To the Editor of, the "Norra-Cuina Dairy News."
Sir,—In your issue of August 48, I pointed out that Mr. Coates had, "notwithstanding his high moral virtues, made a false statement of fact in regard to science and Christian theology. He has had an opportunity of explaining his remark but, as on previous occasions when he has been pinned down to one of his wild statements, he has found it simplest to dismiss the matter with an accusation of blasphemy. As 'Agnostic' previously pointed out, complaints of blasphemy come strangely from one who writes of a "Saviour" who will "smite the hosts" "in the grandest demonstration of His wrath and power" "in flaming fire taking vengeance on those that know not God." 7 But one should be charitable and forgive Mr. Coates for both his misstatements and his blasphemies, for his disappointment must be supreme. Russia hasn't even begun to mobilize for her great attack on Palestine, timed to take place within the next week Your correspondent A. S. O. P. is far kinder to me, as he takes the trouble to point out that am labouring under a delusion. Having read in the Bible that "the heavens that new are and the earth have been stored up for fire.... " and that when the day of the Lord comes "the heavens shall pass away with a great noise..... and the earth shall be burned up" (11 Peter, Chap 3), I concluded that the Second Advent meant the end of the world. But now A. 8. O. P. informs me that there is not a single reference to the end of this earth in the entire range of the Scriptures! I am sorry that I fell into Mr. Coates' habit of reading the Bible too literally. It is now perfectly clear to me that the correct interpretation is that the "earth all go on as before and the inhabitants shall be blessed with unspeakable happiness and prosperity." I am much obliged to Mr. A. 8. O. P. for the explana ation.
Where the "Wrath of the Lamb" and the Judgment Day fit nto this scheme of things is not at all clear to one whose brain is bemuddled with contradictory statements in press and' pulpit. But if "'some shall be taken and others left" means anything at all," it. implies that unbelievers shall perish and the "faithful" shall live on (upon this earth which involves, of course, the imminent destruction of hundreds of millions of poor human beings. Do our Christian teachers honestly believe this? Do they maintain that it is the good and the bad who happen to be living now who are to be sorted out, and that the good are to live on here in perpetuity- without any earth-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.