ICHABOD, THE GLORY HAS DEPARTED - explores the Age of Apostasy, predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, to attack Objective Faithless Justification, Church Growth Clowns, and their ringmasters. The antidote to these poisons is trusting the efficacious Word in the Means of Grace. John 16:8. Isaiah 55:8ff. Romans 10. Most readers are WELS, LCMS, ELS, or ELCA. This blog also covers the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Left-wing, National Council of Churches denominations.
The definitive treatment of the subject, this book provides a detailed historical examination and critical biblical analysis of the philosophical speculations and theological implications of Calvinism. Extensively documented from Calvinistic authorities, this book presents the other side to the over 400-year-old debate over the doctrines of Calvinism. The book contains ten chapters, along with a preface, seven appendixes, footnotes, and bibliography. It is further enhanced by subject, name, and Scripture indexes.
Debating with Calvinists is just like this.
Review
Even Calvinists will find this book informative and challenging, as I did--Bob Dasal. -- Pulpit Helps (January, 2000) I recommend this book as a super resource on the issue of Calvinism--Robert Wilkin, editor. -- Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society (Fall, 2001) Meets Calvinism head on, asking no quarter and giving none. We highly recommend this very unusual and usable book. -- The Flaming Torch (April-June, 1992) The author is to be commended for tackling this difficult issue. -- Baptist Bible Tribune (November 6, 1991) We recommend it as a valuable contribution to such works already in print--Curtis Hutson, editor. --The Sword of the Lord (February 12, 1993.
TEXT: Luke 24:13-35. And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was three-score furlongs from Jerusalem. And they communed with each other of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, while they communed and questioned together, that Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. And he said unto them, What communications are these that ye have one with another, as ye walk? And they stood still looking sad. And one of them, named Cleopas, answering said unto him, Dost thou alone sojourn in Jerusalem and not know the things which are come to pass there in these days? And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, The things concerning Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him. But we hoped that it was he who should redeem Israel. Yea and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things came to pass. Moreover certain women of our company amazed us, having been early at the tomb; and when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive. And certain of them that were with us went to the tomb, and found it even so as the women had said; but him they saw not. And he said unto them, O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Behooved it not the Christ to suffer these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they were going: and he made as though he would go further. And they constrained him, saying, Abide with us; for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent. And he went in to abide with them. And it came to pass, when he had sat down with them to meat, he took the bread and blessed; and breaking it he gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, Was not our heart burning within us, while he spake to us in the way, while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose up that very hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they rehearsed the things that happened in the way, and how he was known of them in the breaking of the bread.
I. THE PREPARATION FOR PARTAKING OF THE LORD’S SUPPER.
1. This Gospel, in one part, teaches and urges us to take pleasure in speaking and working for our Lord Jesus Christ. It does so by showing what fruit follows from such a course, although that fruit is not understood; and grasped so clearly as it ought to be. You see here that the two disciples are still full of unbelief; yet, as they are speaking about Jesus, and seemingly in vain, he can not remain absent from them; but draws near, opens their eyes and interprets to them the Scriptures. You ought to faithfully lay hold of this and retain it, for it is a precious thing. However, before I treat further of the Gospel, which is easy as to its history, I must first, for the sake of the simple and plain people, say a few things about the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.
2. Beloved, you have heard that we preached who are worthy to receive the Lord’s Supper, namely, those who by the Word of God are moved in their hearts to believe, and that those who are not thus prepared ought to refrain from it. And it is right to deter everyone from rushing to it or going in one’s own preparation, as was formerly common. That is the right way to preach, and I would to God that many might be thus terrified. But again I notice in many, and in myself also, that the devil spirit presses the other side also too much, so as to cause hearts to be weary and backward in partaking of the communion, so that they never approach it unless they feel for a certainty that they are fervid in faith. This is also dangerous, since thereby we would do away with the preparation which was formerly customary, but would establish a new preparation that would also not be right.
3. We have rejected those who prepare to receive the sacrament by their own works, a thing that God abhors.
But by so doing we may easily cause people to become slow, so as always to wait until God comes and gives us perfect faith, so that they may go.
Hence we can never preach enough about faith, even if we preach long and earnestly about it, for our reason can never understand it. Hence, to meet this evil, we will treat it more at length and must divide it into two parts, or rather, into the two classes of persons who prepare to go to the Lord’s Supper.
4. In the first place we have taught that it did not profit any one to prepare for the sacrament by his own strength, as those did who endeavored by their confession and other works to make themselves worthy to receive it.
This is a terrible error and abuse, and the only true advice we can give those who undertake such things is to refrain from them and to keep far from the sacrament.
5. The other preparation, that is made in faith, and of which we have said enough before, is right, as it comes and proceeds from God. It is not done in such a way that one always feels confident he is worthy. Where would faith be if that were the case? But it takes place thus: Without any of my preparing and doing, God’s Word comes to me. I may indeed go and hear it, or read and preach it, so that it thus enters my heart. And that is the right preparation, which is not made by the power and cunning of man, but by the strength of God. Hence there is no better preparation for all the sacraments than to permit and suffer God to prepare us. This is a brief talk about the preparation. And now we will consider the communicants.
II. PERSONS FOR WHOM THE HOLY SUPPER IS NOT, AND FOR WHOM IT IS.
6. The Gospel and Word of God, which is a speech or discourse about Christ, sometimes falls upon the ears of those who do not accept it or even despise it; and, as Christ says in Luke 8:5, it falls by the wayside, that is, into hard, unprepared hearts.
7. Then there are others who are vile rascals and live in open vice. Matthew 13:22. Even though they hear the Gospel and never really oppose it, they are not much concerned about it. As you see our fanatics do now, who can greatly talk and spit about it, especially when they are full, and make light of it. They have grasped nothing of it, except a glibness in talking about it. They are all wicked hearts. Of this class are also those who live in deep avarice, so materialistic that they feel it. And thus they live in other gross sins and have little reverence for the holy Gospel, even if they are able to talk glibly about it. But we never care to preach to them, for all is lost on them and the Gospel makes them neither humble nor hungry.
8. Thirdly, the very worst are those who besides persecute the Gospel. Of them Christ says in Matthew 7:6: “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine.” These three sects do not belong to the Gospel Church, and we are not preaching to them. And I wish the law were enforced and they were punished, — these rude swine, — who talk so foolishly about the Gospel as if it were a story of Theodocius of Bern, or some other tale. If any one will be a pig let him know what is becoming a pig. I really wish I could exclude them from my preaching, that they might never hear it, and be far away from it. They can do nothing but misuse the Gospel to their own injury, and disgrace us, so that for their own sake the Word of God must suffer dishonor and abuse.
Out with the dirty swine!
9. Finally, there are some who are like the people here in this Gospel.
Behold, how they still lack in faith, for they speak in this wise: “We hoped he would redeem Israel.” As if they meant to say: We do not know what the result will be. It is clearly evident that it will amount to nothing. He is dead now and even if he came to life again and arose from the dead, he surely cannot redeem the people and become a king. And so they thought redemption was a failure. Therefore the two disciples here are the multitude that taste the Gospel in their hearts and dislike to have it despised and disobeyed; but still they are so timid that they hesitate to draw near because they feel they are neither strong nor fervid enough. They draw back and do not want to approach near until they feel and experience that they are strong in faith. These are persons to whom the Gospel belongs, even though they stumble at times, so that they become disgusted with themselves, feel their disease and wish to get rid of it, and are not hard of heart. These should be urged and drawn to Christ. We have never yet preached to any but such people.
10. For it is the nature of faith that a man knows his faults and earnestly desires to be free from them. No one dare wait until God performs a miraculous sign for him, and treats him differently from other people to whom he gives the signs in the Gospel and in the sacraments. God gave us the treasure and revealed it for the purpose alone that we should go and get it. Hence, when you feel your weakness, you ought to go and say: My Lord, I have fallen. I want to be strong. Now thou hast instituted the Lord’s Supper for us to kindle and strengthen our faith thereby and that we might be thus helped. So here I am and wish to receive it. This should be our comfort and we ought joyfully to use the Word and the sacraments when we feel our lack of faith, and rejoice to receive aid to seek help and strength. There our souls find it within us.
11. For you must not make Christ a tyrant, but accept him for what he in truth is and let him be unto you nothing but rich, abounding grace.
However, if you feel in your heart you have not reached this point and do not believe, and yet would like to believe, you must after all not despair and shun the communion, but seek your help right there, so that your faith may be kindled and increased.
For, though some have been terribly punished for partaking of the sacrament unworthily and without faith, they are only those whom we described above, namely, the hardened, wicked hearts. You must do and think thus: Lord, see, that is thy Word and this is my sickness and failing.
Thou thyself hast said, “Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28. Do you think he said that to those who are already fervid and strong in faith? His kingdom is not established to the end of furthering the righteous, Matthew 9:3, but of helping sinners and making them righteous. 1 Timothy 1:15. Hence, whoever is weak and experiences it, should go to the communion and let God help him.
12. But there is another herd not on the right track. We have prophets abroad in the land who teach the people too freely to be bold and defiant, who speak with the divine Majesty as they would with a cobbler’s apprentice. These impudent and proud spirits are by no means to be followed. It is well for you to be backward and timid, and to fear and tremble. I like such fear. You just abide in it and go and have your conscience calmed. But such proud minds and unbroken hearts that act so defiantly and deal with God as if he must be afraid of them, he cannot tolerate.
13. Therefore you must humble yourself, and abide in fear so as to feel your struggles and weaknesses, and desire faith. If you experience that, then thank God, for that is a sure sign the Word has struck and moved you, and exercises, constrains and impels you.
What sort of faith would that be if I went and had no fear and anguish of heart to exercise my faith? For it is the very nature of faith, that it proves its strength in fear, in death and sins, and in all things that make a human being afraid and timid. Therefore if you feel thus, it is the proper time for you to go, for then your faith will find something to do. And to this end private confession is helpful. It is well to go to a pious man, and point out your need to him and ask advice, whether he thinks you are worthy to go to the Lord’s Supper, and then follow his advice. That is the real’ purpose of confession and of the sacrament. They are of no other use and are instituted for the purpose of assisting weak consciences that are burdened by their sins.
14. But you say: How then, if I am so inert and cold that I have no desire for it, still I feel that I need it; yet the Gospel and the sacrament do not satisfy me so that almost every spark in my heart is extinguished? Answer:
You must not desist. For as long as you feel that you are not yet lost and not yet so wicked as those described above; for you always wish to burn with zeal. Therefore you must do as follows: Take to yourself the Word of God, go and hear it preached, read it, write it or even sing it, only so you live it and keep busy with it, then you will experience something. Then go to the Lord’s Supper and say: Lord, I am a lazy character; but I come that thou shouldst help me and kindle my heart. Add to it whatever words and thought you can think and say. You must not stop to think how to prepare yourself to be worthy for the communion; you are already prepared if you feel that you would gladly be helped, and your need constrains you to go.
15. It has often happened to me that I hesitated and thus departed farther from it, until I saw nothing helped me and I had to go. Thus you also will find that it is the devil’s spectre that draws people away so that the more they are afraid and wait until they experience faith in their hearts, the farther they drift from it. And at last, if they continue in this state, all desire and impulse, both toward the Word and the sacrament, dies out in them, and they never come. Hence you must put aside such thoughts and fear, and go and ask God to help you. If you do so often, you will experience that you will gain more and more desire for it, a thing you would not have gained otherwise. Therefore I wish you would do this, and that there were many to go to the sacrament in such a frame of mind and would gain more and more pleasure in it, and become stronger and stronger. But if you do not go, you will always remain cold and will ever grow colder and colder.
16. This ought to comfort you, and you will experience it if you try it. For it is impossible for God’s Word not to produce fruit and be a blessing. God spake as follows: “For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth not thither but watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud, and giveth seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall my Word be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Isaiah 55:10-11.
This Scripture ought to make us very bold and happy, if we have already grown cold. By the grace of God we have God’s Word and we ought to raise our hands and thank him for it. How many are there in the world who do not possess it? How could you otherwise have obtained it? There you have the whole supply and the preparation that serves it, and yet you have knavery enough to contend with it. Therefore, as God says that his Word will not return without fruit and if you use it not to make a mockery of it, but are in earnest about it, you will undoubtedly feel and experience something, and the more you use it, the more you will have this experience.
You cannot have evil thoughts in your heart if you take a portion of the Scriptures before you and read it, or you meet another person and converse with him about it. If you do this, evil lusts will succumb and the flesh will be subdued. I have often tried it, and if you try it you will also find the fruits and experience that it is as God says. What more do you wish prepared for you?
17. Isaiah it not enough that you possess God’s Word that draws you, and besides that you feel your distress driving you to it? And then Christ is there and waits to help you. What more shall he do? And there is nobody excluded but proud, insolent persons and the castaways that are not in earnest. Therefore you must go and remember that Christ looks more deeply into your heart than you do yourself, as you see in this Gospel.
These two poor men would not have dared to wish for what meets them.
Yet such grace is bestowed upon them that Christ himself comes to them, while speaking of him, and reveals himself so that they know him. This fills their hearts with joy that they could not tarry there but ran and told the other disciples how the Lord manifested himself to them. Then they are full of joy, as they would not have dared to wish; but still it was so deep in their hearts that they themselves did not perceive that they desired it, although their hearts were so set upon it that they would have loved to see nothing better than for the Lord Jesus Christ to rise from the dead and be king. Therefore God looks more deeply into the depths of the heart than we ourselves, and he also gives us more than we desire. Thus he does also here. If you feel that you are not so fervent as you would like to be, he looks more deeply into your heart than you do, since you are anxious to be fully set on fire and become a burning light. Therefore you ought not to flee from him, but approach boldly.
18. To this end many passages in Paul’s writings serve. For example, he says to the Ephesians: “The Lord is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” Ephesians 3:20. Now we clearly see what he gives us when we receive it and we feel that we receive it with joy.
Therefore St. Paul says that we do not see nor even think of it while we desire it; but the Lord, who searcheth the hearts, sees and understands our desire, and therefore he bestows upon us his grace abundantly. Thus we read of St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, that she wept for her son during nine long years. It was her heart’s desire for him to become a Christian, and she devised many plans by which to bring him to Christ. She wanted him to marry a Christian woman who should make a plain Christian husband of him. But she did not dare to hope or expect him to become the man he did later, although she would have gladly seen it.
19. Then look at the examples all through the Gospel. St. Peter was too timid when the Lord wished to wash his feet and said, “Shouldest thou wash my feet?” and did not understand that his need compelled him, and his heart urged him, to see the necessity of Christ’s washing him, as he said soon after, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” John 13:9. And our heart is in the same condition, that we wish to see the Lord Jesus present, to help us, and yet we are so timid that we are afraid of him and do not think as much of his loving kindness as we freely profess to do. For, if we considered him to be what he is, we would say as Peter did, “Wash not my feet only, but also my hands and my head,” and think, now I will gladly go to him, even if I had a greater burden of sin.
There is likewise another example of St. Peter in Luke 5:6-8, when they sat in the ship and caught so many fishes that their nets broke. Then Peter was amazed, fell down at Jesus’ knees and said, “Depart from me, I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
Notice he was frightened and bids him to go away at the very time he ought to pray him to come. Thus our timid nature is ever afraid of Christ, in whom there is nothing but good, and who has come to help everybody.
That is why I said, we must not make a tyrant of Christ, but suffer him to be a dear Lord and Savior, who has no other desire but to help sinners, and to invite and attract everybody by his words and example.
20. This exposition of the nature of faith is clear enough, for our great trouble is that we do not really understand the nature of faith. Therefore do this: Begin and try it and you will experience it; and the more you practice it, the more comfort and strength you will experience; and the more unworthy you feel you are, the more you must appropriate God’s Word to yourself and practice it, hear or read it and speak about it, and you will always find and prove something that pleases and moves you. You should besides pray to God and say as the apostles did in Luke 17:5: “Lord, increase my faith.” Thus go and you will be strengthened. But if you dwell too much on your timidity you will never go; for then you will persist to feel and not to believe. You must experience your misery and struggles of conscience. Then is the time for you to go to the Lord’s Supper. Even if you are weak in faith you must not on that account step back, for he will not reject you since he has come for the sole purpose of strengthening the weak and comforting the despondent.
21. But I do not wish to have all this preached to hardened insolent characters and the fanatics, but only to consciences that are faint and weak, and occasionally fall, so that they do not despond, but know where to find help and comfort. On this point a father in the desert uttered a wise saying.
When he saw that a brother was weak and faint, he said: No, my brother, thou must not withdraw thus and go back, for thou mightest go back so far that thou couldest not return. For it is to be feared that the longer we stay away, the colder and lazier we become. They ought to stay away, as we have said at length, who lead a wicked and immoral life and do not intend to amend their ways. But those who know their weaknesses and want to be rid of them and see that they cannot help themselves, they should come to the communion for help.
22. From this you see why God instituted and ordained that his Word should be preached; and therefore it ought not to be despised. It is true that the Word without the Spirit is of no use; but since God Almighty himself said, as we have heard, “My Word that goeth forth out of my mouth, shall not return unto me void,” it must not be despised. For through his Word he gives the Holy Spirit into your hearts and will not suffer you to gape and wait for a miraculous sign from heaven, to be done on you, and thus to ignore his Word and sacrament. He himself highly esteems and praises the Word, for he has decreed to give his grace through it, as Christ says, “No man can come to me, except the Father that sent me, draw him.” John 6:44. How does the Father draw us? Through Christ. How through Christ?
By the Word. Thus he invites and calls you. If your need impels you, go then joyfully, tell your trouble bravely; but always bring the Word with you.
23. But leave it to God, how you may remain steadfast, and go now, while you have the Word and feel your misery. Then the Word itself will teach you how to prepare yourself aright. For then you must accuse yourself before God and say: Lord, I am a sinner and cannot help myself by my own strength, so I come to thee for help. If I have sufficient grace only to delight in the Word of God with my whole heart and I have joy and pleasure in it, I can surely remain steadfast. For it must be something great for God to give me his Word and cause it to be pleasing and attractive to me. Even if I am not so strong now as I ought to be, I shall grow stronger in time and at last reach the point when I can confess his grace without fear and devote my life to it. Therefore Christ says: “Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you, for everyone that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8.
24. Therefore I would faithfully admonish you to act wisely in this matter.
We have justly condemned those who undertake to prepare themselves by their own works; but we have invited those who feel their need and see they can do nothing by their own power, and can find neither counsel nor help, for these use the Lord’s, Supper unto their personal salvation.
Therefore, if you feel thus, go first to a pious man and tell him your distress and say, Lo, I have fallen and would like to obtain help and I ask for counsel what to do. Then he should comfort him and welcome him to the sacrament, so that he may exercise his faith and be strengthened. For it is instituted for this very purpose of ministering comfort and strength.
Therefore let nothing keep you from the communion. If you feel bashful, it is well, for you must feel your unworthiness. If you however do not feel your guilt, you are not in a fit frame of mind to go, and it will be better for you to refrain from going.
25. Take the Gospel and the Holy Scriptures before you, the more the better, even if you already know them and have often read them. For it is certainly a suggestion of the devil who tries to tear from you your delight in the Word. He hates to have you come to it, for he knows very well what fruit it bears in you. If you are thus busy with the Word and strive to live it the best you can, you will see that Christ is with you and a fire is kindled in your heart. But the best is, for two or three earnestly to speak among themselves about it, so that the living voice is heard. Then you will be much stronger and the devil must yield. Thus all evil lust and thoughts disappear and thus will ensue such a light and knowledge, you have never before experienced. The only trouble is that we fools have such a great treasure lying before our doors and do not know how to use it. And the devil deceives us in order to draw us away from it and make us indifferent, because he can not overcome it. Therefore we must prepare to resist the devil’s suggestions and influence. In like manner Christ will come and reveal himself even though at first you are not aware of it; the more you speak about it and discuss it the more clearly you will recognize Christ and feel that he kindles your heart within you, as you heard in this Gospel of the two disciples journeying to, the village of Emmaus.
III. THE CONCLUSION.
26. This I had to preach now concerning the Lord’s Supper and the Gospel, as God gave us the light, and I admonish you, my friends, to grasp and faithfully use it. If there be fanatics, who disgrace the Gospel, they ought to be punished by the civil authorities. But we must let them also hear, for the sake of the righteous, for we are to preach God’s Word publicly to everybody, since we do not know whom it may strike.
A generous Schwan donation would allow the LCMS to turn this famous structure into their Basket of Lies Building. Too late - a developer bought it.
Alec Satin asked about the dishonesty of LCMS history, which began with CFW Walther forbidding any early histories from being published.
Most of the truth is published in Zion on the Mississippi, but the hypnotized sheep and wolves repeat the slander that Zion was written "by a disgruntled LCMS pastor." The Stephan memoir - In Search of Religious Freedom - is illuminating but fails to disclose the big story - Bishop Stephan's syphilis, passing it onto his wife, his children, and the young women of his cult. The Walther circle "saw nothing" and said nothing until the opportune time, when they "suddenly heard" about the adultery and organized a mob to threaten, rob, and kidnap the bishop. Are they not the three steps of church discipline? After all, Walther was an expert in pastoral theology.
On the behavior side, the Perryville founders have nothing to boast about. They were felons who had the advantage of taking over an area from the Mormons and being their own law, telling their own stories, as they still do today. Their current historians point at the chest that held the bishop's gold, implying he needed robbing, but they do not admit to the carefully organized riot, the theft of 120 acres, the clothes, the books, and personal possessions seized.
This Photoshop fake made people think the basket building was vandalized! They were furious. LCMS acts the same way when someone opens up their basket of lies.
Worst of all, Walther constructed a line of succession so that his false doctrine would be protected, taught, and marketed as the purest Christian doctrine ever. He made sure that F. Pieper, newly ordained, would replace him and replicate his style and dogma.
Walther took the Calvinist-Pietistic Easter absolution and expanded it into election without faith, denouncing anyone who did not agree with him. What qualified him as the theologian of the Synodical Conference? His rationalistic BA from Leipzig? His lack of Biblical languages? His publications from within his own sect?
Notice that the modern "conservative" Lutheran synods love to appoint the new, the inept, and the hopelessly compromised to positions of power. Thus they rise up as one to defend every error, to hide every felony, to rob the widows and orphans so they can paint a layer of gild on Holy Mother Sect. Amen.
Luther held up his Sword and said, “You can get forgiveness of sins alone through the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ..Then all Germany was aflame, and all France, and Spain, and Holland, and England, and that flame came across the seas to America in the Mayflower, and with the followers of Luther himself, until today we have in all the world living seventy million Lutherans, to say nothing of the other Protestants who are living and enjoying the liberty which that man of God, by the help of his Master and the holy angels, brought into existence three hundred and eighty-seven years ago.
What better time than Easter Sunday to remember the glorious heritage of the Lutheran Reformation? May God bless you richly today with a love of His Word. And may that light never be extinguished in our land. Amen.
John’s Vision Of The Reformation. Rev. 14:6-11.Permalink
And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Sanctify us, O Lord, through Thy truth:
Thy Word is truth. Amen.
Dear Sons and Daughters of the Reformation: –
God’s great mind is always full of great thoughts. The angels; the heavens; the sun, moon and stars; the earth; man: these are but sparks of God’s thoughts. As the thoughts, so the plans. Men of great minds lay deeper plans than men of weaker minds. What plans the great mind of God must lay! What a universal time-piece that must be of which the earth with her icy poles, jealous oceans, crushing weights and monumental mountains, and the sun with his endless burning fingers, and the moon on her nightly journeys, and the stars in countless numbers, are but jewels! And how much greater must the great mind of God be, that planned our salvation in Christ as the hour-hand of the clock of the universe before it was made! For four thousand years the sun gave a good morning kiss to the now lost garden of Eden, before it kissed the Son of man; but the Son of God, and the sun in the heavens, and the Pentecostal fires, did not prevent the Dark Ages; but the ages were never so dark, even from the close of the fifth to the close of the eleventh century, that God did not ask the question: “Is not My Word like as a fire? Is not My Word like the hammer which breaks the rock in pieces?” Jer. 23:29. “The Word of God,” says Paul, “is not bound.” It never was bound. It lay smoldering under the ashes of centuries, but it burned then as now. In lonely cloisters it was laboriously copied; it took years to finish single copies, which now make famous the cities possessing them. It was the regret of all who knew God’s Word then, that all might not know it. It was not necessary then to lay an interdict on the reading of God’s Word; it was too expensive for man to possess. Yet it was known in communities outside of the Church of Rome. The fire and hammer of God’s Word had kindled and broken the hearts of the Albigensian and Waldensian martyrs before their funeral pyres were kindled.
“Those slaughtered saints whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;
Even those who kept God’s Truth so pure of old,
When all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones.”
The Word of God is not bound. Sail out, Christopher Columbus, and discover God’s hidden America for the oppressed! Come into this world, chosen Reformer, Martin Luther! Take those rags and make paper of them; throw down those pens and make type for the printing press. Rejoice, ye nations, the first Book printed is the Bible, God’s holy Word. Take it down to the library at Erfurt and chain it to the shelf, and do not let visitors see it. Who is that eighteen year old student coming into the library hungry for truth? It is Martin Luther, who knew the Gospels and the Epistles for every Sunday in the year. Watch him run his finger along every shelf until he comes to “Biblia Sacra.” It is chained. He wonders why. He knows that Book by heart, and would not look at it were it not for that chain. He thinks it contains nothing but the Gospels and Epistles contained in the Church service. The Book opens. First Samuel and the first chapter. The story of Hannah consecrating her son to the Lord. What book is this? “Biblia Sacra.” What! is this all God’s Word? He reads. He admires. He forgets himself. It is night and he sighs as he rises: “Oh, that this Book of books might one day be mine.” The flame of the Reformation was kindled, and three hundred and eighty-seven years ago tomorrow, God began to fulfill what He showed John on the Isle of Patmos nearly two thousand years ago. I now call your prayerful attention to
John's Vision Of The Reformation.
Tomorrow it will be three hundred and eighty-seven years since immense crowds were pouring into an ancient city of Germany, bearing in its name “Wittenberg,” the memorial of its founder, Wittekind the Younger. What should draw the masses? Certainly not the weather-beaten dingy little building. Strange as it may seem, it was an old church – the “Church of all Saints” – to which the masses were flocking from every direction. It was a wonderful church inside. Just think of it: There were nineteen thousand relics to be seen, among which a fragment of Noah’s ark; some soot from the furnace in which the three Hebrews stood; a piece of the Savior’s crib, and some hair from Saint Christopher’s beard, were found. But this was not the greatest delusion. The Pope in Rome had granted indulgences to all who would visit that Church on the first of November. In the language of Krauth: “Against the doors of that church of dubious saints, and dubious relics, and dubious indulgences, was found fastened on that memorable morning a scroll unrolled. The writing on it was firm; the nails which held it were well driven in; the sentiments it conveyed were moderate yet very decided; the material – parchment – was the same which long ago had held words of redemption above the head of the Redeemer; the contents were an amplification of the old theme of glory – Christ on the cross the only King. The Magna Carta which had been buried beneath the Pope’s throne, reappeared on the Church door. The key-note of the Reformation was struck full and clear at the beginning: ‘Salvation through Christ alone.’” This was the beginning of one of the greatest events by one one of the greatest men since the apostolic times. A great scene in the great drama, planned by the great mind of God, was now to be enacted by three angels, seen by John the Evangelist from the Isle of Patmos. No man will understand the Reformation without keeping in mind that God and His angels did the work through Dr. Luther. In these words of our text this morning we have John’s vision of the Reformation carried out by three holy angels. Some one will say, Was that angel Dr. Luther? No. Dr. Luther was a man, a sinner saved by grace, just the same as any other man. Let us not forget this morning that when God does great things He makes use of His holy angels. When He created the world it is said that the morning stars sang together. The angels were there. This morning in the Sunday-school lesson we found that when Elisha and his servant were surrounded by the Syrian army, the prayer of Elisha to God was to open the eyes of his servant that he might see; and lo, there were chariots of fire – holy angels, more in number than the enemy. You remember that when the angel flew over the valley of Sennacherib, one hundred and eight-five thousand fell on that battle field; you will remember that when an angel flew over Egypt, the first born the next morning were dead; you will remember that when John the Baptist and Christ were to be born, an angel came and announced their coming; you will remember that when Christ was born there was a song, and that song was delivered by the heavenly host: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!” You will remember that the angel of God was down in Gethsemane when Christ was sweating drops of blood, and strengthened Him; you will remember that when the stone was rolled away, the angel was there and sat upon that rock; you will remember that when Christ arose the angels of God were with Him, and will be with Him when He conies again to judge the quick and the dead; you will remember that when the apostles of old were in prison, the angel of God shook the prison until Peter was delivered. Do not think for a single moment that this great Reformation of the sixteenth century would take place without the angels of God. There were three angels, according to the text this morning; each one had a special message, and it is to these messages that I now direct your attention:
“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” It was necessary in that day that the true worship of God should be restored, but I will show you later on this morning what the worship of that day was. The real truth is that the people had lost their Savior; they had lost the Bible; they had lost true worship; they were living amid the fruits of the Dark Ages, and had found another taking the place of Jesus Christ. Oh, before those Dark Ages, the messenger of God tells John, there is one coming who shall proclaim the everlasting Gospel again. What is the Gospel? I never could find a better definition than I found in Luther’s catechism: “The Gospel is the glad tidings that Jesus Christ has come into the world to save sinners, and through faith to make them forever blessed.” What is the Gospel? The Gospel is the good news that you and I, condemned by the holy law, have a Mediator between God and man, – Jesus Christ, on Calvary, dying for our sins, paying the debt, asking us to come to Him and accept Him as our Savior, putting on us the cloak of His righteousness, if we believe in Him – that is the Gospel; and that is the Gospel, says the first angel, that shall be proclaimed again after the Dark Ages, when people had forgotten to fear God, and feared the Pope more than their Maker. It is not often that I say anything about other churches, but it is simply impossible to preach a Reformation sermon without referring to the Romish Church; and the Romish Church itself is saying things today that only substantiate every word that I shall declare this morning.
How was this Gospel to be preached? According to this first angel, it was to be preached to the living; to those that are on the earth, everywhere; in all lands; in all tongues, and to large congregations. “Having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth.”
During the Middle Ages the Pope took upon himself the authority to introduce purgatory. St. Peter’s Church was to be built; there was no money in the treasury, and the Pope made up his mind that the way to do is to make the people believe that they can get their own lost and damned out of purgatory if they will pay for it, and the result was that messengers were sent all over Europe to proclaim forgiveness of sins for money, and buying the prayers of the priests and the Pope to get those out of purgatory that were there. The money came into the coffers, and the great St. Peter’s was built, but there was an error taught there, and there are people still holding to that error, and that is that people may be saved after they have passed out of this life into the life beyond. The angel of God knew better. The angel of God knew very well that if man is to be saved at all, he must be saved somewhere between the hour of birth and the hour of death; consequently this angel flew through the midst of heaven saying that the time is coming when there shall one arise who shall proclaim an everlasting Gospel, free salvation to the people, – not in the grave, not under the earth, not down in the sea – but to the people that are living on God’s earth.
Not only was the Gospel to be preached to the living people, but it was also to be preached everywhere. “. having the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth” – not only down at Rome. Little did Rome care in that day whether other parts of the world had the truth or not. The missionary spirit was dead, A few people still knew of Rome and went down there year after year with their flagellations, but the great masses of people on all sides of the globe did not know of Christ. God Himself had preserved on the other side of the ocean a land called America, It was God’s plan that this land should be discovered just at the right time, just at the time that the people who shall be oppressed on account of Rome, shall find here a refuge. There was a plan in God’s mind that there shall be a shore on the other side for the Mayflower, where the public schools shall be established and where the people may have freedom, in the great land of liberty – America. And so that great Divine Mind was planning things, and the time would come when this Gospel that shall be discovered again and brought to light by Dr. Luther shall become the missionary message all over the world. Long before the Dark Ages Jesus had said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” But they had forgotten that message during these Dark Ages. The world was lying in darkness; the Church was asleep; only a few people down in hovels and convents still knew something about the old Truth. “Now,” says God, “it is time to give the world this Gospel again; it is time to spread this Gospel from shore to shore,” and you will remember it only took a very short time during the Reformation until this Gospel went throughout Germany, and France, and Spain, up into Holland, and England, and came across the waters to our own land, to all the earth.
Not only was this Gospel to be preached to all people, but also to all ages, to every nation and kindred. In those days a few people thought if they had the truth that was enough. Little did they care whether children had schools or not; little did they care whether the people could read or write or not; little did they care whether the Bible was in the hands of the people or not, except that they would turn the people that read the Bible. Do you realize, my friends, that it is only three hundred and eighty-seven years ago that there was not a public school in the world? Do you realize it is only three hundred and eighty-seven years ago that priests could not read the Bible and did not know the Apostles’ Creed any more? Do you realize that that little catechism which Dr. Luther wrote was penned for the very purpose that Christian schools might be established, and that that little catechism brought forth the public school system in the world? I tell you this first angel had a message to deliver that meant something. It meant that little children should hear the Gospel; it meant that mothers should have the Bible; it meant that boys and girls should have the Word of God; it meant that it should be a Gospel for all ages.
“Preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue.” In those days the Bible was either Hebrew, or Latin, or Greek, and the people did not understand it. The Lord God never intended that His Word should be closed up in languages that could not be understood; it was His intention that this Bible should be translated. I know very well that Spain gave to the world a polyglot Bible in the same year that Luther nailed the theses to the door of Wittenberg castle church, but the world has never read that polyglot Bible; it was a miserable affair. I know very well there were thirteen or fourteen German translations of the Bible given to the world before Luther’s, but they were such miserable translations that the world never saw the books. It remained for Dr. Luther to be put into the Wartburg as a prisoner on account of his faith, to translate the Bible into the language of the common people, and by that translation he not only gave the Bible to the world, but he gave the best translation that the world has ever found. I do not care what minister of the Gospel you ask, if he is a reader of the German Bible and the English also, he will tell you that the English Bible may be more literal, but that Dr. Luther’s translation has given the best meaning of the original text ever given. And there never has been a very important translation made into any of the four hundred languages of the Bible today, without laying down by the side of the translator Dr. Martin Luther’s old German Bible, and whenever they come to a verse that they do not get the right sense of, they say, “Dr. Luther, what does it mean?” No one who is acquainted with history, and the translation of the great Bible, can ignore the fact that the angel announced to the world the miner’s son, versed in law, versed in theology, converted after a fearful struggle, finding the truth after mighty prayers; that this man gave to the world the Bible in a language that shall stand; and what has surprised me more than any one thing is this, when it is a fact that the Lutheran Church was born in the sixteenth century, in a language that was not then the popular language, why is it that so many of our German Lutheran congregations are not willing to have English preaching? I have wondered time and again how parents could put their language above the Church of Christ. In my travels through twenty-nine States of the Union, I have found Episcopal churches, and Methodist churches, and Presbyterian churches with their very best members having come out of the old German Lutheran Church, and when I went to those men and said, Why did you leave your church? the answer invariably was, because they would not give us the Gospel in English, and we cannot talk German as well as our forefathers did. May the day be past when any church on earth will put the Gospel of Jesus Christ below language. I am glad to announce that in our own United States the Gospel is being preached today by the Lutheran Church alone, in seventeen languages. When the day of Pentecost came, the apostles spoke in the languages of all nations in Jerusalem, and I hope the day will come when the grand old Church of the Reformation will proclaim the Gospel in all the languages of the world.
Not only was this Church of the Reformation to proclaim the Gospel in many tongues, but to large congregations. “ . . and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue and people.” In the days before Dr. Luther usually a man preached a sermon to a few students, or a few professors. The masses knew nothing about the Gospel. “Now,” says the angel of heaven, “that will never do; the time must come when this Gospel must be preached in its purity to large multitudes; to the people.” You who are professed Christians this morning, and genuine Christians, will realize that there is a blessing in the Christian congregation that you cannot get at home. Just as little as you can make a fire with one chip, just so little can you keep the flame of God’s love in your hearts if you are going to dwell alone in the world. Put the chips together and apply the match to them, and you have a fire; bring the men, women and children and the multitudes together, and there is a flame of love and Gospel going through us and in us that we cannot find elsewhere. Now the angel from heaven said, this great Church of the Reformation must kindle a flame, and it did kindle the flame. Dr. Luther on his journeys often stood on the balcony of some hotel and preached to twenty and thirty thousand people, with tears rolling from his eyes, and from the eyes of the multitude. The people rejected their idolatry and began to worship the true and living God again; they threw down their false religions and established churches of the pure Gospel. I am right here this morning to say that the Lutheran Church must demand large audiences and she will have them, if she does not follow in the path of many churches that are afraid to proclaim the truth. Why would twenty or thirty thousand people follow Luther, when not twenty or thirty people were following other men intellectually just as great? Because Luther dared to stand alone; because he dared to say what God wanted him to say; because he dared to stand before Europe and the king and say, “Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise. God help me!” Luther, like Elijah of old, understood that one with God is a majority. Dr. Luther understood that he need not be afraid of Pope nor priest, of no man on earth; that, as a messenger of God, he must proclaim the truth. And do you not know that the people are hungry for the truth? Do you not know that the old Gospel as confessed in the Lutheran Church is a power that is bound to grow? The day that I was ordained in this church, as I heard last night, one of the ministers said: “It is a new broom, and in a short time the church will be empty.” Is it empty? Look around you. Is it empty? Will it be empty? Yes, it will be empty as soon as he ceases to give you God’s whole truth. Whenever my church is empty it is nobody’s fault but my own; and I am here this morning to say that if all the ministers of the Gospel in Mansfield and elsewhere would come out and say everything that God wants them to say, the churches would be crowded to the doors. The only reason there are a few vacant chairs in this house this morning is because your pastor needs just a little more boldness. May God help me to become bold as a proclaimer of the everlasting Gospel.
In John’s vision of the Reformation we have a second angel. “And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Babylon was a great city, as you all know. Babylon had a wall that was 156 miles long, and 65 feet high and 120 feet wide, and on that wall stood two hundred magnificent towers. That city of Babylon was the most noted city in all the Orient, and yet, my friends, Babylon of old was no more existing when this angel flew through the heavens; that angel could not have referred at all to the Babylon of old; but let us not forget that there is a spiritual Babylon called Rome; and let us not forget that the city of Rome was also great, and the message of the second angel is this: “Rome is great, but the Word of God is greater.”
“Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Am I sure now that this Babylon was Rome? Let me read you a few verses from the Bible: Rev. 13: “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things, and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dAvell in heaven.’Surely there is the illustration of a wonderful power. Where was that power located? It is said here “I saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.” What were those seven heads? The Bible is a wonderful book, and it always explains itself if you know just where to look for the explanation. Rev. 17:9. “And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.” There we learn what the seven heads were. Every child here knows who the woman is. Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom, and the Church is His bride, and this bride – the woman – was sitting on the seven hills. And which city of the world sits on seven hills? There is only one, and that is Rome. And it is the great Pope that uttered words of blasphemy. What are those words of blasphemy? We are not guessing at things this morning; we are giving you history. If you were to go to Rome this morning and had the privilege of meeting the Pope wearing the pontifical crown, and could see the words that have been there for centuries and will stay there as long as the world stands; they are not written in Greek, nor Hebrew, nor English, nor German; but in a language that never will change, written in the Latin language, and that is the only language we use in this country, to count. On that pontifical crown you will find the words which I have put on this blackboard: “Vicarius Filii Dei.” In a congregation of this size we certainly have Latin scholars, and in order that no one may think I am giving a wrong translation, I will ask some one to tell me what those words mean. Dr. Davis, as you have studied Latin, will you tell us?
Dr. Davis: – “The vicar of the Son of God.”
We have here then the words: “He is the vicar of the Son of God.” If that is not blasphemy, for a man to claim that he is the vicar of the Son of God, I do not know what blasphemy is. That name stands on that crown, and if we count the number of that name we will soon find out what it is. I think I gave this in this church once before, but I give it again in order that our stenographers may take it, and give it to the world. You understand that we were taught to count in the schools: One I, one; two IIs two; three III’s, three, etc. Taking the same principle, we count:
Vicarius Filii Dei
V = 5
I = 1
C = 100
A = 0
R = 0
U or V = 5
S = 0
F = 0
I = 1
L = 50
I = 1
I = 1
D = 500
E = 0
I = 1
666
Add them up and you have the number, 666. The Lord did not put a single verse in the Bible not to be understood by man. So we find these words: “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast; for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred three score and six.” Rev. 13:18. In other words, we find this great truth proclaimed by the second angel, that Babylon on the seven hills is a mighty power; has there one who calls himself the vicar of the Son of God, while the Bible teaches plainly that there is one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus; and when any man on earth tries to take the place of Jesus Christ, he becomes guilty of blasphemy. Let me read a few of these words again: “And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.”
This second angel not only proclaimed the greatness of the Babylon on the seven hills of Rome, but proclaimed the great fact that Babylon must fall. “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” When a man lives a dual life, we say he is guilty of fornication; and when the Church of God goes away from the true and living God, to a false worship, she commits spiritual fornication. Rome was great on that day when Luther nailed his theses to the door of Wittenberg castle church, for in those days the Pope not only ruled the Church, but he ruled the governments of the world. They all fell down at his feet. Now stop and think of a poor miner’s boy, with nothing in his hands but the Sword of the Spirit, shaking the seven hills of Home and wounding that Pope. Did he do it? Listen: “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” And do you want to know how he wounded that beast? Listen: “. . that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword, and did live.” In other words, Dr. Luther found that the Sword of the Spirit in his hand was more powerful than the Pope at Rome. The Church on the hills of Rome had taken away from the people their Savior. Luther proclaimed Christ to the world again. The Pope at Rome had said, If you want forgiveness of sins you have got to pay for it. Luther held up his Sword and said, “You can get forgiveness of sins alone through the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ;” and cut into his head. The Pope said, “You shall worship Mary, and the saints, and fall down before them.” Luther held up his Sword and said: “Thou shalt worship the Lord Thy God, and Him only shalt Thou serve.” The Pope said, “Take the cup away from the communicant.” Luther said, Here is the cup. Jesus said: “Take eat, this is My body” and “Take drink, this is My blood.” The Pope said, There are seven sacraments. Luther read through his “Biblia Sacra” and found only two. The Pope said, I am the highest authority; and Jesus, through Luther said: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no man cometh to the Father but by Me.” And thus, one by one, he took up the errors of Rome and struck them with the mighty Truth of God’s Word. Then all Germany was aflame, and all France, and Spain, and Holland, and England, and that flame came across the seas to America in the Mayflower, and with the followers of Luther himself, until today we have in all the world living seventy million Lutherans, to say nothing of the other Protestants who are living and enjoying the liberty which that man of God, by the help of his Master and the holy angels, brought into existence three hundred and eighty-seven years ago.
So Rome fell, but remember, she did not die. “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed.” Rome did not die. She still exists, but she has lost her power. It was not very long after this Reformation that the people drove one of the Popes right out of the city of Rome; he has lost his temporal power and he is no more what he was before, but now without his former power, he still exists.
The third angel comes and proclaims a vision of the future after the Reformation announced by the first and second. “And the third angel followed them, saying, with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”
Dear Christian friends, this third angel has proclaimed what would take place today, and from now on to the end of the world: and the sum and substance of this message is twofold: False religions are not yet ended; and worshipers may be damned as well as heathen. Oh, it is a very solemn message, my friends. Weigh it carefully. I am bound to speak of a few matters this morning that some of you would rather have me keep silent on, but I am going to be true to my God, if the heavens fall.
There are two false religions proclaimed in those last three verses that are going to be known, by a mark in the forehead; and by a mark in the hand. We can not say that we will pay no attention to this chapter. When there is a chapter in the Bible you do not want to hear, you do not want to hear God’s Word any more; and the person who does not want to hear God’s Word preached any more, is worse than an infidel. This religion, false as it may be, is always known by its beastly character. Whenever you get away from the true religion, you get into the religion of the beast. Whenever you get away from the true and living God, you get to be more beastly than before. We are told that in the latter times shall be beastly religions, known by the mark in the head and in the hand. What religion is known by the mark in the head? I am told that old wounded Rome makes her mark in her forehead every time she goes to the house of God. You have possibly seen the good Roman Catholic make the cross, sometimes on his breast, usually in his forehead. Whether this means Rome in her wounded and healed state or not, I am not quite sure; if I were I would say so; but this much I do know, that we are living now in an age of rationalism; we are living in an age when men think they are just a little too smart to be Christians; we are living in an age when people think because they went to school a few years, and possibly to some academy a little while, they know more than the preachers. There is a certain lawyer in this town who has always posed, ever since I have been here, as a “smartie.” I made up my mind that he must have gone to school at Ada, and it was not long ago I talked with him and I said, “Where did you go to school?” He said, “Ada.” Not that I am casting any reflection on Ada. Ada has given some very good students to the world, but Ada has given more boys to the world that have gone six weeks and knew it all, than any school I ever heard of. So we have a class of people that have gone to school just a little while, thinking they know it all, and saying, “What do I care for the old Bible? What do I care for the old Church? What do I care for the Sunday-school? I am beyond all that. I am one of America’s bright young ones.” And there you have the young man that has the mark in his head and is going to be a beast before long; there you have the young man who is not ashamed, if found drunk some night and carried home; there you have the man who is not ashamed to stand around in the saloon and then go home beastly drunk; there you have the man who is not ashamed to eat like swine; there you have the man going out into the world and doing all the meanness he is capable of; there you have the man who is not safe in your homes, in whose presence you would not want to have your daughter. We have a great deal of that beastly religion in the present day, and I say the world is going wrong, and the angel of God – the third angel – told us what was coming.
Now that is right, whether I speak of the sign in the forehead, the cross, or whether it is the other. Everybody knows that the Romish Church has paid little attention to sanctification; everybody knows that when the average Roman Catholic goes to church in the morning, he does not care very much how he spends Sunday afternoon; everybody knows that where the Romish Church has total sway, the people cannot read or write; everybody knows that the Romish Church thrives best on ignorance; everybody who is well informed knows that the country having the most people reading and writing, is Norway and Sweden, the Lutheran country. And so I say I am not wrong, no difference which one of those interpretations you accept, the heady religion, the beastly religion, known by the sign in the forehead, instead of a religion by regeneration and sanctification, is the beastly religion that we are going to have after the Reformation until the end of the world.
Another great false religion is to be known by the right hand. That is the subject some of you do not want me to talk about. Why did you not tell the Holy Spirit to keep it out of the Bible, and then I would keep quiet. In the text of today it does not say whether it is the right hand or the left hand, but the Word of God is always plain; if you come over to the thirteenth chapter you will find just which hand it is: “And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark – “ – in the foot? No, sir. In the forehead? Yes. In the left hand? No. “ – in their right hand, or in their forehead.” Now you can go around in this world and pick up a man’s right hand, and you cannot see the mark, and yet it is there. When I was a boy, when we met we shook hands, and everybody shook hands alike; but now when I shake hands, about nine men out of ten take a finger and crawl around over my knuckles and it fells like a snake. What is the trouble? Why, I am sure it does not make any difference where you put your finger, but that finger means something. It means that you know each other by the grip you give each other with the right hand; the Mason knows the Mason; the Odd Fellow knows the Odd Fellow; the K. of P. knows the K. of P. It goes on in this way, that just because father and mother have that mark, the boys and girls want the mark. It goes on further, because a man who has enough money to spend to be a Mason, has the mark, the man who butchers wants a mark; so the butchers go together and they have a mark. Then the man who handles the razor wants a mark, and we have the Barbers’ Union; then the man who handles the plane wants the mark, and we have the Carpenters’ Union; this union and that, and every man knows the other by the mark in the right hand. What do these people do who do mark themselves with the right hand? I am not holding up before you this morning this order or that order; little do I care about your secrets; that is not the thing; but I am holding up to you this morning an institution as old as the garden of Eden; it was started down in that little hole where Adam and Eve were hiding when God said, “Where art thou, Adam?” and it has been going on down through history until the present day; and this institution has bred other institutions that have known each other by the mark, and they have come together and determined that if others have not the same mark, they must be killed. Is this guess-work? Did this angel know anything, or not? Haven’t men been killed up here in Chicago because they haven’t had the mark in the right hand? I am not referring to our own school house, but to the high school at North Broadway in North Columbus. The foundation was laid, I am told, by men who have not got the mark in the right hand; the walls were built, and when it came to the roof there wasn’t a slater in Columbus that didn’t have the mark in the right hand and there wasn’t one of them who would put that roof on, but they, all said, “We will never do it, because the foundation was laid by men that have not got the mark in the right hand.” Suppose I were a slater, and some morning I should go down to that high school and begin to put on the roof, what would the other men do? They would do just what they did in New York, in Colorado, in Chicago, – they would knock S. P. Long off of there with a stone. Why? Because he is not a man? That does not make any difference; man or no man, he hasn’t got the mark. Brethren, the man that will stand up for that thing is not a child of God, I do not care who he is. That is the truth that was proclaimed by the third angel of the Reformation. This third angel said, nearly two thousand years ago, that false religions, known by the mark in the forehead and in the right hand, would not only interfere with buying and selling, but bring about persecution and murder. Rev. 13:15-17. The great war of the future will be between the devil’s church and God’s Church, and I tremble for the preachers and professed Christians who today are helping along the army of the devil. God have mercy on them the day “The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”
I say these things with love, my friends, but I fear that some professed Christians, even ministers of the Gospel, are, like that servant of Elisha of old, saying, “Look at the enemy!” My prayer this morning is, O God, open their eyes to see that they which are with us are more than they which are with them. Dr. Luther in those days had to flee to the Wartburg to escape the enemy; they sought his life. In the estimation of the world at that time there was not a bigger fool in the year 1517 than Dr. Luther. Today the world admires him. Today every Church on earth must say that he was the greatest man from the days of the apostles to the present time. What do I care what anybody thinks of me, just so God says, You are carrying out the message! And so I say this morning, dear friends, open your eyes and look at the angels; they are hovering around us, watching over us. God’s truth is so great we are always safe, if we are on the right side. Oh, I will not ask God to strike you blind because I know you are children of God, and I know you want the truth, and I know you will abide by the truth. If this congregation did not love the truth it would have driven me away long ago. I believe you are going to abide by the truth, and you are glad this morning that I am telling what I find, and all I ask of you is, not to follow me – I do not ask you to do anything to please any man; but I ask you to settle these questions on your knees in prayer. I ask you to keep your eyes open and see the great truth in all things that God has revealed in His mighty Word. We are living now in the closing age of the great message of the third angel. May we all so live that when all the angels come, with the Son of God, in glory, we may be found on the side of the righteous. Amen.
O God, our heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the great Reformation. We thank Thee that Thou hast seen fit to take an humble sinner like Dr. Luther and through him give the Church of God that standing in this world that it has today. We thank Thee that Thou hast seen fit through him not only to set the conscience of the people free, but that Thou hast established the Church of God, and the schools which today are such a wonderful blessing to the world. We ask Thee to bless the Christian schools. We ask Thy special blessing upon the public schools of our country, and may they, legitimately born from the Bible, never forget that grand old Book. God forbid that that child should ever forget its mother. We pray Thee that Thou wilt bless all the superintendents, and all the principals, and all the teachers of our country, and we pray Thee to give them that great love for the truth of God, that they may stand as Thy children always should stand, for truth. We pray Thee to give Thy special blessing upon all who have assembled in this house. Bless each father and mother who shall hear God’s Word only a few Sundays more. Bless the sick who would love to be with us and cannot. Bless the dear little children, and help them to see that the soul must be fed as well as the body. Heavenly Father, listen, to all the prayers which Thou wouldst love to hear from us, in substance in Thine own prayer:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.
– Long, S.P. The great gospel; an address to theological graduates, lectures on the gospels for the church year, and “that remarkable lodge sermon.” Lutheran Book Concern, Columbus, OH, 1904. Lutheran Library edition to be released in 2018.
