Monday, July 22, 2019

Results of Dimming Truth via Pomp & Circumstance

But in vain they do worship me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Matthew 15:9
Circumstance is any condition or fact attending an event and having some bearing on it, while pomp is a “splendid display or celebration; magnificent show or ceremony.”
This is where the wheel of usage comes in. Circumstance has an obsolete meaning of “formality about an important event.”

"It has ever been the design of Satan to draw the minds of the people from Jesus to man, and to destroy individual accountability. Satan failed in his design when he tempted the Son of God; but he succeeded better when he came to fallen man.

Christianity became corrupted.
Popes and priests presumed to take an exalted position,
--and taught the people to look to them for the pardon of their sins, --instead of looking to Christ for themselves.

 Multitudes of Christians were slain in a dreadful manner, because they would preserve the purity of their religion.
The Bible was hated,
and efforts were made to rid the earth of it.
The people were forbidden to read it, on pain of death; and all the copies which could be found were burned.
But God had a special care for His Word. He protected it. At different periods there were but a very few copies of the Bible in existence, yet He would not suffer His Word to be lost, for in the last days copies of it were to be so multiplied that every family could possess it.


Satan decided to go still farther.....the ten commandments were so plain that many would believe that they were still binding, and therefore he must seek to corrupt only one of the commandments.

He then led on his representatives to attempt to change the fourth, or Sabbath, commandment, thus altering the only one of the ten which brings to view the true God, the Maker of the heavens and the earth.

Satan presented before them the glorious resurrection of Jesus, and told them that by His rising on the first day of the week, He changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the week.
Thus Satan used the resurrection
to serve his purpose.
 
What one looked upon with religious horror,
another would receive.
Thus different errors were received and defended with zeal. The will of God, so plainly revealed in His Word, was covered up with errors and traditions, which have been taught as the commandments of God."
Early Writings E.G.W.