From the day when the first members of councils placed exterior authority higher than interior, that is to say, recognized the decisions of men united in councils as more important and more sacred than reason and conscience; on that day began the lies that caused the loss of millions of human beings and which continue their unhappy work to the present day.

In 1682 the English doctor Laitan, an honorable man, having written a book against the bishopric, was judged and condemned to the following punishment: he was cruelly whipped, one ear was cut off, his nose was split, and the initials of the words “Trouble Maker” were marked on one cheek with a hot iron.  Seven days later he was again whipped, although the wounds of his former punishment were not yet healed.  The other side of his nose was split, his other ear was cut off, and his other cheek was marked.  All this was done in the name of Christian charity.  (Maurice Davidson)

Christ founded no church, established no state, made no laws, and imposed no government or exterior authority.  He simply set himself to write the law of God in the hearts of men in order that they might govern themselves.  (Herbert Newton)

The special characteristic of the situation in which the Christian world finds itself today is that its social organization is founded on a doctrine that, in its true acceptance, is ruining the existing state of things; and that this acceptance, hidden until now, is beginning to appear.  One might compare this organization to a house built, not even on sand, but on ice.  That is why its foundation is melting, and the house is beginning to fall to pieces.

As long as the majority of the faithful, deceived by the Church, have only a rudimentary idea of the doctrine of Christ; as long as they adore Christ-God, his mother, the saints, and relics in the place of former fetishes; and as long as they believe in miracles, in the Holy Sacrament, in the Redemption, and in the infallibility of the princes of the Church; the pagan organization of life can keep going and give every satisfaction to the believers.  They also accept the meaning of life that the Church gives them and the rule of conduct that results from it.  And this faith, too, concurs in the union of men.

Unhappily for the faith imposed by the Church, there exist the Scriptures, which the Church itself has recognized as holy.  In spite of the efforts of the ecclesiastics to hide the true meaning of the evangelistic doctrine from the laity, in spite of having forbidden the Scriptures to be translated into the language of the people, and in spite of its false interpretations, nothing can hide the light that filters through the lies of the Church and illuminates the souls of those whose eyes are opening more and more to the truth.

In proportion as education has spread and as printing has replaced writing, the Scriptures have become more accessible.  Men cannot help but perceive the striking contradiction between the order of existing things upheld by the Church, and the evangelistic doctrine that it acknowledges as being holy.  Read and understood as it is, the Scriptures appear to be a frank and explicit denial of both the State and the Church.  In becoming more and more evident, this contradiction has resulted in the loss of the faith imposed by the Church, and it is only by tradition, propriety, or fear that the majority of men continue to practice the outer forms of the Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant cults – but without believing in the inner truths of this religion.

I do not mention here the little communities that reject the ecclesiastic doctrines entirely and which profess their own doctrine, approaching more or less to the true Christian teaching.  The number of their adherents is too small in comparison with the enormous number of men who are becoming more and more devoid of any religious sentiment.  If the popular masses still practice the official cult outwardly, the upper classes, perceiving with still more precision the contradictions contained in the Church doctrine, turn away from it entirely.  But they cannot adopt the true doctrine of Christ, since this is in opposition to the existing State and would ruin the privileges they enjoy.

It follows that the immense majority of the Christian world practices the forms of the Church simply by interest, propriety, or fear, while the minority not only does not acknowledge the existing religion, but still further, influenced by what is called science, considers all religions as vestiges of superstition, and acts only under the impulse of instinct.  The nations that had accepted Christian doctrine at the time when this doctrine was superior to its moral development will fall into a state of complete irreligion, and its moral level will descend lower than that of nations who profess much inferior, and even quite vulgar beliefs.