Unbreakable Disease
2019-12-12 21:03:00 UTC
http://deism.com/paine_essay_biblical_blasphemy.htm
Biblical Blasphemy
by Thomas Paine
The Church tells us that the books of the Old and New Testament are
divine revelation, and without this revelation we could not have true
ideas of God.
The Deist, on the contrary, says that those books are not divine
revelation; and that were it not for the light of reason and the
religion of Deism, those books, instead of teaching us true ideas of
God, would teach us not only false but blasphemous ideas of Him.
Deism teaches us that God is a God of truth and justice. Does the Bible
teach the same doctrine? It does not.
The Bible says (Jeremiah xx, 7) that God is a deceiver. "O Lord (says
Jeremiah) thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived. Thou art stronger
than I, and hast prevailed."
Jeremiah not only upbraids God with deceiving him, but, in iv, 10, he
upbraids God with deceiving the people of Jerusalem. "Ah! Lord God (says
he), surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem,
saying, ye shall have peace, whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul."
In xv, 18, the Bible becomes more impudent, and calls God in plain
language, a liar. "Wilt thou (says Jeremiah to God) be altogether unto
me as a liar and as waters that fail?"
Ezekiel xiv, 9, makes God to say - "If the prophet be deceived when he
hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet." All this is
downright blasphemy.
The prophet Micaiah, as he is called, II Chron. xviii, 18-21, tells
another blasphemous story of God. "I saw," says he, "the Lord sitting on
His throne, and all the hosts of Heaven standing on His right hand and
on His left. And the Lord said, who shall entice Ahab, King of Israel,
to go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one spoke after this manner, and
another after that manner.
"Then there came out a spirit [Micaiah does not tell us where he came
from] and stood before the Lord [what an impudent fellow this spirit
was] and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said unto him, wherewith?
And he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his
prophets. And the Lord said, Thou shalt entice him, and thou shalt also
prevail; go out, and do even so."
We often hear of a gang of thieves plotting to rob and murder a man, and
laying a plan to entice him out that they may execute their design, and
we always feel shocked at the wickedness of such wretches; but what must
we think of a book that describes the Almighty acting in the same
manner, and laying plans in heaven to entrap and ruin mankind? Our ideas
of His justice and goodness forbid us to believe such stories, and
therefore we say that a lying spirit has been in the mouth of the
writers of the books of the Bible.
For all of Thomas Paine's essays, click here: http://deism.com/paine.htm
Biblical Blasphemy
by Thomas Paine
The Church tells us that the books of the Old and New Testament are
divine revelation, and without this revelation we could not have true
ideas of God.
The Deist, on the contrary, says that those books are not divine
revelation; and that were it not for the light of reason and the
religion of Deism, those books, instead of teaching us true ideas of
God, would teach us not only false but blasphemous ideas of Him.
Deism teaches us that God is a God of truth and justice. Does the Bible
teach the same doctrine? It does not.
The Bible says (Jeremiah xx, 7) that God is a deceiver. "O Lord (says
Jeremiah) thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived. Thou art stronger
than I, and hast prevailed."
Jeremiah not only upbraids God with deceiving him, but, in iv, 10, he
upbraids God with deceiving the people of Jerusalem. "Ah! Lord God (says
he), surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem,
saying, ye shall have peace, whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul."
In xv, 18, the Bible becomes more impudent, and calls God in plain
language, a liar. "Wilt thou (says Jeremiah to God) be altogether unto
me as a liar and as waters that fail?"
Ezekiel xiv, 9, makes God to say - "If the prophet be deceived when he
hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet." All this is
downright blasphemy.
The prophet Micaiah, as he is called, II Chron. xviii, 18-21, tells
another blasphemous story of God. "I saw," says he, "the Lord sitting on
His throne, and all the hosts of Heaven standing on His right hand and
on His left. And the Lord said, who shall entice Ahab, King of Israel,
to go up and fall at Ramoth Gilead? And one spoke after this manner, and
another after that manner.
"Then there came out a spirit [Micaiah does not tell us where he came
from] and stood before the Lord [what an impudent fellow this spirit
was] and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said unto him, wherewith?
And he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his
prophets. And the Lord said, Thou shalt entice him, and thou shalt also
prevail; go out, and do even so."
We often hear of a gang of thieves plotting to rob and murder a man, and
laying a plan to entice him out that they may execute their design, and
we always feel shocked at the wickedness of such wretches; but what must
we think of a book that describes the Almighty acting in the same
manner, and laying plans in heaven to entrap and ruin mankind? Our ideas
of His justice and goodness forbid us to believe such stories, and
therefore we say that a lying spirit has been in the mouth of the
writers of the books of the Bible.
For all of Thomas Paine's essays, click here: http://deism.com/paine.htm