The Negro a Beast or In the Image of God: Book Review #1

This book, which was published at the inception of the previous century, by Charles Carroll  fueled spurts of long-heated debates and controversies from different echelons of society - both religious and non-religious - since its coming from the press. The main thesis propounded in the book is that the negro is not part of the human race. The author mustered up all of his intellectual powers to convince his readers that the negro is a beast race far lower in intelligence and qualities than the white man, who alone, according to the theory propounded, constitute the human race created in God's image.

The author also believed that all the other colored peoples - such as brown and yellow - were a result of the amalgamation of the whites with the blacks. He also held that the negroes and their offsprings are soulless, and are not objects of God's redemptive and saving purpose, which the author thought, was designed only for the white people.

He tried to buttress his views by citing Bible verses, science authors, and historical data, interpreting them in accord with his racist belief system.

This view is still currently held by different religious and political groups with variations in the presentation of details. You could read this book online in PDF format by clicking here, or buy a hard copy from Amazon using the link below.



Don't forget to also consult and examine the book entitled "NEGRO IS A MAN: A REPLY TO PROF. CARROLL'S BOOK" by W.S. Armistead. Fay Botham, in a review of this book, wrote: "In 1903, the Reverend W.S. Armistead authored The Negro is a Man, an outraged reply to Charles Carroll's 1900 pamphlet, The Negro is a Beast...Armistead, a Baptist, deemed Carroll's rants as 'Bible perversions.' Against Carroll's claims, Armistead asserted, among other things, that Adam and Eve were not white, but red, which thus made the lineage of Christ himself red or perhaps even mixed. Adamantly disputing Carroll's allegations that black people were nonhuman brutes, Armistead argued throughout the 542-page book that there was no such thing as amalgamation as Carroll defined it - that is, as the 'carnal association of human beings and beasts' - for the fact that no offspring resulted from such unions proved that no amalgamation had occurred."

A study of this book will provide a balance and counter-arguments for the objective weighing of the evidences as given by both sides - pros and cons. We have not yet found a site link where Armistead's book could be read online. We surely welcome any suggestion if anyone of you out there know one, and we'll put it here for the benefit of everyone. Thank you.




THE COMPANION BIBLE, Dr. E.W. Bullinger, D.D., Editor.

We have a large personal collection of 'Study Bibles' but no one of them still compare with this great, helpful, information-packed 'Reference Bible' of Dr. Bullinger. It uses the old King James Version of the Bible as its basic text, but provides massive side notes (half of each page most of the times) from the best researches on the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek Scriptures.

Themes and topics that cannot be dealt with in the side notes were cross referenced with its 198 back appendices that provide greater details from all useful perspectives such as - cultural, chronological, lexical, grammatical, mathematical, etc., etc.

One of its great features, unique to this 'Reference Bible,' not found anywhere else, is its discovery and presentation of the structures of the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation. This is not just the ordinary,  man-invented study outlines that we commonly find in other 'Study Bibles' but actual, built-in structures (or marvelous, literary, skeletal patterns), not man-devised but discovered, unique to the Scripture itself, and one of the proofs of its supernatural, divine inspiration.

Dr. Bullinger, with the assistance of a group of other scholars (most of them his own former students), wrote the notes of this Bible in his late years. This is the reason why some keen and mature students of the Scriptures notice that parts of the Bible structures and notes could still be improved in certain areas (Dr. Bullinger died while working on the structures of John chapter 10; and the rest, from John chapter 11, were works of his associates). Having said that, we give our most wholehearted recommendation of this great work on the Scriptures.

You will surely find the help you need from the Companion Bible, especially when examining crucial points and questions of doctrines such as the one reviewed above (Carroll's book versus Armistead's), because you could examine what the Scriptures themselves say (not just in the English version), but in the original Hebrew and Greek as referenced in the CB notes.

This is just Book Review #1. We're just beginning. We'll write of other powerful tools in our future reviews, such as, the use of Concordances, Lexicons, etc., etc. So keep visiting for more useful tips.

We now give a link that will allow you to read and use the COMPANION BIBLE online! Click here to view the complete CB Bible texts and side notes. Click also here to view the complete CB appendices online.

If you enjoy and like the Companion Bible, why not buy a hardbound copy of it that you can take with you anywhere for your continuous spiritual benefit. The link below to Amazon is a safe and convenient way to order your hardbound CB.

Top Ten Electrifying Sites: Bookmark #2

As we've promised to give, what follows are ten more great sites. These are not strictly speaking e-book sites like the first set that we've given, but they are thrilling web spots full of information, trivia, exciting photos & blogs, bizarre facts, historical anomalies, and such like that both bibliophiles and net adventurers will love.

Without much ado, here they are for you to enjoy.

1. CRACKED. A site that seeks to inform in an entertaining way. Includes articles written in a down-to-earth style and videos that are usually funny, sometimes even corny, but impart bits of knowledge that are intended to surprise and make you roll down in laughter.

2. LISTVERSE. This is another great site that focuses on hard-to-find trivia and bizarre stories that educate as well as amuse. Over 4.5 million pages are served each month to their million waiting readers.

3. ACIDCOW. Looking for some hilarious or off-the-wall or simply wacky pictures or videos? Well, you've found the site just tailor made for such exotic hankering. Not only pics and videos but also games and other such stuffs are added daily to the site.

4. BORED. This is a site that hosts hundreds of free online games. Included also are featured videos, photos, and links to pages and user profiles.

5. MIGHTY OPTICAL ILLUSIONS. Stereograms, anamorphosis, disappearing effects, art illusions, and such like are the focus of this entertaining site.

6. WEIRD NEWS. The home of the strange and the funny and others in between. Includes images and data submitted by readers from all over the net.

7. STUMBLEUPON. An increasingly popular site that allows one to choose from numerous topics that suits one's taste. The elements of discovery, surprise, and knowledge sharing, made possible by the site, afford an enhanced internet experience that's both entertaining and educational.

 

8. FORBES. The site talks about the rich and famous, including their business, lifestyle, and financial principles. A good site for those who aspire to follow their trail or simply want to satisfy curiosity!

 

9. ZUZUTOP. Another site dedicated to the exploration of the mysterious and baffling. Includes stunning photo, video and article collections.

 

10. INSTRUCTABLES. For a breath of some fresh new air, we give you this site that offers practical, helpful instructions on literally thousands of topics ranging from computers, gardening, recipes, decorating, pets, woodworking, travel, to name just a few, that both amuse and inform.

We hope you'll enjoy visiting these sites. You could view our Bookmark #1 by clicking here. Happy surfing and visit our site again! Thanks!

Top Ten Free E-Books Sites: Bookmark #1

One of the great sources of enjoyment for present-day booklovers is the invention of modern electronic books (or e-books for short). These new media for the encapsulation of information and knowledge - both old and new - which are accessible through a computer or electronic reading gadget also come in various digital formats to suit the needs of today's readers. They could also be sent with lightning speed through the net for faster exchange of information. The cyberspace, through the internet, provides exciting sites from which to download a great variety of e-books.

Below are some of our favorite sites that offer free downloadable e-books. These are a great resource for those booklovers that are short on budget, and even for those that simply love and enjoy freebies. Gone were the days that if one has no money to buy books that one had no other resort but to borrow from friends or from public libraries. Stealing books (not advisable though in any way) was of course the other option for others that were desperate enough!

One advantage of the digital age, if one has Internet access, is the new option that it affords of being able to either read online or download free e-books from sites that offer them. Here are TOP TEN of our favorites with a short description of the sites.

• PROJECT GUTENBERG. This is one of the pioneer sites on e-docs making and distribution, and keeps one of the largest collection of free downloadable e-books (over 30,000 to date and counting). Michael Hart, who invented e-books in 1971, is the founder of Project Gutenberg. He and Project Gutenberg inspire all booklovers worldwide for opening a new avenue in the adventure of reading and information sharing through digital technology. 

• BIBLIOMANIA. A description from the site itself reads: "Bibliomania has thousands of e-books, poems, articles, short stories and plays all of which are absolutely free. You can read the world's greatest fiction by authors such as Dickens and Joyce, Sherlock Holmes mysteries, all Shakespeare's plays, or just dip into some short stories by writers such as Mark Twain, Anton Chekov and Edgar Allan Poe." Each month they also add many books, new articles, and interviews by their dedicated literary teams.

 

• SCRIBD. This company, which was launched in March 2007 and has its headquarters in San Francisco, is not just a fast growing reading site but is also an increasingly popular social publishing web spot. Literally millions of documents and e-books, both for free and for sale, are deposited in this site. This is one of the revolutionary places in the web that combine both the excitement of knowledge exploration and social networking for all bibliophiles!

• GETFREEEBOOKS. The site owner describes the site as follows: "Getfreeebooks.com is a free ebooks site where you can download free books totally free. The ebooks which you find within this site are collected from all over the net or either personally compiled by me." The site also strives to keep that the thousands of e-books they offer are always, as to status, "legal downloadable free ebooks."

• BOOK-BOT. This is another free book reading site. It houses, according to the site's current report, 14571 e-books (and counting). The site offers the convenience of being browseable either by author or by title.

 

• PDFOO. This is not strictly speaking an e-library like the others above. But this is a specialized free search engine designed for those who look for specific e-book title/s in Portable Document Format (PDF). E-books in this format require a PDF Reader, which fortunately is also available for free download from the site for different Operating Systems.

 

• PLANETEBOOK. This is a site dedicated for the publication of the great classics in digital format. Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Hans Christian Andersen, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Jules Verne, Leo Tolstoy, too name only a few, are all here to again tell their stories. Their masterpieces are also available for download, free of charge. The site's layout is also user friendly, and you can download right away unlimitedly without the need of registering!

 

• FREETECHBOOKS. This is the place for those who look for computer science, and engineering and programming books and textbooks, including technical monographs. Almost all of their thousands of collection are legally and freely available for viewing or for download through the site at no cost.

• CHRISTIAN CLASSICS ETHEREAL LIBRARY. This is one of the great sites on the net that you can freely visit and read online the writings of the old divines, mystics, theologians, preachers and reformers of the past. The option to download almost all of their available materials is also open without charge. The site's mission statement declares that CCEL "seeks to build up the church by making classic Christian literature widely available and promoting its use for edification and study by interested Christians, seekers and scholars."

• E-SWORD. The following is from the site introduction by Rick Meyers: " 'Freely you received, freely give.' (Matt.10:8) Jesus told us that since we've been blessed we should bless others. I am happy to provide blessing to others in the form of free Bible study software!" He then describes the free Bible study software as follows: "e-Sword is a fast and effective way to study the Bible. e-Sword is feature rich and user friendly with more capabilities than you would expect in a free software package. The fact that e-Sword is free is just one of the blessings and does not speak of the quality of the software. I make my living writing software and I believe I have put my best effort in this endeavor. The real work, however, was put in by the godly men and women who devoted countless years creating the texts that have been made available for our benefit."

This rounds up our first list of TOP TEN favorite e-books sites on the net. But this is just our Bookmark #1. You could view our Bookmark #2 by clicking here. Happy reading!

Windows to the Past

One of the most remarkable gifts that God has given mankind is the power to communicate through words. From the moment that primordial men attempted to scribble their first crude figures, images and pictographs on the walls of caves to the present time when their descendants continued to communicate their thoughts, feelings, and experiences through cyberspace, nothing has separated men from the lower animals but this unique capacity to express their innermost thoughts, ideas, feelings and experiences through words.

And men are not limited by the medium of sound, in their capacity to convey message through words, but have invented other impressive ways such as by sign language and by use of written symbols (such as we find in our alphabets and numbers), as means of communication. It's the creation of alphabetic and numeric symbols (and others like them) to convey words that revolutionized the way men communicate to their fellowmen.

The making available of these language symbols, in their written form as a necessary element of communication, made possible the preservation of ideas and messages in concrete records such as could be found in ancient inscriptions, stone tablets, ostraca, coins, papyri, scrolls and parchments.

Before the invention of modern printing, all such written records were made by hands. Hence, most of them are termed manuscripts, from the Latin manu scriptus, meaning, written by hand.

Books, as we now know them, as a set of written documents bound into a volume or volumes, go back to the ancient codices of the late 3rd or early 4th century A.D. Most of these documents in their earliest form were written without spacing, with no punctuation marks, and all in upper case letters.

These ancient books could be difficult to read and decipher for modern readers, but how much we owe to providence for the preservation of their contents throughout the ages, for the priceless information, data, and knowledge that are treasured up in them are more valuable than tons of gold and silver. Modern scholarship and research have been of great service in decoding most, if not all, of these ancient treasures, providing modern readers with contemporary translations and editions of these literary jewels.

Among the treasures of information that are waiting to be mined from these books are historical, political, religious, cultural, economic, mythological, traditional, and scientific lores that provide insights and answers to important questions concerning the past. Understanding the past is important to have an intelligent appraisal and discernment of the present.

Those who say that there is no value in knowing the past and that we must be concerned only with the present are living in a make believe world. Such a belief won't work in actual practice in daily life. This is like discovering a man murdered just outside one's doorway and just shrugging one's shoulders while saying, "Well, past is past. I don't know this man. Whatever happened to him last night, or when, doesn't concern me. Past is past. I am concerned only with today!"

That one may ignore whatever happened to the murdered man in the past, but not the relatives of the murdered man! Much less the police! That one also would be forced to do quite an explaining of his whereabouts the night the man was murdered. It's obvious that the past is inescapably important.

You see, what you observe today is a result of whatever happened yesterday. It's not true that the past is unimportant. The present is inseparably connected with yesterday, as well as with the future. We need a right understanding of the past to really comprehend the present, and also to have a correct perspective of the future.

This is one of the reasons why books are useful. They serve as windows for us to view the past. Books even provide us a way to walk through many lives as we enter into the experiences of the people by means of their pages. Through reading books, we're able to join those people in their happiness and woes, success and failures, laughter and cries, comfort and pain, love and hatred, faith and doubt, life and death!

This is the use of books as a source of information and knowledge. By reading intelligently and with discrimination, by divine grace, we learn to sift the grain of wisdom from the chaff of stupidity. Reading of mistakes committed by others, we could develop good judgment to be able to distinguish ideal principles in contrast to that which is of no value and without virtue. By learning to put into practice what we've learned as excellent and good we become better persons swayed not by capricious emotion or blind superstition but by sane principles of truth.

Books are like windows. Someone has said that a house without books are like rooms without windows. True enough, but windows must be opened and closed at the right time, likewise books should be read for one to have a breath of some fresh air and not just left unread in their shelves to gather dust!