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NEW AND WONDERFUL

REVELATION

TO MANKIND

By Rev. EVARISTO HURTADO

PRICE, 25 CENTS

BOSTON

1907

KD62766

MARVAL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY
APR 6 1962

INTRODUCTION

I have the pleasure to offer to the Christian world a wonderful book for the small sum of 25 cents. Every catholic and protestant ought to read it.

The deepest subjects are treated in a most wonderful way in this small book. We recommend it to all thinkers who may

desire to know great ideas expressed in few words.

This wonderful book begins with some letters addressed to Rev. John J. Burke, C.S.P., editor of The Catholic World, Boston, Mass., and then goes into some of the deepest subjects on Philosophy and Religion. I advise you not to fail in getting some copies for yourself and friends. This book is worth three times the price I ask for it, as my object is not to make money but to put this book in the hands of everybody.

All orders must be addressed to

Rev. EVARISTO HURTADO

3 Seneca Street

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

Letters and Essays

Cambridge, Mass., April 5, 1906

Rev. John J. Burke, C. S. P.

Dear Sir:

Editor of the Catholic World, Boston, Mass.

I was in your church last Wednesday night and had the pleasure of hearing you preach. Your sermon suggested to me to write you a series of letters, asking you some questions on religion. Will you please tell me why in II Kings, ch. 8, v. 26, it is said that "Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem;" and in II Chronicles, ch. 22, v. 2, it is said that "Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign and he reigned one year in Jerusalem". I see in these dates a difference of twenty years in the age of Ahaziah when he began to reign. A positive contradiction. Again in I. Chronicles, ch. 21, v. 1, I read this: "And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel." And in II Samuel, ch. 24, v. 1, I read this: "And the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.” I see here another

contradiction.

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And again, in some parts of the Old Testament it is said that God repents, but in Num. ch. 23, v. 19, it is said this: God is not a man that he should lie; neither the son of man that he should repent." I see here another contradiction. Again in Isaiah ch. 6, vs. 1 to 5, it is said that that prophet saw God, the Lord of Hosts, and Jesus says in St. Matthew, ch. 5, v. 8, this: "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God," but St. John in his gospel, ch. 1, v. 18, and in his first epistle, ch. 4, v. 12, says this: No man hath seen God at any time." And Timothy in his first epistle, ch. 6, v. 16, says, speaking of God: "Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach

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unto, whom no man hath seen, nor can see," and St. Paul agrees with Timothy, and calls God the invisible God.

Now dear Reverend, you must confess that in the Bible there are many contradictions, positive contradictions, real contradictions, with which to prove that the Bible is not all inspired by God, and consequently cannot be taken as an infallible book.

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If you are not satisfied, please read the Acts of the Apostles, and that in ch. 9, v. 7, it is said: "And the men will you which journeyed with Paul stood speechless hearing a voice but seeing no man, and then in ch. 22, v. 9 it is said that the men who were with Paul did not hear the voice.

The Catholic church must take away from the Bible these and other contradictions, and also take some absurdities from it in order to be able to prove that the holy book is all inspired. One text of Timothy in his epistle says that all scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, but he did not say that all the Bible is inspired because when he wrote his epistle the Bible was not yet compiled. All scripture in the Bible that is inspired is true, but not all is true that is not inspired. St. Paul wrote something of himself and not by inspiration; see 1 Cor. ch. 7, vs. 12 and 25, and St. Luke in his gospel ch. 1, v. 3; and St. John in his epistle ch. 1. vs. 1 and 3; say that they wrote what they saw and heard; so they give testimony in this way that they did not write by inspiration that which they wrote. I believe that there are many beautiful truths inspired in the Bible, but not all that is in the Bible is inspired, and we must use our reason to know it. You said in your sermon, Reverend Father, that the Popes are infallible, but according to church history some popes had contradicted themselves, and if so, how is it that they are infallible? Now again, the Catholic church says that it is good to venerate the images of saints, and allow their people to bow before them and to pray to them as they do in all Catholic countries, and even here in this Christian country, as you may see it in the Mission Church, at Roxbury, Mass., not very far from Boston. But the Bible says in Exodus, ch. 20, v. 5, this: "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them," and Jesus says in Matthew ch. 4, v. 10, this: "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve." And again I read in the Book of Revelation, ch. 19, v. 10, this: "And

I (St. John) fell at his feet (of the angel) to worship him. But he said unto me, see thou do it not, I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus; worship God." Now if Jesus and an angel of God say worship God, and not angels nor saints, nor anything that is on earth or in heaven, what right has the Catholic church to allow the Catholic people to bow and pray to saints and angels? Barnabas and St. Paul refused to be honored by the Romans to whom they were preaching, as you can see in the book of the Acts, ch. 14. Then is it right to bow and do worship to anything except God?

Rev. John J. Burke, C. S. P.

Dear Sir:

Cambridge, Mass., April 5, 1906

Editor of the Catholic World, Boston, Mass.

In your sermon on Wednesday night in the cathedral of Boston I heard you say that the only true church in the world is the Catholic church; if so, will you please tell me why your church commands its members not to eat meat during Lent? I read in I Timothy, ch. 4, vs. 1 to 3, these words: "Now (said St. Paul) the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils. Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron. Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth." I have been studying many religions and there is not a church in the world except the Catholic Church, that forbids their priests to marry and commands their followers to abstain from meat during the days of Lent. The Roman Catholic church ought not to oblige its ministers to marry if some of them have no vocation for marriage, but she must not forbid them to marry, as a law of the church, because St. Paul says that "to avoid fornication let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband," I Cor., ch. 7, v. 2; and Timothy says this: "Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well," I Timothy, ch. 2, v. 12; and also Timothy and Titus say that bishops and elders must be married; see Epistle of Titus, ch. 1, vs. 5 to 7;

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