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<noinclude><pagequality level="1" user="" /></noinclude>TEMPTATION AND FALL OF ECCLESIASTICISM 
TIE term ‘‘ecclesiasticism’’ applics to all denoini- 
nations, Catholic and Protestant, which have 
united with the financial and political elements 
of the catth to form the governing or controlling factors 
to rue the world. To these ecclesiastics the Devil pre- 
sented the three great temptations. These temptations 
he had also presented to Eve in the garden of Hden. 
She yielded and fell, The same three temptations 
were presented to Jesus by the Devil, and Jesus re- 
sisted all of them and gained the victory, And now 
mark how they were presented to the ceclesiastical 
systems and how these have all fallen to the wiles of 
the Devil and have beeome a part of his organization, 
the evil world. 
The Scriptures declare that God does not tempt 
anyone. The apostle James (J: 18-15) writes: ‘Let 
no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: 
for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth 
he any man: but cvery man is tempted, when he is 
drawn away of his own just, and enticed. Then when 
lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, 
when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”’ It was the 
desire of these ecelesiastical leaders for honor and 
power that led them into temptation, 
desus Christ is the great Shepherd of the flock of 
God, ({feb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 2:25) In the organization 
of the chureh the Lord provided for undershepherds, 
designating them as overseers and teachers, Upon these 
igs enjoined the duty and obligation of feeding the 
flock of God, to unselfishly look well to the interest of 
such (1 Pet. 5: 2-4), and not to lord it over the people 
of the Lord. Contrary to the Word of God, the elec- 
tive elders or shepherds of the denominational chureh- 
es in earlier centuries organized councils, synods, pres- 
byterics, and like bedics politic, elected their own 
members to the hi¢h offiees of popes, cardinals, bish- 
ops, dectors of divinity, reverends, and so forth, and 
thus formed and created what are properly termed the 
ecelesiasties of ‘‘Christendom’’, the hich personages 
in the denominational churches, Catholic aud Prates- 
tant, God did not tempt these men so to do. Of their 
own desire were they led to these steps; and thereby 
they laid themselves open to the great Tempter, who 
promptly presented to them temptations similar to 
those which were presented to Eve and Adam and 
later to Jesus Chivist; namely, the lust of the flesh, the 
lust of the cye, and the pride.of life.—1 John 2; 15-17, 
Consider, first, the lust of the flesh (or body): The 
power gained by the ceclesiastics in the church, by 
reason of their position, they have used for their own 
selfish purposes. They have fed themselves and let 
the flock of God go without attention. (Mzck, 34:8) 
Selfishty they have advanced their own private in- 
tercsts, permitted the people to go without spiritual 
food, and thereby have caused a famine in the land 
for the hearing of the Word of God. Yielding to the 
temptation to use their powers for selfish purposes, 
they fell—Amos 8:11. 
Second, Just of the eves (dr mind): Desiring to 
possess the seductive thines of this world, and to be 
eimired by men rather than be approved of God, the 
clergy have yielded to the lust of the eyes; they have 
clothed themselves in scarlet and long, flowing robes, 
decked themselves with jewels, and have arrogantly 
axstumed a form of godliness while denying ithe power 
thereof. They fell ready viclims to this temptation. 
--2 Tim. 3:5. 
Third, pride of life: Jesus instructed lis representa- 
tives to preach the gospel of his kingdom and to await 
patiently his seeond coming, when he would establish 
the kingdom. He admonished them to keep themselves 
separate from the world. The ceelesiastics, or clerey, 
have boldly assumed to represent the Lord on the 
exrth. Satan beld before them the temptation that, 
as the Lord's representatives, they could establish the 
kingdom of God on carth without waiting for the 
second coming of Christ; the condition being that they 
should join hands with the commercial and political 
powers of carth, whieh were already under the control 
of Satan. This appealed to therr ‘‘pride of life’’, To 
them it was a wonderful thing to brine the capitalists 
and the politicians into the church, They yielded to 
this seduslive temptation; they set about liamediately 
to obtain eontrol and rulership of the world, without 
the aid of the Lord and contrary to his Word. 
The elergy met the conditions and they have failed. 
They have worshiped the Devil, sanctified war, for 
pay have acted as ailitary recruiting officers, and 
have resorted to other devilish methods to gain their 
selfish and ambitious ends. They have ignored Cod 
and the Lord Jesus, and have waxed rich and power- 
ful, while being associated with their allies and under 
the direction of the super-mind of the god of this 
world. They have fallen to the temptation, and have 
carried out their part of the Devil’s arrangement to 
blind the people to Clod’s purposes. They stand self- 
confessedly euilty before God and man. 
The eeclesiastics, to wit, popes, cardinals, bishops, 
reverends, doctors of divinity, and theological profes- 
sors, have claimed the exclusive right and authority to 
interpret the Seriptures, and presumptuously deny 
the right of anyone to preach the gospel execpt such 
as are ordained by them. They have set aside the pure 
doctrines of God’s Word and through their various 
organizations have constituted themselves the foun- 
tains of doctrines, which doctrines they have sent forth 
as a river, claiming such to be a life-giving stream for 
the benefit of the people, whereas in truth and in fact 
theirs has been a message of fraud and deecit and a 
stream of sickness and death. By these false and de- 
ceptive doctrines the people have been blinded to the 
purposes of God, and his great provision for salvation 
has been hid froin their eyes. 
Claiming for themselves the exclusive authority to 
interpret the Seriptures, for a long time the eeclestas- 
tices kept the people in ignorance of the text of the 
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