws take care of that part.

Has humanity improved since the coming of Christ? Where do you find it? In the history of the Catholic church?

They have two kinds of sin, mortal and venial sin. Mortal sin entails spiritual death. Venial sin does not. Mountains of literature have been written upon that one subject. Hundreds of thousands of men have assumed the task of salvation for nearly two thousand years. What have they accomplished? What have the popes, bishops, and priests done? And what are they doing now? Of what use are they? They have been more of a curse to the world than a benefit. We are too busy to look back at popish history, the power, the ignorance, the superstition, the darkness, and the persecution that overshadowed the world during the popes’ tyrannical and bloodthirsty rule. Greed, the chief characteristic of the churchmen, readily finds means to raise money for their use and benefit. In 1517 they sold indulgences for past and future sins. Every crime was pardoned. Luther and reformation came. Did this change or eradicate the evil? No! God, Christ, Holy Ghost, Virgin Mary, etc., assumed only a milder role, only a slight transformation. The Catholic church has been the greatest curse of any church that ever existed. They started their anathemas (curses) at Nice 325 A.D., and have continued cursing, through the twentieth council at Trent, 1546 A.D., and still continue. Their power has to some extent been modified, but the spirit of intolerance only slumbers. They readily accommodate themselves to circumstances. If they cannot rule the nation, they will seize the schools and train the young, inculcating obedience to the church—that the youth shall be subservient to the priest and yield up their earnings to the pope’s treasure. These are supported by the masses, assisted by the state, to teach stuff like the following sample:

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