1917_The_Finished_Mystery_Text

consecration's approval and acceptance byJehovah.The sin offering will be an acknowledgment ofpast sins and of the cleansing efficacy of theRansom, with repentance and reconsecration ofthe offerer.Defilement and CleansingThere will be defilement of individuals and thepast defilement of the whole world. The generaldefilements involving all— referring in part tothe typical location of the palace of Solomon andthe kings, close to the Temple— areChristendom's defilement of God's holy name bytheir erroneous teachings about Him and by theevil lives of those clergy and laity who presumedto bear His name; their "whoredoms," orunhallowed union of church and state; theirpermitting of prominent persons— clergy andlaity— who were dead in trespasses and sins, toassume elevated places in the worship of God;their conjoining the entrance into the Templeclass (a church) with entrance into places ofinfluence; their establishing the same wall ofliving members of the churches as the wall ofbusiness and the state; their encouragingunconsecrated persons, not spirit-begotten, toserve in the holy things in the church as teachersand clergy; their breaking their covenant, madesolemnly with God in their consecrations; andtheir not keeping the charge of the Divine Wordof truth but hiring paid clergymen to look after itfor them.The great mass of the Spirit-begotten (Levites)had gone astray from God after their man-madeidols of earthly honor, power and wealth; andthey had served the evil tendencies of churchmembers in their idol worship. Between thepeople and the clergy every conceivableabomination in the sight of God had beenpracticed, and required cleansing and awholesome memory of it, to safeguard againstfuture outbreaks and to manifest continualappreciation of the holiness of any service ofGod.— Ezek. 43:7-9; 44:6-14.