Extracted text
Editorial transcription, lightly normalized from the scan. Letter spacing, line-end hyphenation, and unmistakable OCR substitutions have been repaired; the claims remain those of The Flaming Sword.
(1) “The fact that we cannot see the north star in the South, convinces me we are on the outside of the globe. If we were on the inside, we could see all around.”
(2) “If Christ in person was all there was in the universe, how could he be omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent?”
(3) “If the Messiah has already come the second time in the person of Cyrus, have the events that are prophesied in the Scriptures taken place? For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.”
(4) “There are to take place such important events as will preclude any doubt as to the time.”
(1) The fact that a straight line extended at right angles from a perpendicular will run into the earth instead of from it, at a distance proportionate to the height of the perpendicular, ought to be as convincing to a mind not capable of thinking much, as a fact in which is involved the principle of optics—a science of which the most scholastic are really ignorant. The law of perspective foreshortening operates, in relation to the north star, along the geolinear surface precisely as any other object placed at a given height from the geolinear surface, at the terminus of an imaginary line extended parallel to the earth’s surface.
The earth concaves eight inches to the mile. At a distance of half a mile, or even one mile, this is unappreciable to the eye. The north star is at a given altitude from the meridian line on the earth’s surface. Let us suppose it to be 500 miles perpendicular to a point far enough north to observe the north star directly overhead, for we know that the earth is concave, because we have determined the fact by a thousand mechanical and other experiments, and above all, by the great and unmistakable law of analogy; hence when we see the north star overhead, on our own parallel of latitude (42°), we know it to be within the limits of the first atmosphere.
We may determine a point overhead on our own parallel of latitude (42°), and draw an imaginary line from this point overhead to the north star. This line will conform in its curvation to the contour of the surface of the earth. We will suppose that this line is five hundred miles, in its entire distance, from the corresponding line on the surface meridian. Now, what will the law of perspective foreshortening determine? It will operate the same between these two lines together, precisely as the rails of the railroad track seem to approach each other, and finally appear to unite.
If one stands midway between two rails of the railroad, the two rails seem to approach each other equally. If you stand near one rail, the other rail seems to more rapidly approach the one you are standing near. Now, we are on the earth, with a concavity of about 8 inches to the mile, which is practically a straight line. The other line is five hundred miles away; the north star is at the end of the upper line, three thousand miles distant. The law of perspective foreshortening brings the upper line, in appearance, in a ratio which accelerates proportionately to the square of the distance, as the vision extends toward the termination of the three thousand miles. As this law of perspective is absolute and operates everywhere, and does account for all the phenomena accredited to convexity, why will men follow the instructions of the idiots of science who ignore these positive laws, in their interpretations of the phenomena or appearances?
We are on “the inside,” and we cannot see “all around” because of the operation of this very law and principle of perspective foreshortening, which we have repeated many times in our literature.
(2) The light of the physical (alchemico-organic) world shines from a center. Its energies are generated at a focal point, by the processes of combustion which are there operative. These energies are all-potent, everywhere present, and all-penetrating, but the point of combustion is local. It is the same with the light of the anthropostic cosmos. The Lord Jesus was the light (intellect) of the world, and also the heat (love) of the world. His love and wisdom are all-potent, all-knowing, and will ultimately reach all minds. He was local and personal.
We do not know whether the party offering the objection is a believer in the authenticity of the Bible or not; but if he is a believer, it is easy enough to settle the question of the Divinity of the Lord Jesus, the triunity of his character, the fact that he is the Creator, and that God the Father was in him, not out of him. It will be necessary, however, to dismiss from the mind the “orthodox” rubbish derived from false interpretations of the Bible, founded upon ignorance of the laws of being.
(3) “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” The fulfillment of prophetic declarations is in the events of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; but Elijah the prophet comes before this dreadful day. Elijah the prophet is the Messenger of the Covenant; he is the Branch. He is the Stone of Israel, the one to come of the posterity of Joseph, of whom it is said: “From thence [from Joseph] is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel.”
“The Lord himself” came down from heaven, 1900 years ago, according to his own declaration. He comes down again by birth, in the personality of the Messenger, whose theocrasis will communicate the fires of electro-magnetic dissolution to the thousands who will be consumed in that fire. This is the “shout,” and the manifestation of the 144,000 Sons of God is the voice of thunder, the voice of many waters, the voice of the Trump of God. The Sons of God to come, constitute the voice of the Archangel.
The dead in Christ to raise first, are not the dead in the physical graveyard, but those who, nineteen hundred years ago, after receiving the Holy Spirit, were dead in Christ during the time they appeared to be living. All who received the Holy Spirit were dead in Christ, and these will stand now at the end of the Christian dispensation in their bodies, raised, re-embodied, as the first to come into life at the resurrection now at hand. If the enquirer will study the literature of Koreshanity, he or she will find these questions all answered many times.
(4) “The wise shall understand.” The important events will not appeal to the unwise, any more than the important event of the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of the Jews, in exact fulfillment of the Lord’s declaration, appealed to the Jews in that day.
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The source scans remain the record. This page preserves the periodical’s argument without presenting its conclusions as independently established fact.
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 14, No. 47 · Oct 1900 · PDF pp. 11–12