LESSON 5.—NOVEMBER 1.—THE PERVERSION OF CHRISTIANITY IN MODERN BABYLON.
The fundamental experience of Christianity is found in the union of divinity and humanity, through which righteousness is revealed in the flesh. Rom. 8:3, 4. This mystery of godliness is Christ in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16, R.V.), the same flesh and blood which we have (Heb. 2:14). This wonderful union of divinity with humanity in the person of Him who is both Son of Man and Son of God is the foundation upon which the church is built. Matt. 16:13-18; 1 Cor. 3:11. The perversion of this truth is the perversion of Christianity.
In the epistle to the Galatians it is emphatically taught that there is but one Gospel (chapter 1:6-9), and that, as emphasized in this epistle, is the Gospel of justification by faith. The personal experience of the Gospel of justification by faith means Christ dwelling in our flesh. Gal. 1:15, 16; 2:20; 2 Cor. 4:10, 11. This is the test of the genuineness of our Christianity. 2 Cor. 13:5. Any perversion of the doctrine of justification by faith, the doctrine of a Saviour who has taken the same flesh as we bear and who dwells in our sinful flesh, is a perversion of Christianity.
In the paganism of ancient Babylon the doctrine that God dwells with flesh found no place. Dan. 2:11. The same pagan denial of this truth is perpetuated in modern Babylon in the dogma of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary. According to this dogma, Jesus did not take the same sinful flesh that we have, and thus, instead of actually dwelling in our flesh as our righteousness, He is so far removed from us that we require the mediation of saints, angels, and the blessed Virgin in order to gain access to Him.
The following extracts from “A Short and Simple Exposition of Catholic Doctrine,” issued under the authority of “John Cardinal McCloskey, archbishop of New York,” will give an authoritative statement of this dogma: “It is the Catholic belief that the blessed Virgin was, by a special privilege, preserved immaculate; that is, free from the stain of original sin, from the first moment of her conception.” (“Catholic Belief,” page 212.)
After quoting from the church fathers in proof of this doctrine, the writer continues: “Add to all this that disbelief in the immaculate conception of the blessed Virgin Mary would imply belief in the following revolting consequences, namely, that He who is holiness itself, and has an infinite horror of sin, took human nature from a corrupt human source, whilst He might have taken it from an incorrupt one; . . . that the divine Person drew the precious blood of His humanity from a source which was not from the first immaculate, whilst He might have preserved it immaculate. . . . Who can believe that, it being in the power of God to prepare a spotless holy temple wherein to dwell incarnate for nine months, He preferred to have one which had been first profaned by the stain of original sin.” (Id., pages 217, 218.)
Having removed Jesus so far from us by giving Him an entirely different kind of flesh from what we have, this modern Babylon naturally substitutes justification by works for justification by faith. “It is clear, according to the Church of Rome, that the ground of a sinner's justification is not without him, but within him. He is justified, not because Christ has satisfied the law in his room, but because the man himself has become such as the law requires; or, as Romish divines are accustomed to say, the formal cause of justification is inherent or infused righteousness. The death of Christ has to do with our justification only in so far as it has merited the infusion of those good dispositions which are the formal cause of our justification, and whereby we perform those good works which are meritorious of an increase of grace and eternal life. . . . The Roman Catholic scheme, therefore, is very clearly one of salvation by good works.” (“The Papacy,” by Rev. J. A. Wylie, pages 291, 292.)
When we remember that the only hope of salvation has been made to rest upon the promised Seed (Gen. 3:15) who was to come in our flesh, and thus bring into our own flesh the power to conquer sin, a power which is received by believing on Him (Rom. 1:16), we can see how completely Christianity has been perverted in modern Babylon.
QUESTIONS
What is the fundamental experience of Christianity?
What is the result of this experience?
In whom is this mystery of godliness revealed?
What kind of flesh did He have?
What constitutes the foundation for the Christian Church?
How strongly is it emphasized that there is only one Gospel?
What relation does this Gospel establish between Christ and the believer?
What distinguishes a genuine from a pretended Christianity?
What teaching is so identified with Christianity that a perversion of it constitutes a perversion of Christianity?
What doctrine of ancient Babylon showed that its religion was paganism?
Under what form has this paganism been taught in modern Babylon?
What authoritative statements are proof of this?
What other erroneous teaching naturally follows this perversion of Christianity?
To whom is the sinner taught by the Church of Rome to look for justification?
What is the only hope of our deliverance from sin?
