enough truth in a new system so derived to prevent a total destruction of the individual. He is probably taught to be good and to do good and in such a simple way that he feels somehow the presence of God in his life. But we simply cannot go to the Bible or any other book with preconceived theories and hope to arrive at a true interpretation of it.
What is the true method? It is to take certain fundamental ideas presented in the Bible concerning the nature of God and the purposes or objectives He has in dealing with men and try to get at its basic teachings. When the lawyer asked Jesus which was the great, or greatest, teaching of the Old Testament, Jesus told him that the worship of one God and love to Him and the neighbor were the two great commandments of religion and that all the Law and the Prophets hung upon those cardinal or fundamental teachings of religion,—love to God and love towards our fellowman. It is true that no branch of the Christian Church gives this same emphasis in its practical teaching, even though all do so nominally. Instead they emphasize their doctrines which separate them from others. Therefore we see why all of them have failed in saving the world. But, at least, it is evident that we know now how to begin a true interpretation of the Bible. Anything which arises in our further interpretation which is not in harmony with the acknowledgment of God as One, One Being, and in a life of keeping God's commandments, summed up in the Ten Commandments, or the Two Great Commandments—our truest way of showing our love to God and our fellow man—the only way acceptable to God—is to be cast aside.
Taking this simple method of understanding the Bible we see at once that any doctrine taught by any church which shows that God is cruel and unjust, more cruel and unjust than any man of ordinary sensibilities, is untrue. Take the Plan of Salvation as an example. All people will acknowledge that the parable of the Prodigal Son is a true and obviously true statement of the attitude of God towards His erring children. It was not true that the Prodigal's father was angry with his son, wholly alienated from him. His love went out ceaselessly to have him see the error and evil of his life and to return to his father's home. It is a perfect picture of the
