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Chosen no: R-1808 a, from: 1895 Year. |
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PRIESTCRAFT OPPOSED TO LIBERTY
SOME of the friends write us that their friends,
ministers, etc., upon learning that it is the custom
amongst us to celebrate the Memorial of our Lord's
death, in little groups, or even alone when there are no others
who appreciate and desire to commemorate it, have expressed
astonishment, and pronounced such doings sacrilegious;
--declaring that only the "clergy" have the right to administer
to themselves or others the emblems of our Lord's
broken body and shed blood.
We reply that the entire expression of our Master's will,
and the only authority upon the subject, is found in the New
Testament; and there we find no restriction, no limitation,
except such as every true Christian can answer to,--faith in the precious blood of Christ, and consecration to the Redeemer's
will and work.
The entire theory and arrangement marked by the
terms "clergy" and "laity" is of Papal origin, and was
arranged with the special object of binding and blinding
God's children by taking from them the very liberty
wherewith Christ made them free. Our Lord made
no restriction as to who should serve it or give thanks for
it, but intimated that all were to be ready to serve and in
honor to prefer one another. His simple expressions were
"eat ye all of it," and "drink ye all of it." Neither did
the Apostles place any restrictions on the matter, nor say
that when the clergy may please to prepare and bless and distribute,
the laity may eat of the Lord's Supper. What
restrictions did they place, if any? Like the Lord, they
placed none, but advised that "a man examine HIMSELF"
as to his worthiness to partake of the emblems. (1 Cor. 11:28.)
It was not the "clergy" that were to examine
and determine who might partake, but each one whom the
Son had made free was to use his own freedom and examine
himself before God and in the light of God's Word.
The Apostles knew nothing about "clergy" and
"laity," and those words do not occur in the Holy Scriptures:
they were a part of Papacy's invention for keeping
the masses subject to the priests. The Apostle Peter, whom
they falsely style the first pope, contradicts all such popish
ideas by declaring that the entire Church, including the
very humblest one united by faith to Christ the Head, constitute
together God's Royal Priesthood, God's Holy Nation,
God's Peculiar People.--1 Pet. 2:9.
As a part of the scheme of the Papal priesthood for
their own exaltation as a special or "clerical" class, it was
assumed, without the slightest warrant of Scripture, (1) that
there was a special or "clerical" class; (2) that only such
are authorized to teach, preach, baptize, bury the dead, read
the Scriptures, or arrange for a celebration of the Lord's
Supper. The evident design was to fasten with the cords
of priestcraft and superstition the infant a few days old (for
the baptism of believers was changed to sprinkling of infants),
and to keep those tightly drawn until the last spark
of consciousness expired; and then the theory of masses and
prayers for the dead was not only to get money but also to
teach that the priestly cords extended beyond the present life,
beyond the grave, and that the eternal blessedness or misery
of every being was at their disposal. Can we wonder that
our ignorant priestridden fathers of the dark ages feared the
priests and regarded them as beings of a different nature
than themselves?
One of the strongest of these superstitious cords was
the one associated with the Lord's Supper. This cord was
doubled and twisted several times and made very strong and
sacred, under the claim that literal bread and wine had to
have a miracle performed upon them so as to change them
into the actual body and blood of the Lord Jesus; for it
was and is yet claimed by Papacy that in their Mass Christ
is recreated by the priest, and then killed or sacrificed afresh
[R1809 : page 109] each time the Mass is celebrated for those special persons
or sins for whom the Mass is performed.
The doctrine of the Trinity added to the homage
paid to the priesthood; for it was said, and with reason,
that if the priest can create Christ out of bread and wine
(by merely pronouncing a few Latin words over it), he must,
if Christ be God the Father, be considered able to create
the great Creator of the universe by virtue of special power
and authority of office conferred upon him. No wonder
the people, the "laity," worshipped the "clergy," and
reverenced and obeyed them as though they were God.
[R1809 : page 110] But the people were not thereby lifted up and blessed; for
nothing but the Truth sanctifies, and the Truth makes free
and is in opposition to bondage.
The Great Reformation of the sixteenth century made
a wonderful and blessed change in many respects, not only
with those who became Protestants against these enslavements
of priestcraft, but also in that those still fully enslaved
were thereafter less tightly bounden.
But even those who thought that they had gotten free
had been only partially released. Some of the cords were
snapped asunder at once, but others were replaced by smaller
and less noticeable cords, which nevertheless are very strong
upon Protestants. They still retained the words "clergy"
and "laity;" and, although robbed of much of their power,
those words still imply a wide gulf between two classes of
sheep in the Great Shepherd's fold.
Hindrance to Bible study was a cord that was snapped
promptly, but some Protestants still seek to restrain that liberty
by implying that only the clergy are competent to explain
the meaning of the Bible. The Protestant clergy still seek
to give the inference that none but the "clergy" are commissioned
to preach, but they rarely express themselves
plainly upon the subject, knowing that the Bible recognizes
no such special "rights" as they would wish the common
people to infer. So, too, generally by inference and custom,
they give the impression that baptism and burying of
the dead belong to them. And while Protestants wholly
reject the Papal doctrine of the Mass, and with it the thought
that Christ is recreated by the officiating minister or priest,
so as to be sacrificed afresh, yet they carry with them a portion
of the shadow of the error. They have a feeling that
in some way which they cannot explain, and for some reason
not given in the Bible, it would be sacrilege for any one
not of the "clergy" class to pass the emblems of the Redeemer's
body and blood. Well, priestcraft is surely in
danger wherever the Word of God is clearly understood;
and ZION'S WATCH TOWER is published for no other purpose
than to help God's benighted children out of the blindness
and bondage put upon them by Satan, and to assist them
into the light and liberty wherewith the Son makes free.
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