Pagină:Obadiah-part-II-1936.djvu/5

JuLy 1, 1956 pope is of so great authority and power that he ean inedify, declare or interpret the divine law. The pope ean sometimes counteraet the divine law by limiting, explaining, ete.’’ 8 Jehovah foreknew the selfish exaltation of the hypocritical clei gv crowd, and particularly the Roman Catholie Ilierarchy, and therefore he caused his prophet to write: ‘‘The pride of thine heart hath de- ceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Vho shall bring me down to the ground??’—Ohad. 3, ® The proud man becomes se Rmpressed with his own greatness and importance that he is blind to every- thing clse, and therefore deceives himself, Continuing to follow in that course he is eertain to fall. ‘‘Pride cocth before destruction, and an haughty spirit be- fore a fall.’’? (Prov. 16:18) Price quickly leads one to the commission of presumptueas sins, which are a shame before God and all who leve righteousness. ‘Te that is void of wisdom despiscth his neighbour; but a man of understanding holdceth his peace.’? (Prov. J1:12) The Edomites perched high up in the rocks, reearded themselves as of supreme importance, and looked with contempt upon others. Likewise the clergy of the Hierarchy and their allies have perched them- relves high up amongst mun, have deported theinselves in an arrogant and proud manner, and regarded thein- selves as far superior to the common herd, The Ro- man Catholic Therarchy then ealls gullible and trust- ful people who support and keep up their wicked or- ganization “the Catholic poputation’’, and cumpels thrse poor people to confess to the wicked priests all their weaknesses so that the priests can extract money from the people and thus take advantage of them. The foman Catholie Hierarchy is eruel and = scornful, proud and severe. They reeeive their support and maintenance from the common people, whom they have ceccvived and made believe that the clergy are the rep- resentatives of the Lord and that the Hicrarchy is a divine organization. In order to further deccive the people those of the Hierarchy call themselves ‘‘fa- ther’, and all the Catholics other than the Hierarchy are ealled the ‘‘ehildren of the ehureh’’, All the chil- dren these roosters have are illegitimate, because they make the rule themselves that they must not marry, manifestly not wishing to be confined to one particular family. The clergy erowd are far removed from the Great Rock, Jehovah God, and his Chicf Stone, the JJcad and Foundation Stone, and Captain of his or- ganization, who is Christ Jesus. If they were in fact following in the footsteps of the Lord, and truly rep- resenting him, they would not show partiality amon¢e men, but would remember thai the Lord God and Christ Jesus are no respecters of persons, and would do likewise. Such men have no fear of God. They jeynore his plain word which is addressed to all who claim to serve him: ‘Wherefore now, Iet the fear of the Lord be upon you; take heed and do it; for there She WATCIITGOWER 107 is no iniguitv with the Lord our (ied, nar. respect of persons. nor taking of gifts.’’ (2 Chron. 19:7) These hypocritieal clergy push the puor on the side, make them confess to wicked priests by speaking to them through a hole in some cage or box, inside of which the priest is conecaled. If a man of riches or influence comes to confess he is given much more consideration and in proportion to the amount he contributes through the hole in the box. Such is a practice par- ticularly in the church at Vatiean City ealled ‘‘St. Peter’s’’. It is a common thing to see poor, wretched people kneeling on the flagstones in that building, dropping their coins thiougn the hole and whispering in the cars of a priest inside the box. That such prac- tice is despicable in the sight of God is shown by this declaration m his Word: *‘For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold rme, in goodly ap- parel, and there come in also a poor man in vile rai- ment; and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unte him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstuol; are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts ? But if ye have respeet to per-ons, ve comuiuit sin, and are convineed of the law as transercssors.’’—das, 2:29, 20 The Protestant clergy of modern times follow in the Icad of the Hierarchy. These scriptures apply to all who have agreed to do the will of God or who are in an implicd covenant to do his will by reason of their clauns, and certainly that ineludes the clerey who have assumed and ¢laim to be the representatives of Cod, An exaetly contrary course is taken by the men who love God, as it is written: “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my hich tower.’’? (Bs. 18:2) “From the end of the carth will T ery unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the roek that 3s higher than [.’? (Ps. 61:2) The faithful followers of Christ Jesus trust in Jehovah, the Great Roek, and in his beloved Son, the Foundation Stone of his organi- zation, But the clergy, the antitypical Edomites, boast of their superiority and the strength of their organi- zation. They make the worldly governments their “yoek’’, They clamber up into the high political places and participate in the councils of those who rule under the power of the invisible vod of this world, Satan the Devil. Those elergymen have hecome skill- ful riders of the beast because the Roman Catholie Hierarchy, and the other elerey allied with her, falsely claim to represent God and Christ and at the same time openly and deliberately alien themselves with the commercial traftickers and professional pohticions and use their power to oppress and defiand the people who support them. God designates that hypocritical orgenization as ‘‘the whore’, (Rev. 17: 3-15) Relying