Spurgeon Thursday - The Religion of Rome

The Religion of Rome

by C. H. Spurgeon
From the January 1873 Sword and Trowel

We welcome the publication of a volume entitled "The Religion of Rome." It consists of letters published in a Roman Journal, which have been translated from the Italian, by Mr. William Howitt. In these times, when liberality is the only popular virtue, and zeal for truth the cardinal sin, it is worth much to let the public know assuredly that Popery is not the angel of light it professes to be. "Distance lends enchantment to the view;" but, to the rightminded, to see Romanism is to abhor it. It is a system which is as dangerous to human society, as it is hostile to true religion. We would by no means abridge the civil rights of a Catholic, or a Mormonite, but whether in any community the confessional or polygamy ought to be endured is not a question with us. The system of confession to priests is the sum of all villanies. Murphy1 was martyred for speaking the truth about the confessional, and in his person the liberty of public speech received a serious blow.

The day will come in which that man's name and fate will be looked upon in a different light, and many will regret that he was given over as a victim to Romish bigotry, when they feel that bigotry burdening themselves. We have seen with our own eyes2 that which would make the blood of any decent man boil within him. In the confessional boxes in Germany and Italy, anybody may see for himself, exhibited in the compartment allotted to the priest, a list of the sins concerning which the confessor is to enquire; these include crimes which we will not pollute our paper by mentioning; he must be a hardened profligate who would dare allude to them in the presence of a young girl. Not in the pages of a folio reserved for studious eyes did we read the degrading memoranda of which we speak, but in the confessional itself, where every passer-by may see them if he will. True, the document is in Latin; but, unfortunately, such words as abortio, sodomia, and the like, need no translation. But we dare not trust our hand to write more,—the superstition of Rome is the worst of all the evils which have befallen our race; may the Lord arise, and sweep it down to the hell from whence it arose.

Wretched Wednesday - Which Bible Translation is Best for You?

The Trinity - Proven By Logic

There is a bit of a debate going on elsewhere in this blog regarding the doctrine of the Trinity. A reader, whom I assume based on his or her virulent anti-trinitarian stance is a worshiper of Joseph Smith, wants to know more about the "concept" of the Trinity. 

To begin with, a concept is an abstract idea, a general notion. To call the Trinity a concept not only demeans God but is calling 2000 years of study, prayer, and debate meaningless. The Trinity is a much more complex doctrine than simple questions such as "To whom did Jesus commend his spirit? Himself?" The answer is "Yes" and "No" at the same time.

Glenn Chatfield at The Watchman's Bagpipes did a great job explaining the Trinity using Logic:

 TheTrinity - Proven By Logic

There many cults who teach against the idea of a Triune God, often claiming the idea originated with the Nicene Creed. However, the Trinity is really mentioned often in the Bible, even though the term “Trinity” isn’t.

Several years ago I read a book (I don’t remember which one) in which a short logic exercise was used to demonstrate the truth of the Trinity. I thought it was such a good idea that I came up with my own logic exercise, which I am now posting here. 

Wretched Wednesday - Pastors who have affairs

I've been hammering pretty hard on the Roman Catholic Homosexual Orgy Church, but have faith, the liberal media is covering up the disaster for that Pope fellow, the news stories will soon dry up and the sexual disaster that the Roman Catholic church is now will soon disappear or worse, it will become the vanguard of a whole new attack by satan.

11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; 12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. (Ephesians 5:11-13)

It's not just the priesthood I'm calling out, yes I am incensed by their blatant orgy of sin, but we Protestants need to clean up our act also and I do call out pastors who dally when they hit the news. I once knew a pastor who boldly stood in front of his congregation and informed us that he always had his wife in the room with him when he counseled a woman, so that there's no possible way of any improprieties. Then again I'm pretty sure his wife wasn't in the room with him while he was sleeping with a member of the congregation. I think he drives for FedEx now. 

Dr. Awesome, Dr. Chicago, and He Who Heals

This is my one thousandth published blog entry! It's the one thousandth published entry anyhow. I have nearly a dozen more in the works but this it. To celebrate my 1K I had planned to go into length on my understanding of the rapture, but instead I had another run-in with Real Life and chose to write about it;

I'm not happy with 2018, I've had much better years - 60 better years by my count. My chronic back pain is still here, I've got an entire list of things I need to avoid doing just to avoid the pain. And my COPD and Pulmonary Hypertension is still here as are the occasional bouts of bronchitis, but I did get up to see the kids in North Dakota and had a wonderful week with them. On the downside there's been a lot going on behind the scene

First one of my sons smashed his leg on a remote mountain in Colorado and compartment syndrome, an incredibly painful condition, set in. That required long drives across Colorado to be with him and return to be with my responsibilities, not to mention the emotional toll this takes. 

Then, on the Ides of March, my mother passed away. It was a blessing, she went quietly in the depths of dementia thinking that she had happily spent her entire life in a Florida nursing home. The estate wasn't much but there were legal kerfuffles, this was sorted out but this too takes an emotional toll.

Then another son finally admitted that he was addicted to drugs. To be honest the only surprise was that he did admit it at the time he did. The was in that accelerating downward spiral where the addict starts more and more powerful drugs. At this point if you don't pull out, you're lost. We got him into rehab, scrambled to get the financing because his insurance fell far, far short, and did what we could to support his wife and kids. The emotional toll hit my wife pretty hard.