1917_The_Finished_Mystery_Text

Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren.'(Matt. 23:8.) These titles are assumptionsfashioned after those of Papacy. When thevarious denominations began their existence,more full of the spirit of Christ, they claimed nosuch high-sounding titles. The Reformers werenot known as Rev., D. D., etc., but as John Knox,Martin Luther, etc. Unpretentious, like Jesus andthe Apostles, they were intent upon serving God,and therefore became the servants (ministers) ofthe Church. But now the Clergy are far frombeing servants; they are Lords. They have itchingears, loving the approval of men. As pride andworldliness have come in, vital godliness andpower have gradually departed. For the verysame reason, they are losing all power toexpound the Word of God— the gift ofteaching— because ‘God abhorreth the proud,but giveth grace (favor) to the humble.' We findministers of all denominations ready to confesstheir ignorance of the Word. They appeal, fortheir information, back to the early reformers,and thus confess that they have less light thanthey. That their light should grow dim, and theirspiritual life become dwarfed, is the naturalresult of their joining the Image, and subscribingto creeds made in the fifteenth century, which,like the shoe of China, will not admit of anygrowth. It is a shoe a little larger than Papacy putupon its followers, but of the same sort."Papacy established the clerical hierarchy, wholorded it over God's heritage instead of servingtheir brethren asFM209Jesus explained— 'One is your Master; all ye arebrethren,' and as Paul said: ‘We are to speak thetruth in love and grow up into Him in all thingswho is the Head, even Christ; from whom thewhole Body fitly joined together [not by creedsof men, but by love begotten by the one Spirit ofTruth] and compacted by that which every jointsupplied [every joint in every member, not theclergy only] maketh increase of the Body untothe edifying of itself in love.' Thus coming ‘tothe unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of