Category: quotes
The Priests Which God Abhors
I can scarce imagine that any man in this world who takes to himself the title of a priest, except he take it in the sense in which all God’s people are priests—I cannot imagine that a priest can enter heaven. I would not say a thing too stern or too severe, but I do most thoroughly believe that an assumption of the office of priest is so base a usurpation of the priestly office of Christ, that I could as well conceive of a man being saved who called himself God, as conceive of a man being saved who called himself a priest. If he really means what he says, he has so trenched upon the priestly prerogative of Christ, that it seems to me he has touched the very crown jewels, and is guilty of a blasphemy, which, unless it be repented of, shall surely bring damnation on his head.
Shake your garments, you ministers of Christ, from all priestly assumption, come out from among them, touch not the unclean thing. There are no priests now specially to minister among men. Jesus Christ and He only is the priest of His Church, and He has made all of us priests and kings unto our God, and we shall reign forever and ever.
If I should have any person here so weak as to depend for his salvation upon the offerings of another man, I conjure him to forego his deception. I care not who your priest may be. He may belong to the Anglican or to the Romish church. Ay, and to any church under heaven. If he claims to be anything of a priest more than you can claim yourself—away with him—he imposes upon you.
He speaks to you that which God abhors, and that which the church of Christ should abhor and would detest, were she truly alive to her Master’s glory. None but Jesus, none but Jesus, all other priests and offerings we disdain. Cast dirt upon their garments, they are not and they cannot be priests, they usurp the special dignity of Jesus.
The High Priest Standing Between the Dead and the Living by C. H. Spurgeon
Prove It
Spiritual Adultery
http://www.angelfire.com/la2/prophet1/adultery101.html (bad gateway)*
FTA: Adultery is also defined in a scriptural sense as “idolatry, or apostasy from the true God. Jer. 3.” Idolatry is defined as “1. The worship of idols, images, or any thing made by hands, or which is not God. 2. Excessive attachment or veneration for any thing, or that which borders on adoration.” (An American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster, 1828, see Adultery and Idolatry). Adoration is “a feeling of profound love and admiration.” Idolatry can be a profound love or admiration for anything or anyone – an image, a statue, a living or deceased saint, a preacher, a prophet, a pope, etc. Ask a Roman Catholic to identify the Holy Father, and he will likely point to the Pope. Ask a twenty-first century Protestant to identify the Holy Father, and there is a good chance that he will point to the Pope. In contrast to modern-day Protestantism, Bible believing Protestants for the past five-hundred years not only identified God alone as the Holy Father, but they also exposed the papacy as antichrist. In less than on-hundred years Protestantism has come full-circle, from exposing and forsaking the false doctrines and beliefs of Roman Catholicism, to accepting and in some cases even promoting Catholic dogma. The title Holy Father is used only one time in all of scripture (John 17:11), and it refers not to any man, but to God the Father. The application of this title to anyone but God is a blasphemous antichrist usurpation (“so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” II Thess. 2:4; “and I saw a woman… full of names of blasphemy” Rev. 17:3). In the early nineteenth century Noah Webster rightly stated that “All worship of images and saints, is an abomination to God; it is idolatry, which is strictly forbidden in the Bible;” (History of the United States, 1832, p. 299). Adoration of the Roman Catholic “Eucharist,” or so called “Host”, is nothing short of idolatry (See False Gospel of Sacramental Works). In 1765 American patriot and Christian minister, Jonathan Mayhew, published a sermon entitled Popish Idolatry in which he addressed, among other idolatrous practices, the popish doctrine of transubstantiation. Mayhew stated,
“The Romanists do not pretend to deny, but that all the five senses bear testimony against it, as much as they possibly could if it were false, or if the bread and wine remained after the juggling, hocus-pocus trick, which they term consecration…. For the truth of the Christian revelation itself depends on the truth of certain facts, by which there was an appeal made to the senses of men; particularly the miracles and resurrection of our Saviour…. Thus does the church of Rome, by this doctrine, subvert the very foundations of Christianity…. transubstantiation is the grossest imposition and insult, that ever the priesthood itself put upon the superstitious credulity of mankind. This doctrine then, being plainly false, the church of Rome is certainly guilty of idolatry, in worshipping the eucharist as true God.” (Popish Idolatry, Jonathan Mayhew, 1765, pp. 11,12) (“God is love.” 1 John 4:8; “God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.” Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29)
*Posting this because it is a good assessment of today’s idolatry and Protestant/Roman Catholic dynamic.
Coexistence to Imitation to Idolatry
Israel’s fall into idolatry did not begin with open rebellion, but with compromise.
They did not fully separate from the nations as God commanded, and that small tolerance became the doorway to greater corruption. “They did not destroy the peoples… but mingled with the nations and learned their practices” (Psalm 106:34-35).
What began as coexistence became imitation. And imitation became idolatry. “They served their idols, which became a snare to them” (Psalm 106:36).
This is the pattern. When God’s people fail to remain distinct, they do not influence the world, they are influenced by it. “Do not be conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2).
So the issue is not just avoiding idolatry, but guarding against the compromises that lead to it.
Because idolatry rarely starts with rejection. It starts with resemblance.
~ Jeremiah Knight (X; Facebook)
“So they feared the LORD, but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.” 2 Kings 17:33
Be Ye Separate
You remember John Knox’s memorable saying, when he turned the Romanists out, he went straight away to pull down their chapels. He gathered the mob together, and began to overhaul the whole of their places of worship. Why should John Knox meddle with them? ” I’ll pull the nests down,” said he, “then I shall be sure that the birds will never come back.” So I would today. I would not only drive away the birds-the sin, the evil; but I would pull down the nest, so that there will be no temptation to you to come back again to the sin. “Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will be a Father unto you.” Come out from the world, ye children of Christ. Have naught to do with their enjoyments, nor with their devices. Follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. Go not a whoring after these iniquities, but drink thou waters out of thine own cistern, and be thou always ravished with His love who is thy Lord, thy husband, thy hope, thy joy, thine all.~ C.H. Spurgeon
A Tozer Quote from “Grappling with Change”
We need sweeping reformation. Let me give a definition of reformation as it is given in a religious dictionary: “Change by removal of faults or abuses, and a restoration to a former good estate.” Now that is not so bad. I do not know how anybody who believes he or she is a Christian could ever object to changing in the direction of the removal of faults and abuses toward the restoration to a former good estate. The problem is change, which disturbs many people. They have accepted the status quo as being the very tablets given by God on the mountain. Most people, if they happen to be in any church anywhere, accept the status quo without knowing or caring to inquire how it came to be. In other words, they do not ask, “Oh God, is this of You, is this divine, is this out of the Bible?” Because it was done and is being done, and because a lot of people are doing it, they assume it is all right. Then songs are written about it, and it gets into magazines. Pretty soon people are called to it, and the first thing we know we have gotten into a religious situation that is not of God. It is not according to Scripture, and God is not pleased with it at all. Rather, He is angry. Yet we do not know it because we do not like the word change. The change took place slowly, before we arrived on the scene, and we think because it is everywhere it is therefore right. We accept the status quo, the existing state of affairs, and say, “This is it,” forgetting that history demonstrates that religions invariably degenerate.
A. W. Tozer Sermon: Grappling with Change
hattip: A.W.Tozer- A Man of God
The Holiness of God – Leonard Ravenhill
Definition and short study on the term of Biblical Holiness.
The X Mass Blog 