Ecumenical Monday - The Most Disturbing Thing I've Ever Read

I believe I have mentioned before, I'm inspired by good and bad teachers, meaning I'm uninspired by so-so teachers. I'm highly inspired by good teachers because they inspire me to dig deeper and find out more about the subject matter at hand so I can go back and discuss the subject matter with them on a higher level. Lars Brownworth is one, Pastor Paratus is very much another. But the I'm also inspired by really bad teachers because they inspire me to dig deeper and find out more about the subject matter at hand so I can go back and discuss the subject matter with them on a higher (louder) level. Rob Bell is one, Eugene Peterson is another.

Let's now talk about John O'Brien. John was born on January 20th in 1893 in Peoria, Illinois. He attended St. Patrick School, the Spalding Institute, Holy Cross College (Worcester, MA), and St. Viator's College (Bourbonnais, Il). He was ordained a Catholic priest on June 18, 1916 and served as chaplain for the Catholic students at the University of Illinois and earned a Ph.D. in psychology there. In 1938 he published a book about Catholicism called The Faith of Millions which became a best seller (200,000 copies by 1945), was reprinted in 27 editions, and was translated into 10 languages.

John never actually entered the "real world" instead chose to remain cloistered in academia, he remained at the University of Illinois for twenty-two years. In 1939 he spent a year at Oxford University, then for the rest of his life he taught and wrote at the University of Notre Dame. In his free time he became a Catholic evangelist, not preaching the joys of serving the Lord, but the joys of kowtowing to the Catholic church. John's seminal work is "The Faith of Millions" and is a study in unrepentant blasphemy, heresy, and historical inaccuracy. 

To start with, John reiterates the Roman Catholic Church's stand on keeping the word of God out of the hands of us "primitive" Christians. To explain why, he shows he has a very odd grasp on history:

"First, the Scriptures were not accessible to the primitive Christians, for the simple reason that they were not all written until many years after the establishment of Christianity."  (John O'Brien, in "The Faith of Millions", 1974, p. 152)

As we all know, Christianity was established by the anointing of the apostles and disciples by the Holy Spirit on Pentacost, a mere 50 days after Jesus died for our sins. Very shortly after that scripture itself relates:

27 So he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. (Acts 8:27-18)

Isaiah was written around 750 BC, and is definitely a part of scripture, and it was written LONG before the establishment of Christianity. If Mr. O'Brien is stating that Isaiah isn't scripture he has a very jaundiced view of what composes scripture, or is it possible Mr. O'Brien believes in his Cathlo-centric view that scripture wasn't establish until 1546 when the Roman Catholic Church added the error riddled, unbiblical, heretical books of the apocrypha?

The secular world claims that the new Testament was written long after the events of the new Testament in its attacks on the word of God, as if that matters, but is Mr. O'Brien joining in with them? The truth is that the New Testament was all written within the lifetime of the followers of Jesus Christ, which is not all that long. If we follow this reasoning to the illogical conclusion the secular world and Mr. O'Brien is handing us, anything written about WWII after 1965 is too far removed from the events to be factual.

But that's not the Most Disturbing Thing I've ever read.

Mr. O'Brian likes priests, more than likely because he is one. Personally I think bomb loaders (especially on heavy bombers) are the hardest working, coolest people in the United States Air Force because without them these fighters and bombers are just flying walkie talkies. AND because I used to be one. But Mr. O'Brien's love affair with with the duty title of "Priest" goes beyond reason:

"Of what sublime dignity is the office of the Christian priest who is thus privileged to act as the ambassador and the vicegerent of Christ on earth! He continues the essential ministry of Christ; he teaches the faithful with the authority of Christ, he pardons the penitent sinner with the power of Christ, he offers up again the same sacrifice of adoration and atonement which Christ offered on Calvary. No wonder that the name which spiritual writers are especially found of applying to the priest is that of 'alter Christus.' For the priest is and should be another Christ" ((John O'Brien, in "The Faith of Millions", 1974, p. 268-269)

First of all, Mr. O'Brien is not talking about "Christian priests" but of "Catholic priests". Christians don't need people walking around proclaiming they are a priest because we already have one High Priest, the holiest most glorious one of all: Jesus Christ.

8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. 9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, 10 being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 5:8-10)

And if that's not good enough for Mr. O'Brien, we already have priests - we ARE the priests

4 And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ... 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; (1 Peter 2:4-5,9) 

So Mr. O'Brien has an intense love affair with the job position of Catholic priest, like all true Christians a priest is Christ Jesus' representative on earth, that's pretty special, but we all don't run around with hassocks and symbols of brutal torture hanging around our necks.

Secondly, Catholic priests do NOT offer up "the same sacrifice of adoration and atonement which Christ offered on Calvary." You can tell this is a lie by the number of priests that are NOT publicly executed every time they hear confession. When Christ died for our sins he had a 0% survival rate - only blood can atone for sin. Catholic priests have a 0% fatality rate when forgiving sins. 

But that's not the Most Disturbing Thing I've ever read

This is:

"When the priest announces the tremendous words of consecration, he reaches up into the heavens, brings Christ down from His throne, and places himself upon our altar to be offered up again as the Victim for the sins of man. it is a power greater than that of saints and angels, greater than that of Seraphim and Cherubim. Indeed it is greater even than the power of the Virgin Mary. While the Blessed Virgin was the human agency by which Christ became incarnate a single time, the priest brings Christ down from heaven, and renders Him present on our altar as the eternal Victim for the sins of man - not once but a thousand times! The priest speaks and lo! Christ, the eternal and omnipotent God, bows his head in humble obedience to the priest's command" (John O'Brien, in "The Faith of Millions", 1974, p. 255-56) (Emphasis mine)

This is just so wrong I want to scream HERETIC! DON'T YOU DARE BLASPHEME MY LORD AND SAVIOR!!! Since this book, the "Faith of Millions", gets rave reviews by the Roman Catholic Church the RCC clearly does not disagree with his statement that God... the Lord of All Creation, the Most Holy, King of Kings, the Alpha and the Omega,  El Shaddai, Our Father, Yahweh, The Lord God of Hosts bows in supplication to a sinful wretched man.

I could go on and on about arrogance, self centered egotism, pomposity, hubris, immodesty, and God's most hated sin: pride. But I won't, I'll just let God's word respond to Mr. O'Brien's words

The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate. (Proverbs 8:13)

20 And He was saying, “That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22 deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. 23 All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.” (Mark 7:20-23)

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. (1 John 2:16)

Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord; Assuredly, he will not be unpunished. (Proverbs 16:5)

A man’s pride will bring him low, But a humble spirit will obtain honor. (Proverbs 29:23)

When pride comes, then comes dishonor, But with the humble is wisdom. (Proverbs 11:2)

Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling. (Proverbs 16:18)

Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, But humility goes before honor. (Proverbs 18:12)

In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted; Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. (Psalm 10:2)

Personally I don't have a problem with Mr. O'Brien himself, he's dead now and I'm supposed to forgive him for what he's done. I pray that the Lord will calm my heart and I can find true forgiveness for Mr. O'Brien. The problem is that his words are still out there, and such utter pride and arrogance is accepted by so many as the truth. 

Unfortunately I know former evangelicals that are now proud to have joined the Roman Catholic Church. Whether they were drawn in by the man centered ceremonies and robes and glittering gold, or maybe it's the utter idolatry that drew them in, or maybe the works based dogma of salvation that is being purported by Mr. Pope and his acolytes. Then again quite possibly they like the fact that the Roman Catholic Church brazenly steals the glory from God Most High and ascribes it to wretched, lowly, utter sinners and necromancers wearing hassocks.

Regardless of their reasoning, ecumenism is a tool of the emergent church, the tool of the papists, and something Jesus strictly warned about in Revelation 2:14-17 when He warned Pergamum against watering down scripture and tolerating false doctrine such as Mr. O'Brien spent his life adoring.